Murder Victim. Son of Bazil Harold Parker & Freda Mary (nee Thorncraft) Thorne. On June 1, 1960 Graeme's Father, Bazil won the £100,000 Opera House Lottery. It was front page news. 8 year old Graeme was abducted from a street near his home at Edward Street, Bondi ( a seaside suburb of Sydney), shortly after 8.30am on the 7th July, 1960. He was walking to an intersection not far from his home where he was to be picked up by a neighbour and driven to school. A telephone call was made to the Thorne House at 9.20am demanding a ransom of £25,000. Graeme's body was discovered on a vacant block of land at Seaforth five weeks after the kidnapping. Australia's most famous kidnapping wasn't of a member of a rich and famous family. It was also Australia's first ever kidnapping. In fact, kidnapping was so unheard of in Australia that until it happened, the Crimes Act didn't even carry a provision for it! Australians believed that child kidnappings only happened on the other side of the world, not in Australia where kids could swim, fish and bushwalk in absolute safety and the only predators were the sharks. Yet due to the circumstances surrounding the case and the extraordinary scientific detection utilized for those archaic times, the Graeme Thorne kidnapping is arguably Australia's best-known crime and a crime that became famous around the world.
Graeme's killer was sentenced to life in prison; he died in prison in 1968.
Graeme's killer was sentenced to life in prison; he died in prison in 1968.
Murder Victim. Son of Bazil Harold Parker & Freda Mary (nee Thorncraft) Thorne. On June 1, 1960 Graeme's Father, Bazil won the £100,000 Opera House Lottery. It was front page news. 8 year old Graeme was abducted from a street near his home at Edward Street, Bondi ( a seaside suburb of Sydney), shortly after 8.30am on the 7th July, 1960. He was walking to an intersection not far from his home where he was to be picked up by a neighbour and driven to school. A telephone call was made to the Thorne House at 9.20am demanding a ransom of £25,000. Graeme's body was discovered on a vacant block of land at Seaforth five weeks after the kidnapping. Australia's most famous kidnapping wasn't of a member of a rich and famous family. It was also Australia's first ever kidnapping. In fact, kidnapping was so unheard of in Australia that until it happened, the Crimes Act didn't even carry a provision for it! Australians believed that child kidnappings only happened on the other side of the world, not in Australia where kids could swim, fish and bushwalk in absolute safety and the only predators were the sharks. Yet due to the circumstances surrounding the case and the extraordinary scientific detection utilized for those archaic times, the Graeme Thorne kidnapping is arguably Australia's best-known crime and a crime that became famous around the world.
Graeme's killer was sentenced to life in prison; he died in prison in 1968.
Graeme's killer was sentenced to life in prison; he died in prison in 1968.
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