Dinge en Goete (Things and Stuff)

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

This Day in Crime History: JANUARY 26, 1788 : FIRST AUSTRALIAN PENAL COLONY ESTABLISHED

The first 736 convicts banished from England to Australia land in Botany Bay. Over the next 60 years, approximately 50,000 criminals were transported from Great Britain to the “land down under,” in one of the strangest episodes in criminal-justice history.

The accepted wisdom of the upper and ruling classes in 18th century England was that criminals were inherently defective. Thus, they could not be rehabilitated and simply required separation from the genetically pure and law-abiding citizens. Accordingly, lawbreakers had to be either killed or exiled, since prisons were too expensive. With the American victory in the Revolutionary War, transgressors could no longer be shipped off across the Atlantic, and the English looked for a colony in the other direction.

Captain Arthur Phillip, a tough but fair career naval officer, was charged with setting up the first penal colony in Australia. The convicts were chained beneath the deck during the entire hellish six-month voyage. The first voyage claimed the lives of nearly 10 percent of the prisoners, which remarkably proved to be a rather good rate. On later trips, up to a third of the unwilling passengers died on the way. These were not hardened criminals by any measure; only a small minority were transported for violent offenses. Among the first group was a 70-year-old woman who had stolen cheese to eat.

Although not confined behind bars, most convicts in Australia had an extremely tough life. The guards who volunteered for duty in Australia seemed to be driven by exceptional sadism. Even small violations of the rules could result in a punishment of 100 lashes by the cat o’nine tails. It was said that blood was usually drawn after five lashes and convicts ended up walking home in boots filled with their own blood–that is, if they were able to walk at all.

Convicts who attempted to escape were sent to tiny Norfolk Island, 600 miles east of Australia, where the conditions were even more inhumane. The only hope of escape from the horror of Norfolk Island was a “game” in which groups of three prisoners drew straws. The short straw was killed as painlessly as possible and a judge was then shipped in to put the other two on trial, one playing the role of killer, the other as witness.

Article Details:

January 26, 1788 : First Australian penal colony established

Author

History.com Staff
Website Name

History.com
Year Published

2009
Title

January 26, 1788 : First Australian penal colony established
URL

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-australian-penal-colony-established
Access Date

January 26, 2016
Publisher

A+E Networks

Monday, January 25, 2016

This Day in Crime History: JANUARY 25, 2005 : BTK KILLER SENDS MESSAGE

On January 25, 2005, a Wichita, Kansas, television station receives a postcard from the BTK killer that leads police to discover a Post Toasties cereal box that had been altered to contain the letters BTK. This communication was one in a long line sent by the serial killer who terrorized Wichita for over 30 years, brutally murdering 10 people and taunting law enforcement and the local media. A month later, on February 25, Dennis Lynn Rader, a husband, father of two and compliance officer for Park City, Kansas, was taken into police custody and soon confessed to being the BTK killer.

Rader (1945- ) committed his first murders in 1974, when he strangled four members of one family–a husband, wife and two of their children. Six more victims, all female, followed, the last one in 1991. Throughout the 1970s, the BTK killer, or BTK strangler, as he was also known, sent letters to the media in which he claimed knowledge of the crimes. Rader nicknamed himself BTK for his method of binding, torturing and killing his victims.

Outwardly, Rader, a Cub Scout troop leader and church council president, appeared to be an ordinary, upstanding citizen. As a compliance officer, he was responsible for enforcing town ordinances. However, there were occasional complaints that he was overzealous in his work and harassed people for minor offences.

In 2004, the attention-seeking BTK killer began contacting the media again, sending notes and poems and packages that included some of his victims’ jewelry and driver’s licenses. In February 2005, Rader sent a floppy disk containing a BTK letter to a local TV station. The disk was eventually traced back to Rader’s church computer and he was identified. DNA evidence helped conclusively link Rader to the crimes.

Rader was charged with 10 counts of murder. He initially pled not guilty and then switched his plea to guilty before his court trial began. Rader, who stalked many of his victims and referred to them as “projects,” said he strangled them as part of a sexual fantasy. In August 2005, he was sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms in prison. At his sentencing, Rader made a bizarre statement in which he listed things he had in common with his various victims, including an interest in drawing, gardening and writing poetry. Rader was ineligible for the death penalty because it didn’t exist in Kansas during the years he carried out his crimes.


Joseph Otero, 38 January 15, 1974	Julie Otero, 34 January 15, 1974	Josephine Otero, 11 January 15, 1974	Joseph Otero, 9 January 15,1974	Kathryn Bright, 21 April 4, 1974

Shirley Vian, 24 March 17, 1977	Nancy Fox, 25 December 8, 1977	Marine Hedge, 53 April 27, 1985	Vicki Wegerle, 28 September 16, 1986	Dolores Davis, 62 January 19, 1991