WEBVTT - The killer and the thin blue line 0:00:01.240 --> 0:00:06.080 What brought him undone was fingerprints, specifically the genius of 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:11.760 those people who could memorize them. The police assumed later 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:15.040 that he was the only person with a strong motive 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:19.119 and that fact screwed up the investigation for a long time. 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:23.240 And he thought if he drags in other young people 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:26.200 and belts enough of them, that one of them is 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:28.680 going to tell him something that will lead to the killer. 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:34.200 I'm Andrew rule is his life in crimes. It's forty 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:40.440 years since Raymond Ebens, mister Stinky was locked up in 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:44.920 Penridg Prison. He was put there on remand for a 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:50.360 terrible crime for the double murder of Gary Haywood and 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:56.200 Abina Medill at Shepperton back in nineteen sixty six. So 0:00:56.400 --> 0:01:00.000 this Listeners is a man who was on the loose 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:06.360 for nineteen years around Victoria and around Australia, and the 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:10.360 fact is that he should have been caught in the 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:15.360 first few weeks. Our listeners, we have looked at the 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:19.920 case of mister Stinky Raymond Edmunds several times before, but 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:24.119 it's a long involved story with many aspects on What 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:26.880 we didn't do on the other occasions was look at 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.360 everything that the police did and also what they didn't 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:35.280 do today we do a bit of that. Currently, Raymond 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:38.960 Edmonds is back in the news after all these years 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:43.800 because he and others like Julian Knight and other high 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:47.440 profile high security prisoners, it looks as if they will 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:53.720 be moved to medium security prisons to make room for 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:56.520 the rising number of young offenders who are going to 0:01:56.560 --> 0:02:01.080 be placed on remand instead of being grant to bail. 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:05.920 And that is what makes this story more relevant this 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:09.760 month than it was. I now propose to tell the 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:15.480 story of mister Stinky in not so many words. After 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:18.240 the first round of interviews, they took the Quiet Killer 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:22.280 to the remand Yard Pentridge for his first taste of 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:25.080 the rest of his life. It was early nineteen eighty 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:28.320 five and Raymond Edmonds had never been in jail before, 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:32.919 and he's never been out of one since. They call 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:36.040 him mister Stinky, and he's one of the damned, those 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:39.760 destined to stay inside until they die or a so 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:44.880 frail they're beyond committing harm. He's eighty one now, the 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:48.560 flabby old man who was once a cunning and ruthless predator, 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:53.000 and so he's close to his use by date. Unlike 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:56.440 some lifers if he's moved from a high security prison 0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:00.840 to make way for young remand prisoners hardly going to 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:05.360 be a security risk. So it's exactly forty years since 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:08.919 Edmonds was locked up in Penridge the first time. He 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:12.240 fronted the City Court on April the eighth, nineteen eighty five, 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:18.040 be remanded back in custody to await the trial that 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:23.080 would put him away for life with no parole. For 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:26.280 almost twenty years, Edmonds had gotten away with a double 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:31.640 murder that shocked Australia. He probably wouldn't have been caught 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:34.840 at all, except that his twisted urges had driven him 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:39.520 to rape dozens of women in Melbourne's Eastern suburbs over 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:44.120 fourteen years. Even then, he might have gotten away with it. 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:51.040 What brought him undone was fingerprints, specifically the genius of 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:55.720 those people who could memorize them, who could read fingerprints 0:03:56.080 --> 0:04:01.000 and recall them. That's what caught mister Stinky. At one 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.560 of the rape scenes at Donvale in the nineteen seventies, 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:08.240 the then unknown rapist left a print on a fly screen. 