The Outlaw's Story

Brenden James Abbott was the most wanted man in Australia. He became as famous for his ability to elude the authorities as he did for the daring bank raids he carried out; he escaped from custody three times and was on the run for total of almost seven years. In this astonishing and gripping book, he reveals how he pulled off two daring escapes from maximum security prisons and executed some of Australia's most profitable and complex bank robberies. He also reveals hom his skills with disguises and fake identification allowed him to repeatedly slip through the fingers of oblivious police. Today, Abbott remians in solitary confinement and under constant camera surveillance, serving what he says is effectively a life sentence - he beilves he is a political prisoner, and that the authorities are determined to make him pay for exposing their failings. Author Derek Pedley is the first journalist to speak to Abbott, Australia's most closley guarded criminal. Here, for the first time, Abbott himself, his family, the woman who loved him, the bank staff he terrorised, the detectives who pursued him and the men who tried to emulate him, all reveal how the man who became known as The Postcard Bandit put his stamp on the nation - and paid the priceÖ

Derek Pedley is an Adelaide journalist who has reported on Brenden Abbott's crimes for The West Australian and News Ltd since 1994. His bestselling first book, No Fixed Address - The Hunt for Brenden James Abbott, inspired a 2003 telemovie, Postcard Bandit, also released on DVD. In 2005, he became the first journalist to gain direct access to Abbott, Australia's most closely guarded criminal sice his third recapture in 1998. He is deputy chief sub editor at The Advertiser in Adelaide.