Unbelievable: Inside Out: An Incredible Friendship and Fight for Justice is Kathleen Folbigg’s extraordinary story of 20 years in jail, wrongful conviction and how science, advocacy and friendship freed her. Photo: Supplied.
Once labelled as “Australia’s most hated woman”, Kathleen Folbigg was convicted of killing her four babies in 2003. After 20 years in jail comes her extraordinary account of wrongful conviction, and how science, advocacy and friendship freed her.
Inside Out: An Incredible Friendship and Fight for Justice tells a story of steadfastness, fairness and prodigious anguish beyond measure. Folbigg discloses details of her life before she was wrongfully accused, exposes particulars of the distressing times during her sentence, and shares her optimism for the future.
Tracy Chapman describes with passion and insight the fight she took up to help free her friend, and shares her hopes that their story will prevent other women from suffering as Folbigg did over those two long decades.
This tome is also about the utter disbelief, and the disappointment, about how “… The NSW Government and legal system had never shown an ounce of respect, empathy or compassion throughout our twenty-year ordeal.”
Together, these two women nurture a bond that supported Folbigg, in particular, as she endured the trauma of the prison system. Eventually, they faced down a misogynistic justice system, and finally, after many devastating setbacks, a breakthrough occurred to overturn one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in Australia’s history: on 5 June, 2023, Folbigg was released, pardoned and exonerated.
However, Folbigg writes she was “in shock at the speed with which she has been thrown out” of prison. It was all done in 56 minutes! She had missed out on so much while she was in jail. That’s damage that can never be repaired. Nevertheless, having re-entered the world, pure excitement had overridden everything else.
Then we learn of an oversight. While a sense of joy and relief filled Chapman, simultaneously panic, anxiety, confusion, anger and fear all waged war inside her “neurodivergent brain”. News of Folbigg’s impending release from prison was not passed on to either Folbigg’s legal team or Chapman, who was “… suddenly boiling with fury…” NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley “was poised to spill the beans at a press conference”, but there had been no heads-up for Folbigg, her legal team, Chapman or her other key supporters.
As Folbigg notes: “Mine is one of the worst cases of wrongful conviction in the history of this country. Nothing will rectify the botch-ups of the legal system, the misconduct, the mistakes, the wrecking of my life in the process. Not just the 20 years locked up, but years before that of soul-destroying suspicion, blame, accusations. Of loss.
“… Infamously accused of crimes so evil that just about the whole of Australia vilified me, abused me, threatened me, physically and certainly verbally attacked me, and threatened my friends and loved ones. That terrified me and made me constantly worry for their safety, let alone my own.”
Folbigg, now 58, had always wanted a family of her own.
“My children’s names were Caleb, Parick, Sarah and Laura. And – it is still unbelievable to me – I was charged and convicted of their four murders. Sentenced to 40 years with a non-parole period of 30; a sentence eventually reduced to 30 years.”
In Inside Out, Folbigg takes us back to her traumatic childhood, her difficult marriage, her dream of nurturing a family and the profound souring of that dream into a nightmare. There’s grief, camaraderie and ”happier memories” of her kids.
Moreover, it chronicles an unwavering attachment and resilience. Folbigg and Chapman were close at school. After Folbigg was jailed, Chapman renewed contact, convinced her friend could never have committed such crimes. She began advocating for her with extraordinary tenacity. Never doubting Folbigg’s innocence, Chapman relentlessly petitioned for new evidence to be examined, and for a new approach to be taken as doubts about the conviction grew among scientists and the legal community.
The pair’s long-standing bond has strengthened through Folbigg’s adversity and a united struggle for freedom over a couple of decades of heartache, hardship and genuine care.
Life is not so much about the quantity of friends you have, but their quality. The experiences shared by Folbigg and Chapman are inimitable, beyond anyone else’s full comprehension. The kindred spirits have focused on overcoming obstacles.
“You will survive, just as I have. The world turns, and life must go on … I walk with you always, in spirit, solidarity, and the life we lived inside out.”
Inside Out: An Incredible Friendship and Fight for Justice, by Kathleen Folbigg & Tracy Chapman, Penguin, $36.99