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.720 With a little lark and some brilliant police work, the 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:17.120 print was later matched with an unidentified partial print taken 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:21.880 from a car at Shepperton two decades earlier. The print 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:26.200 on the car was found and kept secret after the 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:31.880 abduction and murder of Sheperdon teenagers Gary Haywood and Abina 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:38.520 Medil on a summer night in nineteen sixty six. Gary 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:43.040 Haywood was eighteen. He was an apprentice in the family 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:47.400 panel works. He was an apprentice panel beater. His father 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:51.760 was a panel beater and his uncle owned the panel works, 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:55.080 the biggest panel works in the Goblin Valley. I think 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.680 a Beena Medil was just sixteen. She'd left school just 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.280 the previous year and had just spent the first few 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:07.880 months of her first job working in the office at 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:12.880 Haywood's panel works. Chance had brought these two workmates together 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:17.320 at a pop concert at the Shepherdon Civic Center on 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:24.040 that Thursday night, February tenth, nineteen sixty six. Older listeners 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:28.840 will recall that this was just four days before the 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:33.440 introduction of decimal currency. Decimal currency would come in on Monday, 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:38.520 February the fourteenth. This was four days earlier, so these 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:43.200 two youngsters were abducted and murdered with pound shillings and 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:46.320 pence in their pockets and by the time their bodies 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:50.000 were found a couple of weeks later. The people that 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:52.960 found them were carrying dollars and cents. That was right 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:58.280 on the cusp of the new era in Australia, and 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:02.640 this crime in some respects marked the end of innocence. 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:08.400 On that night, that Thursday night in Sheperdon, Gary's girlfriend, 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:12.479 Gail didn't want to go out because it was the 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:18.680 night before payday, and she assumed wrongly that he Gary 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.680 wouldn't go out either, But she didn't know that he 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:26.160 wanted to go out because he didn't tell her. He 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:29.279 dropped her home after work and then away he went 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:33.800 in his British racing green FJ Holden, which he'd done 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:37.480 up himself for most beautiful car that everyone in Sheperdon 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:43.359 knew and many admired. Abina Medill's boyfriend, Ian Urkert was 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:47.440 a mechanic at a local tractor dealership. He was working 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:51.480 late that night trying to get a tractor running for 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:54.760 a farmer or orchidist, and so he had to work 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:57.200 late into the night, could not go to the pop 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:03.800 concert with Abina, and probably that cost her her life. 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:06.760 It was just one of those things because in the 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:11.440 absence of Gary that was working. I went to the 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:14.880 concert at the Sheperdon Civic Center. It was a very 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:18.520 big concert. Shep was a big place, still is a 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:21.640 big place, but it was a place that ran big 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:25.680 rock and roll events. At the civic center, two or 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:30.000 three thousand teenagers would flock there from all over the 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:36.040 River Arena, from the Murray River region, from Bendigo right 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:40.080 over there, Yarrawonga. They would come to Shepperton to see 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:44.760 pretty big acts in Norman Row would play there. MPD 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:49.440 Limited would play there. Eyvon Barrett would play there. A 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.880 lot of nineteen sixties rock and roll and pop acts 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:57.440 that appeared on television would end up performing at Shepardon 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:02.240 because it really was one of the biggesttual centers outside 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:07.680 the capitals. So on this night, while roadies unloaded the 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:10.720 gear for four different acts that were playing that night, 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:18.640 Gary Haywood tall, fair haired, charming, good looking, popular, popular 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:22.720 with girls. Popular with these mates, He persuaded a beaner 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:27.080 and a friend of hers to drive around town in 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:31.680 his immaculate FJ. Holden. They were probably pleased to be 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:35.400 seen going around with him in his flash car. They 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:37.400 just left school, and you know, he was a pretty 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:43.320 big deal. So it was all harmless teenage stuff until 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:48.520 it wasn't because at some point that night and we 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:52.040 don't have to chase every rabbit down every burrow here, 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:55.400 but at some point that night they were parked next 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:59.280 to Victoria Park Lake, which is the lake right in 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:02.679 the middle of Sheperdon, and there are trees around at 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:06.000 this parkland and it's a natural place to go park 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:08.400 to look at the water and the sunset and all 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:11.240 