All language subtitles for The.Night.Caller.S01E03.WEBRip.x264-ION10

My name's Roderick Gerald Noble,

and in 1963, I was 13.

Perth was very quiet
in those days.

Very well-off people lived here.

But it's a very small place.

Everyone knew everyone
or seemed to know everyone.

Over this side, anyway,
this side of the river.

That's the Western Suburbs side.

Every backyard
had an outside dunny.

Still works.
It's a beauty.

Everyone had buffalo grass and
the Hills Hoist clothesline.

And they'd spin you around
while you were swinging off it.

Kids lived out here, basically.

We had a fabulous life.

We were footloose
and fancy free.

And all of a sudden, there was
the body on the back lawn.

[Grass rustling]

♪♪

[Man grunting]

♪♪

It was like
it happened yesterday.

Even now, I can see
that backyard.

I can see the body.

Still today,
I have trouble sleeping.

This thing will never go away.

♪♪

♪ 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

♪♪

♪♪

Estelle: Perth was blown apart
by a major,

major crime wave in 1963,

especially within
the Western Suburbs.

It shattered our world,
shattered my world.

It shattered everybody's world.

Perth changed forever,
instantly.

The police were right onto it,
of course.

Daryl Beamish was
locked up for life

for the hatchet murder
of Jillian Brewer.

John Button was in jail

for running down
Rosemary Anderson.

And now we had the shooter
for Shirley McLeod.

It was Eric Edgar Cooke.

Reporter: Perth was numb
in September '63.

The cruel killer
who'd terrorized us

for most of the year was
a truck driver with seven kids.

Estelle:
It was a great relief

that the police were getting
on top of things.

Although we were all aware
that the killer responsible

for the shootings
on Australia Day

was still at large.

But there was a twist.

My police section...

I was yet to discover
that the good work of the police

was far from good.

John Button was
completely innocent.

This is about a cover-up
by the police.

Once police had confirmed that
Cooke had shot Shirley McLeod,

they started to think
that he might be behind

the Australia Day shootings.

They all had a similarity.

The victims had all been shot

accurately in the forehead
with a .22 caliber rifle.

It was so certain to police
he was the one,

but they had no evidence.

So they had to find
the murder weapon,

because the gun was different
from the one used

to kill Shirley McLeod.

♪♪

Max: But Cookie wouldn't
talk to them.

So that was where I come
in the picture.

♪♪

I was down the football club
on my only day off.

[Laughs]
Inspector Lamb, he said,

"We dearly want a cough,"
meaning admitting.

I said, "Well, okay."

So I went down and saw Cookie,
and he did the old trick.

"No, not me, Mr. Baker.
Not me, not me."

"Yes, it is you."

So we put him in the car
and drove around.

Nedlands, West Perth,
everywhere.

Estelle: So they took him on
a tour of the Western Suburbs,

where the Australia Day
shootings took place,

hoping to prompt a confession.

But instead, he just took them
to lots of houses

where he confessed
to a variety of thefts,

some peeping Tom crimes,
stealing cars.

There were so many.

You could pretty well say
that in those days,

if you caught somebody
in your backyard

or looking in your window,
it was most likely Cooke.

But that wasn't
what they wanted.

What I was doing is seeing
how he reacted

to everyone that we went past.

You know, you'd say,
"How about that one, eh?"

And he'd say,
"No, no, not that one."

But he was a person
that'll tell lies.

We stopped at the Albion Hotel

and bought him
some curried chicken and rice.

As we sat there, I thought,

"Oh, geez, I've had
enough of this.

He's never said
a bloody word to me,

so I've gotta get it from him."

Now it's in the report.

And I said, "Hey, Cookie,
you're going to hang.

There's not much doubt
about that.

Now think about
your wife and kids.

Are you going to be dragged to
the gallows like a mongrel dog

or are you gonna go like a man?"

And he actually hit
the right spot,

because Cooke was very fond
of his family.

Max: Spluttering his curried
chicken, he said,

"Mr. Baker,
what do you want to know?"

I said, "Did you shoot
George Walmsley

and the others that night?"

Cookie said, "Yes, I'm
the bloke you're looking for.

What happens now?"

♪♪

Estelle:
And so then Cooke himself

told the police
how he did everything.

♪♪

Rowena:
I think I want a drink.
I think I'm thirsty.

