Regent Theatre

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Uploaded on: May 18, 2021

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Showmen generally dream of having their theater mentioned on the front page – not in this case however. Just after 4.15 p.m. on Wednesday 9th September 1959 a 36 year old man was shown to a Back Stalls seat, as the Matinee performance of “Say One For Me” was coming to an end. Five minutes later he stood up in the dark, and commenced a frenzied random attack on the heads and shoulders of nearby patrons - with a sharp tomahawk. The result was one dead and a dozen injured – some badly. He was subdued and taken into custody outside a Bathurst Street exit. Found not guilty of murder due to insanity, he was sent to a psychiatric institution – where he committed suicide 13 years later. It was yet another crime which could probably be attributed to Adolf Hitler. The perpetrator was a Polish immigrant who had spent five years in a WWII slave labor camp. (The Sydney Morning Herald page was actually its normal white).