Latest / Real Crime with Adam Shand / Russell St Police HQ: Melbourne’s Most Feared Police Building - Mark de Bono
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Appoche Production. Welcome to Real Crime with Adam Shand. I'm
- 0:16Speaker 1: your host, Adam Shand. If you like our content, please subscribe,
- 0:20Speaker 1: like and share the podcast to keep this independent crime
- 0:24Speaker 1: journalism coming. Russell Street Police Headquarters in Melbourne is one
- 0:29Speaker 1: of the most famous landmarks in Australian law enforcement history.
- 0:33Speaker 1: The first of five powerful explosions came just after one o'clock,
- 0:37Speaker 1: shattering windows and cutting off power to police headquarters in
- 0:40Speaker 1: the city Court featured in classic TV shows like Homicide
- 0:45Speaker 1: and Pop Music. Today, it's a swinky apartment block with
- 0:50Speaker 1: city views to die for, but back in the day,
- 0:54Speaker 1: a number of crooks feared it will be the last
- 0:56Speaker 1: view they ever saw. The former detainees claim interrogation rooms
- 1:00Speaker 1: on the upper floors offered more than just questioning. Years
- 1:05Speaker 1: I've been hearing stories of police dangling uncooperative crooks out
- 1:09Speaker 1: of the windows of Russell Street to encourage them to
- 1:12Speaker 1: share what they knew. Men brought in for questioning say
- 1:15Speaker 1: they were shown just how far they could fall with
- 1:18Speaker 1: city traffic moving far below. Police have never confirmed the claims.
- 1:24Speaker 1: My guest today, Mark de Bono, was given that treatment
- 1:27Speaker 1: in the mid nineteen eighties and lived to tell the tale.
- 1:31Speaker 1: Mike was no choir boy, and his own decisions probably
- 1:35Speaker 1: led him to that precarious location and to other dangerous
- 1:39Speaker 1: and violent moments. And he's been writing them all down
- 1:42Speaker 1: in a book. And it's my pleasure to welcome you
- 1:44Speaker 1: to real crime.
- 1:45Speaker 2: Mark great and thank you very much.
- 1:48Speaker 1: Tell me what was the view like out of the
- 1:50Speaker 1: window of Russell Street police headquarters.
- 1:53Speaker 2: I just remember looking down onto the road, mate.
- 1:56Speaker 3: Really there was two each side of me, one on
- 1:59Speaker 3: the left, one on the right, one behind me, one
- 2:01Speaker 3: hold in the back of me pants, each on the
- 2:04Speaker 3: other side holding each side of me pants, and one
- 2:09Speaker 3: hand each on the back of my neck, you know,
- 2:12Speaker 3: holding me out, pushing me. Said, I at least half
- 2:14Speaker 3: my body out, and all I could really see was
- 2:16Speaker 3: down the road.
- 2:17Speaker 2: And the cars all parked and stuff, you know what
- 2:19Speaker 2: I mean, Right?
- 2:21Speaker 1: And how did you feel at that moment?
- 2:23Speaker 3: Well, they were talking, you know, and telling me what
- 2:26Speaker 3: goes on, sort of trying to make an ultimatum with me,
- 2:29Speaker 3: you know, like, are we going to throw you out
- 2:31Speaker 3: there like a few other fellows have jumped out of there,
- 2:34Speaker 3: or you're going to tell us what we need to know,
- 2:36Speaker 3: you know.
- 2:37Speaker 1: And tell me, what did they need to know? What
- 2:39Speaker 1: could you have told them?
- 2:40Speaker 2: Mark?
- 2:41Speaker 3: Well, you know, it was a pretty wild time in
- 2:44Speaker 3: my life and we were doing a few things that
- 2:46Speaker 3: weren't quite right, and we attracted the attention. I was
- 2:49Speaker 3: selling a bit of marijuana and that at the time,
- 2:52Speaker 3: you know, it was only twenty living on my own
- 2:55Speaker 3: the flaptail, selling a bit of mile quite a bit,
- 2:57Speaker 3: and that attracted their attention. There was a bit of
- 2:59Speaker 3: stolen goods and stuff you know, coming through and that
- 3:02Speaker 3: probably be too much, but A tracked there in that
- 3:05Speaker 3: way with a couple of friends of mine, and yeah,
- 3:07Speaker 3: they ended up coming picking me up after breaking into
- 3:10Speaker 3: my house and stealing some stuff. I sort of went
- 3:13Speaker 3: home halfway through the day, but I got told over
- 3:15Speaker 3: the two ways by my boss that there have been
- 3:19Speaker 3: three big heavy fellas waiting for me when I get
- 3:22Speaker 3: back to sign off. But so I emptied everything out
- 3:24Speaker 3: at the unit, went back to sign off, and then
- 3:26Speaker 3: they took me back to the unit and it all
- 3:28Speaker 3: happened there, and then they took me back to Russell
- 3:31Speaker 3: Street and yeah, so it's quite a little bit of
- 3:33Speaker 3: a story there. But getting to Russell Street, you.
- 3:36Speaker 1: Know, absolutely, But I mean like I said, at the
- 3:37Speaker 1: outset of very few people are willing to talk about this.
- 3:40Speaker 1: A lot of people say, yes, there were people hanging
- 3:43Speaker 1: out the windows of Russell Street police headquarters. You're the
- 3:46Speaker 1: first who's actually said, I'll tell you about the experience,
- 3:50Speaker 1: and so it's not a good it's a true story.
- 3:53Speaker 3: Oh, it's a true story. It's one hundred percent true story. Yeah,
- 3:56Speaker 3: there's no doubt about that. I remember the face of
- 3:59Speaker 3: the third major com squadfella, but do you know the
- 4:02Speaker 3: other two?
- 4:03Speaker 2: Yeah, and they were very heavy, dude.
- 4:05Speaker 3: I went home after that and packed up my unit
- 4:09Speaker 3: and nessoned and just grabbed what I couldn't move down
- 4:11Speaker 3: to talk.
- 4:13Speaker 1: Right, you decided it was better to be out of them.
- 4:15Speaker 2: Oh I had to get out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 4:17Speaker 1: Because this wasn't your first brush with the law, mark,
- 4:21Speaker 1: was it. I mean you'd started off pretty young. You're
- 4:24Speaker 1: only twenty by this, about nineteen eighty five, I guess.
- 4:28Speaker 2: Yeah, no, elithen was great.
- 4:29Speaker 3: You know, I was playing cricket at essen and as
- 4:31Speaker 3: a sixteen year old, but yeah, I lost that in
- 4:34Speaker 3: the castmash when I was ten. So got left of
- 4:37Speaker 3: the street from my sporting career and all that was
- 4:39Speaker 3: going so good, so I stuck to it and that
- 4:41Speaker 3: and I was going real good. But it all fell apart,
- 4:44Speaker 3: you know, I just got lefts of the streets and
- 4:45Speaker 3: then didn't know much about him and it just became
- 4:49Speaker 3: enthralled and all that.
- 4:50Speaker 1: Yeah, what happened to you Mark? Well, why there you're
- 4:53Speaker 1: going along nicely playing cricket and nesson a number of
- 4:56Speaker 1: the pl you played cricket with him went on to
- 4:58Speaker 1: play state cricket. A lot of people did pretty well.
- 5:00Speaker 1: What happened to you?
- 5:02Speaker 3: Well, I ended up going to silis In College, the
- 5:04Speaker 3: most amp and sexual abuse school in Melbourne even Australia
- 5:08Speaker 3: at the time, and so certain things happened there that
- 5:10Speaker 3: I'm going to court with the Catholic Church with at
- 5:13Speaker 3: the moment, and so yeah, and not having a dad
- 5:16Speaker 3: to older sisters and a mother and you know, pretty
- 5:19Speaker 3: women and men coming and I lost my dad.
- 5:22Speaker 2: I didn't. I was a confused kid mate.
- 5:24Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and you had a thing against authority, I.
- 5:27Speaker 3: Guess no, not really, not at a start at all, really,
- 5:32Speaker 3: because the police were really good to me. Like when
- 5:35Speaker 3: I lost my dad in the Castmas, you know, there
- 5:37Speaker 3: was a lot of sympathy there.
- 5:38Speaker 2: They were really good.
- 5:39Speaker 3: But you know, the way they handled themselves when I
- 5:43Speaker 3: bumped into them made me realized what they were and
- 5:48Speaker 3: made a different opinion of them.
- 5:50Speaker 2: Then.
- 5:51Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I'm sure, But tell me, so you've waited
- 5:53Speaker 1: a long time to bring this compensation claim against the
- 5:57Speaker 1: Catholic Church. I guess years you just went along with
- 6:02Speaker 1: your life, going off track, getting in trouble, some jail time, i'd.
- 6:06Speaker 2: Expect three states.
- 6:08Speaker 1: Yeah, in three states, When did the penny drop that
- 6:12Speaker 1: it was probably time to look at the roots of
- 6:15Speaker 1: your offending?
- 6:17Speaker 2: Definitely birthed me first son.
- 6:19Speaker 1: Yeah, why did that change the picture?
