by Ray Black
‘I’m a sick person. I know that. How could a normal guy do what I did? . . . It was like another guy was inside me.’
‘Society right from the very beginning started to make me an animal . . . that’s why I started all that killing.’
‘I never knew where I was going, I never knew what I was doing . . . that’s why you never nailed me . . . you never knew.’
(quotes taken from the ‘Serial Killer Archive’)
Martin Bryant
It would be very difficult to have not heard anything about Martin Bryant, as his case has been in the media worldwide. He is a twenty-eight-year-old wanna-be surfer with a history of mental problems, who went on the rampage at the historical Port Arthur site in Tasmania in 1996.
Carleen Bryant always felt that her son, Martin, was a little strange, and she made this known to many of her family and friends. She was mainly concerned about his temperament and eventually Martin’s father, Maurice, took early retirement from his job as a dockworker so that he could look after his son.
From the moment he started school his erratic behaviour made him an outcast from the rest of the class, but it wasn’t until he started primary school that they discovered he had an IQ that was well below average. He was placed in a special needs class where his teacher noticed that he was in a little world of his own, even more so than the several deaf children that were also in his year. Strangely, Martin seemed perfectly content in his fantasy world and was far happier when he didn’t have to interact with any of the other children.
The older Martin got, the more apparent his odd detachment became, he not only distanced himself from the rest of the human race, but he also showed no sign of emotion when confronted with a traumatic or sometimes dangerous situation. This became very evident when his father theoretically committed suicide by drowning himself in the dam on the family property. When the police asked Martin to help them look for the body, instead of showing the normal signs of concern he seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.
As a young child Martin was frequently being bullied because of his strange behaviour. However, as he grew older his behaviour became even more cruel and bizarre. Neighbours reported that he was often throwing rocks at their children, cutting down trees, untying their boats from the jetties and destroying fruit trees in their orchards.
When Martin left school there was no need for him to look for a job as he was entitled to a pension due to his below average IQ assessment. But some time later, possibly bored with nothing to do, he took a job working for a woman named Helen Harvey, which was to influence him for the rest of his life. Helen was a rich, middle-aged, eccentric heiress and she employed Martin to work as a handyman. Martin and Helen formed a very close bond, and not only did she lavish him with affection she also lavished him with material objects. She was well known in the area for being eccentric and in one particular car she was alleged to have bought a different car for every month, but never actually drove any of them. Before long, Martin moved into her mansion not far from his parent’s home. Helen loved animals and her home was full of dogs, cats and birds living in every part of the house. Once the living conditions became so squalid that an RSPCA animal welfare officer forced Harvey to clean up her property as it did not comply with health and safety regulations. After the cleaning up operation, no less than seven skips were filled with rubbish from inside the house alone.
Harvey decided to move to the country and, along with Martin, went to live in a small rural town of Copping. Martin’s behaviour by this time was becoming more and more erratic, and the neighbours started to complain that he was prowling around their properties late at night. He became obsessed with firearms and was constantly seen showing off with his guns and taking pot shots at anyone who stopped at an apple stand near their front gate. It was obvious, despite his somewhat uncontrollable behaviour, that Martin spent some of his happiest years with Helen. Unfortunately this happiness was not to last and it all came to a tragic end when Harvey was killed in a car accident.
Martin had now lost his father and his close friend, both of whom had influenced him greatly, and now he was a loner who was left to do exactly as he pleased. When Helen died Martin inherited her estate and he now owned a mansion and cash in the excess of $500,000. After Helen Harvey was buried Martin moved back to the mansion in Hobart but soon became restless. He had plenty of money to spend and before long he discovered the joys of travelling. He made thirty trips within a three-year period, and throughout his travels he never really made any real friends. Martin had no confidence with women and seemed unable to form any sort of relationship, so he resorted to hiring prostitutes. Many who visited his house refused to go back because they found him and the whole atmosphere totally macabre.
In the months before the massacre, Martin visited Port Arthur on many occasions. He bought a new sports bag, and the shopkeeper said he remembered him because he measured several of his bags before actually buying one. Although many of the psychologists that were involved with the case believed that Martin Bryant’s acts on that date were totally on impulse, the fact that he bought the sports bag and visited the site a few times beforehand, all point to the fact that it was most probably a cold, calculated act.
THE MASSACRE
Sunday, April 28, 1996 at Port Arthur, Tasmania, was a warm and sunny day, and the historical site had attracted a good crowd of people. The site was famous for being one of Australia’s most brutal penal settlements, and had become a very popular tourist attraction. By 1.00 p.m. there were over five hundred visitors looking around the site, visiting the many shops and cafés. The lunchtime rush had died down at the Broad Arrow café, but there were still around sixty people finishing off their meals.
