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Mark QC Tedeschi

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Mark Tedeschi AM QC was, until 2019, the Senior Crown Prosecutor, and the head of Chambers of the Crown Prosecutors for New South Wales. He's now a private barrister, but in 35 years with Crown Prosecution he has prosecuted many high-profile trials in Australia, some of which have involved the worst of the worst murderers and offenders this country has ever seen.

MISSING, PRESUMED DEAD is the story of the disappearance of two women in particular - 74 year old Dorothy Davis and 39 year old Kerry Whelan, both of whom had the great misfortune to come into contact with one of the more awful men this country has produced - Bruce Burrell, an entitled, greedy, lazy, appalling man who was eventually found guilty of abducting and murdering at least these two women - all to cover up his financial transgressions. Their bodies have never been found, and at the end of this book we find out that he died in prison, serving a life sentence, never disclosing the location of the bodies, never giving the families of these victim's the chance of a dignified farewell.

The first half of the book, where the story of the offender is drawn out, is incredibly difficult to stomach. There's nothing in the story of Burrell, his background, his offending (and there is the possibility of at least one other disappearance with parallels to the two he was found guilty of), or his general demeanour that makes the opening chapters anything other than difficult to stomach. Not through any fault of the author - this offender is just an appalling human being, there doesn't appear to have been a single mitigating factor in anything he did - and I could have stood knowing he died relatively young, from cancer, in prison a bit earlier - might have made having to know about him just that bit more tolerable to be brutally frank.

The second half of this book, where Tedeschi gets into the trials and the complications of the legal requirements of proving murder when no body has ever been found, and the need for multiple trials is detailed without being confusing, and informative without being overtly instructional or dry. The author has a way of explaining complex legal issues with clarity and meticulous attention to detail that make them very accessible to the legal lay person. His ability to dissect the core of the prosecution case, compare it to the defence strategies, explain the process and the decisions they took is flawless, giving the reader a real insight into the processes of law, and the complications.

For the second half alone MISSING, PRESUMED DEAD was a book that, despite my struggle (and I really really struggled with the first half), I'm glad I got to the end of. For the insight into the legal process, and for the time that he gives to the impact this case had on the Whelan family in particular. The victim's are given their due place in history as well, and the impact that their loss had on those around them is touched on, respectfully and forthrightly. The fallout from Burrell's actions is inter-generational and unforgivable and the legal system and it's participants served us well.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/missing-presumed-dead-mark-tedeschi-qc
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austcrimefiction | 1 altra recensione | Aug 18, 2022 |
In 2014 I read Eugenia, A True Story of Adversity, Tragedy, Crime and Courage by Mark Tedeschi QC and it was so good, the book went on to make my Top 5 Books in 2014 list. Mark Tedeschi is an Australian Barrister and the former Senior Crown Prosecutor for NSW and I've been looking forward to reading more from him since then. Naturally I was excited to enter the competition hosted by Carol over at Reading, Writing and Riesling and even happier to win it! (I host many giveaways here on Carpe Librum but seldom win any).

Missing, Presume Dead covers the disappearances of Dorothy Davis and Kerry Whelan, both middle class women from Sydney who had only one thing in common, they both knew Bruce Burrell. In the late 1990s, both women were kidnapped and subsequently killed by Burrell. In the case of Kerry Whelan, Burrell sent the victim's husband a ransom note and Detectives found a checklist of kidnapping tasks in his personal papers. The remains of the women were never found, but Burrell was sentenced to life in prison on the grounds of the circumstantial evidence presented to the court. It's a fascinating case and it gripped the headlines in Australia at the time and proved that a suspect can be charged with murder, even in the absence of blood, a body or any human remains.

Tedeschi worked on the case and his legal insights were invaluable. Burrell didn't testify at his trial, but Tedeschi expands his examination to include the questions he WOULD have asked Burrell if he had testified at trial. That in itself was refreshingly unique and I haven't seen that done in true crime before.

