The World of Crime

Unsolved: The disappearance of the Beaumont Children.

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 23:29:00 +0000

January 26^th is Australia Day, a day of national celebration, a day when thousands of Australians make the most of the public holiday in the height of summer, having barbeques and heading to their nearest beach.

It was no different for the three Beaumont children. The school holidays were nearing an end, and they were keen to spend as much time at Glenelg Beach as they could. Nancy Beaumont had chores to complete that hot summer day, so after some persuasion and assurances from her eldest daughter Jane (9), Nancy agreed to let them go to the beach unsupervised. Jane had always been responsible with her younger sister Arnna (7) and brother Grant (4). The children caught the 8:45am bus and were expected back on the midday bus.

Nancy walked out to the bus stop to greet the midday bus, but her children were not on it. Or on the 2pm bus. Jim Beaumont returned from his sales job at 3pm to a frantic Nancy, and quickly went down to Glenelg Beach to find their three children, but they were nowhere to be seen. Thus began one of the most famous incidents in Australian history. Were they abducted by a paedophile? Kidnapped and sold? Did they meet with foul play or an horrific accident? Nearly 54 years later these questions still have no answers.

__________________________

Jim Beaumont drove around the streets for two and a half hours before collecting Nancy and going to the police. Police initially thought that the children would still be at the beach, having lost track of time. Their search of the beach proved fruitless, and they expanded the search out to the surrounding areas. The police were able to establish that between the three children they were wearing or carrying 17 items, including towels and bags. None of these items were located either.

As news of the crime spread through the media, the whole nation became transfixed. Headlines screamed “Sex Crime Now Feared” three days after their disappearance.

Police spoken to many witnesses at Glenelg Beach and were able to piece together the actions of the children that morning.

The children had swum in the ocean, and played under a sprinkler in Colley reserve. It was in Colley Reserve that witnesses reported to the police that they saw the children in the company of a tall, fair haired man, in his 30s. The man had tanned skin and was wearing only bathing trunks. The children seemed comfortable around him, playing and jostling in an affectionate way. However, Jim and Nancy could not think of anyone the children knew who fit this description.

This was odd to Jim and Nancy Beaumont, as they felt that their children would not play with such familiarity with a stranger. To further add to the mystery, the children bought lunch form the nearby bakery with a One Pound note. Nancy had only sent them to the beach with coins. There was also an addition to their regular order – the children normally ordered pasties, but that day also ordered a meat pie.

As the days went on, no hint of the children or any of their possessions was found. All three children, and their belongings, had vanished without a trace.

As the investigation continued with no leads, a famed psychic, Gerard Croiset was flown in to help, with no discernible result.

Suspects

Harry Phipps

The most recent addition to the suspect list, Harry Phipps was a 48 year old factory owner when the Beaumont Children disappeared.

Phipps has come to prominence after the publication of a book called The Satin Man by Alan Whitaker with Stuart Mullens originally released in 2013. He lived only 300 metres from Glenelg Beach, and resembled the man seen with the children that morning. Haydn Phipps, Harry’s son, claimed years later that his father brought three children to their home that Australia Day and that he saw them enter the family house, but did not see them leave.

In addition, two local men, who had been youths at the time, claimed that Harry asked them to dig a 2m x 1m x 2m hole at the site of his factory that weekend, paying them in One Pound notes and telling them to never come near him again.

An excavation of an area of the factory was excavated in 2018 with no results.

Phipps resembled the man on the beach, but at 48 was considerably older than witnesses estimated, although it has been claimed that he looked younger than his years.

Bevan Spencer von Einem

Bevan von Einem is a convicted murderer and paedophile from Adelaide, known to be active in the 1960s and 1970s.

He was found guilty of the 1983 murder of Richard Kelvin, a 15 year old boy who was the son of an Adelaide television news reader, Rob Kelvin. Richard had been abducted, held captive, sexually abused, drugged and tortured for five weeks before being murdered.

Von Einem was also charged in two further murders but due to a lack of evidence the charges were eventually dropped. There are other murders that prosecutors believe von Einem was involved in, but have not been able to pursue due to a lack of evidence.

A long-held theory was that von Einem was a member of a high-powered group of homosexual paedophiles, known as “The Family” which operated around Adelaide without fear of prosecution as many of the members were high ranking lawyers, judges and other officials. While this was discussed in many media articles, there was never any documented proof of this group’s existence.

Von Einem somewhat resembled the drawing of the man seen with the Beaumont children in 1966, and an informant claimed that von Einem had told him that he once took three children from a beach and conducted experiments on them.

The statements that point to von Einem are that he liked to attend Glenelg Beach around that time to “perv” on changing rooms and was obsessed with children.

The statements against von Einem being the man on the beach are that he was significantly younger than the man was described on the day (he was 20 years old, whereas the man was described as being in his mid 30s) and von Einem’s victims were usually in their teens or older and exclusively male.

Derek Ernest Percy

Before Derek Percy died he was the longest serving prisoner in Victoria, despite the fact that he had been found not guilty of killing Yvonne Touhy in 1969 by reason of insanity. Percy was held indefinitely, On Her Majesty’s Pleasure, due to his ongoing danger to the community.

Percy was a suspect in many crimes against teens and children around the country in the 1960s. His family travelled quite a bit, and then Percy joined the navy, which placed him in the vicinity at the time of many murders, such as the Wanda Beach murders, the murder of Linda Stilwell on St Kilda Beach and the murders of Simon Brook in Sydney and Allen Redstone in Canberra. In 2014, a year after his death at age 64, it was ruled that he had killed Linda Stilwell in 1968.

Percy admitted to being at Glenelg Beach on the day of the abduction of the Beaumont Children, however he was 17 which is considerably younger than the man seen with the children.

In a personal touch, I worked with a woman who had grown up in the small town of Mount Beauty in rural Victoria while Derek Percy had lived there. She remembered him as a strange boy who was constantly stealing women’s underwear off clothes lines, a crime known as “snow dropping” which is often a precursor to crimes such as peeping, public indecency and worse.

Arthur Stanley Brown

In 1998, 86 year old Arthur Brown was charged with the murder of sisters Judith and Susan Mackay 28 years earlier in 1970.

Judith, five, and her older sister Susan seven, disappeared on August 26^th 1970 from a school bus stop less than 10 minutes after leaving home. Their bodies were found two days later in a dry creek bed. They had both been raped and stabbed, with Susan strangled as well.

Unfortunately, the trial did not go ahead due to Brown’s age-related health issues, but authorities and the Mackay family believe that he was responsible for the crime.

As an active paedophile during the 1960s and 1970s, Brown was considered a possible suspect for the Beaumont Children. He resembled the man at the beach, but there was never any firm proof that he had been in Adelaide at the time.

Jim and Nancy

Nancy Beaumont passed away in September 2019, never knowing what happened to her children Jane, Arnna and Grant on Australia Day 1966. Jim is now 94. Having to live more than half their lives not knowing the fate their children; having the judgemental eyes of the country on Mrs Beaumont because she let her children go to the beach on their own; the guilt she no doubt felt about that decision and the “what-ifs” she would have gone over in her head a million times. My sympathy for Mr and Mrs Beaumont is immeasurable.

I was born nearly nine years after the Beaumont Children disappeared, but I grew up knowing the story and wanting to know the answer to the mystery. I remember watching tabloid TV shows such as A Current Affair as they interviewed adults who claimed to be Jane or Arnna or Grant, all grown up. Of course, they never were. Or when a new theory or new suspect came up and all the tabloid TV and newspapers went crazy for the story all over again. I can’t imagine how much additional pain these claims caused Jim and Nancy Beaumont.

The case has become synonymous with the end of innocence in suburban Australia. With most viable suspects having now passed away, the reality is we will probably never know the fate of the Beaumont Children, unless someone stumbles on some bones by chance. As much as the rest of the country wants to know what happened, it is Jim and Nancy who deserve that knowledge more than anyone. And for Nancy at least, it is already too late.

Gable Tostee: Not guilty.

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 11:33:00 +0000

Today Gable Tostee was found not guilty after almost a week of jury deliberations. The audio recording of the incident, recorded on Tostee's phone revealed a drunken argument between Tostee and Warriena Wright, which resulted in him locking her out on the balcony of his apartment. She then tried to climb to another balcony and fell to her death.

I have concerns about the incident, but I think the jury made the right decision. As much as he is a bit of an asshole, there is enough doubt about his involvement that they had to acquit.

The scourge of domestic violence.

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Mon, 18 May 2015 06:46:00 +0000

The media in Australia is currently highlighting the significant amount of domestic violence within our society. Domestic violence has always been present, but a number of high profile cases have brought attention to something which has always been a “behind closed doors” issue.

It wasn’t that many years ago that it was treated as a private issue. Husbands beat their wives and children, it was just part of life. Technically under the law, they were his property and he could treat them as he saw fit. Fortunately that attitude has mostly gone, but as with many issues, the courts and government policy makers are lagging behind the community.

Here are a few stories, going back up to a decade, which have brought this issue to the forefront of the community’s consciousness.

Maribyrnong River Body Identified.

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 05:23:00 +0000

After releasing pictures of a distinctive devil tattoo, and the discovery of more body parts, police have been able to establish the identity of the victim. The victim is believed to be a male in his 30s.

Further details have not been released yet.

Gruesome find in the Maribyrnong River

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 23:03:00 +0000

Yesterday afternoon a passer-by found an arm floating in Melbourne's Maribyrnong River. Police later found another limb and a bag of what appears to be flesh. Police have deemed this find suspicious. Really?!?

I'll update when more information is released.

Henry Keogh's ongoing nightmare.

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 04:57:00 +0000

Henry Keogh at his arraignment yesterday.

Henry Keogh has just been charged with murder. Again. He was first charged in 1994 after the death of his fiancée Anna-Jane Cheney. Henry was found guilty and sentenced to 26 years in prison in 1995. The conviction was overturned on December 19^th 2014.

