Alexander Pearce: Cannibal Convict of Tasmania

Sorry about this one.
             Not that my goal is to keep everyone up all night terrified, but Tasmania's history as a penal colony has resulted in some pretty gruesome stories. One that is guaranteed to make you shiver is the tale of Alexander Pearce. Born into an rural Catholic family in British-occupied Ireland in 1790, Pearce was exiled to Tasmania (then called Van Dieman's Land) in 1819 for "the theft of six pairs of shoes." The punishment seems a tad extreme, considering the crime. What happened next, however, casts Pearce and his exile in a different light.
         Within three years on Tasmania he was re-arrested as an absconder, charged with forging an order, and sentenced to Macquarie Harbour Penal Station, on Sarah Island. Pearce wasted no time escaping from prison, along with seven other inmates, and together they set off along the rugged and unpopulated west coast of Tasmania. However, the escapees had planned poorly, and within two weeks they were starving. They drew lots, and a man named Robert Greenhill, who had the good fortune to have acquired an ax during the course of the journey, disposed of an unlucky convict named Thomas Bodenham. While the survivor's stories are unclear as to exactly what happened next, it is clear that one by one the men either died or left the party, until it was just Pearce and Greenhill remaining. Pearce waited until Greenhill was sleeping, took the ax, killed him, and ate his body.
          Pearce was caught a while later and returned to captivity, where his confession of murder and cannibalism went unbelieved by the authorities. However, within a year he escaped again. This time his cannibalism was incontrovertible. He had escaped with a young convict named Thomas Cox, and at the time of Pearce's capture thirteen days later, he was carrying parts of Cox's body in his pockets. Pearce was immediately sentenced to death, where it is reported he said, right before his hanging, "Man's flesh is delicious. It tastes far better than chicken or pork."
           Obviously this story is horrifying, and Pearce displayed what modern psychiatrists would probably call psychopathic tendencies. What is interesting to me is that Pearce didn't show signs of psychopathy back home in Ireland. What caused him to revert to murder and cannibalism with so few apparent scruples?  While it certainly can't be held responsible, one wonders if the psychological horror inflicted by the brutality of the penal system itself helped unleash Alexander Pearce's inner monster.
          In the nearly two centuries since his death, Pearce has become something of a folk legend in Tasmania, the subject of numerous books, films, and songs.
           For reasons that are not entirely clear, Pearce's skull is currently in the possession of the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. There are pictures of it on the internet, but I figured after posting the cave spiders I should stop haunting your dreams.
         Source: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pearce
                      http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/10/28/1035683357802.html