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

[Gunshot]

[Gunshot]

♪♪

[Gunshot]

Detective: You deliberately
aimed a rifle at their head.

Cooke: Yes, sir. Yes.

[Gunshot]

♪♪

And when you reached
the Narrows Bridge?

I pushed the rifle over,
yes, sir.

Why did you do that?

♪♪

Estelle:
There's the Narrows Bridge,

and he was there
with the detectives.

Cooke had a great memory, and he
could remember that he threw it

from light pole number 324
with an over-arm motion.

♪♪

And there it is.

That rifle that Cooke had stolen
and used on Australia Day

was still there
in 10 centimeters of silt.

♪♪

After all those years
of hunting for Cooke

and getting the pressure,
quite a trophy.

♪♪

Jack: Understandably,
it was a terrific relief,

not only to members
of the public,

but also naturally,
of course, to the police.

Man: Oh, yes, great jubilation,
for everybody.

For the first time,
I felt relief.

The people just breathed out.

♪♪

Estelle: But Cooke,
once he started confessing,

he didn't stop.

♪♪

♪♪

Dad held a party.

Rod: My sisters had friends
staying there that night,

and it went on quite a while.

♪♪

At the end of it, Dad used
to throw whiskey bottles

and plates on the back lawn
and wash them out.

♪♪

We got up early.

Dad used to go to the beach
every morning,

and often I'd go with him.

And I went to the toilet,
right at the back of the yard.

♪♪

Opened the door, like that.

Mum was behind me.

And down on the grass
was a body.

♪♪

She was nude.

I thought it was
one of my sisters.

She had the whiskey bottle
from the party under an arm.

My mum started calling out

and found
that all the girls were safe.

And then I thought,
"She's dead."

♪♪

I just thought, "She's dead."

It was Constance Lucy Madrill.

She was a lovely girl.

We played cricket in that
laneway all the time.

We used to hit the ball
into her backyard often,

and she used
to throw the ball back.

During the night, he strangled
her with the bed flex

of a Bakelite lamp
that was on the bed.

He dragged her
through the house.

Had sex with her outside
on the back lawn...

♪♪

...and dragged her
into our backyard

and put her on our back lawn.

♪♪

♪♪

[Siren wailing]

Dad rang the police.

They came down the laneway.

They must have been shattered
when they saw it.

Really shattered.

♪♪

Max: Oh, it was shocking.

♪♪

Everything was investigated,
the city, the suburb

and country, everywhere,
with no days off.

We were full up,
right up to there.

Rod: And all of a sudden,

there were Criminal
Investigation Bureau everywhere.

They took over our house
as headquarters.

They thought he'd come back
because this one was strangled

and all the others were shot.

♪♪

At the time, I just felt awful.

I just thought,
"I wish they'd catch him.

I wish it was over
and done with."

Interviewer: Do you think
it was associated

with the other crimes
at the time?

Definitely not,
because she wasn't shot,

and he shot every other one.

I couldn't believe it.Really?

I couldn't believe it.

Estelle:
The police hadn't linked

Lucy Madrill's strangling
with the shooter.

They were looking for a shooter
and a strangler.

Cooke's confession
to the Madrill killing

was a huge shock to the police.

They took Cooke
to the Madrill property,

and he walked them
through again in minute detail.

He'd strangled her with the cord
of her own lamp.

He'd dragged her to the back
garden of the house behind.

These details hadn't been
reported in the paper,

so they had to accept
this confession.

What a shock.

The shooter and the strangler
was one and the same.

♪♪

How do you feel
toward him?

Bitter.

Yeah, very bitter.

♪♪

My whole life changed
from that morning.

There's no counseling,
no therapy.

I've never talked about it
like this before.

Really?
Yeah.

Still today, I don't know
why he did that.

♪♪

Then, there was another
completely unexpected turn.

Cooke started confessing
to murders

that other people had already
been named as responsible for.

Pnina Berkman
and Jillian Brewer.

The police were convinced
that Pnina Berkman's boyfriend,

who had fled back to Greece,
was responsible for her murder.

And Jillian Brewer,
they already had their man.

They had that odd 19-year-old,
Daryl Beamish.

They had him put away for life.

And then he confessed to
running down Rosemary Anderson.

John: When Eric Edgar Cooke

confessed
to running down Rosemary,

this was the first time
that something gave me hope

to be released.

I would have been able to maybe

put the pieces
back together again.

