On 27 July 1996, Ivan Milat was found guilty and sentenced to seven life sentences for what became known as the ‘Backpacker Murders’. Milat: Inside Australia’s Biggest Manhunt tells the story of how NSW police detective Clive Small finally caught one of Australia’s most wanted serial killers.
In collaboration with journalist Tom Gilling, Small reveals the story from his role as the commander of Task Force Air in search of the ‘Backpacker Murderer’. This unique perspective draws on ‘unpublished sources and operational insights’.
On 6 October 1993, Small was appointed to head the investigation into the murders at Belanglo State Forest, located along the Hume Highway between Canberra and Sydney. But what he discovered was much more horrific than initially anticipated. Having limited access to up-to-date computer software and cross-referencing databases, which weren’t available at the time, Small was able to piece together a veritable time line of the Belanglo murders from as early as 1989.
Small recalls his first day:
Wednesday, 6 October 1993 started out as a typical day at the Liverpool Local Area Command: thefts and other crimes were being reported; several people arrested during the night were in the cells waiting to be processed; detectives were investigating cases or preparing to give evidence in court; uniformed police were patrolling the streets.
The previous afternoon I had been told that the remains of two unidentified bodies had been discovered in the Belanglo State Forest. Newspaper headlines were now screaming that a serial killer was on the loose and that the police had botched the investigation; how many more bodies were buried at Belanglo? It was bad news, the sort every area commander dreads, and I was relieved that it wasn’t on my patch.
Small’s painstaking investigation and frustrations are revealed in the pages leading up to Milat’s subsequent conviction. The betrayal of fellow detective Paul Gordon with ‘his attempts to claim credit for solving the backpacker murder case and his criticisms of the task force and its management’ nearly jeopardised the conviction of Milat. Nevertheless, Small acknowledges that without Gordon’s role in the backpacker case, the full story would not be complete. In addition, the anguish of dealing with, and facing the victims’ families from Melbourne, Britain and Germany, were constant reminders propelling the investigators along.
But it wasn’t until British backpacker Paul Onions’ statement in 1994, which positively identified Milat as the person who had abducted Owens, that the investigation took a positive turn. Without Onions’ statement the investigation would have dragged on. This was the breakthrough that the taskforce had been waiting on.
How do you write about someone who is truly ‘evil’? The graphic details of Milat’s atrocities against Deborah Everist, James Gibson, Simone Schmidl, Gabor Neugebauer, Anja Habshied, Joanne Walters and Caroline Clarke have not been fully exposed in this true crime novel; however, there is no illusion that Milat was a person driven by an incomprehensible cruelty. Small reveals Milat’s abusive childhood and his political views, but there is no account from a forensic psychiatrist who may be able to reveal Milat’s true psychopathology. Perhaps this will never be truly known, as Milat still pleads his innocence to this day arguing that he was framed.
May 2014 marked the twentieth anniversary since the arrest of Ivan Milat. Although the official investigation has been closed there are still multiple missing persons out there who may have been earlier victims of Milat. Through better access to DNA sampling, forensics and cross-referencing databases, NSW police continue to try and solve these missing persons cases from around the time Milat was active.
Clive Small and Tom Gilling’s Milat: Inside Australia’s Biggest Manhunt is a unique portrayal of Ivan Milat. It ‘is a story of unfathomable cruelty, a portrait in terror’ but it is also about ‘the small kindnesses of strangers, … about the everyday acts of courage and determination that make a huge difference to the lives of us all.’
Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5
Milat: Inside Australia’s Biggest Manhunt
By Clive Small and Tom Gilling
328pp
RRP $29.99
ISBN: 9781743317914
Allen & Unwin