The overturning of the conviction was hard fought. Henry’s legal team first lodged a petition in 2002, with the primary issue revolving around the autopsy. Henry’s legal team presented material that the chief forensic pathologist, Colin Manock, had misinterpreted the autopsy, and thus presented incorrect evidence at the trial. A 2007 appeal was dismissed, but a fourth appeal to the Governor of South Australia finally produce a result.

Anna-Jane Cheney

Henry’s case was picked up by Channel 9, with a story on Sixty Minutes in 2011.

Anna-Jane died in the bath, and thus the case became known as the “Body in the Bath” case in the media.

The crucial evidence presented during the trial was four bruises found by Colin Manock on Anna-Jane’s calf. Manock testified at the time that the bruises happened peri-mortem, that is during death. The prosecution insisted that these were proof that the accused held Anna-Jane under the water: “If those four bruises on her lower left leg were inflicted at the same time, and that time was just before she died in the bath, there is no other explanation for them, other than a grip. If it was a grip, it must have been the grip of the accused. If it was the grip of the accused, it must have been part of the act of murder.”

Manock also proprosed a method of drowning which would have been impossible – the bath was against a wall, preventing his theory from being possible. The attacker would have been standing in a wall. Other experts testified that they believed the method of death to be accidental.

However, the prosecution also had evidence of a motive. Henry had taken out five life insurance policies on Anna-Jane. Henry, however, had an explanation for this: he had begun working as an insurance agent because he feared he was about to be laid off from his job at the State Bank. To keep his licence current with the agencies, he took out policies in Anna-Jane’s name. The problem was he got her to sign two of them, but he signed the others in her name.

Further issues with Henry’s character were discovered when it was revealed that he had been cheating on Anna-Jane. With two other women.

However dodgy financial practices and philandering do not make you a murderer. Many legal experts have voiced opinions in Henry’s favour.

Henry has been arraigned yet again to stand trial for the murder of Anna-Jane. I’ll keep you posted.

Gable Tostee: Playboy murderer?

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 01:16:00 +0000

Gable Tostee, aka Eric Thomas

Named after Clark Gable, Gable Tostee has now moved away from his distinctive name, changing his name by deed poll to the more mundane Eric Thomas.

This is probably for the best, because the “sleazy”, “odd” and “creepy” Tostee doesn’t seem to possess the charm and grace of his old namesake.

Gable Tostee came to national attention when a woman he met via the dating app Tinder, Warriena “Rrie” Wright, died after plunging from his 14^th story balcony. Twenty six year old Rrie was on holiday in Australia from her native New Zealand when she died on August 7^th 2014. Tostee claims he was not on the balcony with her, however neighbours heard arguing, and then heard Rrie scream “No, no, no… Just let me go home”. One witness described the fear in the scream as sickening.

Rrie Wright

Queensland police charged Tostee with murder the next day after he turned himself in. Police have audio recordings which supposedly contain evidence of a drunken argument between the suspect and the victim.

Tostee has boasted online about more than 150 sexual encounters, including sex on his balcony. He would go out four or five times a week, and often drink water while trying to pick up intoxicated girls. Of course this does not make him guilty of murder.

Other women Tostee contacted through Tinder reported he sent a message which read: Roses are Red, Violets are Blue. I have a gun, get in my van. While this may be in poor taste, this also does not make him a murderer.

Whilst on bail for the murder charge, Tostee has been jailed for 10 months for an unrelated drunken high speed cross-border police pursuit in his father’s car. The chase occurred two weeks before the death of Rrie.

A recently posted picture of Tostee and an alpaca. The alpaca could not be reached for comment.

Tostee has changed lawyers several times since August. His next court appearance is scheduled for March 13^th.

Twenty Nine Years ago today: The horrific murder of Anita Cobby.

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 04:38:00 +0000

The murder of Anita Cobby has haunted Australia for 29 years. Anita was a registered nurse, and a former beauty pageant winner. She was a strikingly beautiful girl, who could have been anyone’s sister, neighbour, friend. But a pack of inhuman animals killed her on February 2^nd 1986. Five men, including three brothers, took her life in the most brutal way imaginable.

Twenty-six year old Anita worked in Sydney and commuted to her home in the suburb of Blacktown. On the day of her death she had finished her shift at the hospital at 3pm, and then met friends for dinner in Redfern, another suburb of Sydney. Usually she caught the train to Blacktown station, then called her dad to come pick her up. That night the public phone was out of order, and there were no taxis around, so Anita decided to walk home.

Around 10pm, as Anita walked along Newton Road Blacktown, a car with five men in it pulled alongside her. Two men jumped out and dragged Anita, kicking and screaming, into the car. Two kids in a house nearby heard the screaming and witnessed Anita being forced into the car. The eldest, a thirteen year old boy, tried to run to her rescue, but he was too late. He ran home and phoned the police. When his older brother came home, he explained what he had witnessed, and the older brother went searching for the car. He found it, but it was empty, and he believed he was looking for a different model car. The killers later admitted they were hiding in the long grass nearby.

After nearly being caught with their victim, one of the killers slit her throat so deeply he nearly decapitated her. She was conscious for at least 3 minutes as she bled to death. Her body was found two days later and extensive bruising was evident, on top of the fatal injuries. She had been repeatedly raped, beaten and had her fingers broken. Anita had truly suffered before she had died.

Police offered a $50,000 reward for information, and staged a re-enactment of Anita’s movements using a police officer dressed in similar clothing. They received a tip which led to the arrest of John Travers, Michael Murdoch, and Les, Michael and Gary Murphy. They all had a history of violence, and Travers had a history of carrying a knife.

While in custody Travers requested a friend be called so that she could bring him in some cigarettes. Police spoke to the friend first, and she agreed to help with the investigation. She wore a recording device while talking to Travers and obtained a confession. All five were charged with murder.

The five accused had over fifty prior convictions between them. While most offences are committed by someone known to the victim, this was different. This was a pack of five strangers who showed their victim no mercy. Blacktown was reeling. Australia was reeling. Many people called for the reintroduction of the death penalty.

Travers pleaded guilty before the trial commenced in 1987. The trial of the remaining 4 lasted 54 days, with their defence relying on convincing the jury that they only had minimal involvement. They were all found guilty. Justice Alan Maxwell put it beautifully when he said “One of the most horrifying physical and sexual assaults. This was a calculated killing done in cold blood. The Executive should grant the same degree of mercy they bestowed on their victim.”

Anita’s parents were incredibly strong in the face of such awful circumstances. They founded the Victims of Homicide Support Group. Her sister Kathryn continues to advocate for an end to violence against women.

Today, is the 29^th anniversary of Anita's death. Her sister Kathryn, along with the investigating police officer, is holding a public memorial to honour Anita. While we can’t all attend the memorial, much of Australia is there in spirit.

Ivan Milat: The Backpacker Murderer.

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 03:33:00 +0000

Ivan Milat

Belangalo State Forest is like many forests around Australia – large and dense with long walking tracks used for mountain biking, orienteering and bushwalking. However Belangalo is now infamous as the dumping ground of Australia’s worst known serial killer.

The first bodies were found towards the end of 1992 by some bushwalkers. The discovery launched the biggest murder investigation Australia has ever seen. By the end of the search, seven bodies had been located at Belangalo; all of them backpackers from around the world (England, Germany and Australia) who had been hitch hiking along a popular freeway.

I remember at the time hearing of the missing British backpackers Caroline Clarke and Joanne Walters. Their disappearance was highly publicised and it was fairly obvious they had met with foul play. When the first two bodies were found at Belangalo, the media immediately speculated about their identity, and were sadly proven to be right. What no one could have known was the violence which had been inflicted on two young women, who up until then had been enjoying the holiday of a lifetime.

It wasn’t long before more bodies were found. James Gibson and Deborah Everist were found next. They had last been seen hitchhiking near the forest in 1989. Then the body of Simone Schmidl, a hitchhiker who disappeared in 1991, was discovered. Under Simone’s body were a pair of jeans identified as belonging to yet another missing person. The search was not over yet. The body of Anja Habschied, the owner of the jeans, and her boyfriend Gabor Neugebauer were found nearby. They had been missing since December 1991.

All of the victims were last seen hitchhiking on the highway near the forest. This was not the only similarity – they were all young, fit travellers. Most of the victims were visiting Australia, backpacking around the country as so many young people do. James and Deborah, the only Australians, were travelling from Melbourne to Sydney.

There were, however, some differences in the method of death: Joanne Walters had been gagged and stabbed in the chest area; Caroline Clarke had been stabbed and shot in the head several times; James Gibson had been repeatedly stabbed; Deborah Everist had been slashed in the face in addition to her stab wounds; Simone Schmidl had also been stabbed; Anja Habschied was decapitated; and Gabor Neugebauer had been shot in the head five times with the same weapon that killed Walters. All of the victims had fought hard for their lives.

There were campsites near the bodies indicating that the killer had spent considerable time with the victims, both during and after the murders. All of the deaths were extremely violent. The terror these young people experienced in their final moments was horrendous.

The known victims.

The discovery of the seven bodies led to a two-year manhunt for the person responsible for what was now known in the media as “The Backpacker Murders”. Media campaigns with photos of the victims brought forward many stories from people who had seen them hitchhiking. The first witness to come forward who had seemingly seen the killer was a very lucky man called Paul Onions.

Hitchhiking near the Belangalo forest in January 1990, on a holiday from his native England, Paul had been picked up by a man called “Bill” in a silver Nissan 4WD. After travelling for a short time “Bill” had pulled over, pulled a gun from the glove box and told Paul that he was being robbed. Rather than follow the driver’s instructions, Paul got out and ran through the bush, bullets flying past him. He managed to get back to the road and flag down another motorist, who took him to safety. He filed a report at the time, but it was not until he contacted the police in NSW (for a second time) from his home in England that the significance of this event was finally realised. He was able to assist police prepare a sketch of the suspect, including a distinctive handlebar mustache.

Police showed Paul a line-up of photos of suspects matching his description. He picked out a man named Ivan Milat.

Milat had a violent criminal history dating back to the 1970s, mostly sexual assault. In 1971 he had been charged with the abduction and rape of two women. He came from a large family and Ivan and his brothers were known to have a love of guns and hunting. Milat had been known to use the alias “Bill”. He had also sold his silver Nissan 4WD shortly after the discovery of the first bodies.

