Glen Sabre Valance

In 2010, she published a book titled A Tormented Soul, in which she wrote about Valance's life, saying his upbringing had created an angry young man. Clavell said she did not want to excuse her stepbrother's crime, but wanted to give context to his life.

Valance was the last man executed in South Australia, and the second to last in Australia; the last was Ronald Ryan, who was executed in Victoria on 3 February 1967.

In the early hours of 16 June 1964, Valance, armed with a rifle, tied up three station hands at the Koonroon property near Bordertown, South Australia then entered the bedroom of Richard and Suzanne Strang. Valance fatally shot Richard as he was sleeping. He then went on to rape his wife, who was next to him. He did not harm the couple's two sleeping children, who were one and two years old. Afterwards, Valance drove towards Adelaide. Suzanne called the police and Valance was captured at a road block near Murray Bridge. The rifle was in the car with him.

Valance pleaded insanity, but was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by South Australian State Chief Justice Sir Mellis Napier on 17 September 1964. The Supreme Court of South Australia dismissed his appeal on 9 October, and a further application to the High Court of Australia for leave to appeal was rejected on 9 November. According to Clavell, Valance was indifferent to his fate and did not want to be reprieved, saying "In the end, he said 'no more appeals. Let me go. I can't live with what I’ve done'."

After being denied a reprieve, Valance was hanged on 24 November 1964. The sentence was carried out at Adelaide jail in a guard tower that had been converted into an execution facility by the installation of a gallows in 1950 (the "Hanging Tower") and was the newest gallows in Australia after the one at Fannie Bay, Darwin (1952). The gallows survives, and the date 24 November 1964 and the letters GSV still remain painted on the inner perimeter wall above the grave, in the area of the prison set aside for burial of executed prisoners.

Born Graham Paul Fraser, he changed his name as a teenager to Glen Sabre Valance after Liberty Valance, the title character of a 1962 western film.

Glen Sabre Valance (born Graham Paul Fraser; 11 February 1943 – 24 November 1964) was an Australian murderer. He was the last man executed in South Australia. In 1964, he was hanged in Adelaide Gaol for the murder of his boss, Richard Strang.