that sort of good stuff. It was while they were 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:16.080 parked there at some point in the evening that Raymond Edmonds, 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:20.679 a young man of twenty two at this stage, abducted 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:25.560 them at gunpoint and forced we imagine this is what 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:30.160 he did. He forced Gary Haywood to drive the three 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:34.280 of them to Murchison East, which is about thirty seven 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:40.160 kilometers south of Sheperdon. It's quite a drive now. Merch East, 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:45.040 as they call it locally, Merchison East is an area 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:48.400 that was sort of between the old Highway, the Goblin 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:52.080 Valley Highway and the River Golbin. And particularly back in 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:55.600 those days, that whole district that had lots of bush 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:59.600 paddocks along the river. There were hundreds of acres along 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:03.160 the river with river red gums on them. I think 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:05.319 a lot of it might be crown land or parkland. 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:09.760 And in those days local farmers would rent this land 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:12.240 to run cattle in at certain times of the year. 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:15.480 And it was to one of these places, one of 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:21.720 these bush paddicks, that Edmonds forced Gary Haywood to drive. 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:26.160 Presumably Edmunds had been there before, it must have known 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:30.120 where it was. There was what they call a cocky gate. 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.040 That's just a little gate, not a real gate. It's 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:37.320 just made up of little light posts and fencing wire. 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:41.920 It was pulled down and they drove through. They left 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:45.439 it down and they drove into the bush paddock. No 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:49.000 one else knew that they were there. No one knew 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:53.520 anything about that. Meanwhile, back in Sheperdon later that night, 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:59.079 by about midnight, people are starting to panic. The Medill 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:02.480 family are very worried about Abina. She was supposed to 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:05.280 be with her younger sister. They were supposed to be 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:11.640 picked up by their father Fred, and Abuna's gone a 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:16.120 Buna's missing. The Medile parents are obviously very worried. They're 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.160 quite probably quite annoyed and angry. And then as the 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:21.920 night wore on and there was no sign of her. 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:28.120 They became more and more fearful. Meanwhile, Ian Urkert, who 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:32.240 is emotionally Abena's boyfriend, he's finished work, he's cleaned up, 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:34.560 we got all the great and stuff off, had a shower, 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:37.679 got changed and he and one of his mates has 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:42.120 gone off to a particular cafe or whatever to wait 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:44.680 for a beana to finish at the concert too, so 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:48.080 he also is looking for a beaner. He hears from 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:51.640 one of his other friends that she's been driving around 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:57.560 with Gary Haywood and his mates. This makes him quite angry. 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:03.360 He goes around to I think Haywood's place, Similar goes 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:06.640 around somewhere to a house in Sheperdon where he thinks 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:10.560 Heywood might be, and he's saying things like I'll kill 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:16.040 that bastard, I'll kill him. He's not happy, and that threat, 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:20.000 which is the sort of threat that a teenager is 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:23.760 going to make about a rival boyfriend, was held against 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:29.400 him for a long time because the police assumed later 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:32.680 that he was the only person with a strong motive 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:37.040 to harm Gary Haywood and have been a madill, and 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:40.640 that fact screwed up the investigation for a long time. 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:45.840 The night wears on sometime before dawn. Local policeman Frank 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:51.000 Ayir as in e y A. Frank Air been a 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:55.520 copper around Sheperdon, forever, good bloke. Everybody knew him, everybody 0:12:55.600 --> 0:13:00.240 liked him. He is on night shift and he lives 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:04.640 around the lake routine patrol, and he sees Gary Haywood's 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:10.000 F J. Holden parked near the lake and he jumps out. 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:12.800 This is just before dawn, it's quite early in the morning. 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:16.840 He jumps out and he puts his hand in front 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:19.199 of the radiator at the front of the seat. It's warm, 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:23.199 and it wasn't. It was quite cold, which suggests that 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:27.079 the car had been there for several hours, which makes sense. 