The Pyjama Girl Mystery: Part 1 - The Lady in Silk - Australian True Crime

September 1, 1934. A farmer walking his prize bull along a country road outside Albury catches the smell of kerosene. In a concrete culvert, he discovers a woman's body, shot, beaten with eight savage blows to the skull, and burned. What she's wearing shocks Depression-era Australia as much the violence. Silk pyjamas embroidered with a Chinese dragon. For ten years, her body floats in a bath of formalin at Sydney University while thousands file past hoping to identify her. Artists sketch her distorted features. Police make death masks and distribute doctored photographs. A £1,000 reward is offered. Filmmaker Rupert Kathner defies a police ban to create Australia's first true crime film about the case. But despite 125 women investigated as possible matches, despite a decade of intensive forensic examination, despite the grotesque spectacle of public display, no one can say who she is. This is Part 1 of our two-part investigation into the Pyjama Girl Murder, exploring the crime, the investigation, the ethical nightmare of preserving a body as public entertainment, and the institutional pressure that would eventually produce a convenient solution to an impossible mystery. Warning: This episode contains discussion of violence against women, graphic descriptions of murder, and the unethical treatment of human remains. Sources: New South Wales Police: Original investigation files and witness statements (1934) Coroner's inquest: Death of unknown woman, Albury, NSW (September 1934) The Argus (Melbourne): Front-page coverage, September-December 1934 Sydney Morning Herald: Extensive reporting, 1934-1944 Evans, Richard. The Pyjama Girl Mystery: A True Story of Murder, Obsession and Lies. Deakin University Press, 2004. Gilling, Tom. The Pyjama Girl Mystery. Text Publishing, 2004. Title Music: by Jesse Frank from Pixabay Strewth Social Media Links: https://linktr.ee/strewthpodcast Contact us: [email protected]