Having achieved his objective by finding out that the number provided by the exchange was correct, and that he just needed to wait for it to be connected, Stephen left the block of flats and returned to his car, proud of himself for having taken this first, important step in the plan that was going to change his and Magda’s fortunes forever. He thought to himself how easy it had been to induce Freda to give him the information he required. It never ceased to amaze him how readily people accepted the lies he delivered to them in a confident and easygoing manner. He was pleased that he had been able to overcome his initial jitters, and carry out this step with confidence and aplomb. Then again, not many people had his ability to deliver lines without a trace of doubt or hesitation.
Stephen knew that he now needed to wait a sufficient time to allow the memory of his visit to fade in Freda and Bazil’s minds, and also for the telephone installed at Edward Street to be connected. It would be easy to determine when the latter occurred by simply dialling the number every few days. If someone answered, there was no need for him to speak, and he would know that the lines of communication were open.
* * *
Freda Thorne felt uneasy about the strange request for information from the man with a distinctly European accent who had knocked at their door at an odd hour of the night. How did he know their new telephone number when it had not yet been connected? And why had he come to their home looking for a man with such a peculiar name? What did he mean by ‘a husband-and-wife affair’? She was sure that he was up to no good – possibly he was gathering information for a person or organisation that wanted to sell them something or solicit money from them. She made a mental note to look out for him in case he ever came back to their door. She would surely recognise his accent if ever he contacted them by phone.
The next day, Freda spoke to Mrs Lord and learnt of the discrepancy between the enquiry that had been made of her and the one made of Mrs Lord. This made her even more uneasy, and she became convinced that his enquiry was not a genuine one, but a ruse of some sort. Freda expressed her concerns to Bazil, but he seemed unperturbed. Mrs Lord, however, was of a similar view to Freda that the man was on some sort of suspicious mission. They both commented on how unusual it was for a man with such a distinctive foreign accent to be knocking on doors in their area at that time of night. Mrs Lord mentioned the matter to her husband, who was the desk sergeant at the Bondi police station.
* * *
A week after his visit to the Thornes’ home, Stephen Bradley felt that enough time had passed for him to undertake the next stage of his grand plan. This required him to engage in more intensive surveillance of the Thornes – and Graeme in particular. In order to have the time to do this properly, on 21 June Stephen resigned from his position as an electroplater for poker-machine manufacturer Nutt & Muddle at Darlinghurst, telling them that he needed treatment for a slipped disc in his neck. He was not perturbed at losing his income, as he had tired of the job, and he did not plan to work after the massive injection of funds he was expecting, which would dwarf his salary as an electroplater. He did not tell Magda that he had left his job, and she asked no questions.
Over the course of the next fortnight, Stephen often awoke at around 6am and left his home at Clontarf to conduct surveillance on the Thorne family, either from the park opposite their home or the streets nearby. Stephen observed that at about 8.30 each weekday morning, Graeme – dressed in his private-school uniform and carrying his school case – would invariably leave his home on foot, turn left into Wellington Street and walk two blocks down a hill to the corner of O’Brien Street, where he would go into a corner store and buy a packet of chips. He would then sit on his school case outside the store, eat his snack and wait to be picked up – generally about ten minutes later – by a woman in a station wagon with two young boys of about the same age and in the same uniform. On one occasion, Stephen followed the station wagon and learnt that the boys were students at the Scots College in Bellevue Hill.
Another day he discovered that the woman who picked up Graeme and drove him to school lived in Cox Avenue, Bondi. Stephen thought that if he could find out the woman’s name, it might prove useful in enticing Graeme to come with him. He knew a family by the name of Teicher, who also lived in Cox Avenue, so Stephen approached Mrs Teicher and asked her if she knew the name of the woman. Mrs Teicher was suspicious of the enquiry, thinking that Bradley might have designs on the woman, and so denied any knowledge of her.
Stephen observed that Bazil’s work as a commercial traveller sometimes had him leaving the house very early, but that on other days he remained at home until late in the morning. His surveillance also revealed that Freda, like most wives of working men of her day, would spend much of her day at home when she was not shopping or doing other errands or visiting friends.
Stephen realised early in his planning that it would entail too great a risk to forcibly drag the boy into his car from a public street, and that he would instead need a ruse to entice the eight-year-old to voluntarily enter the vehicle – an easy task for a father of three children. That way, Bradley could delay the forcible part of the venture until he had driven the boy to a secluded location. After observing Graeme over many weekdays during that fortnight, Stephen initially thought that the most opportune time to approach the boy was when he was outside the corner store waiting to be picked up. However, on further reflection, he considered that this approach would necessitate speaking to him right outside the shop, where there would be an unacceptable risk of being observed or overheard by the shopkeeper or customers. He therefore decided that the safest approach was to intercept Graeme at the intersection of Wellington and Francis Streets, one block back from the store. He would park his car close to the intersection so that it would impede Graeme’s path and the boy would have to deviate around it. This would place Graeme so close to the car that Stephen could speak to him in a quiet voice that was unlikely to be overheard by anyone who happened to be nearby.
