WEBVTT - Return of the Postcard Bandit 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.600 Abbot soon split these four fellow jail breakers who were 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:09.240 quickly caught through their own stupidity, one in a Footscray 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:14.000 pub after starting a drunken brawl because a fellow drinker 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:18.919 refused to believe he was an escapade. That feat started 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:22.279 the Abbot legend, part of which was the assertion that 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:27.720 he deliberately taunted police by sending postcards to them while 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:32.080 on the run. I'm Andrew Rule. This is Life and Crimes. 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:35.240 We're going to revisit the story of that bloke called 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:40.400 Brendan James Abbott, alias the Postcard Bandit. The story of 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:44.159 the Postcard Bandit is back in the zeitgeist because in 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:48.920 recent weeks we've had a book republished and an updated book, 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:53.000 new title, new look, new pictures, new chapters. It's been 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:58.800 republished by major publisher Alan and Dumman, and not one, 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:02.720 but two works of film. One is a drama series 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:06.880 that's being screened on a streamer. It's called Run, and 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:11.199 the other one is a most excellent two part docco 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:15.560 called The post Guard Bandit made by Warner Brothers. And 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:18.640 there's a lot of raps, particularly on the docco. So 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:22.600 clearly it's time to take another look at the life 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:26.600 and crimes of Brendan Abbott, in case people forget who 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:30.160 he was or a younger generation didn't know about him 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:35.319 at all. Abbott was intelligent, resourceful, self reliant. He had 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:40.360 technical flair sharpened by observation and a hunger to learn. 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:44.360 The kid from broad Meadows could have mastered any legitimate 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:48.360 trade and built up a business that would have made 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:53.279 him a wealthy man. But he didn't like Russell Cox 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:57.080 and Ray Chuck and Billy the Texan Longley and all 0:01:57.120 --> 0:01:59.680 the rest of the Gunman in a line, all the 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:02.240 way back to the Bushranger days of Ben Hall and 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:07.560 Ned Kelly. Young Brendan Abbot took the wrong turn. Abbot 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:12.200 turned sixty four this May. He's sitting in a high 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:17.880 security prison cell in Casurina Prison in Western Australia. If 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:20.760 and when he leaves prison in twenty twenty eight, after 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:25.160 serving a longer sentence than many murderers do, he'll hit 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:29.240 retirement age with no more than a notoriety that comes 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:32.880 with being one of the most prolific robbers and ingenious 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:37.600 escape artists in Australian crime history. That is, of course, 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:42.960 unless he has something stashed away which personally I doubt 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:47.320 because they never seem to. But if there's one crook 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.600 who just might have worked out a way to game 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:57.000 the system, it might be Brendan Abbot. In Australia, only 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:04.480 the enigmatic and deadly Rustle Cox alias Maddog Cox matches 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:09.720 or overshadows Abbot's deeds as a jail breaker and elusive fugitive, 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:14.280 but it's unlikely that even Cox the Fox, rob more 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:19.280 banks of more cash than Abbot did. Abbott was the 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:24.680 one who became the shape shifting interstate raidar cattually but 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:31.760 inaccurately dubbed the postcard Bandit. Abbott is something like the 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:36.800 legendary American bank robber and escaper Slick Willie Sutton, who 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:40.640 entered folklore a bit like the nineteen thirties fugitive John 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:46.720 Dillinger as the ultimate repeat offender. Assway kept robbing banks, 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:51.720 Sutton allegedly retorted, because that's where the money is. It's 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:55.120 a killer line that has entered the language, although Sutton 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.040 insisted later that a New York crime reporter made it up, 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:02.080 which is entirely possible. Abbot pulled dozens of robberies, but 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:06.120 the same as with Slick Willie and John Dillinger and others. 