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The Origins

In 1988 Detective Trevor Kipling described a group of people whom he suspected as being responsible for five ghastly murders of Adelaide boys and young men as “one big happy family “. He did so during an interview on top rating current affairs program Sixty Minutes. From there the media used the term ‘The Family’ to describe the particular group of men allegedly involved.

Kipling was the most qualified, learned and balanced person in the land to comment on the murders of Alan Barnes, Neil Muir, Peter Stogneff, Mark Langley and Richard Kelvin. The media were aware of this fact and it was of no surprise that they collectively chose the term as a ‘hook’ on which to hang the murders.

From the information available in court documents and media reports it appears that The Family originated in a small Adelaide bookshop in 1960. A group of Adelaide men had been importing hard core homosexual pornography in the form of magazines and films from Europe. At the time, the group allegedly consisted of two journalists, two prominent members of the legal profession and a young lawyer named Derrance Stevenson.

During the day these men went about their relative professions and were respected members of the community. At night however they would gather at the bookshop where their attention would turn to more sordid interests such as books, magazines and films that depicted the sexual abuse of boys in a variety of forms. As the group grew larger, they soon outgrew the small bookshop. They found the perfect meeting place at lawyer Derrance Stevenson’s home which was located on the fringe of Adelaide city.

By the mid 1970's the old building that stood at 189 Greenhill Road was demolished and a brand new, very unique office and home took its place. The house quickly became an adored iconic sight with the public. It bordered on a tourist attraction due to its edgy, angled and distinctive appearance. It screamed ‘look at me’ and epitomized the arty, progressive Dunstan era in South Australia.

Derrance Stevenson would carry out his office duties as a lawyer at the house by day but at night after his secretary had left it became his home. This was unlike any other home in Adelaide however, not just due to its avant garde appearance but for its visitors and the nature of their meetings. This was the place to be for the sordid and elite, particularly on Friday nights.

By this stage the Family is reputed to have grown not only in numbers but also in importance, power and ruthlessness. Until now, they had operated in relative anonymity, hovering below the radar despite their positions of influence in the community. However their late night lifestyles were starting to gain the attention of the South Australian Police.

In 1975 the South Australian Government, under the leadership of Don Dunstan, decriminalized consensual sex between males of legal age. The move was applauded across Australia and led the way for other states to follow. This possibly caused a reaction from some adult men who celebrated the newly legislated freedom with far more outgoing zest.

The 1972 murder of British born law lecturer Professor George Duncan had highlighted the plight of homosexual men who sought out other men for sex along the banks of Adelaide's River Torrens. Professor Duncan was thrown into the river and subsequently drowned. Another man was also ditched into the water that night but was assisted to safety by onlooker Bevan Spencer von Einem, a man who would be arrested for murder eleven years later by Detective Trevor Kipling.

Dr Duncan’s death drew the spotlight onto what was known as ‘poofter bashing’ which had become a common occurrence in and around the city of Adelaide. With the decriminalizing of homosexual sex, the gates of freedom had opened like never before. The legalization of homosexuality was long overdue and it is distinctly possible that Dr Duncan's murder, as dreadful and unfortunate as it was, helped the matter to advance forward.

As the decade progressed, the group later referred to as The Family became more organised. They began to access the boys they desired through different channels and from different walks of life including incarcerated youths, runaways, street kids and wards of the state. Boys who had gotten into trouble with the law became easy pickings for those who worked within the legal system.

It was also during this era that people of suspect character appeared almost ‘chosen’ to fill vital positions within the judiciary. A young lawyer named Peter Liddy was appointed as South Australia’s youngest ever Magistrate in 1974 at the mere age of 29. He would retain this appointment until his arrest and subsequent conviction for sexually abusing boys 28 years later. His mantle of ‘youngest ever’ would be overtaken by Richard Dutton Brown in 1979.

1979 also saw the resignation of Don Dunstan as Premier of South Australia after holding the position from 1967-1968 and from 1970 until February 15^th 1979. His tenure had been full of both success and controversy. However his popularity seemed to dip significantly after he sacked South Australian Police Commissioner Harold Salisbury in January 1978. Dunstan claimed that SA’s top cop had misled his government regarding dossiers (nicknamed the Pink Files) that had been compiled on citizens believed to be a security risk by the Special Branch of the police force. The sudden resignation of the Premier 11 months later at a well-staged press conference ended the Dunstan era.

