Arnold Karl Sodeman was born on December 12, 1899, in Victoria, Australia. His family history was deeply troubled as his mother suffered from amnesia, while both his father and grandfather died in mental institutions, a legacy that would later play a central role in his trial. He first entered the criminal justice system at age 18, serving time in a reformatory for larceny.

Soon after, Sodeman escalated to violent crime, participating in an armed robbery in which a station master was wounded. He was sentenced to three years of hard labor, and after a brief escape, received another 12 months for the attempt. Upon release, he worked various labor jobs and eventually married Bernice Pope. The couple had a daughter, Joan, in 1928. To those around him, Sodeman appeared to be a mild-mannered, hardworking man, often described as generous and affectionate with his family. Despite bouts of depression and alcoholism, he was never violent at home.

On November 9, 1930, a 12-year-old Mena Griffiths was abducted from a playground in Melbourne. He offered her friends money for ice cream and lured Mena away with the false promise of an errand. Her body was found two days later in an abandoned building in Ormond. She had been strangled, then bound and gagged post-mortem with her own clothing.

Two months later, on January 10, 1931, Sodeman murdered 16-year-old Hazel Wilson, also found strangled and bound in Ormond, bearing the same signature.

After a pause, Sodeman resurfaced nearly four years later, on January 1, 1935, when he abducted and murdered Ethel Belshaw, a 12-year-old girl from Inverloch. Belshaw vanished while on her way to buy ice cream; her body was found the next day. She had been strangled and bound like the previous victims.

His final victim was 6-year-old June Rushmer, abducted on December 1, 1935, in Leongatha, where she had been playing in a local park. Her body was found nearby, just 2 km from her home, bound and gagged with a sock and a strip of clothing tied around her neck. Witnesses had seen her with a man on a bicycle shortly before her disappearance, a man later identified as Sodeman.

Working on a road crew at the time, Sodeman raised suspicion during a tea break when a coworker jokingly accused him of being near the crime scene. Sodeman’s angry outburst was so uncharacteristic that his coworkers notified police. During questioning, he confessed in detail, describing his method and the last moments of each girl. He later retracted the confession in court, but the damage was done.

The inquest into the Rushmer case drew large crowds. Multiple witnesses confirmed seeing Sodeman near the scene, and his own confession — though later contested — was highly specific. At trial in February 1936, his defense centered on insanity, with medical experts testifying that Sodeman suffered from an “obsessional impulse” worsened by alcohol. Three doctors, including the government’s own psychiatrist, concluded that he was insane at the time of the murders.

Despite this, the jury rejected the insanity plea and found Sodeman guilty. Judge Charles Gavan Duffy sentenced him to death by hanging, to be carried out at Pentridge Prison, the main execution site following the closure of Melbourne Gaol.

His legal team appealed the conviction, going as far as the Privy Council in England, represented by British King’s Counsel D.N. Pritt, but all appeals failed.

On June 1, 1936, Sodeman was executed at Pentridge Prison. He was the second person hanged there since 1924. He had not wanted a reprieve, fearing he might kill again. After death, an autopsy revealed he had leptomeningitis, a degenerative brain condition that could cause severe behavior disturbances when combined with alcohol.

In 1965, the TV series Homicide aired an episode titled “A Lonely Place,” based on the murders, warning of the dangers posed to unsupervised children. In 2010, on the 75th anniversary of Ethel Belshaw’s murder, a former neighbor revealed she was nearly abducted by Sodeman that same day.