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:12.200 His exploits were polished in the retelling. Still, Abbot was 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:15.840 credited with the biggest robberies in each of three states 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:20.240 during the one thousand, nine hundred and forty eight days 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:23.479 that he was on the run, a period of five 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:28.920 years and four months, only slightly less time than World 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:33.080 War II took, and a time in which maybe forty 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:39.760 strikingly similar bank robberies went unsolved from Perth to Queensland. 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.799 Those five years outside the law don't include the six 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:46.440 months that the young Abbot had spent on the loose 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:50.599 after slipping out of a suburban police interview room in 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:55.560 Perth in December nineteen eighty six. Those five years outside 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:58.400 the lord also don't include the six months that the 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:02.680 older Abbot spent on the run after staging a prison 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:06.840 break in Queensland in nineteen ninety seven that made him 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:12.720 public enemy number one for police, prison bosses and politicians 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:16.760 in the Sunshine State. It was a case of here 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:20.360 one day, gone the next. The fact that he left 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.640 a prison transfer form filled in in his empty cell 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:28.120 the night that he went through the window didn't make 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:34.600 him popular with the authorities. Abbot's escape crew, there were 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:38.799 four others with him, used smuggle diamond wire to cut 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:44.679 bas through at the Sir David Longland Correctional Center outside 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:51.120 Brisbane before a conspirator outside, a very young ex prisoner 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:55.080 called Brendan Barreshon, threw bol cutters over the perimeter fence 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:59.479 and shot up the armored perimeter guard vehicle with an 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:05.360 assault rifle that rather helped the escaper's cause. Abbot soon 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.800 split these four fellow jail breakers, who were quickly caught 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:13.880 through their own stupidity. One can you believe this? In 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:18.279 a Footscray pub after starting a drunken brawl because a 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:22.360 fellow drinker refused to believe he was an escapee. The 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:25.880 resulting headline suggested that it was the gang with one brain. 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:30.599 The only brain was Abbot, and he'd split from the 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.320 bunch almost as soon as they got out of prison 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:38.839 in Queensland. But Abbot meanwhile did stick loyally to the 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:42.919 nineteen year old Brendan Bereschon, the young guy who'd thrown 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:46.440 in the bolt cutters and produced i think two or 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:49.719 three guns and shot up the armored forbill drive that 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:55.120 was patrolling the perimeter. Because without that they could never 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:57.760 have got out, and Abbot did the right thing and 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.200 sort of stuck with this rather loose kid. You can 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:03.159 imagine he was rather less that he would do such 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:06.880 a thing. He's out of jail, he's free. He could 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:10.520 just get a job or go surfing or something. But no, 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:15.000 he has to get guns and break five dangerous men 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:17.000 out of jail. It would seem to be a fairly 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:21.360 rash thing to do, so Abbot sticks with him. But 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:25.120 it turns out that Abbot's concept of honor among thieves 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:31.040 was probably a mistake. Abbott might have stayed in Smoke 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:35.560 on the loose indefinitely. He could even have used one 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:40.760 of his many forged identities to escape overseas, because he'd 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.840 done that before. He'd gone for holidays overseas with fake 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:47.560 passports and stuff. He was very good. But the reckless 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:54.440 and feckless Brendan Barreshon started a shootout with unsuspecting police 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:58.520 at box Hill while trying to score heroine. That is 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:02.520 box Hill in Melbourne. Now the fugitive pair at this 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:08.600 stage had set up safe house in Fitzroy. They managed 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:12.160 to rent a property in Fitzroy for six months or something. 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:17.120 It was in not a suburban street with nosy neighbors. 