Rumors were abounding that Dunstan and some of his closest associates were among those investigated by the special branch, and those rumors had predominantly been asserted as fact. The spotlight had turned onto the flamboyant Premier, and at the same time a journalist was set to release a ‘tell all’ book that would only further damage his reputation.

The time was right for Don Dunstan to exit the limelight.

South Australia had become the place to be over the preceding decade but within 4 short months the entire state would be turned on its ear. The Family was still just a group of men who remained incognito and protected by their significant legal and social standing. They had been accessing boys easily and it became known that Derrance Stevenson was well and truly central to the group until his popularity and standing took a sudden fatal plunge.

On June 4^th 1979 somebody shot a single .22 Rim-fire round from a Ruger rifle into the back of his skull at close range and killed him.

Whoever pulled the trigger almost certainly knew Stevenson well. The lawyer had received a phone call the day before his murder and had later sobbed “I want out, I want out”. No doubt in the back of his mind Stevenson knew that he had potentially signed his own death warrant by refusing to participate any more. Derrance owned two rifles, the .22 Ruger that was used to kill him, and a far more powerful .308 caliber rifle. He had the means to protect himself if he needed to. Whoever murdered him was not considered a threat.

It appears that Stevenson, 44, had upset someone to the point of no return. The whole scenario was bizarre. The lawyer’s body was placed in his own freezer, the same freezer that he had stored food in such as oysters to share with clients and friends. Added to this, Stevenson’s deviant lifestyle and habits became partly known as a result of the investigation into his murder. It was subsequently discovered that the lawyer accepted a variety of non cash payment methods for his services including jewelry, opals, marijuana …..and boys.

Two of the key witnesses questioned by police over the murder were 19 year old David Szach, the long term boyfriend of Stevenson and a 33 year old fitter and turner turned chiropractor, Gino Gambardella. Szach was eventually charged and convicted for the murder but it was Gambardella who epitomized the goings on at the Stevenson home.

Gambardella had been charged three times since 1968 with sexual offences against young males and had been represented in court by Stevenson on Thursday the 1^st June 1979 for his latest set of sex charges. Gambardella was probably more aligned with the ‘scout’ type of procurement of young males but was well known to the other people who frequented the Stevenson home after dark. David Szach was a sixteen year old when Gambardella picked him up and brought him to Stevenson’s home in 1976.

Gambardella’s original statement to police had been pretty basic concerning his relationship with Stevenson and the sexual relationship between Stevenson and David Szach. He wasn’t over glowing toward David but had appeared to give a reasonably believable statement.

However he amended his statement soon after and basically ‘tipped it’ on David Szach. In his revised statement he claimed that David had made threats during an argument and was only using Stevenson for his money. In an even stranger twist, Gambardella claimed that David had confided in him that Stevenson had once told him to freeze a body if he ever murdered someone.

Despite being an unreliable witness, Gambardella’s new statement gave the police the confidence that they had their man. In a decision rightfully seen as flawed today, David Szach was found guilty of murder and served 13 years in prison. During the 1980 trial, forensic pathologist Dr Colin Manock gave evidence regarding Stevenson’s time of death. This ‘flawed’ evidence was crucial to the prosecution in securing a conviction against young Szach. Manock showed the court that David Szach was ‘likely’ present at the location when Stevenson was murdered. However experts in the field which specializes in establishing time of death in murder cases (of which Manock was not) have placed serious doubt on the testimony given by Dr Manock and the reason behind it.

Interestingly, the bearded ‘unqualified’ Manock who was imported from Great Britain to assume the position as South Australia’s top pathologist had far less input into evidence on any of the other Family murders. Most of these would be handled by fellow pathologist Ross James.

Regardless, David was convicted and Gambardella, who had transferred the home that he shared with his wife into his name alone one week before Stevenson’s murder, never faced court again despite still having serious indecent assault charges pending against him. He would sell his home on February 2nd 1980 and flee to Italy with his children, leaving his wife behind.