Police raided 7 properties in May 1994 belong to various Milat brothers. They found guns and other weapons, including a .22 calibre rifle which matched the murder weapon. They also found clothes and other items identified as belonging to the victims. They arrested three people, one of which was Ivan Milat. He was charged with armed robbery and discharging a firearm over the incident with Paul Onions. He was eventually also charged with seven counts of murder.

After a fifteen week trial, Milat was found guilty on all counts. His defence had argued that there was no proof that Ivan was the perpetrator, and instead implicated one of his brothers. Milat was sentenced to seven life sentences, plus six years each for the attempted murder, false imprisonment and robbery of Paul Onions. His sentences are to run consecutively.

I suspect many facts have never come to light about Ivan Milat and the Backpacker murders. One of his brothers suggested that Ivan had killed up to 28 people, and there are certainly other missing people who were last seen in a similar area, who went missing in similar circumstances. However, I can’t imagine Ivan ever being honest about the crimes he hasn’t been charged with. Milat has consistently denied any knowledge of these other cases, as well as protesting his innocence in the crimes he has been charged with. I can only hope police are able to one day find enough evidence in these other cases, for the sake of the victims’ families. Like many criminals, Milat is under the delusion that he might be released someday, and admissions of guilt or knowledge of other crimes would hinder that. Of course, in reality, Ivan Milat will die in prison. And even that fate is too good for him.

The other unanswered question is whether he acted alone. The way so many of the victims were so thoroughly over powered, and tortured for lengths of time, suggests that more than one perpetrator was involved. I firmly suspect that another Milat family member may have been involved in some or all of the murders. Of course unless someone decides to confess, we will probably never know for sure.

Milat has hardly been a model prison. He attempted to escape from prison almost one year into his sentence and on Australia Day 2009 he cut off his little finger with a plastic knife, with the attention of mailing it to the High Court. I’m sure the High Court would have been touched by the gesture. Doctors were unable to reattach it. He has also swallowed razor blades, staples and other metal objects.

As a post script to the story of Ivan Milat, his nephew Matthew Milat was sentenced in June 2012 to 43 years in prison for murdering one of his childhood friends. According to court documents, Milat boasted to a friend the day after the murder: "You know me, you know my family ... I did what they do." In a chilling epitaph, nine months after the killing Matthew Milat wrote this:

Click-clack
hear that,
stopping in the, middle of the track,
Are you Getting Nervous in the back,
Should be C your getting wAcked,
talk s here, talk s there,
No-one'z really gunna care,
but talk s with every breath,
You just signed away your health,
I can see you start to sweat,
Wanderin what your gunna get,
hopin 4-1 in the head,
C ILL Put it in Your Leg,
tell me, ARE YA HAVIN FUN,
get up C, And start to run,
how fAr are ya gunna get,
Your Match C you have just Met,
stumblin all OVA the place,
Hear the crunch of leaves and feet,
feel your heart, skip a beat,
Are ya gunna get away,
No hope kid this is your day,
The day that you wont be found,
Six feet under Neath the ground."

Awesome.

Sources
Murderpedia
Crime Library

John List: Time to start a new life.

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 08:48:00 +0000

This crime has the distinction of being the first crime to give me nightmares.

There were two things which disturbed me about this crime - the crime scene as the cops found it must have been horrific; and that he managed to spend 19 years on the run after he killed his whole family. But let's start at the beginning.

John List was a respectable married man with three teenage children. He lived in a huge old three storey Victorian mansion, called "Breeze Knoll", with his family and his elderly mother, who had lent him the money to buy the house.

Things were not as they seem however - John List had lost his job and was almost bankrupt.

Using very fucked up logic, John List says he decided that the Bible said that poverty was a sin, so therefore he needed to kill his family before they became poor, and thus sinners. Using a gun, he killed his mother and his wife during the day, and waited for his children to come home from school, killing them as soon as they walked into the house. John, the middle child, had soccer practice, so List went and picked him up, brought him home and executed him.

As he killed each member of his family, he laid the bodies next to each other in the ballroom in a row, except for his mother who was too heavy to carry downstairs. He then wrote some letters to the school and his pastor, turned on all the lights, turned down the thermostat, tuned the radio to his favourite station, and left.

He was not seen again for almost two decades.

The neighbours called police after about a month. Imagine yourself as one of those New Jersey cops walking into that scene: Three story Victorian mansion; lights have been burning for weeks, and now the only light left on is on the second floor, casting a dim light over the rest of the house; the huge empty rooms filled with John List's favourite solemn classical music; the discovery of the row of bodies in the ballroom, and one upstairs; the smell.

John List changed his name, remarried and started a new life, with hardly a thought to the lives he had taken. His new life was undone thanks to the Television Show "America's most wanted" doing a story on the case. Someone recognised him, and the jig was up.

What bothers me is his psycho-pathology. How could you kill you entire family, including your three children, walk away and carry on like nothing happened for almost twenty years. No guilt. No remorse. No feelings.

Now that's just scary.

Source
Crime Library

The murderous Captain Bathtub.

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 22:58:00 +0000

You know that evil stranger that your mum always warned you about? The one who comes to your house in response to a “flatmate wanted” ad and kills you. The balaclava clad man, holding a sawn-off shotgun, who starts leading to you to a darker, more secluded location. Ashley Mervyn Coulston is that evil being. And in 1992 he terrorised Melbourne.

Ashley Coulston

However, Coulston’s criminal career began long before 1992. On April 29^th 1971 he abducted two young school teachers, forcing them to drive to New South Wales, heading for Sydney. He had stalked them for two weeks before the abduction. Coulston’s choice of weapon was a .22 rifle. When they stopped at a Gundagai roadhouse for food, the screams of the women attracted the attention of a truck driver and they were rescued. He was 14 years old. Coulston was sentenced to three months in juvenile detention.

Publicity photo from G'Day 88

Coulston moved around, living in New South Wales and Queensland. He developed an interest in sailing and in 1988, during Australia’s bicentennial he came to national attention when he tried to sail the smallest boat from Australia to New Zealand. He spent almost a year designing and building the G’Day 88 which was about the size of a spa bath. His first attempt was thwarted by a cyclone, but he was successful on his second attempt. He was featured in many media stories and dubbed “Captain Bathtub”.

Sailing also introduced him to his partner Jan McLeod, a woman more than 15 years older than him. He lived with Jan on her boat docked at Hastings, on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula.

On July 29^th 1992, three young people were brutally executed at a house in Burwood, a quiet middle-class suburb of Melbourne. Someone had hog tied Kerryn Henstridge (22), Anne Smerdon (22) and Peter Dempsey (27, Anne’s brother-in-law) with cable ties and shot them all in the head. Kerryn’s mother discovered the horrifying scene the following morning when she went to the house. Kerryn had been moving out that day and had failed to meet her mother as planned.

Anne Smerden

Kerryn was moving home to Hamilton, a town west of Melbourne. The other tenants had advertised for a new flatmate, and had been interviewing prospective tenants on the night of the 29^th. One man attended the house at 8pm sharp, and left about 8:10. He was the last person to see the trio alive. There was another man scheduled to visit that night, a 40 year old man named Duncan. It is now believed that Duncan was Ashley Coulston.

Kerryn Henstridge

Police appeals for information did not turn up any leads.

Peter Dempsey

Five weeks after the execution of three young people rocked the Melbourne suburbs, Richard and Anne Shalagin were returning to their car near the National Gallery of Victoria on St Kilda Road when they were approached by a man in a balaclava, who silently pointed a gun at them. Thinking he was there to rob them, they threw a few $50 notes at him, which he took, but he kept menacing them. He motioned for them to go to a darker area, under a tree. St Kilda Road is a very busy road near the Melbourne CBD. He told Anne to lie facedown, kicking her even though she complied with his demands. The man took out some cable ties to bind Anne, and while doing so, put his rifle down. Richard took this opportunity to grab the man in a bear hug, and after a brief struggle, both the Shalagins managed to run away. Richard’s actions almost certainly saved their lives.

The shouts of the Shalagins drew the attention of two security guards who radioed for police. The approached the man, who shot one of the security guards in the hip. Despite this, they managed to grab him and hold him until the police arrived.

Coulston's gun with a homemade silencer, made from an oil can.

Police took the man back to the police station. He was Ashley Mervyn Coulson and he had a murder kit on him that night – sawn-off shotgun with a homemade silencer, knife, balaclava, high velocity .22 cartridges, handcuffs, thumb cuffs and cable ties.

When the police did ballistic tests on the shotgun they found a match to two of the bullets used in the Burwood murders. The third bullet was too badly damaged to be compared. The homemade silencer had high velocity bloodstains matching the Burwood crime scene. Police also found a map book with Coulston’s fingerprint on the page for Burwood. They had their man.

Coulston refused to say anything to police during questioning. His partner Jan gave him an alibi, stating he was visiting her in Frankston Hospital that night, but this was not able to be verified. He claimed he had lent his gun to a friend. The person he named stated he did not know Coulston, and was out of the country at the time of the murder.

Coulston was charged with the Burwood murders and 11 other offenses. He remained mute throughout his trial. He was found guilty, but successfully appealed that verdict. He was found guilty again at his second trial, and his appeal was denied. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Because of Coulston’s refusal to speak, the motive for the execution of three innocent young people remains unknown. It is speculated it was just a thrill killing. Three lives full of potential were ended just for kicks.

In a troubling incident, Coulston was able to access the names of 51 nurses working at Frankston Hospital the night of the murders in Burwood through a Freedom of Information (FOI) application. This led to changes in the FOI laws in Victoria preventing names of public servants being released. He was also able to access records about a notorious Melbourne child killer call Mr Cruel.

