Noose: True Stories of Australians Who Died at the Gallows

The first man hanged in Australia lost his life for stealing food. Rough justice was the order of the day, and even minor offences were punished by death. Over almost two centuries, 1700 men and women were sent to the gallows in Australia.

Noose draws on court records and newspaper reports to paint a vivid picture of how people came to be found guilty of capital crimes. It uncovers injustices and traces the rising chorus of dissent that eventually saw hanging abolished. Anyone interested in Australia’s social and criminal history will enjoy these gripping, chilling tales.

Noose vividly portrays eleven of these cases, including the very first – in 1788 of Thomas Barrett, a First Fleeter and talented engraver, hanged for stealing food. And the very last, the hanging of Ronald Ryan, at Melbourne’s Pentridge Prison in 1967, in the controversial case that divided the nation.

Among others, Noose explores the Myall Creek Massacre, in which seven stockmen were hanged for the slaughter of 28 Aboriginal people; Elizabeth Woolcock, charged with poisoning her husband; and the possibly schizophrenic Clifford Hulme; a case which, combined with Angus Murray’s hanging in 1924, presaged the beginning of the end for capital punishment in Australia.