All language subtitles for The.Night.Caller.S01E01.WEBRip.x264-ION10

[Crickets chirping]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Woman:
I can't imagine the horror

of waking up to a stranger
standing over the bed.

Growing up in the '50s, '60s,

in those days,
I never thought of murder.

There was never a concern
for safety.

♪♪

Man: Perth was the most isolated
city, some say, in the world.

♪♪

Woman: It was a million miles
from everywhere.

It still is.

[Whistle blows]

Man: There was a well-developed
sense of community.

People didn't worry much
about children playing outside

or how late they were for tea.

There was a sense
of self-assurance.

Man #2:
Nobody locked their doors.

We didn't think of shutting
windows or anything.

In the '60s, I was a detective,
and it was very boring.

[Laughing]

But something incredibly evil

started happening
in our community.

[Camera shutter clicking]

There were seven girls hit
by some maniac driver.

Woman #2: I saw the lights.

I thought, "Oh, my God,
he's going to hit me."

This is where I found her
bleeding to death.

[Camera shutter clicks]

Woman #1:
And there was a strangler.

I woke up.
This figure appeared.

I just started screaming.[Screams]

[Camera shutter clicking]

Man #3: Then there were
shooting murders.

Reporter:
On a Saturday evening,

five people have been shot in
the Perth metropolitan area...

[Gunshot]...without any apparent motive.

[Camera shutter clicking]

Woman #1: 8 murders and 14
attempted murders.

The town was abuzz with
a serial killer on the loose.

[Camera shutter clicking]

Man #4: The police were getting
desperate to catch him.

And the police believed
it was Alan Ellis...

-Daryl Beamish...
-...and John Button.

The police turned around and
said, "Why did you do it?"

I was trying not to panic,

but they weren't believing
what I was saying.

Bloody stupid lies.

Now, that bloke Button
is bloody guilty.

Woman #1: I believe there was
a big cover-up

and three young men
were sitting in prison...

innocently.

Frank: Guilty of manslaughter,
guilty of murder.

He wasn't guilty of any counts.

This was terrorizing Perth.

-Perth changed completely.
-It was never the same again.

It was like a stone in a pond.

The ripples affected all these
people for a very long time.

Woman #3: There's been some
very, very hurtful things done.

I'm finding it harder to go on.

Sally: You either carry on
or you go down.

Well, I chose to go on.

Woman #4: My dad emotionally was
absent. I held resentment.

I don't think you will ever
find your freedom.

But I didn't do it.

I don't believe it.
Button's guilty as hell.

♪♪

♪ So you run, run, run

♪ From everything you are

♪ And you're lost

♪ With every scar

♪ And you say my name
like it's a game ♪

♪ But you can't hide

♪ I see you there

♪ Behind the lies

♪ You never know the pain

♪ It comes and goes

♪ In ways that cannot
be erased ♪

♪ It only fades away

♪ Long enough to remember

♪ The price we paid

Mark:
Patricia Vinico Berkman.

They called her Pnina,
and also Penny.

She was my mum.

I remember only crying once
by myself when I was 8,

and I realized
that my mother was gone.

And I sat by myself somewhere
and I cried,

and I cried,
and I cried, and I cried.

That's the only thing
I remember.

♪♪

♪♪

Bret: Pnina Berkman.
She was a part-time model.

She worked in a city store,
in the cosmetics department.

Well, that night, she'd been
to dinner with her boyfriend.

Top radio announcer.

A young man called
Photis Huntis.

The couple had then
returned to her flat,

and they'd gone to bed together.

He then left.

That was the last time
he ever saw her, I guess.

♪♪

The murder was discovered
by Photis.

He was driving to work,
and he saw a window was open

and the front door was open.

So he stopped and checked it out
and to his horror,

he found his dying girlfriend
gasping near the door.

She was actually still alive
when Photis found her,

but she died
very soon afterwards.

The intruder stabbed her
once through the face

and once through the chest.

And she had fought her
attacker really to the death.

She had put up a very,
very good fight,

but no one can survive

an 8-inch blade
going into their heart.

