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1960: Breathing for Seven Hours: The Forensic Test That Disproved a Kidnappers Alibi in the Graeme Thorne Murder

In July 1960, nine-year-old Graeme Thorne was snatched from a street in Sydney‘s Bondi, Australia’s first known kidnap for ransom case, and murdered within a day. His body turned up six weeks later at Seaforth, wrapped in a picnic blanket that would ultimately betray his killer.

Forensic scientists traced the rare blanket through its manufacturer, dyed Pekingese hairs, two uncommon tree species and flecks of pink mortar to a house at Clontarf owned by Hungarian immigrant Stephen Bradley. By the time police called on 3 October, Bradley had already sailed for England; he was arrested when his ship reached Ceylon and extradited to stand trial. He claimed the boy had simply suffocated in his car boot, a story investigators demolished by rigging a breathing mask to the same boot and drawing air from it for seven hours straight.

Bradley pleaded not guilty to murder but admitted the kidnapping and had earlier signed a confession he later retracted. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in custody seven years later.

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