On the sixth of April, 1844, John Gavin was the first European hanged in the Swan River Colony. He was fifteen years old. His crime, trial, and execution still stir controversy and passions almost one hundred and eighty years after the event. John Gavin was a convicted street thief in Birmingham and became incarcerated at Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight. In 1843 he made the voyage to the Swan River Colony on the barque the 'Shepherd'...