In the introduction to one of the best books written on the life of Thunderbolt, Stephan William's "A Ghost called Thunderbolt." he quotes " Regarding Captain Thunderbolt only two things are not in dispute: the quality of the horses that he stole and rode, and the fact that he never killed or injured those whom he robbed or went in pursuit of him. Everything else is the subject of controversy".

I would like to show some of the most recent research from original police and newspaper articles that I have undertaken at the State Records at Kingswood in Western Sydney, the New South Wales State Library in Macquarie St, Sydney, at the Newling Research Centre of the UNE Armidale and at the Police Library in Sydney. I hope to be able to correct some of the myths and provable errors so often written in books and spoken about, in what is known as, " The Legend of Captain Thunderbolt."

Anyone claiming to have thoroughly researched "Thunderbolt" without having visited the Newling Heritage Centre at the southern end of Dangar St in Armidale and going through the totality of their research material, are wasting their time. They have by far the best collection of published and unpublished material available in reseach centres and library's in Australia at the present time. In May 2010 they received a copy of all of the records from the State Records at Kingswood in Western Sydney following our application through NSW Parliament for the records to be released to the public.