On Saturday, 1 September 1934, the badly burnt body of a woman with a bullet through the neck was found in a

culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom ...

running under Howlong Road in

Albury Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The body of the woman became posthumously known as Pyjama Girl. The body remained unidentified for a decade until an

Italian-Australian Italian Australians ( it, Italiani Australiani) are Australians with Italian ancestry. Italian Australians constitute the sixth largest ancestry group in Australia, and one of the largest groups in the global Italian diaspora. At the 2021 ce ...

man, Tony Agostini, confessed to killing his wife, Florence Linda Agostini, a woman who had been missing since late August 1934. Police said they had matched the

dental records The Ballistics were a ska band from Ipswich, England. Formed in 2002, they have built up a healthy following across the UK and have garnered airplay in the U.S., Germany, Argentina and Brazil. The band's first album, '' Go Ballistic'', was releas ...

from the body with Linda Agostini's, though Linda Agostini was ruled out as the victim in the initial investigation. Tony Agostini was arrested and charged with

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

. He was then brought to trial and convicted of the lesser offense of

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

, and was sentenced to 6 years in prison. He was

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

d after 3 years and 1 month and was deported to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. Decades later, doubt was cast upon the conclusion that Pyjama Girl was actually Linda Agostini due to inconsistencies between the body of Pyjama Girl and Linda Agostini.

Life

Florence Linda Agostini (; 12 September 190527 August 1934), known posthumously as the "Pyjama Girl", was an English Australian manslaughter victim found on a stretch of road in

, in September 1934. Linda Agostini was born Florence Linda Platt in Forest Hill, a suburb of South East London, on 12 September 1905. As a teenager, Platt worked at a confectionery shop in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

before travelling to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

at the age of 19 after what was rumoured to be a broken romance. Platt remained in New Zealand until 1927 when she moved to Australia to live in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. There she worked at a cinema in the city and lived in a boarding house on Darlinghurst Road in Kings Cross where accounts tell she entertained young, attractive men. Platt was a heavy drinker and a Jazz Age party-goer who had difficulty adjusting to stability. Her marriage to Italian-born Antonio Agostini (1903–1969), in a Sydney registry office during 1930, was the beginning of an unhappy time that would see the couple leave for

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

to remove her from the influence of her Sydney friends.

Discovery and initial investigation

Agostini disappeared from friends and family in late August 1934, around a week before the unidentified Pyjama Girl was found in Splitter's Creek, near

, on the

side of the border with

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

. The victim's body was discovered by a local man named Tom Griffith. Griffith had been leading a prize bull along the side of Howlong Road near Albury when he saw the body in a

running under the road and noticed a strong smell of kerosene. Slightly concealed by a hessian grain sack and badly burnt, the body would not have been visible to anybody driving by. The victim's head was wrapped in a towel. She had been badly beaten and an x-ray revealed a bullet in her neck. In a detail that came to define the case, she was wearing yellow silk pyjamas with a Chinese dragon motif – in Depression-era Australia, such clothing was luxurious, youthful and bohemian. It soon became apparent that the body was of a petite woman in her twenties, but her identity could not be established. After the initial investigation failed to identify her, the body was taken to

where it was put on public exhibition. She was preserved in a bath of

formalin Formaldehyde ( , ) (systematic name methanal) is a naturally occurring organic compound with the formula and structure . The pure compound is a pungent, colourless gas that polymerises spontaneously into paraformaldehyde (refer to section Fo ...

for this purpose at the Sydney University Medical School, until 1942, when her body was transferred to police headquarters where it remained until 1944. Several names were suggested for the identity of the dead woman, among them Anna Philomena Morgan and Linda Agostini. Both women were missing, both bore a likeness to the Pyjama Girl and both were of the right age. However, New South Wales police satisfied themselves that neither of the missing women was the Pyjama Girl and she remained unidentified.

Arrest and conviction of Tony Agostini

In 1944, ten years after the body had been discovered, the forensic evidence was re-examined and the dental analysis of the victim was matched to Agostini. Tony Agostini had recently returned to Sydney after being held in internment camps at

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

Hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticat ...

and Loveday from 1940 to 1944 due to his nationalist sympathies. The police commissioner, William MacKay, who had known him before the war when he worked as a waiter at the restaurant that MacKay frequented, interviewed him. Noticing that he seemed to be in a nervous state, MacKay asked him what had come over him. Antonio Agostini then confessed to killing his wife. In his statement, he admitted that he had accidentally shot and killed his wife when they were living in Melbourne. Worried that he might be accused of murder, he had driven the body over the state border to Albury and had dumped it in the culvert. He had poured

petrol Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...

over the body and set fire to it, to destroy the evidence. The arrest of Agostini was a sensation, as it meant that the Pyjama Girl had been identified. He was charged with murder and was extradited to Melbourne, where he was tried for murder. He was acquitted but was found guilty of manslaughter instead, and was sentenced to six years' imprisonment but only served 3 years and 1 month of those 6 years. He was released in 1948 and deported to

, where he died in 1969.

Doubts about the body's identity

The case might have been left there, but some cast doubt on its conclusion. In his 2004 book, ''The Pyjama Girl Mystery: A True Story of Murder, Obsession and Lies'', historian Richard Evans pointed out discrepancies with the evidence, calling Antonio Agostini's conviction the result of "police corruption and a miscarriage of justice". The Pyjama Girl had brown eyes; Agostini's were blue. The victim had a different bust size to Agostini and she had a different shaped nose. Evans also points out that 125 women were originally on the police's list of possible identities, but that these other leads remained "uneliminated and untraced". Evans also suggests that Agostini was murdered around the same time as the Albury victim, and most likely in the confines of the couple's Melbourne townhouse, but that she was not the Pyjama Girl.

Adaptations

The case was turned into a short film, ''

The Pyjama Girl Murder Case ''The Pyjama Girl Murder Case'' is a dramatised 1939 documentary film from director Rupert Kathner based on the murder of Linda Agostini. It was an installment of the ''Australia Today'' series and was Australia's first "true crime" movie.

'' in 1939 by director Rupert Kathner. A film entitled '' La ragazza dal pigiama giallo'' (''The Pyjama Girl Case''), directed by Italian

Flavio Mogherini Flavio Mogherini (25 March 1922 – 23 April 1994) was an Italian production designer, art director and film director. His career spanned from 1947 to 1994. His daughter Federica Mogherini was High Representative of the Union for Foreign A ...

, was produced in 1977. A book written by Hugh Geddes, based on the film and bearing the same title, appeared in 1978. A short film by Canberra film maker Huck Tyrrell, entitled ''Roadside'', was produced in 1998 and inspired by the murder. In the film the victim returns as a hitch-hiker who tells her story to the unsuspecting driver and eventually leads him to her remains. In 2013, the

Hothouse Theatre HotHouse Theatre is a professional theatre company based in Albury–Wodonga on the border of New South Wales and Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Co ...

in Albury/Wodonga commissioned and performed a play entitled ''The Pyjama Girl'' from Canberra playwright Emma Gibson.

References

External links

2015 ''Daily Telegraph'' article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agostini, Linda 1930s in New South Wales 1930s missing person cases 1934 deaths 1934 in Australia 20th-century Australian women 1934 murders in Australia August 1934 events Australian murder victims Deaths by person in Australia English emigrants to Australia English emigrants to New Zealand Female murder victims Formerly missing people History of New South Wales Missing person cases in Australia People murdered in New South Wales Violence against women in Australia