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:19.640 It was sort of in a busy place, in a 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:23.000 bit of light industrial. So it was the perfect spot 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:28.040 for them to be because escapers like Abbott know that 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:30.680 the worst place to try and live is in a 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:34.720 quiet suburban street, because the neighbors are always nosy and 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:37.440 they always wonder what you're up to, and watch what 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:40.040 you're driving, and watch when you come home and all 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:42.560 that sort of stuff. It was far better to rent 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:46.000 a place in the inner burbs next door to a 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:50.280 laundromat or whatever it might be. But Berechon developed a 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:54.280 taste for heroin. He went out to box Hill foolishly 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:59.040 to score heroin from Vietnamese dealers. And while he was 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:02.080 there with a pistol in his bum bag, you know, 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:05.240 a couple of uniform coppers that were just local coppers 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:07.679 asked he who he was and all the rest of it, 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:11.720 as they did with people buying drugs, and he panicked. 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:15.880 He pulled out his pistol and he shot one of 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.200 the police. The policeman survived, but he shot him in 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:23.120 the legs. It wasn't good after that. Abbott was suddenly 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:27.040 on the back foot because Suddenly these wanted men aren't 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:31.559 just wanted in the abstract. They actually wanted in Melbourne 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:36.520 for shooting at police. Very bad move, and it was 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:40.560 only a matter of time before the police would grab 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:44.600 them both in Darwin. And they did that because they 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.720 were able to follow the clues that the clumsy young 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:53.280 Bereshon and his new striper girlfriend Michelle left everywhere they went. 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:57.040 Bereshon not only developed a taste for heroin, but he 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:01.520 got extremely keen on a strip called Michelle, who he 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.839 thought should travel with them, which was a bit of 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:08.120 a mixed blessing. It did turn two people into three people, 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:11.800 which is good, but it did have its downside because 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:14.199 you know, she would tend to bring up friends or 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:17.959 whatever it might be. So in the end, Brendan Abbott 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:22.160 was brought undone by others, as he eventually had been 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:25.880 during his five year bank robbery campaign back in the 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:29.800 nineteen nineties. That was when he nailed the tactic of 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:34.600 dropping in through the roof to surprise bank staff just 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:39.920 before opening time, when cash draws were full and customers 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:44.959 hadn't yet come inside. The first of many times Abbot 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:48.200 used that technique was in the Belmont branch of the 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:51.839 Commonwealth Bank in Perth way back in May nineteen eighty seven, 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:55.559 in his first iteration as an arm robber. That was 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:58.880 around the time of his twenty fifth birthday. Apart from 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:03.840 the novel entry via the Ceiling, the robbery stood out 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:06.520 because one of the bank tellers was the tough West 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:10.360 Coast Eagles player Carl Langdon. He had the really bottle 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:14.120 blonde hair and he's very tough guy. And there he 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:17.480 was in the bank in a shirt that Abbot ridly 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.280 killed rather gently later for being pink. He said, bloody 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:23.520 Carl Langdon was there in a pink shirt, which he 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:26.640 found quite amusing. I don't think Carl Langdon found it 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.480 amusing because he ended up with a pistol in his face. 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:33.800 The Belmont job the Commonwealth Bank in Belmont in Perth 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:36.960 in nineteen eighty seven. It ran to more than one 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.880 hundred and twelve thousand dollars that Abbot and a co 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:43.600 offender got away with. It was a state record bank haul. 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:47.480 Within weeks. This is back in the eighties. He was 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:51.960 arrested at Perth Airport returning from the north of the state. Oddly, 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:57.120 Abbot noted later the thirty two thousand dollars cash and 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:00.680 he'd left in a bag in a vehicle in port 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:04.360 Headland had shrunk to sixteen thousand dollars by the time 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:08.520 a prosecutor raised it in the trial that ended up 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:12.800 convicting him and landing him in the notorious from Mantle 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:21.360 Prison for his first serious sentence. Remarkably, a detective on 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.000 the case had mentioned it to a port Headland local. 