in 1896 butler was released from prison. the news of his release was described as falling like a bombshell among the peaceful inhabitants of dunedin. in the colony of victoria, where butler had commenced his career, it was received with an apprehension that was justified by subsequent events. it was believed that on his release the new zealand authorities had shipped butler off to rio. but it was not long before he made his way once more to australia. from the moment of his arrival in melbourne he was shadowed by the police. one or two mysterious occurrences soon led to his arrest. on june 5 he was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment under the criminal influx act, which makes it a penal offence for any convict to enter victoria for three years after his release from prison. not content with this, the authorities determined to put butler on trial on two charges of burglary and one of highway robbery, committed since his return to the colony. to one charge of burglary, that of breaking into a hairdresser's shop and stealing a wig, some razors and a little money, butler pleaded guilty.
but the charge of highway robbery, which bore a singular resemblance to the final catastrophe in queensland, he resisted to the utmost, and showed that his experience in the supreme court at dunedin had not been lost on him. at half-past six one evening in a suburb of melbourne an elderly gentleman found himself confronted by a bearded man, wearing a long overcoat and a boxer hat and flourishing a revolver, who told him abruptly to "turn out his pockets." the old man did ashe was told. the robber then asked for his watch and chain, saying "business must be done." the old gentleman mildly urged that this was a dangerous business. on being assured that the watch was a gold one, the robber appeared willing to risk the danger, and departed thoroughly satisfied. the old gentleman afterwards identified butler as the man who had taken his watch. another elderly man swore that he had seen butler at the time of the robbery in the possession of a fine gold watch, which he said had been sent him from home. but the watch had not been found in butler's possession.
on june 18 butler was put on his trial in the melbourne criminal court before mr. justice holroyd, charged with robbery under arms. his appearance in the dock aroused very considerable interest. "it was the general verdict," wrote one newspaper, "that his intellectual head and forehead compared not unfavourably with those of the judge." he was decently dressed and wore pince-nez, which he used in the best professional manner as he referred to the various documents that lay in front of him. he went into the witness-box and stated that the evening of the crime he had spent according to his custom in the public library.
for an hour and a half he addressed the jury. he disputed the possibility of his identification by his alleged victim. he was "an old gentleman of sedentary pursuits and not cast in the heroic mould." such a man would be naturally alarmed and confused at meeting suddenly an armed robber. now, under these circumstances, could his recognition of a man whose face was hidden by a beard, his head by a boxer hat, and his body by a long overcoat, be considered trustworthy? and such recognition occurring in the course of a chance encounter in the darkness, that fruitful mother of error? the elderly gentleman had described his moustache as a slight one, but the jury could see that it was full and overhanging. he complained that he had been put up for identification singly, not with other men, according to the usual custom; the police had said to the prosecutor: "we have here a man that we think robbed you, and, if he is not the man, we shall be disappointed," to which the prosecutor had replied: "yes, and if he is not the man, i shall be disappointed too." for the elderly person who had stated that he had seen a gold watch in butler's possession the latter had nothing but scorn. he was a "lean and slippered pantaloon in shakespeare's last stage"; and he, butler, would have been a lunatic to have confided in such a man.
the jury acquitted butler, adding as a rider to their verdict that there was not sufficient evidence of identification. the third charge against butler was not proceeded with. he was put up to receive sentence for the burglary at the hairdresser's shop. butler handed to the judge a written statement which mr. justice holroyd described as a narrative that might have been taken from those sensational newspapers written for nursery-maids, and from which, he said, he could not find that butler had ever done one good thing in the whole course of his life. of that life of fifty years butler had spent thirty-five in prison. the judge expressed his regret that a man of butler's knowledge, information, vanity, and utter recklessness of what evil will do, could not be put away somewhere for the rest of his life, and sentenced him to fifteen years' imprisonment with hard labour. "an iniquitous and brutal sentence!" exclaimed the prisoner. after a brief altercation with the judge, who said that he could hardly express the scorn he felt for such a man, butler was removed. the judge subsequently reduced the sentence to one of ten years. chance or destiny would seem implacable in their pursuit of mr. william munday of toowong.
butler after his trial admitted that it was he who had robbed the old gentleman of his watch, and described to the police the house in which it was hidden. when the police went there to search they found that the house had been pulled down, but among the debris they discovered a brown paper parcel containing the old gentleman's gold watch and chain, a five-chambered revolver, a keen-edged butcher's knife, and a mask.
butler served his term of imprisonment in victoria, "an unmitigated nuisance" to his custodians. on his release in 1904, he made, as in dunedin, an attempt to earn a living by his pen. he contributed some articles to a melbourne evening paper on the inconveniences of prison discipline, but he was quite unfitted for any sustained effort as a journalist. according to his own account, with the little money he had left he made his way to sydney, thence to brisbane. he was half-starved, bewildered, despairing; in his own words, "if a psychological camera could have been turned on me it would have shown me like a bird fascinated by a serpent, fascinated and bewildered by the fate in front, behind, and around me." months of suffering and privation passed, months of tramping hundreds of miles with occasional breakdowns, months of hunger and sickness; "my actions had become those of a fool; my mind and will had become a remnant guided or misguided by unreasoning impulse."
it was under the influence of such an impulse that on march 23 butler had met and shot mr. munday at toowong. on may 24 he was arraigned at brisbane before the supreme court of queensland. but the butler who stood in the dock of the brisbane criminal court was very different from the butler who had successfully defended himself at dunedin and melbourne. the spirit had gone out of him; it was rather as a suppliant, represented by counsel, that he faced the charge of murder. his attitude was one of humble and appropriate penitence. in a weak and nervous voice he told the story of his hardships since his release from his victorian prison; he would only urge that the shooting of mr. munday was accidental, caused by munday picking up a stone and attacking him. when about to be sentenced to death he expressed great sorrow and contrition for his crime, for the poor wife and children of his unfortunate victim. his life, he said, was a poor thing, but he would gladly give it fifty times over.
the sentence of death was confirmed by the executive on june 30. to a freethought advocate who visited him shortly before his execution, butler wrote a final confession of faith: "i shall have to find my way across the harbour bar without the aid of any pilot. in these matters i have for many years carried an exempt flag, and, as it has not been carried through caprice or ignorance, i am compelled to carry it to the last. there is an impassable bar of what i honestly believe to be the inexorable logic of philosophy and facts, history and experience of the nature of the world, the human race and myself, between me and the views of the communion of any religious organisation. so instead of the 'depart christian soul' of the priest, i only hope for the comfort and satisfaction of the last friendly good-bye of any who cares to give it."
from this positive affirmation of unbelief butler wilted somewhat at the approach of death. the day before his execution he spent half an hour playing hymns on the church organ in the prison; and on the scaffold, where his agitation rendered him almost speechless, he expressed his sorrow for what he had done, and the hope that, if there were a heaven, mercy would be shown him.
