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id="mw-content-subtitle"></div></div> <div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none">Romanian-born serial killer</div> <p class="mw-empty-elt"> </p> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1257001546">.mw-parser-output .infobox-subbox{padding:0;border:none;margin:-3px;width:auto;min-width:100%;font-size:100%;clear:none;float:none;background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .infobox-3cols-child{margin:auto}.mw-parser-output .infobox .navbar{font-size:100%}@media screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data:not(.notheme)>div:not(.notheme)[style]{background:#1f1f23!important;color:#f8f9fa}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data:not(.notheme) div:not(.notheme){background:#1f1f23!important;color:#f8f9fa}}@media(min-width:640px){body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table{display:table!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table>caption{display:table-caption!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table>tbody{display:table-row-group}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table tr{display:table-row!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table th,body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table td{padding-left:inherit;padding-right:inherit}}</style><table class="infobox biography vcard"><tbody><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-above" style="font-size:125%;"><div class="fn">John Balaban</div></th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-image"><span class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Frameless"><a href="/wiki/File:John_Balaban_Adelaide_News_9_Dec_1952.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/John_Balaban_Adelaide_News_9_Dec_1952.jpg/220px-John_Balaban_Adelaide_News_9_Dec_1952.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="379" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/John_Balaban_Adelaide_News_9_Dec_1952.jpg/330px-John_Balaban_Adelaide_News_9_Dec_1952.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/John_Balaban_Adelaide_News_9_Dec_1952.jpg/440px-John_Balaban_Adelaide_News_9_Dec_1952.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1174" data-file-height="2024" /></a></span><div class="infobox-caption">Balaban in 1952</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Born</th><td class="infobox-data"><div style="display:inline" class="nickname">Ioan Balaban</div><br />13 April 1924<br /><div style="display:inline" class="birthplace"><a href="/wiki/Chi%C8%99ineu-Cri%C8%99" title="Chișineu-Criș">Nădab</a>, <a href="/wiki/Arad_County" title="Arad County">Arad County</a>, <a href="/wiki/Kingdom_of_Romania" title="Kingdom of Romania">Kingdom of Romania</a></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Died</th><td class="infobox-data">26 August 1953<span style="display:none">(1953-08-26)</span> (aged 29)<br /><div style="display:inline" class="deathplace"><a href="/wiki/Adelaide_Gaol" title="Adelaide Gaol">Adelaide Gaol</a>, <a href="/wiki/Adelaide,_South_Australia" class="mw-redirect" title="Adelaide, South Australia">Adelaide, South Australia</a></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Cause of death</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/wiki/Execution_by_hanging" class="mw-redirect" title="Execution by hanging">Execution by hanging</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Other names</th><td class="infobox-data nickname">John Balaban; Joan Balaban</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Criminal status</th><td class="infobox-data category"><a href="/wiki/Executed" class="mw-redirect" title="Executed">Executed</a></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-full-data"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1257001546"></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><span class="nowrap"><a href="/wiki/Conviction" title="Conviction">Conviction(s)</a></span></th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/wiki/Murder" title="Murder">Murder</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Criminal penalty</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/wiki/Capital_punishment" title="Capital punishment">Death</a></td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header">Details</th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Victims</th><td class="infobox-data">5</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><div style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.2em; padding: .1em 0;">Span of crimes</div></th><td class="infobox-data">1948–1953</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Country</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/wiki/France" title="France">France</a>, <a href="/wiki/Australia" title="Australia">Australia</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><span class="nowrap">State(s)</span></th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/wiki/%C3%8Ele-de-France" title="Île-de-France">Île-de-France</a>, <a href="/wiki/South_Australia" title="South Australia">South Australia</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><div style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.2em; padding: .1em 0;">Date apprehended</div></th><td class="infobox-data">12 April 1953</td></tr><tr style="display:none"><td colspan="2"> </td></tr></tbody></table> <p><b>Ioan</b> "<b>John</b>" <b>Balaban</b> (13 April 1924 – 26 August 1953) was a Romanian-born <a href="/wiki/Serial_killer" title="Serial killer">serial killer</a> who confessed to murdering five people in France and Australia. Balaban moved to Australia in 1951 and settled in <a href="/wiki/Adelaide" title="Adelaide">Adelaide</a>, <a href="/wiki/South_Australia" title="South Australia">South Australia</a>, where he carried out four murders, including those of his wife, her son and mother. He was executed for his crimes at <a href="/wiki/Adelaide_Gaol" title="Adelaide Gaol">Adelaide Gaol</a> in August 1953. </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Biography">Biography</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=John_Balaban_(serial_killer)&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Biography"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Early_life">Early life</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=John_Balaban_(serial_killer)&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Early life"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Ioan Balaban was born in April 1924 at <a href="/wiki/Chi%C8%99ineu-Cri%C8%99" title="Chișineu-Criș">Nădab</a>, <a href="/wiki/Arad_County" title="Arad County">Arad County</a> in western Romania.<sup id="cite_ref-ancestry_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-ancestry-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> According to Balaban's later unsworn statement, his parents separated because of his father's cruelty; his father "used to drink excessively, and he hanged himself".<sup id="cite_ref-NewsJuly_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-NewsJuly-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>In 1944, Balaban began to read books on philosophy and "came to the conclusion there was no God". Despite his atheism, Balaban claimed God appeared to him on one occasion and told him to "do anything your conscience dictates and you will be happy".