It is highly unlikely that Coulston did not commit any crimes between 1971 and 1992. He is suspected of being the “Balaclava Killer” who terrorised the Gold Coast and Tweed Heads, on the border between New South Wales and Queensland between 1979 and 1980. Coulston lived in the area at the time. He is also a prime suspect for being the “Sutherland Rapist” who attacked women in Sydney between 1981 and 1984. The rapist wore a balaclava and carried a sawn-off shotgun. Coulston was living in Sydney at the time. He was investigated in related to the disappearance of Sarah McDiarmid from Kananook railway station in Melbourne in1990. No evidence was found to link him to her death, and her body has never been found. Coulston was even considered a possible suspect for the “Mr Cruel” crimes. (I’ll discuss Mr Cruel in a later post).

Considering that Coulston refuses to talk about the crimes he is known to have committed, he is unlikely to ever confess to any further crimes. He remains in prison alongside some of the most dangerous men to have terrorised the city of Melbourne.

Katherine Knight: Australia's most gruesome female killer?

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 00:21:00 +0000

Not many Australians have heard of Katherine Knight. Yet Knight is one of the most gruesome murderers in Australian history. So why haven’t we heard about her? Because the media, the same media that revels in all stories of murder and mayhem, voluntarily decided that this story was just too horrific.

Katherine Knight is the first Australian woman to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for the murder of her defacto husband John Price, known to his mates as Pricey.

Katherine grew up in an extremely violent and dysfunctional house, where her father would use intimidation and violence to rape her mother up to ten times a day. Her mother in turn would tell her children how much she hated men and sex. But her mother’s advice to young Katherine, when she mentioned her boyfriend wanted to her to do a sex act she didn’t want to do, was “put up with it and stop complaining”.

Katherine was described as a pleasant young girl, but she was also prone to murderous rages in response to minor incidents. She was a school bully, assaulting pupils and teachers alike. By contrast, when she was not in a rage, she won awards for her good behaviour.

Katherine’s first husband, David Kellett, remembers the advice he received from Katherine’s mother on their wedding day in 1974 “You better watch this one or she'll fucking kill you. Stir her up the wrong way or do the wrong thing and you're fucked, don't ever think of playing up on her, she'll fuckin' kill you.” It seems her mother knew her well. Katherine fractured David’s skull with a frying pan one night after he returned late from a darts tournament. He was late because he made the finals.

David Kellett and Katherine on their wedding day.

David left Katherine shortly after the birth of their daughter Melissa, heading to Queensland with a new girlfriend. Katherine suffered post natal depression and was hospitalised in Tamworth for several weeks. Upon release from hospital she placed two month old Melissa on the train tracks, and took an axe into town, threatening to kill several people. An old forager found Melissa before the train came along, and Katherine was readmitted to hospital. She checked herself out the next day.

A few days after this, Katherine slashed the face of a woman, and demanded she drive her to Queensland to find David. The woman escaped at a service station, but Katherine took a little boy hostage, and had a standoff with police. They finally disarmed her with a broom, and she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Katherine had targeted the service station because the mechanic there had fixed David’s car, allowing him to go to Queensland. She planned on finding David, and killing him and his mother. Upon hearing of the incident, David left his girlfriend, and he and his mother decided to head back to New South Wales and support Katherine.

Katherine eventually left David in 1984, by which time they had a second daughter, Natasha. Katherine had begun working in an abattoir, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

Katherine began a relationship with 38 year old David Saunders in 1986. David moved in with Katherine, but kept his apartment in a neighbouring town. During the volatile relationship, David would often leave Katherine and return to his apartment. Katherine would inevitably follow and beg him to come back to her.

In 1987 Katherine cut the throat of David’s two month old dingo pup in front of him to show him what would happen if he ever cheated on her.

1988 saw the birth of Katherine’s third daughter, Sarah. During an argument with David, Katherine hit him in the face with an iron and stabbed him in the stomach. David left, and upon his return he discovered that Katherine had cut up all his clothes. At this point, he took long service leave from work and went into hiding. After several months he returned to see his daughter, only to find that Katherine had gone to the police and obtained an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) against him. She told the police that she was afraid of him.

Katherine gave birth to her fourth child in 1990, a boy named Eric. Eric’s father, John Chillingworth, lasted three years with Katherine before she left him for a man she had been having an affair with – John “Pricey” Price.

Katherine and Pricey.

Pricey was a typical Aussie country bloke. Easy going, and liked by all who knew him. Divorced, his two eldest children lived with him. He knew of Katherine’s violent reputation, but allowed her to move in with him anyway. His children liked her, and although there were violent arguments, the relationship was generally happy.

Katherine wanted to marry Pricey, but he was reluctant. His reluctance cost him the job he had held for 17 years. In retaliation for refusing to marry her, Katherine told Pricey’s boss that he had stolen equipment from him, and Pricey was fired. The fact that it was out of date first aid kits, taken from the company rubbish tip, was apparently irrelevant.

They separated for a while, but then Pricey took her back. This time he refused to let her move back in with him, and the fighting was more frequent than ever. Pricey’s friends now started avoiding him, because they didn’t want anything to do with Katherine.

The fights increased in violence, until one night in February 2000 when Katherine stabbed Pricey in the chest. That was the last straw and he finally kicked her out of his house.

He got an AVO against her on February 29^th 2000. That afternoon at work he told his colleagues that if he didn’t come into work the next day, Katherine had killed him. They begged him not to go home, but he felt he needed to protect his children.

During the day Katherine had bought new black lingerie and videoed her children in what appeared to be an informal Will of sorts.

On arriving at his home Pricey found that Katherine was not there, but that she had sent his kids for a sleep-over at a friend’s house for the night. Pricey had dinner with his neighbours, went home and went to bed. Katherine arrived later, letting herself in. She watched TV for a while, had a shower and woke Pricey. They had sex and he went back to sleep.

The next morning Pricey’s neighbour noticed that his car was still in the driveway, long after he should have left for work. When he didn’t show at work, a colleague went to his house to check on him. There was no answer at the door or bedroom window. Police were called after the colleague noticed blood on the front door.

When the police broke down the door, they found Pricey’s body, as well as Katherine unconscious from an overdose. Katherine had stabbed Pricey with a butcher’s knife while he slept. He woke and tried to escape, making to the front door before she dragged him back in. She eventually stabbed him 37 times. Katherine then left with his ATM card and withdrew $1000 from his account.

Now here is the gruesome bit – stop reading now if you don’t want to know what she did.

Katherine was an experienced abattoir worker, specialising in skinning the animals. Several hours after he died, Katherine skinned Pricey and hung his skin from a meat hook in the kitchen. She then decapitated him, and cooked parts of his body. She served the cooked flesh on plates with vegetables, with name tags for each of Pricey’s children. There was a third meal thrown on the back lawn. Police speculated that she had tried to eat the meal, but couldn’t do it.

An almost illiterate note left on a bench implied that Pricey had raped Katherine’s daughter. This accusation was found to be completely groundless.

Katherine offered to plead guilty to manslaughter, but this was rejected, and she was charged with murder. During the jury selection Justice Barry O’Keefe allowed potential jurors to be excused if they would not be able to cope with the details of the crime. Before the trial was able to commence, Katherine changed her plea to guilty. Despite this plea, Katherine still refused to take responsibility for her actions, and appealed her sentence. She was sentenced to life, without the possibility of parole. Her file has been marked “Never to be released”, the harshest sentence imposed on a woman in Australia’s history.

I first heard of Katherine when I read the book “Beyond Bad: The Life and Crimes of Katherine Knight” by Sandra Lee. If you get a chance, and you have the stomach for it, I recommend it. I found it to be extremely well written, painting the picture of Katherine and Pricey and their lives in rural New South Wales so well that I felt like I was there with them.

The murder of Rachel Barber.

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 00:15:00 +0000

Rachel Barber

Rachel Barber was a beautiful 15 year old girl. A talented dancer, she had the whole world in front of her. Unfortunately for Rachel this made her the target of a deranged woman who wanted to take all that away from her.

Caroline Reed Robertson was only 19 herself. Their families were friends; Caroline had babysat Rachel and her younger sisters. Caroline was chubby, and suffered from teenage acne, which led to a very negative self-image. As a teenager Caroline was a prolific writer, documenting her inner torment.

In Rachel, Caroline saw everything she was not, and an obsession began. In Caroline’s twisted thoughts, the fact that Rachel was beautiful automatically meant that she would be happy, something she desired so badly for herself. The obsession with Rachel festered and grew for several years. As early as 1997, two years before the murder, Caroline would take photos of Rachel, supposedly for school projects. It seems that for Caroline, coveting what Rachel had was not enough. She had to take it from her, and somehow transfer it to herself.

In the months leading up to the murder, Caroline decided that she needed a new identity. She spoke to Rachel’s younger sister and asked her for Rachel’s date of birth. The police believe she used this to get a copy of Rachel’s birth certificate. Still a prolific writer, hand written notes later found at Caroline’s flat showed that Caroline planned to kill and disfigure Rachel, and then create a new identity for herself as “Jem Southall” a wild 16 year old, a “total revhead”. She wrote detailed plans of how she was going to kill Rachel, and create a new life for herself as “Jem”.

Eventually Caroline’s plans were put into action. She lured Rachel to her flat in the trendy Melbourne suburb of Prahran under the guise of getting her assistance in a psychology assignment. It was a secret study, so Rachel had to not tell anyone what she was doing. Rachel was last seen on the afternoon of February 28^th 1999 on a tram with a woman resembling Caroline.

Sometime that night Caroline strangled Rachel with a telephone cord and, according to her later statement, she kept her body in her flat for a couple of days before taking it in a taxi to be disposed of. She buried her body on a property at Kilmore, just outside Melbourne, which was owned by her father.

Caroline’s attendance at work over the next two weeks was sporadic. On one of her sick days she applied for a car loan. She didn’t drive, so it is suspected she wanted the money to fund her new life. The loan was declined. She pressured a colleague to return a small amount of money that she had lent her. For all of her careful planning for the murder itself, she left a lot of the details of the next stage of her plan to chance. The police now wanted to talk to her. The net was closing in.

After several unsuccessful attempts on March 12^th to talk to Caroline, police gained entry to her flat and found her apparently unconscious, next to an empty bottle of Tegretol (which she took for her epilepsy). Upon searching her flat, police found clothes that would not have fit Caroline, but would have fit Rachel. After being treated at hospital, Caroline was questioned by the police. She confessed everything. The police retrieved Rachel’s body from her shallow grave the next day.

