Defining Moments in the Baby Boomer Years
Historic events that affected our lives

A crime which caused massive shock at the time and gathered huge publicity, the kidnap and murder of Sydney schoolboy Graeme Thorne was the first known kidnapping for ransom in Australian history. The police investigation that led to the capture and conviction of his murderer, Stephen Bradley, is justly regarded as a textbook example of forensic investigation.
In 1960 the construction of the incomplete Sydney Opera House was proving expensive and so the New South Wales Government initiated a lottery to help raise money. The £100,000 prize in the first Opera House lottery draw was won on 1st June, 1960 by Basil Thorne, who lived in a two-bedroom, ground floor apartment in Edward Street, Bondi with his wife, son Graeme (8) and daughter Belinda (3). There was no option of privacy for lottery winners at the time and so the details of the Thornes' lottery win was published on the front pages of Sydney newspapers.

Graeme Thorne	The Sydney Opera House under construction	Stephen Bradley in custody after his arrest in Colombo

Six days after the win, the Thorne's 8-year old son, Graeme, failed to arrive at school and the boy's disappearance was reported to the police. Later that day a man claiming to have kidnapped their son rang the Thornes, demanding a £25,000 ransom; he rang off without finalizing arrangements during a second call that night. The incident was immediately reported in the media and hit the news headlines around the country. No further contact was made by the kidnapper and the police made little headway in solving the boy's disappearance until 16th August, when two boys found the body of Graeme Thorne in the bush near Seaforth in Sydney's north. Forensic tests established that he had been bashed and strangled soon after the kidnapping. An extensive police investigation resulted in scientific and eyewitness evidence which linked Stephen Bradley, a resident of Seaforth, to the crime.
Meantime, Bradley had sailed for England with his family. On 10th October he was arrested in Colombo. He was extradited on 18th November, convicted of murder on 29th March 1961 and sentenced to life imprisonment, a sentence that was upheld on appeal. In June 1961 Bradley was transferred to Goulburn gaol where he was employed as a hospital orderly. Professing innocence, he claimed that he had confessed to the crime through fear lest his family be harmed. He seemed oblivious of the pain suffered by the Thornes. Bradley's wife Magda divorced him in 1965 and returned to Europe. Bradley, who was kept protected from other prisoners, died of a coronary occlusion on 6th October 1968, age 43, while playing in the gaol tennis competition. He was buried in the Catholic section of Goulburn cemetery. His daughter survived him. Bazil, Freda and Belinda Thorne moved out of Bondi into a house in nearby Rose Bay. Unable to get over the death of his boy, Bazil Thorne died suddenly in 1978.
During and after the trial of Stephen Leslie Bradley, the dark secrets of his past were revealed. Bradley was born on 15th March 1926 in Budapest and named István, son of József Baranyay, architect, and his wife Klara (Clarisse), née Kramer. A divorcee since 1948, István arrived in Melbourne in the Skaugum on 28th March 1950. He found jobs as a life-insurance salesman, male nurse and as an electroplater at a poker-machine factory. On 1st March 1952 he married Eva Maria Laidlaw (who had changed her name by deed poll from Laszlo) at the Presbyterian Church, Gardiner. They had one daughter before Eva was killed in a car accident on 26th February 1955. István changed his name by deed poll to Stephen Leslie Bradley in August 1956.
In November 1957 Bradley was charged with false pretences in Sydney, but the charge was allowed to lapse. In the registrar general's office on 8th December 1958 he married Magda Wittman, née Klein, a Hungarian divorcee with two children, who owned a boarding house at Katoomba. In 1959 the guest house burnt down, but the Bradleys failed to make any money on the insurance settlement. Bradley reputedly lived beyond his means. Short, stocky, dark haired and balding, he dressed well and liked to drive big cars. Prison authorities subsequently described him as tense, insecure and intelligent, with a sociable and engaging personality, but also deemed him a hopeless liar, a confidence man and an opportunist who was desperate to make money quickly. Frustrated at his circumstances, he brought his family to Sydney, determined 'to do something big'. In June 1960, he apparently learnt of the Thorne's good fortune in the newspaper, and hatched a plot to kidnap one of the Thorne's children and demand a ransom.
Why Bradley murdered the child instead of just kidnapping him, which appears to have been his original intention, is not known. Examination of the body showed that the boy had died from either asphyxiation or a head injury. He had been alive when hit on the head. Examination also established that he had been murdered within 24 hours of the kidnapping and that his body had been dumped soon afterwards. Bradley may well have panicked and killed Graeme accidentally, but the truth will never be known. What part, if any, Bradley's wife played in the kidnapping and murder was never revealed when the police interviewed Bradley and his wife.
The late crime journalist Alan Dower was of the opinion that Graeme was not Bradley's initial target. Dower's theory was that Graeme's younger sister was Bradley's target and that he had no intention of killing her. She was young enough that, if she had been kidnapped and then released, she would not have been able to give any useful information that could identify her kidnapper. However, she was also so young that she was never away from her parents and so Graeme was abducted instead.

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