<sup id="cite_ref-NewsJuly_2-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-NewsJuly-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In May 1946, "after a fight with some <a href="/wiki/Romanian_Communist_Party" title="Romanian Communist Party">Communists</a>", he was detained in a mental hospital at <a href="/wiki/Cluj-Napoca" title="Cluj-Napoca">Cluj</a> for three weeks.<sup id="cite_ref-AdvtMay_3-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-AdvtMay-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> During this period of his life, Balaban obtained a degree in physics and metallurgy. He joined the Romanian army for nine months, but "escaped to France" in October 1947 during the time when the <a href="/wiki/Soviet_occupation_of_Romania" title="Soviet occupation of Romania">Soviets</a> were consolidating their occupation of Romania.<sup id="cite_ref-NewsJuly_2-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-NewsJuly-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Murder_in_Paris">Murder in Paris</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=John_Balaban_(serial_killer)&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Murder in Paris"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>On the night of 22 February 1948 (or the early hours of the following morning), Balaban murdered a 32-year-old Polish woman, Riva Kwas, at her <a href="/wiki/Studio_apartment" title="Studio apartment">studio-apartment</a> in the Auteuil district of <a href="/wiki/Paris" title="Paris">Paris</a>, near the Porte de Saint-Cloud. Kwas was working in Paris as a chemist, and her body was discovered five days after her murder.<sup id="cite_ref-soir_4-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-soir-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-STNov54_5-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-STNov54-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> According to his later confession, Balaban was in "a rage" because the woman did not want to engage in sexual intercourse, and strangled her.<sup id="cite_ref-AdvtMay_3-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-AdvtMay-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> He claimed: "I did not have any intention of killing her, but I had the feeling I had to".<sup id="cite_ref-NewsJuly_2-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-NewsJuly-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Immediately after the murder Balaban changed his place of abode and then left France.<sup id="cite_ref-STNov54_5-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-STNov54-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>The murder of Riva Kwas remained unsolved until Balaban was detained and charged for murders committed in Australia. In April 1953, the Adelaide police informed <a href="/wiki/Alexander_Duncan_(police_officer)" title="Alexander Duncan (police officer)">Alexander Duncan</a>, the Chief Commissioner of the Victorian Police and the Australian rapporteur for <a href="/wiki/Interpol" title="Interpol">Interpol</a>, that the prisoner had confessed to the murder of a woman named Riva Kwas in Paris in 1948. Interpol passed this information to the <a href="/wiki/National_Police_(France)" title="National Police (France)">French Sûreté</a> and the Paris Prefecture who confirmed details of the crime. In August 1953, Balaban made a written confession of the murder in his condemned cell at Adelaide Gaol. As part of his confession, he answered questions submitted by the French authorities where he recalled street names and house numbers in connection with the murder.<sup id="cite_ref-News21Aug_6-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-News21Aug-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-STNov54_5-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-STNov54-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Immigration_to_Australia">Immigration to Australia</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=John_Balaban_(serial_killer)&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Immigration to Australia"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Balaban arrived in Australia in January 1951 aboard the <i>Hellenic Prince</i>, part of the extensive <a href="/wiki/Post-war_immigration_to_Australia" title="Post-war immigration to Australia">post-war immigration to Australia</a>. Balaban's occupation on his immigration record was listed as "chemist".<sup id="cite_ref-STNov54_5-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-STNov54-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-ancestry_1-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-ancestry-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The vessel carried 954 passengers, representing 18 nationalities from "all parts of Europe". Most of the immigrants were "displaced persons". One group came from Paris where they had lived privately "and were not used to camp life"; they had expected to travel to Australia "under first class conditions" but "their illusions were soon shattered when they encountered the communal life of the displaced persons ship".<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> During the voyage to Australia, Balaban "had a fight with a migration official" and was locked up in the ship's cells.<sup id="cite_ref-NewsJuly_2-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-NewsJuly-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The passengers on the <i>Hellenic Prince</i> were to have disembarked at Fremantle, but instructions were received during the voyage to proceed to Melbourne.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>By early November 1951, John Balaban was living in <a href="/wiki/Adelaide" title="Adelaide">Adelaide</a>, <a href="/wiki/South_Australia" title="South Australia">South Australia</a>. In that month, a letter from Balaban was published in the Adelaide <i>Advertiser</i> newspaper, advocating that the Department of Immigration utilise phonograph discs for teaching English to <a href="/wiki/New_Australians" title="New Australians">New Australians</a>. Balaban's address was given as <a href="/wiki/Whitmore_Square" title="Whitmore Square">Whitmore Square</a> in Adelaide.<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>During his time in Australia, Balaban was employed in such work as grape-picking, oxy-welding and labouring. Even though newspaper reports claimed he was an industrial or metallurgical chemist, he was unable to find work in this field in Australia.<sup id="cite_ref-acquitted_10-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-acquitted-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Balaban met a divorced woman named Thelma Cadd, who was the proprietor of a café called the 'Sunshine Snack Shop' in <a href="/wiki/Gouger_Street,_Adelaide" title="Gouger Street, Adelaide">Gouger Street, Adelaide</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> She lived above the café with her six-year-old son Phillip. Thelma's 65-year-old mother, Susan Ackland, often stayed at the Gouger Street address, although her normal place of abode was recorded as Churchill Street in suburban <a href="/wiki/Kilburn,_South_Australia" title="Kilburn, South Australia">Kilburn</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-murder_12-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-murder-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> John Balaban and Thelma Cadd (<i>née</i> Ackland) were married on 27 September 1952 in the <a href="/wiki/Clayton_Wesley_Uniting_Church" title="Clayton Wesley Uniting Church">Clayton Congregational Church</a>, in the Adelaide suburb of <a href="/wiki/Norwood,_South_Australia" title="Norwood, South Australia">Norwood</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>However, the marriage was short-lived and troubled; by December 1952 the couple had separated and Balaban was living in a room in Gover Street, North Adelaide.