The discovery began with the search of an ordinary cottage garden in the small New Zealand village of Otahu, not far from Auckland, in December 1865. For weeks, the local residents had grown uneasy. Mary Finnegan, a widow who had emigrated from Ireland with her family, had vanished along with her three young sons, and the explanations offered by her son-in-law, James Stack, satisfied no one. When Stack left the property to seek work elsewhere, about thirty villagers gathered and began to probe the garden and the surrounding ground.
What they found turned suspicion into horror. In a ditch overgrown with thistles, they uncovered the body of James Finnegan, and moments later, that of his brother Benjamin. A short while afterward, the body of their mother, Mary Finnegan, was found buried at a similar depth. More than fifty people witnessed the grim discoveries.
Only the youngest child, John, remained unaccounted for. The Finnegans were a family of Irish immigrants who had settled in Atahu, a village roughly eight miles from Auckland. For a time, life had gone well for them, but after Mr. Finnegan’s death, his widow struggled to keep up with the rent and provide for her five children.
As the children grew, they found work and eased the strain on the household. The daughter, Mary Jane, married a soldier of the 65th Regiment, a fellow Irishman named James Stack. Mrs. Finnegan was not pleased with the match and harbored deep misgivings about Stack’s rough and aggressive temperament.
In May 1865, Mary Jane died, and in September of that same year, Stack was discharged from the regiment. He moved into the Finnegan household and became closely involved in family affairs. The eldest son, Alex, had already left home to join the army, leaving his mother with James, Benjamin, and John. At the end of September 1865, just weeks after Stack had come to live with them, Mrs.
Finnegan and her three boys suddenly disappeared. They had told no one they were leaving. When neighbors questioned Stack, he said they had gone south to Hokitika, a town on the west coast of the South Island some 450 miles away, at the heart of a gold rush that had drawn thousands of people in search of fortune. It was not uncommon for families to leave in hopes of finding work or striking gold, but the manner of the departure caused immediate concern.
As weeks passed, the anxiety deepened. Repeated inquiries were made, but Stack’s answers satisfied no one. Eventually, after he had left the property, the villagers organized their own search. Inside the house, they found only a few articles of furniture, a small axe in the kitchen, and a tomahawk partly hidden beneath the rubbish.
In the garden they found some burnt clothing, but no traces of blood. Then came the bodies. Dr. Joseph Elmsley, a local physician, examined the remains and estimated they had been buried for eleven to twelve weeks.
Despite the advanced state of decomposition, they were still identifiable. Mary Finnegan’s body bore a cut beneath the chin and a large wound on the side of the head, likely caused by a heavy blow from a tomahawk or similar instrument, which would have resulted in immediate death. James Finnegan’s skull was fractured on both sides, and Benjamin’s throat had been cut. All three had been murdered.
Commissioner Norton arrived from Auckland to oversee the investigation and arranged an inquest at the Star Hotel. The whole village seemed to turn out. The first witness was Sophie Weaver, the next-door neighbor. The cottage had been divided into two separate dwellings under one roof, and while the households were distinct, the close quarters meant that the daily comings and goings of the Finnegans were easily observed.
Mrs. Weaver said she last saw Mrs. Finnegan around the 27th of September, when she appeared in good health. She told the inquest that Mrs.
Finnegan had shown her a sailor’s knife and said it belonged to James Stack, and that she thought Mrs. Finnegan was a bit afraid of him. Later that night, Mrs. Weaver heard a lot of movement in the Finnegan house, but no screams or sounds of a struggle.
The next day, she saw James Stack and asked if he could return a hammer that James Finnegan had borrowed. Stack told her he could not find it but gave her two shillings to cover the cost. She noticed sheets, a man’s shirt, a coat, and a pair of trousers hanging on the line to dry. Almost every day afterward, she asked Stack where Mrs.
Finnegan and young John were, and he always replied that he did not know. Then Mrs. Weaver delivered testimony that visibly shocked the court. For nine or ten days, Stack rarely left the house and kept the door locked.
