Alexander Pearce (1790 – 19 July 1824)[1] was an Irish convict who was transported to Van Diemen's Land for theft. He escaped from prison several times, but eventually was captured and was hanged and dissected in Hobart for murder.[1]
Pearce was born in County Fermanagh, Ireland. A Roman Catholic farm labourer, he was sentenced at Armagh in 1819 to penal transportation to Van Diemen's Land for "the theft of six pairs of shoes".[2] He committed various offences in Van Diemens Land, and on 18 May 1822 was advertised in the Hobart Town Gazette as an absconder, with a £10 reward for his capture. When caught, he received a second sentence of transportation, this time to the new secondary penal establishment at Sarah Island in Macquarie Harbour.
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Pearce led an escape from Macquarie Harbour Penal Settlement and became notorious for cannibalising his fellow escapees as they traversed the West Coast of Tasmania.[1]
Pearce escaped with seven other convicts: Alexander Dalton, Thomas Bodenham, William Kennerly, Matthew Travers, Edward Brown, Robert Greenhill and John Mather. Kennerly and Brown voluntarily gave themselves up and were taken back to the settlement, where they died in the prison hospital from disease and malnutrition. Pearce and the others continued without them.[1]
Pearce was eventually captured near Hobart, and confessed that he and the other escapees had successively killed and cannibalised members of their group over a period of weeks, he being the last survivor. Pearce and Greenhill had been the final two, each struggling to stay awake for days out of fear the other would kill him. Greenhill finally nodded off and Pearce killed him with an axe, then ate him. Pearce made it to the settled districts, being sheltered by a convict shepherd until he was captured several months later. The Hobart magistrate did not believe Pearce's cannibalism story and was convinced the others were still living as bushrangers. Pearce was returned to Sarah Island.[1]
Within a year he escaped for the second time, joined by a young convict named Thomas Cox. Pearce was captured within ten days and taken to the Supreme Court of Van Diemens Land in Hobart, where he was tried and convicted of murdering and cannibalising Thomas Cox. Observers noted that he did not look like a cannibal. Measuring only 1.6 m in height which was a little under average for that time but with a strong wiry frame. Not like someone who was "laden with the weight of human blood, and believed to have banqueted on human flesh" as the Hobart Town Gazette wrote on 25 June 1824. His captors had found parts of Cox's body in Pearce's pockets, even though he still had food left, so his guilt was beyond doubt this time. Pearce confessed that he had killed Cox because he was a hindrance to him. He was the first confessed cannibal to pass through the Tasmanian court system.[3]
He was hanged at the Hobart Town Gaol at 9am on 19 July 1824, after receiving the last rites from a priest.[1] It is reported that just before Pearce was hanged, he said, "Man’s flesh is delicious. It tastes far better than fish or pork."[4]
Alexander Pearce is the subject of the Australian band Weddings Parties Anything's song "A Tale They Won't Believe". The Drones also recorded "Words from the Executioner to Alexander Pearce".
A biographical film, The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce was shot on location in 2008 in Tasmania and Sydney. It was shown on RTE Ireland on 29 December 2008 and ABC1 Australia on 25 January 2009. The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce was also screened under the title "Confessions of a Cannibal Convict" on UK channel More4 on 10 July 2010.
Also in 2008, Dying Breed, a horror film about Pearce was released. It featured fictional "descendants" of Pearce.[5] Shot in Tasmania and Melbourne (including at the Pieman River on the West Coast of Tasmania), Dying Breed stars writer/actor Leigh Whannell and Nathan Phillips.[5]
The story of Pearce's cannibalism was made into another feature-length movie called Van Diemen's Land, released to Australian cinemas in September 2009.[6]