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Few other Australian bushrangers have attracted such widespread sympathy and interest as has Ben Hall, yet many aspects of his life remain enigmatic. How was it that a man who was so active in committing a multitude of armed robberies could have the reputation of being non-violent and so apparently averse to killing?

How could he have fallen so far, so rapidly, from being a moderately successful squatter at Sandy Creek with a pretty wife and baby son to becoming one of the most notorious bushrangers of the colony?

His violent death under the guns of the police beside the Billabong Creek at dawn on 5th May 1865 has long been surrounded by controversy and doubt. Who was it that betrayed him to the police? A trusted friend? Or was it a woman? Was the betrayal for revenge or simply for the reward money?

And were the actions of the police on that fateful morning entirely legal? The feelings of many people in the district were summed up by a journalist who wrote afterwards:

"It was through no act of gallantry on the part [of the police] that the career of this man was at last brought to a close. The firing was kept up until the body was riddled with no less than thirty two holes, after which, being considered no longer dangerous, it was taken possession of by its gallant captors."

Certainly there was disquiet amongst many local people who felt that here was another unnecessary death of a young man at the hands of the police.

Ben Hall’s carefully tended grave in the Forbes cemetery. Coincidentally, he is buried only a few metres from the last resting place of Kate Kelly, the younger sister of Ned Kelly.

Recommended Links:
Kate Kelly .biz
Appeal to NSW Coroner
The Age
Sydney Morning Herald

When the police confronted Ben Hall they outnumbered him by 8 to 1, they were not wearing police uniforms and were armed with more guns and ammunition than was proscribed in the police Regulations.

The Coroner’s judgment of “justifiable homicide” is open to doubt and appears legally unsustainable once all the available evidence is considered.

Myth vs. Fact
(i) “Billy Dargin crept up on Ben Hall and shot him while he was asleep” ...Nonsense. This story is not supported by the weight of evidence available from the Coroner’s inquiry nor from the description of wounds given by Dr. Assenheim.

(ii) “Ben Hall’s body was used for target practice by the police after he was killed.” As above, the evidence simply does not support this story.

(iii) “Mick Coneley was holding money for Ben Hall in a Forbes bank.” This story first appeared in Hunted Down or Recollections of Crime and Criminals of the Australian Colonies from the Early Days to the Present Time, published in 1882 and was subsequently repeated by several other authors. However there is no evidence that Coneley had a bank account at all in 1865. Further, the obvious question to be asked is why Hall would continue to live a desperate and dangerous life as a hunted man if he had money available which would have enabled him to escape from the Colony. This story has no basis in fact or logic.

(iv) “Mick Coneley was married to a half-caste Aboriginal woman who had a baby by Ben Hall. The baby was seen to have birthmarks which exactly matched the wounds which Ben Hall received.” This is absolute nonsense. Coneley married Mary Strickland, the daughter of Pierce and Lititia Strickland, both of 100% English/Irish immigrant stock. Furthermore, she gave birth to a boy, James on 2nd March 1866 – that’s ten months after Ben Hall died.