- 6:23Speaker 3: Well, you know, I lost my father at the age
- 6:25Speaker 3: of ten and the castmas and I know what it
- 6:28Speaker 3: caused me. So I didn't want to have children in
- 6:30Speaker 3: the world and lead them to the streets or not
- 6:34Speaker 3: having any input into their life, you know. And as
- 6:38Speaker 3: I did, go back and both of my boys are
- 6:41Speaker 3: very successful and never taking any drugs or don't even
- 6:44Speaker 3: drink and that.
- 6:45Speaker 1: So, yeah, that's a credit to you, Mark.
- 6:48Speaker 2: Yeah, it's worked that good.
- 6:49Speaker 3: The older sons of multi millionaire and my younger son
- 6:52Speaker 3: loves at home with me and own's half an hour,
- 6:54Speaker 3: So he doesn't drink or do any drugs and he's
- 6:57Speaker 3: very straight and living a really good life.
- 7:00Speaker 1: Yeah, that's tremendous because you didn't have that chance. Did
- 7:04Speaker 1: you feel that loss? Did you feel that space? Because
- 7:06Speaker 1: I think a lot of we talk a lot about
- 7:08Speaker 1: youth crime these days in our society and young men
- 7:11Speaker 1: in particular who were going off track, and it's often
- 7:15Speaker 1: because they don't have a strong male figure in their lives.
- 7:21Speaker 1: Do you think that sums up your situation back in
- 7:24Speaker 1: those days.
- 7:25Speaker 3: Yeah, had a very very very close relationship with me, daddy.
- 7:29Speaker 3: He was very successful. Man, brought me up properly, done
- 7:32Speaker 3: in all the right things. You know. It's an innovative
- 7:34Speaker 3: skin diver and found shipwrecks and stuff in the early
- 7:37Speaker 3: seventies and he was the president of the Mako Diving
- 7:40Speaker 3: group and he was an advanced diver and he used
- 7:43Speaker 3: to die the caves at Man Gambia and stuff. You
- 7:46Speaker 3: know when we used to just walk out of paddocks.
- 7:48Speaker 3: You know the one hole at Man Gambia. I don't
- 7:50Speaker 3: know if you know it, but you got to be
- 7:52Speaker 3: such an events. I had to dive it now. But
- 7:54Speaker 3: he's just put a ladder across it and I on
- 7:58Speaker 3: the edge of it when they used to die it.
- 7:59Speaker 2: Yeah. He was an innovative dither, very clever man and.
- 8:04Speaker 1: Quite a heroic, brave figure.
- 8:06Speaker 3: As a role model for you, yeah yeah, he was
- 8:09Speaker 3: replaceable and sort of showed me what life could be.
- 8:13Speaker 2: And then.
- 8:15Speaker 3: Like yeah, it was just left for two to the
- 8:18Speaker 3: streets basically with three women, two sisters and a mother
- 8:22Speaker 3: that just worried about themselves and didn't worry about me.
- 8:25Speaker 3: I just left it as streets may depended on myself, you.
- 8:27Speaker 2: Know what I mean.
- 8:28Speaker 1: Have you got a relationship with those women or your
- 8:30Speaker 1: sisters these days?
- 8:32Speaker 2: My mum's passed, na na untill finished. Now, such a shame.
- 8:38Speaker 1: So I found this when I was dealing with the
- 8:40Speaker 1: outwoard motorcycle clubs, that these young men would lose their
- 8:44Speaker 1: father or divorce or something like that, and they would
- 8:48Speaker 1: find their way into criminal circles and they'd find someone,
- 8:51Speaker 1: possibly in jail or at a motorcycle club, who would
- 8:54Speaker 1: fill that place for them in their lives. The male
- 8:56Speaker 1: role model. Did you find someone that's stepped in for you?
- 9:01Speaker 3: Well, it's funny, you know, mum, As I say, you know,
- 9:04Speaker 3: going back into me cricket and that, you know. So
- 9:07Speaker 3: she started dating my coach who played cricket in England
- 9:11Speaker 3: with Clive Lloyd and Ashley Mallett and Jeff Dimmick and
- 9:14Speaker 3: all that.
- 9:15Speaker 2: But she liked sporting.
- 9:16Speaker 3: Identities, but she dated him first, which I sort of
- 9:19Speaker 3: ruined my career a bit too, you know, dating my coach.
- 9:22Speaker 3: But I used to sit in when the WSC first
- 9:25Speaker 3: came out and that with you know, I'd go from
- 9:27Speaker 3: the room from the Western to the Australians because he
- 9:29Speaker 3: knew Clive Lloyd and would go in the rooms with
- 9:32Speaker 3: Clive Lloyd and then go over the rooms with the
- 9:35Speaker 3: Australians with Jeff Dimmick, you know. And then after that
- 9:38Speaker 3: she went out with John Brady. So the fellow that
- 9:40Speaker 3: you're asking about the boat to fill the void was
- 9:42Speaker 3: John Brady. He was Captain of North Melbourne in the
- 9:46Speaker 3: mid to late fifties, I think from fifty four to
- 9:49Speaker 3: fifty eighty was Captain North. But he was a big drinker.
- 9:52Speaker 3: They used to drink at the Southern Cross Hotel. The
- 9:55Speaker 3: boat there owned it named Billy Crooks and all of
- 9:58Speaker 3: the journals used to drink there. In South Melbourne, the
- 10:00Speaker 3: Southern Cross. So he was a huge, huge drinker, and
- 10:04Speaker 3: that was a bloke that sort of had an influence
- 10:06Speaker 3: in my life. And I think I was about nineteen
- 10:09Speaker 3: or something like that when I met John, and he
- 10:13Speaker 3: was a huge drinking so that's what I became. I
- 10:16Speaker 3: just became a huge drinker with him. He wasn't a
- 10:19Speaker 3: real good role model, but I did meet a lot
- 10:21Speaker 3: of people through John, like Bobby Rose and Teddy Whitten
- 10:24Speaker 3: and goes on blist goes on and on and on.
- 10:27Speaker 3: But that was all drinking involved, you know.
- 10:30Speaker 1: Yeah, so you were born in nineteen sixty five, I
- 10:32Speaker 1: think around that era, weren't you. Yeah, that's right, Yeah, yeah,
- 10:35Speaker 1: then you're nineteen. By the age of twenty, you're in
- 10:38Speaker 1: Pentridge on remark.
- 10:40Speaker 2: Yeah that's right. Yeah.
- 10:42Speaker 1: And what you've done, you've actually written a lot of
- 10:44Speaker 1: your story down and quite a gripping account. You've written
- 10:46Speaker 1: it really well, I must say, and think you sent me.
- 10:51Speaker 1: I guess this was quite a short story really in
- 10:53Speaker 1: terms of the time it took, but it was quite
- 10:55Speaker 1: significant what happened. Tell us about how you ended up
- 10:58Speaker 1: in Pentridge at that time, and you know, you were
- 11:02Speaker 1: lucky to even get out of that stretch. Consider the
- 11:05Speaker 1: things you did at the time and the people that
- 11:07Speaker 1: you pissed off.
- 11:08Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, yeah, well you know it's still Asi
- 11:13Speaker 3: culture back then, you know it was remember it was
- 11:15Speaker 3: all us. We were a lot of kids, you know.
- 11:17Speaker 3: So when the vietnamees rocked up, it was like they
- 11:20Speaker 3: invaded our joint, you know, and we didn't like it.
- 11:24Speaker 3: And so when we heard that they were taken over
- 11:27Speaker 3: suburbs and stuff, extort money out of shop owners and stuff,
- 11:31Speaker 3: and whoever wasn't complying, you know, they were stabbing them
- 11:34Speaker 3: and they, like a lot of us, didn't like it.
- 11:37Speaker 3: So but how I came to end up in pantries
- 11:39Speaker 3: on the Friday night, I sitting the name with me
- 11:42Speaker 3: girlfriend Michelle, and news slash on the tally and Van
- 11:46Speaker 3: Tran I used to know him as now I thought,
- 11:47Speaker 3: but he must have came down to Melbourne to an
- 11:49Speaker 3: assumed name or something ran anyway, we've seen it use
- 11:52Speaker 3: on the news and him and his mates had stabbed
- 11:55Speaker 3: the Spring Butcher shop owner because he wasn't complying and
- 11:59Speaker 3: didn't pay the extraution money. But the thing that got
- 12:01Speaker 3: me was he'd been in charge of the Rustle Street
- 12:03Speaker 3: and he's walking across the road with all the meat
- 12:05Speaker 3: was waiting for him, and now he started spitting at
- 12:09Speaker 3: the camera. You know, it's just showing total disrespect. And
- 12:12Speaker 3: then it just triggered something. So I mean I just
- 12:13Speaker 3: turned to your girlfriend and said, you know, jeez, when
- 12:16Speaker 3: they get the panachees, I'll get a hide.
- 12:18Speaker 2: And you know, because you know.
- 12:19Speaker 3: The disrespect, I felt like the bullets would get their
- 12:22Speaker 3: hands on pretty quick because like kind of this happening,
- 12:25Speaker 3: you know.
