Читать книгу The Family Murders - Greg McInerny - Страница 4

The Spook, the Preacher and the Champ.

Alan Arthur Barnes was born in Adelaide on the 21^st June 1962. He grew up as the son of Judith and John Barnes. Alan was one of seven children in the household and was raised firstly in the area of Kilburn South Australia, attending Kilburn Primary School.

When his parents sold their Le Hunte Avenue home and moved to Salisbury, a northern suburb of Adelaide, Alan attended Salisbury Primary School. Alan was described by his mother as a lad who loved to joke about anything and everything and was the most placid of her children. Alan’s easy going and fun loving personality made him popular and well-liked by many.

His father John Barnes worked as a cook at the local air base and Mrs Barnes tended to every day the needs of their large family. They were distinctly working class people living in a typical blue collar area. While the more affluent areas worried about keeping up with trends, the Barnes family concerned themselves with supplying love, food, shelter, clothing and a warm bed for up to 9 people. Anything else was a bonus.

Alan attended Salisbury High School and as with most children of that era he spent most of his time out and about where he found adventure and friends. Over the years the list of friends changed but by his mid teens he had a solid group of mates. Before long the boys had given each other nicknames.

Alan’s mother Judy Barnes recalled the names of the lads and their nicknames. Her son Alan was the Spook, Steve was the Preacher and Simon was the Champ. Alan’s name came about due to his light blonde hair and pale skin. As he grew into his teens, these features along with his overall good looks made Alan very popular with females and males alike. Girls were attracted to him and boys wanted to hang out with him.

The lads would hang mainly in their local area but as they got older they would sometimes catch the train into town and hang out around the paddle boats at the River Torrens. Preacher recalled how they would ‘stir up’ people as they strolled by. Other times they would venture up onto North Terrace and purchase a bottle of Port from the Strathmore Hotel just to liven the entertainment.

Other mates who hung around at this stage included ‘Shadow’ and ‘Bowsey’. The latter would become closer to Alan as circumstances in his life began to change in early to mid- 1979. Bowsey would in turn introduce Alan to a stranger who would change his life forever, and that stranger was Darko Kastelan.

Darko lived on Torrens Road at Cheltenham on the western side of Adelaide. He had a very desirable possession as far as teenagers went in those days, a car. Bowsey had met Darko in early 1979 and soon introduced him to his friend Alan. This caused somewhat of a division of the Salisbury crew as not all of Alan’s mates were impressed by Darko or his car.

For all intents and purposes Alan Barnes liked his new friend, even though Preacher had noticed that they didn’t talk much. Having a car meant that both Alan and Bowsey’s world had suddenly expanded beyond Salisbury and the train line into the city. Alan had already worked a full year as an offsider on a Coke truck which delivered its products to customers throughout the metropolitan area.

Part of Alan’s job was to collect money from the machines or the relevant people at the businesses that they serviced. His boss Terry would restock the machines and fridges. One of those businesses that they attended was Pipelines of Australia located at Regency Park.

The person who would oversee the payment and restocking of the coke machine at Pipelines was company accountant and paymaster Bevan Spencer von Einem. Over the 14 month period that Alan worked on the coke truck it is highly likely that he caught the eye of predator well before the world would know who he was.

After leaving school in 1977 Alan hadn’t yet built up his hours to full time and this gave him free days to visit his mate Preacher. Preacher had fallen on hard times at one point after losing his job at Gitshams Transport and was homeless. He now spent his days and nights hanging out and sleeping at the River Torrens, the very place that the boys would previously gather just for fun. Whenever he could, Alan would take food down to his unfortunate friend but ultimately the Barnes family would take young Preacher in and give him a place to call home.

The two had met a year or so earlier when Alan had gone to a function at the Globe Derby Trotting track where Preacher worked as a tray boy. The two became mates very quickly.

As with all relationships however things change over time. The two mates had once crawled home on the footpath together after drinking too much one night. Mr Barnes found Alan asleep in the toilet. Both boy’s knees were skun through their jeans as a result of crawling a long distance. In early 1979 Preacher had met a young lady called Bronwyn, and they fell in love. The two quickly began to see more and more of each other and for the first time since meeting, the two mates were no longer each other’s top priority.

