Joseph John Thomas Pawelka (1887–?) was a New Zealand criminal and prison escaper. He was born in West Oxford, Canterbury, New Zealand in 1887.[1] His parents, Josef Pawelka and Louise Konig, were Moravian immigrants to New Zealand. In 1900, thirteen-year-old Joseph was apprenticed to an uncle as a butcher. By 1908, he had made his way to the North Island city of Palmerston North, where he contracted typhoid fever and was hospitalised for five months.
On 29 September 1909, he married Hannah Wilson, but made a suicide attempt in December 1909. Thereafter, Hannah made out a separation order against her husband. A daughter, Iris, was born in July 1910 to the estranged couple.