Frank: John did not do it.

Thank God someone has
come forward to admit.

Jill: My father, Ken Hatfield,
went to visit Button in prison

and told him he wanted
to get the appeal

to prove that John was innocent.

John: I was just waiting for
someone to come and release me.

But that is not what happened.

Estelle: The police, they had
to investigate everything.

So they took Cooke
to Stubbs Terrace,

where Rosemary was run down.

They took him there and said,
"Alright, Cookie,

you tell us all the details."

And he did.

So he's showing the detectives
where he first saw her

walking along the road,

where he did a U-turn,
where he came back behind her,

and where he hit her.

But the location Cooke pointed
to where Rosemary was struck

was out by a few meters.

She was lying in the sand
further on than he'd said.

♪♪

Man #2: But he also said
on the record

he had stolen a car that night.

He said that after he'd hit
Rosemary and damaged the car,

he drove it to Kings Park

and smashed it into a tree
to disguise the damage.

Estelle:
So they took him to the tree.

♪♪

Wrong tree.

The one that he pointed out
was three or four trees away

from where that
Holden had been found.

Max:
He had a bloody good memory,

and his memory let him down
on that one.

So they knocked him
out of that one.

He was found out telling lies.

Man #2: The police,
they wouldn't believe him.

The man they thought had done
the killing,

John Button,
was locked up in jail.

Nielson: Cooke thought he was
going to be executed,

and it was my belief
that he was extending time,

causing us investigations
and the court proceedings

and that sort of thing,
to delay and spar for time.

Estelle: They were certain

Cooke was lying
about Rosemary Anderson.

They said,
"Cookie, you're lying.

You didn't do this."

So he retracted
that confession.

He confessed to Rosemary
Anderson in the morning,

and he retracted it
in the afternoon,

and he apologized
for taking up their time.

♪♪

John: I was devastated.

Our last chance of getting
an appeal were dashed.

♪♪

Man #3: In those days,

punishment for murder
was capital punishment,

and the community
was very upset.

He's a vicious
and violent murderer,

and he doesn't deserve
any sympathy

from anybody whatsoever.

He's caused so much unhappiness
and sorrow to people.

They shouldn't waste money
on trialling him or nothing.

A man will do what he done.

I think he should
definitely hang.

Until he is hung,
the book can't be closed.

[Gavel banging]

Jill: At the time,
people they wondered, you know,

what the motivation
might have been.

Was it somebody taking revenge
on middle-class people,

for example?

The fact that he would
come over to Nedlands,

and they were all people around
this area that he murdered.

He had a harelip
and a cleft palate

and would have felt inferior.

Interviewer: People
in this part of town,

are they inclusive
of people like...

No, that was all in his head,
I'm sure.

Dianne: I think he'd gone
through his life

feeling pushed aside
because of that disfigurement,

and it had created a terrible,
terrible blind rage in him.

And somehow, he took it out
on society at large.

He had a -- a white-hot sort of
revenge on society.

Do you think he was proud
of what he did?

Nielson: I believe he was.

It seemed to give him
a great feeling

of, um, self-importance.

Tom:
The court found Cooke guilty,

and he was sentenced to death.

I remember to this day,
it was 1964.

I think it was in the October,

and everyone knew he was going
to be hanged that day.

We were sitting outside,
waiting to go into classes.

Come 8:00 that morning,
we sat silently,

thinking about what was
happening a few kilometers

down the road
at Fremantle Prison.

♪♪

I was on tenterhooks.

♪♪

But then, on the morning
of Cooke's execution,

he was in the punishment cells
behind the gallows.

He voluntarily took the Bible
out of the minister's hand,

and holding it, said,

"I swear before Almighty God,
I did kill Brewer and Anderson."

♪♪

Rod: And a minute later,
they hanged him,

and he was gone.

I was thrilled.

It was a relief.

I know Mum and Dad
were very relieved.

Tom: I knew there was something
wrong about this.

I knew there was something
terribly wrong about this.

It happened in all the films.

The good guys won.
The baddies died.

But I just seemed to think
even then,

there was something going wrong,
something I didn't agree with.

♪♪

John:
After five years, I got parole,

so...I got released from prison
late December 1967.

I came out believing that I was
gonna hang around with the mates

I used to hang
around with before.

But friends dropped off.

They obviously believed that
I was guilty, and that hurt.

Frank:
It wasn't a very good moment.

