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Focus on Faraday and beyond : Australia's crime of the century : the inside story

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Focus on Faraday and beyond : Australia's crime of the century : the inside story

by Edwin John Eastwood

Edwin John Eastwood.

Accession 9780646111865 ISBN 9780646111865 Publisher Coeur de Lion

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position_updated_at: 2026-05-11 11:05
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binding_type: Hard Back
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spine_text: FOCUS ON FARADAY AND BEYOND Edwin John Eastwood Coeur de Lion

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Focus on Faraday and beyond : Australia's crime of the century : the inside story

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Topics and Themes

1. **Kidnapping & Hostage-Taking**
The book's central events are the 1972 Faraday school kidnapping and the 1977 Wooreen school kidnapping — two of the most audacious child abductions in Australian history. Eastwood, who was the perpetrator, narrates the crimes from the inside, including the detailed planning, the ransom demands, the management of multiple hostages, and the eventual capture by police.

The book raises questions about what drives individuals to commit extreme acts of criminal audacity, and how hostage situations unfold in real time.

Connect to books about: kidnapping case studies, hostage negotiation, ransom crime, abduction psychology.

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2. **Criminal Recidivism & the Failure of Rehabilitation**
Eastwood committed the Faraday kidnapping in 1972, was imprisoned, escaped from Geelong Prison in 1976, and then kidnapped another teacher and nine students in 1977. His repeated offending despite incarceration raises profound questions about whether the prison system achieves rehabilitation or simply delays further crime.

The book implicitly interrogates what prisons are meant to do — and whether they succeed.

Connect to books about: recidivism, prison reform, rehabilitation vs. punishment, criminal justice policy.

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3. **The Australian Criminal Justice System**
The book traces the full arc of legal consequences — guilty pleas, multiple trials, sentencing, parole, escape, re-sentencing, and prison violence — offering an unusually detailed insider's view of how the Victorian and Australian criminal justice systems operated in the 1970s and beyond.

It documents both the machinery of law enforcement and the courtroom processes that followed one of the country's most complex criminal cases.

Connect to books about: Australian legal history, sentencing reform, courts and criminal procedure, Victorian policing.

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4. **Rural Vulnerability & the Isolation of Country Communities**
Both kidnappings targeted tiny, one-teacher rural schools — isolated communities with minimal security and limited police presence. The crimes exposed deep structural vulnerabilities in Australia's country towns, prompting national debate about rural school safety and policing.

The remote bush setting is not merely backdrop; it is central to why these crimes were possible and why they resonated so widely.

Connect to books about: rural Australia, country town life, regional inequality, community safety.

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5. **Heroism, Trauma & Survival**
Teacher Mary Gibbs, a 19-year-old in 1972, managed to kick out a van door panel and lead her six young students to safety in the dark — an act of extraordinary composure for which she was awarded the George Medal. The victims' experiences highlight both the trauma of captivity and the remarkable resilience of ordinary people under extreme duress.

The book gives weight to the human cost of violent crime on victims, families, and the wider community long after the event ends.

Connect to books about: trauma and recovery, survivor testimony, bravery and crisis leadership, PTSD.

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6. **Media, Notoriety & the Making of a Crime Legend**
The Faraday kidnapping became a landmark in Australian cultural memory — reported nationally, turned into a novel and a film (*Fortress*, 1986), and revisited by media on its 50th anniversary. The book participates in a long tradition of true crime storytelling that blurs the line between public record and cultural mythology.

Eastwood's authorship — writing about crimes he himself committed — adds an unusual and ethically complex dimension to this media story.

Connect to books about: true crime genre, crime and media, Australian folklore, narrative and memory.

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7. **Perpetrator Perspective & Criminal Autobiography**
Unusually, this book is written by the criminal himself, not a detective or journalist. Eastwood writes from the inside — offering his own account of motivation, planning, experience, and aftermath. This raises fundamental questions about reliability, self-justification, and what we gain (or lose) by hearing crime stories told by those who committed them.

Connect to books about: criminal memoir, confession literature, unreliable narration, moral philosophy of wrongdoing.

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8. **Organised Crime, Social Dysfunction & the Roots of Violence**
The book situates the crimes within a broader social context, exploring factors such as unemployment, organised crime networks, and structural disadvantage that may have shaped Eastwood's trajectory. It asks not just *what happened*, but *why* — probing the social conditions that produce violent crime.

Connect to books about: criminology, social deviance, organised crime in Australia, poverty and crime.

Focus on Faraday and beyond : Australia's crime of the century : the inside story

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