Ivan Milat: The Backpacker Murderer.

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

The Zodiac Killer: This is the Zodiac Speaking

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.

Paul Charles Denyer: The Frankston Serial Killer

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

Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka

Brief Summary and Editorial:  Serial Killer Barbie and Evil Bastard Ken

Paul and Karla on their wedding day.

It's fairly common to picture serial killers (and for that matter rapists and paedophiles) as disfigured, evil little men. Maybe that's why Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka really stand out.

Paul Bernardo met Karla Homolka and found in her his perfect woman - beautiful, sexually adventurous, and most importantly submissive. When Paul asked Karla what she would think if he told her that he was the Scarborough Rapist, a criminal who had been tormenting a Canadian suburb for a period of several months, Karla said she thought it was "cool". They fell hard for each other and Karla was willing to do ANYTHING to keep her attractive fiance.

That anything included drugging her 15 year old sister, Tammy, so Paul could rape her. You see, using Paul's fucked up logic, Karla was not a virgin when she started seeing Paul, so he needed to take the virginity of her sister to make up for that. When he put it like that, Karla was happy to help. She stole some anaesthetic from the vet clinic where she worked as a vet nurse. On December 23rd 1990 Paul, Karla and Tammy stayed up later than everyone else.

Tammy Homolka.

Tammy had been drinking and had eaten not long before her older sister held a drug soaked rag over her face while her fiance vaginally and anally raped her. While her oldest sister was orally raping her, Tammy asphyxiated on her own vomit and died. She was significantly burnt on her face from the anaesthetic agent which had been sloppily applied by her sister, but the medical examiner thought it must have been from stomach acid.

Three weeks after this horrible event, Paul took a video of Karla dressed in Tammy's clothes, and while pretending to be Tammy, performed oral sex on him. This act alone suggests that Karla did not care about what she had done to her little sister.

Karla, during her trial.

Paul continued to rape women, often with Karla's consent and presence. At least one woman who was raped by Bernardo after getting off a bus said she saw a blonde woman nearby holding a video camera. Police dismissed this as hysteria.

Eventually at least two more teenage girls lost their lives at Paul and Karla's hands.  In recent years Paul has confessed to several more rapes for which other people had been imprisoned and since pardoned.  There is also at least two young girls who died in the same area at the same time who were quite probably more victims of Paul and Karla, although unless Paul confesses, the truth will probably never be known.

The whole time that Paul and Karla were killing, a forensic pathology lab had a sample of Paul's DNA waiting to be tested as the Scarborough rapist. After more than two years the sample was finally tested and Paul Bernardo was arrested.  This was just one is a series of errors and delays made by police and forensic services which may have cost some young girls their lives. 

Karla, domestic violence victim.

Paul's fascination with his new video camera along with his decision to beat Karla black and blue sealed their fate. Karla's parents came and removed her and she reported the abuse to them, having photos taken of her horrific bruising. She also went to the police and confessed.

Police made a deal with Karla to tell what she knew. She ended up with a ten year sentence that was increased to twelve years when police discovered her role in the death of her own sister. Then the police were given the video tapes that Paul's lawyer had in his possession. If they had had those tapes earlier, Karla would never have received a deal and she would still be in prison.

Karla was released in July 2005, to media hysteria throughout Canada. There were even websites where you could bet when Karla would be killed - with the stipulation that you couldn't bet on it and then kill her, as that was cheating. 

It's an interesting case. I wonder how Karla's family feel about her these days, with the knowledge they must now possess. Was Karla a battered wife, committing the crimes as she had no choice but to follow her abusive manipulative husband? Or was she a willing participant who enjoyed it as much as Paul did? Karla insists she was a victim too. The video tapes suggest otherwise. 
Personally I think the video tapes are more convincing than the wimpering of a convicted killer.

Links

There are plenty of stories online about Canada's most infamous serial killing couple, but these will give you a good summary:



Crime Library

Karla Homolka on Wikipedia

Paul Bernardo on Wikipedia