The questions which occur to me are: why not just create a new persona? Why did a beautiful girl have to die for this to happen? I’m sure Rachel’s friends and family have asked those questions repeatedly for the past 16 years. She specifically mentioned wanting to disfigure Rachel after she killed her. To hate someone so much, for a physical attribute that they have no control over, blows my mind just a little.

This week Caroline Reed Robertson was released from prison, much to the horror and anxiety of the Barber family as well as Rachel’s boyfriend Manni Carella. While the Barber family don’t want Caroline to contact them, they don’t wish her harm. However, they are very concerned that Caroline will reoffend, and put another family through the same torture that they have had to endure over the past sixteen years. Time will tell if their fears are justified.

I don't like Mondays - Brenda Spencer, the first school shooter.

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 00:18:00 +0000

The silicon chip inside her head,
Gets switched to overload.

Brenda Spencer lived with her father after her parents divorced. It would be a massive understatement to say it was not a normal relationship. Not many 16 year old girls sleep in the same bed as their father.

She had been depressed for quite some time, but her father refused the doctor’s advice to admit her to a psychiatric facility. She asked for a new radio for Christmas, instead he gave her a gun.

Brenda had already been in trouble for shooting her BB gun out of her front window at the school across the road, shooting out the windows. Now she had a real gun.

And nobody's gonna go to school today,
She's going to make them stay at home.

Unfortunately for many students, they were already at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, lining up outside, waiting for Principal Burton Wragg to unlock the gates and let them in. It was January 29^th 1979 and Brenda Spencer was about to become the first school shooter.

She used her Christmas present, a Ruger 10/22 Semi-Automatic .22 calibre rifle with telescopic sight, to shoot at the children lining up across the road. Principal Wragg tried to protect his charges, and was fatally wounded in the process. The school janitor, Mike Suchar, came to assist his boss protect the children, and paid for his heroism with his life. One of the first responding officers, Officer Robert Robb, was wounded in the neck. The shooting was only stopped because another brave police officer drove a garbage truck between Brenda’s house and the school, blocking her view of the children. After 30 rounds of ammunition, 2 men lay dead, and a police officer and 8 children were wounded.

Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.

Brenda then barricaded herself in her house for nearly seven hours. She told police negotiators that she was going to “come out shooting”. A journalist began ringing all the local phone numbers, to ask residents of the area if they had witnessed the events, trying to get a scoop. He unintentionally managed to call Brenda, and so he asked her “Tell me why?” Her response, according to that journalist, was the now iconic “I don’t like Mondays”. She ended the conversation by saying “I have to go now. I shot a pig, and I want to shoot some more”. The journalist had his scoop.

Brenda claims to not remember this exchange, but it would be safe to say that on that day she was not strongly connected to reality.

Eventually, she surrendered, and walked outside, dropping her rifle on the front lawn. The person terrorising an elementary school and a whole neighbourhood was a 5’2”, very thin girl, with long red hair. Police searched the run-down house, finding evidence of beer and whiskey, although Brenda tested negative for any substances in her system.

Brenda was tried as an adult. She pled guilty to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 25 years to life.

Brenda clearly had a mental illness at the time of the crime, which doesn’t seem to have ever been effectively treated. At her first parole hearing she told the parole board that she was hoping that the police would kill her. She claims to have attempted suicide the previous year, and she felt that her father wanted her to kill herself, which is why he gave her a gun. She also claimed to the parole board that she was under the influence of drugs, but the police conspired to falsify the drug test results. She has self-harmed several times in prison, once using a heated paper clip to burn the words “courage” and “pride” into her chest after a relationship break up. Brenda has been treated for epilepsy and depression while in prison, but still seems to be significantly disconnected from reality.

At her parole hearing in 2001 Brenda claimed her father had sexually abused her. This was the first time she had mentioned it to authorities, so they did not believe her. After Brenda’s arrest, her father went on to have a relationship with Brenda’s 17 year old roommate from juvenile detention, later marrying her. Brenda’s roommate looked just like her. In a cruel twist of fate for one of the children shot by Brenda, a child of Brenda’s father and Brenda’s roommate – Brenda’s half-sibling – attended the child care centre where the now adult victim worked.

Brenda has expressed concern that she is responsible for the school shootings which have occurred since.

“With every school shooting, I feel I’m partially responsible,” she told the parole board back in 2001. “What if they got the idea from what I did?”

Sadly, I suspect that even though Brenda was the first, she did not create nearly four decades of copy cats.

Long before my interest in crime, I loved the song “I don’t like Mondays” by The Boomtown Rats. The first two songs I asked for on vinyl, aged 5, were ”I don’t like Mondays” and “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles. I clearly had excellent taste. It was more than 30 years later before I discovered the story behind the music, after watching the documentary about Brenda titled “I don’t like Mondays”. If you get the chance, I recommend watching it. It gives a fascinating insight into Brenda, both at the time of the crime, and throughout the years in prison. It really is a story of a mentally ill person who needed help, but didn’t know how to get it. As a result two heroic men died, 9 more people were injured, and psychological scars were inflicted on scores of innocent people, many of them children. She is still in prison, and I doubt she will ever be released. At her last parole hearing in 2009 the parole board decided that she would not be eligible again until 2019.

The Somerton Beach Man.

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 23:26:00 +0000

At 6:30am on December 1^st 1948 Adelaide police were called. A local resident had found a man sitting on Somerton Beach, leaning back onto the seawall. His feet were crossed and pointing toward the sea. An unlit cigarette was tucked behind his ear, and one which was half smoked was tucked into his collar. He was wearing a modern grey double breasted jacket, crisp white shirt, red and blue tie, brown pants and a brown knitted pullover. His shoes were clean and shiny. The strangest part of his appearance was that he was missing a hat, which was unusual for such a well-dressed man. Also, he was dead.

The X marks the location of the body.

Witnesses had seen the man sitting on the beach the night before, stretching his left arm out and dropping it limply, where it continued to lay. His right arm was curled up towards his face.

In his pockets were a used bus ticket, a used train ticket, a comb, cigarettes and matches and half a packet of Juicy Fruit. The bus ticket would have taken him to the bus stop about 1,100 meters up the road.

No form of identification was found.

An autopsy was ordered, which found no apparent cause of death. The coroner ruled that the man had died of probable poisoning, most likely an untraceable barbiturate, although he ruled out the pasty which remained in the man’s stomach as the cause. The man was described as between 40 and 45, of “Britisher” appearance and in top physical condition. His dental records could not be matched to anyone in Australia. His clothes were searched, which revealed that all the clothing labels had been removed.

Police circulated the man’s photo and fingerprints to no avail. Some people came forward, believing they knew the man’s identity, but upon investigation they were all mistaken. As he could not be identified his body was embalmed, which was the first time in Australia’s history that this was necessary.

On January 14^th 1949, staff at the Adelaide Railway Station found an unattended brown suitcase which had been checked into the cloakroom on November 30^th. The suitcase contained clothes, sharpened scissors and a merchant marine stencilling brush. It also contained a needle and thread. The thread was an unusual brand and matched a repair made to the pants of the dead beach man. All the labels of the clothing had been removed bar three which read the name “Keane” or “T Keane”. Police renewed their search with this information, searching internationally as well, but could find no T. Keane reported missing from any English speaking country. The only other clue from the suitcase was that it was a style which could only have been made in America due to the type of machine work.

An inquest was held into the man’s death, and during this time, his belongings were searched again. This time police found a tiny piece of paper rolled up inside the fob pocket in the man’s trousers. The paper had two words on it – Tamam Shud, which is Persian for “ended” or “finished”, written in a distinctive font. It was the last two words from a book of Poetry called The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The book had been extremely popular in Australia, and now police searched for a copy that was missing a section of its last page. The media joined in the search, and the very next day a man found a copy of the book had been placed in the backseat of his unlocked car in Glenelg, a beach side suburb of Adelaide. He recognised the book from the newspaper story. The copy of the book was missing a section which exactly matched the piece of paper in the dead man’s pocket.

In the back of the book were faint pencil markings of five lines of capital letters with the second line struck out. The strike out is now considered significant with its similarity to the fourth line possibly indicating a mistake and thus, possible proof the letters are code:

WRGOABABD

~~MLIAOI~~

WTBIMPANETP

MLIABOAIAQC

ITTMTSAMSTGAB

Code experts, including the department of defence, were unable to decipher it.

Also written in the book was an unlisted phone number, which belonged to a former nurse who lived in Glenelg. She appeared very shaken when shown a photo of the dead man, but denied all knowledge of him, or why he would be so near her home. She seemed so shaken that police were concerned she might faint during questioning. She told them that she had owned a copy of The Rubaiyat when she had worked in Sydney, but had given it to a patient in 1945. The patient was traced and found to be alive and well. She asked not to have her name recorded as she was now married and wanted to spare her husband any embarrassment, so was given the pseudonym “Jestyn” in the police report. This severely hindered follow up investigations. Years later it was discovered that she was not actually married at the time.

The lack of information about the dead man, and the mysterious code in the book led to contemporary rumours that he was a spy. It was the early days of the cold war, and many believed that the man may have been a Russian spy en route to the Woomera US military base in central South Australia.

A plaster cast was made of the man’s head and shoulders and he was buried in a pauper’s grave in Adelaide. Years later flowers began appearing on his grave, although police were not able to establish who was leaving them.

After the death of the Jestyn, her daughter and daughter-in-law sold their story to the Australian edition of 60 minutes, claiming that Jestyn was a Russian spy and knew the identity of the dead man. They claim she told them that the man was “known at a level above the Adelaide police”. They stated that Jestyn was an admitted communist sympathiser who spoke fluent Russian. The women even speculated that she may have borne him a child – their deceased brother and husband. An investigator sought to have the body exhumed, but the Attorney General denied permission, citing a lack of public interest beyond curiosity.

The case is still listed as open in South Australia, but it is unlikely we will ever know the identity of the Somerton Beach man.