The hurt, thinking
all these people,

they don't believe me, still.

Think the hurt of Jack
and Joan Anderson,

the parents
of Rosemary Anderson,

still not believing in him.

You must think of it
all the time.

"Why?
Why can't they believe me?"

John: And all of a sudden,
this life that I'd yearned for

for so long was just a myth.

And I think it was at that point
that I lost all hope,

and I started
falling into deep depression.

♪♪

Naomi: Certainly growing up,
I was very clear in my awareness

that my dad was a criminal

and served time in prison
for manslaughter.

When I was 10, 11 years of age,

I remember driving up this road
with my parents

and my mum made
a passing comment to my dad.

"John, there's your old home."

I looked up at that
looming limestone wall,

and as a 10-year-old,
it really sunk in.

My dad had lived the other side
of that wall

for a period of time.

I guess that was the moment
when the enormity,

the deep sadness and the pain
of what my dad had experienced

started to take hold of me.

♪♪

As I was growing,
I noticed my father

was still imprisoned
emotionally within.

♪♪

I think I started to take
on my dad's fight.

It was so important for him,

and that was therefore
so important for me.

I believed my father
was innocent,

but now we need proof
that he was innocent.

♪♪

And then I come
into the picture.

As fate would have it,
I met John Button's brother Jim

at a dance soon after.

That's me dancing
with Jim Button, in fact.

[Laughter]

I love dancing.

Jim told me his brother
had served time in prison

for a murder
that Cooke said he did.

Well, I did not believe him,

but I believed
in the justice system.

I believed in the police.

But I'm a nosy journo.

I was curious.

Naomi:
I remember the phone rang,

and it was my Uncle Jim.

He had met this woman who
was an investigative journalist.

She was really keen
to meet my dad.

So I got some time alone
with John, then,

who told me his story.

I was pretty intrigued
by the story,

and I wondered what was there
in the police files

about Eric Edgar Cooke
and John Button.

And through my government
networks as a press secretary,

I was able to access
all the Cooke

and Button files
that hadn't been public

and had just been archived
all those decades.

This is the transcript
of Button's trial,

right back in 1963.

I arrive at the police files,
the record section,

not knowing what I'd find.

If anything, I thought I would
find something

that would find
John Button guilty.

"Very seldom locked the door..."

But after a couple of days,

I found something
really extraordinary.

♪♪

Confessions that Cooke made
that the police

didn't make public at the time.

Why would they keep them quiet?

That's Cooke's handwriting.

There were boxes of them.

And in those confessions,

I found his confessions
to other violent crimes,

other hit-runs against women.

♪♪

Well, who were these women?

♪♪

I had to track them down.

♪♪

Estelle:
It's really interesting

to go through it
with you.

Among all his confessions,
I found Glenys Peak.

I'm walking down here,
minding me own business.

I heard this car start up.

[Engine starts]

I got to about here,
when I heard the car rev up.

[Engine revving]

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

And then all hell broke loose.

One minute he was coming down
the road,

the next minute,
I'm flying through the air.

[Thud]

And all I could think of was,
"I've got to get home.

I've got to get home."

I kept screaming that
he was coming for me.

He's coming for me.

Then I got the ambulance,
and they took me to Perth,

to the hospital.

The next day, I could not be
in the house on my own.

I was absolutely scared stiff
that he was gonna come back.

I still cannot walk on the side
of the road.

Estelle: This was the same
as Rosemary Anderson.

A woman walking along
a dark street,

late at night on her own.

The M.O. was exactly the same.

And then I discovered more.

♪♪

Woman:
It was raining quite heavily,

and luckily,
we'd brought our umbrellas.

Yeah.And we turned and we heard

this car roaring,
headed straight for us.

I said, "Look out!"

Maureen was hit and carried
on the bonnet of the car,

till when he turned left
at Cross Street,

and then she rolled off.

Georgina was hit
to the side.

I had blood everywhere.

My back was gashed open
and my head.

I just ran
because I thought,

"He's gonna come back
and get me,

'cause he knows
that he didn't get me."

I had to sleep with my parents
for a long time,

because I was scared.

Maureen: Just scared.

Estelle:
Cooke had confessed to this,

where he stole the car,
where he saw the women,

where he ran them down,
and where he abandoned the car.

And at the bottom, it was stated
that the police

and the Crown accepted
those confessions as correct.

