The 'Pyjama Girl' Murder

Few more gruesome crimes have been played out under the gaze of the public eye than that of the Pyjama Girl, real name Linda Agostini. In 1934 the body of a young woman – badly burnt, viciously battered about the head and wearing only pyjamas – was found in a road culvert near the township of Albury. The case remained opened for another 10 years, with Sydney detectives taking the extraordinary step of preserving the unidentified body in a lead-lined formalin bath. During that decade, tens of thousands of people viewed the woman’s ghastly remains at Sydney University, and later Sydney Police Headquarters, before the man responsible – the husband of the victim, Italian immigrant Tony Agostini – was brought to justice.