♪♪

Even after the intruder
had left,

she managed to crawl
to the door.

She just couldn't go
any further.

♪♪

Mark: The night of
the tragedy, I wasn't there.

I was sleeping
with another family --

the Millikan family.

♪♪

-That hedge wasn't there.
-No.

It was all just wide open.

Interviewer:
Tell me how you felt

when you learned the news.Daphne: Oh, God.

Just couldn't, well,
couldn't believe it at first,

because, I mean, it didn't
happen to people you knew,

you know?

Horrific.

♪♪

She and her husband
were divorced.

And she came over here
from the eastern states.

I think she wanted to start
a new life over here.

She was very vivacious.

She was very, very friendly.

Very beautiful.

Just like a movie star.Yeah.

She was, actually, wasn't she?Yeah.

So she was like
a big sister to me,

and we just loved her, you know.

But what was really sad --
Penny's son, Mark,

my mother was babysitting Mark
at our place.

Mark: Yeah, I was interviewed
by the police and...

I'm recalling they showed me
a few knives.

And asked me
if I can see a knife

that belonged to us,
and I said no.

Daphne: And then Mum wanted him
to stay with us, but the police,

they organized for his father
to come across to get him.

Mark: The only thing
I asked my father,

"What happened to Mum?"

And he said, "A madman
did something to Mum."

He didn't even say the word.

I don't remember anything
about Mother.

I've got a total blackout.

Um...

Yeah, I want to see --

I want to see her face
in my mind, and I can't.

All of a sudden,
you lose a mother.

One day you see her,
the next day, you don't.

And then something happens
in your mind.

♪♪

Bret: Well, at that point,

Pnina Berkman's killer
had not been found

but the police, they thought
they knew who it was.

Her boyfriend, Photis Huntis.

And he was another foreigner.

He'd come from Greece.
He wasn't one of us.

But he was with her
the night before.

The neighbors in fact confirmed
he was there the night before

and he went back to Greece.

He'd really cast suspicion
on himself

by leaving the country,
and in those days,

you left the country,
you were out of reach.

So the police let it be known
that they knew who'd done it.

They just didn't have
the evidence to catch him.

Interviewer: Remember this one?
This was actually --

-I do.
-Oh, yes.

Could you read that headline
and tell me

what you remember
about that one?

"Nude divorcee..."
-"33..."

-"...slain in flat."
-Yeah. Pretty tragic.

We weren't used
to that sort of thing.

No. Things like that
didn't happen in Perth.

The way she was murdered
was terrible.

I think you think what
they've gone through that's...

Yes. The terrible fear
that they must have had.

Oh, absolutely.

♪♪

Woman #5: Pnina Berkman,
it was alarm-raising,

but it didn't change our ways,
because she wasn't one of us.

Bret: And people who lived in
the Western Suburbs of Perth

didn't relate to her.

She was looked on as immoral.

Dianne: She was a divorcee,

doing what you weren't allowed
to do in those days.

She'd been discovered, goodness
me, having sex before marriage.

That, to us, was always
quite a dreadful thing to do.

Big no-no.
Absolutely.

[Laughs]

Things have changed.
Yes.

Bret:
And she lived in South Perth,

which was a long way
in those days

from the very comfortable
Western Suburbs.

Rod: It was the other side
of the river, which was good,

not Western Suburbs' side.

Interviewer: I've heard people
talk about Perth,

then there's
the Western Suburbs.

What are
the Western Suburbs?

Geoff: Cottesloe, Swanbourne,
Peppermint Grove,

Dalkeith, Nedlands, Claremont.

The golden triangle,
if you like.

What do they mean

when people distinguish
the Western Suburbs?

Um, I think they often
mean that...

perhaps they're more
the upper-class suburbs.

I'm not really sure.

Although we regard people
from the south of Perth

as just living
in the south of Perth

for no other reason.

Jenny:
We've got the ocean,

and the river very close
to where we live.

Hugh:
The parents of the kids

were largely professionals --

teachers, engineers, managers,
accountants, architects.

There was a different
class separation.