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:31.400 We're thinking that when the bad thing happened around midnight, 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:35.959 within half an hour, the car would be back in 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:41.680 Sheperdon less than half an hour possibly and abandoned there 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:45.240 probably by one am or something like that. And so 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:47.800 by the time Frank Air gets to it, it's cold. 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:52.720 But interestingly, the car is left open, it's not locked, 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:58.120 and it is parked crookedly. It's not neatly parked up 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:01.880 against the curb with the front wheels angle correctly, It's 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:09.000 been left very carelessly, and as soon as Gary Haywood's 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:13.600 father and his brother saw it, they knew that something 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:16.800 very bad had happened because they knew that there. Gary 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:20.120 would not leave his car sitting there. He wouldn't park 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:23.120 it like that, and he would not abandon it, and 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:26.560 he certainly wouldn't leave town and run away without taking 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:31.400 the car. And the other fact that goes to their 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:35.080 theory is that he was over to day's wages. Friday 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:38.640 was payday. He's gone missing on a Thursday night. So 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.320 there is no way that Gary Haywood He's going to 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:45.800 skip town without his pay and skip town and leave 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:50.560 his beautiful car that he spent hundreds of hours doing up. 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:56.040 His family knew from that first few hours that something 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:00.720 had gone tragically wrong, that if he wasn't dead, he 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:05.320 was certainly being held against his will. Gary's girlfriend, Gail, 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:09.520 totally agrees with the Haywood family. She knew he wouldn't 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:12.200 leave without the car. She knew he wouldn't leave without 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.320 his pay. She never thought for a second that he'd 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:20.800 run away from town. And so the initial police theories 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:24.680 that you know, two young lovers have bolted were nonsense. 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:28.520 They were never a goer, because what are they going 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:31.120 to bolt in and what are they going to bolt with? 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:35.280 No money, no car, crazy stuff. They were young, they 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:39.640 were teenagers, but they had regular jobs. They are from regular, 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:42.840 hard working families. They weren't just going to run away 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:47.840 from shepardon. They weren't the type. But the police initially 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:52.320 didn't realize that. The first thing the police do is 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:55.680 they drag in a Bena's boyfriend, Ian Urka, the young mechanic, 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.600 and his best mate. They dragged them into the Shepherd 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:03.360 and Police repeatedly, not just next day, but the day 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:06.760 after that, and the day after that, and someone regularly. 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:11.880 And this is a pretty ugly scene because one of 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:16.680 these local policemen is a detective called Peter Parkinson. That 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:22.400 name is Peter Parkinson, and he was a smooth but 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:25.160 very tough man. I met him when he was a 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:31.400 middle aged man, about twenty years after these events, and 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:35.000 by this stage he was a retired policeman. But you 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:38.640 could see that he had been a pretty hard case. 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:42.520 He'd started life Peter Parkinson up in the Riverina, I 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:45.920 think in farming district. He'd been a shearer who could 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:48.680 win his share of fights in the local pubs against 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:52.000 other shearers, and when the boxing tents came to town he 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:54.680 could win fights with the gloves on. And then he 0:16:54.760 --> 0:17:01.120 joined the police force and rapidly became a detective. And 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:03.800 that would be code for he was an old school 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:07.520 detective who was a bash artist and didn't mind copying 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:14.360 a quid of corrupt money. He was posted to Sheperdon 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:20.040 interestingly earlier in the sixties after a stinting the homicide 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:24.800 squad in Melbourne. Now that may or may not mean anything. 