Triple murder for true love

For seven years Irish immigrant William Sheehan thought he had got away with a grisly triple murder – after all he had moved halfway around the world to New Zealand and his crime had gone undiscovered.
Sheehan’s story begins in Castletownroache, Cork in 1877 when the then 32-year-old’s widowed mother Catherine decided it was time for him to marry and take over the running of the family’s 60-acre-farm.
Catherine had planned a £300 pound dowry from the bride’s family for her son’s nuptials. This would provide enough money for her and her two youngest children Thomas and Hanna to have a comfortable future.
Her plans were foiled, however, when Sheehan fell in love with Mary Anne Browne, the daughter of wealthy farmer James Browne. James refused Catherine’s financial demand, instead offering only £170 - so she called off the marriage.
But for Sheehan the marriage was not a matter of economics – it was true love. The only solution to his problem was that his mother must die. This, however, came with a problem (two in fact) it would leave him responsible for the care his younger brother and sister, so they had to go too.
On 22 October 1877 Sheehan strangled his mother, brother, and sister. Later that day, possibly with the help of one of Mary-Anne’s brothers, he loaded the bodies into a cart, rode to a neighbouring farm and disposed of them down a well.
Less than a month later, on 6 November, Sheehan married Mary-Anne. Sheehan told friends and neighbours his missing relatives had simply gone to America to live.
The Sheehans settled down to life on the farm. In the subsequent years Mary-Anne gave birth to two children – and, to Sheehan’s relief, no one found the bodies.
Things began to go wrong at the end of 1882 when, amidst a financial crisis in Ireland, the Sheehans were evicted from their farm. All-but penniless, they sailed to New Zealand aboard the Doric landing in Auckland in about August 1883.
For just over a year they lived Pakaraka in the Bay of Islands, where Sheehan worked on a farm.
But then, on September 1, 1884, the bodies, now just skeletons, were discovered. Irish police put two and two together and came up with the missing widow Sheehan and her two children.
The hunt for William Sheehan was on. Authorities in New Zealand were contacted, and the case was given to Auckland Detective Patrick Herbert and Detective Walker, who realised that the man the Irish police were looking for was the same William Sheehan who had arrived on the Doric.
Unable to arrest Sheehan for a crime committed in Ireland, they made their way to Pakaraka and set up tents pretending to be gumdiggers so they could keep him under observation.
When the Sheehans moved to Auckland later that year, Detective Walker followed them, at times hiding in the basement of the house in John Street, Ponsonby where they lived for a while.
Then, just before Christmas 1884, word came through from Ireland that an arrest could be made.
The detectives confronted Sheehan near Waikomiti (now Waikumete) railway station. He admitted he was the right William Sheehan but denied the murders.
Sheehan was returned to Ireland early in 1885, followed shortly after by Mary-Anne and their three children, one of whom had been born in New Zealand.
A guilty verdict was returned at Sheenhan’s trial for the triple murders and at 8am on January 20, 1886 he was hanged at the Cork County Gaol (pictured). He is buried in unhallowed ground within the prison confines.
Picture: Cork City Council.