Joseph Bolitho Johns (c. February 1826 – 13 August 1900), better known as Moondyne Joe, was an English convict and Western Australia's best-known bushranger.

Joe was a tall man with black hair and hazel-coloured eyes,[2] and it is likely that he contracted smallpox in his youth as, later, records describe him as "pockmarked".

Newspaper reports of the trial suggest that the pair gave an unexpectedly spirited defence, but Johns was abrasive and "contravened the conventions of court procedure".

W. J. Edgar (1990) observes that in several other cases brought before the same judge that day, guilty pleas to very similar charges resulted in sentences ranging from three weeks to three months.

About a year later, he boarded the prison ship Pyrenees for transportation to what was then the British penal colony of Western Australia to serve out the remainder of his sentence.

[6] In reward for good behaviour, Johns was issued with a ticket of leave on arrival, and on 10 March 1855 he received a conditional pardon.

Johns made a living by partly fencing the springs in the area, and trapping escaped stock and horses.

Sometime during the night, Johns broke out of his cell, and stole the horse once more, taking also the local magistrate's brand-new saddle and bridle.

In January 1865, a steer named "Bright" belonging to William Wallace was killed, and Johns was accused of the deed.

They were finally caught 37 kilometres (23 miles) east of York by a party of policemen that included Tommy Windich, an Aboriginal tracker.

[7] As punishment for escaping and for the robberies committed while on the run, Johns received five years' hard labour on top of his remaining sentence.

He was sent to Fremantle Prison, and kept in the yard with his neck chained to the iron bar of a window, while a special "escape-proof" cell was made for him.

In early 1867, due to his diminishing health, Johns was set to work breaking stone in the open air but, rather than permit him to leave the prison, the acting comptroller-general ordered that the stone be brought in and dumped in a corner of the prison yard, where Johns worked under the constant supervision of a warder.

However, the rock broken by Johns was not removed regularly, and eventually a pile grew up until it obscured the guard's view of him below the waist.

When the owner entered the cellar, Johns assumed that he was discovered, and made a dash for the door into the arms of the police.

After verifying with Superintendent Lefroy that those words were spoken, Wakeford informed the current governor, Frederick Weld, who agreed that further punishment would be unfair.

[7] The remainder of Johns' life consisted of periods of good behaviour punctuated by occasional minor misdemeanors and brief jail terms.

In January 1879, he married a widow named Louisa Hearn, and they spent some time prospecting for gold near Southern Cross.

While Moondyne Joe was bushranging in 1869, an Irish political prisoner named John Boyle O'Reilly was working in a convict road party near Bunbury.

[11] In 2002, Cygnet Books published The Legend of Moondyne Joe, a work of juvenile fiction written by Mark Greenwood and illustrated by Frané Lessac.