The 'Pyjama Girl' Murder

On 1 September 1934, the body of an unidentified young woman, clad only in silk pyjamas, was found by the roadside near Albury, NSW. A post-mortem revealed she had been murdered. In a decision that's morbid by today's standards, her body was preserved in formalin and displayed at the University of Sydney, in the hope someone might identify her.

From 1934 to 1944, the Pyjama Girl case confounded investigators. The following two newsreels use reconstruction, re-enactment and voice-over narration to sensationally dramatise the events surrounding the murder, the coronial inquest fours later, and the emergence of fresh evidence in 1939.

Detectives on the case made sketches and conducted forensic facial reconstructions, along with a fresh examination of the crime scene evidence. In 1944, following a new examination of the victim’s teeth and dental records, the Pyjama Girl was identified as Linda Agostini. In this excerpt from This Fabulous Century, Episode 4 – Crime, TV Presenter Peter Luck explains how police eventually closed the case.

This case is now considered solved, with Linda’s husband, Antonio Agostini, confessing to the crime following her identification in 1944. However, while he had confessed to murdering Linda, he maintained that she was not the ‘Pyjama Girl’. Decades later, Dr Richard Evans, a Melbourne criminologist, would argue the same, casting doubt on the official verdict in his 2004 book The Pyjama Girl Mystery: A true story of murder, obsession and lies. In this 2005 interview with Arts Alive, Evans raised doubts about who the ‘Pyjama Girl’ was and questioned police conduct and police work in the case, saying the case had plagued the NSW Police Commissioner for more than a decade. While he believes that Antonio killed his wife Linda, he says we will never know the identity of the ‘Pyjama Girl’.

The Graeme Thorne case

In 1960, eight-year-old Graeme Thorne was kidnapped on his way to school in Bondi. His mother soon received a ransom demand for £25,000. This was Australia’s first case of child kidnapping and ransom, causing nationwide alarm, especially in Sydney's suburbs.

Reporter Brian Henderson’s Cinesound newsreel, made a week after the kidnapping, details the intense police efforts to find the boy.

Graeme’s father, Bazil Thorne, had recently won £100,000 in the lottery. No privacy laws protected the identity of lottery winners, making the Thorne family vulnerable to threats. Graeme’s body was discovered six weeks later under a rock ledge in Seaforth, Sydney.

In a segment from This Fabulous Century, Peter Luck explores the groundbreaking forensic work that led to solving the case and capturing the murderer.

This case was milestone for Australian forensic science, involving meticulous tracking of a blanket from manufacturer to sale, identification of dog hairs, and expert analysis of botanical evidence. Detectives also tracked down a suspect car and analysed minute evidence like mould and mortar. This exhaustive detective work paved the way for modern forensic science.

The Graeme Thorne case also prompted significant legal changes in NSW, including the establishment of kidnapping statutes and the option for lottery winners to keep their identities private. These tragedies, alongside others like the Wanda Beach and Beaumont children cases, profoundly changed Australian society. Parents became more protective and thought twice about giving their children unfettered freedom to roam unsupervised.

Reflecting on an era of forensic pioneers

These cases not only highlight the evolution of forensic science but also serve as a reminder of the impact of crime on society. They compel us to appreciate the advancements in criminal investigation while acknowledging the lingering mysteries that still resonate with us.

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Main image: A crowd gathers outside the city morgue in the Rocks, Sydney, during the Graeme Thorne murder investigation, 22 November 1960. From The State Library of NSW collection.