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:28.320 The posting might be as he said it was because 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:32.240 he had a child that had asthma and that his 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:35.399 family needed to move to a warmer climate where the 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:38.320 asthma would not be such a problem. That may well 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:43.679 be true, however, Interestingly, in the nineteen sixties, the Victorian 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:47.439 homicide Squad was led by two men, one called Jack Ford, 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:51.280 one called Jack Matthews, and they were crooks. They were 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:55.320 crooks who had a big finger in the pie of 0:17:55.520 --> 0:18:00.439 illegal abortions. Because abortions were illegal, there there was so 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:03.879 much money to be made in performing illegal abortions, and 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:09.320 the homicide Squad essentially franchised that because they could go 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:14.199 easy on particular abortionists. That his doctors who would perform 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:20.760 abortions for cash, providing they got kickbacks, and so effectively 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:25.719 the homicide squad ran the abortion racket in Victoria, and 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:30.080 a very good racket it was. It was right up there, 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:34.920 just behind sp bookmaking and very similar in some ways, 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:39.680 very like the current tobacco shop shop shops, the illicit 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:44.240 tobacco trade. And it might be that Peter Parkinson had 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:46.119 been mixed up in that sort of stuff and then 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:48.480 was transferred to sheperd and to get him out of 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:52.760 the way. I don't know, but he certainly had a 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:56.840 few bad habits. He tended to be more a bash 0:18:56.960 --> 0:19:03.360 artist and a standover man there then a sleuth, and 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:06.560 he was an opportunist. And when this happened, he said, well, 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.440 I'm a local detective, I'm here at SHP, I know everybody. 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:13.840 I also have had experience in homicide squad. And so 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:17.840 they sort of made this guy the de facto head 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:22.080 of the de facto investigation. Once all the homicide guys 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:26.240 went back to Melbourne, Parkinson became the de facto leader 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:31.239 of the investigation and it didn't go that well. And 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:34.360 it didn't go well because they really didn't run an 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:38.359 investigation on scientific lines, or at least Parkinson did not. 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:43.240 He was just keen on the idea that someone close 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:46.480 to Gary Haywood must have done it or know something 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:49.080 about it. And he thought, if he drags in Urkit, 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:52.359 and he drags in Gary Haywood's mates, and he drags 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:57.120 in other young people that knew other young people and 0:19:57.240 --> 0:19:59.880 belts enough of them that one of them is going 0:19:59.880 --> 0:20:03.560 to tell him something that will lead to the killer. Now, 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.880 that's fine if any of them knew anything. But they 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:11.199 didn't because it wasn't one of them. It was not 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:16.119 anyone to do with the dead kids. It was a 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:21.800 total outlier, not someone from Melbourne or Sydney or from Queensland. 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:24.680 But it was a total outlier. It was not one 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:29.000 of their social group. It takes sixteen days for the 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:32.040 bodies to be found, and in that time there is 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:36.800 a great kerfuffle. It becomes the biggest story in Australia. 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:40.440 I would suspect I was. I was nine years old 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.280 at the time that this happened, and I can recall 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:46.119 the story in the newspapers, I can recall it on 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:49.880 radio and television. It was certainly one of the biggest 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:55.680 stories of my primary school years, and it was riveting 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:59.280 because basically it was the sort of thing that didn't 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:02.800 really happen much in Australia. Although it was only about 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:06.200 two weeks after the Beaumont children met missing in Adelaide. 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:11.879 So in one summer in Australia, within the two weeks 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:16.000 between Australia Day and the tenth of February, we've had 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:20.440 two of the biggest abduction murders that have ever happened 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:25.040 in this country. Despite all the searches that the police arranged, 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:29.000 volunteers went out. They closed down I think one of 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:32.920 the big canaries up there, and all the people went 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:36.119 searching along the river banks. The local pony club has 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:39.439 all got together and rode ponies and horses through bush. 0:21:39.920 --> 0:21:43.320 Everybody who could went out searching for these kids, for 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:47.520 the missing pair. Didn't find a thing. What happened is 0:21:47.560 --> 0:21:50.960 that two weeks later, on Saturday, the twenty sixth of February, 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:55.600 two teenagers from Melbourne came up to Murchison. One of 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:58.639 these two boys had a relative living at Murchison. His 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:02.360 relative was a farmer and this young bloke and his mate, 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:06.600 his mate was I think Peter Jacobi. They would come 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:10.200 up on the train from Melbourne from Spencer Street station 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:12.639 as it was then known, and they would bring with 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:15.439 them a twenty two rifle and a shotgun or something, 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:18.479 as you used to do in those days, and they 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:23.280 would go shooting on the relatives farm out at Murchison East, 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:27.160 and they'd hop off the train at Murchison and they'd 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:29.960 walk to the paddocks, the bush paddocks where they would 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:33.679 shoot rabbits and stuff. And when they got sick of 0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:37.639 it and got hungry and thirsty, they would go across 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:40.840 the paddox to granddads or uncles or whoever it was. 