MONSTER: The Rampage of Bushranger Thomas Jeffery

by Paul Terry

In the summer of 1825/1826, Thomas Jeffery led his gang in a 40-day spree of unimaginable violence across northern Van Diemen's Land. They robbed, plundered and murdered their way through bushland, committing crimes so awful that their details could barely be reported.Among the victims, a little boy torn from his mother's arms and a young family so cruelly violated they could never recover. And when the outbreak spiraled into its death throes, the gang turned upon itself, killing and eating one of their own.One of the most depraved killers ever to emerge from a prison colony forged by crime and tempered by blood, Thomas Jeffery was hunted by gentleman and convict alike. Drawn into Jeffery's bloody orbit, Even the 'gentleman bushranger' Matthew Brady vowed to cut down the killer who styled himself 'Captain' of his bloody gang.In the end, however, it was a band of unlikely heroes who finally brought the rampage to an end and delivered Thomas Jeffery to the fate he deserved.But why did the son of a respectable English tradesman descend into evil so deep that a shocked press could only describe him as 'The Monster in Human Shape'? Who were his victims and what became of them? And how did one young man with courage, tenacity and a penchant for self-promotion win the credit for catching the monster amid a volley of shots at an isolated bush shut?The first in a series of accounts of 19th Century Australia's worst killers, Monster is not a story for the faint-hearted. It is as horrifying as it is inexplicable.But it also shines a light into one of the darkest corners of early colonial history, and in doing so, tells a story of courage and resilience, and ultimately, the triumph of good men over evil.

49 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 7, 2022