Closing Hell's Gates: The death of a convict station by Hamish Maxwell-Stewart

In October 1827, nine convicts who had endured unimaginable cruelty at the hands of the system opted for 'state-assisted' escape. They had forced five terrified witnesses-their hands and feet bound- to watch as they seized Constable George Rex and drowned him in the tannin-stained waters of the harbour. When the sentence of death was pronounced upon them, the condemned prisoners uttered just one word in reply: amen. 

A remarkable tale of murder and intrigue brilliantly pieced together from thousands of original records, Closing Hell's Gates recounts the stories of the people who lived in Australia's most notorious penal station, and in so doing reveals some startling insights about human nature when it is pushed to extremes.