We were a bit insular,
here in the Western Suburbs.

♪♪

And the river acted
as quite a large barrier,

and we treated people who lived
on the other side of the river

as in a different country,
almost.

So the rest of Perth suburbs,

they seemed to think
that we were a bit...

that we thought we were better
than them.

Sue: I mean,
actually people said,

"Which side
did she live?"
Deb: Yeah.

And if you were that side,
well, it wasn't so good.

Yes.

It was a bit snobby.
It was very snobby.

Yes, yes.
Perth was snobby.

Yes.

It was, yes.
Very.

Interviewer: Would you describe
it as a safer place?

Geoff: The Western Suburbs,
absolutely a safe place.

Safer than any part of Perth,
no question about it.

♪♪

♪♪

Bret:
Nine months later,

another young woman
murdered in her bed.

♪♪

The victim in this case
was Jillian Brewer,

22-year-old heiress.

♪♪

Oh, my God.
Jillian Brewer?

This was a real shock.

That really hit home because she
lived in the Western Suburbs.

♪♪

She was one of us.

Pretty.

I love it!

♪♪

Oh, yes.

Bret:
Poor Jillian Brewer

had been hit
with the back of a tomahawk.

And she had also been stabbed

through the breast
with scissors.

And she'd been hit over the head
and on the body...

[Light clicks off]

...and between her legs
with this axe.

♪♪

[Brewer screaming]

♪♪

Her dog, a French poodle
called Christian Dior,

was cowering under the bed.

And she'd remained alive
for quite a long time,

probably for two or three hours
after she was attacked.

It was a most horrific murder.

In fact, the coroner said
it was the worst murder

he had ever had to deal with.

I've seen the photographs
of the crime scene and, really,

it's something I've never
been able to get out of my mind.

It's stark and horrible
and heart-breaking.

♪♪

The murder was so close to home.
You know, it was Cottesloe.

It was the talk,
you know, of the town.

Margie: It was eerie.
It was horrible.

And I vaguely knew
her boyfriend.

Dianne: It was a shock
to read about this

and not have any of the answers.

♪♪

Brian: No one knew
who'd committed the murder.

It was a mystery.

There were no suspects

in any sort of domestic
or family sense.

It was a real whodunnit.

I think I would
have just thought,

"Well, the police
are looking into that.

That's good."

♪♪

Geoff: There was absolutely
the expectation

that the police would get
their man.

They were always right,
and you wouldn't fault them.

Dianne:
We all believed

everything
that the police stated.

We felt we were in very,
very good, safe hands.

♪♪

Bret: But something very strange
was going on here.

Jillian Brewer
and Pnina Berkman.

It seems these two events
must have been connected.

The pathologist who examined
both bodies and said,

"There is...There are
similarities here, you know.

I wonder if we're dealing
with the same perpetrator."

Both had been stabbed
and they were young women,

asleep in their beds,
in ground-floor flats.

But the police did not think
they were connected

because they thought
that Photis Huntis

had killed his girlfriend,
and that he'd left the country.

He'd fled.

So how could the two crimes
be connected?

The pathologist was asking
the public to choose

between his theory
and the police theory.

If the police said
something to me,

you would simply obey it.

You wouldn't question it
for one minute,

because it would be fact.

That's it.

♪♪

-In the '60s, there'd be about
65 or 70 active detectives.

And you were doing breaking and
enters and stealing and rapes.

But very, very often
you went on duty,

and every time you got a call,
many of them, the job you got,

that "we heard someone
in the backyard."

♪♪

And it was very boring.

But Brewer --
well, it was very difficult.

Now, the lead detective
in this case

was Detective Sergeant
Owen Leitch,

who had a huge reputation.

He was a god among detectives.

People who read crime fiction
and watched movies,

Owen Leitch embodied
this mythical crime solver.

[Camera shutter clicks]

The police,
they photographed the scene.

They found the tomahawk
that had been used.

Took statements.

Their inquiries went nowhere.

They did not get
a sniff of a clue.

♪♪

The case was not progressing
at all well.

The wealth of Perth resided
in those suburbs.

