The unsolved murder you have never heard of - Grave Story 78

Chinese immigrant Ham Sing Tong was, in 1905, found dead in his house, bludgeoned, shot and set on fire.
Today, 116 years later, his murder is still unsolved despite two men going to trial for it.
Tong was aged somewhere between 60 and 65 and was living in Tapanui, a small forestry town in West Otago, known as the place Tapanui flu is named after.
The newspaper coverage of the day reveals a lot about how Chinese immigrants were looked at back then, reporting that Tong was not involved with opium or sly grogging which was often the prevailing racist stereotype.
Despite this, Tong was seen by his neighbours as a good-natured hard-working gold miner and was well respected. He lived alone on the outskirts of Tapanui and was known for either carrying his money around or having it in his house and, as such, always locked himself in at night. This was not unusual in that era as many people did not trust banks or lived so far away that using one was not practical.
Late on the night of 21 August 1905 nearby residents heard a shot ring out.
The next day, his friend Ah Chong found his body in the bedroom.
Initially police were unsure what killed him. There was a large bruise on his forehead and his clothes were nearly burned off.
The floor was strewn with the remains of a bottle.
An autopsy revealed there was a bullet in his right shoulder, which one doctor thought would have left him paralysed as it had severed his spine.
More than £70 was found in his house.
But he was believed to be worth about £200 - a huge sum in those days - worth about $48,000 now.
The police case was that he was bludgeoned with a whiskey bottle first. He resisted, which led to him being shot. Then a lamp was broken to spread kerosene on the bedclothes and set alight.
By the end of August, Thomas Stott, a 38-year-old labourer and George Hill Bromley, a 17-year-old farm hand, were arrested for his murder. The two lived together in a hut on Bromley’s father’s property.
A revolver was found in their hut. Also found were some skeleton keys, one of which would have opened Tong’s house.
Stott, an Aboriginal Australian, had lived in Tapanui for several years. Newspapers reported he had a reputation as a fighting man and was known for becoming "ugly" when drunk. He was more than six feet tall (1.83m) and had a tattoo of a tombstone on his right arm and one on his left arm stating: DO YOU REMEMBER TOM STOTT.
Stott was known to be broke, but in the day or two after the murder he was seen in the nearby town of Heriot, flush with cash and telling different stories about where he got it.
The Supreme Court trial took place in Dunedin in December 1905 and went several days. One of New Zealand's most noted defence lawyers Alfred Charles Hanlon, appeared for the two men.
Bloodstains had been found on the clothes of both men, and one of the pair had borrowed a rifle from Tong only two days before he was found dead.
Hanlon had no witnesses to call in defence, but it did not stop him attacking. He challenged a great many aspects of the Crown case.
He also intimated that a Crown witness - a John Reddit - may also have been the killer.
The all-male jury found both men not guilty, although they asked if they could return a verdict of not proven - which the presiding judge said was the same thing.
No other person has been convicted of the crime.
Three years after being acquitted of the murder, Stott was back in court again, this time for shooting 19-year-old Mary Brown with a double-barrelled shotgun, wounding her in the arm. Stott and the girl's father were drinking buddies. On June 20, 1908, after a drinking session at the Brown's house Mary told Stott to leave. He did, but he returned with the gun charging into the house and shooting her. He was sentenced to five years in prison. Stott was released in March 1912. In 1915 he served a further six months in prison for being a rogue and vagabond. Records don't show what happened to him after that. Perhaps he went back to Australia.
Tong is buried in Tapanui cemetery under the name Am Sing Tong. He has no headstone or grave marker.