- 12:26Speaker 1: Yeah, the bloke you're talking about is actually Nam Van Newen,
- 12:29Speaker 1: who was called the Saigon Tiger. And this floke was
- 12:33Speaker 1: one of the worse and the worse. I think he
- 12:35Speaker 1: had about twenty plus years in various Victorian jails, and
- 12:39Speaker 1: he had all kinds of charges from trafficking, heroin, armed robbery,
- 12:43Speaker 1: aggravated burglary, grievous bodily harmful imprisonment, kidnapping, and blackmail. Yeah,
- 12:48Speaker 1: and you actually caught him just before his first appearance
- 12:52Speaker 1: in Call, I should say, in nineteen eighty six, and
- 12:54Speaker 1: that was for extortion, kidnapping, and grievous bodily harm. Meanwhile,
- 13:00Speaker 1: you were just sitting at home watching Telly. You found
- 13:03Speaker 1: your way into remand as well, how did that happen?
- 13:06Speaker 3: Well, I've been on a lot of prescription medication. Actually
- 13:09Speaker 3: I was prescribed Roy hick No by a doctor, you know,
- 13:12Speaker 3: that date rape. But I was prescribed it, you know,
- 13:15Speaker 3: because I thoughd yeah, lots of things, you know. But
- 13:18Speaker 3: then I ran out of it and I started going
- 13:19Speaker 3: through withdrawal from the prescription medication. I was drinking a
- 13:22Speaker 3: lot of alcohol, like a bottle of bourbon a day
- 13:25Speaker 3: and down my sister's in Mornington and decided about three
- 13:28Speaker 3: o'clock in the morning, the sweats hit and rolling around,
- 13:31Speaker 3: and I said, oh Jude, I've got to go and
- 13:32Speaker 3: get something to hold the need for prescription medication or whatever.
- 13:36Speaker 3: I get my hands on the alo whatever.
- 13:38Speaker 2: You know.
- 13:39Speaker 3: My sister and all that had made it impossible for
- 13:41Speaker 3: me to get anywhere, taking the car and everything like that.
- 13:44Speaker 3: But I just walked out and across the road was
- 13:46Speaker 3: the car yard, and I walked in through the car
- 13:48Speaker 3: yard and the gate trape and on a Saturday morning,
- 13:52Speaker 3: I just walked over the first car as a Mitchebishi
- 13:54Speaker 3: Magna and had the keys and I jumped in brand
- 13:57Speaker 3: new case Cays on the clock and headed the Melbourne.
- 14:00Speaker 1: Easy because they grabbed you.
- 14:04Speaker 3: Yeah, old missus the rangakopp chair. When I got to Melbourne,
- 14:07Speaker 3: had to do a chase here and got surrounded.
- 14:10Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 14:11Speaker 3: So I ended up in the old Melbourne jail for
- 14:14Speaker 3: the weekend.
- 14:15Speaker 1: With them, and that's where you met them, Van Newan.
- 14:20Speaker 1: What happened next?
- 14:20Speaker 3: Yeah, And he's made money, so I didn't get me
- 14:23Speaker 3: medications and so I'm in the third or fourth day
- 14:25Speaker 3: and I was starting to get more and more rum
- 14:27Speaker 3: stress and stuff.
- 14:28Speaker 1: And what's what's that withdrawal?
- 14:30Speaker 4: Like?
- 14:30Speaker 3: Well, you can't explain it unless you've really been through it, mate,
- 14:34Speaker 3: you know. It's just that's why so many people take
- 14:38Speaker 3: their lives. They kill themselves, you know, because they just
- 14:40Speaker 3: can't handle it, you know. And I feel sorry fhm
- 14:43Speaker 3: they do it, but I can understand what they do.
- 14:45Speaker 3: It's something you don't want. You were sending me to
- 14:49Speaker 3: go through.
- 14:50Speaker 1: This was like almost unbearable for you.
- 14:52Speaker 2: Yeah that's right. Yeah.
- 14:55Speaker 1: And meanwhile you're in ramand but you're not in pantry yet.
- 14:58Speaker 1: You're actually in the old Melbourne jail at this time.
- 15:01Speaker 2: Yeah that's right.
- 15:01Speaker 1: Yeah, Russell Street, what was that like? That's a very old,
- 15:06Speaker 1: real old medieval dungeon.
- 15:08Speaker 3: Yeah, it was winter two, very cold, but they had
- 15:12Speaker 3: them separated, Nam and Munn, and it was echoed the
- 15:15Speaker 3: place really echoed. But I realized it was them because
- 15:19Speaker 3: they had them separated in different cells, and they were
- 15:22Speaker 3: yelling out to each other, you know, in the the
- 15:25Speaker 3: maze language, and it was echoing through the whole place,
- 15:28Speaker 3: and it was annoying me. And it was for the
- 15:31Speaker 3: whole weekend. So I just kept getting angrier and angrier,
- 15:35Speaker 3: you know, until the court appearance on the monday, you know.
- 15:39Speaker 1: And so you'd had some words with them through the walls, had.
- 15:43Speaker 2: You, Yeah, Yeah, I had. Yeah. I was telling them
- 15:46Speaker 2: to shut up and that.
- 15:47Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And they were yelling out back, and we
- 15:49Speaker 3: were already at loggerheads sort of, but hadn't seen each
- 15:52Speaker 3: other face to face yet.
- 15:54Speaker 1: Yeah. Right, And you're probably telling him when I when
- 15:56Speaker 1: I get older, you two, You why I order.
- 16:00Speaker 2: I wasn't saying that at all, you know.
- 16:01Speaker 3: I wasn't saying that at all because I didn't know
- 16:03Speaker 3: what was going to happen or what was going to
- 16:04Speaker 3: go to And I didn't make any threats or nothing,
- 16:06Speaker 3: but I just didn't expect to end up into the
- 16:08Speaker 3: showers with them with half a meter away from me.
- 16:11Speaker 1: So you make your court appearance. What happens?
- 16:12Speaker 3: There no bail for them, and I think I've got
- 16:17Speaker 3: like a two and a half thousand dollars cash and
- 16:19Speaker 3: two and a half thousand dollars sure or something. So
- 16:22Speaker 3: I had to go into to remand and wait until
- 16:25Speaker 3: someone posts a bar, you know.
- 16:27Speaker 1: And who was going to do that? Mum wasn't going
- 16:29Speaker 1: to do it. For your sisters had lagged you out.
- 16:31Speaker 1: They went. They didn't want to.
- 16:32Speaker 2: Send me, did they not?
- 16:34Speaker 3: My sister's my sister in particular, the youngest one, the
- 16:39Speaker 3: oldest one didn't. She wasn't had nothing to do with
- 16:42Speaker 3: The youngest one was her mum or fires. She was
- 16:45Speaker 3: telling Mom, you know what to do, Leave them in
- 16:47Speaker 3: there and just teach them a lesson, you know.
- 16:49Speaker 1: So you're you're waiting for the bail to be posted.
- 16:52Speaker 1: You get set out to Pentridge. Which division were you in?
- 16:56Speaker 3: Well, we go into the showers, you know, when you
- 16:58Speaker 3: get out of the back of the truck. They had
- 17:00Speaker 3: them separated from from us.
- 17:02Speaker 2: But bing going. I don't know if was a set
- 17:04Speaker 2: up or what.
- 17:05Speaker 3: All of a sudden, you know, you muster up and
- 17:07Speaker 3: they take your clothes off in and give you your greens,
- 17:09Speaker 3: you know, and then you go from there.
- 17:12Speaker 2: What do they call it? Classified? Classified? Class?
- 17:16Speaker 3: Yeah, so some bokes in the van had already been
- 17:19Speaker 3: sentenced to court to twelve years, so they go to
- 17:21Speaker 3: the center part of the game. But me, like I
- 17:25Speaker 3: was on Remand and with a whole lot of the
- 17:27Speaker 3: other boys, Paul Melander and all that I came close
- 17:31Speaker 3: friends with and still talk to you.
- 17:32Speaker 1: Well, Paul Allender is interesting one. He was the one
- 17:35Speaker 1: that shot knees but in the face with the shotgun,
- 17:37Speaker 1: wasn't he?
- 17:39Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
- 17:39Speaker 3: We got locked up on the same night and the
- 17:42Speaker 3: same weekend.
- 17:43Speaker 1: Yeah, how did he feel about that? Because he was
- 17:47Speaker 1: that was a shocking thing because Kay was giving him
- 17:50Speaker 1: a note, hev Yeah, it was giving him a note
- 17:54Speaker 1: to say that his girlfriend didn't want to see him anymore,
- 17:56Speaker 1: and he just pitchres up and shoots it.
- 18:00Speaker 3: Well, you know, there is a lot of thing is
- 18:05Speaker 3: to be said, and we're probably best off leaving alone
- 18:08Speaker 3: because like Paul's got a completely different story and I
- 18:12Speaker 3: know a different side of the story too, and his
- 18:14Speaker 3: heart was broken and hurt in that I know, he
- 18:17Speaker 3: loved one of the girls and she went back on
- 18:20Speaker 3: the game, so you know how much that at her.
- 18:22Speaker 3: But like, I don't know the intricacy of it all
- 18:25Speaker 3: and if it actually was him, and it was all
- 18:28Speaker 3: done through a stained glass home, you know, with a
- 18:34Speaker 3: long hallway where the light goes on and remember, and
- 18:37Speaker 3: the person would walk up the hallway and you'd look
- 18:39Speaker 3: through the smoke and you'd see the silhouette sort of
- 18:42Speaker 3: coming towards closer to you.
