Arnold Karl Sodeman ( – ), also known as the School-girl Strangler, was an Australian serial killer who targeted children. He confessed to four killings before being executed at Pentridge Prison, Victoria in 1936. Sodeman was the second of eleven people to be hanged at Pentridge Prison after the closure of Melbourne Gaol in 1924.
Early life
Arnold Karl Sodeman was born in Victoria in 1899. His mother suffered from bouts of amnesia and both his father and grandfather died in mental institutions. At 18, Sodeman was sent to a reformatory prison for larceny. Shortly after his release from the reformatory, he was charged with armed robbery and wounding the station master at Surrey Hills railway station. Sodeman was sent to prison to serve three years hard labour. Sodeman escaped from prison and was sentenced to a further 12 months imprisonment with hard labour.
Upon release Sodeman settled down to various labouring jobs, first in Melbourne and later in Gippsland. He married Bernice Pope at Collingwood and their daughter Joan was born in 1928. The marriage was considered a happy one. Although Sodeman seemed to suffer from occasional bouts of depression and frequent drunkenness, he was never violent towards his family. He was reported to be hard-working, mild and amiable with a generous disposition.
Murders and arrest
On 9 November 1930 Sodeman abducted a 12-year-old schoolgirl, Mena Griffiths. He came upon his victim at the local playground playing with a group of friends. He gave the other girls some money and told them to go to the shop to get some ice-creams; meanwhile, he told his victim that he had a different errand for her to run. By the time the little girl's friends returned to the playground, there was no sign of Griffiths or the man. Griffiths' body was discovered two days later at Ormond, in an abandoned building. She had been strangled to death, then gagged and bound post-mortem with her own clothing.
On 10 January 1931 he abducted 16-year-old Hazel Wilson and strangled her to death. Her body was also found in the suburb of Ormond. Again, in a signature move, he had gagged and tied her hands behind her back with portions of her clothing.
Sodeman struck for the third time on 1 January 1935. His victim Ethel Belshaw was a 12-year-old girl whom he strangled then bound at the sea-side town of Inverloch. Belshaw was intending to buy an ice cream when she disappeared.
On 1 December 1935 Sodeman killed his fourth victim, a 6-year-old girl named June Rushmer, the daughter of a coworker who was taken from a local park. Her body was found the following day less than from her Leongatha home. She had also been bound, gagged and strangled. Witnesses stated that they had seen the child with a man on a bicycle shortly before her disappearance.
Sodeman at the time was on a work crew repairing roadways. During a morning tea break a fellow worker jokingly stated he had seen Sodeman on his bike near the crime scene. Sodeman replied angrily that he wasn't there. He had answered with such anger and rage, which was very out of character for him, that the workers told police. Police took him away for questioning and he quickly confessed to the crimes. Police were initially skeptical of the confession, but Sodeman gave details of the crimes that only someone present could have known.
Inquest and trial
The court house at Leongatha was crowded when the Rushmer inquest commenced. The government pathologist Dr. Mollison said that the dead girl's hands were tied behind her back with a piece of cloth and a bloodstained garment was pushed into her mouth. A piece of torn sock was tied around her neck. The body bore bruises. Death, he thought, was due to suffocation.
Nancy Viola Smith, aged 12 said that she played with Rushmer on the Leongatha Reserve and that Rushmer left the park at 7.15 p.m. William Henry Money of Leongatha said that at 7.15 p.m. he saw Sodeman riding his bicycle in the direction of the reserve. Sodeman had a strange look on his face and the witness thought it peculiar. Sodeman did not speak to him. Vincent Desmond Ryan of Leongatha said that between 7.15 and 7.30 p.m. he saw a man with a little girl on the front of his cycle. The child was similar in build to Rushmer, but the witness was 80 metres (90 yards) away and could not see him properly.