They were people of influence
in Perth.

The sort of people who didn't
take no for an answer.

When the police said
they can't find anybody,

"Well, you find someone.
That's your job.

We pay you do to do your job."

♪♪

The police felt there was
a sexual element

to the Brewer murder

because of the attack
on the lower part of her body.

Owen Leitch began looking
at sex offenders.

♪♪

And a young man who lived
within walking distance

of where Jillian Brewer
lived was picked up --

Daryl Raymond Beamish.

♪♪

Daryl Beamish, he was
an unusual person.

Daryl used to lurk.

A kid who wasn't quite the same
as the rest of us.

My impression of Daryl Beamish
was that he was an outsider.

He was a little bit
of an outcast, if you like.

I understood that he amused
himself by peeping,

probably, into houses and so on.

♪♪

Bret:
He'd looked but not touched.

But that was a serious offense.

Leitch immediately suspected
he may have been involved

in the Brewer murder.

Max: Owen Leitch, he was
the best detective in Perth.

He was the smartest one out,
I reckon.

♪♪

He knew that this little bastard
killed Jillian Brewer.

♪♪

Bret:
Well, Leitch got hold of Beamish

and the first question
he asked him was,

"Have you ever been
to Brookwood Flats?"

And Daryl Beamish said,
yes, he had.

He'd met a girl who lived there,
and he had dropped her home.

And of course,

Leitch's copper's instinct
flashed like lightning at this.

So he pointed to
Jillian Brewer's flat and said,

"Have you ever
been here before?"

And he said, "Yes."

Daryl Beamish admitted
to the crimes.

Here we've got Daryl Beamish's
confession.

Questions and answered.

"Did you kill the lady?"
"Yes."

"How did you get into the flat?"

"I had wire and push key.
Drop."

"Did you take your pants off
to fuck lady?"

"Yes."
"Did you get blood on yourself?"

"Yes, all around my cock."

"Why did you kill the lady?"
"My head mix up."

And he said,
"What about the axe?

What about the tomahawk?"

"I threw over fence."

"Do you understand?"
"Yes, I want to tell truth."

♪♪

Daryl Beamish,
he was just a...

a hateful little bastard,
that's all he was, you know.

Owen Leitch, he was
a very solid detective.

And Owen put Beamish inside.

And guilty.

♪♪

[Camera shutter clicking]

Margie: "A detective told
the Perth Police Court to-day

that youth Daryl Beamish
allegedly made a verbal

and a written confession

to the murder
of Jillian Brewer."

♪♪

♪ Lovely lady tried to save me

♪ Hold my head
so I don't look back ♪

Everyone was quite happy.
You know, people were relieved.

Just glad it was over
and done with.

Relieved. "Oh, they've got him.
Thank God."

Police had done a good job.

Somebody had been accountable.

♪♪

♪♪

Geoff: It was a good thing
someone had confessed to it,

but at the same time, there was
something not right about it.

I do remember Dad and I
talking about it,

and it just seemed odd.

Frank:
Daryl wouldn't hurt a fly.

You know, I used to go
roller-skating,

speed skating with him.

And if you knocked over a woman,
he'd say, "Hey, take it easy.

Slow down," you know?

When they told me
he'd done Jillian Brewer,

I just couldn't see it.

Detective Sergeant Leitch said
that Beamish confessed,

and Detective Sergeant Leitch

was a very important person
and he knew.

If he said that happened,
it happened.

And the fact
that he admitted to it,

I thought, "Well,
he's admitted to it."

♪♪

Bret: Owen, he was promoted
a number of times

on the strength
of the great work

he'd done
in locking up Daryl Beamish.

Estelle:
Well, Mum was extremely proud

when Owen Leitch became
Commissioner of Police,

because they went to school
together in Collie, for a time.

Mum thought Owen Leitch
was the best cop in the world,

and she would speak
highly of him very often.

Brian: Generally speaking,
I think the community feeling

was that a crime
had been solved.

Estelle: The people were assured
that the first one

was in Greece
and the second one,

the killer of poor
Jillian Brewer, Daryl Beamish,

he was safely tucked away
in Fremantle Prison.

