Two Political Murders

“This represents a fantastic piece of meticulous research, and it is a great story of course.” – Richard Walsh, publishing consultant, Allen & Unwin, Sydney. THERE can be no doubt that when John Trevor Kelly took an axe and brutally killed Connie Sommerlad in northern New South Wales town of Tenterfield early in 1939, there would be profound political repercussions, for his victim was the niece of a powerful State politician and local media baron. But while the political heavyweight was totally opposed to capital punishment on religious and moral grounds, his conservative political allies in the state parliament acted as though they ‘owed him one’ and were determined to wreak revenge against the wretched Kelly for his abominable act, despite the fact the state had consciously stopped executing people more than a year earlier. So the hanging of Jack Kelly was a very political execution indeed.