Alexander Pearce

Alexander Pearce (1790 - 1824) [ (also known as Pierce, see reference cited on the article Mark Jefferies)] was a convict in Tasmania.

Cannibal

Alexander Pearce gained a reputation as a bushranger who had escaped from the Macquarie Harbour Penal Settlement and is best known for cannibalising his fellow escapees while travelling through the West Coast Tasmania.

Alexander Pearce was born in the county of Fermanagh in the north of Ireland in 1793. He was convicted of stealing six pairs of shoes at the Lent 1819 sessions of the County Armagh Assizes and sentenced to be transported to Van Diemen's Land on board the Castle Forbes for seven years penal servitude.

Pearce arrived in Hobart Town (now Hobart), Tasmania in 1820. He was flogged on numerous occasions for absconding from work gangs and getting raucously drunk in taverns. Within two years, Pearce's days as a trusted convict were over when he was caught for forging and uttering and absconding into the bush for two months.The court decided he was incorrigible and he was sent to the newly established penal settlement at Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania to serve the remaining five years.

On the 28th of September 1822, Pearce and fellow convicts Alexander Dalton, Thomas Bodenham, William Kennerly, Mathew Travers, William Brown and John Mathers overpowered their guards and forcibly seized two boats at the timber cutting site at Kelly's Basin. The escapees then rowed to the nearby coal works and met up with Robert Greenhill who had arranged stolen provisions for them. They then scuttled one of the boats and proceeded downriver where they then took to land in the afternoon with the intention of walking to Hobart Town 110 miles away.

On the eighth morning they woke to find that three of their fellow convicts were missing, Dalton, Kennerly and Brown. By the eleventh night they consulted with each other about the best course of action regarding their preservation. They decided that one would die so that the rest could stay alive. That night, the 9th of October 1822, the five men drew lots to see who would die. It was Bodenham who drew the short straw and accepted his fate without question. He was killed by Greenhill with a single blow to the back of his head. His flesh fed the remaining four men for seven days. Then they drew lots agin and John Mathers's time had come. However Mathers decided not to comply and he warded off Greenhill who tried to kill with an axe. During the night while Mathers slept, Greenhill crept over and killed him. They again feasted on human flesh.

The fourth day after Mathers's death, Travers was bitten by a snake. Pearce and Greenhill stayed with him for five days and on the sixth when he lapsed into a deep sleep, Greenhill killed him. Several days later when the food again ran out they stumbled upon an Aborgininal camp and drove them off. Over the following days they raided more camps but when the food again ran out the two men began to eye each other off. Pearce claimed that he awoke one night to see the shadowy figure of Greenhill creeping towards him with an axe raised ready to strike. Pearce pretended to have a nightmare and sat bolt upright and Greenhill away. Pearce pretended not to know of Greenhill's motives and at the first opportunity when Greenhill was asleep, Pearce grabbed the axe and killed him. After several days wandering he managed to catch two ducks and later on came accross a flock of sheep. He eventually cornered a lamb and ate it raw. He heard a dog barking and came face to face with the shepherd, Tom Triffet and his musket. Pearce told Triffet his story and in disbelief Triffet nursed him back to health. On the eleventh night after Pearce had regained his strength there was a nock on the door. Two bushrangers Ralph Churton and William Davis and Pearce took up with them.Within six weeks Pearce and his fellow convicts found themselves surrounded by a party of armed troopers from the 48th Regiment with the specific job of rounding up bushrangers. Pearce and Churton were captured immediately, when Davis offered resistance he was wounded and captured. Alexander Pearce was on the run for 113 days when he was taken to Hobart Town in chains on the 11th January 1823. Churton and Davis were hanged several weeks later, Pearce was sent back to Macquarie Harbour.Within nine months of his recapture he escaped with fellow convict Thomas Cox, a young former farmer from Shropshire England. Five days after their escape the crew of the schooner Waterloo, passing Macquarie Harbour, saw a figure waving vigarously from the shore. They rowed towards the figure and immediately recognized him as the escapee Alexander Pearce. Pearce informed them that Cox had drowned but Pearce was searched and to the horror of the men, a raw piece of meat clearly that of a human being, was found in his pocket. In his other pockets were supplies which would have lasted him for days ruling out the possibility of his eating human flesh out of starvation. He then led his captors tot he mutilated corpse of Cox in the nearby scrub. When asked by Lieutenant Cuthbertson if he had murdered the man, Pearce replied 'Yes, and I am willing to die for it.'Pearce was found guilty of the murder of Thomas Cox and sentenced to hang. On the eve of his hanging he confessed to Father Philip Connolly that he was weary of life and that he wanted to die for the atrocities that he himself had commited.On the morning of 19 July 1824 at Hobart Town Gaol, Pearce was hanged by his neck until dead.

The once-common suggestion that the Pieman river was named after Alexander Pearce is not correct. "The Pieman" was in fact Thomas Kent of Southampton, a pastry-cook who was transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1816. After a long series of offences in the colony, he was sent to the Macquarie Harbour penal settlement in 1822 but subsequently escaped, and was recaptured near the mouth of the river which now bears his nickname. The river has significant timber, mining and industrial heritage along its shores.

ongs and films

Pearce was the subject of a song by Australian rock/folk band Weddings Parties Anything titled "A Tale They Won't Believe" as well as The Drones song titled "Words From The Executioner To Alexander Pearce".

Dying Breed

In 2008 a spate of film productions regarding Pearce are being made. One is in post production of a horror/thriller called "Dying Breed", based on the alleged descedants of Alexander Pearce. Shot in Tasmania and Melbourne (including at the Pieman River in North West Tasmania), Dying Breed stars writer/actor, Leigh Whannell and Nathan Phillips. [ [http://www.ambienceentertainment.com Ambience Entertainment ] ] .

Despite references to the contrary in this film, the once-common suggestion that the Pieman River was named after Alexander Pearce is not correct. "The Pieman" was in fact Thomas Kent of Southampton, a pastry-cook who was transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1816. After a long series of offences in the colony, he was sent to the Macquarie Harbour penal settlement in 1822 but subsequently escaped, and was recaptured near the mouth of the river which now bears his nickname. The river has significant timber, mining and industrial heritage along its shores.

The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce

"The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce" was shot on location in Tasmania in April 2008. The drama stars acclaimed Irish actors Adrian Dunbar, Ciaran McMenamin and an ensemble Australian cast including Dan Wyllie, Don Hany, Chris Haywood and Bob Franklin.

"The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce" is directed by "Michael James Rowland" and produced by "Nial Fulton."

References

Further reading

* Collins, Paul. "Hell's Gates: the terrible journey of Alexander Pearce, Van Dieman's Land Cannibal". South Yarra, 2002. ISBN 1-74064-083-7
* Sprod, Dan. "Alexander Pearce of Macquarie Harbour". Hobart: Cat & Fiddle Press, 1977. ISBN 0-85853-031-7
*Kidd, Paul B. "Australia's Serial Killers" ISBN 0 7329 1036 6

See also

* Hell's Gates
* Convicts on the West Coast of Tasmania