The Beat: A True Account of the Bondi Gay Murders

by I. J. Fenn

  French: Ian Tonkies and…

  Howard: Yeah. That was stupid that, putting that on us … I didn’t even have him for a teacher.

  French: I didn’t even know where he lived.

  Howard: I was on the outside when they come and questioned me. Had two lawyers with me at South Redfern Police Station … Name, address, phone number, age, date of birth, straight out … Christ, I’m goin’, wow, I gotta do this more often – ’cause I remember when I first got picked up I stayed in there for ages.

  French: I was up at the station for hours, man. When first, when they brought Alex’s friend in to me … now I know what he was talkin’ about. Some friend … Chucked Alex’s statement in front of me. Fuck. Ring up the lawyer.

  Howard: They came out and seen me. I told ’em to get fucked. I had a little fax from me lawyer saying, all he said, all you have to do is hand that to ’em and that explains everything. I didn’t even say anything. Fuck that.

  French: I was set up. I was taken to Yasma to get interviewed for all those other ones as well.

  Howard: Which ones?

  French: The other five that haven’t been solved … Tonksies, two at Bondi, the one Allan murdered [sic] and another one.

  Howard: Two at Bondi?

  French: Yeah, on the walkway. There’s been two there.

  Howard: I don’t know about that one. Spun me out. I thought, Fuck, they’re trying to just do, throwing everything at us.

  French: I got interviewed for the lot of ’em, mate.

  Howard: Did ya? We didn’t do anything, but … The one at Alexandria Park? … How much you know about that? I know a fair bit.

  French: Yeah? I only know what I heard from some of the boys around, unreal.

  Howard: The cops … they’re mainly after that Allen bloke, eh? ’Cause we, we done the same place.

  French: … Man. I reckon there’s a few of those, few other ones that we gotta hide, too, man.

  Howard: Yeah? You know which ones?

  French: I reckon, well … at Bondi.

  Howard: What happened?

  French: Smashed a guy, mate. There was me, Woolem, Sharkhead, someone. Police have brought someone in with his skateboard … tossed him off a cliff … only small, about five, five or six foot … tossed him off. Oh, mate. Took his car keys, tossed right out on the point, tossed his keys.

  Howard: You did?

  French: Tossed ’em out into the ocean.

  Howard: Did he get up and move away?

  French: Oh, man. We left. Did you go … when we went out to do the bike store at Centennial?

  Howard: No … I was going to but I had an arrangement … going for a smoke with one of my mates … what happened?

  French: We got there. We got the shutter up. Oh, we heard sirens. Just flew straight past and didn’t come back or nothing and we took off and hid in Centennial Park for about 10 minutes. We went back around. We were gonna get the bikes then. There was me an’ Lumpy, I think Bentley and … passing the bikes out and one stuck. Coppers came from everywhere in the end and then Bentley hid in that funny little swamp in there, was hiding there for about four hours, man. Came out just all mud and wet, soaking, mate.

  Howard: I’m gonna get heaps pissed when I get out of here, have the biggest party.

  French: I think I’ll be partying for the next four years, mate. When I get out.

  Howard: Oh, you have to do that probation, too … That’s what I’m gonna have to do as well. Coupla years. Alex had to do eight years probation.

  French: Eight years, man.

  Howard: Same as Ron Morgan.

  French: That’s fuck.

  Howard: Brad had to do three … got five years … with three probation.

  French: That’s the hard part, eh?

  Howard: Yeah, but he got manslaughter. The jury took about heaps, about 13 hours on me ’cause they didn’t know my intentions. But it didn’t matter. It’s over and forgotten with now. If ya done the crime, do the time. I hold no grudges. We all done the crime … But it spun me out when you … It doesn’t matter. I woulda done the same thing if I was gonna get a reduction in sentence.

  French: I didn’t get a reduction.

  Howard: Didn’t ya?

  French: No, I pleaded. I already pleaded guilty and I was sentenced and done with. They came down and they said, you got a brief of evidence … ’cause you already give evidence for yourself in court, you can be called in for a Crown witness … That’s what they told me, mate. I didn’t know…

  Later.

  Howard: Brad’s spewin’ about fuckin’ Ronny Morgan.

  French: Why?

  Howard: ’Cause things Ronny Morgan writ in his statement. Fuck.

  French: I said heaps of different shit in my statement, eh?

  Howard: That doesn’t bother me. It’s water under the bridge now. I couldn’t believe it when you come up. Fuck. One of the boys.

  French: I started spewin’, mate.

