It was reputed that he “developed into a horse and cattle stealer, his practice being to drive his captures long distances, and sell them.”[4][2] By the early 1850s, he was known as ‘Bill the Native’ and was described as “a notorious horse thief” in the Avoca district, where he lived “a lonely life in the mallee scrub which then abounded there.” Morgan had several run-ins with local squatters, and on one occasion was shot in the knee while being chased “for several miles by two settlers.”[6] In June 1854, Morgan, under the alias 'John Smith', stuck up two travelling hawkers in the Castlemaine district in Victoria, leaving them tied to trees.

[10] After he failed to report to the authorities and was subsequently declared a fugitive, Morgan visited a pastoral run in the Murray district belonging to Dr. J. P. Rowe, who was absent, and stole a gold watch.

One of the robbers was “supposed to be a man named Morgan, alias Beardie.”[12][13] The following day, on 18 June, four young men were held up and robbed at Cookendina station, east of Henty.

This incident was later included in a published list of crimes perpetrated by Daniel Morgan, in apparent retribution for the shepherd providing information to the police regarding the location of the bushrangers' camp.

[25][26] In January 1864 Thomas Henty's "Arab entire horse" was stolen in the night from ‘Round Hill’ station (east of Culcairn), a theft for which Morgan was suspected.

[31] On June 24 Sergeant David Maginnity and Constable Charles Churchley encountered Morgan about fifteen miles east of Tumbarumba while they were returning from ‘Coppabella’ station on the old coach road.

A magisterial inquiry into the incident was held in the Tumbarumba court-house several days later, with the events leading to Maginnity's death based on the evidence of Constable Churchley's single eye-witness account.

[33] As soon as the details of Sergeant Maginnity's death became known the New South Wales government offered a reward of one thousand pounds “for such information as will lead to… the apprehension of Daniel Morgan” who had been “charged with the commission of numerous and serious offences, and has hitherto eluded the efforts to apprehend him”.

[34] On July 3 the policemen, Sergeant Carroll and constables Horrigan and Dalziel, were riding through part of Charles Edgehill's station (north-west of Henty) when in the distance they caught sight of a man galloping away from “an old hut” occupied by the Corcoran family.

[36][37] In Albury the wounded Senior-sergeant Smyth gave evidence that he believed “Morgan had ascertained that he was on his track, and that he and some of his gang… [had] crawled through the scrub up to the tent, and, having made a survey, fired into it simultaneously”.

[36][37] A memorial stone honouring Senior-sergeant Thomas Smyth, with an attached plaque provided by the NSW Police Service, is located two kilometres west of Henty (on the Pleasant Hills Road).

After robbing the occupants, he then “conversed freely for some hours, detailing his various exploits at great length, and dwelling particularly upon the murder of M’Ginnerty and Smyth, at which he made no attempt at concealment”.

[41][42] Two days later two hawkers named Knight and Shane were stuck up by Morgan near ‘Pulletop’ station (west of Kyeamba) and robbed of £60 worth of liquor and gold nuggets, as well as a horse, a saddle and bridle.

[43][44] On 9 March 1865 a shepherd, John Pender, “was quietly feeding his dogs” on ‘Wallandool’ station (west of Henty) when “he received a shot in the thigh from Morgan’s revolver”.

[10] By early morning (before daybreak) on April 6 Morgan arrived at the Evans brothers’ ‘Whitfield’ station on the King River, about 25 miles south of Wangaratta.

At dusk Morgan arrived at the small township of Winton (between Benalla and Glenrowan, south-west of Wangaratta) where he was recognised as he rode past Whitty's public-house.

During that night and the following Saturday morning (April 8) Morgan "was in possession" of the road between Benalla and Glenrowan; he "stopped nearly every one he met, riding up to where carriers were camped, and forcing them to disgorge".

[10] By evening Morgan had reached a road leading from a swamp past Rutherford and McPherson's 'Peechelba' station, with frontages on the Ovens and Murray rivers about 20 miles north-west of Wangaratta.

[10] On receiving Rutherford's message the Police Magistrate at Wangaratta gathered a group of townsmen to accompany constables Evans and Laverton to ‘Peechelba’ station, arriving at about two in the morning of Sunday, April 9.

[55] On the afternoon of the following day (Monday April 10) an inquest regarding the death of Daniel Morgan was held at Wangaratta before a jury and the District Coroner, Dr. W. Dobbyn.

[10] The following day, April 11, Morgan's body, wrapped in a wool-bale bag, was brought into Wangaratta and placed on public display in a police cell.

[10][57][58] In May 1865 it was reported that the Attorney General of Victoria had suspended both Dr. Dobbyn ("for removing the head of Morgan") and Superintendent Cobham ("for the part he took in reference to the beard"), however both suspensions were only temporary.

The newspaper report added that “the decapitation appears to have been a most unwarranted piece of officiousness and excess of authority on the part of the local Coroner, and is very much akin to the prurient and brutal feeling which resulted in the hair, beard, and clothes of the deceased marauder being hawked about for the delectation of the curious”.

[66][10] In May and June 1865 notices were published, addressed to “the squatters of Riverina and Victoria”, calling for subscriptions towards a fund “for the benefit of John Wandlan (sic), who shot Morgan the bushranger”.

[67] During April 1865 the New South Wales government passed legislation which was designed to facilitate the capture or killing of bushrangers and to punish those who assist, harbour or provide sustenance to them.

In June 1865 Inspector Singleton from Albury stated that “about thirty persons, suspected of harbouring Morgan and other similar characters, have left their accustomed haunts and taken to honest pursuits since the Felons' Apprehension Act became law”.

The article compares Morgan, who “seemed to commit murder because he enjoyed it”, with other bushrangers such as Gilbert, Hall and Dunn who “only took life when driven to extremities, at which times they appear to have no more compunction in shooting a man than they would have in putting a bullet into a mad dog”.

[74] His life is fictionalised in Will Dyson's historical novel Red Morgan Rides (1940), and it is likely he was the inspiration for the villainous bushranger "Dan Moran" in Rolf Boldrewood's novel Robbery Under Arms, first published in serial form in 1882.

Banjo Paterson wrote the words of "Waltzing Matilda", Australia's most famous folk song, to a tune played on the zither by the grown Christina Macpherson (who was the infant in the 1865 incident above).

[75] Morgan — with his "Mad Dog" sobriquet — is referenced in the song "Billabong Valley" by Australian psychedelic rock group King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, released on their 2017 album, Flying Microtonal Banana.