The young man with blond hair sat down at a table and ordered his food without drawing any attention to himself. He sat on the front balcony and, apart from commenting on the lack of wasps and number of Japanese tourists, just sat eating his lunch without further conversation. When he had finished eating he picked up his sports bag and went back inside the café. He went to the back of the room and placed his sports bag, along with a video camera, on top of one of the tables. For a while he just stared around at the people inside, and then, before anyone realised what he was doing, he unzipped the bag and produced a semi-automatic rifle. His first victim was an Asian man, Moh Yee Ng, who he shot in the neck, killing him instantly. Then he pointed his gun at the man’s companion, and shot her through the back of the head. When he had methodically shot at everyone inside the café either killing them or leaving them bleeding from their wounds, he went outside and continued the fusillade.
People were running and screaming everywhere. Ignoring what was going on around him, the gunman walked towards a tour bus that was parked nearby, and shot the driver and three passengers. Several of the passengers who had been waiting to get on board the bus dived underneath it for cover, but the gunman had seen them and he calmly crouched down and shot them where they lay. Then he walked back to his car, a yellow Volvo sedan which had a surfboard attached to the roof and proceeded to drive three hundred yards down the road to where a woman and her two children were walking. He murdered the woman, the child she was carrying, and chased after the five-year-old toddler and killed her as well. Next he drove up to the entrance gate where a gold coloured BMW was parked. The gunman opened fire on the three occupants and killed them instantly. Next he dragged the bodies from the BMW and transferred his firearms into the car and drove away.
A little distance down the road he saw a couple sitting in a Toyota and stopped beside them. As soon as the woman saw the man was carrying a gun she froze. He ordered the man out of the car and ignoring his pleas not to kill him, made him climb into the boot of the BMW car. Slamming down the lid of the boot he turned and fired two shots in succession into the front of the Toyota, killing the young woman instantly. With the man still inside the boot of his car, the gunman drove to a small bed-and-breakfast called Seascape Cottage. By the time he had lef
t the site of the old colonial ruins, 32 tourists lay dead and 18 others were wounded; 20 were killed in the café, and another 12 on the roads surrounding the historic ruins. It was at the Seascape Cottage that the final part of this deadly story starts to unfold.
Martin apparently already knew the owners of the Seascape guesthouse. At this point in the story it is uncertain whether he killed them then, or before he started his massacre at Port Arthur. After shooting a few more people in their cars who were either passing by or driving up to the guesthouse, the gunman walked back to his car and drove up to the front of Seascape Cottage. He then removed the guns from the car and let the man out from the boot of the trunk. He then took the man inside the house and handcuffed him to a stair rail. The gunman then went back outside, poured petrol on to the BMW and then set fire to it.
Now holed up inside Seascape Cottage, Bryant was surrounded by over 200 police officers. The siege lasted for twelve hours, during which time an Australian journalist managed to speak to Bryant on the phone. What he told her was quite horrifying: ‘I can’t speak now, I’m having too much fun. I want to have a shower and if you ring me back again I will shoot the hostage.’ Later that night he did in fact kill the poor man that had been bundled into the boot of his car.
The next morning, which was Monday, April 29, the police were waiting outside the cottage trying to decide what course of action to take next. Soon they saw some smoke billowing out from the house, and shortly afterwards Martin Bryant ran out with his clothes on fire and surrendered. He was taken to the Royal Hobart Hospital where he was treated for second-degree burns and had to have several skin grafts. Once his wounds had healed sufficiently he was removed to Risdon Prison Hospital.
THE CONSEQUENCES
Following the fateful day at Port Arthur, while Martin Bryant was recovering in the hospital under heavy guard, the families and friends of the victims were trying to come to terms with what had happened. After the police had completed a reconstruction of the events, which had all happened in a space of around eight minutes, they recorded the official death toll as:
11 Tasmanians
12 Victorians
1 South Australian
4 from New South Wales
4 from Great Britain
2 Malaysians
1 from South-East Asia
Of the injured:
15 Australians
1 Canadian
1 American
When the case eventually came to trial Martin Bryant pleaded guilty, and stood sentence for crimes in respect of:
• the murder of no less than 35 people;
• of 20 attempts to murder others;
• of the infliction of grievous bodily harm on yet three more; and
• of the infliction of wounds upon a further eight people
In addition he was sentenced for:
• four counts of aggravated assault;
• one count of unlawful setting fire to property, namely a motor vehicle which he seized at gunpoint from its rightful occupants, all of whom he murdered;
• and for the arson of a building known as ‘Seascape’, the owners of which he had likewise murdered the previous day.
Martin Bryant was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment and was not eligible for parole. During his incarceration at Hobart’s Risdon prison Bryant is known to have made at least four suicide attempts. He was found bleeding after trying to cut his femoral artery in the groin region and several smaller cuts to his inner arms with a razor blade. He had also taken an overdose of sedatives which were supplied to him by another prisoner, tried to strangle himself with bandages and finally attempted to choke himself by swallowing a rolled-up tube of toothpaste.