<sup id="cite_ref-N9Dec_14-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-N9Dec-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-AdJan_15-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-AdJan-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Balaban later blamed the separation from his wife in large measure upon his mother-in-law; in a statement to the police after he had murdered both his wife and mother-in-law, Balaban claimed that Susan Ackland "always interfered", adding "she made trouble for my wife, and her first husband, and she'd do the same thing with me and my wife".<sup id="cite_ref-torrens_16-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-torrens-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Murder_of_Zora_Kusic">Murder of Zora Kusic</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=John_Balaban_(serial_killer)&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Murder of Zora Kusic"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>In the early evening of 5 December 1952, the mutilated body of Zora Kusic, a 29-year-old <a href="/wiki/Yugoslavia" title="Yugoslavia">Yugoslav</a> migrant, was discovered in her tin shack at the rear of a boarding-house in North Parade, in the west Adelaide suburb of <a href="/wiki/Torrensville,_South_Australia" title="Torrensville, South Australia">Torrensville</a>. The dead woman was found by a friend, a Bulgarian migrant, one of ten New Australians living in the North Parade boarding-house. Kusic was found lying on her bed with her throat and side gashed and her body mutilated by knife cuts. A penknife was found in a bloodstained dish of water near the bed.<sup id="cite_ref-zora_17-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-zora-17"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-allege_18-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-allege-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>18<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>The day after Zora Kusic's death, police officers visited Balaban's room in Gover Street and questioned him. Copies of newspapers containing reports of the murder were found on his bed. Balaban was shown a photograph of Kusic and initially denied he had known her. He was taken to the Detective Office where he repeated his denials. He was then allowed to return to his home, but two days later, after detectives had made further enquiries, Balaban was arrested. Faced with testimony by other witnesses, Balaban now admitted to meeting Kusic at a city hotel while he was drinking there with another Romanian man. After his companion departed, Balaban claimed he and Kusic left the hotel and travelled in a taxi to another hotel in Torrensville, but denied he had gone with Kusic to her room.<sup id="cite_ref-AdJan_15-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-AdJan-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Several days later, Balaban was arrested and charged for the crime; he was remanded in custody for a fortnight while the police obtained statements to support the case.<sup id="cite_ref-N9Dec_14-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-N9Dec-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Balaban's remand was later extended.<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-19"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>19<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>In early January 1953, a hearing of the case against Ioan Balaban on the charge of having murdered Zora Kusic was held over five days before the Police Magistrate L. E. Clarke. After all the evidence had been presented the Police Magistrate decided that, although the case had established "the utmost gravity of suspicion" against the defendant, it was insufficient to present a <i><a href="/wiki/Prima_facie" title="Prima facie">prima facie</a></i> case of guilt on the murder charge; in the magistrate's opinion "no jury would be likely to convict on the evidence". At the conclusion of the hearing on 12 January 1953, the defendant was discharged. Balaban "wept as he left the dock".<sup id="cite_ref-AdJan_15-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-AdJan-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>On the day after his discharge by the court, Balaban was interviewed by reporters. The article subsequently published in the Adelaide <i>News</i> described Balaban as "a handsome 29-year-old" who was "pale and lined after his five-day court ordeal" and incorrectly stated he had been <a href="/wiki/Acquittal" title="Acquittal">acquitted</a>. Balaban told the reporters, "in his peculiar, quiet, broken English", that he felt "born again" and wanted "only to take long walks through the city streets, and study the people". He said "that when he earned enough money to buy a typewriter he would write a novel on the 'ups and downs' of his life".<sup id="cite_ref-acquitted_10-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-acquitted-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>A month later, after his apprehension for the murder of his wife and mother-in-law, Balaban confessed to the murder of Zora Kusic. He admitted to meeting her 5 December 1952 at the Royal Admiral Hotel in Hindley Street, before hiring a taxi and going with her to her room behind the Torrensville boarding-house. They had drunk beer together and Balaban claimed Kusic had asked for five pounds in exchange for sex. Stating that "he was very much against prostitutes", Balaban added: "it was the way she asked me that made me refuse her and subsequently kill her". He found a penknife in the room with which he killed and mutilated her, later washing his hands in a dish of water in which he left the knife. After committing the murder, Balaban went to the Southern Cross Hotel in King William Street.<sup id="cite_ref-allege_18-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-allege-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>18<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="The_Sunshine_Café_murders"><span id="The_Sunshine_Caf.C3.A9_murders"></span>The Sunshine Café murders</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=John_Balaban_(serial_killer)&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: The Sunshine Café murders"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <figure class="mw-default-size mw-halign-right" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Sunshine_Cafe,_Gouger_Street,_Adelaide.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Sunshine_Cafe%2C_Gouger_Street%2C_Adelaide.jpg/220px-Sunshine_Cafe%2C_Gouger_Street%2C_Adelaide.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="310" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Sunshine_Cafe%2C_Gouger_Street%2C_Adelaide.jpg/330px-Sunshine_Cafe%2C_Gouger_Street%2C_Adelaide.