She noticed he was repeatedly burning rags, and on several occasions she saw him digging the garden. When she asked why, he said he was preparing the soil for potatoes. In her opinion, he was turning over the soil unnecessarily. She added that when Mrs.
Finnegan’s eldest son, Alex, returned briefly to the cottage and found his family gone, he contacted shipping companies to see if they had actually traveled to Hokitika and was unable to confirm that they had. She had spoken to a constable about her concerns, but his efforts went little beyond a superficial inquiry, as each time he called at the cottage the door was locked and he took no further steps. Before finishing, she said that on one occasion she told Stack that people were accusing him of harming the Finnegans, and he replied, “What will they ever prove? ” Shortly afterward, he showed her two letters, one from James Finnegan apologizing for his mother having taken £10 from Stack and promising repayment, and another he claimed was written by Mrs.
Finnegan and sent from Hokitika on the 10th of October, stating that they were all together and had found work. Michael Macdonald, a laborer who lodged in the house with Stack from early November until the 19th of December, was then sworn in. He said that during that time several discharged soldiers had also stayed in the cottage. The last time he saw Stack was on the 18th of December, when Stack rose at daylight, rolled up his blankets, and said he was going to the Bay of Islands.
When Macdonald asked why, Stack replied that he was suspected of harming some people and wished to leave to avoid being arrested unfairly. Before leaving, he asked Macdonald to say, if questioned, that he had received a letter from James Finnegan. Macdonald confirmed that the small axe found at the cottage belonged to Stack, but said he never saw a hammer in his possession. The jury returned its verdict: Mary Finnegan, James Finnegan, and Benjamin Finnegan had been murdered by James Stack.
But Stack had disappeared. The details of the Otahu murders were carried widely through the New Zealand press, and a reward was offered for his capture. On the 26th of December, while near a sawmill, Stack was recognized by a carpenter who had formerly served with him in the army. The man immediately fetched the local constable, who apprehended Stack without delay.
For the residents of Otahu, the capture brought a sense of security, and the community looked forward to the trial. The trial of James Stack began on Wednesday the 7th of March in the Supreme Court in Auckland. He pleaded not guilty. The first witness, a police constable who had served with Stack in the 65th Regiment, said he last saw Mrs.
Finnegan on the 26th of September. Sometime later, rumors began to circulate that she and her children were missing. In early November, he began making inquiries and questioned Stack, who replied that she had robbed him of £10 and had gone to look for gold, taking three of her sons with her. When asked whether he had received any letters from her, Stack said he had, but when asked to see one, he said it had been lost.
Another witness, Harriet Bowden, who lived across the road, said she last saw Mrs. Finnegan on the evening of Wednesday the 27th of September, when she came to fetch milk and a bucket of water. The next day, she saw Stack hanging out a wet shirt and a sheet on the clothesline. When she later asked what had become of the Finnegans, he gave different answers at different times: first that he had given the boys £15 each to join the gold rush, then that Mrs.
Finnegan had gone to visit her eldest son, and finally that they were all in Hokitika and that she had stolen £10 from him. A man who worked at a farm with two of the Finnegan boys testified that on the morning of the 27th of September, he went to the cottage to call the boys for work, remembering the date clearly because it was the day of the Auckland horse races. He knocked hard, and Stack answered, opening the door only slightly, and told him the boys were out. When he returned the next day, Stack again opened the door only part of the way and said the boys were still not home.
He never saw any member of the Finnegan family again. The trial lasted three days. At its conclusion, the judge took five hours to sum up the evidence for the jury. After retiring, the jury returned just one hour and twenty minutes later with a verdict of guilty.
The judge sentenced James Stack to death. During his final days in Mount Eden prison, he remained resolute in his silence. Despite many visits from the prison chaplain and a priest, who both urged him to find peace through confession, he refused to admit any guilt and offered no explanation. He was hanged on the 7th of April, 1866.
But the case did not end there. Three years later, on Saturday the 3rd of April 1869, the body of John Finnegan was discovered in the garden of the cottage where he had lived with his mother and brothers. The youngest victim had met the same fate as the rest of his family, revealing the full extent of the tragedy that had befallen the Finnegans.
