Flashback: The many faces of Mackay killer Lionel Moore
The man with a ‘quiet disposition’ was convicted of hacking a Dumbleton farmer to death with a cane knife.
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John Moore, John Farrington, John Reid, John Brady and John Brown.
All of them aliases for convicted murderer Lionel Moore.
Moore made Daily Mercury headlines in 1910 when he and Peter Tynan were found guilty of murder at Dumbleton.
The men had used a cane knife to hack farmer William Tynan to death on November 27.
Acting Sergeant Moore told the Mackay Police Court on December 7, 1910, that they found the victim lying on bloodstained hessian with three of his fingers almost cut off.
Mackay historian Glen Hall said Moore served 10 years in jail but went back to a life of crime upon his release.
“At 28 years of age he was a metho addict and travelled from town to town committing petty crimes and ending up in jail numerous times,” Mr Hall said.
The Queensland Police Gazette described Moore as having a quiet nature, being well dressed when he was in possession of money and addicted to alcohol.
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Mr Hall said Moore was found unconscious after suffering a fall on May 2, 1948 in South Brisbane.
“He died from his injuries on May 12 1948 and was buried in a pauper's grave in the Toowong Cemetery in Brisbane aged 55 years,” he said.
“His little brother Martin Henry Farrington was killed in the First World War in the battle of Messines in Belgium on June 14 1917.”
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