ALEXANDER
‘CANNIBAL’ PEARCE
When Alexander Pearce, an Irishman, was transported to Australia in 1819, it was for stealing a few pairs of shoes. Today, that crime would incur a small sentence, but in those days, it could get you hanged. Alexander, however, was lucky. He was sent for seven years to the penal colony in Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania). In fact, some of Australia’s nastiest prisons were in Tasmania.
Alexander went to Macquarie Harbour, a prison so tough that prisoners were willing to kill each other, just so they could go back to the Hobart jail for a break before they were hanged. At Macquarie Harbour you could be punished for the smallest things – even for singing! Prisoners worked for twelve hours a day in winter, sixteen in summer, on very little food.
Everyone believed that escape was impossible. The sea destroyed small boats, you couldn’t swim to freedom and the bush around the settlement was thick. If, by some chance, you did get out, Hobart Town was 225 kilometres away.
In spite of all the risks, Alexander and seven other convicts decided to take their chances, first in a boat, then heading through the bush to Hobart Town.
One of the convicts, Robert Greenhill, was a former sailor and knew how to find his way. The others were Matthew Travers, Alexander Dalton, Thomas Bodenham, William Kennely, John Mather and William ‘Little’ Brown.
They hacked their way through the bush, but after nine cold, wet days, they had run out of food. Two days later, Kennely joked that he was so hungry he could eat a man. Robert Greenhill said this was a great idea. Human flesh, he said, tasted like pork.
The first victim was Dalton. He had volunteered to whip other convicts back at Macquarie Harbour and wasn’t popular. Greenhill hit him on the head while he was asleep. The body was divided up the next morning.
Brown and Kennely, fearing they might be next, returned to Macquarie Harbour. They made it back, but were so exhausted that both of them died anyway. At least they avoided being eaten!
The next victim was Bodenham, whose body was shared among the four survivors. Even though they saw kangaroos and emus, the runaways had nothing with which to hunt them, so Pearce, Greenhill and Travers attacked and killed Mather.
After a snake bit Travers, he made a very tasty meal for Pearce and Greenhill. Finally, Pearce took Greenhill’s axe while he was asleep and killed him. Taking an arm and a thigh, he continued on through the bush. From there on he was lucky. He met a shepherd, Tom Triffet, who was also Irish and was only too happy to help an escaped Irish convict. And Pearce learned that he wasn’t too far from Hobart Town.
A few days later, Pearce left with two bushrangers, but in January 1823, soldiers caught the three men. The two bushrangers were hanged, but not Alexander Pearce, who was sent back to Macquarie Harbour. He said he’d eaten the other runaways, but the police didn’t believe such a crazy story.
Other convicts at Macquarie Harbour now admired Pearce, because he had proved it was possible to escape. He might have got away with his crimes if he hadn’t developed a taste for human flesh. He escaped again, this time with a boy called Thomas Cox, who ended up as dinner. Pearce was caught with bits of Cox in his pockets and the boy’s body was in the bush nearby.
On 19 July 1824, Alexander Pearce went to the gallows, not at all sorry for what he had done. ‘Man’s flesh’, he said, ‘is delicious, far better than fish or pork’.
DID YOU KNOW…?
Until a few years ago, a loophole in taxation law allowed convicted Australian criminals to claim ‘business’ expenses, such as bullets, guns and other equipment needed in the practice of their criminal careers.