Well, if Cooke did do these
five other hit-runs

and the police and the Crown,

the state, accepted them,
then hang on.

♪♪

That's what really
got me going

and pursuing this story
very strongly,

because I believe the cover-up
of the other hit and runs

was that, had we people
of Perth at the time

known that that was
an M.O. of Cooke's,

that he did it
on five other occasions,

we would have been
much more open

to John Button's
pleas of innocence.

All it could be was
that if this showed

that Cooke was the killer
of Rosemary Anderson,

it would prove that they had
the wrong person in prison.

♪♪

Naomi: Estelle came around
to share with my parents

that she had discovered
a confession

of other hit and runs
that he had done.

John:
She told me in the police files,

there was a single page
of five other accidents

where Eric Cooke was involved
in running down females,

which showed that
Eric Cooke's modus operandi

was identical
to what happened to Rosemary.

Naomi: It was a pretty
overwhelming moment.

There was this energy for my mum
and my brother and myself

and my dad of,
"We've got this, you know.

We -- This is --

This is the time to --
to really, um...

clear my dad's name."

♪♪

John:
It gave me hope that one day,

I'd be able to get back
into living again.

♪♪

Estelle: But there was still
a big problem.

John had confessed
to killing Rosemary.

We believed that if he confessed
to the crime,

he must be guilty.

I began to reappraise
the evidence and wondered

if there was truth to the claims
that he confessed under duress.

I began to interview the police.

One most interesting one I did

was with Detective Sergeant
Max Baker.

He said, "Things happen
that you wouldn't read about.

You might persuade the fellow
with a couple of rib-ticklers,

such as that would be far better
if he told the truth.

[Laughs]"
He was laughing through this.

"And that's where you went
out of bounds."

He told me this.

Max:
I do have a habit of hunches.

I've put numerous people
in jail for...

One reason, I didn't believe
what he was saying,

and I kept at it.

If you think that
they're still guilty,

you go to the boss and say,
"Look, they've all said no.

I reckon it's yes."

"Well, Max, if you think that
they're still guilty,

go and have a go.

Don't give up, just...
just try again."

Estelle: This confirms to me

they knew
they'd got an innocent man.

♪♪

After that for me,
everything changed.

I knew John Button was innocent,

and I needed him
proved innocent.

Being part of the community, how
could we allow this to happen?

I really felt I needed
to take responsibility

and do something
to make a difference.

I didn't think it was right
that John Button should

go through the rest
of his life as a murderer.

I really wanted to get him
a new appeal.

There's justice to expose.

♪♪

I wrote a book about Cooke,
the life and crimes of Cooke

that were never known before.

♪♪

We published it.

♪♪

Couple of weeks later,

the Attorney General
granted a new appeal.

Wow, we had a new appeal
for John Button.

Naomi: I saw that hope reignite
for my dad.

This is the time that someone's
gonna take responsibility

for what happened to my dad.

♪♪

Estelle:
But I was very nervous

about whether we had enough
fresh evidence to win.

Reporter #2: John Button spent
five years in jail

for killing his teenage
girlfriend, Rosemary Anderson.

37 years later, he's won
the right to a second appeal.

But the struggle to clear
his name is far from over.

Today, the DPP argued

that Eric Cooke's confessions
aren't proof.

The Crown are entitled to insist
on strict proof

of these matters,
and we'll prove them.

♪♪

Bret: We published Estelle's
book in "The Post" newspapers.

Her book was a masterpiece
of research.

That was that incredible photo
of Eric Cooke

in front of his car.

I'd met John,

and he certainly didn't seem
like the sort of person

who was capable of killing
someone deliberately.

Accident scene...

Or even losing his temper enough
to accidentally kill them.

Amazing stuff.

His story seemed to stack up.

And this was
where I lived.

But the fresh evidence
of the other hit-runs...

This fence wasn't there.

...that was important,
but it was not proof that Cooke,

in fact, was driving the car
that killed Rosemary Anderson.

This was all open.

That's not evidence.
I mean, belief is not proof.

I reckon that the answer
to solving all crimes

always lies in the science.

So then I went searching
for someone who knew

all about car versus pedestrian
crashes, the science of it,

and I tracked this fellow
down in the United States,

a bloke called Rusty Haight.

I paid his fare to come out here
and run some crash tests.

♪♪

I said to Rusty,

'I don't want you to come here
to prove John innocent.