Further to this, his other friend ‘Champ’ had moved to the country and suddenly Alan was seeing less or nothing of his best friend and nothing of his next best friend. Alan seemed a little defiant at this time, his mate Preacher later recalling how at one stage Alan had dyed his hair green and had also put 7 earrings into one ear. Nothing in this day and age, but in 1979 this was considered a highly unusual thing for a male to do, even a young male.

At around the same time another occurrence had turned Alan’s life upside down and may have had a bearing on his mental state. In early 1979 Alan was charged with rape, a charge he vehemently denied. With this weighing on his mind and his contact with Preacher lessening, Alan was certainly feeling a little lost but he still had his girlfriend Lisa who lived at Elizabeth Downs, just a short bus ride from Salisbury.

Long time friend Bowsey became more prominent in Spooks life at this stage and with other friends they frequented hotels including the Inglewood Hotel in the inner Adelaide Hills. It was at this hotel in February 1979 where the alleged rape took place.

On the night in question whilst drinking at a table with Lisa, Bowsey, Preacher and other friends, Alan was approached by two men who asked to speak with him outside. A few minutes later he walked back inside, sat down and told Bowsey and Lisa that he had just been accused by the men of sexually assaulting a woman. The sixteen year old pointed the woman out to his friends and denied that it was anything but consensual.

The police were contacted and after being given the wrong nickname by the alleged victim, they arrested Preacher instead of Spook. Alan’s best mate Preacher spent a while in the cells until the names were sorted out and he was released.

Details are sketchy but it appears that one day in early 1979 the alleged victim had been singing at the Inn and at some stage Alan and the woman had a sexual encounter in a vehicle somewhere in the car park, but as far as Alan was concerned it was consensual. He was shocked to hear that he had been accused of rape and always denied the charge.

By May 1979 Lisa had broken up with him and at just 16 years and 11 months of age, it appeared that Alan Barnes had already lived an adventurous life. Added to this, both Preacher and Lisa had openly displayed their disdain for his new friend Darko Kastelan.

Lisa felt that Darko was ‘up himself’ so to speak, especially after she had witnessed an angry reaction from him when he was turned down by a female friend. Preacher thought that he was too tight with money and felt that he was strangely effeminate. Added to this but unknown to the others was that Bowsey had recently had a very unpleasant experience when driving into the city with Darko in the weeks leading up to Alan’s murder.

On their way up Torrens Road heading toward the city Darko swung right onto South Road and stopped at a Chiropractic Clinic. They were greeted by an Italian man named Gino Gambardella who seemed to be expecting them. Confusion reigned when Bowsey, a skinny red headed 15 year old boy, ended up witnessing what looked like ‘mutual masturbation’ taking place between Darko and Gambardella.

Despite being assured that the scene was just ‘mucking around’, Bowsey ran for his life. He felt that he had been set up and wanted nothing to do with it. Things were becoming strange within the group of friends and relationships were already deteriorating, however in mid- June 1979 everything went from bad to worse. Bowsey later came to the cold conclusion that he had been lured to take part in some sort of sex film but his failure to comply may have turned their attention to Alan.

On the 15^th June 1979 Alan Barnes left his home in Hoyle Court Salisbury in the company of Darko Kastelan. Preacher and Alan sat in Darko’s car outside the Barnes house when Alan had told him of a party that was happening that night.

Preacher declined, knowing Darko was going along too. He talked with Alan for a while longer then left. Mrs Barnes got the Kastelan home phone number from Darko and the pair drove away. Mrs Barnes never saw her son again.

Alan walked out wearing a maroon jacket with stripes on the sleeves, a light blue body shirt, light coloured dress pants and brown RM Williams boots. He was wearing the same clothes when his body was found 9 days later.

Exactly what went on over the next 8 days is only partly known. According to Darko, he and Alan went out on the Friday night. They spent part of the night at the Old Lion Hotel in North Adelaide. Towards the end of the night Darko’s car was defected by the police just after they turned onto Melbourne Street, only a short distance from the pub.

