Murder of Graeme Thorne

Common card · No. 314226

Graeme Thorne was an eight year old Australian boy, who was kidnapped and murdered in 1960. A month before the kidnapping, his parents, Bazil and Freda Thorne, who lived in a modest rented flat in the Sydney beachside suburb of Bondi, had won £100,000 in the newly conceived Opera House Lottery, designed to raise money for the construction of the now famous Sydney Opera House. This was a considerable amount of money in 1960, when it was customary to publish the names and addresses of lottery winners in the newspapers. The events of the case generated widespread public shock and ignited significant attention and societal outrage. Notably, it was the country's first well known kidnap for ransom. The police investigation leading to the capture and conviction of his kidnapper and murderer, a Hungarian immigrant named Stephen Lesley Bradley, is considered to be a pioneering and sophisticated example of advanced modern forensic investigation by world standards in 1960. The crime is still regarded...

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