1866: The Sussex Street Mystery: Sydney‘s Inquest Returns a Verdict of Wilful Murder
In September 1866 a boy’s dog began scratching at a rubbish heap near Sussex Street in Sydney, and uncovered a charred, half-roasted human head. Further searching turned up the dismembered chest of a woman, but no other remains were ever found, and no one in the city had reported her missing.
At the inquest a young doctor testified that the head wounds had killed her almost instantly, and that her body had been carefully dissected and burned afterwards, evidently by someone with real anatomical skill, in an apparent effort to destroy any means of identifying her. The jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against a person or persons unknown, and the government posted a reward of two hundred pounds, offering a pardon to any accomplice willing to name the killer.