So we were assured
there was no danger.

♪♪

And we felt very happy,

and they kind of
got forgotten about.

♪♪

My name is John Button.

I was born in England, U.K.,

and came out to Australia
in 1958, when I was 14.

♪♪

Back in 1963, I was 18,
going on 19.

This spate of crime,
it suddenly happened,

but I wasn't concerned.

I was just too much in love
to worry about it,

with my girlfriend,
Rosemary Anderson.

♪♪

But in 1963, Rosemary,
what she had to go through,

yeah, I never got over --

I suppose I still haven't
got over it properly.

So, um...

♪♪

I got married in '68
to my wife, Helen.

It's been very hard for my wife.

She realizes that Rosemary's
still part of my life.

She's had to be stuck
in a marriage

where there's three of us.

Helen: You know, there's times
he'll talk of her and...

Yeah, it's hard
to swallow...

at times.

So you just have to go on.

Keep going forward.

John: She's had to look after me
and be my carer all these years.

My girlfriend's husband
would go down and check to see

if he wasn't hanging
in their garage,

'cause I quite often
thought that

when the kids were at school,
John would go and hang himself.

♪♪

This event has stayed with me
for the last 50, 60 years.

♪♪

Back in the '50s and '60s,
I loved ballroom dancing,

and I was able

to get an apprenticeship
being a bricklayer.

And then I got my car
and driver's license.

It was all that I could ask for,
really.

I had a future
to look forward to.

And this one night,
I met Frank Kellett.

Frank:
I was in the Swanbourne Theater.

I rode me motorbike up
the stairs and around the foyer

and down the stairs
to pick up this bird.

[Chuckles]

♪♪

I met John.

John had a Simca.

It was a nice little motor car.

Anyway, we got talking.
We clicked.

You couldn't help but like him,
and we just become mates.

Things we got up to
was terrific.

Football.

Surf clubs.

♪♪

We used to go kangaroo shooting.

John could shoot the eye out
of a crow at 1,000 yards,

he was that accurate
with a rifle.

[Laughs]

♪♪

John: One day, Frank,

he wanted to line a date up
for me, a blind date.

So I parked outside
his girlfriend's house

and she came out with...
Rosemary.

Frank: He liked Rosemary a lot,
a bloody lot.

[Chuckling]

Oh, dear.

John: She was
a beautiful-looking girl.

I just couldn't think
of anything to say.

I opened the door for her,

trying to be
a bit of a gentleman.

And still, I couldn't think
of anything to say.

I said to John,
"Everything alright, John?"

He said, "Yeah! Yeah!"
you know, sort of thing.

And after we'd been there
five minutes,

Frank called over
from the back seat,

"You gonna sit there like
a stale bottle of beer,

or are you gonna, you know,
get to know her, or whatever?"

Yeah.

Yes, everything
you could wish for.

♪♪

Frank:
They started a relationship.

♪♪

John: So I'd be down there every
night, straight after work.

I'd take her out on weekends.

Her father used to refer to me
as his future son-in-law.

♪♪

So I was going on 17,
we decided that we'd wait

till her 18th birthday
to get engaged.

Everything that I wanted
was falling into place.

This was around Christmastime.

♪♪

And then everything
went so wrong.

Australia Day is when we
celebrate everything Australian.

We celebrate the fact
we live here.

It's summer,
it's typically very hot.

It was go to the beach...
barbecues.

Hugh: Generally it's a time
of relaxation

and joining up with friends

and having a quiet party
somewhere.

Dianne:
A swim through, isn't it?

They just drink from morning
till dusk.

♪♪

John:
On the 26th of January 1963,

the Australia Day long weekend,

I'd gone out with Rosemary
and her parents to a social.

♪♪

I was in a patrol car,
in charge of afternoon shift.

We just patrolled up
through Kings Park.

Nobody came and nobody went,

so I finished my shift
and went home.

[Crickets chirping]

Bret:
It was a very hot night.

And in Cottesloe...

there was a courting couple.

