Monday, October 27, 2008

Ivan Milat


Australia is considered one of the most friendliest places in the world. A big draw for young travellers, many come here because of the great hospitality and the general "mateship" of the people. Like everywhere else though, Australia has a dark side.

Sharon and I share a love for true crime serial killer stories, so I've been attacking the two she had about Australia's two most notorious. The first was about Ivan Milat, the "backpacker killer". Ivan was one of nearly 20 children growing up in a poor suburb of Sydney. Him and most of his brothers fell into crime heavily during their younger years. Eventually, due to a few prison sentences and general maturity, most of the siblings gave up on crime. Ivan was considered by most to be a good guy, but every time he went through a break up, he took it really hard. The first resulted in an armed robbery, the second in a rape, in the late 80's his divorce set him on a five year, seven body killing spree.

He would pick up foreign hitchhikers, tie them up, then take them to Bengalo forest and practice shooting. A few coincidences, a lot of stupid bragging, and one escaped victim eventually led the police to him. Despite knowing that he was being watched, he still didn't get rid of all of his trophies from the killings. Then he plead "not guilty". Of course he lost the case.

They only confirmed the killing of seven people, but many believe there are more. His older brother Boris said that "if" Ivan is a serial killer, then he would be able to link him to more than 28 bodies! Most people didn't believe that he could possibly have it in him. The scariest part about it is that his brother Richard, who is still free, is thought to have assisted Ivan in a few of the killings. I think the police are keeping an eye on him though.

This is only an outline of the story, but I suggest fans of the genre read Sins of the Brother. Not amazing, but definitely interesting.
http://www.amazon.com/Sins-brother-definitive-backpacker-murders/dp/0732909686/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225148586&sr=8-2

1 comment:

MissManda said...

At first I was saying to myself, "Seven bodies in five years is hardly a 'spree'. More of a 'semi-annual occurrence' than a 'spree'," but then I read the bit about there probably being more--28 in five years sounds much more spree-ish. Plus, add in the fact that the brother who maybe helped him do it is still out there, and you get some awesome creepy. Not as awesome as Wisconsin creepy, but still good. :)