Martin Bryant and the Port Arthur Massacre

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 05:31:00 +0000

I remember April 28th 1996 vividly for a number of reasons. I went to a concert that night – Alanis Morrisette at the Palais Theatre in St. Kilda, Melbourne. My first time at that venue, and my first time seeing Alanis. It is a lovely old theatre, right on the beach. The old leather seats smell like leather and the sea. I had gone to the concert with my mum and my best friend. It had been a good night. My best friend’s daughter was a little over 1 year old, and we had left her with a family friend for the night, which meant we had two hour drive home, to pick Jaimee up on the way. The radio had been tuned to a pop station, I think Fox FM was my choice in those days. The late night show was usually a relationship/sex show with a DJ with the ominous moniker of “Dr. Feelgood”. A real doctor, she generally gave decent, frank advice. We were talking about the concert when we first got in the car, Dr Feelgood’s soft voice not making a huge impression initially. Then the content of what she was saying began to filter through. Shooting. Massive casualties. Australia’s worst crime. Port Arthur. Tasmania. Deaths and lots of them. We soon began listening to the radio in stunned silence. While we had been singing and dancing, oblivious to the outside world, a tragedy was being revealed.

Port Arthur

Port Arthur is a hugely popular tourist destination in Tasmania, Australia’s island state, south of the mainland. Port Arthur had been a penal settlement in the days of convicts, and the historical buildings attract many tourists, with there being shops, cafes and tours of the site, most notably night time ghost tours. By 1pm on that sunny autumn day there were 500 visitors making their way around the site. Nearly sixty of those visitors were having lunch in the Broad Arrow cafe, along with a man with long blonde, almost white, hair and a big blue sports bag. After sitting on his own on the balcony to eat his meal, he made a few comments to no-one in particular – most notably a comment about the lack of Japanese tourists that day. He then returned inside the cafe, staring at a group of diners, before placing a video camera on a table, turning to an Asian couple nearby, removing a rifle from his bag, and shooting. Moh Yee Ng was killed instantly, his companion Soo Leng Chung shot in the head. Turning to the first group of diners he shot twice, grazing one man and killing his girlfriend. In only moments three people had been killed. It had only just begun. Within fifteen seconds twenty people were dead and fifteen more injured. Fifteen seconds.

Martin Bryant

The shooter then opened fire on a group of tourists in the car park who were not aware of the danger they were now in. Some of the tourists crawled under a tour bus to hide, but the shooter calmly leant down and shot them as they huddled in fear. He got in his vehicle, a Volvo station wagon, and began driving to find more victims.

Next, a young mother was shot, as was the small child she was carrying. Her other daughter ran to escape the shooter, but he followed her behind a tree and shot her point blank. Three members of a family unit obliterated in moments. These three victims were Nanette, Alannah and Madeline Mikac.

On that day sixteen years ago a man named Martin Bryant made Port Arthur more famous than ever before, and for all the wrong reasons.

Bryant had always been an odd person – a loner in school, he was a loner as an adult as well. With a Forrest Gump level IQ, Martin qualified for a disability pension and obtained work as a handy man for a rich lottery heiress, Helen Harvey. Harvey took the strange young man under her wing, cultivating an unusual friendship, taking him on shopping expeditions and lavishing gifts on him. Many wondered if their relationship was more than platonic.

Martin’s behaviour was bizarre and erratic at times, which was extremely noticeable in quiet rural Tasmania. Neighbours complained about him prowling around their properties late at night, amongst other things.

The happiest years of Martin’s life ended abruptly when Helen Harvey was killed in a car accident. While some people claimed Martin caused the accident (he was known to grab and pull the steering wheel as a prank), no evidence was found and no charges were laid. Martin was the sole beneficiary of Helen’s estate, leaving him a mansion and more than $500,000 cash. He moved into the house and used the money for more than thirty overseas trips in a three year period, returning to his previous status as a loner.

In the months leading up to the massacre, Martin visited the Port Arthur tourist site several times. During this time, he also bought a new sports bag. The shopkeeper who sold it to him, remembers him measuring several before deciding on which one to purchase. These two facts tend to suggest that the killings were planned in advance and carried out with cold, calculating precision, rather than an act of impulse as suggested by some.

After shooting at people, he began shooting at vehicles as they approached. Bryant drove off in a BMW, after killing the occupants and transferring his guns from the Volvo. He eventually ended up at a local guest house, where he killed the proprietors and held the police off with gun fire for the rest of the night. His only request during the six hour standoff was for a ride in an army helicopter.

The next morning smoke was seen billowing from the guesthouse. Bryant ran from the building, clothing on fire. He was apprehended, his clothing extinguished and he was taken to hospital under police guard. It was over.

This was the days before the internet and information superhighway made updates on current events almost instant. The news would have started to filter through before we had gone to the concert, but we had been listening to Alanis on audio cassette in eager anticipation of the night in front of us. I’m glad I didn’t know about it until later. I think I really appreciated the fact that I heard the news about this from Dr. Feelgood. People were calling in to discuss how distressed they were by the events, and she was able to counsel them on air, and vicariously counsel us as well. She was kind of like Dr. Phil, but in a good way.

Walter Mikac, the only surviving member of his family, was a local pharmacist and became the face of the victims of this horrific event. Public sympathy poured out for a man who went to work one day, husband and father of two beautiful little girls, only to end the day a widower with three funerals to prepare. Walter established the “Alannah and Madeline Foundation” in honour of his little girls. The foundation supports children who have been the victims of violence or bullying. He went on to re-marry and have another child. I cannot imagine the pain he has been through. The pain that Martin Bryant has put him through. I have enormous respect for him, that he was able to continue with his life after that day.

The massacre at Port Arthur also led to the speedy implementation of strict gun laws throughout Australia. A gun amnesty encouraged all unregistered guns to be handed in, and very swiftly the gun culture of the nation changed. Now the only legal gun owners in Australia are farmers, hunters and sports shooters. There have been mass shootings in Australia before this massacre, but *touch wood* none since. For Australia, gun control was needed and has worked extremely well.

One can only speculate on the motives of Martin Bryant. He seems to have been focused on tourists, but it is unclear if this was a racially provoked issue. Unlike many of the other mass murderers we see, there was no apparent political message. Just a troubled man and some guns.

It is for people like Walter Mikac that I feel when I read online conspiracy theories suggesting that Martin Bryant was not responsible for the shootings, that there was other shooters, that it was an SAS officer who committed the crimes to instigate acceptance of gun control legislation in Australia, that Bryant was just a patsy. While eyewitness testimony is not 100% reliable, the amount of eyewitnesses to this event leaves little doubt as to the identity of the shooter. No other shooter was spotted by any of the people on the scene. Martin Bryant had no friends and it is extremely unlikely he was acting in concert with anyone. It was his act, and his alone. I understand that for his family, especially for his mother Carleen, it is a hard fact to deal with, and I don’t begrudge their grief, but the rights of the victims and their families need to be paramount.

For the more adventurous of you out there, there is police video available online of the crime scene, with the bodies still in place. I won’t link it here – just google it. I have watched it a few times in silent, morbid fascination. I can almost see the events playing out before my eyes.

Martin Bryant remains in prison in Tasmania, and I cannot foresee him ever being released.

For more details, check out Wikipedia or Crime Library.

The Zodiac Killer: This is the Zodiac Speaking

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 09:13:00 +0000

One of my main areas of interest in all this crime stuff is unsolved crimes, and The Zodiac is a beauty: serial killer who has killed at least 7 people - 7 are definitely linked to him, but at one stage he claimed to have killed 37 people. And he sent creepy cyphers to police and the media, some of which are still unsolved.
Here is the story: Most people believe it all started in October 30th 1966 in California, when pretty young Cheri Jo Bates was murdered. He had stalked her in her university library and disabled her car while she studied inside. When she couldn't start her car, he approached and offered assistance. They spent over an hour talking in the dark alleyway. Then he killed her. He didn't rape her, or steal her purse. He just killed her. The only clue the police had came in a letter from the Zodiac himself. He didn't call himself Zodiac yet. He didn't sign the first letter at all, but in the letter he made threats against women he saw in his daily life and ended the letter "IT WAS JUST A WARNING. BEWARE...I AM STALKING YOUR GIRLS NOW". The letter was sent to the police and the media. A second letter was then sent, but the police were still no closer to having any realistic suspects. The police had one suspect - an ex-boyfriend who didn't take the break up well. He is still listed as the only firm suspect in Cheri's murder forty years after the event. There is some conjecture whether Cheri really was the first Zodiac victim, but her death certainly fits the pattern.

David Faraday and Betty-Lou Jenson

Now the Zodiac began focusing on young couples in cars. Betty-Lou Jenson, 16, and David Faraday, 17, had the unfortunate luck of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Parked in David's mother's car in a "lover's lane" area on Lake Herman Road, Benicia, California, Betty-Lou and David were ambushed and shot to death late at night on December 20th 1968. It appears that David was standing near the car when shot, whereas Betty-Lou had made a run for it and was shot five times in the right side of the upper back. The police were baffled - there were no witnesses, no motives and no suspects (Graysmith).

Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau.

Six months later, on July 4th 1969, he struck again. The victims this time were Darlene Ferrin, 22, and Michael Mageau, 19. They were shot while parked at the Blue Rock Springs Golf Course in Vallejo California. Darlene was killed, but somehow Mike survived despite his injuries. He was able to give a description of the killer to police, but no leads turned up anything useful in their investigation. There were reports that Darlene's husband received a prank phone call later that night - he could hear nothing but breathing/wind.

Bryan Hartnell and Cecilia Shepherd.

It was less than three months later when the Zodiac struck again. Bryan Hartnell, 20, and Cecilia Shepherd, 22, were stabbed while spending an afternoon relaxing at Lake Berryessa California, September 27th 1969. During this attack, the killer wore a hood over his head which appeared to be home-made. Bryan survived despite six stab wounds to his back. He was able to describe the killer and the hood, but again police were left baffled.

Paul Stine.

The final confirmed Zodiac victim was Paul Stine, a cab driver in San Francisco, two weeks later on October 11th. As a victim he did not fit the pattern - he was 30 years old and not in a lovers lane type area. A square of Paul's shirt had been carefully ripped off, and pieces of the shirt were later mailed to the media to prove that the Zodiac was responsible.