Nick:
Would you like a drink?

Rowena:
What have you got?

Got a beer.
Beer?

Yeah.Oh, I could go some beer.

You look like you're
struggling a bit there.

Do you need a hand?It's alright.

I'll get it off.
Don't worry.

Are you sure?Yeah, it's all good.

It's actually not...

How about
you just let me...

[Smooches]

Woman #5:
In the car was Nick August.

He was a well-known businessman,
and Rowena Reeves,

a barmaid who worked down
at the OBH.

The Ocean Beach Hotel
is a famous Cottesloe hotel.

Come on.She saw something.

♪♪

He -- He's got a gun!

[Engine starts]

He's got a gun!

[Screams]

[Gunshot]

♪♪

Bret: And the bullet just missed
the man's head

and caught the hand
of the young woman.

♪♪

Past the local tennis courts
and across the road...

[Footsteps]

♪♪

...there was a young surf
lifesaver asleep in his bed.

Woman #5: Brian Weir was an
accountant, due to be married

a few months later
and a surf lifesaver.

♪♪

[Gunshot]

He had two alarm clocks on
so that he'd make sure

he'd wake up early for training.

Next morning,
when he wasn't at practice,

his mate, Lyn Bath, found him.

Amazingly, although he was shot
in the head, he didn't die,

and he was still gurgling
and bleeding.

They did get him rushed
to hospital,

but he died a few years later.

♪♪

The shooter then
went to Nedlands.

♪♪

♪♪

John Sturkey, he was
a top student

at University
of Western Australia.

He and another guy
had tossed a coin

to see who would sleep
on the back veranda,

because sleeping outside
was great in summer.

♪♪

[Footsteps]

[Gravel crunching]

[Gunshot]

And he'd been shot in the head.

♪♪

Then the next street,
George Walmsley.

He played the organ at the
Methodist Church in Nedlands.

[Doorbell rings]

He'd answered the doorbell
at about 4:00 a.m.

♪♪

♪♪

[Gunshot, body thuds]

♪♪

Man #5:
Just shot him through the head.

Woman #5:
He was rushed to hospital

and died an hour later,
after arrival at hospital.

♪♪

Max: We heard it on the two-way
as something going on,

because it was a shooting.

♪♪

Well, the next day, we were
called into the muster room.

Oh, it was shocking.

From then on in, all everybody,

every policeman
in Western Australia

had a job to do
on the serial killer.

♪♪

Man on radio: Perth's great
crime wave of 1963 has begun.

Five people have been shot
by a mystery sniper

in Nedlands and Cottesloe.

Now a gunman was loose.

Perth has been transformed
into a city of fear.

Bret:
It's just hard to imagine.

I can remember it so clearly,
as if it was yesterday.

I was at home with my parents.
I was a schoolkid.

People spoke of nothing else,

and the terror that gripped
the city, you can't imagine it.

♪♪

-Gunman still at large.
-Kills two.

-Injures three.
-Shock horror.

Shock horror.

Yeah. So many murders
in such a short time.

They were just amazed
how it could happen

in the Western Suburbs.

Five people in one night.

[Sighs] Most disturbing.

It was all
so close to home.

And it struck fear
into everybody.

Geoff: And it was random.

There was nothing
about it that tied

any of these people together.

Perth changed that day
and so did we.

People got weapons.

They slept with firearms
under their bed.

We all started closing
and locking our windows

and locking our doors.

My husband put this lock here.
Nobody could get in.

Bret:
We had bars put on our windows.

On a hot night, we used
to sleep out on the lawn.

We stopped doing that
straightaway.

Geoff: The police had the lights
turned on at night,

all the street lights.

And so at nighttime,
with the lights now on,

the trees moving in the wind,

you'd lie in bed
looking at the shadows,

terrified that one of those
shadows would become a person.

Rod: People put dunnies inside.
We did.

Very scary to go out there
in the nighttime.

Sally: The kids used to sleep
on the back veranda.

"Those kids aren't safe there.

Bring them inside
and lock 'em in with you."

They used to sleep on the floor,
next to me bed.

