TRUE STORY OF JIMMY GOVERNOR REVISITED

Today I re-read The True Story of Jimmy Governor (2001) by Laurie Moore and Stephan Williams.
I read it for the first time a couple of years ago, and I now appreciate all the details it contains that I missed before when I had less knowledge of the subject.
The authors spent a lot of time tracking down sources of information in order to try and get a very wide-ranging and at times complex and convoluted story right.
They are to be congratulated on the end result.
The next posts I make on this blog will be based on material I found in their book that provoked further thought and a 'need to know'.
Moore is a descendant of some of the men who captured Jimmy Governor.
There is even the suggestion that he may even be a distant relation of the mother of Ethel Governor, Julia Page nee Moore.
I have realised in recent days how deeply the killing spree that Jimmy Governor embarked upon over a century ago - including the murder of my great grandmother and three of her children - is embedded in my psyche.
I am sure the same applies to anyone living today whose family was traumatised by his three-month rampage throughout NSW.
Whether our ancestor was brutally murdered, wounded, raped or robbed, the traumatic experience seems to have been passed down the generations in our genes.
I think finally confronting it, trying to get to the bottom of it, talking about the unspeakable, even opening old wounds, is a necessary part of the healing process.
Already I feel I am starting to move on ...