One of the most baffling aspects of the Zodiac case were not only the phone calls he made to the police and families, but more than that it was the letters and cypher he designed which caught media attention. The letters kept arriving for years after the confirmed killings stopped - 1974 or 1978 depending on whether you believe the validity of the 1978 letter. It seemed he was desperate to get acknowledgement for his killing. He insisted that his cyphers be published on the front page of newspapers and the media complied. The cypher baffled law enforcement and a civilian couple actually solved it after it was published in the newspaper. The solved cypher, like most of the letters, promised more murders and implied that the Zodiac was always watching. In one letter he even threatened to bomb a school bus, and then shoot the children as they ran off the bus.

With a few appearances over the few years via mail and phone calls, the interest in the Zodiac was maintained, but the case was never solved. Some of the suspects included Ted Kaczynski (The Unabomber) and Bruce Davis (a Manson Family member). The most favoured suspect of many, including author Robert Graysmith, was Arthur Leigh Allen. I say "was" because he died of natural causes in 1992. DNA evidence taken off postage stamps did not match Allen, however there are some claims that he got others to lick his stamps for him. Convincing arguments for and against Allen are all over the interwebs. Other suspects have periodically emerged, as often happens in unsolved crimes. Most recently a woman came forward in 2009 and claimed her late father was the Zodiac.

Realistically the case will probably be filed next to Jack the Ripper and JonBenet Ramsey in the "we are never going to solve this one" drawer. I have just finished reading "Zodiac" by Robert Graysmith. While many have discounted his theories, I found it a useful introduction to the details of the case and it gave me many areas to think about.
The full story can be read on Crime Library and many interesting articles and points of view are out there on the interwebs. I found Zodiackillerfacts and Zodiac Killer most interesting - especially as they seem to have almost opposite views.

The plot thickens

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:13:00 +0000

It has emerged in the media (and here) this morning that Keisha had an older brother, Aiden, who died from SIDS in 2002. Police will now be investigating Aiden's death. It will be interesting to see what the investigation reveals.

What happened to Keisha?

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 06:29:00 +0000

Keisha Abrahams

Six year old Keisha Abrahams was reported missing from her Sydney home last Sunday morning, August 1st, after her mother discovered her missing from her bed and the front door slightly ajar. There was no sign of forced entry. There were reports of abduction flying around in the media. Her mother and step father suggested she may have wandered out to play with the local stray cats, which she liked to do, and someone had taken her. Keisha had last been seen the night before, by her mother Kristi Abrahams. Or at least that is the story Kristi has told the police and media.

Robert Smith and Kristi Abrahams

In the course of the last week it has emerged that Keisha may not have been seen by anyone other than her mother or step father for as long as a month. She had not been to school. Keisha was also known to child protective services and other government agencies due to her troubled home life. She was taken to hospital at about 18 months of age with a severe bite wound. A human bite wound. An adult human bite wound. Initially it was reported as confidential who the biter was, but a news service published the information on Thursday. Keisha had been bitten by her mother. And yet Kristi Abrahams is proclaiming "Stop judging me" to the media.

Kristi Abrahams has given birth to a son in the past couple of weeks. It makes me wonder if maybe Keisha was going to be in the way for this new family, and needed to be removed.

Keisha's step father Robert Smith has stated loudly in the media that the police believe he is a suspect and have said to him "just tell us where her body is". Apparently we are meant to be outraged that the police asked him this. Personally I am just outraged that a six year old girl has been allowed to disappear without a trace.

Links 1 2

Mothers who kill again and again

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 01:06:00 +0000

While I do not contest the existence of SIDS and other horrible genetic thingys which take the lives of little humans, I fail to see how four children, aged between a few weeks and three and a half years, can all die without warning. Children do not just die of congential defects. There are symptoms, warning of their impending fate. There is even some evidence that symptoms can be seen in SIDS babies, at least in hindsight.

It's one of those things which I simply find unbelievable. How could you kill your own children? Tiny babies. Again and again? Marybeth Tinning and Kathleen Folbigg did it.

Here are Marybeth and Kathleen's stories:

Marybeth Tinning

She looks evil even in photos.

The staff at the local emergency department were very familiar with Marybeth. She would come in with one of her children in her arms, dead or dying. Some hated her, some pitied her. Over 13 years 9 children of Marybeth's died.

One child, Jennifer, died of an infection. She was the first Tinning child to die. Doctors would blame genetic heart defects, SIDS, an unidentified genetic disorder for the other deaths. This had to be thrown into question when Michael died. Michael was Marybeth's fifth child. He was also adopted. Yet authorities did not question the Tinning children's deaths for many more years, not until after the death of her ninth child, Tami Lynne. Not until eight innocent children had lost their lives at the hands of their mother.

Marybeth eventually admitted to smothering her children. Her husband Joe seems to have not particularly cared either way - he couldn't even remember some of the childrens' names.

For Marybeth the motive seems to have been Munchausens by Proxy - she liked the attention given to a grieving mother. She enjoyed it after Jennifer died, so she thought she would repeat it. Again and again.

She was only charged with the death of Tami Lynne, as there was not enough evidence in the other cases.

Kathleen Folbigg

Kathleen Folbigg's first child Caleb died in February 1989, at just 20 days old. The official cause of death was SIDS.

Patrick Folbigg managed to live to be six months old before he too succumbed to SIDS. Sarah Folbigg made it to 11 months before SIDS claimed her life too. Laura lived even longer - she made it to 19 months. But she was too old for SIDS. The coroner referred the case to the police.

After Laura's death Kathleen and Craig Folbigg separated. Kathleen left many of her belongings behind. While cleaning up, Craig found a diary. Which, when he read it's contents, made him "want to vomit".

Kathleen felt neglected when the babies came along - the attention had shifted from her to the baby, and she didn't like it. It was like some morbid jealousy. She also had a furious temper, that she would take out on the baby if they did not do as she wished. She wrote in her diary of Laura:

"She's a fairly good-natured baby - thank goodness, it has saved her from the fate of her siblings. I'm sure she's met everyone and they've told her, don't be a bad or sickly kid, mum may, you know, crack. They've warned her - good."

During the police investigation, it emerged that Kathleen's father had killed her mother. Kathleen went to an orphanage and was adopted. Maybe it was in the genes. She wrote in her diary "Maybe I am my father's daughter".

Maybe she is just a selfish, selfish woman who should never have had children.

Read about Kathleen here and Marybeth here.

No Pardon for Karla

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 04:11:00 +0000

Canadian Parliament has just passed legislation to prevent Karla Homolka from receiving a pardon, as was previously the law in Canada.
The families of her victims must be so relieved.
Thanks to TheNag for letting me know.
Link

John Myles Sharpe - "The Mornington Monster"

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 03:55:00 +0000

John Myles Sharpe

John Myles Sharpe is one of the most callous killers Melbourne has ever seen. The community at large could not help but wonder - how can a man who looks so "normal" not just kill his wife, but his unborn child and two year old daughter? And not just kill them, but brutally murder them.

Here's a synopsis:

John Sharpe had been with Anna Kemp for a decade. They had met at the Commonwealth Bank where they both worked. They married in 1994 and had a daughter in 2002, Gracie, who was born with hip dysplacia which Anna tenderly nursed her through. When Gracie was about 15 months old, Anna fell pregnant again.

John decided that he did not want another child - one was enough of a burden. Even though he had agreed to have more children, he began to resent Anna and the baby in her womb. Without Anna knowing (I hope) John started plotting her death. He bought a spear gun, even though he had never shown any interest in spear fishing. He test fired it once in the backyard. The next time he used it, it would be to kill his wife.

Anna, John and Gracie

On the night of March 23 2004, John waited until Anna was asleep, then used the spear gun to shoot her in the head a point blank range. This didn't kill her, so he had to shoot another spear into her head. He then waited at least four days, taking Gracie to playgroup and going about life as normal, before late one night getting the spear gun out again. This time it was Gracie's turn.

He shot his 20 month old daughter in the head with a spear gun at point blank range. It didn't kill her and she started screaming. He then got the spears he had removed from his wife's head and fired them into his daughter. This still did not kill her. The screaming must have been horrendous by now. He then PUT HIS FOOT ON HIS 20 MONTH OLD DAUGHTER'S CHEST SO HE COULD WRENCH A SPEAR OUT OF HER SKULL and fire it into her again. Finally Gracie was out of her misery.

He cut up Anna's body and chucked it in the rubbish, along with Gracie's body and some of their possessions. For three months he lied to his family, Anna's family and friends and the public. He claimed that Anna was pregnant to another man and had left him.

Anna and Gracie

Eventually he confessed, after media and police pressure. The police found Anna and Gracie at the Mornington Rubbish Dump.

A further motive emerged after Sharpe confessed. He had been accused of molesting children several times in the past, although there had never been enough evidence to charge him. There is speculation that Anna found him molesting Gracie. I doubt whether we will ever know if this was the case.

I hope that every second of every day, all that John Sharpe hears are the screams of pain from his daughter. Screams from pain that he caused.

Links

Wikipedia

Mako

Joran Van der Sloot: Narcissism at its worst

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 05:20:00 +0000

The traditional gift for a fifth anniversary is wood. Joran Van der Sloot celebrated the fifth anniversary of Natalee Holloway's disappearance by killing Stephany Flores Ramirez. Van der Sloot has never been charged with Natalee Holloway's death, although he has been arrested twice in relation to it. Now, five years on, it seems pretty obvious that he is responsible for her disappearance. Of course, it always did - the only issue was proving it.

Natalee Holloway

Natalee Holloway was an American college student on holiday on the Caribbean island of Aruba in 2005 when she crossed paths with some boys: Joran Van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. She was last seen by her friends at 1:30am, May 30th. When Natalee failed to show up for her return flight home, the three boys were questioned, and said they dropped her off at her hotel. They all denied knowing what became of her after this. Despite extensive searches, she has not been found.