Me husband, he'd say,
"Lock the doors.

You know my knock."

He had a certain knock
and whistle.

"When you hear them,
you open the door, not before."

I'd open the door
and pull him in and say,

"I hate this killer
on the loose.

When are they gonna catch him?"

Hugh: At the time,

we thought the police
were on top of the matter,

that they were going to find out
who the killer was.

And they'd already
picked up Beamish.

The police knew
what they were doing.

♪♪

Bill:
This was a very traumatic time,

so he virtually held
the city at ransom.

We had no idea at all

whether it was one
particular person or another.

It was very disturbing
for everybody.

♪♪

Max: It was very, very difficult
to get some information.

You'd knock on the door,
and it wouldn't get opened.

[Chuckling]

We had a knock on the door
at 8:00 one night,

and we were all ushered
to the bedrooms

while Mum called out from
a long distance from the door,

"Who is it?"

Max: The people were really
worried about the situation.

The only clue they had found
from the Australia Day shootings

was one cartridge
found on the driveway

behind where
the university student was shot.

And that gave them
their only clue.

Forensic evidence
was in its infancy.

They took footprints.
There was fingerprinting.

And they could check tire marks.

Fairly basic forensics.

And of course firearms.

You had bullet casings
and bullets.

That was quite well advanced,
the science of identifying

matching bullets
to rifles and handguns.

♪♪

Bill: We had crews who were
making checks on firearms

throughout the country areas
of the state,

.22 caliber, similar to the ones
used in the shooting.

That involved the checking of
some 60-odd thousand firearms,

not only in Western Australia,

but they were checking firearms
in the eastern states as well.

Bret: But...they came up
with absolutely zero.

Nothing.

It was a true murder mystery.

You were doing the job
and getting nowhere.

Um...very hard.

♪♪

Interviewer:
What's that say?

"Deadlock In Killer Hunt."
Yep.

-Do you remember that?
-Yeah.

Oh, I don't remember
reading it in the --

No, but do you remember
what it was like?

That's what it was like, yeah.
Oh, yeah.

People, they were very upset
that we weren't doing any good.

[Chuckling]

That you couldn't catch him?No.

Woman #5: Public opinion
of the police wasn't too good.

"Why can't they get him?"
They needed someone.

The police were trying to find
out what connection they had.

There seemed to be something
about the Ocean Beach Hotel.

Margie: Rowena.

He's got a gun![Gunshot]

She was a barmaid there,
if I remember rightly.

They tried to work out
how the killer

got from one murder location
to the next.

A journalist got on a bicycle

and cycled to see if perhaps
they'd cycled between.

He just does not conform.

He's one who does not conform

to any of the accepted
murderer patterns.

Graham: The victims -- girls,
boys, men, older people --

didn't seem to matter much.

Bret: They were speculating
that this person was crazed,

but one of the frightening
things about it

was that he was methodical,
accurate.

He'd left no clues.

He was an intelligent predator,

and that made him
even more dangerous.

The police were under
intense pressure

from the Western
Suburbs community.

A little desperate.

Yes.

Graham: The community weren't
very happy with the police.

If you don't feel safe,
then you're not happy.

Yeah, yeah,
it was terrifying.

And people said, "Who's next?
It could be me."

Anyone of us could be asleep
in our beds

and someone could come
and shoot us.

I certainly thought
I could be next.

We had an outdoor toilet, but
behind that was just pure black,

and I could just imagine this
killer, sitting up in the tree,

waiting for me
to walk to the toilet.

So here I was, about to become
a mature adult, a grown-up,

no way was I gonna go outside
and walk along

with this big, black abyss
of a backyard behind it

that he could shoot me from.

So I had a potty
all that hot summer.

♪♪

And then two weeks later,
we woke up to hear

that there was
another major, major crime.

A girl was run down,
not far from where we lived,

in Shenton Park.

She'd been hit by a car at about
30 kilometers an hour,

about 20 miles an hour.

She'd been projected up
onto the front of the car,

carried by the car
for a very long distance.