I want you to come
and prove the truth.

If these tests show John
is guilty, well, so be it."

♪♪

Naomi: I remember my parents
and I heading down

to the Claremont Showgrounds
for this test to be conducted.

Bret sourced cars to be used.

Bret: Four Simcas,
and the Simca was the car

that was owned by John Button.

And I also bought a 1961 Holden.

Now, that was the car
that Eric Cooke said

he had hit Rosemary with.

Naomi: Rusty brought his own
mannequins and equipment needed.

Bret: The crash-test dummy
was the same size

as Rosemary Anderson.

Weight is actually not material,

but roughly the same height
is important,

because humans have
a high center of gravity,

and if they're struck by a car,

they tend to wrap around
the front of the car

because most of the weight
is above.

This was a really huge moment,
and I think at that time,

we were all caught up in
the excitement of possibility.

Rusty: There you go.
Alright, now.

Go ahead and give her a...
Whoa, whoa, slowly, slowly.

Bret: The tests,
they were gonna show

whether John was
a liar and a killer

or whether he was
totally innocent.

I felt pretty anxious, yeah.

That's probably good.

Prisons are full of people who
never did it, according to them.

So when John Button and his case
was referred

to the Court of Criminal Appeal,
there was shock,

outrage and fear
among the general community.

I couldn't believe it.

I thought no judge
could be so stupid.

Hugh: John Button,
he had signed a confession.

If he'd signed it, we had
to accept it as being the case.

The confession was real,
yeah.

And they had got to it
in a trustworthy way.

It was a shock.

You confess to the crime,
you've done it.

You don't confess to a crime
you haven't done.

That's the way
we thought at the time.

Reporter #3: There's been
appeals and counterappeals.

John Button even took his case
to the High Court,

but it failed.

Now it's his last chance,
the result of journalist

Estelle Blackburn uncovering
startling new evidence.

Estelle: We had the whole state
against us,

a director of public
prosecutions

with a whole team
working against us volunteers.

Tom: But, of course,

that was just
going to be the start of it.

We'd need to get three judges
over the line.

Very difficult when
there's existing conviction.

Court of Criminal Appeal Matter
number 122 of 2000,

Button against the Queen.

Tom: The Crown fought us
every step of the way.

I've never fought a case as hard
as I had to fight that one,

because there was no cooperation
from the prosecution at all.

Yes, may it please the court,
I appear...

The fresh evidence is put
through the hoops, if you like,

and only submitted
if it is found to have cogency.

These are copies
of the photographs

that were given to the judges.

These were the undamaged cars,

showing the vehicles
prior to the tests.

♪♪

We built a gallows contraption
to suspend the dummy,

and Rusty drove the three Simcas
at the dummy...

at three different speeds.

He wanted to assess
whether you'd sustain any damage

to the front of the car,

if you hit a lifelike dummy
at the speed

that the police said
John Button hit Rosemary.

And it was an absolutely
graphic representation

of what had happened to her.
It was horrible.

It was really quite...

very, very sickening,
for all of us,

but for John,
it was a nightmare come true.

♪♪

You start thinking that's
the way it actually was.

That's the way
it actually happened.

I was devastated.

All I could think of was her
being hurt.

It's the only thing
that went through my mind.

Bret: You'll see that massive
amount of damage there,

and damage
to the leading edge there,

which is not evident
on the police photographs

of John Button's car.

It's probably clearest
in that photograph there.

See the line of the...

all the bonnet's
completely crushed.

Interviewer: Does that mean
that if John Button's car

had have hit Rosemary...

That would have happened to it.

♪♪

So it's clear and obvious
that John Button's car

could not have hit Rosemary,

because that would have been
the damage to his car,

especially had he hit
her hard enough to kill her.

That is the...

That is the really
salient point.

In every case with the Simca,
there was no damage

to the front of the car.

The whole damage was to
a massive dent in the bonnet.

These Supreme Court judges were
told that Eric Cooke

not only confessed
to killing Rosemary Anderson,

he gave precise details
about how he ran her down

in a stolen car

that he later crashed
in Kings Park.

Tom: I thought it was a big
volume of evidence for John,

but to buttress that,

he then went
and got a car of the same type

that Cooke we know was driving
that night, a Holden,

and conducted
the same sort of tests.

