THE TASMANIAN GALLOWS A Study of Capital Punishment

Hardback. The author sets out to provide a realistic picture of all aspects of capital punishment in Tasmania. The reactions of condemned men, the bungling of the apparatus of execution, and the likelihood of miscarriages of justice are fully discussed. Attention is drawn to inconsistencies in deciding reprieves, even when murder was the sole capital crime. Though the author leaves his own hostility to capital punishment in no doubt, the arguments both for and against the institution in every period are outlined. For those interested in the general history of Tasmania's development from a brutal penal colony to a peaceful humanitarian state, the author provides a cavalcade of interesting and important personalities like Colonel George Arthur, Sir John Franklin, Public Librarian Alfred J. Taylor, Tasmania's most eminent opponent of hanging, Andrew Inglis Clark and, finally, Attorney-General Roy Fagan who ensured that the Tasmanian gallows should operate no more. Though the more romantic figures of famous bushrangers such as Matthew Brady, Martin Cash and 'Jacky-Jacky' Westwood pass through the pages of this book, the author's description of lesser-known criminals, provides some fascinating glimpses of the sordid and vicious environment experienced by many Tasmanians in the first 50yrs. of the colony's history. Illus., Conclusion, Bibliog. and Index. 119pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Vg+ in torn and repaired G. only dw. which has faded sp.