The case of Leongatha’s Erin Patterson, who was recently convicted of murdering three relatives with a deadly mushroom meal, captured headlines around the world.
But did you know an even more prodigious killer lived in the same small Victorian farming community in the 1930s?
Join Leongatha journalist Matt Dunn and special guests, including author Katherine Kovacic and former Victoria Police detective Narelle Fraser, as they unearth the chilling story of serial killer Arnold Sodeman on ‘Sodeman: The Schoolgirl Strangler’.
Listen HERE or on your favourite podcast platforms (see the links below)
Arnold Sodeman
Arnold Karl Sodeman (1899–1936) (AKA 'The Schoolgirl Strangler') was an Australian serial killer whose horrific crimes cast a long, dark shadow over Melbourne and South Gippsland during the 1930s.
Born into a troubled Victorian household, Sodeman’s early entanglements with the law and struggles with mental illness foreshadowed a disturbing future. By all outward appearances, he was a hardworking labourer and a devoted family man—but beneath the surface, a predator lurked.
Between 1930 and 1935, Sodeman abducted, bound, and strangled four young girls in a calculated spree that confounded police and terrified communities.
The nightmare began in November 1930, when 12-year-old Mena Griffiths vanished from Melbourne’s Fawkner Park on a sunny afternoon. Her body was discovered the next day in an abandoned Ormond house. The Argus reported that the child had been “outraged and murdered.”
Under intense pressure to find the killer, police wrongfully arrested Robert James McMahon, despite him being over 500 kilometres from the crime scene. Only his brother’s watertight alibi saved him from the gallows.
Meanwhile, Sodeman struck again, murdering 16-year-old Hazel Wilson just two kilometres from where Mena’s body was found. The similarities between the two killings were striking, yet with McMahon still in custody, detectives failed to connect the dots.
For five long years, the killer remained at large—his identity hidden behind the mask of normalcy. In that time, three more innocent men would fall under police suspicion.
Relocating to Leongatha in 1934, Sodeman resumed his spree. On New Year’s Day 1935, he killed 12-year-old Ethel Belshaw in the coastal town of Inverloch. That December, he claimed his final victim—six-year-old June Rushmer.
A breakthrough came not through science or strategy, but a passing remark from a workmate that unravelled Sodeman’s carefully guarded double life. His defence pleaded diminished responsibility, citing alcoholism and mental illness, but the jury remained unmoved. He was convicted and hanged at Melbourne’s Pentridge Prison in 1936.
Sodeman’s crimes remain etched into Australia’s criminal history—a grim reminder that the most monstrous acts can come cloaked in ordinariness.
To explore the case and its haunting legacy, listen to the full season of this riveting, new Australian podcast or dive into Katherine Kovacic’s compelling biography, 'The Schoolgirl Strangler'.
In the news
Mim Hook, ABC Gippsland, Gippsland Breakfast (from 1hr 55mins) July 15, 2025
Ben Harvey, The Nightly, July 25, 2025
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About Matt Dunn
Matt Dunn is a Leongatha journalist and the author of the Australian crime novel, 'Red Time'. He has worked at several local papers, including the Leongatha Star, Yarram Standard and Foster Mirror. He has also written freelance stories for many publications, including Gippslandia, the Herald Sun, The Age and Australian Geographic. He has an understanding wife, four rowdy (mostly adult) children, a needy dog and cat and a mostly quiet life in the rural farming community of Leongatha (which has an unusually dark history).
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