by Bob O'Brien
B is a deviate just like von Einem.
This time they picked up a really young hitchhiker at about seven in the evening. B said that he was only thirteen or fourteen. Von Einem gave him cans of beer, and after a while von Einem asked if he wanted any pills, which the kid took. After about 20–30 minutes, the kid became drowsy and von Einem took him back to his unit. Von Einem’s mother was away again. This time von Einem carried him inside the unit by himself. He picked him up by placing one arm under the armpit and the other arm under his legs. He carried him inside and put him on the bed. B said that he undressed him by himself. He described his feelings about the age of the boy.
‘I got pissed off with Bevan . . . I saw how really young this guy was . . . I saw then that this boy had no pubic hair. His clothes were on the floor next to the bed but Bevan was still dressed. I saw the torch and rod on the end of the bed again.’
He was mucking around with kids — this guy was describing the actions of a person who has no morals and no concerns about his behaviour.
‘I asked Bevan to take me back to town. He did so and I think that he dropped me off at the Mars Bar. The kid was left at the flat. He was left lying on the bed undressed. I said to him going to town about how young the kid was and he said that it didn’t matter.’
‘It didn’t matter.’ What a pair these two were, I thought.
B’s comments not only clearly showed what he and von Einem got up to for entertainment, but he was also, during our lengthy conversation, mentioning quite a few other names. There was von Einem’s mate, the businessman, who drove fancy cars. There were drag queens and transsexuals, who lived in different parts of town, and who were known by von Einem. It was obvious he had a wide circle of associates including gays, lesbians, drag queens and transsexuals.
But why did B continue to remain friendly with von Einem?
‘I only used to hang around Bevan because he used to supply the grass and piss. Occasionally, he used to give me money—$40-$50. He gave me the money because I asked for it and he liked me. I was gay then but I had never had sex with Bevan.’
His comments were a revelation and confirmed other stories the police team heard over the months the investigation was going on. I pondered over his statement but after six hours I was exhausted — concentrating, conducting an interview for such a long time is mentally tiring work.
I met B again two days later and drove him around with Mark Ryan, another detective who was seconded to Major Crime. B pointed out various addresses to me — where he used to live, the beats, von Einem’s house, his old unit, several drag queens’ homes in the western suburbs and where different people von Einem knew lived.
Bevan von Einem, the plain, softly-spoken accountant, was the surprise in all of these unfolding discoveries. He appeared harmless. People thought that he was a nice guy or, even if they didn’t really like him, they still thought he was soft. During our investigation we learned that von Einem would take his mother to Tupperware parties and, even then, he would not leave her at the party but stay with the other elderly women, sitting to one side waiting for his mother, ready to take her home after the party finished.
‘What a lovely man,’ the women would say. Some of them would wish that their sons were as considerate as Bevan, but these women had not the faintest idea of the ‘other’ von Einem.
These women did not speak to people who saw him one night laying back in the front seat of his car outside the Mars Bar nightclub in Gouger Street, Adelaide. He called over people to show them the pencil he was sticking into his penis. We learned that von Einem was a mild-mannered ‘Clark Kent’. He even looked a bit like a Clark Kent-type person, but he was not a good guy in civilian clothing. Bevan Spencer von Einem was a superdeviate. If von Einem was our serial killer, then his appearance and public persona would allow him to get away with those types of crimes.
We had meetings with the Department of Public Prosecution, including Brian Martin, the Director, and his assistant, Paul Rofe. Both men were ex-footballers. Brian Martin had played for the Sturt Football Club in the South Australian National Football League while Paul Rofe had played in the amateur league. Both were tall men, intelligent and astute.
Brian had been kept informed of the potential evidence as we were finding it and several meetings were held. Forensic scientists, Bob Lokan and Sandra Mattner, were there at the meeting on Thursday, 3 November 1983. Sandra, who later married and became Sandra Young, spoke about the fibre, hair and paint that had been seized at von Einem’s home. She confirmed that the fibres found on Richard’s clothing were starting to match fibres from the von Einem home. A lot of the discussion revolved around having suitable experts giving the evidence. Bob Lokan believed that it was necessary for overseas experts to come to South Australia to check their findings. Gerry Edwards, the Superintendent in charge of Major Crime, offered to submit a report to the police commissioner requesting extra funding from Treasury to get an overseas scientist to Australia.
The forensic scientists were being cautious. They wanted to be sure of their findings and wanted to do more work, but Trevor had read the statement of B the day after I typed it, and he wasn’t going to wait any longer. He had had enough. He’d spoken to police psychologists during our investigations and they thought that our serial killers could strike again. At our meeting with the D.P.P. on Thursday, 3 November 1983 Trevor said he was going to make his move.
We drove to Paradise and parked a couple of houses away from von Einem’s house as we did a little over three months previously. We walked to the front door just as we did in July. Again we walked on the lawn to the front door — old habits die hard. We weren’t concerned about losing evidence this time. We had enough evidence. It was time to act. Trevor knocked on the front door.
No answer.
