Alexander Pearce
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| “ | Man's flesh is delicious. It tastes far better than fish or pork. | „ |
| ~ Alexander Pearce's last words. |
Alexander Pearce (1790 – 19 July 1824) was an Irish convict and convicted cannibal.
Pearce was transported to the Macquarie Harbour penal colony in 1822 after being convicted of forgery. On 20 September he escaped into the surrounding jungle alongside seven others - Alexander Dalton, Thomas Bodenham, William Kennerly, Matthew Travers, Edward Brown, Robert Greenhill and John Mather. However they quickly ran out of food and, at the suggestion of Kennerly and Greenhill, decided to single someone out to be killed and eaten. Alexander Dalton (or possibly Thomas Bodenham) was selected due to having collaborated with the guards inside and was killed by Robert Greenhill and eaten by the others.
Soon after, Bodenham (or possibly Dalton), Kennerly and Brown decided to flee the others and decamped. Kennerly and Brown were recaptured, although Bodenham/Dalton died before he reach safety. This left Greenhill, Pearce, Travers and Mather. In order to avoid dying Pearce teamed up with Greenhill and Travers and the three of them killed and ate Mather.
Afterwards Travers was bitten by a snake. Hesitant to kill his friend, Greenhill carried him for five days until he eventually killed and consumed him. This only left Pearce and Greenhill, both of whom desperately tried to avoid going to sleep and giving the other the opportunity to kill them. Eventually Greenhill, weakened by starvation, fell asleep and was killed and eaten by Pearce.
Pearce finally managed to reach a nearby settlement and fell in with a bushranger gang. After 113 days on the run, he was arrested with the gang. He confessed to cannibalism but the authorities didn't believe him and sent him back to Macquarie Harbour. However, after less than a year Pearce escaped again with a young convict named Thomas Cox. After finding that Cox couldn't swim, Pearce killed him in order to avoid being slowed down. He was found by guards searching for him eating parts of Cox's corpse.
Pearce was convicted of Cox's murder and sentenced to death. Before being hanged he proclaimed "Man's flesh is delicious. It tastes far better than fish or pork."