- 18:44Speaker 2: Yeah, and so.
- 18:45Speaker 3: The person that shot Kay was on the other side
- 18:48Speaker 3: and shot through the glass.
- 18:50Speaker 2: So there's you know what I mean, there's a lot
- 18:52Speaker 2: of Yeah.
- 18:53Speaker 1: Well, I think let's let Paul tell a story anyway.
- 18:55Speaker 1: I think the issue of course here is when you're
- 18:58Speaker 1: in jail with people, you don't make judgments.
- 19:01Speaker 2: Nah, you don't.
- 19:02Speaker 1: You've just got to get along with them. You found
- 19:05Speaker 1: yourself there with Paul. You're not going to be a
- 19:07Speaker 1: moral judge.
- 19:09Speaker 3: No, and certainly not because you listen to stories and
- 19:13Speaker 3: like mate, fair income, I'm telling you now, judges have
- 19:16Speaker 3: to assume and presume. And because they have to assume
- 19:19Speaker 3: and presume, they were wrong a lot of times. And
- 19:23Speaker 3: there is a lot of men in jail doing time
- 19:26Speaker 3: that are innocent, and that is a fact, and it's
- 19:28Speaker 3: as simple as that.
- 19:29Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. But I'll say in return to that
- 19:32Speaker 1: that sometimes they didn't get caught for a bunch of
- 19:34Speaker 1: other things.
- 19:36Speaker 2: Yeah, in the end, that's that's irrelevant.
- 19:39Speaker 3: It's only the matter that comes in front of the
- 19:40Speaker 3: court that you should front for, you know what I mean?
- 19:42Speaker 1: Fair enough, fair enough? Anyway, you were tender, right skilty.
- 19:45Speaker 1: You did pinch that car. You were where you need
- 19:47Speaker 1: it to be.
- 19:48Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.
- 19:50Speaker 1: And you go into the showers and who do your
- 19:52Speaker 1: bloody will see?
- 19:54Speaker 3: Yeah, the bloke's on the telly what's spitting on the
- 19:55Speaker 3: cameras that I said, you're going to get a hide
- 19:57Speaker 3: when they get the venturage.
- 19:59Speaker 1: And so you know, you said, good afternoon, gentlemen, how
- 20:02Speaker 1: are you?
- 20:03Speaker 2: Well?
- 20:04Speaker 3: We knew that those two and me knew who we were,
- 20:09Speaker 3: you know, because of the whole week end together. We
- 20:12Speaker 3: seen each other from a distance, having breakfasts and stuff
- 20:14Speaker 3: like that. I don't know how it came about, because
- 20:17Speaker 3: they were separated from us in the van and they
- 20:20Speaker 3: never got to stay with us in the remand unit,
- 20:23Speaker 3: but they got to be under the showers with us. Now,
- 20:26Speaker 3: that's where a lot of incidents happen is under the showers.
- 20:29Speaker 3: In the first he say, you know, like it's possible,
- 20:31Speaker 3: the screws set it up for that to happen, You
- 20:33Speaker 3: know what I mean.
- 20:34Speaker 1: It's possible, But I mean a lot of these things
- 20:36Speaker 1: do happen in the showers. And it's like, I guess,
- 20:39Speaker 1: in the showers, as you go in there, you don't
- 20:41Speaker 1: look at anybody. You don't drop the soap, that's for sure,
- 20:44Speaker 1: but you certainly do not look over at the blake
- 20:48Speaker 1: next to you, look him up and down with a
- 20:50Speaker 1: withering sort of contempt, which I think is what mister
- 20:53Speaker 1: Ewan did to you.
- 20:54Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, Yeah he did. Yeah, we locked eyes.
- 20:57Speaker 3: They were to my left and one was close to me.
- 21:00Speaker 3: There was a bit further, but they looked me up
- 21:03Speaker 3: and down. I just balled them. They looked at each other,
- 21:07Speaker 3: said something in their language, and then started laughing, and
- 21:13Speaker 3: that triggered something in me.
- 21:15Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I know what happened next, but you
- 21:18Speaker 1: can tell me anyway.
- 21:20Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I just saw black, you know, and I
- 21:24Speaker 3: sort of went out pretty quick and dropped him, cleaned
- 21:29Speaker 3: him up. Some nice shots you know, cleaned him up
- 21:32Speaker 3: pretty quick. But Nam actually ran, so Nam ran, and
- 21:37Speaker 3: there was only one exit out to where he could
- 21:40Speaker 3: go to, and I'd seen him where he had gone to,
- 21:42Speaker 3: and all the boys started blocking. I ran out through
- 21:45Speaker 3: there and they blocked any doorways off so the screws
- 21:48Speaker 3: couldn't get through, so I could get to Nam.
- 21:50Speaker 1: You know. So this was a popular decision to bash
- 21:53Speaker 1: mister Newan.
- 21:54Speaker 3: Well, what the governor said to me later on, you know,
- 21:58Speaker 3: was I was very lucky it was them, because they
- 21:59Speaker 3: knew they were going to get it, you know, right.
- 22:02Speaker 1: And Van and Nwan had long hair. He was known
- 22:05Speaker 1: by that, yeah tiger, this long hair, and he was
- 22:08Speaker 1: a well known triad. I mean, a reasonably tough bloke,
- 22:11Speaker 1: you'd imagine. But you caught up with him pretty quickly
- 22:14Speaker 1: and got a handful of his hair.
- 22:16Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I remember.
- 22:19Speaker 3: I think I hit him a couple of times, dropped
- 22:20Speaker 3: him and wrapped his hair up in my hand. And
- 22:23Speaker 3: there was concrete seats jumping out off a bluestone wall,
- 22:26Speaker 3: and he couldn't go on with it after I belted him,
- 22:31Speaker 3: might have even been unconscious, but I wrapped his hair
- 22:33Speaker 3: up in my right hand and the concrete sheets, jumping
- 22:37Speaker 3: out off the bluestone walls. I just smashed his head down,
- 22:41Speaker 3: you know, three or four times on the concrete sheet
- 22:43Speaker 3: and left him in a pool of blood to it.
- 22:47Speaker 1: Yeah, I tell you what I mean. You're right when
- 22:48Speaker 1: you say you get triggered and you snap and you
- 22:51Speaker 1: do these things because at that moment you're in there
- 22:54Speaker 1: for car theft, you could have easily been now doing
- 22:57Speaker 1: a long stretch for murder. Did that pass your mind
- 23:00Speaker 1: as you do as you go moment?
- 23:02Speaker 2: Not at all? Nah?
- 23:04Speaker 3: Nah, lost control? Yeah, I just can't remember much of it,
- 23:09Speaker 3: but I just went off. I just I suppose it
- 23:13Speaker 3: wasn't just that incident, was probably everything involved me father,
- 23:16Speaker 3: all the everything what happened in the past ten years,
- 23:19Speaker 3: losing me quick. I just exploded at that moment, you know,
- 23:22Speaker 3: when I got to pantry, you know, everything just then
- 23:25Speaker 3: right then, at that moment, it was a pinnacle. It
- 23:27Speaker 3: was just like a big explosion of everything. I just
- 23:30Speaker 3: outlet everything. That's why I'd done it so easy, And
- 23:32Speaker 3: it all happened so quick. You know, they were fighting
- 23:34Speaker 3: something other than just the physical me. They were fighting
- 23:38Speaker 3: a mental thing that had been abused for so.
- 23:40Speaker 2: Long, you know what I mean, and then exploded.
- 23:42Speaker 1: Then yeah, and that's right. And you had these men
- 23:46Speaker 1: speaking the language you didn't understand. We're laughing at you
- 23:49Speaker 1: and showing for you, and as you say.
- 23:52Speaker 3: Coming to our country and spring Belle was a lovely place,
- 23:55Speaker 3: you know, butchershop owners of lovely people, and what they're
- 23:59Speaker 3: going to rock in and start saying, if you don't
- 24:01Speaker 3: pay us money, you can't operate.
- 24:02Speaker 2: And I was just all wrong, you know what I mean.
- 24:04Speaker 1: Sit yeah, because suddenly you're going from what probably would
- 24:09Speaker 1: have been a suspended sentence of a few months maybe
- 24:12Speaker 1: a year, to a serious assault which could have meant
- 24:16Speaker 1: three times that stretch. And you're lucky you didn't kill him,
- 24:20Speaker 1: you know, to be honest, you didn't.
- 24:26Speaker 2: You could have controlled.
- 24:28Speaker 3: I could have kept smashing his head and probably jumped
- 24:30Speaker 3: on it and dropped the knee on it and killed him.
- 24:33Speaker 3: And probably that's what would have been the best result
- 24:35Speaker 3: for him. But you know, I would have got eight
- 24:37Speaker 3: into twenty years. But I did pull myself up. But
- 24:39Speaker 3: that's what he did deserve, I believe, anyway, And he
- 24:42Speaker 3: ended up getting it from his own anyway. And he's
- 24:44Speaker 3: a putrid prick and he deserved to die that way anyway.