  Howard: You was? I got a good case to go for the appeal, anyway.

  French: I don’t reckon you’ll do as long as Morgan.

  Howard: Oh, maybe seven, eight years.

  French: I don’t reckon you’ll do that. What charges they got on you?

  Howard: Murder.

  French: You’re doin’ murder?

  Howard: So, it’s somewhere between five years and 10 years, it is. Ten’s the maximum. Five’s the minimum. Just wait and see what happens … Not really worried. I will be on the night. Should have seen Alex, Alex’s face when the fuckin’ judge said 18 years … Alex thought he had to do 18 years. Brad’s not appealing. He’s happy with five years … I’ll be happy if I get five years as well.

  French: That’s why I didn’t appeal, mate. ’Cause when I heard [the others’ sentences] I got four-and-a-half, sweet. See youse later … He fucked himself up, Morgan. He had the chance to plead, take a plea manslaughter, y’know?

  Howard: He’s stupid.

  French: The solicitor told him, plead guilty to manslaughter.

  Howard: That’s what I wish my fuckin’ solicitor did, but fuckin’ no, plead ‘not guilty’. Go on, we’ll get you off this. Fuckin’ arsehole. What’s the name of your lawyer? I want your lawyer. Mine’s fucked. Spent over 45,000 on murder … Churchy’s alright. Churchy’s happy about eight years … Doesn’t seem too worried about it. Morgan’s still at Yasma. He’s a dickhead.

  The conversation meandered through inconsequential inanities revolving around the length of sentences handed down to their accomplices, the comparative conditions of various penal institutions they had or hadn’t experienced and what they were going to do with their girlfriends when their time was up. Despite Dean Howard telling one of the police officers that he’d persuaded French to ‘name a couple of things’ there was nothing on any of the three tapes that could be used in court, nothing that could be even remotely construed as an admission of guilt in relation to the Warren, Russell, or indeed, any other outstanding cases.

  Ten days later, on 15 July 1991, they tried again.

  v

  The tape begins with Detective Senior Constable Bignell introducing the exercise of the recording: he states time, day and date and explains that the listening device is now fitted to Dean Howard for the purpose of capturing a conversation between ‘yourself and…’

  Howard: Adam French.

  The recording begins.

  Howard: Do you reckon you’ll go poofter bashin’ when you get out?

  French: No, back right off, man.

  Howard: Why?

  French: Cause too much trouble, them fags. Got nothin’ to do with them now.

  Howard: Doesn’t bother me, so I won’t be doin’ it. Just hope I, just hope one of them don’t come up and start chattin’ me up.

  French: Couldn’t handle that, mate. I think I’d be locked up again if one of them started chattin’ me up.

  Howard: Or goin’ down to Bondi and going for a swim, or goin’ down near the Wall or something. Fuck that
. D’you know that Matthew Davis, you know Matthew Davis? Don’t know him? Sent to Patto just for killin’ another poof down at Bondi.

  French: No, I don’t know him.

  Howard: Don’t know him? You know the other two lads that were involved in that? They come from Waterloo. They live in John Street. They’re two brothers. McGavin or something. I don’t know their names. They’re down at Patto … Brad knows ’em. He says that I, I know ’em, but. I’ve met ’em before, but … That Matthew Davis is gettin’ bashed down Patterson … All the time. Talkin’ about how he bashed fags and all that … Coupla curries turned up[3] … He told me about it. He, he threw it off. I think it was in a park where youse got that other one. I think he threw it off that one at Bondi. At the cliff there. I think that was exactly the same spot, I’m not sure. He said he threw it off a cliff.

  French: That’s a huge cliff, man. The one that comes down in between two, two lots of flats … It’s a huge one. That’s about 20-, 30-foot drop.

  Howard: Is it? I think, I think that’s the one he threw it off.

  French: Fuckin’ hell, that’s huge.

  Howard: Yeah? Did you go all the time to Bondi?

  French: I’ve been there a couple of times. About three or four times … It’s a bit far to go, but … Like the close spots, mate. Waterloo, Alexandria … Like, one time we went to Centennial … rode on the bikes, we had nothin’ else to do. We used to go for a ride and we used to fly down the hill. Just something to do. Fuck it, while we’re here we may as well go down.

  Howard: Eh?

  French: Used to go to the Junction. Just go for a walk there.

  Howard: Should have took that bloke’s car, man. Did you think about it? Did you search it, heaps good?

  French: No, not heaps good. There was a good jacket in it … A leather jacket.

  Howard: Still got it?

  French: Sold it, mate.

