According to Thomas Seals, a free man who had been bailed up by Michael and his gang in 1816, he was told “If I would be a friend to them, they would reward me well…for they were fully determined to be like Turpin, to rob from the rich and give to the poor.” Further to this, James Calder asserted “Howe disliked unnecessary violence, and though he sometimes threatened it, using hard words and black looks, he never would permit it except in self-defence, or when, according to his style of thinking, he believed his victims deserved it.”
From ‘Historical Records of Australia’, Volume 2, Series 3, and ‘Early Trouble of the Colonists’ by James Calder.
Michael Howe: Governor of the Woods 