John Lynch: The Berrima Axe Murderer

Dispatching the Frasers

During the night Lynch set his bullock team free. "My team appears to have strayed," Lynch told the Frazers in the morning. "I'll have to go home and fetch another one. Meanwhile I'd better hide the dray. Could you give me a hand."

The unsuspecting Frazers were only too happy to assist John Lynch in his scheme to murder and rob them. After the three men had hidden the dray, Lynch said, "I helped them hitch their horses to their cart and we drove out of Bargo Brush. They agreed to let me travel as near the place as possible where I was supposed to live."

They traveled all day until they reached Cordeaux Flat, where they made camp for the night. "In the morning young Frazer and I went in search of the horses," said Lynch. "I put on my coat so as to hide the tomahawk. I let the youngster go ahead. Then when we were in the bush I thought to myself there's no difficulty in settling him. So I crept up behind him and hit him with one blow and the young fellow fell like a log of wood."

Lynch hid the boy's body beneath some wood and returned to the camp with one horse. The elder Frazer inquired about the whereabouts of his son. "When I told him he was looking for the other horse," Lynch said, "he became agitated, not because he suspected I killed the boy, but because the horses had never strayed before."

Lynch distracted Frazer by pointing to what he said was his son in the bushes and when the man turned to look he hit him "a nice one on the back of the head and he dropped like a log of wood."