The Cruel City by Stephen Orr

Author:Stephen Orr [Orr, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: TRU002010
ISBN: 9781742692944
Publisher: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd
Published: 2011-03-22T13:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

Bevan Spencer von Einem and the

Family murders

1979–83

The ‘Family murders’ refers to the sadistic killings of five young men between 1979 and 1983. Although only convicted of one of these murders, it is probable that Bevan Spencer von Einem, and at least one unknown associate, were responsible for all five killings. The term ‘Family’ has come to suggest a group of well-connected, loyal, middle-aged men with an interest in paedophilia (especially slightly older boys) who, in the 1970s and ’80s, played out their fantasies under the leadership of von Einem.

This ‘family’ is not to be confused with a group of lawyers, judges and senior police who, some claim, formed a secret paedophile network in Adelaide during the same period, and who used their power and influence to recruit, groom and abuse boys. The most famous of this supposed group was Magistrate Peter Liddy. In 2001 Liddy was convicted of molesting boys at Brighton, Port Noarlunga and Seacliff beaches between 1969 and 1981 when he was a member of the Seacliff Surf Life Saving Club. He was sentenced to 25 years’ gaol and his $1.3 million fortune was confiscated by the state.

In the case of von Einem there can be no doubt that there were other participants in the Family murders. ‘Mr B.’, a former associate of von Einem, accepted an offer of immunity from prosecution for turning Crown witness at von Einem’s trial. At that trial he described how he and von Einem would pick up hitchhikers, offer them drugs and alcohol, wait until they were sedated and, finally, sexually abuse them. This seems to have happened mainly around Adelaide’s gay beats—the Torrens, War Memorial Drive and North Adelaide. This may explain why von Einem was ‘cruising’ the Torrens on the night he stopped to pick up Roger James, who’d just escaped the assault and drowning of Dr George Duncan by Vice Squad officers.

By 1979, it seems, this pattern of drugging and abuse was no longer exciting enough for von Einem. He was ready to take the next step.

Von Einem, who was 34 at the time of the first murder, was a quiet, unassuming, well-mannered, plainly dressed accountant who lived with his mother, Thora, in a house in the ironically named suburb of Paradise. There was something of the Norman Bates to von Einem; psychologically he was a mass of twisted wires that short-circuited his personality. Not that you could see it in his face. He looked every bit the accountant: neat, grey hair, cleanly shaved, business shirt, jacket and a perfectly knotted tie. It’s tempting to think of him at work, as a number-cruncher for a pipe supplies company, sitting at a small desk, writing columns of figures, ruling them off, adding them up, subtracting the tax, watching a fly, swatting it, blowing away his pencil shavings, looking up and noticing one of the apprentices but returning to his work as the radio gently murmurs in the background.

Prior to von Einem’s capture a police psychological profile suggested the Family

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