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:27.160 He said something like, I bet you didn't realize that 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:29.800 there was thirty two grand in that ute and the 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:32.760 bull terrier tied up next to it would have lectured 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:35.880 to death. Wasn't a problem. However, by the time the 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:42.000 case got the court later it had mysteriously halved. Amazing 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:46.760 shrinking money Abbot learnt from that job. He learned that 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:52.840 you couldn't necessarily trust investigators. The getaway driver for that robbery, 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:58.079 Peter Levenz, informed his way to a nine month minimum 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:01.880 and Abbot's longtime girl friend, Jackie Laud. This was a 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:04.839 girl that he'd known since they were teenagers. She also 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:08.480 cut a sweet deal that left her ex lover Abbot 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:13.079 facing a twelve year sentence in the stinking stone cells 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:18.040 of the notorious Fermantle Prison. Was a very bad old place. 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:21.480 It was very old and was sort of a throwback 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:25.040 to the convict era. Abbot's answer to that, to a 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:27.720 twelve year sentence was to get a job in the 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:31.640 prison taylor's shop, the tailoring shop. He was a quick 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:36.679 learner and he befriended the nice taylor who was in charge, 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:40.360 and he worked out that if he got some blue material, 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.160 which he was able to get, he could fabricate blue 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:47.559 overalls that looked very much like the prison officer's uniforms, 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:51.520 which was very useful. This was a prop that allowed 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:55.120 him to lead a late night escape across the prison 0:13:55.200 --> 0:14:00.839 rooftops on November twenty fourth, nineteen eighty nine. That feat 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.800 started the Abbot legend, part of which was the assertion 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:09.320 that he deliberately taunted police by sending postcards to them 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:12.640 while on the run. Now, it's a great story, the 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:16.240 postcard story, and it's given rise to the name of 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:20.440 our documentary that's out now, and it's rise to the 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:25.720 title of the reissued book, which originally called The Australian 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:31.200 Outlaw or Australian Outlaw, now retitled The Postcard Bandit. It's 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:36.560 become part of the Australian language. But sadly the postcard 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:40.560 story was a fabrication based on the fact that police 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:43.960 found a role of film left in a car by 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:49.960 Abbot and he's fellow Fremantle escaper Aaron Reynolds, And when 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:54.680 the police developed that role of film they saw a 0:14:54.800 --> 0:15:00.640 frame one frame of Reynolds standing outside a West Australian 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:06.080 Country police station. So the two scully wags on the run, 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:11.120 the fugitives. Abbot's got Reynolds to stand outside the I 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:13.040 think dwelling up. It's a town over there in the 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:16.840 wet belt, stand there and he took a photo of him. 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:19.800 They left the role of film in the car and 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:22.960 the copas got the film later and developed it. So 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:25.760 that's how it sort of started. There were other holiday 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:29.000 snaps of the fugitive pair, but they weren't sent to 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:34.160 the police or sent to anybody. These snaps they took 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:39.000 when they took a tour bus. The two escapees very wisely, 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:42.360 because Abbot was smart. They posed as tourists and they 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:44.720 bought tickets on a tour bus. They didn't go to 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:47.720 see the penguins at Phillip Island, but they went to 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:51.640 Oolaroo and all those sort of good things, and they 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:54.720 peld up with a male Japanese tourist. So you had 0:15:54.760 --> 0:16:00.120 these two Aussies in sunglasses and hats, happy chappies with 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.960 a very friendly Japanese tourist, and they traveled as a threesome. 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:08.960 And that of course didn't make them look like desperate 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:13.000 robbers on the run. They just looked like, you know, 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:18.440 suburban boys having a week off in the bus tour. However, 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:21.880 when these pictures were eventually found by the police in 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:25.480 some other raid whenever they were subsequently developed and the 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:31.480 police leaked them to a magazine later on that cynically 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:37.480 and dishonestly mischaracterized them as postcards. They never were postcards. 