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Sunshine_Cafe%2C_Gouger_Street%2C_Adelaide.jpg/440px-Sunshine_Cafe%2C_Gouger_Street%2C_Adelaide.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1200" data-file-height="1689" /></a><figcaption>The Sunshine Snack Shop, Gouger Street in Adelaide, showing where Verna Manie jumped from a window to escape from her attacker.</figcaption></figure> <p>Balaban claimed "he went back to his wife" on 23 February 1953, adding that "she began to complain again". On April 11, he left again "and had some drink".<sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-20"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>20<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> By his own account, Balaban then went on a drunken, violent rampage along the banks of the <a href="/wiki/River_Torrens" title="River Torrens">River Torrens</a>. In a river-side toilet block he fought with a young woman. He found an iron bar near the University Footbridge and hit a man sleeping on the ground behind <a href="/wiki/Adelaide_Oval" title="Adelaide Oval">Adelaide Oval</a>. Near the Victoria Bridge, Balaban encountered an Aboriginal man and "a white woman". He drank with the couple, but then hit the man with the iron bar. Near the Torrens tennis courts he was chased by another man, but Balaban hit him with the bar. In court Balaban later explained: "I don’t know why I hit him, but I disapproved of him, as I do of people lying on the banks of the Torrens and making love".<sup id="cite_ref-torrens_16-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-torrens-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-NewsJuly_2-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-NewsJuly-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Tired and dirty, with blood on him and carrying injuries from those he had attacked, Balaban returned to the house above the café in Gouger Street in the early hours of Sunday morning, 12 April 1953. He went to the bathroom mirror to see the extent of his injuries. At that moment, he later attested, "I decided… to kill my wife because she was the cause of my condition and of me fighting that night". Balaban then grabbed a <a href="/wiki/Claw_hammer" title="Claw hammer">claw hammer</a> and went to the main bedroom where he killed his wife by battering her about the head with the hammer. He then went to the other bedroom where Susan Ackland and the young child Phillip Cadd were sleeping. Balaban beat Ackland with the hammer. The boy sat up and cried out, and Balaban hit him as well, later saying "I thought it better that he die too". Balaban then went to the front-room sleep-out where 24-year-old café employee, Verna Manie, slept.<sup id="cite_ref-NewsJuly_2-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-NewsJuly-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-21"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>21<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Manie had woken with the noise and, without speaking, Balaban started hitting her on the head with the hammer. She put up her arms to try to protect her head. Suddenly he stopped and said: "I killed my wife. Do you want to see her?" Hearing a noise from another room, Balaban said, "Someone is still alive inside" and left the room. Manie latched the door and, desperate to escape, jumped from the window seventeen feet onto the footpath below.<sup id="cite_ref-News6May_22-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-News6May-22"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>22<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> After he had left the sleep-out, Balaban attacked the victims again "so that they would die quickly".<sup id="cite_ref-News5May_23-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-News5May-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>23<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Several young men in Brown Street, about a hundred yards from the Sunshine Café, heard a woman screaming for help. Shortly afterwards they saw Verna Manie fall from the window of the balcony sleep-out and crash to the footpath. The shop assistant was dressed in a nightgown, covered in blood and was in great pain. Police and an ambulance were called, with the police arriving after a few minutes. Balaban was briefly seen on the roof of the building next to the café. He had escaped through the bathroom window and walked across several roof-tops, before climbing down into Thomas Street, which was a cul-de-sac. Constable McLaren, who had arrived on the scene, went into Brown Street and saw Balaban running towards him from Thomas Street, wearing a grey coat over a singlet. McLaren flashed his torch and drew his revolver and apprehended him. Balaban's face was covered in blood; he had abrasions on his face and one eye was discoloured.<sup id="cite_ref-News5May_23-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-News5May-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>23<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-NewsJuly_2-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-NewsJuly-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>In the rooms above the café the police found Thelma Balaban dead on her double bed. In the other bedroom, Susan Ackland was found alive, but died in hospital later that day from a compound fracture of the skull. On another bed in the room was the boy, Phillip Cadd, lying unconscious from a fractured skull. He was taken to Adelaide Children's Hospital in a critical condition where he died eleven days later without recovering consciousness.<sup id="cite_ref-24" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-24"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>24<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Verna Manie was taken to hospital and treated for two depressed skull fractures and a fractured spine.<sup id="cite_ref-News5May_23-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-News5May-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>23<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Trial,_appeal_and_execution"><span id="Trial.2C_appeal_and_execution"></span>Trial, appeal and execution</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=John_Balaban_(serial_killer)&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Trial, appeal and execution"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>In the hours after his apprehension and arrest for the murder of his wife, Balaban confessed to police he had murdered Zora Kusic in December 1952.<sup id="cite_ref-allege_18-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-allege-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>18<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> During these early interviews he also gave details of the murder of Riva Kwas in Paris in 1948, prompting police to initiate enquiries with the French authorities.<sup id="cite_ref-25" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-25"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>25<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Balaban was charged with the murder of Kusic at Torrensville on 5 December 1952 and his wife's murder at the Gouger Street house on April 12. He was remanded in custody.