TRUE AND INFAMOUS CRIMES OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Softcover. Australia and New Zealand have witnessed some of the most bizarre and hideous crimes imaginable. In 1908 seven and a half year old Robert John Davis was placed in the dock of the Launceston Criminal Court in Tasmania on a charge of murdering his two and a half year old stepbrother, Alexander Robertson. It was later supposed that this in fact was not the child's first killing. Was he the world's youngest serial killer? Did 'Mad Mossy' with his claim of 13 victims rate as Australia's greatest serial killer? In other cases we have a convicted murderer admitting to having committed several crimes for which he should be hanged, but claiming he was innocent of the crime for which he was sentenced to die, a crime, to which one of the arresting police officers later confessed. There is Joseph Samuels who failed, despite 3 very determined attempts, to die at the end of the hangman's rope. We have a hangman killed by a deadman. A twice convicted murderer set free by the Court. Two people killed by the one unintended bullet. A murderer hanged 25yrs too late. The little known, but often practiced, age-old art of 'husbandicide'. There are bushrangers who slaughtered many of their own kind. A murderer deemed by an 'expert' to be insane simply because lice were attracted to him. And a deadman with no name. Also featured are many unusual crimes that, as far as can be ascertained, have not been publicised since the cases were filed away. Illus. 325pp. trade size softcover. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. with no creasing to covers.