Mark Whittaker has been writing crime and investigative stories for the past twelve years. Mark is a staff writer for The Australian Magazine.
Les Kennedy has been a journalist for twenty-two years and chief crime reporter with The Daily Telegraph for the past twelve. In 1997, he moved to The Sydney Morning Herald where he is the chief police reporter.
S I N S of the
B R O T H E R
The definitive story of Ivan Milat
and the backpacker murders
MARK WHITTAKER AND LES KENNEDY
First published 1998 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited
This Pan edition published 2001 by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited
St Martins Tower, 31 Market Street, Sydney
Reprinted 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006
Copyright Mark Whittaker and Les Kennedy 1998
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publisher.
National Library of Australia
cataloguing-in-publication data:
Whittaker, Mark.
Sins of the brother.
Includes index.
ISBN 0 330 36284 4.
1. Milat, Ivan. 2. Milat family. 3. Serial murderers - New South Wales - Biography.
4. Serial murders - New South Wales - Belanglo State Forest.
5. Trials (Murder) - New South Wales - Sydney. I. Kennedy, Les, 1958-. II. Title.
364.152309944
Typeset by Post Pre-press Group
Printed in Australia by McPhersons Printing Group
Please note, to preserve vernacular accuracy currency changes to decimal from
chapter 9 onwards and imperial measure to metric from chapter 16 onwards.
This is consistent with changes to the Australian system.
These electronic editions published in 2007 by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
1 Market Street, Sydney 2000
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Sins of the Brother
Mark Whittaker and Les Kennedy
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Far from being the basis of the good society, the family,
with its narrow privacy and tawdry secrets, is the source of
all our discontents.
Sir Edmund Leach, social anthropologist
A U T H O R S N O T E
Between 1989 and 1992 Ivan Milat murdered seven hitchhikers, and tried to kill at least one other. Six of those eight were foreign to these shores, but on the whole the comfortable Australia they saw didnt differ so very greatly from the worlds they left at home. Until they met Milat.
This is a story from the places that dont make the brochures and postcards. Its a story about Milats narrow little world and what happened when he let his delusions and fantasies become reality. It is also about the efforts to stop him and find out if he acted alone. It is a story about murder, but there is no murder in it. That can only be told when Milat confesses to what went on in the forest, and who, if anybody, was with him. It is a peculiarly Australian story.
Much of it is told in a novelistic style, but at all times the events and details are, to the best of our knowledge, true. The language may at times sound rather crude, but the story is told in the manner in which it was told to us. In a few instances, names have been changed. People have continually surprised us with their willingness to tell the story. We thank them all wholeheartedly for their co-operation and note that, apart from an occasional beer or coffee, no payment has been made to any person for any information. Where there are conflicting versions of the same event, we have often steered a line of best fit. At other times, we have stuck to one persons version and marked it with an endnote.
MW & LK
CONTENTS |
(19021944) Margaret and Steve |
(19441950) Rossmore |
(1950s) Moorebank |
(1950s) Boys Town |
(19601962) The Vendetta |
(1963) The Buzz |
(1964) Thou Shalt... |
(1965) The Hurtin |
(19661967) Family Affair |
(19681970) Maureen |
(Early 1971) Death, Love, Rape and Marriage |
(Mid 1971) Stickm Up |
(July 1971) Gangsters |
(1971) The Collar |
(Late 19711973) The Gap |
(Early 1974) Mr Brown |
(Late 1974) Marsden |
(19751976) Karen |
(19771978) Novak |
(19791982) Blackett |
(19831987) Breakdown |
(19881989) Old Flames |
The Highway |
(1990) The Void |
(Early 1991) Hornets and Wasps |
(Mid 1991) The Unloader |
(Late 1991) Bondi Beach Party |
(Early 1992) Worlds Apart |
(April 1992) Dope Talk |
(Mid 1992) Limbo |
(September 1992) The Forest |
(Late 1992) Which Way South? |
(Late 1992) Offender 2 |
(JanuaryOctober 1993) The Potter |
(October 1993) Executioners Drop |
(October 1993) Task Force Eyre? |
(November 1993) Area A |
(November 1993) Fifty Metres |
(Dec 1993Jan 1994) Deliverance |
(FebMar 1994) The Highway Revisited |
(April 1994) Out of the Bag |
(Early May 1994) Onions |
(22 May 1994) Air I |
(MayJune 1994) Revelations |
(Mid to late 1994) Father Dearest |
(Mid to late 1994) The Gun |
(Late 1994) Wired |
(1995) Jenolan State Forest |
(1996) Trial |
(1996) The Pack |
P R O L O G U E
I t should be a solemn family occasion. Margaret Milat is in a pretty bad way in hospital with a crook heart, shot hips, a hernia, and Lord knows what other complications a woman gets after bearing fourteen children. There is a chance she might not make it. Most of her brood are coming all the way to the city to see her. Except Mick, of course, being in jail for those armed robberies he and Ivan did. And Margaret who died in a car accident three years ago.
There is no reason, though, why Ivan cant get there, even if he is on the run. Hes been hiding from the cops for two and a half years now, since October 71, but he isnt hard to find. So long as you call him by one of his aliases, Bill, Bill Harris to be sure, or Joe Spanner, there are no dramas. Hes pretty certain the police have lost interest in him, and he feels safe enough to visit family most weekends. He doesnt know that he is a possible suspect in a murder six months old that police are now investigating.