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:42.120 They were just holiday snaps which weren't even developed by 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:45.520 the crooks. The police had developed them and they were 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:48.600 used in that way, And it was really a fabrication 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:52.880 done with the cooperation of the police to draw attention 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:55.800 to these guys. Not that really matters, I do so 0:16:55.880 --> 0:17:00.560 as the police armed Roberson fugitives the truth but anyway, 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:05.760 Abbot's exploits were always going to be aired given his 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:11.080 sheer audacity, but the credit for telling the true story 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:16.920 behind the legend belongs to a journalist and author now 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:21.640 known as Abe Madison. More than twenty years ago, when 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:26.080 the then young writer or reporter was using his adoptive 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:31.200 name Derek Pedley, he gained Abbot's trust and built contacts 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:37.280 among Abbot's family members, friends and former lovers. After his 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:41.560 first book, No Fixed Address, he wrote a more detailed 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:46.000 and compelling account of Abbot's life, which was published in 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:49.880 two thousand and six, twenty years ago as Australian Outlaw. 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.920 This was followed by a mini series starring the late 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:58.360 Tom Long as Abbot. It was not a bad series, 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:05.199 pretty watchable. Tom Long the nice young actor that really 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:08.439 was well known through Sea Change and other things and 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:13.040 the dish. He didn't really look like Abbot as such, 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.600 but he did have a rather friendly face which helped. 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:21.840 And the music, the signature music in that series was 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:27.240 the great Australian crawl song don't be so reckless or 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:32.480 reckless brackets don't be so and the key line in 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:36.840 that is throw down your guns, don't be so reckless, 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:39.879 and that would be used over and over in that series. 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:43.640 That was very effective. Now full disclosure, because we're very 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:47.639 ethical here at Life and Crimes Ay that is Andrew 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:51.679 Rule edited and published that two thousand and six version 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.439 of Australian Outlaw, and it's an updated version of that 0:18:55.520 --> 0:19:00.760 book which was relaunched recently in recent weeks by Alan 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:06.000 and Aman the publishers, under the title the inevitable title 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:11.320 The Postcard Bandit. Now, this new look book takes in 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:16.040 later aspects of Abbot's life and crimes and subsequent prison 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:21.639 sentences and escapes. It coincides with the release of the 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:25.960 new drama series named Run and a two hour documentary, 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:30.600 which of course is also called The Postcard Bandit. So 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:33.800 regardless of that bang of fabrication, it is now part 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:39.480 of the language. That's it. The book, the updated book 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:44.119 and the films. The documentary and the drama mark a 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:48.040 return to the spotlight for the long term prisoner now 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:55.520 cooling his heels in Cajuna Prison, contemplating and exciting but 0:19:55.680 --> 0:20:00.800 ultimately wasted life. It's been a big year for his 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:07.200 biographer Pedley alias Madison, who has charted the Abbott story 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:12.560 so meticulously across more than two decades, in fact, close 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:16.199 to quarter of a century really. Of course, listeners with 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:21.520 long memories will recall that we spoke with Abe Madison 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:26.080 alias Dek Pedley back in twenty twenty three in an 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:30.680 episode we called the Postcard Bandit and Me And some 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:35.800 of these stories we've been over before, but some we haven't. 