The wheels of the first version of the Family nearly fell off with the murder of Stevenson. Something had been suggested or planned that even Stevenson himself couldn’t stomach. Rumors suggested that there had been a stern request for Stevenson to supply his young lover David Szach as a victim for a violent porn film, or possibly even a snuff movie to be shot in the near future, and Stevenson had refused. Whatever he had refused, it had cost him his life.

Convicted pedophile Ric Marshall once bragged to one of his young victims that he obtained a violent film depicting a boy in a forest from Derrance Stevenson. Mrs Mary Gambardella, the estranged wife of Gino later named a man who had allegedly taken possession of the snuff films that had been stored at the Stevenson home. The man we will refer to as ‘Peter’ had been somewhat of a henchman for the earlier version of The Family and had somehow ended up with the very films that brought about Derrance Stevenson’s demise.

Stevenson’s murder caused a scattering of the tightly knit group, but it did not stop the offending. In fact, it sent out a ‘Mafia’ type of message to all who were either directly or indirectly involved and the message was clear. There was no other way out of The Family. Unlike the Mafia however, there was no clear ‘king pin’, no Godfather, just a growing group of individuals from various walks of life who by their like-mindedness and subsequent associations, held not only their own secrets but each others, and dark secrets they were indeed.

Married men, often with children and grandchildren of their own, members of the judiciary, the police force, the medical profession, parliamentarians, these were the men who stood to lose everything if their secrets were exposed. These were men of standing and authority, of power and of influence in the community. Closet homosexuals, closet pedophiles and some were even closet cross dressers.

For the lower middle class associates, Stevenson’s demise did little to slow their deviant appetites or their sordid activities. One such person was Bevan Spencer von Einem. Bevan had formed a close relationship with the person we will continue to refer to as the ‘Businessman’ as has been done for decades due to suppression orders.

Similar parties and gatherings took place at the Businessman’s eastern suburbs home as did at the Stevenson home. The guest list was not dissimilar and there was never a shortage of boys or young men hovering around the pool. It is believed that von Einem took his own young guests to the Businessman’s home on more than one occasion, though they were neither consenting nor fully conscious. Some were not conscious at all.

The abuse of boys by this ‘side group’ had been going on for years before the Stevenson murder. Rewind back to 1971 there was a failed abduction of a teenage boy named Bradley from Childers Street, North Adelaide. The assailant chased the boy down the middle of the street threatening to kill him the whole time. The boy escaped and reported the incident to the local police. The scene was eerily similar to the abduction and murder of young Richard Kelvin in North Adelaide 12 years later, for which Derrance Stevenson’s former lover – accountant Bevan Spencer von Einem, was convicted.

Eight years after the failed abduction and 20 days after the Stevenson murder, 17 year old Alan Barnes’s body was found under a bridge near Williamstown. A new less disciplined but no less deadly group had emerged. None of the bodies of the countless boys who were used in films over 20 years had ever been found but in the space of less than three weeks it all changed.

Over the next four years police would accumulate information from the homosexual community and as a result of that information would interview the men who were touted as being of ‘suspect character’. In other words, they were thought to be abusers or procurers of boys and young men.

Of those interviewed there were no less than seven legal professionals, two prominent politicians, a doctor, a known drug dealer and accountant Bevan Spencer von Einem amongst others.

Not included on this list are Derrance Stevenson and Gino Gambardella due to the murder of Stevenson in 1979 and the absconding of Gambardella to Italy in 1980.

Another list was soon gathered which was specific to investigations into the 1983 abduction and murder of 15 year old Richard Kelvin. Once again, Bevan Spencer von Einem was on the list. Others included were the Businessman and his boyfriend, a transvestite, two Doctors and a hairdresser.

Most from both lists were known to each other and associated with each other. The police had compiled two basic lists for two different reasons, but the commonalty and familiarity was evident. Although far from a full list, it was a snapshot of the early 1980s and was derived from credible sources. The common names bind the two groups together. It is these and many more associations that prompted Detective Trevor Kipling to refer to them as “one big happy family” in 1988.