Here we were all prepared to arrest von Einem for murder after all of this time and he wasn’t home! I went down the driveway to the side fence that joined the house to the garage. The side gate was locked. I jumped over to have a look around the back yard. I started to move to the rear door as I heard Trevor yell.
‘Bob.’
I jumped the rear fence to see von Einem’s Toyota stop in the driveway of his house. He parked as he normally did, in line with the front door. His mother sat in the front left-hand seat. Von Einem got out of the driver’s seat and faced Trevor, who at first was about two metres away but then approached von Einem to be as close as a metre from him.
‘Mr von Einem, as you know this is Detective O’Brien and my name is Kipling from the Major Crime Squad. I wish to inform you that I am arresting you and that you will be charged with the murder of Richard Kelvin. I must also inform you that you are not obliged to answer any further questions and whatever you do say may be used in evidence. Do you understand that?’
Von Einem remained standing by the car and was silent for a moment before replying with a couple of words.
‘Yes, well.’ He was searching for words. Von Einem always had a story. He always had an answer. This time he struggled for words.
‘Oh, Bevan. What’s going on?’ Thora von Einem asked her son as she moved around from the passenger side of the vehicle towards the man who had just been arrested for murder. She was upset.
Von Einem stood there in his blue jeans, light-coloured shirt and brown jumper. He was not angry. He was not upset. He just stood there without displaying any emotion, probably just as he has failed to show any emotion for most of his adult life.
Trevor pointed towards the police car and the three of us moved towards it. Von Einem was placed in the rear of the police car, behind the front passenger’s seat. Trevor moved around to the rear of the car, got in and sat next to him and I hopped into the driver’s seat.
We drove in silence to the Angas Street police building. Behind the building was the old City Watch House. The watch house was a two-storey brick building with two wings — one for female prisoners and one for males. The female side was rarely occupied but the other sid
e was always busy. Often the ground floor would fill and the spillover would have to be moved to the cells upstairs. Most of the cells accommodate one person but several had two slabs of wood fastened to the wall that served as a bed and allowed for two people in a cell. Each slab of wood had an extra piece of wood attached to one end. That was the pillow. Dark grey blankets were issued for warmth. It was one of the first places I worked after I graduated from the police academy.
The padded cells were around the back of the ground floor for prisoners who were violent or were trying to hurt themselves. The padding covers the four walls of the cell while the floor is covered by linoleum with a metal plug in the middle to allow vomit, faeces and urine to be washed away. Prisoners who go into the padded cells are stripped and left in darkness. The blackness tends to calm them. If they are trying to hurt themselves, the padding covered by heavy canvas prevents any injury even if they throw themselves against it or hit their heads against it — unlike metal bars, which can cause a bit of damage. Invariably, anyone visiting the cells to see what they were like was placed in a padded cell to get the real experience of it.
We pulled into the laneway next to the police building and moved towards the City Watch House. I walked alongside von Einem with Trevor walking a couple of paces in front, striding towards the cells of the City Watch House. Trevor checked through the window to see if the charge sergeant was free. He was and Trevor opened the door and walked von Einem to the window in front of the sergeant.
‘What’s the charge?’
‘Murder,’ Trevor said.
The Watch House sergeant looked up and stared at von Einem for a second and the cell guard standing nearby quietly signalled his mate to come from the fingerprint room. The sergeant looked down at his charge book.
‘Name?’
‘Bevan von Einem,’ said the accountant.
‘Do you have a middle name?’
‘Spencer.’
‘Address?’
Von Einem gave his address at Paradise.
‘Arresting officers?’
‘Kipling and O’Brien — Major Crime Squad,’ Trevor said.
‘Place your property on the counter,’ the sergeant said to von Einem.
The prisoner emptied his pockets and placed their contents in front of the sergeant who was filling out the charge book. We searched von Einem, ensured that his pockets were empty, and counted his money in front of the sergeant. The cash and property were placed in a dirty white canvas bag with a number on it, which was then recorded in the charge book. Trevor opened von Einem’s handkerchief, saw that it was empty and returned it to him before removing his belt and shoelaces. Too many prisoners have hanged themselves over the years with items as tiny as shoelaces. It was important we didn’t lose this prisoner.
Chapter 10
The Case
We had learned a lot about von Einem from B. His statement clarified so many things that we could only suspect. By this time other boys had been found who von Einem had picked up and drugged but they couldn’t say what happened once they were out to it. B completed the picture. We now could be confident that von Einem picked up boys and drugged them and abused them with different objects.
The picking up of the hitchhiker, George, and the taking of him to Alberton where the ‘girls’ were was just one example of his activities. On that occasion he openly offered tablets to the boy but said they were No Doze. Other times von Einem would quietly put drugs into alcohol without the drinker knowing. Alcohol loosened the inhibitions of the boys so they would be more open to taking drugs, and the booze also increased the potency of the drugs. Once the boys were slipped a few Mickey Finns, von Einem could do whatever he liked. Invariably, they would have a sore bum at the end of the saga. Sometimes they would have a tear in their anus, like George, the hitchhiker.
