Free The Beat: A True Account of the Bondi Gay Murders by I.J. Fenn Page A

Warren’s disappearance. And, anyway, there were only three or four keys on the key ring while Warren’s key ring held eight keys.
    During questioning, French admitted to taking part in between 70 and 100 attacks on homosexual men while Howard admitted to 15. Legal advice counselled both to silence unless total immunity could be guaranteed – a guarantee that Crown Prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi QC suggested was unlikely given the nature of the crimes that had led to their incarceration. Therefore, as there was no possibility of any direct charge being levelled against either, no further action would be taken at that time.
    McCann’s ‘second scenario’ was based on a direct admission of complicity, if not guilt. Two women, a mother and daughter, had been told independently by a mutual friend, Merlyn McGrath, that she, McGrath, had been present when Ross Warren was bashed and thrown off a cliff at South Bondi. McGrath was with a group of eight Lebanese from Kings Cross when the attack took place. This information was given to the mother and daughter about three weeks after Warren had disappeared, although the women only approached the police after McCann reopened the case and it gained an amount of media attention.
    Both women were asked to provide more information by way of listening devices: the mother at first agreed before changing her mind and ‘showing great reluctance’ in participating. Her daughter flatly refused at the outset. It transpired that Merlyn McGrath had a lengthy criminal record, was known to be violent and, anyway, was nomadic, her present whereabouts unknown.
    McCann felt it would be best to pursue this information at some future time, again, when ‘supportive or corroborative evidence is gained elsewhere’.
    ‘Russell’s death and the circumstances surrounding his demise are disturbing to say the least.’ So begins the section beneath the heading, ‘John Alan Russell’, although McCann declines to offer any further significant information at this point, preferring instead to move on to ‘Raymond Frederick Keam’.
    In another link to the Cleveland Street High School, a former teacher supplied the following information:
…while talking to an ex-pupil from Cleveland Street High School … at the Redfern Markets about some of the youths involved in the Johnson killing, which included [the ex-pupil’s] friend Morgan, [the ex-pupil] admitted to her that Ron Morgan and others killed a homosexual in a park at Randwick. That person was a karate expert. Morgan was also responsible for a murder at Tamarama Beach.
     
    Cleveland Street School confirmed the friendship between Morgan and the ex-pupil and repeated efforts were made to persuade the former teacher to a) provide a statement of facts and b) to obtain further admissions which would be recorded using a listening device. The former teacher refused both entreaties.
    The ex-pupil was interviewed, but denied all knowledge of the incidents referred to. However, even though there had been no mention of the former teacher during the ex-pupil’s interview, shortly afterwards the ex-pupil’s girlfriend, Olivia, (a current pupil of the teacher at another school in August 1991) approached her at school and told her – ‘tersely’ – that the ex-pupil wanted to see her. McCann suggests that this development can be construed to verify the accuracy of the statement made at Redfern Markets but that it hadn’t helped persuade the teacher to help with further inquiries.
    iii
     
    At this stage, McCann seemed to be on the verge of cracking several cases and moving forwards in others. He was fairly certain who was responsible for the William Allen murder, had firm (if not conclusive) evidence regarding the McMahon assault and had strong leads in the Keam case. He also believed he’d made significant headway in both the Warren and Russell cases, while he thought the Boxsell assault would be resolved in the near future.
    Yet the report ended on a negative