True crime stories, Sydney: Graeme Thorne murder inspires new Jamie Oxenbould play

Winning the lotto is every blue collar family’s dream but for Bazil Thorne it quickly turned into a nightmare when his son Graeme was snatched off the streets of Bondi.

It was the case that gripped Sydney like no other – a working class family wins an incredible sum of money in the Opera House lottery only to have that very windfall lead to the kidnapping and murder of their son.

It was five weeks after winning the £100,000 jackpot, equivalent to millions in today’s currency, on June 1, 1960.

The Thorne family had their faces splashed across the front page of every major newspaper, as was the custom back then when someone won it big.

A reward was offered for little Graeme Thorne's safe return.

Graeme was walking from the family’s modest rental on Edward Street to the spot three hundred metres away at the corner of O’Brien and Wellington streets where his friend’s mum would pick him up and drive them to school in Bellevue Hill.

However, when Phyllis Smith pulled over, Graeme was nowhere to be found.

Graeme Thorne's parents Basil and Freda begged for his release.

That night Graeme’s hysterical mother Freda received a phone call from the kidnapper.

“I have your boy. I want £25,000 before 5 o’clock this afternoon. I’m not fooling. If I don’t get the money before 5 o’clock, I’ll feed the boy to the sharks,” the caller demanded.

But what became of Bondi salesman Bazil Thorne in the aftermath of the tragedy which lead to his eight-year-old son Graeme’s body being dumped in a vacant lot in Seaforth still clad in his Scots College uniform?

Actor and playwright Jamie Oxenbould moved to Bondi – not too far from where little Graeme was plucked off the street by his killer Stephen Bradley – more than three decades ago.

Thousands attended the beloved little boy’s funeral.

Even though he was born some five years after the tragic murder, it was still a story Oxenbould recalls parents in the North Shore suburb of Cremorne where he grew up discussing in hushed tones.

“Imagine this man riding the greatest high of his own life and then having the rug pulled out from under him,” Oxenbould said.

“They didn’t even have a chance to enjoy their winnings. They were still on this high and then this predator came along and ruined their lives forever. How could you ever enjoy all that money after that?”

A scene from Gods and Little Fishes. Photo: Bob Seary.

Oxenbould, whose first job was being a delivery boy for the Mosman Daily, comes from a family of thespians.

His partner Di Adams is best known for her role in Tim Winton’s The Turning and both their sons Ed – who scored the lead in Disney’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day – and Archie are also actors.

Oxenbould has spent much of his career treading the boards at some of Sydney’s most beloved theatres – most notably Ensemble Theatre at Kirribilli where he recently played one of the lead roles in The Woman in Black to critical acclaim.

This is his second stab at playwriting and along co-writer Richard Sydenham of Arncliffe (who had a part in The Matrix Revolutions) and the pair spent the best part of a decade honing the script for their new play Gods and Little Fishes.

It was Sydenham who was fascinated by the Thorne case and he made the breakthrough of connecting the two concepts.

Graeme Thorne’s death changed laws regarding the identification of lotto winners.

“It was Sydney’s first big child abduction case. It happened at a time when people let their kids be picked up like that by friends on the corner,” Oxenbould said.

“That wouldn’t happen now but back then it was an innocent time.

“The play we were trying to write was about a father’s grief upon losing his child.

“We put it away in the drawer a few times, sometimes for years, until Richard realised there was this real marriage between the story we were trying to tell and what happened to Bazil Thorne.

“It gave it another layer.”

Jamie Oxenbould in a scene from Gods and Little Fishes. Photo: Bob Seary.

Gods and Little Fishes is a tale of a grief stricken father, based on Bazil Thorne and played by Oxenbould, who finds himself set adrift.

“It’s a very slow reveal throughout the play,” Oxenbould said.

“The play is set on a raft. It’s an allegory – a metaphorical telling of one man’s tragedy.

“So he is essentially lost at sea and gets taken on a journey of I guess acceptance of what has happened through the stages of grieving.”

As a father himself, Oxenbould said the play spoke to the greatest fears of every family.

“Every parent knows that sick in the pit of your stomach fear of anything happening to your children,” Oxenbould said.

“Richard and I were both drawing on that experience as fathers in our own lives.”

Gods and Little Fishes will run at Newtown’s New Theatre until June 25.

For tickets visit newtheatre.org.au/gods-and-little-fishes/

Originally published as True crime stories, Sydney: Graeme Thorne murder inspires new Jamie Oxenbould play