He was the third man to be executed for murder in Wagga before 1878. 

Rewind Wagga has in recent weeks resurrected the history behind the dark side of the city’s past, sharing the stories of the five known men, who were hung by the neck until dead. 

Murdick was found guilty for the murder of Henry Ford in 1877. 

Despite circumstantial evidence, he was tried and convicted on the 3rd of October and hanged on the 18th of December.

The decision came after the “considerably decomposed” body of Ford was found floating in the Murrumbidgee River in March, days after he had been noted as missing. 

Barmedman station workers, Ford and Murdick had been on the road to Wagga when they stopped in at the Tewkesbury's Hotel at Cartwright's Hill.

There, Ford had made it known he wished to change a cheque for £31, 10 shillings.

Ford said he wished to stay at the hotel, but was overruled by Murdick, who said they could camp beside the river instead. No one saw or heard from Ford after that night. 

Three or four days later, the inn-keeper, Mr Tewkesbury, met Murdick alone at North Wagga, who said he had not seen the “little fellow” – Ford – for some time. 

Aside from the water-logged clothing and a few teeth, the body in the river was unidentifiable.

Believed to be Ford’s remains, the arrested man was found to be in possession of Ford’s cheque and a number of the victim’s personal items.

The Murdick maintained his companion had traded him the cheque for cash and the items were of a common design. 

He did not make any confession of his crime during the time of his nine-month imprisonment or his trial in 1877, according to the archives.

Murdick barely ate or slept in the lead up to his execution. In his last grasp at hope, the man had tried in vain to escape, using the absence of a toilet-bound guard and the distraction of a heavy storm to lift the cell-door off its hinges. 

Murdick’s spirits were soon dashed when he was caught and placed back in his cell to await death. He made a futile grasp at the rope as the Sydney executioner pulled the bolt, dropping eight-feet to his doom.