With two girls in the car, the boys rang Darko’s brother for a tow. The girls rang for a taxi and the boys made their way back to Darko’s home in the towed car.

The following day the boys visited two girls at a home near Darko’s house. Later the boys hitched a ride to North Adelaide and went to the Old Lion Hotel once again. At the end of the evening they hitched a ride back to Darko’s again where they both stayed for the remainder of the night.

They woke up around midday and had some breakfast, then decided to hitch a ride to Alan’s house at Salisbury to finish the weekend. They caught a lift only part way with Darko’s brother who dropped them off near the corner of Addison Road and Grand Junction Road.

After walking approximately 2.5 kilometres the pair parted company. Darko turned around to walk home and Alan continued to hitchhike in the hope of getting a lift. A short distance up the road near the Mansfield Park Hotel, Alan was seen running to a car that had pulled over and had its rear passenger door open. The car was described as a white 1972 HQ Holden sedan.

The person who claimed to have witnessed this was a man known as Fehim. He stated he had noticed Alan hitching and recognized him as a lad he had recently met through Darko Kastelan. Fehim observed Alan in his rear view mirror whilst stationary on Grand Junction Road waiting to turn right in heavy traffic near the Mansfield Park Hotel. He said that he assumed that Alan had found a lift.

When Alan had not returned home on Monday the 18^th June Mr and Mrs Barnes contacted police to report their son missing. The police felt that Alan was probably just at a mate’s or girlfriend’s house, the old ‘boys will be boys’ type of attitude. However, knowing her boy better than that Mrs Barnes contacted a private investigator during the week in an attempt to locate her son. Police would not contact the Barnes family again until Friday the 22^nd June when an officer called to their home to gather more information.

Sadly, Alan’s mother’s fears that something more sinister had happened would soon be realized.

Alan’s body was found under a bridge 3 km out of Williamstown on the road to Kersbrook on Sunday the 24^th June 1979. He had been thrown from the bridge on the Saturday but pathology reports determined that he had been murdered on Friday the 22^nd June - the day that police had called to his home, five days after he went missing and just one day after his 17^th birthday.

Pathology reports determined that Alan’s death occurred due to a blunt instrument such as a ‘pick axe’ brand beer bottle being violently and suddenly forced into his anus which resulted in the rupture of blood vessels and tissue, causing massive blood loss and shock. There were also signs of beating and torture, and one of his eyelids was bloodshot as a result of a forceful hit just prior to death.

Urine, liver, bile and blood tests were undertaken on the 25^th June 1979 and on the 3^rd of July the results were reported. They showed that Alan had consumed alcohol with his blood alcohol level being a hefty .19 milligrams per litre of blood. At this stage only a basic test had been undertaken with only ‘overdose’ levels of other drugs being screened for. Later tests conducted in mid 1983 would show a higher than therapeutic level of Chloral Hydrate which along with alcohol would have had a heavy sedative effect on Alan.

While Mr John Barnes attended the city morgue to perform the heartbreaking duty of identifying his son, Mrs Barnes waited at home. She knew that the lad found under the bridge was Alan, she had told the police to look on the underside of his watch where she and John had arranged to have a birthday message engraved.

Mrs Barnes had spent the last week sleeping on the sofa in the lounge room in case the phone rang or Alan came home. Alan would have to walk through the lounge room if he entered the house and his mother wanted to be there when he did, but that day would never come.

On Tuesday the 26^th June 1979 a 23 year old man walked into SA Police headquarters and spoke with a detective regarding Alan’s murder. He had seen the newspaper article about the murder and had recognized the victim. He told Detective Kappe that he believed his friend Bevan Spencer von Einem should be looked at in regard to the murder of 17 year old Alan ‘Spook’ Barnes.

The man who years later would be known as Mr B also gave details about a yellow mustard Valiant car used by von Einem to pick up and drug boys for sex, and that the boys were then used in sex films at von Einem’s ‘house’. Mr B noted however that the detective smirked at times during the interview, especially when he mentioned the filming. Feeling both uneasy and disbelieved, he left before really telling all that he knew.

