Things I learned today (Part 1)

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Informative rating.

Gamechanger

Alexander Pearce (1790 – 19 July 1824) was an Irish convict who was transported to Van Diemen’s Land for seven years for theft. He escaped from prison several times. During one of these escapes he allegedly became a cannibal, murdering his companions one by one. In another escape, with one companion, he allegedly killed him and ate him in pieces. He was eventually captured and was hanged and dissected in Hobart for murder.

Alexander Pearce was hanged at the Hobart Town Gaol at 9am on 19 July 1824, after receiving the last rites from Father Connolly.[5] It is reported that just before he was hanged, Pearce said, “Man’s flesh is delicious. It tastes far better than fish or pork.”

Pearce was born in County Monaghan, Ireland

A Roman Catholic farm labourer, he was sentenced at Armagh in 1819 to penal transportation to Van Diemen’s Land for “the theft of six pairs of shoes”.

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Pretty sure I posted that story before. You left out all the best details!

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There was an excellent documentary on either rte or to4 about this I think. Was it freemantle where they escaped from! A group of lads escaped and ate each other one by one in the outback. Last man standing got caught but escaped again and ate his accomplice …

This is it . https://puesoccurrences.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/the-last-confession-of-alexander-pearce/

There’s an Irish guy in Australia who has a blog about Irish-Australian history, he did a regular spot on newstalk talking history and his detail on this story was brilliant.

On the first break out they soon ran out of supplies and started killing and eating each other. It was eventually down to three, Pearce, an English guy the leader of the group, and the English guys best mate. Wasn’t looking good for Pearce until the leaders mate got bitten by a snake, couldn’t go on, and so they killed and ate him. It was then down to Pearce and the English guy. They had one hatchet between them and neither trusted the other to hold it. They stayed awake for days on end the hatchet resting between the two of them on the ground when they made camp until eventually the English lad slipped up and Pearce nulted him and ate him. He eventually emerged from the swampland onto some farmland and met a lad from his hometown who took him in and he worked on a sheep farm til he got caught by coincidence.

He admitted everything when taken back to prison but no one believed him. He was a hero in the prison for breaking out and getting so far.

On his next break out he brought one lad with him. They didn’t get too far before Pearce nulted him. They weren’t even out of supplies at this stage.

When arrested his pockets were stuffed with human flesh he’d cut off the other lad, and it was only then they believed his whole story.

@alf_stewart

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Why didn’t they just eat the leaders mate? :relaxed:

Biomechanical analysis of the speed of Jesse Owens joints show that had he been running on the same surface as Usain Bolt in their respective Olympic wins (2012) he would have been within a stride.

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How long are you in Australia?you’ll be telling us about the catalpa next

On the seventeenth of April last the Stars and Stripes did fly
On board the bark Catalpa, waving proudly to the sky;
She showed the green above the red as she did calmly lay
Prepared to take the Fenian boys in safety o’er the sea.

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There’s a bar on 233rd in woodlawn called the catalpa

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Fungi has picked up an injury, supposedly from a boat propeller

I used live on 233rd

There’s plenty more fungis where the last few came from.

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I don’t believe in that old guff at all, BUT there was one of those boat tour fellas on the radio the other day and he said that fungi could last another 25 or 30 years due to some sort of improved conditions in Dolphins lifestyle or something :sweat_smile:

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Did you frequent the catalpa?not to many pubs up there I wasn’t in from Broadway to katona up to mcClean ave

No. Fionas was the only one local when I was there. Sound lad called Danny had it and another down on Bailey, which was waning as the Irish pushed further north.