True Crime

Subtitled "The True Story of Postcard Bandit Brenden Abbott", AUSTRALIAN OUTLAW is the authorised biography of Abbott, once a notorious Australian criminal, although, as it turns out from this book, a bit of a mythological figure in some ways.

Abbott actually contributed to the writing of this book (without recompense) and a combination of his own words, and Pedley's observations really bring him, and that myth to life in a rather unique way. It's an odd experience to hear directly from the criminal in this way, especially as his story isn't a particularly flattering one.

I've often wondered how it is that somebody would turn to such an elaborate and complicated life of crime, apart, obviously from the thrill of the danger. From AUSTRALIAN OUTLAW it definitely seems that the risk had it's attractions, but what's more sobering is also that Abbott doesn't come across as an idiot, far from it in fact. It actually looks more like he was simply easily bored. A classic case of a kid for whom school wasn't engaging, who had upheavals in his life at a time when he was easily led away from the straight and narrow into, frankly, what he saw as the easy way to a quick buck. You actually have to admire the way he was able to dance around the authorities, even though you might not admire the man himself. You also have to wonder about the way that myths and legends build so quickly around a figure like "the Postcard Bandit".

AUSTRALIAN OUTLAW was a really fascinating insight into the mind of a career criminal, with Pedley's voice providing a much needed dose of reality along the way.

(Disclaimer:  I generated the epub version of this book for the author, with no obligation to read / review it. Part of what attracted me to read it was the following of the story as I worked through the manuscript format).

This true crime account attempts to explain the mind of a manipulative killer.

It’s a cliché, but in this case it’s apt; if you came across a scenario like this in crime fiction you’d be hard pressed to stop your eyes from rolling. As is often the way, however, true life defies anything the very best fiction writers can come up with.  Reviewed for The Newtown Review of Books

Told in her own voice, Miss Molly Lefebure is tempted from her role as a journalist to work closely as secretary to one of the earliest "famous" forensic pathologists in England - Dr Keith Simpson. Set in war-time London, the work of civilian authorities continued, often in defiance of the chaos around them, investigating both unusual or suspicious deaths, as well as the results of the Blitz bombings.

During in the 1940's the idea of a female secretary sitting right beside the pathologist, typing his reports as an autopsy proceeds was probably just another slightly unexpected twist in a lot of forays by women into the unusual. Lefebure explains her reaction to the close up view of violent, sad or sordid death in a matter-of-fact way, albeit with a very mannered tone and via some selective observations. It often seems that the state of the housekeeping of the various crime sites caused much more distress than the state of the bodies being investigated. It's definitely a memoir of its time in that way, originally written in the 1950's with attitudes firmly of that time. There were points where it was impossible to avoid cringing - it almost seemed that unsatisfactory housewives were only marginally more acceptable than the worst of violent offenders.

There is, however, a particular sense of humour working it's way through the threads of these various tales which is dry, very stiff-upper lipped and sardonic. It could, however, be easy to miss, and sometimes Lefebure can come across as rather judgemental and snobbish. Which was a pity as much of the underlying detail - the poverty, the desperate circumstances, the quiet determination of the population, the insight into wartime civilian life was excellent. The brutality of murder certainly didn't seem to abate at all nor did the desperation that drove some people to suicide. In some cases it seems that the war simply provided a convenient cover-up, a trigger or even perhaps a reason for people to make mistakes, do daft things, or simply behave as badly as they do at any other time in life.

MURDER ON THE HOME FRONT has been snapped up for TV adaptation, which is not at all surprising. It's an opportunity for a look at the early days of forensic science, as well as the very early days of the change in women's roles in society. Worth a look if you're interested in either of those subjects. Miss Lefebure was, at the time of the media release that came with the book, alive, in her nineties, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and living in Cumbria, United Kingdom. Unfortunately she has since died.
 

In TAMAM SHUD: THE SOMERTON MAN MYSTERY, Kerry Greenwood has taken the opportunity to look back. At a case that continues to remain unsolved since the body of a man showed up on a beach in Adelaide in 1948. At the traces of the investigation that remain. At a much loved father. And finally, at some of her own crime fiction, written around the same case. This approach is undoubtedly going to make this book quite a polariser. It's obvious that some readers will love it, and some readers will loathe it. I suspect both of those camps are going to take up their position with comparable passion.

Obviously the case of the man on Somerton beach is fascinating. Not only does he remain completely unidentified, his cause of death is still unknown. Part of that could be because investigative techiques in those days were not as fully supported with DNA, high tech communications, advanced forensic and medical techniques and so on, but partly it could also be because the man, whoever he really is, did such a good job of obscuring his identity. He simply arrived in Adelaide, deposited a suitcase with items that also didn't help in identifying him in a luggage storage locker, and appeared on the beach dead.

The story was originally told to Greenwood by her much loved father. A story weaver in his own right, it doesn't take a lot of thought to work out where Greenwood got her ability, the book is very much a meandering through her memories of him, his time in Adelaide, a bit of the facts as they are known about the case itself, some speculation and a reprint of a crime fiction short story featuring Greenwood's well known character Miss Phryne Fisher. I suspect the speculative aspects are going to drive some readers nuts, although I found them interesting and certainly very thought-provoking.

I must admit I found the tone, and the nature of TAMAM SHUD interesting and enjoyable. Greenwood has a particular way of telling a story which can be quite engaging, and whilst there's absolutely and utterly nothing new that can be proven about the Somerton Man by this book, there also seems to be absolutely and utterly nothing wrong with casting a little light on a true, real-life mystery, and posing a few what-ifs.
 

I really think that whenever I feel like a bit of a whinge about the way life is these days, I should read a book like EUGENIA. Eugenia Falleni was a woman born into a large Italian Family, who grew up in New Zealand, and spent most of her all too short life in Australia, living most of it as a man.

Mark Tedeschi QC looks at what happened to Eugenia in her early life, a rape and subsequent birth of a daughter which complicated her life even more, how she functioned in day-to-day life, her first marriage and the death of her wife for which she was charged with murder, along with a second marriage and life post trial and time in jail.

Whilst the book is written by a lawyer, and looks closely at the rights, wrong and inadequacies of the trial and sentencing that she endured, it's not just about the legal. Tedeschi considers many of the elements that made up Falleni's difficult and tragic life, considering the question of her gender dysmorphia, and how she kept it a secret, particularly, it seems in the case of two marriages to women. Although her first wife, Annie Birkett, had finally discovered the truth, her second wife Lizzie Crawford refused to acknowledge that her husband, was in fact, a woman, even after police and had arrested Falleni, and doctors had examined her and declared the obvious.

It's impossible to read EUGENIA and not have sympathy for a woman who, may or may not have committed murder, although the book's conclusion is that her defence could have argued accidental / manslaughter. It's impossible not to consider how incredibly difficult, confronting and complicated her life must have been with such an obvious case of gender dysmorphia. Despite even the worst of idiocy about such issues in current day society, at the very least you'd hope there would be some support, understanding, and friendship somewhere. Alas for Falleni she was the target of ridicule and disrespect from everywhere. She was subjected to the worst sexual violence, attacked by the press, treated like a freak by the public and let down badly by her defence. Although there was finally kindness in jail, it was a bit of a kick in the teeth to find out that even her death was an absolute, flat out, utter and complete tragedy.

I'd never heard of Eugenia Falleni before I read a short story in a true crime collection a while ago, so I'm really grateful that Tedeschi took the time to delve, consider and write this book. Eugenia Falleni deserves it.