Estelle: Cooke's confession
to Rosemary Anderson's murder

was that she'd gone up
on the bonnet,

that she had come up under the
sun visor on that old Holden,

and then rolled off
onto the side of the road.

Bret: So Rusty drove this Holden
at the speed Eric Cooke

said he was traveling,
about 35 miles an hour,

and it hit the dummy
at high speed.

♪♪

This is a picture showing
the Holden hitting the dummy

and the dummy cartwheeling
over the front of the car.

You can see the head
contacting the bonnet

and contacting
the sun visor there.

John: I think the reason

the police refused to believe
Eric Cooke

was that it had a sun visor,

and if a body hits and gets
caught under the sun visor,

it would rip the sun visor off.

Bret: Here it is leaving
the sun visor,

and the sun visor
popping back into place,

and not even cracking the paint
on the sun visor,

let alone ripping it off
or damaging it.

The police report said
that Rosemary's body

had been displaced
well off the side of the road,

two to three meters in fact.

When Rusty hit the dummy
with the Simca,

there was no displacement
or anything like that.

It just sort of rolled up
onto the front of the car,

but then just
sort of rolled off.

Whereas with the Holden,

it was the same
as Cooke's description of it,

and the police report.

We knew a decision
was to be delivered,

and the buildup to that was
a really powerful moment.

Man #4: Silence in court.
Please stand.

You always have these very
nervous moments before verdict.

We all rose to receive
the court.

However, the Chief Justice,

he read a 20-minute spiel
about it.

All of this material
needs to be considered

against the background of
Mr. Button's youth at the time.

One minute you thought,
"We're gone."

The next minute you think,
"We're getting up on this."

And the next minute you think,

"They've got a problem
with this."

Similar fact evidence points
directly to the likelihood...

Tom: You never know.

Sometimes you have verdicts
go the wrong way.

Interviewer: What were you
feeling at that point?

Pretty sick.

Very nerve-racking.

We had to sit there
for 30 minutes,

listening to him give the facts
of the case and ah-di-dah.

Chief Justice:
Whether the appellant's

Simca motor vehicle was involved

in running down
Ms. Anderson...

Naomi: I remember holding
my dad's hand.

My mum sat holding his hand
as well.

And it was intense as we waited.

♪♪

Chief Justice: I have concluded
that the evidence

of Mr. Haight is sufficient
to raise a reasonable doubt.

All combine to lead me
to the conclusion

that the verdict
must be regarded

as unsafe and unsatisfactory
on the grounds...

[Cheers and applause]

...on the ground that there has
been a miscarriage of justice.

♪♪

♪♪

Naomi:
My dad didn't do it.

This is proof that others
can see and know as well.

And it was just this most
amazing and delightful relief.

♪♪

Reporter #4: John Button finally
had his day in court

and made legal history

after nearly 40 years
of fighting to clear his name.

It was amazing.
It was a wonderful moment.

Oh, relief, vindication.

Finally we've got there.

Tom: We were able to prove that
Button didn't kill this girl

and that Cooke,
beyond almost any doubt, did so.

We were over the moon.

Oh, Rusty.

Oh, it's been
absolutely unbelievable.

It's a wonderful time
over here.

I just wanted to savor
the moment.

I was freed, finally.

Exonerated.

Completely freed.

I...I knew life was gonna
to be different again.

♪♪

♪♪

Estelle: After John Button's
appeal, I was exhausted.

But I was really pleased to know

that my research
had helped clear his name.

But I couldn't shake
from my mind the appalling way

the police had treated John,
and I had this nagging feeling

that he wasn't the only victim
of police misconduct.

So I delved into another case,
Daryl Beamish,

who'd been sentenced
to life imprisonment

for the killing
of Jillian Brewer.

And what I discovered
absolutely floored me.

♪ You can take it back

♪ Back to the start

We had really only
just scratched the surface.

And, of course, at the back
of my mind

as I walked out of the case,
I was thinking,

"Well, now we have to do
Beamish."

♪ Never know the pain

And suddenly,
it occurred to me.

I thought, "My God,
that's the bloke!"

I see it as a private
holocaust.

It only belongs to me.

Man #5: The police took justice
into their own hands.

Man #6: He wouldn't have a bar
that Beamish was innocent.

Estelle:
Very, very light on detail,

and yet this is what
he was condemned to death on.

I'm so angry the police
got away with it.

It's changed us all,
hasn't it?

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

I said, "No matter what happens,
don't run away from it."

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