- 24:48Speaker 1: He said, he wasn't a popular character. I think he
- 24:50Speaker 1: went on to a long criminal career which stretched on
- 24:54Speaker 1: into the two thousands. But as far as your life
- 24:57Speaker 1: was concerned, I mean this, blokes, and nobody yet is
- 25:01Speaker 1: in a sense. Now you're in front of the governor
- 25:04Speaker 1: still know, clothes on by the way.
- 25:07Speaker 2: Yeah, they threw me.
- 25:08Speaker 3: Yeah, they bounced me off a few walls and then
- 25:11Speaker 3: give me a bit of a bit and the door opened,
- 25:15Speaker 3: and I just got thrown into a seat.
- 25:16Speaker 2: Bang.
- 25:16Speaker 3: And there's a big desk, and they threw me a towel,
- 25:19Speaker 3: and there's a governor sitting by on the desk on me,
- 25:22Speaker 3: paved work in front of him, and a couple of
- 25:24Speaker 3: screws each side of me, you know, and.
- 25:26Speaker 1: You were fairly lucky. I don't think you even got
- 25:29Speaker 1: a prison assault charge.
- 25:31Speaker 3: Now, that's what the governor said. He said, if he
- 25:33Speaker 3: whacked a couple of prison assaults on me there then,
- 25:36Speaker 3: and with what I was facing, he said, I was
- 25:38Speaker 3: going to be there three or four years. That's when
- 25:40Speaker 3: I started the panic. But he turned it all around
- 25:43Speaker 3: pretty quick. He went from really serious and telling me
- 25:45Speaker 3: how much trouble. I was in and I was going
- 25:47Speaker 3: to be there forever. And he just turned around and said,
- 25:51Speaker 3: but you're lucky, Mark. We knew they were going to
- 25:54Speaker 3: get it, and you're lucky it was the Now, just
- 25:57Speaker 3: go back out of the yards, keep your hands to yourself,
- 25:59Speaker 3: and I don't want.
- 26:00Speaker 2: To hear from you again.
- 26:01Speaker 1: But see, now you've got a big problem because you're
- 26:03Speaker 1: going to be there for the next little anyway, because
- 26:05Speaker 1: of what you're facing if you get a custodial sentence,
- 26:08Speaker 1: because you're on ramand now, but your face with the
- 26:10Speaker 1: possibility of a few more of mister Newt and his
- 26:13Speaker 1: friends ganging up on you and possibly creating a few
- 26:17Speaker 1: new holes in you with prison shives and knives and whatnot.
- 26:21Speaker 1: So you must be thinking of the possible consequences here.
- 26:25Speaker 1: So now your appearance in court has a much higher
- 26:29Speaker 1: set of stakes around it.
- 26:32Speaker 2: Yeah, it escalated real quick. And every day.
- 26:35Speaker 3: In there there was a few more Vietnamese coming in
- 26:37Speaker 3: every day, you know what I mean. I think there
- 26:39Speaker 3: were three, but the next day there was five, the
- 26:42Speaker 3: next day there was seven. And they were all teaming up,
- 26:45Speaker 3: and we had the numbers at the start, and I
- 26:47Speaker 3: got introduced to a group that was really happy with
- 26:51Speaker 3: what happened and what I done. And so I got
- 26:54Speaker 3: invited up into the group because my bed was right
- 26:57Speaker 3: the very last bed with Paul Melland's sleep underneath me.
- 27:00Speaker 3: He goes on top. Bunk was right near the four
- 27:03Speaker 3: talet bowls, one remand in the eighty bed dorm. So
- 27:07Speaker 3: you know, everyone's going to the tall every five minutes
- 27:11Speaker 3: on all four balls.
- 27:12Speaker 2: It was the worse bed, you know what I mean.
- 27:14Speaker 3: Yeah, So the boys that were half way up, Mick
- 27:17Speaker 3: All and Mick Devil and that I was taking about
- 27:19Speaker 3: them yesterday and that. But they come down and said
- 27:21Speaker 3: to me, you muster up out the front of here,
- 27:24Speaker 3: you know, in that future bed in the morning for
- 27:26Speaker 3: the screws. You come and sleep up with us here.
- 27:30Speaker 3: And they used to bring the bunks together and the
- 27:32Speaker 3: old army blankets and put them over and make like
- 27:35Speaker 3: an entrance you could walk in through and all the
- 27:37Speaker 3: boys in there, you know, and bring three bunks to
- 27:41Speaker 3: It was like a little whole area and it all
- 27:43Speaker 3: sit there, but no one could come in. There's an
- 27:45Speaker 3: entry and an exit, you know, but no one else
- 27:48Speaker 3: that wasn't in the crew could come into that little
- 27:50Speaker 3: tent because the boys that were running the dorm were
- 27:53Speaker 3: in there. So we had the numbers, but the Vietna knees,
- 27:57Speaker 3: you know, started getting the numbers, you know.
- 27:59Speaker 2: But still right, I was still right, you know, but
- 28:02Speaker 2: you were in.
- 28:02Speaker 1: Danger of eventually facing a fair fight.
- 28:07Speaker 3: Yeah, well I got given her. They said it was
- 28:09Speaker 3: the best ship in.
- 28:10Speaker 2: There that they could give me.
- 28:12Speaker 3: But like adding the yards the next day and that
- 28:14Speaker 3: I remember three of them, very three four of them.
- 28:18Speaker 3: How they used to sit like everywhere you'd see him
- 28:20Speaker 3: in Sydney and in Swing gral On that you know,
- 28:22Speaker 3: when they're selling their drugs on the corner.
- 28:23Speaker 2: They sit with one knee on the ground and one
- 28:26Speaker 2: nay up.
- 28:26Speaker 3: They had their way to the Vietnam aze and they sort
- 28:29Speaker 3: of sit with their elbows across the top.
- 28:31Speaker 2: Of their knee.
- 28:31Speaker 3: That's how they were standing, sitting in the yard, and
- 28:34Speaker 3: so they could inside that knee.
- 28:36Speaker 2: They had their ships and.
- 28:37Speaker 3: I sharpen them on the concrete, you know, looking over
- 28:39Speaker 3: at me sharping the concrete. So I just had my
- 28:41Speaker 3: shipping in the top of my pants and just visible,
- 28:44Speaker 3: you know. But all the boys are taking bets on
- 28:47Speaker 3: the outcome and some was saying they're betting white oxes
- 28:51Speaker 3: and that saying, what the heck come was going to be.
- 28:53Speaker 3: Some were saying they'll kill him, They'll kill him, and
- 28:57Speaker 3: someone was saying, oh, she went pretty good, that young
- 29:00Speaker 3: color under the showers, you know, and I wouldn't underestimate them,
- 29:03Speaker 3: but you know, I had a few friends. Yeah, they
- 29:05Speaker 3: were taking bets on what the air come was going.
- 29:07Speaker 1: To be, right, because those moments inside it's when you
- 29:12Speaker 1: establish a reputation and it probably helps other people stay
- 29:16Speaker 1: away from you.
- 29:19Speaker 3: Well, it was pretty good, and really how it happened
- 29:21Speaker 3: in the end, because I've got a bit of respect
- 29:24Speaker 3: straight up, I was looking back on it. I didn't
- 29:27Speaker 3: have to sleep and smell all that toilet shit all
- 29:30Speaker 3: the time. Anyway, I got invited halfway up and then
- 29:32Speaker 3: you know all the food and everything. They had extras
- 29:34Speaker 3: and stuff. So yeah, it was really good. Vince Pino
- 29:38Speaker 3: from Avondale, heiss and I made of my men in there.
- 29:40Speaker 3: He was with me in there, and Paul and Meck
- 29:43Speaker 3: Devlon Hall and yeah, a few others, but we had
- 29:47Speaker 3: the numbers at that stage, you know.
- 29:50Speaker 1: So you survived that period and you get to court.
- 29:53Speaker 1: What happened.
- 29:53Speaker 3: Then, Yeah, well I'd seen John Brady, you know, went
- 29:59Speaker 3: to Assumption College with Brian Burke. You see, he was
- 30:01Speaker 3: one of the best barrisses in Melbourne at the time.
- 30:04Speaker 3: You couldn't even get into Sea. Brian wouldn't matter even
- 30:07Speaker 3: how much you had, you know, like he was that up.
- 30:09Speaker 3: But he knew John threw some from Kye. John rang
- 30:12Speaker 3: him up and said I got a student bingo. So
- 30:15Speaker 3: we went and.
- 30:15Speaker 2: Seen Brian Burke and his offices in Melbourne. Burke story.
- 30:17Speaker 1: I think Brian Burke is the best barrister in Victoria
- 30:20Speaker 1: never to become a QC. Yeah right, because he was
- 30:23Speaker 1: too much of an Irishman, too much of a rebel,
- 30:27Speaker 1: and he was regarded as the defendant's barrister.
