Lars Peter Hansen

A German Youth. A Danish Migrant. A Deadly Encounter on a Lonely Road.
In 1890, Charles Duncker — a young German painter who had sailed the world before settling in colonial New South Wales — was found brutally murdered on the road between Peak Hill and Dubbo. The man who killed him for nothing more than greed and a swag of provisions was Lars Peter Hansen, a Danish migrant who would hang for his crime at Dubbo Gaol in 1891, at the hands of New South Wales' infamous state executioner — Nosey Bob.
The Life & Death of Lars Peter Hansen tells the complete story of both men — victim and killer — from cradle to grave.
Who was Lars Peter Hansen? What journey brought a Danish migrant to the dusty roads of colonial NSW, and what drove him to take another man's life for the contents of his pack? And who was Charles Duncker — the fair-haired young German who had survived voyages to Tonga and Samoa, only to meet his end on an outback road?
Author Helen Cottee traces every chapter of both men's lives using shipping records, naturalisation papers, court transcripts, police files, newspaper reports and gaol archives — reconstructing the crime, the inquest, the trial and the final walk to the gallows with meticulous detail.
Richly illustrated with historical photographs and maps, the book concludes with the complete family trees of both Lars Peter Hansen and Charles Duncker — restoring to history two men whose lives collided with fatal consequences on a forgotten road in colonial Australia.
Part of the Life & Death series — preserving the untold stories of colonial Australia, one execution at a time.
For readers who love Australian history, colonial true crime, and the forgotten souls whose stories deserve to be told.