After much thought, Stephen decided that an eight-year-old was most likely to accept a story that involved only a slight change to his regular routine; he would tell Graeme that the woman who normally picked him up was sick and that he, Bradley, had been sent instead to take Graeme to school. Even if the boy had initial reservations about getting in the car, Stephen would be able to impress upon him that he had no other way of getting to school, and that his parents would be very upset with him if he didn’t arrive at school on time. He would convince Graeme of his authenticity by demonstrating his knowledge of the names of his parents, and even his sisters, and, if need be, their ages as well. He could also mention the boy’s school and where it was located. Surely all this would satisfy Graeme that Stephen could be trusted to take him to school. Once inside the car, he could then tell Graeme that they were also picking up another boy, giving Stephen time before Graeme would became alarmed that they were not driving towards his school.
By the late stages of planning, Stephen had realised that he would not be able to keep an eight-year-old boy entertained for the time required for Bazil and Freda to get the ransom money together and deliver it in accordance with his instructions. His earlier idea that the child would suffer no trauma had been replaced by the reality that a child of eight would inevitably realise at some stage that something was seriously amiss. The challenge was to delay this as long as possible. How would he keep Graeme under his control and still be able to make the phone calls? What would he do when the boy suddenly panicked upon realising that he was not being driven to school? It slowly dawned on Stephen that the plan would inevitably require some physical force and some degree of restraint. He was still determined that he would limit the trauma to the child as much as possible but, eventually, he came to the conclusion that the most merciful way to execute his plan was to quickly render the child unconscious – and to keep him in that state for the duration of his abduction, secured out of sight in the garage of his Clontarf home – so that by the time he regained consciou
sness the ordeal would be over and he would wake up safely in his parents’ arms. This plan would leave him with little or no memory of the events of the day – somewhat akin to a long, daytime sleep.
The only car in the Bradley family at that time was a cream Goggomobil sports roadster5 on which he still owed a substantial amount of money. It was small, open-roofed, stylish and rare, which meant that it constantly attracted attention. It was clearly unsuitable for inconspicuously taking a child off the street and keeping him secure until the ransom could be paid. Stephen discarded the idea of stealing a car to use in the venture, because the risk of detection of the theft was greater than the risks associated with the kidnapping.
Instead, he decided to buy a new car which would be more suited to his plan. In early July 1960, he bought on hire purchase6 an iridescent blue, 1955 Ford Customline sedan, which was much larger than the Goggomobil and was the kind of vehicle that attracted no particular attention. At a cost of around £900, the five-year-old Customline was well beyond his means, but Stephen didn’t care, because he knew that within a few weeks he would be flush with funds.
Once he had settled on the details of the kidnapping plan and called the Thornes’ home to confirm that their telephone had been connected, Stephen was overcome with a desire to urgently carry it out while he still maintained his resolve and before Bazil could spend or give away his winnings. At the same time, Stephen was seized by yet another of his frequent impulses – this time to sell his home in Clontarf, in anticipation of soon having the finances to purchase a far grander one. In order to secure Graeme during the ransom negotiations, however, Stephen needed unrestricted access to the house without Magda and the children being present. The fusion of these ideas propelled Bradley to put their Clontarf home on the market, start looking for a new one and make arrangements for the house to be vacant on the day of the kidnapping. This all took a considerable amount of time – which was facilitated by the fact that he had surrendered his position at Nutt & Muddle.
Stephen informed Magda that it would be best for them to sell their Clontarf home and move into rental accommodation for a time, so that they could find another, even better home to buy – and possibly take a holiday after vacating their home. When Magda heard this, she was alarmed at his bizarre, grandiose ideas that seemed well beyond their means. However, she knew that to defy him would threaten their harmonious marriage, so she went along with this seemingly unattainable proposal. They prepared to pack up and store all their worldly possessions, and the Clontarf property was put on the market.
It was not difficult to sell the house at Moore Street; it was in a desirable suburb, had distant water views, and a buyer was quickly found. A Mr Douglas Palmer, a company director, and his wife, Paula, agreed to buy the property for £8,800 – a profit of £800 for Stephen and Magda over the price that they had paid less than twelve month before. Stephen considered that he had done well on the transaction, although he still had substantial loans to pay off. It was less than five weeks since he had first read the newspaper article detailing the Thornes’ lottery win, and Stephen was proud that he had been able to set everything up so quickly. He believed that few others would have had the organisational skills and the determination to achieve so much in such a short time.
In the meantime, Stephen took Magda to inspect a number of impressive homes priced between £12,000 and £13,000 – amounts well beyond their means, even with a few rubbery figures to enhance a substantial loan. One such house was at 16 Grandview Grove, Seaforth – a suburb with superb views just a mile or two from their existing home in Clontarf. Stephen told one agent that he had a deal coming through very soon and that when it did he would be in a position to buy the property outright – and to pay cash. Magda could not understand why Stephen was taking her to view houses so far outside their range, because, as far as she knew, they had little equity in their existing home; but as usual she knew better than to question, let alone challenge, her husband.
