Ah Lee

The case of murder against Cantonese miner Ah Lee would have been thrown out of court if it happened today.
Almost nothing about the evidence against him was solid, there was no motive for the murder, and there was even better suspects.
What is beyond argument is that Mary Young was killed on August 4, 1880. She was found in her Naseby home dying.
Mary was a young widow, who after her husband had died was planning to return to her homeland, Scotland.
Instead she was found by her neighbour Lee Guy about 7.30am.
That started a series of events that compromised any investigation. First a number of people came and went. Mary was still alive, but barely so Guy sent another neighbour to get help and then a doctor - who was 16km away.
Margaret Fogie who had come to help had spoken to Mary, trying to find out what happened and who did it.
She asked who did it? Was it an Englishman - and Mary managed to say it was not. When Margaret asked if it was a Chinese, Mary said yes.
By the time the doctor arrived, Mary was unconscious. Large stones were found beside her and likely caused her injuries. She died around 1.30pm
At the inquest the case for it being a Chinese man became the centre of the investigation. That turned public attention to all Chinese immigrants living in the area. Two were arrested shortly after but let go.
Attention then turned to 24-year-old Ah Lee. Lee usually lived at the Coal Pit Gully, did odd jobs and sometimes smoked a little opium.
He was arrested on August 10. Not long after, a Naseby businessman had a breakdown and began ranting that he had killed Mary. He was quickly and quietly committed to Seacliff psychiatric hospital.
Meanwhile shoe tracks found near Mary’s home had a distinctive nail pattern and a bootmaker matched it to Ah Lee’s boots.
A silk handkerchief said to have been Ah Lee’s was found under Mary and a local draper said Ah Lee had bought it from him.
Spots of blood on Ah Lee’s trousers were examined and determined not to be animal blood.
Ah Lee gave a sort of confession - although the translator who helped did not speak the same dialect as him. Shortly after Lee Guy was also arrested.
No defence was called for Ah Lee who was found guilty and hanged at Dunedin Gaol on November 5. Lee Guy was found not guilty.
But there were serious issues with the evidence. The boots Ah Lee had were not the only ones with that print pattern in the district and many people had come through Mary’s property in the hours after her death.
The blood found on Ah Lee’s trousers could not be found to be human. And the timeline around the handkerchief failed - the draper gave a date that did not fit with when Ah Lee had been seen with it.
Shortly after the Naseby businessman was released from Seacliff and promptly repeated his claim that he had killed Mary and was again hushed up.
Ah Lee was initially buried in the gaol yard but his body was reinterred in Dunedin’s Northern Cemetery.
Photo by Bernard Hermant.​