<sup id="cite_ref-26" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-26"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>26<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>The trial for the murder of Zora Kusic began on 22 July 1953 at the Adelaide Criminal Court. Balaban pleaded not guilty to the charge. In his opening statement the Crown Prosecutor, Reginald Chamberlain Q.C., explained to the jury that the defendant had confessed to his crime in full detail and that "the only defence would be one of insanity".<sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-27"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>27<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> During the trial, testimony was given by the psychiatrist, Dr. H. Southwood, who claimed Balaban was suffering from a mental disorder "diagnosed as the paranoid form of schizophrenia". Southwood said he would be prepared to certify the defendant "as a mentally defective in the terms of the Mental Defectives Act".<sup id="cite_ref-28" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-28"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>28<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Southwood's testimony was challenged the next day when Dr. H. Birch, Superintendent of South Australian Government Mental Hospitals, gave evidence and characterised Balaban as a psychopathic personality who was not certifiable. Birch described the defendant as "one who was not insane, mentally disordered or deficient, but who on account of abnormality of personality or character had been unwilling or unable to conform to the ordinary standards of society". Dr. Birch added that, from all the evidence, "he had formed the opinion there was a sexual basis permeating a good deal of Balaban’s life, including the crimes".<sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-29"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>29<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> On July 29, the final day of the trial, the jury delivered a verdict of guilty after a short retirement. Asked if he wished to make a statement before he was sentenced, Balaban said: "I want to obey the law, and I think I am not guilty". The judge then passed a sentence of death by hanging.<sup id="cite_ref-30" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-30"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>30<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Balaban's execution date was set for August 26. On 7 August 1953, an application was filed on behalf of Balaban in the <a href="/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_South_Australia" title="Supreme Court of South Australia">Supreme Court of South Australia</a> for leave to appeal against his conviction.<sup id="cite_ref-31" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-31"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>31<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The appeal was heard over six days by the Court of Criminal Appeal, consisting of the Full Bench of the South Australian Supreme Court. The Court's judgment was delivered on 17 August 1953, dismissing the appeal.<sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-32"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>32<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>In the week before his execution, Balaban "savagely attacked a prison warden whom he tried to throttle". The prisoner was "quickly overpowered".<sup id="cite_ref-newsAug_33-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-newsAug-33"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>33<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Ioan ('John') Balaban was hanged at the Adelaide Gaol at eight o’clock on the morning of 26 August 1953. The roads leading to the gaol were closed by police an hour before the execution and guards patrolled the gaol precincts in anticipation of demonstrations by opponents of <a href="/wiki/Capital_punishment" title="Capital punishment">capital punishment</a>, but "the hanging failed to incite even one member of the public to demonstrate".<sup id="cite_ref-newsAug_33-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-newsAug-33"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>33<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The City Coroner conducted an inquest later that day, at which the press were permitted to attend, finding that Balaban's death was caused by "judicial hanging".<sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-34"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>34<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> His was the first execution to be carried out in the newly converted Hanging Tower at the Adelaide Gaol.<sup id="cite_ref-gaol_35-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-gaol-35"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>35<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Balaban was buried in the grounds of Adelaide Gaol (between the northern walls), in a plot in 'Murderers' Row' that had been dug in readiness earlier in the week.<sup id="cite_ref-newsAug_33-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-newsAug-33"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>33<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-36" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-36"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>36<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="The_victims">The victims</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=John_Balaban_(serial_killer)&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: The victims"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1273380762/mw-parser-output/.tmulti">.mw-parser-output .tmulti .multiimageinner{display:flex;flex-direction:column}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .trow{display:flex;flex-direction:row;clear:left;flex-wrap:wrap;width:100%;box-sizing:border-box}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .tsingle{margin:1px;float:left}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .theader{clear:both;font-weight:bold;text-align:center;align-self:center;background-color:transparent;width:100%}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .thumbcaption{background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .text-align-left{text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .text-align-right{text-align:right}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .text-align-center{text-align:center}@media all and (max-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .tmulti .thumbinner{width:100%!important;box-sizing:border-box;max-width:none!important;align-items:center}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .trow{justify-content:center}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .tsingle{float:none!important;max-width:100%!important;box-sizing:border-box;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .tsingle .thumbcaption{text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .trow>.thumbcaption{text-align:center}}@media screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .tmulti .multiimageinner span:not(.skin-invert-image):not(.skin-invert):not(.bg-transparent) img{background-color:white}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .tmulti .multiimageinner span:not(.skin-invert-image):not(.skin-invert):not(.bg-transparent) img{background-color:white}}</style><div class="thumb tmulti tright"><div class="thumbinner multiimageinner" style="width:372px;max-width:372px"><div class="trow"><div class="tsingle" style="width:161px;max-width:161px"><div class="thumbimage" style="height:210px;overflow:hidden"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Riva_Kwas_France-soir_March_1948.