These actions, however, didn’t show that von Einem killed boys. The boys were released from von Einem’s control and sent home. The sending of the boys home, in fact, helped prove that he wasn’t a killer — rather, the opposite. The fact that von Einem picked up boys, drugged them and abused them did not mean that he forcibly grabbed Richard Kelvin and drugged and abused him before killing him. However, history has shown that a man does not sexually abuse every woman he picks up even though he might be a serial rapist. Just in the same way, a killer does not murder every person he meets. Von Einem could fit into this situation, in which he picked up some boys, let some go, spiked the drinks of others and abused them, then let them go. However, it was possible there were a few that he did not let go. It was possible that he killed them.
The other boys could give evidence that they were picked up by a helpful stranger who they could identify as von Einem. Again, this does not prove that von Einem would forcibly drag someone into a car but the evidence against him was starting to build. With many police investigations, once the arrest occurs the case gets stronger and stronger. With von Einem it was no different.
When the employees at von Einem’s work were interviewed, all of them said that they knew or suspected he was a homosexual. Some thought he was harmless, while others thought he was a bit off, especially when he used to perv at the young men on the Coca-Cola truck who delivered drinks to the work site.
One of the employees at von Einem’s work told of an episode which clearly demonstrated just how much von Einem couldn’t help himself. The co-worker found von Einem in the warehouse one weekend. Once again he was with a young boy and they were in von Einem’s car. It was between the time he was first spoken to by us in July and before he was arrested on 3 November 1983. He was continuing to pick up young boys even though he knew the police were interested in him.
One of the female employees at Pipeline Supplies of Australia went regularly to the Mars Bar in Gouger Street and was supplied drugs by von Einem. She knew that he picked up boys. The woman told about the time that von Einem met her at one of the pie carts in the city. Pie carts are an Adelaide institution; caravans would come into the city at night to serve hot food such as pies, pasties and soup to late-night revellers. Von Einem had a boy with him. He rushed towards her and put his arm around her neck and whispered in her ear.
‘There you are. I’ve been looking for you,’ von Einem said to his work colleague. ‘Pretend you are my wife. I’ve told the kid you are my wife and I’ve been looking for you.’
One time she asked him about a boy that she helped him pick up.
‘What did you do with the lad?’
‘Oh, I just took him home and let him sleep it off.’
Then von Einem embellished his story.
‘Oh, when I got him there I hit him up in the foot because not many look for injection holes in people’s feet and then I fist fucked him and I used surgical instruments and put them up his anus.’
This information from the work colleague of von Einem occurred after I left Major Crime and, when I read her statement years later, memories came flooding back.
Injection sites. Ross James, the pathologist, thought there may have been an injection site in Richard’s arm but he couldn’t be sure. There was a suggestion of Rohypnol in Richard’s system but the forensic scientists couldn’t be sure about that either but Rohypnol, however, was one of von Einem’s drugs of choice when abusing boys. I remembered members of the team searching for snuff movies and them finding the video Fist Fuckers of America — all about placing a fist in someone’s anus.
He was also telling the woman who worked with him about placing surgical instruments up the boy’s anus and I vividly recalled B, the young deviate, drawing pictures of the torch and crochet needle he saw von Einem putting up the anus of the drugged hitchhiker.
We had the evidence of B who told about von Einem’s potential for violence when one of the drugged boys in his unit was waking up. The words were pretty blunt: ‘Bevan said that he would kill the cunt if he woke up.’ Legally, this didn’t prove von Einem was a murderer — far from it. The words were hearsay and there are strong rules of evidence t
o prevent hearsay being admitted in a criminal trial. But the words did indicate that the man had a disposition towards violence.
Von Einem denied knowing or having anything to do with Richard Kelvin when he was first interviewed on 28 July 1983. However, even with all of this information, our case was still lacking, as the disappearance of Richard Kelvin was different. He wasn’t picked up like the others — in the sense that he went voluntarily. He was abducted.
We knew Richard was abducted because on the Tuesday after he went missing we found our first witness saying that he heard cries for help and a car speeding away. Since that time we had found other witnesses who heard Richard’s abduction, with its loud noises, the crying out and car doors banging before the car sped away. The witnesses varied in their stories and that was not unusual. People see and hear things differently but from what they told us we knew that at least two and possibly as many as four people abducted Richard. Also, a high-pitched voice was heard by one of the witnesses — that high-pitched voice could have been a woman’s voice. We now suspected that von Einem used women or transvestites to pick up boys, so one of his female associates could have been involved. So, we had a group of abductors with a woman or a transvestite possibly being involved.
But what actually happened on this occasion? What caused Richard to be snatched in such a savage way when other boys had been wooed so calmly and easily. More than likely the mix of people who were involved was different from usual and that combination caused them to act differently. We knew that von Einem had a beat, which involved driving between the city and Scotty’s Motel looking for hitchhikers. He would do this alone or with another person. We knew that von Einem and B would pick up hitchhikers and offer them drugs or spike their drinks. We also believed von Einem used transsexuals and transvestites. A man and a woman in a car would be less threatening to hitchhikers than two men in a car.