In the five years since Natalee’s disappearance, Joran Van der Sloot has been arrested twice in relation to this, but no charges have been laid. He has made various confessions during this time, always retracting them at a later date.

Joran Van der Sloot

Van der Sloot has led a privileged life. The son of a prominent lawyer, he has grown up in Caribbean paradise. His behaviour is indicative of a young man who has always been given everything he ever wanted. He does not know how to handle it when someone says “no” to him.

Van der Sloot has been accused of being involved in female trafficking in Denmark, sourcing women from Thailand to work as prostitutes. In one of his many “confessions” about the Holloway case Van der Sloot claimed to have sold Natalee to a mystery man. There is apparently a recording of Van der Sloot and his father discussing the Holloway case, with Van der Sloot Senior saying “But what you've done is pretty bad. Human trafficking is a serious crime” (Foxnews). Like so many of his “confessions” Van der Sloot later withdrew his claim that he sold Natalee.

Stephany Flores Ramirez

Stephany Flores Ramirez was found dead, strangled, in a Peruvian hotel room registered to Joran Van der Sloot May 30th 2010; five years to the day after Natalee disappeared. CCTV showed Stephany with Van der Sloot in the hotel foyer and then accompanying him to his room. After his arrest, Van der Sloot confessed to Peruvian police. He stated that the reason he killed Stephany was that she looked at his laptop, read emails about the Holloway case, and then began questioning him. He even claimed she hit him, causing him to lose his temper and strangle her. I find this highly doubtful. How many times have you gone back to a hotel room with a new friend and decided to check their emails at 5am? I think it is way more likely that Stephany made the fatal mistake of saying “no” to Van der Sloot.

Van der Sloot is a narcissist in the worst possible way. The fact that he feels the need to confess and retract repeatedly highlights his narcissistic need for attention. He is currently facing extortion charges in the US after blackmailing the Holloway family – “give me $250,000 and I will tell you where her body is”. He received a 10% part payment, but did not give them any useful information. What a surprise. He is playing with them for his own amusement and narcissistic need for attention. Some media outlets are questioning whether he used this money to pay for his trip to Peru, and therefore to kill another victim. I think he would have killed someone regardless of where he was – Stephany was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

One would like to think that Joran Van der Sloot will put an end to all the speculation and provide truthful information to investigators about the location of Natalee Holloway. I believe he will only do this if he feels that he will benefit from doing so. I hope, for the sake of the Holloway family, that he decides to do the right thing. We will all just have to wait and see.

Links

Natalee Holloway Wikipedia

Joran Van der Sloot Wikipedia

Blogs for Natalee

Teen Angst: Pauline and Juliet

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 11:50:00 +0000

Teen angst is not a new issue - ask Romeo and Juliet. I have been fascinated with teen killers since I saw the film Heavenly Creatures. Here is the tale of this classic teen homicide with a twist:

Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme

Regardless of movies about shiny rings and big boats, I personally believe that Heavenly Creatures is both Peter Jackson's best work as a director, and Kate Winslet's first shining moment as an actress. It tells the true story of Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme.

Pauline and Juliet were teens in 1950's New Zealand. They developed a very enmeshed, intense friendship where they would write stories together and live in a fantasy world that they created. There are some hints that the friendship had developed into a romantic relationship, but this is mere speculation. An example of Pauline's poetry:

"There are living amongst two dutiful daughters

Of a man possesses two beautiful daughters.

The most glorious beings in creation...

And above us these goddesses reign on high.

"I worship the power of these lovely two

With that adoring love known to so few.

'Tis indeed a miracle, one must feel

That two such heavenly creatures are real....

And these two wonderful people are you and I."

Pauline's parents, especially her mother, became very concerned about the closeness of the friendship and tried to separate the girls. Fatal mistake.

Juliet was due to be moving to South Africa with her parents, and Pauline wanted to go with her, but her mother had explicitly forbidden it, so the girls came up with a plan. They would take Mrs Parker to a local National Park, hit her on the head with a brick, and it would look just like she had a bad fall. Pauline's father would be so upset, he would allow Pauline to travel with Juliet.

Like a lot of these plans, it did not go how they imagined.

They went with Mrs Parker to the park - Juliet had fetched half a brick from a pile and had put it inside a stocking and given it to Pauline- so far, so good. The plan was that Juliet would walk ahead, dropping a pretty pink stone on the path. When Honora Parker bent over to pick up the stone, the brick in her daughter's hand would end her life.

But Pauline's initial blows were tentative - enough to injure her mother, but not kill her. Juliet had to assist Pauline, and it became a horrible, bloody, messy death.

Above: The girls go to court (Juliet on the left).

The girls were charged the next day and both were eventually found guilty. One of the conditions of their sentences was that they were never allowed to contact each other again. That provision has always struck me as highlightling the futility of their act. These girls were in love with each other, whether it was romantic love or not. Yet their "black and white" way of looking at the world cost one woman her life and deprived the girls of what they wanted most in the world - each other.

Above: Pauline in the 1990's

As a Post Script, Pauline went on to live a very non-descript life in New Zealand. Apart from the fact that she is a devout Catholic, little else is known.

Above: Anne Perry in the 1990's

Juliet on the other hand changed her name to Anne Perry and is a very popular British crime author!!! She writes books set in Victorian England - personally I would prefer if she wrote more contemporary stories - like a story set in New Zealand in the 1950's.... Like Pauline she also turned to religion - in Juliet's case it was Mormonism. She has given one interview about the case, when Heavenly Creatures was first released. She stated that it was her loyalty to Pauline which motivated her in the attack, rather than any malice. Check out her website here.

I would recommend watching Heavenly Creatures. While this story just happens to be my personal favourite example of teen angst, there is a new example of this type of crime all the time. Teens who want to be together, who see parents as an obstacle, so they remove them - literally.

In reality if they had enough patience to wait for a few years, they could be together. But teens don't think like that - and the black and white thinking results in dire consequences for everyone involved.

Links

Crime Library

Wikipedia

Paul Charles Denyer: The Frankston Serial Killer

noreply@blogger.com (Misslyds) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 06:19:00 +0000

Paul Denyer

There is something so much worse about crimes which happen in close proximity to where you live. The sense of closeness to the crime scene and the victims is so much more acute. This is how I feel about a series of murders which occurred in Frankston, a working class suburb of Melbourne.

Over a seven week period in 1993, three young women lost their lives and another older woman was lucky to escape with hers.

Elizabeth Stevens

The first victim was Elizabeth Stevens. A student, Elizabeth came home on the bus one rainy night. She didn't see the man hiding in the shadows as she got off the bus and made her way through the park to her aunt and uncle's house, where she was living. She was brutally attacked, with massive stab wounds and other knive wounds forming a criss-cross pattern. She was naked from the waist up, but had not been sexually abused.

Police canvassed the local area, knocking on doors and appealing through the media for any witnesses. Not only were they unable to find this killer, but soon he struck again.

This time the victim had some luck. Roszsa Toth, 41, was walking home from the train when she was violently attacked from behind. After fighting for her life, including biting the fingers of the attacker to the bone, Roszsa managed to escape. Initially the police thought that this attack may have been a mugging gone wrong, but it was quickly linked to the murder of Elizabeth Stevens.

Debbie Fream

The third victim tore at the heart strings of the Melbourne community. Deborah Fream, 22, had given birth to her first child 10 days earlier. With a friend over for dinner, Debbie popped down to the local store to purchase a litre of milk. While she was in the store, her killer crept into the back seat of her car. Her body was found in a cow pasture a few kilometers away. She had been stabbed 24 times, but had not been sexually assaulted. The thought that a young mum could be taken from her local community so brazenly had the whole suburb of Frankston terrified. The streets were deserted at night. But worse was to come.

Natalie Russell

Natalie Russell was a 17 year old school girl, walking home from school along a popular short cut. It was a bright, sunny afternoon, and Natalie was in her school uniform. As she walked along this path a man crept out from behind a cut he had made in a chain-link fence. He grabbed her from behind and dragged her back through the fence before any of her school friends noticed. Her body was found later that night. She had been stabbed repeatedly and her throat had been cut. She had not been sexually assaulted.

But finally the killer had made a mistake: a piece of skin, not from Natalie, was found near her neck wound - probably the killer had cut himself during the attack. His car was also spotted, by an observant police officer, in the area at the time Natalie went missing. The officer had written down the registration of the car as it had no number plates. It was this information which lead to the arrest of Paul Denyer.

When police questioned Denyer he had cuts on his hands which would be congruent with the skin found at the scene. He claimed he had cut his hand on the fan of his car. Whilst waiting with a police officer, he noticed the crucifix around the officer's neck. This sight led to Denyer breaking down and confessing. He talked for days, and took police to the crime scenes to help find victim's wallets and reconstruct the crimes. He appeared to enjoy this process immensely.

POLICE: Can you explain why we have women victims?

DENYER: I just hate them.

POLICE: I beg your pardon.

DENYER: I hate them.

POLICE: Those particular girls or women in general?

DENYER: General.

Theorists and profilers indicate that one of the precursers to murder is cruety to animals. Paul Denyer fits this theory very well - he had an extensive history of animal cruelty and murder, killing a family kitten when he was 10 years old, disemboweling it and hanging it from a tree. Instead of playing with the usual things that would occupy a boy of his age, he grew up fascinated with his collection of knives and clubs and home-made slingshot-guns that fired pebbles or ball bearings. His murderous intentions started at an early age when he regularly dissected his sister's teddy bears with a homemade knife. He also killed his neighbours cat and her litter of kittens, in an extremely grotesque and bloody manner, only shortly before the murders, writing threatening messages on the walls in the cat's blood. He was obsessed with violent movies which he watched over and over. He told police that from the time he was 14, he knew he would kill, he was just waiting for "the silent alarm" to go off.

I have always wondered whether, because of his history, Paul Denyer could have been prevented from reaching the stage of serial killer, but realistically the answer is most likely "no".

Denyer in prison.

Paul Denyer recently applied to the prison system for permission to get a sex change operation. His request was denied. It's difficult to know if this request was due to genuine gender dysphoria, or to serve some other purpose.

Links

Crime Library

Wikipedia