- 30:30Speaker 3: You're lucky getting Brian Burke. What a great fellow, wasn't
- 30:33Speaker 3: I ever? And what a privilege it was to meet
- 30:35Speaker 3: him too. And I'll just never ever forget what he
- 30:37Speaker 3: said to me, you know, in what we were confronting
- 30:40Speaker 3: and I was trying to take everything on all at
- 30:41Speaker 3: once and worried about everything. He just looked at me
- 30:44Speaker 3: and he glen over his big desk and he just said, Mark,
- 30:47Speaker 3: he said, we'll just lay brick by brick.
- 30:52Speaker 1: So what was your defense in the end, what was
- 30:54Speaker 1: the strategy?
- 30:55Speaker 3: Well, I went to He put me onto this doctor
- 30:59Speaker 3: Eric Seal, who was like the head psychiatrist in had
- 31:03Speaker 3: been in Melbourne criminal side Kyaterest for a long long time.
- 31:07Speaker 3: He was actually not taking on any more clients, but
- 31:10Speaker 3: Bryan through John and meet and Brian, Brian you Eric
- 31:14Speaker 3: and actually took me on as his last client. And
- 31:18Speaker 3: I seen Eric Seal got in a German in the
- 31:21Speaker 3: court case. He kept seeing doctor Eric Seal for quite
- 31:24Speaker 3: a while, kept me nose clean and you know, with
- 31:28Speaker 3: what had happened in my life and that I had
- 31:31Speaker 3: lost a lot of mates and I've just been surrounded
- 31:34Speaker 3: by death from the age of ten, did I don't reckon?
- 31:36Speaker 3: I had six or twelve months without losing someone that
- 31:39Speaker 3: was immediately side by side close to me.
- 31:42Speaker 2: It was just incredible.
- 31:44Speaker 3: I ran from death in Essendon and in the end
- 31:46Speaker 3: it was just so many but like and when that
- 31:49Speaker 3: sort of just unfolded to Eric and he's seen how
- 31:51Speaker 3: the way it was, you know, and what had happened,
- 31:53Speaker 3: and that to tell you the truth, Once Eric Seal
- 31:56Speaker 3: got up and they had what he had to say
- 31:59Speaker 3: about me, judge, and West wasn't going to go against
- 32:02Speaker 3: what he had to say, you know what I mean.
- 32:03Speaker 1: Oh, you got Ian West, your magistrate. Ian another friend of.
- 32:07Speaker 2: Mine, was one of the class cases.
- 32:09Speaker 1: Yeah, before he became the state coroner, which was a
- 32:12Speaker 1: bit later, but he was. You were absolutely blessed to
- 32:15Speaker 1: have Brian Burke in West as parents to a judge.
- 32:19Speaker 1: I mean in West has a reasonable, balanced and knowledgeable
- 32:23Speaker 1: advocates and judges victories have had.
- 32:26Speaker 3: I thought I was going to be jared. I thought
- 32:28Speaker 3: I was going to get a couple of years. But
- 32:30Speaker 3: you know, everything just tied in him when he spoke
- 32:33Speaker 3: and that and what he had to say. I've got
- 32:36Speaker 3: a clear recollection.
- 32:37Speaker 2: Of it all. You gave me a chance. I think
- 32:39Speaker 2: I thank him to that.
- 32:40Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And what what advice did he give you? Mark?
- 32:45Speaker 3: Just to keep saying doctor seal and try and get
- 32:48Speaker 3: back into me cricket, you know, follow me dreams and stuff.
- 32:51Speaker 3: But I did bail a lot for a long time.
- 32:54Speaker 3: But I did end up getting on top and doing
- 32:56Speaker 3: well in the end. But it took a long time.
- 32:58Speaker 1: Yeah, but you ended up getting what a suspended sentence.
- 33:04Speaker 2: I play guilty to everything I get.
- 33:06Speaker 3: I got the maximum amount of community service and had
- 33:11Speaker 3: to see certain psychiatrists and psychologists and be directed by
- 33:15Speaker 3: the Corps to do whatever I had to do. I
- 33:17Speaker 3: had to sign on three times a week for twelve
- 33:20Speaker 3: months or something like that too, And it was like
- 33:23Speaker 3: the most you could give me without jail and me,
- 33:25Speaker 3: you know, and under the most intensive division.
- 33:28Speaker 1: You know, well, because I think it's clever because the
- 33:30Speaker 1: short time that you were in jail, you're obviously a
- 33:33Speaker 1: powder keg. You're likely to go off and be involved
- 33:37Speaker 1: another offending inside jail, which would perpetuate your stay in jail.
- 33:41Speaker 1: So I think it was a wise decision to find
- 33:44Speaker 1: a way to keep you out of jail, to give
- 33:45Speaker 1: you another chance. What you did with that chance was
- 33:49Speaker 1: up to you.
- 33:50Speaker 3: What happened next, well, you know the russ threat that
- 33:54Speaker 3: was he had the Russell Street bombing. You know, I
- 33:58Speaker 3: believe it was less than a week before he sentenced me,
- 34:01Speaker 3: and then the Russell Street bombing went down. They sentenced me,
- 34:04Speaker 3: But I kept running a mark for a lot of years,
- 34:07Speaker 3: I tell you the truth. And yeah, no it took
- 34:11Speaker 3: a long, long long time. Yeah, my life hasn't been
- 34:14Speaker 3: much fun at all. It's only later in your life
- 34:17Speaker 3: that I really pulled it all together because of you boys.
- 34:19Speaker 3: You know, it's always being a struggle. Everywhere I've gone,
- 34:22Speaker 3: it's been hard.
- 34:24Speaker 1: The Russell Threat bombing was in March nineteen eighty six,
- 34:27Speaker 1: which poor Constable Angela Taylor lost her life and terrible
- 34:32Speaker 1: in West. Your magistrate was actually caught up in that.
- 34:35Speaker 1: He wasn't badly injured and he's actually recovered. But you know,
- 34:40Speaker 1: worse was to come for you, because, like I say,
- 34:42Speaker 1: when I hear your story, there's mental health challenges at
- 34:47Speaker 1: the center of it. And I guess the advice to
- 34:50Speaker 1: continue having therapy might have been the answer. But I
- 34:53Speaker 1: guess it's hard on the outside. You've got a living
- 34:55Speaker 1: you know, you get influenced by people you've met. You've
- 34:57Speaker 1: got a poor self image about yourself and as you say,
- 35:01Speaker 1: you kept running a muk.
- 35:03Speaker 3: Well, I got up and left, you know. And what
- 35:06Speaker 3: I found the hardest here in Australia right is when
- 35:10Speaker 3: you're from Melbourne or Victoria and you venture out to
- 35:13Speaker 3: say New South Wales or Western Australia, like I have.
- 35:18Speaker 3: When I left Melbourne and went up to Eden, Saint
- 35:22Speaker 3: Georgia or Warick Country. When the Melbourne Storm had just
- 35:25Speaker 3: entered the NRL and I'd come from Melbourne. I rocked
- 35:29Speaker 3: up in a Melbourne Storm jumper in ninety nine and
- 35:31Speaker 3: they win the Grand Final. I was hated straight away
- 35:34Speaker 3: in the town and I got two young boys, and
- 35:37Speaker 3: because I barracked for the Melbourne Storm and it was
- 35:40Speaker 3: a Saint Georgia La Waura area and they the local
- 35:43Speaker 3: team had Saint George Laaura jumpers and the Melbourne Storm
- 35:47Speaker 3: beat them in the Grand Final and non baron.
- 35:49Speaker 2: I was instantly hated.
- 35:51Speaker 3: You know, in the town, so and trying to set
- 35:53Speaker 3: up and get somewhere, and I was no one knew
- 35:56Speaker 3: me and the only way I knew to do was
- 35:59Speaker 3: to fight.
- 36:00Speaker 1: Well, I guess you probably weren't slow on letting them
- 36:02Speaker 1: know about the Storm's success either.
- 36:05Speaker 3: Imagine, Yeah, that's a funny story. You know what I've
- 36:08Speaker 3: done after they won it? When Monday dropped the ball,
- 36:11Speaker 3: I put the Melbourne Storm jump and I rocked straight
- 36:13Speaker 3: up the middle of the main street of Urden. That's
- 36:15Speaker 3: a great sudden in the hotel that he jump on
- 36:18Speaker 3: and they were all banging on the windows of the pub.
- 36:21Speaker 3: They wanted to pat and I'm calling them out and
- 36:23Speaker 3: that you know, I'm gone go to the storm, you know.
- 36:26Speaker 2: Yeah they were shattering.
- 36:28Speaker 1: Yes, you're being a provocative little ship basically, but there
- 36:31Speaker 1: you go.
- 36:31Speaker 2: Oh well, well you.
- 36:32Speaker 3: Had a barracker of footy clothes, only it's only footy NRL.
- 36:35Speaker 2: You know you had a barra few side.
- 36:37Speaker 1: That's true, But you found your way into jails in
- 36:40Speaker 1: two other states? How did that transpire?
- 36:43Speaker 3: Mark a hanging Vale, Western Australia after that, so yeah,
- 36:51Speaker 3: that was another fight.
- 36:53Speaker 2: But yeah, the fellow lied.
- 36:55Speaker 3: You know, he can hit me first as a road
- 36:57Speaker 3: rage incident and you can hit me. I ended up
- 37:00Speaker 3: getting him down and pretty bad dummage to him, which
- 37:04Speaker 3: I regret doing. I I went to be too far
- 37:06Speaker 3: on him. Actually I ended up gunning the Canning Vale there.