Police had their first real lead, but chose to dismiss it. They believed that revenge had been the motive for Alan’s murder and began their search for ‘Bruce’, the boyfriend of the alleged rape victim – the singer from the hotel.

Mr B later claimed he had spoken to Bevan von Einem on the day that Alan’s body was found, and that von Einem had threatened to implicate him in the murder if he spoke to police.

Mr B had witnessed far more than he had let on, but the alleged warning from von Einem and dismissal by police put him off. Regardless, police had a name, an area, a car, a modus operandi and therefore their first lead.

Police had initially thought it suspicious that ‘Bruce’, the boyfriend of the alleged rape victim, had gone interstate. However, it had been five months since the alleged rape occurred and this should have suggested to police that it would be an extremely delayed reaction if Alan’s murder was in fact a ‘revenge’ killing.

Another theory was that Bruce had taken off due to the breakdown of the relationship with the young lady involved. It was suggested during legal argument and evidence in 1990 that on the night that Alan was confronted at the Inglewood Inn, he may have convinced Bruce that the assault did not take place as claimed.

This theory was later backed up by Bowsey who claimed to have witnessed a teary admission of Alan’s innocence to Mrs Barnes by the alleged rape victim.

Alan had been drugged, bashed and murdered in what would have been a violent and bloody scene. Yet when Alan’s body was located police discovered that he had been washed, redressed and dumped with not a single piece of usable evidence on or around his body. This was hardly the work of a jealous young boyfriend.

At this stage there was just the one credible and detailed lead but the police had dismissed it. Mr B had given the police details of a possible killer but for one reason or other the police failed to interview Bevan Spencer von Einem until Sunday the 2^nd September 1979. By this time 68 days had passed and with it, any reasonable chance of solving the case.

Mr B had referred to a house that von Einem had taken the drugged boys to for sex. Mr B stated he had only ever been there at night after invariably consuming alcohol and drugs, but was still able to give enough information for police to check into. It was in fact a flat rather than a house, but the specific details of Mr B’s allegations were the important facts. Tragically this seemed to be lost on investigators at the time and it would be 4 years before they would contact him again.

Bevan von Einem was eventually interviewed by Detectives Hunter and Anderson at his unit located just off Lower North East Rd in Campbelltown, just a stone’s throw from the area’s busy main shopping center. He lived at the 2 bedroom unit with his 70 year old mother after spending 5 years ‘real estate roaming’ after the death of his father in 1972. This was the fourth home that Thora (his mother) and Bevan von Einem had purchased in that time.

The detectives talked to him at the front door, in his bedroom and in the carport which was located at the side of the end unit. Von Einem denied any involvement in the murder of Alan Barnes and also denied owning or having access to a cream Valiant station wagon. He also denied drugging and taking boys to a ‘house’ in Campbelltown, the police not realizing that they were actually questioning him at the said ‘house’ that Mr B referred to.

Strangely, despite police making their line of questioning very clear, von Einem took the opportunity to offer an explanation about his involvement with a completely different murder victim. The police had in their grasp someone who had been implicated as a suspect in the murder of Alan Barnes, who was now telling them how he was in the company of another murder victim, Neil Muir, less than two days before he was murdered. Von Einem then went on to tell detectives that he thought that they had contacted him for that reason.

He said that he had been in the company of Neil and friend Sarah at different hotels in or near the city on the night of the 25^th August and possibly in the early hours of the 26^th . Whether this was a ploy to throw police off their mark or an attempt to justify having any evidence on him or in his car, or both, is unknown.

Neil Muir had been murdered on the night of Monday August 27^th 1979. He had died from an almost identical anal injury to that which had ended the life of Alan ‘Spook’ Barnes. The obvious difference between the murders was that Neil’s body had been dismembered after death.

Neil’s remains were thrown into the Port River water which was pertinent given that Alan’s body was also thrown into what was thought to be a body of water. However it was and still is believed that the killers had missed their mark and had unknowingly thrown Alan’s body onto the damp soil. No doubt they would have realised their mistake in the darkness by the sound made when Alan’s lifeless body hit the ground.

