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Examples of how the law persecuted women in 1930s Australia
A woman jailed for bigamy and another blamed when her lover shot her husband dead, explained as follows:
The Public Record Office of Victoria has revealed thousands of files including criminal histories from the mid 1930s and 40s which have been hidden from public view for more than 75 years.
Three volumes of criminal histories were released, with some of the articles shown to the ABC before the release date, they give a glimpse into how woman were seen by the law compared with their male counterparts.
A murderer's death sentence was downgraded to life imprisonment after a police officer told the court he was under the influence of a woman, the dead man's wife, at the time of the offence. Another man was jailed for just five years after killing a woman by slitting her throat, yet a woman, convicted of a non-violent crime was given nine months behind bars for bigamy.
The ABC were told by Justine Heazlewood that archives are released every year, with the criminal reports held back until after the death of the person on record.
'Some of those records contain information that you wouldn't want to be generally accessible to the public straight away,' she said.
This is in line with the Public Records Act of 1973 which says that personal or private records should not be opened for the public's view for a period of time.
One of the files shows Antonio Barboro smiling in front of the camera after his murder charge was down-graded to manslaughter.
In 1937 the Italian quarryman slashed the throat of a 51-year-old second hand dealer, Edith Praetz, he given five years on the inside for manslaughter.
Barbaro was 36 at the time of his 1937 conviction and had previously been in trouble with the law for being drunk and disorderly when he was 25, assault at 28, and selling liquor without a licence one year before he went away for Ms Praetz' death.
He died on June 13, 1960.
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