HANGMAN'S CLIENTS True Australian Crime Series No. 6

Softcover. True Australian Crime Series No. 6. The dread figure of "Blackbeard," who officiated at Queensland's hangings, before capital punishment was abolished in that State, meets many strange "clients" in this dramatic account of crime and punishment. Authentic reconstruction of amazing Australian crimes, bizarre to the final dramatic scene which, in each case, finds the perpetrator on the gallows trap-door, to keep an appointment with "Blackbeard", the official hangman. This is a realistic chronicle of crime which shows in startling, macabre fashion how murderers behave in the condemned cell and how they react to the executioner's ministrations. The author provides an enthralling psychological study which outstrips fiction for gripping reading. Featuring amongst others : Police Magistrate Thomas John Griffin; the only woman to meet "Blackbeard", Ellen Thompson with John Harrison; George Blantern; Abbi the Japanese murderer; John Garbett; Leonardi Moncardo; George Gleeson; Duhamel the Frenchman and Sedin the Malay; American Chris Pickford; Naraesewai and Mi-Orie, the Kanakas; "Old Jack" Williams, George Palmer and Alexander Archibald; King Billy, monarch of the black tribes. Illus. 128pp. card covers. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Lightly browned pp. o/w Vg+. Scarce.