After Jimmy was captured near Wingham, a constable in charge of him told The Evening News that he had said:
"The next scene will be the rope. I would not mind if it were this minute. I've made a name for myself."
Was 'making a name' for himself something he was proud of?
Was it what he had wanted all along?
Was it one of the reasons he married a white girl?
Or did it only become important to him after he had committed his first murders at Breelong and knew that his time as a free man was almost up?
His friend and 'fall guy', Jacky Underwood told police that after these murders, Jimmy wanted to kill his wife Ethel and son, but that he had prevented it.
Jimmy had responded with defiance saying:
"That's nothing. I don't care whether I married to her or not. I want to be the greatest murderer in New South Wales. I'll do for the first man I come across, either man or woman. I don't care a ____." (Source: Moore and Williams, p.45)
At this time he had already murdered the two women who had put him down, shown him disrespect, for marrying a white woman, Mrs Sarah Mawbey and the school teacher, Ellen Kerz.
They had been his two prime targets at the Mawbey household at Breelong.
It was him they had blamed for the socially unacceptable interracial marriage, not his white wife, Ethel.
When Jimmy and his brother Joe turned up at the abode of his next murder victim, 70-year-old Alexander (Sandy) McKay, who they despatched brutally in the backyard before approaching the house, Jimmy boldly announced to its occupants: "We are murderers."
There was something childlike about this boastful statement.
When McKay's wife asked him not to kill her, he agreed and kept his word.
Yet he had shown no mercy at Breelong and would not show any at his next destination, the O'Brien home at Merriwa.
"The next scene will be the rope. I would not mind if it were this minute. I've made a name for myself."
Was 'making a name' for himself something he was proud of?
Was it what he had wanted all along?
Was it one of the reasons he married a white girl?
Or did it only become important to him after he had committed his first murders at Breelong and knew that his time as a free man was almost up?
His friend and 'fall guy', Jacky Underwood told police that after these murders, Jimmy wanted to kill his wife Ethel and son, but that he had prevented it.
Jimmy had responded with defiance saying:
"That's nothing. I don't care whether I married to her or not. I want to be the greatest murderer in New South Wales. I'll do for the first man I come across, either man or woman. I don't care a ____." (Source: Moore and Williams, p.45)
At this time he had already murdered the two women who had put him down, shown him disrespect, for marrying a white woman, Mrs Sarah Mawbey and the school teacher, Ellen Kerz.
They had been his two prime targets at the Mawbey household at Breelong.
It was him they had blamed for the socially unacceptable interracial marriage, not his white wife, Ethel.
When Jimmy and his brother Joe turned up at the abode of his next murder victim, 70-year-old Alexander (Sandy) McKay, who they despatched brutally in the backyard before approaching the house, Jimmy boldly announced to its occupants: "We are murderers."
There was something childlike about this boastful statement.
When McKay's wife asked him not to kill her, he agreed and kept his word.
Yet he had shown no mercy at Breelong and would not show any at his next destination, the O'Brien home at Merriwa.