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:45.560 And on this day they're shooting away at rabbits and 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:49.439 they smell something and then they find the body. They 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:53.320 find a ben and Medill's body, which is a shocking thing. 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:58.639 It's been in the summer heat for sixteen days. The 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:02.680 body is only half closed, all the bottom garments are removed, 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:07.080 and she spread eagled on the ground. And of course 0:23:07.160 --> 0:23:11.159 all the flies and the ants and the animals have 0:23:11.440 --> 0:23:14.120 got involved in the body, so it's a terrible, terrible sight. 0:23:15.680 --> 0:23:19.840 The boys are shocked and distressed. They run across country, 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:24.399 I think for probably almost two kilometers and raise the 0:23:24.440 --> 0:23:28.359 alarm with the relatives and with the local policemen. Local 0:23:28.400 --> 0:23:34.040 policeman comes down with the local farmer and the farmer says, 0:23:34.680 --> 0:23:37.960 funny thing. I was down near that clump of saplings 0:23:38.000 --> 0:23:40.439 over there, a few hundred meters away the other day, 0:23:40.440 --> 0:23:43.200 and I smelt something dead and I thought it must 0:23:43.200 --> 0:23:46.399 be a dead kangaroo or a dead dog. Maybe somebody 0:23:46.400 --> 0:23:52.080 shot a dog. And the policeman said, doesn't sound good, 0:23:52.359 --> 0:23:54.280 and they headed over there, and sure enough, that's when 0:23:54.320 --> 0:23:58.840 they found Gary Haywood's body. Gary Haywood had been shot 0:23:59.600 --> 0:24:02.000 through the head. There was a neat bullet hole in 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:06.280 his head. And subsequently, when a site was searched by 0:24:07.080 --> 0:24:13.560 the forensic ballistics experts, they found I think two at 0:24:13.680 --> 0:24:19.520 least two twenty two shells that matched each other. And subsequently, 0:24:19.560 --> 0:24:22.399 of course, when the post mortems were done, they were 0:24:22.440 --> 0:24:27.240 able to retrieve the lead bullet or slug from Gary 0:24:27.280 --> 0:24:32.280 Haywood's skull, which forensics were able to examine and they 0:24:32.280 --> 0:24:35.760 could see the rifling marks on the bullet. They could 0:24:35.840 --> 0:24:40.600 also check the firing pin marks on the shells. The 0:24:40.640 --> 0:24:46.160 police also found a small plastic what they call a beetle. 0:24:47.160 --> 0:24:51.000 It was a small piece of plastic trim from a 0:24:51.040 --> 0:24:54.840 particular sort of rifle. And by the time the experts 0:24:54.920 --> 0:24:58.440 looked at the bullet, the shells, and this piece of plastic, 0:24:58.960 --> 0:25:04.520 they were able to narrow down the search for a 0:25:04.640 --> 0:25:09.080 rifle or a make of rifle to a Mosburg semi automatic, 0:25:09.400 --> 0:25:12.360 probably what they call a model three point fifty two 0:25:12.440 --> 0:25:15.720 K I think was called. But they were able to 0:25:15.840 --> 0:25:19.600 narrow it down to a very tight group of Mosburg 0:25:19.680 --> 0:25:22.600 twenty two rifles. So there were more than one hundred 0:25:22.880 --> 0:25:28.320 rifle makes in the police library, but within days they 0:25:28.400 --> 0:25:31.119 knew what sort of rifle they were looking for. Now, 0:25:31.240 --> 0:25:36.040 initially they kept that secret, but it was probably the 0:25:36.080 --> 0:25:40.520 best clue of all. Meanwhile, there is some other good 0:25:40.560 --> 0:25:43.159 police work happening. A lot of bad police work's happening, 0:25:43.400 --> 0:25:46.119 but there's some very good police work, and that is 0:25:47.280 --> 0:25:51.159 Peter Parkinson, the bash artist detective. He did one good thing. 0:25:51.320 --> 0:25:56.760 He got Gary Haywood's FJ Holden and he carefully got 0:25:56.760 --> 0:25:59.520 in it without putting his hands everywhere, and he drove 0:25:59.560 --> 0:26:03.040 it to shed at the Shepherd And Police station and 0:26:03.080 --> 0:26:06.880 locked it up so that the forensic experts could come 0:26:06.920 --> 0:26:08.920 and have a good look at it. They came there, 0:26:09.080 --> 0:26:14.000 they dusted the whole car and they got several sets 0:26:14.000 --> 0:26:16.480 of prints. Now, the big thing with that is you 0:26:16.560 --> 0:26:19.680 have to eliminate the prince. So they were able to 0:26:19.720 --> 0:26:24.040 eliminate Ben and Medill's prince, Gary Haywood's own prince, Gary 0:26:24.040 --> 0:26:29.320 Haywood's brothers, Allan's prince, Gary Haywood's father, I think, Charlie 0:26:29.760 --> 0:26:35.840 his prince, and even Gary Howood's girlfriend. Gail, the expert. 0:26:36.520 --> 0:26:39.399 Fingerprint expert went out to see her at her place 0:26:39.800 --> 0:26:43.040 and she said, the last time I saw Gary, he'd 0:26:43.160 --> 0:26:46.960 dropped me off home here on that Thursday afternoon after work, 0:26:47.880 --> 0:26:49.960 and as he was backing out of the drive, I 0:26:50.040 --> 0:26:52.280 put my hands on the bonnet and pretended to push 0:26:52.280 --> 0:26:56.480 the car, and so my prince will be right there 0:26:56.480 --> 0:27:00.399 on the bonnet, and indeed they were. The fingerprinting expert 0:27:00.440 --> 0:27:05.320 found her prince and he said, that's great, you're the 0:27:05.400 --> 0:27:10.120 last set of unidentified prints on his car. And that 0:27:10.640 --> 0:27:15.120 was a white lie. What he was doing was obscuring 0:27:15.200 --> 0:27:19.440 the fact that there was one other set of unidentified 0:27:19.440 --> 0:27:22.920 prints on the car, and it was that other set 0:27:22.960 --> 0:27:28.160 of unidentified prince that would help, many years later solve 0:27:29.000 --> 0:27:33.359 this whole murder and a series of rapes. It was 0:27:33.400 --> 0:27:38.120 a tiny, tiny pair of prints. It was just from 0:27:38.200 --> 0:27:41.320 two fingers, but it wasn't even the top of the fingers. 0:27:41.320 --> 0:27:44.840 It was the second joint down and it was just 0:27:45.280 --> 0:27:50.600 a very small patch on the car. And they kept 0:27:50.600 --> 0:27:54.120