I read the print copy alongside the audio and found the narrator Stephen Briggs a little too dramatic for my tastes, given this was true crime and not a suspense thriller. Briggs also didn't convey the voice of Tedeschi at trial very well either. My only other gripe was wondering why Kerry Whelan appears on the cover alone when this story is also about the death of Dorothy Davis. Why exclude Dorothy Davis from the cover when the byline claims this is 'the double murder case that shocked Australia.'

Burrell died in prison in 2016 and frustratingly never disclosed the location of his victim's remains, causing untold anguish for the families. I hope he rots in hell, but Missing, Presumed Dead is a real eye-opener and is recommended for readers of true crime and Australian legal history.

* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster & Reading, Writing and Riesling *
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Carpe_Librum | 1 altra recensione | Jun 29, 2022 |
True crime is not my usual go-to genre, but after a myriad of happy endings I mentioned to a friend that I was after a book that ‘completely ignored happiness’. In Eugenia I found what I was looking for, but what made it all the more tragic was the fact that this is a true story from my home country of Australia. After reading it, I was shocked at the injustices suffered by Eugenia Falleni, the protagonist in the book.

Looking at the cover, I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m talking about a woman when there’s a man on the cover. Actually, that’s a woman – Eugenia Falleni. Brought up in New Zealand, she had always wanted to be a man and ran away to sea as a man. When her secret was discovered by the ship’s captain, she was raped and fell pregnant. Eugenia gave birth to a daughter, who was raised by friends of the family and she started a new life as a man called Harry Crawford. Nobody suspected anything of Harry – he could swear and drink with the best of them, not to mention carry out heavy physical work. Then Harry fell in love and married Annie Birkett. Their marriage was happy initially, but then Annie began to get suspicious about why Harry would never show her his body. Their marriage started to fall apart. On a fateful picnic one long weekend, Annie didn’t return home. Harry told neighbours she had ‘cleared out’ and eventually married again. But then Annie’s son and sister became suspicious and an unclaimed body from years ago was thought to be Annie. Harry was arrested for murder and that’s where his secrets started to unravel. It turned out that Harry was a woman called Eugenia, which had the press in a frenzy with the most sensational case Sydney had ever seen. Did Eugenia kill Annie? Or was it an accident?

Through fastidious research, Mark Tedeschi tells the story of Eugenia’s upbringing and life with warmth. He doesn’t pick sides, but tells the story based on what is known about her. I found the first section about her life very interesting. It must have taken guts and effort to live as Eugenia wanted as Harry in a society that did not accept transsexualism (in fact, very little was known about it). The second part about the trial was interesting but Tedeschi’s notes on how the case could have been better occasionally lost me (and proved that law is not my chosen field). I was shocked by the evidence and speculation that occurred in the courtroom (and was allowed by the judge – not his fault, as this kind of thing was standard for the time, 1920). It became obvious that Eugenia was not allowed a fair trial and that the media had a large role to play in the sensational reporting of the ‘man woman’. While Tedeschi doesn’t make a stance on whether Eugenia murdered Annie, he points out the flaws in the case and where things were not as black and white as some witnesses claimed. The final section about Eugenia’s life in and out of prison has an ending that is very powerful – even more so because it’s real life.

While I won’t be turning to the true crime genre all the time, Tedeschi has written an interesting and sensitively handled book that shows how far Australia has come as a nation in its treatment of people who are part of the LGBTQIA community.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and The Reading Room for the copy of this book. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
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birdsam0610 | 3 altre recensioni | Apr 18, 2015 |
Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. And never has this been more apparent than in the case of Eugenia Falleni. Her story is a true one, about a woman that lived as a man at the turn of the twentieth century in Australia. Gender Identity Disorder was not widely acknowledged, even though the tale does share a few things in common with a film set in a similar time, Albert Nobbs. Falleni was charged with the murder of her first wife, Annie Birkett (one of two spouses that Falleni would trick into believing she was a man).

