In 1932, a 19-year-old woman named Jean Morris, widely believed to not be her real name, was brutally murdered in a house she was renting on Queen Street, Ayr.
Jean was buried in an unmarked grave at the Ayr cemetery and, over 90 years later, local man Henry Petersen and his friend Paula Dawson are spearheading a fundraising campaign to ensure Jean’s story is remembered forever.
“This girl is part of history,” Mr Petersen said.
“She died a tragic death.
“Even though she was only in Ayr for seven days, she’s still a part of our history.”
Jean Morris
Ayr man Henry Petersen is leading a fundraising campaign to place a headstone on the unmarked grave of murder victim Jean Morris. Photo credit: Sam Gillespie
When Jean Morris arrived in Ayr, Australia was amidst the Great Depression while north Queensland was fighting its own battle against the Black Hand, an Italian crime syndicate targeting Italian Australian cane farmers and workers.
Jean had been working as a sex worker in Sydney when she moved up the coast, seeking new clients and new streams of income from the more affluent canecutters and Italian immigrants of north Queensland.
“She was of Italian descent, and she was such a good Italian speaker that she came up here where all the canecutters were as they were the only people with money,” said Henry Petersen, an Ayr man leading a fundraising campaign to honour Jean’s memory.
According to an article written and compiled by Queensland Police Museum Volunteer and Crime and Policing Historian Dr Anastasia Dukova, Jean was said to have become involved with the Black Hand while in north Queensland, led by Vincenzo D’Agostino who developed a romantic interest in her.
“D’Agostino was in love with her, and she didn’t like him and refused his advances,” Mr Petersen added.
“At the end of the day, he said she knew too much and had to go.”
Jean arrived in Ayr via Home Hill, Cloncurry, Innisfail, and Cairns on September 29, 1932.
She was last seen alive on the night of October 3 before her body was discovered in her bed in a small two-roomed galvanised iron house in Queen Street by an Electric Light Company employee at 10:00am the next day.
According to the post-mortem examination, Jean sustained 43 stab wounds about half an inch wide and four inches deep.
The inquest showed Jean Morris died about eight hours earlier, with evidence indicating a dagger or stiletto shoe was used to inflict the narrow and deep wounds.
While involvement from the Black Hand was suspected, the murder remains unsolved, with police closing in on a suspect who fled to Italy where he was arrested and hanged himself in an Italian prison.
Jean’s story was recently revitalised in 2023 when a documentary telling of the activities and stories surrounding the Black Hand aired on the ABC, which reignited Mr Petersen’s interest.
With the help of Paula Dawson and Amie Griggs of Burdekin Funerals, he set up a GoFundMe to raise funds for a gravestone at her burial site.
“A lot of people question why I’m doing it, and I say, ‘Would you like to be in an unmarked grave? Is that how you want to be remembered?’” Mr Petersen said.
“She was a human being.
“No one deserves to be brutally murdered like that.
“She should be remembered, and people should be able to go and visit her gravesite.”
Mr Petersen was recently contacted by Respect Inc, a non-profit, peer-based organisation focused on protecting and promoting the rights, health, and wellbeing of Queensland sex workers.
Respect Inc State Coordinator Lulu Holiday also became interested in the story after seeing the documentary.
“Being a sex worker was such a big part of Jean’s story,” said Ms Holiday.
“She was up here, working alone, making her way for herself and she was doing really well, but because of the stigma and vilification around sex work, Jean found herself in this situation where she had no support, she couldn’t go to the police, and at the end of the day, that’s a huge part of why she ended up dying.”
After googling Jean, Ms Holiday discovered she had been laid to rest in an unmarked grave and has since thrown her support behind the campaign.
“Respect Inc as an organisation felt like that did no justice for Jean and that didn’t honour her life, so decided we wanted to help Henry and Paula achieve the goal of honouring Jean with the dignity of a headstone,” Ms Holiday said.
“We want to see Jean get the respect and dignity that she deserves but also to see community attitudes change.
“I hear that the Burdekin community has been really supportive of the push to get Jean a headstone and it’s really heartening to see that community attitudes are starting to change towards sex workers.”
Over $1,600 has been raised towards placing a headstone on Jean Morris’ grave.
To find out more about the fundraiser, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/stiletto-jean-morris-headstone-fundraiser or scan the QR code.
The documentary ‘The Black Hand’ can be viewed on ABC iview.
Paula Dawson is accepting donations for Jean Morris’ headstone at her hair salon.
Photo credit: Sam Gillespie
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