Mr Palmer was anxious to finalise the purchase. Arrangements were made for the sale of the Clontarf home to be completed and possession to be handed over a week later on Saturday 9 July. Although this date placed Stephen under intense time pressure if he was going to use their Clontarf home as a staging post for the kidnapping, he readily agreed to this hurried completion of the sale, believing that it was yet another challenge to his ingenuity and resolve. It also meant that Bazil Thorne had less time to spend or otherwise dissipate his winnings. There were now two reasons for Stephen to have his house cleared and his family out of the way before the following weekend.
Stephen had no qualms about his family having nowhere to go after vacating their home, because he relished the idea of sending Magda and the children on a holiday away from Sydney, thus giving him access to the property on the day of the kidnapping. He planned to join them several days later and joyfully announce that they were all going on a grand overseas holiday. He would tell Magda that he had done a business deal – too complex to explain – that had netted him an unexpected windfall. On their return, he and Magda would purchase a magnificent new home befitting their enhanced financial status. Stephen arranged for a firm of removalists to arrive at their home between 10 and 11am on Thursday 7 July to collect the family’s possessions. He planned to convince Magda and the children to depart on their holiday that same day. This would leave the following day – Friday the 8th – clear to accomplish the kidnapping. However, Stephen and Magda still faced the prospect of packing up their worldly possessions, so that removalists could pick them up and store them.
Stephen arranged for the removalists to store the larger items of furniture until he could find alternative accommodation, while some valuable paintings were given for safekeeping to their neighbours, the Telfords. Magda was concerned about where they would live, as it was obvious that there would be a gap between leaving their Clontarf home and buying a new one. Stephen had seemingly taken no steps to find rented accommodation in the meantime, but she was delighted when he told her that on vacating their home they would drive to a holiday resort at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast of Queensland, six hundred miles north of a cold Sydney winter. She was sure that when they returned Stephen would find suitable rental accommodation until they found another house to buy. But first, there was the enormous task of packing up all of their household goods.
As the day for the removal approached, it suddenly occurred to Stephen that he had unnecessarily limited the execution of his kidnapping plan to a single day – the following Friday. He contemplated that if, for some reason, Graeme did not go to school that day, or did not follow his usual route to the shop in Wellington Street, or if there was someone in Wellington Street near Graeme who knew him, the whole plan would have to be indefinitely postponed and completely reformulated. He decided to increase the odds by giving himself two chances to carry out his plan – the first on Thursday, thereby leaving Friday in reserve. However, this change required Stephen to convince Magda to leave the house with the children late on Wednesday, or at the latest early on Thursday morning. Stephen had already invested a great deal of time and thought into his plan, and there was now no possibility of abandoning it. In his mind, the money was almost within his grasp, and no one was going to stand in his way of getting it – not even Magda.
As Magda feverishly packed up their household goods in the days before their move – a tedious task that she had dutifully performed on too many occasions – what sustained her mood was the knowledge that she and her family would soon leave on a driving holiday to Surfers Paradise. The plan was that they would drive north in the Ford Customline, taking their cat and dog with them. However, late on the evening before the removalists were due, when Stephen and Magda had completed much of their packing and were desperately tired, without any warning or discussion, Stephen announced that Magda and the children would fly to Queensland the following morning without him, and that he would join them in the Customline a day or two later, after supervising the removalis
ts on his own.
Magda was livid – not just at the sudden and unilateral nature of the decision, but also that these new arrangements would mean that she would be absent when the removalists came to collect their possessions. She immediately objected to this change of plans, arguing that the flights would cost them money they could ill afford. Magda was also angry that the new plan meant that she would be on her own with the children in Queensland for the first few days of their holiday. This was not what she had had in mind. More than anything, Magda had been looking forward to the leisurely drive to Queensland, and she was resentful that Stephen wanted to deprive her of this chance to relax after the ordeal of packing up their property.
As a result, the two of them had a furious row. Stephen, however, remained adamant that she and the children would leave by plane as early as possible the following morning. He phoned the airline and booked tickets on the first available flight to Coolangatta, which was due to depart at 11.35 the following morning – Thursday 7 July. He then rang their favourite hotel in Surfers Paradise, the Seabreeze Private Hotel, and made a booking for one room for Magda and the children. Magda was mystified that during this call he made no mention of the fact that he would be arriving a few days later, in which case they would require two rooms. Still smarting from their argument, Magda finally went to sleep at about 2am, knowing that the following morning she and the children would leave their Clontarf home forever.
* * *
On the night of 6 July, Stephen and Magda’s neighbours heard the sounds of a furious argument coming from within the Bradleys’ home. Although they could not make out the words that were being shouted, the neighbours realised that something was seriously amiss in the Bradley household.
* * *
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