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Riva_Kwas_France-soir_March_1948.jpg/159px-Riva_Kwas_France-soir_March_1948.jpg" decoding="async" width="159" height="210" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Riva_Kwas_France-soir_March_1948.jpg/239px-Riva_Kwas_France-soir_March_1948.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Riva_Kwas_France-soir_March_1948.jpg/318px-Riva_Kwas_France-soir_March_1948.jpg 2x" data-file-width="956" data-file-height="1261" /></a></span></div><div class="thumbcaption">Riva Kwas, the first victim of serial killer John (Ioan) Balaban.</div></div><div class="tsingle" style="width:207px;max-width:207px"><div class="thumbimage" style="height:210px;overflow:hidden"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Thelma_Balaban_and_her_son.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Thelma_Balaban_and_her_son.jpg/205px-Thelma_Balaban_and_her_son.jpg" decoding="async" width="205" height="210" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Thelma_Balaban_and_her_son.jpg/308px-Thelma_Balaban_and_her_son.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Thelma_Balaban_and_her_son.jpg/410px-Thelma_Balaban_and_her_son.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1200" data-file-height="1232" /></a></span></div><div class="thumbcaption">Thelma Balaban and her son Phillip, murdered by John Balaban in April 1953 in Adelaide.</div></div></div></div></div> <ul><li><b>Riva Kwas</b> was born in 1916 in Poland.<sup id="cite_ref-STNov54_5-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-STNov54-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In February 1948 she was working in Paris as a chemist and living in a studio-apartment in the Auteuil district of Paris, near the Porte de Saint-Cloud.<sup id="cite_ref-soir_4-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-soir-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Riva was murdered by Balaban on 22 February 1948 (or the early hours of the following morning).<sup id="cite_ref-STNov54_5-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-STNov54-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li> <li><b>Zora Kusic</b> was born in Yugoslavia in about 1923. She migrated to Australia in about 1948 and resided in <a href="/wiki/Kimba,_South_Australia" title="Kimba, South Australia">Kimba</a> at the top of Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. In about August 1952, she moved to Adelaide and lived in a shack at the rear of a boarding-house in North Parade, Torrensville.<sup id="cite_ref-zora_17-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-zora-17"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> She was murdered by Balaban in her room in the early evening of 5 December 1952.</li> <li><b>Thelma Joyce Balaban</b>, who was born on 2 April 1923 at <a href="/wiki/Kensington,_South_Australia" title="Kensington, South Australia">Kensington, South Australia</a>, was the daughter of Arthur and Susan Ackland. In May 1942, Thelma married Bruce Cadd (a returned A.I.F. Driver from Scarborough, Western Australia) in Norwood, South Australia;<sup id="cite_ref-37" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-37"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>37<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> in 1945 Bruce and Thelma Cadd were living in George Street, Norwood;<sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-38"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>38<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Their son, Phillip, was born in October 1946. By 1950, the family was on Fisher Street, in <a href="/wiki/Fullarton,_South_Australia" title="Fullarton, South Australia">Fullarton</a>. The couple divorced in May 1950, with a <i><a href="/wiki/Decree_nisi" title="Decree nisi">decree nisi</a></i> granted against Bruce Cadd for "habitual cruelty."<sup id="cite_ref-39" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-39"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>39<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Thelma, by now the proprietor of the Sunshine Snack Shop on Gouger Street in Adelaide, married John Balaban on 27 September 1952 in Norwood. She was murdered by Balaban in the early hours of Sunday, 12 April 1953.</li> <li><b>Susan Jane Ackland</b>, born in 1887 at Dandenong, Victoria, was the third of seven children of George and Susan Payne. She married Arthur Ackland in May 1914 in Kensington, South Australia. Her only child, Thelma, was born in April 1923. Susan's husband, Arthur Ackland, died in 1937. On 12 April 1953, John Balaban attacked Susan Ackland with a hammer as she slept with her grandchild, Phillip Cadd; she died in hospital later that day.</li> <li><b>Phillip Vincent Cadd</b> was born on 30 October 1946 in Adelaide. Six-year-old Cadd was critically injured by Balaban in the early hours of 12 April 1953. He died at the <a href="/wiki/Women%27s_and_Children%27s_Hospital" title="Women's and Children's Hospital">Adelaide Children's Hospital</a> on 23 April 1953.</li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=John_Balaban_(serial_killer)&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/List_of_serial_killers_by_country" title="List of serial killers by country">List of serial killers by country</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=John_Balaban_(serial_killer)&action=edit&section=10" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-ancestry-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-ancestry_1-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-ancestry_1-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Inward passenger manifests, Western Australian outports from 1897-1963; Series Number: K 269; Reel Number: 114; per Ancestry.com.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-NewsJuly-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-NewsJuly_2-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-NewsJuly_2-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-NewsJuly_2-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-NewsJuly_2-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-NewsJuly_2-4"><sup><i><b>e</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-NewsJuly_2-5"><sup><i><b>f</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-NewsJuly_2-6"><sup><i><b>g</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-NewsJuly_2-7"><sup><i><b>h</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/134208991">Balaban Tells of Murders</a>, <i>News</i> (Adelaide), 24 July 1953, page 36.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-AdvtMay-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-AdvtMay_3-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-AdvtMay_3-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48299030">Adelaide Police</a>, <i>The Advertiser</i> (Adelaide), 8 May 1953, page 16.