Alright, I’ve got a strange little story for you in my letter this week, but I warn you, it’s a sad one of a life that reads more like a novel or movie than reality.
His name was Andrew George Scott, born in Ireland in 1842, he became a bit of a sensation in Australia, where he lived and died, described as ‘cultured, charming and dangerous‘, he was known by his bushranger moniker Captain Moonlite.
For all you overseas folks, who may not know, Australian history is full of bushrangers. Basically men (and women) who ran around holding up banks, stealing stuff, and killing people. Some are more famous than others, like Ned Kelly, but many are remembered as people who pushed back against authority, and so, whether rightly or not, are sort of remembered with nostalgia as heroes by some Australians.
But they also killed a lot of people. So there’s that!
Captain Moonlite’s Life and Death
So here is a condensed version of Captain Moonlite’s mad little story, and epic love story, but if you want a full (better, haha) version, you can read these great articles here or here.
Okay, here we go!
In 1869, Scott robbed a bank in Melbourne, Australia.
The bank manager ‘told authorities that a masked man had forced him to open the bank’s safe and hand over its gold. The intruder left a note: “I hereby certify that LW Bruun has done everything within his power to withstand this intrusion and the taking of money which was done with firearms.‘
It was signed “Captain Moonlite”.’ (Link here)
The bank manager LW Bruun who is mentioned in the note was actually a friend of Scott’s. Were the two pals in on the robbery together? No one is quite sure, because shortly after, LW Bruun dobbed in his mate, and the police were after Scott, now known as Captain Moonlite.
But Scott wasn’t sticking around waiting to be arrested! He skipped town and the police missed him.
Scott travelled to Sydney, where he exchanged his stolen gold for money at the local mint, and decided to buy a yacht to sail away to Fiji.
That didn’t quite work out, because the cheque bounced and Captain Moonlite was arrested and charged with fraud.
‘Confined in Maitland Gaol, he feigned madness and was transferred to the more comfortable Parramatta Lunatic Asylum, where the medical registry described him as a “civil but … unprincipled fellow without a spark of honour or decency to him”.’ (link here)
Scott spent a few years in prison, and then was released, only to be extradited back to Melbourne to face charges for the initial bank robbery. Instead, Captain Moonlite escaped, only to end up in a different prison. An eventful life so far! And I haven’t even mentioned that he started out as a preacher…
Anyway, around this time, the press were getting rather interested in Captain Moonlite. Here is a nice quote (from this article).
‘As a criminal, Scott was always more urban hustler than highwayman. But he was handsome and athletic, had reportedly seen heavy combat in the so-called Maori Wars, and was a skilled rider and crack shot. The Captain Moonlite sobriquet, with its irresistible hint of midnight romance, took on a life of its own. His attempted escape further popularised the reputation of the bold and dashing Moonlite. “Brave to the verge of recklessness,” a journalist wrote, “cool, clear-headed and sagacious, and with a certain chivalrous dash, he is the beau ideal of a brigand chief.”
The press thought him a bushranger – and a bushranger he would become.’
While in prison, Captain Moonlite met a man named Jim Nesbitt and, it would appear, fell in love.
The two were finally released from prison (years later), and spent time scraping a living together, lecturing about prison reform. But the police kept an eye on both, and the media were still excited by the idea of linking ‘Captain Moonlite’ to every unsolved crime, and police often hauled Scott in to accuse him of criminal activity.
So it was hard to make a living.
Eventually, the two men moved to rural New South Wales and, along with some other dudes, got involved in a MASSIVE shoot out on a station, with numerous policemen, one of whom died in the bloody fight.
Jim Nesbitt also died in the gunfight.
Here’s how it happened. While looking for work, they approached a station for food. (link here)
‘They’d been living on damper and tea and koala meat – and then no food at all – when they approached Wantabadgery Station, near Gundagai. The property was known for its hospitality but, unbeknown to Scott, it had recently changed hands and the new owner harboured little sympathy for itinerants.
Abruptly ordered to leave, Scott snapped.
“Misery and hunger produced despair,” he wrote later, “and in one wild hour we proved how much the wretched dare.” He retreated into the bush and then returned with gun in hand – transforming, at last, into the persona that had been created for him.’
The news reported that Captain Moonlite cried over the lifeless body of James Nesbitt.
Captain Moonlite was arrested and, while in prison awaiting his death sentence (the notorious Kelly gang was still at large at the time, so Captain Moonlite would die as an example to other bushrangers), Scott wrote letters about Nesbitt, expressing his grief.
Here is an excerpt from Captain Moonlite’s (or Scott’s) letters, with a link to the source:
“Nesbitt and I were united by every tie which could bind human friendship,” wrote Scott (underlining and all) during his final incarceration. “We were one in hopes, one in heart and soul and this unity lasted until he died in my arms.” Awaiting execution, Scott wore a ring made from Nesbitt’s hair, and pleaded with his gaolers to bury him with the younger man in the graveyard at Gundagai.
“I long to join him where there shall be no more parting,” he wrote.
And another:
“He died in my arms,” Scott wrote. “His death has broken my heart.”
And finally:
In one of his letters, Scott ended his plea for burial alongside Nesbitt with a quotation:
Now call me hence by thy side to be:
The world thou leavest has no place for me.
Give me my home on thy noble heart,
Well have we loved – let us both depart.
The original poem he quoted is an excerpt remembering and mourning a dead lover.
Of course, in 1880 when Captain Moonlite was hung, no one answered his pleas to be buried beside Jim Nesbitt, though interestingly enough, in 1995 a group of activists managed to get Moonlite’s body exhumed and buried again at the station where Nesbitt died.
I find this whole story very interesting. Because Captain Moonlite and his life is fascinating, but also because of the conversations his life has sparked on whether he was a queer bushranger, or if his love for Nesbitt was simply love between friends. This article is particularly interesting on the topic.
Mostly, this story just reminds me how much is lost to time, and though we can piece together hints and clues, we’ll often never really know for certain.
I’ll leave you to make up your own minds 🙂
This strange historic story first appeared in my newsletter, so if you like this sort of thing, and lots of dark fantasy and writing updates, please subscribe below 🙂
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PJ Nwosu writes dark mystery novels set in epic fantasy worlds.
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