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Australia’s First Serial Killer

Australia’s first recorded serial killer, Alexander Pearce, was born in Ireland in 1793. At the age of 26 he was convicted of stealing six pairs of shoes and sent to Van Dieman’s Land for seven years’ penal servitude. Pearce arrived in Hobart Town (now Hobart), Tasmania, in 1820. He was flogged on numerous occasions for absconding from work gangs and getting drunk. Within two years he was sent to the newly established penal settlement at Macquarie Harbour, in the state’s southwest.

Macquarie Harbour was nicknamed ‘the western hell’. The headlands leading into the harbour are still called Hell’s Gates. The convict settlement was on Sarah Island, a four-hectare island in the middle of the bay. With the inlet surrounded by impenetrable woodland, escape was thought impossible. To make sure the convicts didn’t try, they were flogged regularly, leaving them strong enough to work but not fit enough to abscond. Escape by sea was thought even more difficult. The entrance to Macquarie Harbour is only 100 metres wide, and was considered unnavigable by small boats due to the deadly rips and back currents caused by the shallow bottom and the bottleneck. The convicts were kept busy harvesting the rugged Huon pine trees southeast of Sarah Island. Work gangs escorted by armed troopers rowed daily to the mainland in small boats.

Alexander Pearce arrived in August 1822. Less than a month later, he heard of an escape plan. On 28 September, Pearce and fellow convicts Alexander Dalton, Thomas Bodenham, William Kennely, Matthew Travers, William Brown and John Mathers overpowered guards and seized two boats at the timber-cutting site. The men rowed to the nearby coal works and met with Robert Greenhill, who had arranged provisions – 10 pounds of flour and 6 pounds of beef. They then scuttled one boat, proceeded downriver, and took to the land that afternoon. Their intention was to walk to Hobart Town. They had no idea it was 110 miles (175 kilometres) away through some of the most rugged and uncharted wilderness in the world. They had no compass, and only a vague idea of the general direction they needed to head in.

During the first days it was bitterly cold and the rain was relentless, making it impossible to light a fire. Their clothes were soon soaked and torn to shreds. Their food supplies had been consumed. On the eighth morning the sun came out and the escapees woke to find Dalton, Kennely and Brown missing. They concluded that the three had returned to face their punishment.

After 10 days the five remaining men were exhausted. Without food they had little choice but to boil their kangaroo-skin jackets and eat what they could of them. On the eleventh night they consulted each other. There was no choice – one must die or they all would. Bodenham drew the short straw. Greenhill killed him with a single blow of the axe to the back of the head. He was cut up, cooked and eaten. The flesh lasted for seven days.

The remaining men’s progress was impeded at every step by intertwining roots and heavy brush, restricting their travel to about four miles (seven kilometres) a day. They continued to have difficulties finding enough food, and when they reached a small valley they again drew lots to see who would be sacrificed. Mathers was the one to go, but when Greenhill snuck up behind him with the axe, Mathers wrestled it from his grasp.

Although the weather had improved, it did little to boost the group’s spirits. They were in terrible condition. The attempt on Mathers’ life had widened the division between them and they paired off, for safety – Pearce with Mathers, Greenhill with Travers. During the night, while Mathers was asleep, Greenhill crept over and killed him with a blow from the axe. His remains kept them going for days.

On the fourth day after Mathers’ death, Travers was bitten by a snake. He was in pain, and could no longer carry on. Pearce and Greenhill remained with him for five days and on the sixth day, when he lapsed into a deep sleep, Greenhill killed him. The remaining two ate his remains for the next two days.

By this stage, the pair had lost their boots, and what little clothing they had was in tatters. They were covered in scratches and sores, but somehow they made it to the top of the next mountain. They couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw vast plains stretching below. The escapees believed they were on the edge of a settled district. Their hopes were boosted when they saw smoke rising in the distance. But when they got closer to the fire they found it to be an Aboriginal settlement of about 50 people. Pearce and Greenhill screamed, trying to create the impression that they were a large group. The Aborigines fled, leaving their cooking pots with fresh kangaroo stewing in them. The men devoured as much as they could and pressed on, carrying as much food as they could. Over the ensuing days, they raided more Aboriginal camps. But as the supplies again grew scarce, each eyed the other hungrily.

The fact that Greenhill had possession of the axe kept Pearce on edge. Pearce later claimed that he awoke one night to see the shadowy figure of Greenhill creeping toward him, the axe raised high. Feigning a nightmare, Pearce sat up. Greenhill sank back into the darkness. From then on Pearce never shut his eyes.

Pretending to be unaware of Greenhill’s intentions, Pearce lulled his companion into a false sense of security – and when Greenhill fell asleep, Pearce slipped the axe out of his grasp and killed him with several blows to the skull. He feasted on the raw corpse, building his strength over the next four days. When it was time to move on, he took a thigh and an arm with him.

A week later, he caught two ducks and ate them raw. He then came across a flock of sheep, a sign that he had reached civilisation. He cornered a lamb, killed it with his hands and fed on its flesh. As he was eating, a dog barked, and he turned around to find a cocked musket at his head. When Pearce said he had escaped from the convict settlement on the other side of Tasmania, the man lowered his gun in disbelief, then took Pearce to his hut and nursed him back to health.

On the eleventh night, after Pearce had regained his stamina, there was a knock on the door. It was Ralph Churton and William Davis, two escaped convicts-turned-bushrangers. When they discovered Pearce had also escaped, and heard about his journey, they persuaded him to join them.

Within six weeks Pearce and his fellow convicts were captured. He had been on the run for 113 days when he was taken into Hobart Town in irons on Saturday, 11 January 1823. He was then taken back to Macquarie Harbour, where he arrived to a hero’s welcome. Despite having told the authorities about the murders and cannibalism during the journey, he was only flogged, sentenced to a term of solitary confinement and restricted to wear heavy irons and kept under close surveillance.

Nine months later Pearce absconded with Thomas Cox, a young man from England who had been transported for life in 1819. Five days later the crew of the schooner Waterloo, passing down Macquarie Harbour, saw a figure waving from the shore. It was Pearce. He was searched, and a piece of raw human meat was found in his pocket. In his other pockets were items of ‘normal’ food that would have sustained him for days.

Pearce led his captors to the mutilated body of Cox in some nearby scrub. When asked if he had killed the man he replied, ‘Yes, and I am willing to die for it.’ Taken back to Hobart Town and tried for murder, Pearce claimed in court that when they arrived at a river that had to be crossed, he discovered that Cox couldn’t swim. A violent argument erupted, during which Pearce picked up an axe and killed Cox. With the dead body at his feet, the urge to eat human flesh took hold. ‘I ate part of him that night and cut up the greater part of his flesh in order to take it with me,’ he told the court. But he was wracked with guilt, he said, and could not proceed, so he signalled the passing ship. His conscience was torturing him, and he was half-demented because of it.

Pearce was found guilty of murder. He was hanged on the morning of 19 July 1824. Before he died, he said, ‘No man can tell what he will do when driven by hunger.’