Coniston massacre
On 24 August, Murray captured an Aboriginal person named Arkirkra and returned to Coniston, where he collected Padygar (Woolingar had died that night still chained to the tree) and then marched the two to Alice Springs. Arriving on 1 September, Arkirkra and Padygar were charged with the murder of Brooks while Murray was hailed as a hero. On 3 September, Murray set off for Pine Hill station to investigate complaints of cattle spearing. Nothing has been recorded about this patrol, but he returned on 13 September with two prisoners. On 16 September, Henry Tilmouth of Napperby station shot and killed an Aboriginal he was chasing away from the homestead; this incident was included in the later enquiry. On the 19th, Murray again departed, this time under orders to investigate a non-fatal attack on the person of a settler, William "Nuggett" Morton, at Broadmeadows Station, by what Morton described as a group of 15 Myall Warlpiri people who were also in the same area.
Kesh ambush
However, according to Conflict Archive on the Internet, there was a gun battle at the scene of the attempted bombing, between a number of IRA men and British troops in which Mac Giolla Bhrighde was killed. A British Army soldier, Lance Corporal Al Slater, from Leicestershire, was also killed in the exchange of fire, further contradicting the Republican sources. Charles "Nish" Bruce served with Slater on this operation. His autobiography, "Freefall", under the pseudonym "Tom Read", recounted in detail an exchange of fire and the respective deaths of both Slater and Mac Giolla Bhrighde. Andy McNab, a former SAS soldier, supported this view in his book "Immediate Action". Mac Giolla Bhrighde's companion, Ciaran Fleming, drowned in the swollen Bannagh River as he tried to get away.