Today, we bring you the story of Jacob Bachler, who was charged with “feloniously and maliciously” murdering Nathaniel Griffiths on March 11, 1916.

The day before the crime, a construction train brought some 150 labourers to Wagga from Borambola to begin work at the railway construction depot. 

The workers set up 70 to 80 tents to sleep in; inside two of these tents were Griffiths, 54, and his soon-to-be murderer, Bachler, 43. 

Born in Switzerland, Bachler spoke only German, and had only arrived in Australia eight years earlier.

That night, workers heard Bachler talking loudly and using “bad language” after a night of drinking on the town. 

Close to midnight, Bachler began pulling apart his tent angrily, with a fire made of half-dry tent poles burning right in front of him. 

Griffiths and another worker confronted Bachler, telling him “those tent poles are too good to destroy”.

That was when Bachler lashed out, hitting Griffiths over the head with one of the poles. 

A group of workers ran to Griffiths’ aid, finding him breathing heavily and unable to speak. 

He was taken to the Wagga District Hospital and subsequently died just before 10am the following morning. 

The workers grabbed Bachler, tied him up with some tent ropes, and held him until the police arrived. 

His initial charge of malicious wounding was upgraded to murder after Griffiths died in hospital, and a jury took just 25 minutes to return a verdict of guilty at his trial.

Bachler was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment at Goulbourn Jail, and was not released until October 17, 1930. 

The media described Bachler as “a powerfully built man of morose disposition [who] kept himself apart from the other men on the job” who was “looked upon as a man of moods”. 

Upon his release, Bachler headed west for Broken Hill, and was spotted regularly in the town that December ordering a whiskey and soda in the mornings and a glass of beer in the afternoons.

On December 19, Bachler told his landlord he was walking to Menindee to camp on the river, leaving a few belongings behind and explaining he “would come back for [them] if things livened up”. 

His body was found hanging from a tree on Christmas Day. 

If you would like to learn more about Jacob Bachler and some of Wagga’s other notorious criminals, visit the Captured: Portraits of Crime exhibition a the CSU Regional Archives.