Media callously photographed what appeared to be Alan's lifeless body.

Regardless, it appeared that the detectives thought nothing of the fact that a person who was implicated in one murder had placed himself in the company of another murder victim less than two days before he had died from the same unique and brutal injury.

It had taken 68 days for detectives to interview von Einem regarding Alan Barnes yet the very next day on the 3^rd September, Detective Leigh Haddon would interview his number one suspect in the murder of Neil Muir just 5 days after receiving information in a similar fashion.

Years later under questioning from Marie Shaw QC, Detective Hunter would admit that, to his knowledge, there had been no follow up inquiries conducted at all regarding the interview with von Einem or the information supplied by Mr B. Not so much as a vehicle ownership check was done according to Hunter. He did however pass on the information regarding Neil Muir to Detective Leigh Haddon who was headed that later investigation.

In regards to Alan Barnes, it appeared that the police did little more than casually question von Einem at his home. They simply took von Einem’s word for everything. They failed to do a vehicle registration check or check at his place of employment to see if anybody had seen him with a Valiant car, or if anyone owned one and had loaned it to him.

History shows that if the police had taken Mr B’s information more seriously, instead of so readily dismissing him, they may have uncovered von Einem’s deviant activities in the beginning.

Had police interviewed von Einem earlier, or even followed the leads and initiate a line of inquiry, they would have discovered a myriad of information that would further implicate him including witnesses recalling a Valiant Wagon, and that von Einem also had access to his employer’s company car which was a Holden Kingswood Sedan.

Sadly, it took another murder to occur before police began to realize how relevant and important Mr B’s information was.

There would be a change in tact under the direction of Detective Trevor Kipling in 1983. ‘Bruce’ was finally located and dismissed as a suspect and the evidence of Mr B would be paramount to not only the murder of Alan Barnes but of two other victims - Richard Kelvin and Mark Langley.

As of September 2nd 1979 the investigation into the murder of Alan Barnes had come to a stalemate. The theory about ‘Bruce’ had replaced all other theories and the murder of Neil Muir took priority while Mr B’s information sat dormant.

The saddest part of the whole situation is that not only did SA Police appear to be blinkered on proving the ‘Bruce’ theory; they also appeared to have pushed harder to convict Alan for a rape charge than they did to convict anybody of his own murder. Alan was listed to appear in the Supreme Court on July 2nd 1979, ten days after his murder. If he had survived he would have been 17 years and 12 days old on the day of the hearing.

Meanwhile, 33 year old Gino Gambardella who had been a suspect in the murder of Derrance Stevenson and was also still facing 2 counts of sexual assault, his third set of charges in 11 years, was never to be listed again. He would leave Adelaide and Australia forever, soon after selling his Vine St home in February 1980. He also vacated a rental property on South Rd Ridleyton shortly before.

Gambardella had transferred the family home from him and his wife’s name into his name alone on the 28^th May 1979, just one week before the murder of Derrance Stevenson. It seemed that he was preparing for something and needed to take control of his finances.

Two and a half years after Alan Barnes’s murder police again received information implicating Bevan Spencer von Einem in another murder, that of Mark Langley. The caller told police that he was worried about how Bevan Spencer von Einem treated boys he picked up at beats and on the street.

The caller also named another man, a butcher, as a person who behaved similarly. The police reacted quickly and immediately sought to interview the less prepared suspect. Instead of simply denying everything, von Einem was taken a little by surprise and told police that he had been in the immediate area where Mark was last seen on the morning he disappeared.

He also gave a particular time which all but fitted the period established for Mark’s disappearance. A cynic might think that he was admitting to this to cover himself. He would not have known whether the information included a registration number or other identifying description that could incriminate him hence the ‘open’ admission.

Whatever was or wasn’t said in the interview, the police delved far deeper than they did when they received their information about the murder of Alan Barnes. This time they could smell a rat, and a putrid smell it was. It is a shameful pity that the same didn’t occur after June 26^th 1979.