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-soir-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-soir_4-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-soir_4-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k4746740c/f1.image.r=Riva%20Kwas">L’homme qui vit le dernier la Polonaise assassinée est interrogé</a>, <i>France-soir</i> (Paris), 10 March 1948, page 1.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-STNov54-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-STNov54_5-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-STNov54_5-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-STNov54_5-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-STNov54_5-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-STNov54_5-4"><sup><i><b>e</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-STNov54_5-5"><sup><i><b>f</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/59697618">Paris Spotted Our Murderer</a>, <i>Sunday Times</i> (Perth), 7 November 1954, page 13.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-News21Aug-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-News21Aug_6-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/134208824">Balaban gives details of French crime</a>, <i>News</i> (Adelaide), 21 August 1953, page 28.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/39109834">Nine Migrants Blacklisted</a>, <i>Western Mail</i> (Perth), 11 January 1951, page 12.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/256808735">D.P.'s "Blacklisted"</a>, <i>Kalgoorlie Miner</i>, 6 January 1951, page 5.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/45771839">Letters to the Editor: Learning English</a>, <i>The Advertiser</i> (Adelaide), 29 November 1851, page 4; an identical <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/130910841">letter</a> was earlier published in the Adelaide <i>News</i>, 5 November 1951, page 11.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-acquitted-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-acquitted_10-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-acquitted_10-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/130926873">Balaban, acquitted, to write book</a>, <i>News</i> (Adelaide), 13 January 1953, page 20.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/134286479">Remand on 2 murder charges</a>, <i>News</i> (Adelaide), 24 April 1953, page 1.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-murder-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-murder_12-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/50554320">Man On Murder Count: Two women killed in cafe attack</a>, <i><a href="/wiki/The_Courier-Mail" title="The Courier-Mail">Courier-Mail</a></i> (<a href="/wiki/Brisbane" title="Brisbane">Brisbane</a>), 13 April 1953, page 1.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-13">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/93927216">Marriages: Balaban – Cadd</a>, <i>Chronicle</i> (Adelaide), 30 October 1952, page 34.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-N9Dec-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-N9Dec_14-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-N9Dec_14-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/131198019">Charged With Murder</a>, <i>News</i> (Adelaide), 9 December 1952, page 1.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-AdJan-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-AdJan_15-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-AdJan_15-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-AdJan_15-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47519019">Torrensville Murder Case</a>, <i>The Advertiser</i> (Adelaide), 13 January 1953, page 7.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-torrens-16"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-torrens_16-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-torrens_16-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/129972344">Balaban Told of Fight on Torrens Bank</a>, <i>News</i> (Adelaide), 7 May 1953, page 10.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-zora-17"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-zora_17-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-zora_17-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/93931225">Woman Found Murdered at Torrensville</a>, <i>Chronicle</i> (Adelaide), 11 December 1952, page 3.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-allege-18"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-allege_18-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-allege_18-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-allege_18-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/49262393">Murder Confession Alleged</a>, <i><a href="/wiki/The_Barrier_Miner" title="The Barrier Miner">Barrier Miner</a></i> (<a href="/wiki/Broken_Hill" title="Broken Hill">Broken Hill</a>), 4 May 1953, page 1.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-19"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-19">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/131192690">SA murder case remand</a>, <i>News</i> (Adelaide), 23 December 1952, page 1.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-20"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-20">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/49271877">5 Murders: Court Hears Story</a>, <i>Barrier Miner</i> (Broken Hill), 24 July 1953, page 1.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-21"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-21">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/96224595">Shocking Double Murder in Adelaide Café</a>, <i>Recorder</i> (Port Pirie), 13 April 1953, page 1.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-News6May-22"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-News6May_22-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/129973388">'Struck By Fear': Girl’s story in Balaban trial</a>, <i>News</i> (Adelaide), 6 May 1953, page 2.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-News5May-23"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-News5May_23-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-News5May_23-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-News5May_23-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/129978575">'Made Me a Slave' – Balaban</a>, <i>News</i> (Adelaide), 5 May 1953, page 2.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-24"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-24">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/134284303https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/129978575">Third Murder Victim Dies</a>, <i>News</i> (Adelaide), 23 April 1953, page 1.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-25"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-25">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/229734631">Man on Murder Charges</a>, <i>The Sun</i> (Sydney), 13 April 1953, page 1.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-26"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-26">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48304648">Murder Admission Alleged: Balaban Charged</a>, <i><a href="/wiki/The_Advertiser_(Adelaide)" title="The Advertiser (Adelaide)">The Advertiser</a></i> (<a href="/wiki/Adelaide" title="Adelaide">Adelaide</a>), 5 May 1953, page 12.