[Engine revving]

♪♪

♪♪

John: The 9th of February
being my 19th birthday,

I was up early,
showered, dressed

and went down to Rosemary's
house to spend the day with her.

♪♪

We bought fish and chips
and we sat down

and we played cards together
for the next hour.

John: You win?Yeah, I win. [Laughs]

It was a fortnight
after the shootings.

We should have been more aware
of it, but...

Rosemary and I, we were too much
in love to worry about it.

So?

It was something shocking
that it happened,

but we weren't gonna let it
interfere with our life.

So we carried on as usual.

Rosemary: You win.

Did I win?
Yeah, you win.

But we had an argument.

No, I don't want to.

I don't want
to play anymore.

[Chair clatters]

Rosemary proceeded to walk home.

♪♪

So I followed her in my car.

♪♪

I parked my car just a little
bit down from here.

She crossed over
the intersection here,

under the subway and turned
left up Stubbs Terrace.

And I watched my girlfriend
walk out of sight.

♪♪

I lit up a cigarette
and sat there for two

or three minutes, smoking it,
waiting to give Rosemary

a little bit of extra time
to cool off.

I was concerned on the fact
that it's a very dark road

and she'd be walking up there
in the dark.

So I drove up Stubbs Terrace,
towards the top of the hill.

♪♪

♪♪

I got up to a point, about here,

and saw her lying in the sand
on the edge of the road.

I didn't know what to think.

I was hoping, hope upon hope,
that she was just throwing

herself down on the sand,
crying her eyes out.

So as quickly as I could,
I slid across the seat,

opened up the passenger door

and ran over to where
she was laying in the sand.

She was laying about here,
unconscious,

with a large gash
above her right eye.

And there was a pool of blood
under her head,

and she was bleeding
into the sand.

And I slipped my arms
underneath her

and lifted her up...

and carried her back to the car.

♪♪

I was trying not to panic.

I never thought of anything
other than getting her

to a doctor's surgery.

And I drove off as fast
as I could,

down to the family doctor.

She was seriously injured.

He called for an ambulance
and he also called the police.

These police officers
asked me what had happened.

John?And I started off about

telling them
that we'd had an argument.

So they took a statement.

They sent their vehicle examiner
down to look at my car.

Trevor Condren.

I was just asked to examine
the vehicle

for its mechanical condition.

[Clears throat]

And that is what I did.

I then checked the brakes

and the lights
and everything like that.

I could see nothing really
outstandingly wrong with it.

♪♪

But then...
I then could see damage.

It looked like a collision.

♪♪

Leitch:
The headlight was broken,

and there was quite severe
damage to the grille of the car.

And there was blood on the car.

♪♪

Suddenly their attitude
just got colder and colder.

Leitch: Here they had a
shockingly injured young woman.

They had her nervously
stuttering boyfriend,

standing beside his car, which
had damage to the front of it.

Police wouldn't buy it.

Button:
They turned around and said,
"We know it's you."

"Just tell us why."

♪♪

"Remand for youth.
A 19-year-old laborer..."

"Was yesterday remanded..."

..."In custody on a charge
of having knocked down

and injured..."
-"...a 17-year-old girl

at Shenton Park on
or about Saturday."

♪ If you break, break, break

Margie: I thought, "How can
anybody do that?"

How could somebody do that?

♪♪

John Button, I heard
he had a temper.

That's a lot of bullshit.

He did not touch Rosemary.

Geoff:
On first reading, you'd say,
"Maybe we've got our murderer.

Maybe we've got
the breakthrough we need."

Button:
I was beside myself.

♪ And you're lost

♪ With every scar

♪♪

♪ You'll never know the pain

He said,
"There's been a killing."

Dianne: Another shooting?
Perth erupts again.

Pen in her hand,
and a bullet hole in the head.

The nature of the murders
were so brazen.

Man:
We were dealing with a maniac.

He's still out there
looking for unlocked doors.

I heard he had a temper.

Hope they catch the bugger
that did it.

It was obvious
that I was the culprit.

It was a downright bloody lie.

♪ Do you remember
the price we paid? ♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