- 37:09Speaker 3: But he lied in court and I called another witness
- 37:12Speaker 3: and appealed and ended up winning that court case as
- 37:14Speaker 3: he actually lied because he actually did hit me first. Yeah,
- 37:17Speaker 3: but he didn't say that he did, but we brought
- 37:20Speaker 3: up a witness that seen aren't the only thing they
- 37:22Speaker 3: seen was him me first.
- 37:25Speaker 2: Yeah, but I did go too far on him.
- 37:28Speaker 1: So you did some jol over.
- 37:30Speaker 2: That Canning Vale.
- 37:32Speaker 3: Yeah, I was only there for a short time and
- 37:34Speaker 3: didn't have much trouble there. Then I went back to
- 37:37Speaker 3: Victoria and up to Eden, and I ended up having
- 37:39Speaker 3: some fights with those local rugby players in Eden. One incident,
- 37:43Speaker 3: I got my finger bitten off and another instant, the
- 37:47Speaker 3: front rail rugby player got spent quite a bit of
- 37:50Speaker 3: time hoss one and stuff, give me a good iron.
- 37:52Speaker 3: And I ended up going to Alburn and then dan A,
- 37:55Speaker 3: Juney and tumber rumber But I got into a big
- 37:57Speaker 3: fight down there at tumber Rumba, Yeah, with the Macedonians
- 38:03Speaker 3: and Serbians and Lebanese and all that.
- 38:05Speaker 2: Yeah, I fell out with.
- 38:06Speaker 3: Had a big fight in there and got tipped out
- 38:08Speaker 3: of there and had to go to Juney and back
- 38:10Speaker 3: to Golden.
- 38:12Speaker 1: Some serious jails Golben in particular.
- 38:14Speaker 3: Yeah, Golden very much like Pantridge, very very similar. I'd
- 38:19Speaker 3: say we built a snow man at Golden one time
- 38:22Speaker 3: there under the yards there, So that's how cold Golden is.
- 38:27Speaker 1: I didn't mind me saying this mark because I think
- 38:29Speaker 1: we can speak freely that it was your mouth and
- 38:31Speaker 1: your fists that gave you the most trouble and led
- 38:35Speaker 1: to the loss of your freedom time and time again.
- 38:38Speaker 1: When did you learn self control and begin to live
- 38:41Speaker 1: a life that wasn't controlled by your reaction to others.
- 38:46Speaker 3: I still have trouble now, mate, Yeah, I still have
- 38:49Speaker 3: real trouble with that.
- 38:50Speaker 1: You know.
- 38:51Speaker 2: I just sort of wait for people.
- 38:54Speaker 3: Human beings. They do my heading, you know. I just
- 38:56Speaker 3: try and cruise along in life.
- 38:58Speaker 2: I don't know what. I just come.
- 39:00Speaker 3: Across people that are just so totally disrespectful and treating
- 39:05Speaker 3: me like a fool and a clown, and I just
- 39:08Speaker 3: let them go along and go along and just treat
- 39:10Speaker 3: me how they want to. But in the end, it's
- 39:12Speaker 3: inevitable what's going to happen? You know, there's always an
- 39:15Speaker 3: explosion at the end.
- 39:17Speaker 1: Yeah, because you're now sixty years of age, you got
- 39:20Speaker 1: two beautiful sons. How do you resolve all this in
- 39:23Speaker 1: the end? I know you've got this court case with
- 39:25Speaker 1: the Catholic Church. Do you think that's going to be
- 39:27Speaker 1: a source of resolution for you? Yeah?
- 39:30Speaker 3: Well, what I want to do now, I've cut the
- 39:35Speaker 3: olive brands into the tree right back, you know, and
- 39:37Speaker 3: sort of when you go and move into state and
- 39:40Speaker 3: try and set up with a family, and you're a male.
- 39:43Speaker 3: You know, it's really really really hard, yeah, really hard
- 39:48Speaker 3: to rock up to a town with two boys and
- 39:50Speaker 3: a missus and say well I'm here.
- 39:52Speaker 2: You know, it's really hard.
- 39:55Speaker 3: Even Western Australian here two four six all vixer pricks
- 39:59Speaker 3: and I'm a Prictorian when I first got here, right,
- 40:02Speaker 3: so they don't like us. But now don't worry about,
- 40:06Speaker 3: like an asked, Victorians, because the Indians and all that
- 40:09Speaker 3: coming in, so in, the Africans and all that. So
- 40:12Speaker 3: that's what I ran from Melbourne for. And now they're
- 40:14Speaker 3: going to get a miss So I.
- 40:15Speaker 1: Spent two years in Perst doing a radio show, six
- 40:18Speaker 1: per hour drive show, and they had me pegged as
- 40:21Speaker 1: a Victorian. I' from Sydney originally they had me pegged
- 40:24Speaker 1: as a Victorian and they would queue up to yell
- 40:26Speaker 1: at me every afternoon, every afternoon. What did I know
- 40:31Speaker 1: from the Eastern States? What are you talking about? And
- 40:34Speaker 1: I couldn't dance a football team I supported. Sorry to
- 40:37Speaker 1: all the West Australian listeners, but that's exactly what happened.
- 40:40Speaker 2: Was it.
- 40:41Speaker 1: That was Carlton, which is probably worse, but in the end,
- 40:45Speaker 1: in the end, I guess I found a way to
- 40:47Speaker 1: control all that. But you know, do you think there's
- 40:50Speaker 1: a happy ending for you? Out of all west Mark?
- 40:51Speaker 1: Do you think there's days? I mean, you should be
- 40:53Speaker 1: a happy ending.
- 40:54Speaker 3: Now you've got well, there is a happy end. And
- 40:56Speaker 3: you know, because I've done well in the end. I've
- 40:58Speaker 3: got a small mortgage on my home here. I'm retired
- 41:02Speaker 3: buy and sell. I went into and Teaks and done
- 41:05Speaker 3: really well out of that. My son's done. Really, I
- 41:08Speaker 3: don't have to worry about me. Boys not having a
- 41:09Speaker 3: roof over their head. I've had a cancer battle. I've
- 41:12Speaker 3: been battling cancer to seven years. I've had a resection,
- 41:16Speaker 3: I've had two chemos and four radiation therapies. I've got
- 41:22Speaker 3: another what they call elapse or adaptation or something happened
- 41:26Speaker 3: where they drop a hot water on the last year
- 41:28Speaker 3: because I'll go on from four tumbors to one. I've
- 41:30Speaker 3: had a third of me liver cut out. So yeah,
- 41:32Speaker 3: but I'm feeling strong and i just want to be
- 41:35Speaker 3: on my own. Made of minds come to live me
- 41:37Speaker 3: with me from Melbourne. He's Australian boxing champion and then
- 41:41Speaker 3: so he's helped me out of me the boxing gym.
- 41:43Speaker 3: I've got a boxing gym at home and just trying
- 41:45Speaker 3: a few fighters at home.
- 41:46Speaker 1: Good good.
- 41:47Speaker 3: You have to drink these days, I have one. I
- 41:51Speaker 3: didn't have one for twelve months. But I lost my
- 41:53Speaker 3: partner three months ago, and I must mean I get hit.
- 41:58Speaker 3: It was a terrible death and I got back on
- 42:02Speaker 3: it there. But I am sober again.
- 42:05Speaker 1: Yeah. When you think of some of the people we've
- 42:07Speaker 1: talked about in this discussion, a lot of mad dead,
- 42:10Speaker 1: do you feel I'm not going to say lucky, but
- 42:13Speaker 1: you know how things have turned out. You've had a
- 42:16Speaker 1: bit of good fortune, despite the cancer, the jail, despite
- 42:21Speaker 1: all these things.
- 42:23Speaker 3: When I look at it right and I look for
- 42:25Speaker 3: an answer about what it's all been about my life,
- 42:28Speaker 3: the only conclusion that I can come to and how
- 42:32Speaker 3: why I am still here, is that someone's keeping me
- 42:37Speaker 3: here to sort these things out. I kept keep getting
- 42:41Speaker 3: thrown into situations where people need help and stuff, and
- 42:44Speaker 3: I haven't been able to turn me.
- 42:45Speaker 2: Back on it. You know.
- 42:47Speaker 3: So I actually have started going to church and I
- 42:49Speaker 3: have started praying. Right, I'm only mentioning that because I
- 42:54Speaker 3: was an atheist, but it's been incredible because I did
- 42:58Speaker 3: reach out and ask, and I have been answered in
- 43:00Speaker 3: a few in all areas actually, and it's bying me away.
- 43:04Speaker 3: So I've got my own little thing happening. I haven't
- 43:08Speaker 3: been going back to church. I am praying, and I
- 43:11Speaker 3: am sure to come to an understanding I believe is
- 43:16Speaker 3: actually what my life's been all about.
- 43:18Speaker 1: You good, good, Listen. We're never going to get to
- 43:20Speaker 1: the meaning of life, but we can concentrate on having
- 43:23Speaker 1: a purpose. If that's to help other people to raise
- 43:27Speaker 1: our kids, well that's enough. Purpose is more than enough.
