The Legend of the Cannibal Convict
by M.P. Pellicer | Noir Notebook
In 1824, Alexander Pearce faced the noose for theft, murder, and cannibalism. When asked for his final words, he offered no prayer, only a chilling culinary observation: “Man’s flesh is delicious; it tastes far better than fish or pork.”
One can only wonder how the guard felt when asking this 5’3″ Irishman—a man described as “quiet” by his ship’s doctor—what he desired for his last meal.
Alexander Pearce was a farm laborer from Monaghan, Ireland. The land was torn with civil war, famine, and insurrection against the English. In 1819, for the theft of six pairs of shoes, he was sentenced to seven years to be served at the penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land (now known as Tasmania). He was 29 years old.
Three years later, he was described as an absconder with a £10 reward posted for his capture. It was only a matter of time before he landed in the hands of the authorities, whereupon he was charged with forgery. This earned him another sentence of transportation to the convict settlement on Sarah Island in Macquarie Harbor, 18 miles south of Strahan. Recently established by Governor Sorell, it was described as a “place of ultra-banishment and punishment for convicts who had committed further crimes in the colony.”
The waters around Sarah Island wrecked several convict ships due to a narrow sea passage called “Hell’s Gate”, but what awaited the prisoners was worse. Cold weather, along with limited supplies, made existence there unbearable. Coupled with whippings and hard labor, it wasn’t long before a group of prisoners made a bid for freedom, despite the camp being surrounded by tangled jungles. On September 30, 1822, only eight weeks after their arrival, their opportunity came when they were sent out to cut Huon pine logs. They overpowered the guard supervising them, and ran off into the rain forest, which even in the present day is considered hostile and only trekked by experienced bush walkers.
Pearce, with fellow convicts Alexander Dalton, Thomas Bodenham, William Kennerly, Matthew Travers, Edward Brown, Robert Greenhill, and John Mather, escaped into the wilderness.
The group was led by Robert Greenhill, who had the only weapon, an axe. Matthew Travers, who had been sentenced along with him for stealing a schooner, was his second-in-command. They planned to find a boat in Macquarie Harbor and set sail for a Pacific island.
The remoteness that had facilitated their escape proved to be an obstacle when the men faced starvation two weeks later. A decision was made to cannibalize one of the group, and it’s not clear whether Alexander Dalton or Thomas Bodenham drew the short straw, but one of them found death with the aid of Greenhill’s axe.
Fearing they would soon be on the menu, Dalton, Kennerly, and Brown left the group. Dalton died of exhaustion, and the other two made it to Macquarie Harbor.
The group had been whittled down to four men, made up of Greenhill, Travers, Mather, and Pearce. Since Greenhill and Travers had a united front, this left Mather and Pearce on the chopping block, both figuratively and literally. Pearce joined Team Greenhill, and Mather was dispatched. Then, in a random stroke of bad luck, Travers was bitten in the foot by a snake. Greenhill insisted on carrying him for several days, when it became obvious he would not survive, he was killed.
That left two men and one axe. Both had to sleep, but starvation stared them in the face. Pearce got the axe away from Greenhill, whom he killed and ate.
Once Pearce spotted sheep, he knew he was close to a settlement. A raid on an Aboriginal camp allowed him to eat “normal” food, and he took the opportunity to steal a lamb from a flock. Lucky for him, the shepherd who found him eating his mutton meal was an old friend who inducted him into a sheep-stealing ring.
However, his luck ran out when the men were arrested. William Davis and Ralph Churton, who were part of the ring, went on to face execution by hanging for bush-ranging.
Pearce was sent to Hobart, where he confessed to Rev. Robert Knopwood, a magistrate and chaplain. Perhaps the story of cannibalism was too difficult to digest, so the good reverend refused to believe him, thinking Pearce’s accomplices were living as bushrangers.
Pearce was sent to Macquarie Harbor. He had been on the lam for 113 days, half of them spent in the bush. He made more than one confession, in which there were some inconsistencies. But ultimately, the facts were that eight men escaped, and three survived.
A year later, Pearce escaped with Thomas Cox, another prisoner. Less than two weeks later, he was captured and tried for the murder of Thomas Cox.
According to prison records, Pearce had “pock-pitted skin”, brown hair, hazel eyes, and the slight, wiry man only measured 5’3”. It was difficult to believe he could overpower, kill, and eat other men.
Parts of Cox’s body were found in Pearce’s pockets. This time, there was no reason for eating human flesh, since he had regular food on hand. Later, he said he killed Cox because when they came to the King River, his companion could not swim, and he decided the man was a liability.
On July 19, 1824, Father Connolly offered Alexander Pearce the last rites before his execution by hanging.
Described as a quiet man by the convict ship’s doctor who traveled with him for four months as they sailed to Van Diemen’s Land, some wonder why Pearce was so willing to confess to the most horrible aspects of his crimes.