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-27"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-27">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/134207109/11135927">Insanity 'Will Be Only Defence'</a>, <i>News</i> (Adelaide), 22 July 1953, page 3.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-28"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-28">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/134210667">Balaban 'Is Certifiable'</a>, <i>News</i> (Adelaide), 27 July 1953, page 20.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-29"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-29">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/134202566">'Abnormal, But is Sane'</a>, <i>News</i> (Adelaide), 28 July 1953, page 20.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-30"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-30">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/134202723/11136071">Balaban to Hang</a>, <i>News</i> (Adelaide), 29 July 1953, page 1.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-31"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-31">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48267181">Balaban Seeks to Appeal</a>, <i>The Advertiser</i> (Adelaide), 8 August 1953, page 4.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-32"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-32">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/134201966">Balaban’s Appeal Rejected</a>, <i>News</i> (Adelaide), 17 August 1953, page 20.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-newsAug-33"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-newsAug_33-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-newsAug_33-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-newsAug_33-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/134207614">Balaban Hanged</a>, <i>News</i> (Adelaide), 26 August 1953, page 1.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-34"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-34">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48274980">Rumanian Migrant Hanged</a>, <i>The Advertiser</i> (Adelaide), 27 August 1953, page 3.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-gaol-35"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-gaol_35-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite id="CITEREFAlison_Oborn2015" class="citation web cs1">Alison Oborn (26 August 2015). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.adelaidegaolheritage.com.au/blog/john-balaban-adelaide-gaol-execution">"John Balaban – Adelaide Gaol Execution"</a>. <i>Adelaide Gaol Heritage</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">5 November</span> 2021</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Adelaide+Gaol+Heritage&rft.atitle=John+Balaban+%E2%80%93+Adelaide+Gaol+Execution&rft.date=2015-08-26&rft.au=Alison+Oborn&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.adelaidegaolheritage.com.au%2Fblog%2Fjohn-balaban-adelaide-gaol-execution&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AJohn+Balaban+%28serial+killer%29" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-36"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-36">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/90596041/john-balaban">"John Balaban"</a>. <i>Find a Grave</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">11 November</span> 2021</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Find+a+Grave&rft.atitle=John+Balaban&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.findagrave.com%2Fmemorial%2F90596041%2Fjohn-balaban&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AJohn+Balaban+%28serial+killer%29" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-37"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-37">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48867444">Marriages: Cadd – Ackland</a>, <i>The Advertiser</i> (Adelaide), 23 May 1942, page 10.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-38"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-38">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Service Record, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=6468402&isAv=N">Bruce Cadd</a>, Service No.: WX12473; National Archives of Australia.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-39"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-39">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/130785534">Divorce Orders</a>, <i>News</i> (Adelaide), 11 May 1950, page 2.</span> </li> </ol></div></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Bibliography">Bibliography</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=John_Balaban_(serial_killer)&action=edit&section=11" title="Edit section: Bibliography"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFKidd2000" class="citation book cs1">Kidd, Paul B. (2000). <i>Australia's Serial Killers</i>. <a href="/wiki/Sydney" title="Sydney">Sydney</a>: <a href="/wiki/Macmillan_Publishers" title="Macmillan Publishers">Macmillan Publishers</a>. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-74261-144-0" title="Special:BookSources/978-1-74261-144-0"><bdi>978-1-74261-144-0</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Australia%27s+Serial+Killers&rft.place=Sydney&rft.pub=Macmillan+Publishers&rft.date=2000&rft.isbn=978-1-74261-144-0&rft.aulast=Kidd&rft.aufirst=Paul+B.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AJohn+Balaban+%28serial+killer%29" class="Z3988"></span></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=John_Balaban_(serial_killer)&action=edit&section=12" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFAlison_Oborn2015" class="citation web cs1">Alison Oborn (26 August 2015). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.adelaidegaolheritage.com.au/blog/john-balaban-adelaide-gaol-execution">"John Balaban - Adelaide Gaol Execution"</a>. <i>Adelaide Gaol Heritage</i>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Adelaide+Gaol+Heritage&rft.atitle=John+Balaban+-+Adelaide+Gaol+Execution&rft.date=2015-08-26&rft.au=Alison+Oborn&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.adelaidegaolheritage.com.au%2Fblog%2Fjohn-balaban-adelaide-gaol-execution&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AJohn+Balaban+%28serial+killer%29" class="Z3988"></span></li></ul>    </div><noscript><img src="https://login.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?useformat=desktop&type=1x1&usesul3=0" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="border: none; position: absolute;"></noscript> <div class="printfooter" data-nosnippet="">Retrieved from "<a dir="ltr" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Balaban_(serial_killer)&oldid=1266638046">https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Balaban_(serial_killer)&oldid=1266638046</a>"</div></div> <div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="/wiki/Help:Category" title="Help:Category">Categories</a>: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:1924_births" title="Category:1924 births">1924 births</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:1948_murders_in_France" title="Category:1948 murders in France">1948 murders in France</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:1952_murders_in_Australia" title="Category:1952 murders 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