Eugenia is written by Mark Tedeschi, an eminent senior crown prosecutor and barrister who has also acted as a defence lawyer during his 35 years in practice. This is his debut, true crime novel, with his previous written works including a book about international business law and articles on various kinds of law plus history and genealogy. This depth of experience and passion for this extraordinarily bizarre case translate into a very accessible and intriguing read.

The book is in part a creative non-fiction because the author has had to speculate about some of the events that transpired (because only Falleni as Harry Crawford and her wife Annie will ever know what truly happened). Tedeschi gives a detailed account of Falleni’s life. She was born in Livorno, Italy in 1875 and her formative years were spent in New Zealand after her parents decided to immigrate. It was here that she first harboured tomboy tendencies and these culminated in her working as a stable-hand, bricklayer and other hard, labouring jobs. Falleni was also illiterate but she was strong and relished this intense, manual work.

Falleni would be married off by her parents to a cruel Italian man when she was 19 and when this didn’t work out, she would seek employment on a ship. She worked undetected as a man for some time but would make a fatal error one day and inadvertently reveal her gender. Once the captain confirmed her true sex she was brutally raped and fell pregnant. She would subsequently be abandoned in Sydney and give birth to a daughter.

In time she would rebuild her life and become Harry Crawford and marry Annie Birkett. They had a relatively happy marriage for a few years but in 1817 a series of unfortunate and mysterious events occurred. This resulted in Birkett’s burnt body being discovered in Sydney’s Lane Cove River Park. Tedeschi follows the police investigation, arrest and the contentious Supreme Court trial in 1920 in detail.

Tedeschi has been able to draw upon contemporary public records, court transcripts, press reports, other written accounts and the recollections of people who had a degree of contact with the main characters. These all assist in constructing a detailed portrait of the complex woman who thought she was a man. Tedeschi’s strength is that he is able to detail the case in great depth and in a way that is easy for the common reader to understand. There are a number of legal, political and social issues highlighted by this case, which ultimately resulted in a miscarriage of justice.

Falleni was subject to a trial by media and was portrayed as a fiendish human monster, a sexual pervert, liar, hypocrite, murderess and a filthy-tongued man-woman. The defence lawyer supplied by legal aid was no match for the experienced crown prosecutor, with the former making a number of very crucial errors in his work with the case. Evidence that shouldn’t have been admissible was allowed, the testimony of witnesses who had already seen her photograph in the newspaper was included plus the defence failed to adequately cross-examine, provide evidence from expert witnesses and ultimately draw attention to the fact that the prosecution had failed to prove certain things beyond a reasonable doubt.

Tedeschi also does a good job in describing the environment at the time including the history and social mores. Falleni’s case is described in comparison to another alleged female murderer and there is a stark difference in their treatment. Dorothy Mort was a society woman with Anglo-Saxon heritage and her well-to-do family managed to buy her a non-guilty charge on the grounds of insanity, while Falleni was charged to the full extent of the law. The latter woman’s case was no doubt peppered by her “social misfit” status, her heritage and illiteracy.

Eugenia has been meticulously researched and is a grim tragedy about a poor woman who was at odds with the social expectations of her time. Tedeschi does an excellent job of humanising and sympathising with her, treating the matter with the respect, dignity and sensitivity that was obviously missing from the period’s sensational reportage. This means the story is ultimately recounted for what it was and proves an insightful tale about crime, courage and rising above adversity. It is also a revealing portrait of the inner workings of our court system and ultimately, one complex mind. By applying a deft hand, Tedeschi reveals both sides of the coin and makes this true crime book seem like a successful biography, history and law textbook all rolled into one.

Originally published on 11 July 2013 at the following website: http://www.theaureview.com/sydney/reading-with-the-au-mark-tedeschi-eugenia-2013

Visit The Au Review’s homepage at: http://www.theaureview.com/
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natsalvo | 3 altre recensioni | Feb 25, 2015 |

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