Alexander Pearce
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Alexander Pearce was an Irish convict who was transported to the penal colony in Van Diemen's Land, Australia for seven years for theft. He escaped from prison several times, allegedly becoming a cannibal during one of the escapes. In another escape, with one companion, he allegedly killed him and ate him in pieces. He was eventually captured and was hanged in Hobart for murder, before being dissected.
Drawings, by Thomas Bock, of the face of Alexander Pearce after his execution.
Copy of the death sentence pronounced on Alexander Pearce
The skull of Alexander Pearce
Convicts in Australia
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Between 1788 and 1868 the British penal system transported about 162,000 convicts from Great Britain and Ireland to various penal colonies in Australia.
Convicts in Sydney, 1793, by Juan Ravenet
William Hogarth's Gin Lane, 1751.
Prison hulks in the River Thames, England, 1814
The First Fleet arrives in Botany Bay, 21 January 1788, by William Bradley (1802).