Murder of Graeme Thorne

Graeme Thorne
A family photo of Graeme Thorne
Born
Graeme Frederick Hilton Thorne[1]

18 December 1951[2]
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died7 July 1960 (aged 8)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Body discoveredGrandview Grove, Seaforth, New South Wales, Australia
16 August 1960
NationalityAustralian
Known forMurder victim

Graeme Thorne was an eight year old Australian boy, who was kidnapped and murdered in 1960. A month before the kidnapping, his parents, Bazil and Freda Thorne, who lived in a modest rented flat in the Sydney beachside suburb of Bondi, had won £100,000 in the newly conceived Opera House Lottery, designed to raise money for the construction the now famous Sydney Opera House. This was a considerable amount of money in 1960, when it was customary to publish the names and addresses of lottery winners in the newspapers.

The events of the case generated widespread public shock and ignited significant attention and societal outrage.[3][4] and was the country's first well known kidnap for ransom.[5][6] The police investigation leading to the capture and conviction of his kidnapper and murderer, a Hungarian immigrant named Stephen Lesley Bradley, is considered to be a pioneering and sophisticated example of advanced modern forensic investigation by world standards in 1960.[7][8][9] The crime is still regarded as one of the most infamous in Australia's history[7] because it was the country's first well known abduction involving a young child for ransom, almost unthinkable during an era in Australia when, "people didn't bother to lock their doors at night before going to bed".

  1. ^ "Articles – Australian Police Journal | Australian Police Journal". apjl.com.au. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
  2. ^ Bradley Extradition Hearing (Continued):Court hushed as Mrs Thorne called, Sydney Morning Herald, 20 October 1960. Retrieved 27 February 2014
  3. ^ Tedeschi, Mark (24 October 2015). "The kidnapping that shocked a nation". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :19 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "'I have your boy. I want £25,000 before 5 o'clock'". Retrieved 1 October 2017.
  6. ^ Charleston, Libby-Jane (5 March 2016). "The End Of Innocence: The 1960s Crime That Changed The Lives of Aussie Kids". Huffington Post. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
  7. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :15 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :10 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Tilstone, William J.; Savage, Kathleen A.; Clark, Leigh A. (2006). Forensic Science: An Encyclopedia of History, Methods, and Techniques. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781576071946.