- 43:30Speaker 1: And I think if you're finding solace praying or in church,
- 43:33Speaker 1: good luck to you. I think it's fantastic and I'd
- 43:34Speaker 1: rather people believe in something other than nothing. I think
- 43:37Speaker 1: it's a pretty dull life of being an atheist. I mean,
- 43:39Speaker 1: you think, how can you be so bloody sure? No
- 43:42Speaker 1: one's been there, no one's come back, so the can't
- 43:44Speaker 1: tell you what's there. I beg an atheist is I'll
- 43:46Speaker 1: call bullshit on that one.
- 43:47Speaker 3: But I'll tell you what Adam Fair think and explow
- 43:50Speaker 3: me away because at the lowest point, the last twelve
- 43:54Speaker 3: months have been really hecktic. Two years I was in
- 43:56Speaker 3: a relationship that was really trying but the last thing
- 44:01Speaker 3: I could possibly do was pray, and I asked for
- 44:03Speaker 3: a sign, and within seconds I got the sign that
- 44:07Speaker 3: I needed. And it didn't happen once, it happened three
- 44:09Speaker 3: or four times. There's a couple of other things that
- 44:12Speaker 3: I could mention that is so out of this world.
- 44:15Speaker 3: And I'm such a realist that I can't not acknowledge
- 44:18Speaker 3: it fair enough.
- 44:19Speaker 1: Whatever works. And the thing is, the thing is you
- 44:21Speaker 1: start seeing signs. You start seeing signs when your eyes
- 44:26Speaker 1: are open, right, yeah, And I think that's an important aspect.
- 44:31Speaker 1: And I think one thing you have begun to do,
- 44:32Speaker 1: which I thoroughly recommend anybody who's had a life like yours,
- 44:36Speaker 1: is to sit down and write about it. And you
- 44:38Speaker 1: sent me a thousand pages dealing with the confrontation with
- 44:41Speaker 1: mister Newan and so forth, and you're right, well, so
- 44:46Speaker 1: I'd keep writing those things, even if it's just for
- 44:48Speaker 1: yourself and for your kids, so people can understand what
- 44:52Speaker 1: your life's been like. And I really, I really admire
- 44:55Speaker 1: you for reaching out to me to share this because
- 44:57Speaker 1: I think that is part of your redemption. And I
- 45:00Speaker 1: think you do feel regrets for those acts of violence.
- 45:03Speaker 3: You know a lot of great. Yeah, yeah, I ripped
- 45:07Speaker 3: yourself off. I let a lot of people down. Well,
- 45:10Speaker 3: I was just young and I didn't know how to
- 45:12Speaker 3: handle and I didn't have anyone around me to cared
- 45:15Speaker 3: enough to guide me through that hard time.
- 45:17Speaker 2: You know.
- 45:17Speaker 3: That's why I can't walk away from people now that
- 45:20Speaker 3: need help, you know, because at the boxing gmail I've
- 45:23Speaker 3: put it's been a drug rehab At different times. I'll
- 45:26Speaker 3: put caravans up the side of my house and taken
- 45:29Speaker 3: people in from jail and dried about off drugs and
- 45:31Speaker 3: got them a fight and got them well, and then
- 45:33Speaker 3: they've gone back into jail. And in the community here
- 45:36Speaker 3: probably I've cleaned up more drug addicts than anyone has
- 45:39Speaker 3: in the hole of bustle that there's no we're here
- 45:41Speaker 3: for them. I've cleaned them up and dried them up
- 45:44Speaker 3: at home because there's nothing available.
- 45:46Speaker 1: Yeah, that's tremendous. That's really good. That's actually putting back
- 45:49Speaker 1: in and that's that's wonderful to hear. And you know,
- 45:52Speaker 1: I mean, I think the majority of young men who
- 45:54Speaker 1: are in Australian prisons today are doing between six and
- 45:57Speaker 1: eighteen months for drug related issues. They're not big time criminals.
- 46:01Speaker 1: They're not organized crime gurus, and they end up just
- 46:06Speaker 1: like you, going back into jail, back into jail, sometimes
- 46:10Speaker 1: even getting more time for those sort of fights you're describing.
- 46:14Speaker 1: What advice would you give to young men listening to
- 46:16Speaker 1: this now to try to avoid what you went through?
- 46:21Speaker 2: Look, you know this is how I look at life.
- 46:24Speaker 3: Hey, I look at life as planning a game of
- 46:28Speaker 3: cards to half a dozen people. You know, we all
- 46:30Speaker 3: get delta hand. You know, you get the four races.
- 46:35Speaker 3: I get the joker, the nine, the jack, and I
- 46:38Speaker 3: throw them out and trying to But you'll hold the
- 46:40Speaker 3: four races. Right, you get through life untouched? Right, you
- 46:43Speaker 3: and the money you take the jet pot, Right, I
- 46:45Speaker 3: get dealt. The other hand, people are quick to judge
- 46:49Speaker 3: from a distance when they haven't been in the situation
- 46:53Speaker 3: of someone that's been dealt that bad hand. They haven't
- 46:57Speaker 3: been in that position. They've had a cushy life. The
- 46:59Speaker 3: parents are still live, they're still eighty five, ninety, they've
- 47:02Speaker 3: inherited a lot of money. You know, don't even know
- 47:05Speaker 3: what hardship or what it's like to live in a
- 47:07Speaker 3: lift with a beer bottle for a pillow, and you
- 47:09Speaker 3: have to have a paper on the beer bottle so
- 47:12Speaker 3: the bottle wouldn't slip and stuff you know in.
- 47:16Speaker 2: And that all came.
- 47:17Speaker 3: About because me dad in a tree when I was ten,
- 47:20Speaker 3: which I had no saying he was the best father
- 47:23Speaker 3: in the world if he lives like my life is
- 47:26Speaker 3: cushy just like everyone else's, you know, but I yes.
- 47:32Speaker 3: So really, just do the best in the situation you can.
- 47:36Speaker 3: But don't bend over for nobody. Certainly, stick by the truth,
- 47:40Speaker 3: be honest and truth or it's hard, and it's much
- 47:43Speaker 3: harder than being a liar, and it's more intricate, but
- 47:48Speaker 3: in the end it's worth it because the truth always
- 47:50Speaker 3: comes out in the end. To stick by it in court,
- 47:54Speaker 3: if the truth saw you've got, it's worth nothing. Actually,
- 47:57Speaker 3: it's the way of people that can get up and
- 47:59Speaker 3: tell a story against you. The stories don't even have
- 48:02Speaker 3: to coerce.
- 48:04Speaker 2: They'll just get up.
- 48:05Speaker 3: And the fact that the three of them are up there,
- 48:07Speaker 3: you're gone. Yeah, if you've got the truth and you're
- 48:10Speaker 3: on your own, you're gone. But just stick to the
- 48:12Speaker 3: truth because the truth always comes out. And be honest
- 48:15Speaker 3: to yourself, and don't worry about other people, and don't
- 48:18Speaker 3: worry about what they think of you, be yourself.
- 48:20Speaker 1: You know that's good advice. Mark, and I thank you
- 48:23Speaker 1: for sharing this story today. It's been great to talk
- 48:25Speaker 1: to you. You've been very honest and quite courageous, and
- 48:28Speaker 1: I think you're a hero to your boys. You know
- 48:31Speaker 1: that's all you can be great, And thank you very much.
- 48:33Speaker 1: It's awesome. That's Mark DeBono. So many lessons there for us.
- 48:42Speaker 1: And when you talk about the cards people have been dealt,
- 48:45Speaker 1: I think I got the four races, that's for sure.
- 48:47Speaker 1: I've had a cushy life. Everything's gone well for me.
- 48:49Speaker 1: And my old man was a psychiatrist and he said
- 48:52Speaker 1: to me early on, understanding people is more valuable than
- 48:56Speaker 1: judging them. And that's why I like to have these
- 48:58Speaker 1: conversations with Mark and people like that who've been through
- 49:01Speaker 1: the life. And I see a lot of them get
- 49:03Speaker 1: to the age of about forty or f and they wonder,
- 49:06Speaker 1: where is my youth gone? Where are all those the
- 49:08Speaker 1: good things that I should have? And some of them
- 49:10Speaker 1: can make the change, and some of them don't. Some
- 49:12Speaker 1: of them end up dying very young. And I'll never
- 49:15Speaker 1: tie a hearing of more. So, if you're out there
- 49:18Speaker 1: and you want to tell us your story. Please get
- 49:20Speaker 1: in touch. You can send me an email Adam Shander
- 49:22Speaker 1: writer at gmail dot com. If you want to report
- 49:26Speaker 1: a crime, you can always do that as well, call
- 49:28Speaker 1: Crime Stop US one hundred, triple three, Triple Zer. You
- 49:30Speaker 1: might not trust the police, though, so you send me
- 49:33Speaker 1: an email first and I can advise you what to do.
- 49:35Speaker 1: Adam Shanner, writer at gmail dot com. This has been
- 49:38Speaker 1: Adam shan for Real Crime. Thank you for listening.
- 49:52Speaker 4: Thanks for listening to this episode and supporting this story.
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