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

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