As was the custom of the day, Pearce’s body was dissected. Dr. Samuel George Morton, an American phrenologist, eventually acquired Pearce’s skull for his collection.
In 1853, Morton donated his collection to the Academy of Natural Science in Philadelphia. The Academy then gave Pearce’s skull, along with others from Morton’s collection, to the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum in 1968, where it remains to this day.
Was there something about the penal settlement at Sarah Island that drove men to cannibalism?
The settlement was closed in 1833, and the ruins were vandalized for building materials, which were taken to be used in Strahan. However, it turns out Alexander Pearce was not the only convict to eat those who escaped with him.
The establishment’s first commandant, Lt. John Cuthbertson, was ordered to provide “constant, active, and unremitting hard labor which is the main design of your settlement.” There were a total of “110 persons who were sent to Macquarie Harbor, 44 of bad character and incorrigible conduct, 22 convict tradesmen and eight female convicts accompanied by a military detachment of 17 with three wives and 11 children, with four officers in charge.”
The Huon pine harvested on the island was used to build ships. In a dozen years, 131 boats were built by the convict labor.
Despite its reputation as being impossible to escape from, 112 men did attempt it, and 71 died in the bush; nine of these were cannibalized.
Almost ten years after the execution of Alexander Pearce, five convicts escaped from Macquarie Harbor. Their names were Richard Hutchinson (AKA Up and Down Dick), Thomas Coventry, Edward Broughton, Matthew M’Avoy, and Fagan. They were in the bush for two weeks, and only M’Avoy and Broughton made it out. They described how their companions disbanded after being unable to cross a river and being attacked by aborigines.
The magistrate was suspicious of their story and exhorted them to confess and relieve their conscience.
Broughton, who was 28 years old then, had already been sentenced to death in England for robbery when he was eighteen. One of his victims was his own mother. After two years in gaol, he was sent to Van Diemen’s Land. Before long, he was apprehended for other crimes and shipped off to Macquarie Harbor.
He, along with five other convicts, was overseen by one constable. By Broughton’s own admission, the man was kind to the men under his charge. When they escaped, they robbed him of everything, including food, aware that it would be three days until more supplies would arrive from the main settlement. He also said that, previously, he had a hand in trying to kill the guard by letting a tree fall on him.
Once they had eaten what they stole, they agreed to kill Hutchinson. They drew straws as to who was to dispatch him with an axe. Broughton was tasked with the deed, and soon they were feasting on Hutchinson after cutting the body into pieces. According to Broughton, they “ate heartily of it” and carried leftovers with them. The group left behind the hands, feet, head, and intestines.
As with Pearce, once they had come close to consuming what they had on hand, alarm began to spread about who would be next. With only one axe among them, they were terrified of dozing even for a moment, in case they should be singled out as the next meal.
Broughton and Fagan teamed up to stand watch while the other one slept.
Thomas Coventry, an old farmer, was the next to be slaughtered. Most of them were averse to committing the deed, but Broughton pointed out that since he had killed Hutchinson, one of them needed to commit a crime as bad as what he had done. M’Avoy was given the task, and he struck the first blow on the man’s head, just above the eye. Broughton could not help himself and helped finish him off and cut him into pieces.
Broughton said in his confession, “We ate greedily of the flesh, never sparing it, just as if we expected to meet with a whole bullock the next day.”
The remains of Coventry had yet to be consumed when M’Avoy tried to draw Broughton into a plot to kill Fagan as the next victim. Broughton objected, but at this time, M’Avoy, who was a stronger man, had the axe in his possession. Later that night, Broughton described how he had fallen into a doze when he heard Fagan scream out. He opened his eyes to find M’Avoy standing over the man after striking him in the head. Broughton described the scene thus: “You _______dog, what have you done?”
M’Avoy responded, “This will save our lives,” and struck him another blow on the head. Fagan only groaned after the scream. M’Avoy then cut his throat with a razor through the windpipe.
Broughton perhaps realized cooperation was in his best interest and helped strip off the dead man’s clothing, even quarreling over his shirt with M’Avoy. He aided in cutting up the body and roasting it. From the beginning, all the meat would be roasted, which would make it lighter to carry, and it would keep longer.
Before they could consume all of Fagan, they came across a kangaroo that had been set up on by wild dogs. They threw away what was left of the convict. Two days later, they turned themselves in at Macquire’s Marsh.
Both men were hanged on August 5, 1831, and buried in Cemetery Island situated north of Sarah Island.
Macquarie Island lies approximately 932 miles southeast of Tasmania, halfway between Tasmania and Antarctica. The main island measures about 21 miles long by 3.5 miles wide at its broadest point.
About a quarter mile east of Sarah Island is Grummet Island, a small spit of land where women convicts were sent to stay in caves away from the men. Other convicts were sent there as punishment, since the conditions were described as cold and wet.