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:39.680 So there you go now. The journal now known as 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:43.919 Abe Madison, was born in May nineteen seventy two, exactly 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:48.560 ten years after Brendan Abbott. There are other similarities apart 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:52.399 from being born in May. His mother, that is Abe 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:57.240 Madison's mother, like Abbot's mother, Thelma, had fallen pregnant as 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:03.520 an unmarried teenager. But whereas Abbot barely sixteen, married Brian 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:07.800 Abbott and had five children in quick succession, of which 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:13.400 Brendan was the third. Perth girl Joy Madison had no 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:18.680 choice but to give up the baby that she called Abraham, 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:24.000 and that baby was subsequently raised as Derek Pedley by 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:29.880 a kindly couple who lived in country western Australia. When 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:33.080 young Derrick as he was called then found out the 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:37.600 truth about his origins at the age of fifteen, it 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:44.080 rocked him profoundly. The boy was energetic and creative, and 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:49.359 he later forged a successful career as a reporter, but 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:53.600 behind the facat he presented the world, he drank heavily 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:56.800 and he ate far too much, and he did that 0:21:57.040 --> 0:21:59.680 to ease the sort of psychic pain that he felt. 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:05.080 It's not uncommon with adopted boys particularly. I think he's 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:09.760 a tall man, and as a troubled youngster in his twenties, 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:13.160 he reached weights of up to one hundred and thirty 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:16.280 kilograms because he used to drink bourbon for breakfast, the 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:18.880 beer for lunch and so on. He did a lot 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:23.720 of drinking and he smoked a lot of weed. He 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:26.800 told me the other day that for years he doesn't 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:30.399 think he was not stoned at work, and yet he 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:35.840 managed to function somehow. Ape Madison, the artist formerly known 0:22:35.840 --> 0:22:39.080 as Derek Pedley, would eventually tell his own story in 0:22:39.160 --> 0:22:43.359 his moving memoir Crazy Bastard, but that came much later, 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:46.960 just a few years ago. His first books were, of course, 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:51.920 about Brendan Abbott, and the updated version, launched the other day, 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:55.320 traces the postcard bandit story from Broadmeadows in the nineteen 0:22:55.400 --> 0:23:01.000 sixties to Perth Maximum Security Prison in the twenty twenties 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:05.720 and everything in between. Its part non fiction thriller, part biography, 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:10.399 and part morality tale. It underlines the fact that jails 0:23:10.440 --> 0:23:12.880 are full of damaged people doomed to be there by 0:23:12.960 --> 0:23:19.080 circumstances of birth and upbringing, but that among them are 0:23:19.119 --> 0:23:22.800 a few who strayed from what otherwise might have been 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:29.199 successful lives in the legitimate world. Brendan James Abbott was 0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:33.159 an earmark from birth to a life of crime. To 0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:37.000 a large extent, he chose that path instead of using 0:23:37.600 --> 0:23:41.720 the intelligence he was born with to succeed in some 0:23:41.840 --> 0:23:46.360 other way. His early choices landed him in prison. Then 0:23:46.400 --> 0:23:49.919 he doubled down and compounded his mistake by using his 0:23:50.000 --> 0:23:53.919 brain to break out of jail, a move guaranteeing that 0:23:54.000 --> 0:23:58.120 he would inevitably be hunted down when he ran out 0:23:58.119 --> 0:24:04.720 of hiding places. His success as a robber an escaper 0:24:05.600 --> 0:24:12.200 ensured his failure as a man, as a father, as 0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:15.720 a brother, and as a son. In the end, Brendan 0:24:15.760 --> 0:24:20.080 Abbott's life has been wasted, spent sentence to more years 0:24:20.119 --> 0:24:24.919 inside than anyone not actually convicted of murder. For the 0:24:24.920 --> 0:24:27.040 rest of us. Of course, it makes a good tale, 0:24:27.280 --> 0:24:29.679 which is why it's been told before, and he's been 0:24:29.760 --> 0:24:35.640 told again on the page and on the screen. There's 0:24:35.680 --> 0:24:40.200 a PostScript to this story that's just come up. His 0:24:40.400 --> 0:24:45.400 fellow escaper, Brendan Beershon, the man who shot the policeman 0:24:45.640 --> 0:24:48.480 at Boux Hill all those years ago, the man who 0:24:48.520 --> 0:24:50.840 was on the run with Abbott and over the two 0:24:50.880 --> 0:24:54.399 most wanted men in the country for months. Apparently he 0:24:54.400 --> 0:24:58.119 didn't want to attract attention when this book was relaunched 0:24:58.119 --> 0:25:01.639 recently and he kept a low prof But I understand 0:25:01.680 --> 0:25:06.720 that he's involved heavily in running a Melbourne chym nasum, 0:25:07.119 --> 0:25:09.840 which is interesting. So somewhere out there in the Burbs, 0:25:10.840 --> 0:25:14.160 if you're going to a gym, you might see a 0:25:14.240 --> 0:25:20.479 fairly hard looking, lean, fit looking bloke and wonder if 0:25:20.480 --> 0:25:26.720 there's something vaguely familiar about his name. It's Brendan Berrishon, 0:25:28.040 --> 0:25:33.879 jail breaker, robber, gunman and cop shooter. Not a cop killer, 0:25:33.960 --> 0:25:39.560 just a cop shooter and probably a reform character with 0:25:39.720 --> 0:25:44.280 let's hope thanks for listening. Life and Crimes is a 0:25:44.320 --> 0:25:48.920 Sunday Herald Sun production for True Crime Australia. Our producer 0:25:49.040 --> 0:25:53.000 is Johnty Burton. For my columns, features and more, go 0:25:53.080 --> 0:25:58.840 to herold'sun dot com dot Au forward slash Andrew Rule 0:25:59.240 --> 0:26:04.959 one word For advertising inquiries. Go to news podcasts sold 0:26:05.160 --> 0:26:08.800 at news dot com dot au. That is all one 0:26:08.840 --> 0:26:14.040 word news podcasts sold And if you want further information 0:26:14.400 --> 0:26:18.000 about this episode, links are in the description.