"Stiletto" Jean Morris Headstone Fundraiser

“Stiletto” Jean Morris’s murder was one of the most brutal, bloodiest stabbings in Australian crime history and still to this day is unsolved. Due to this fact alone, we believe Jean Morris’ unmarked grave at the Ayr Cemetery deserves to be acknowledged. We are fundraising to place a headstone on her grave, so she is not just another unsolved murder statistic.

Jean Morris as she was known to authorities in the North, with an unknown background and family, believed to be in her early 20’s originally come to Queensland from Sydney, NSW. It is believed that she is one of the many sex workers that had been moving around far north Queensland where there was an abundance of single men cane cutting that were earning big money in the heart of the Great Australian depression. Over 30% of the population were unemployed in 1932.

Jean Fled Cairns and Ingham for fears for her life namely from Black Hand Gang. The Black Hand Gang were continually trying to get her to work for them as Sex Worker. Jean arrived in Ayr on the 29th of September 1932. It is here where Jean stood up to the Black Hand Gang for the final time and tried to get herself out of the gang’s clutches, she resisted the advances of love interest of Leader Black Hand Gang and other Gang associates. To this day, the police believe that this is what got her brutally murdered.

Records show that the evening of her demise, she had several clients visit her cottage since she was new in town and had unknowingly undercut the local sex workers prices.

Jean’s mutilated body was found at 10am on the 4th of October 1932, less than a week after arriving in Ayr. It is believed that Jean was murdered around 2am. Post mortem examination reveals she had 43 stab wounds 1/2 inch wide and 4 inches deep, believed to have been made with a blunt object with quite some force. Jean Morris, was found in her bed in a small two-roomed galvanised iron house, in Queen St, Ayr, which she alone occupied, her body was attired in a silk nightdress. No screams or sounds were heard from her cottage by the neighbours.

The type of weapon used for the murder was the type of weapon that was commonly known to be used by the Black Hand Gang and their associates. There is a lot of speculation that the Black Hand Gang and associates had involvement in her death, but it was never proved.

In 1932 statistics show that only THREE women were murdered in Australia, as at June 24, Counting Dead Women Australia Facebook stated there were 19 killed so far in 2023.

2022 there were 57, 2021 was 43, 2020’s count was 62 and 2019 was 65.

Due to these statistics, any leftover monies raised for Jean Morris Headstone will be directly donated to charities that help families of murdered women and women that have escaped with their life to rebuild after domestic violence.

The funds will be used to give Jean's grave a granite headstone and top.