  Howard: Where was the car?

  French: You know near Pete’s shop at the corner? Just there. You know the shop next to the school?

  Howard: Our school?

  French: Yeah.

  Howard: Oh, no. I was talking about the one at Bondi … when you … when you got that cunt and you got that car with the keys and that.

  French: Oh, Bondi Beach where it’s got that pool?

  Howard: Yeah. Was was it locked or unlocked?

  French: Unlocked.

  Howard: Should have took it, man.

  French: Can’t drive.

  Howard: Fuck … Did you search it by yourself? Was it rainin’ or dry or what?

  French: It was dry. I wouldn’t go out there if it was rainin’. Don’t go nowhere if it rains.

  Howard: Was it at nighttime or…

  French: Yeah. At night … about 11, 11.30.

  Howard: Did you hear about that fag that Morgo and that got? And Morgo hit him across the head with a sledgehammer in the mouth?

  French: A sledgehammer?

  Howard: Yeah. They went up to him and go, ‘What are you gay for?’ And the bloke went to say something and Morgo says, ‘Don’t talk, ’cause you’re dead.’ Hit him across the mouth with the sledgehammer. It’s only a little one. I think, think Morgo told me that one. And the way he tells it, tells you, it’s funny, man … I suppose Ronnie done heaps of them. He used to go every day, eh?

  French: Yeah. Him and Norm, mate, they used to go every day.

  Howard: Did Ronnie Morgan tell you about the other one down at Alex? [Alexandria Park]

  French: What happened to him?

  Howard: That one that got killed. That Allen bloke.

  French: I think He told me about that one…

  Howard: He?

  French: I’m pretty sure. Yeah, it was He.

  Howard: I don’t know. I think that’s what Morgo told me. He told me a lot of names.

  French: I only heard of He, Bentley, Ben…

  Howard: That’s what Morgo told me…

  French: All the assaults that I’ve been on, I’ve never used any weapons on gaffs.

  Howard: No? They used something, eh?

  French: I heard they used a screwdriver.

  Howard: Fuckin’ dickheads, eh? You’ve gotta think they are a bit…

  French: Yeah, the lot of ’em, eh? They’re lucky, mate … got away.

  Howard: True. There was only three, eh? There was only three of ’em? There was eight of us. That might be why [they got away].

  Later.

  Howard: Reckon Sharkey will be handling all the poofters over in England?

  French: No … he’s got no choice, mate. They’ll gang rape him over there if he says anything.

  Howard: Has he written and told you about any, any of ’em or anything?

  French: No. Fuckin’ don’t want to hear about poofters any more. Don’t want nothin’ to do with ’em. Not worth it.

  Howard: True. I suppose it had a good run, but. Eh?

  French: We did. All the cash we got … jackets … But I’d rather have made nothin’ and not be in here.

  Howard: True. Very true.

  French: I can still remember the first time I went, man. Go rushing down Alex Park … Heaps ago, mate. Years and years ago … There was … Brad, I think you were there. Brad, Morgan, Alex, Churchie … There was heaps of us, mate. Fuck, there would have been about 20 of us there … Just smashed the cunt in the toilet …I think you were there. I’m pretty sure you were there.

  Howard: I’ve only done one job at Alex Park … That’s the Johnson one.

  French: Oh? Oh, you mustn’t have been there. Who was there? Benny, He. Heaps of boys there. Fuck. Smashed him.

  Howard: Do you remember all the times you used to go fag bashin’? Can you remember all the ones you got?

  French: I can remember fuckin’ heaps, mate. Heaps.

  Howard: Which one do you reckon was the worst one you done?

  French: Waterloo … Jumped onto the roof … on his fuckin’ head and shit … Brad was there … There was three of ’em in the toilet. One of ’em left. We gave one a small beatin’. The other one, we cracked him … Cops come.

  Howard: Did you get caught?

  French: Nah. We were sittin’ over in the flats across the road, watchin’ … We’ve been out there heaps of times. We went to Centennial, eh? You were there when we got the guy with the wig?

  Howard: No, what happened? Tell me.

  French: There was Trindall, me, Sharkey, Brad. We were just gonna walk by him and Sharkey goes, ‘I know that poofter, man. I’ve seen him before. I’ve belted him before.’ They’d belted him at, oh, Moore Park when they was up at the Cross before and took his wig. Trindall pissed in it and they chucked it in a hollow tree. Just knockin’ him around, man … That was one of the funniest days, man. You were there when we got the lad, you know that big thing in the middle of Centennial Park, across from the football paddocks?