PSYCHIATRIC ASSESSMENT
Martin Bryant was assessed as being a person with a schizoid personality disorder. The normal signs of this condition are that the person concerned is usually pale, exceptionally quiet and appears rather strange to others. Their head is very often tilted to one side so that it gives the appearance of someone who is being continually hung by a noose. Their life is usually full of trauma and most often has experienced a strange, string of fantasies and failures. They normally show little or no emotion to events and have difficulty in forming a relationship with another person. The overpowering part of their nature is that they have no emotion and consequently have little capacity for pleasure. Martin Bryant is a classic schizoid personality type – but is not paranoid or schizophrenic. In fact, no-one really knew what to make of Martin Bryant. Most people who did know him described him as a loving, gentle and kind person, while others described him as having strange, steely cold blue eyes.
Basically, in summing up, Martin Bryant was set loose in the world with plenty of money but with nothing to do and nowhere to go. He was exceptionally lonely and once said that if he could have a girlfriend his life would be complete. He did actually have a relationship with a girl for two months just before the shootings, Jenetta Hoani. She claimed that he was obsessed with bestiality, violent videos and owned over 200 teddy bears, most of which were in his bedroom. She claimed his best friend was his pet pig with whom he shared his bed.
Martin showed very little emotion about anything, in fact the only thing that really excited or indeed interested him were all his guns. Martin Bryant did not seem to be angry at any one person in particular, he was just angry at life. He was angry at all the people for what he had become – on the one hand a child who had never grown up and on the other an adult who had tried to integrate but with no success.
Charles Whitman
In a period of ninety-six minutes, sniper Charles Whitman killed sixteen people and wounded thirty from the observation deck of the University of Texas Tower.
Charles Joseph Whitman was born on June 24, 1941, in Lake Worth, Florida. He was the oldest of three sons of Margaret and Charles A. Whitman, Jr. On the surface the family appeared to be a happy one, but the lovely home with all its amenities and swimming pool, were just a mere façade. All the luxuries did nothing to alleviate the trouble within the Whitman household. His father was a disciplinarian with a violent temper. He not only beat his wife, he was known to use belts or his fists to make sure they didn’t disobey him.
At school Charles was an above-average student, became an Eagle Scout at twelve, and graduated from High School in 1959. In June of that year, just before his eighteenth birthday his relationship with his father got rather out of hand. Charlie had been out drinking with some friends and arrived home drunk. His father beat him severely and threw him into the swimming pool, which nearly caused Charlie to drown. A few days later, fed up with the treatment he received at home, Charlie decided to enlist in the United States Marine Corps. He was stationed for a year and a half at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He worked very hard at being a good Marine, always followed orders and studied hard for his exams. He excelled at his shooting and earned himself a Sharpshooter’s Badge for his excellence at rapid fire from long distance. It was important for Charlie to be the best Marine after all the years of belittling he had received at home from his father. He passed a test to enter officer training and was sent to a preparatory school in Bainbridge, Maryland, and then to the University of Texas in September 1961, to major in engineering. While he was at the university he met Kathy Leissner, a student from a small Texas town of Needville. They were married on August 17, 1962. Unfortunately because of low grades he was ordered back to duty as an enlisted man in the Marine Corps on February 12, 1963. He was sent to North Carolina, where he eventually found himself having to face a court martial for gambling, usury and unauthorized possession of a non-military pistol. He was sentenced to thirty days confinement and ninety days hard labour. Charlie was released in December 1964, was honourably discharged from the Marines and returned to the University of Texas to continue his studies in engineering.
While at the University, Charlie worked part-time as a scoutmaster and in the spring of 1966, his mother left his father and moved to Austin to be nea
r her eldest son.
THE HEADACHES BEGIN
In 1966 Charles Whitman started to have severe headaches and sought medical and psychiatric advice at the University health centre. He was prescribed Excedrin for the headaches, but he failed to return to the health centre for further assistance as instructed.
At around 12.00 a.m. on August 1, 1966, Whitman killed his mother in her apartment by strangling her from behind with a rubber hose, and then hit her in the back of the head. He left a note on the body. A few minutes before 3.00 a.m. Whitman also killed his wife, Kathy, as she slept, this time by stabbing her five times in the chest with a hunting knife. Again a note was left beside her body, below is an excerpt of what it said:
‘I don’t quite understand what it is that compels me to type this letter. Perhaps it is to leave some vague reason for the actions I have recently performed. I don’t really understand myself these days . . . I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts . . . It was after much thought that I decided to kill my wife, Kathy, tonight after I pick her up from work at the telephone company. I love her dearly, and she has been as fine a wife to me as any man could ever hope to have . . . Similar reasons provoked me to take my mother’s life also. I don’t think the poor woman has ever enjoyed life as she is entitled to . . .’
Later the same morning he placed the following items in a green footlocker and left for the University tower at around 11.30 a.m.:
Transistor radio, notebook, a full water jug, a full plastic gas jug, sales slips from Davis hardware, batteries, lengths of cotton and nylon rope, compass, pen, rifle scabbard, hatchet, machete with scabbard, hammer, ammunition box with gun cleaning equipment, alarm clock, cigarette lighter, canteen, binoculars, hunting knife and whetstone, large Randall knife, large pocket knife, pipe wrench, eye glasses, matches, 12 assorted cans of food and a jar of honey, two cans of Sego, can of charcoal starter, flashlight, earplugs, white adhesive tape, steel bar, green army rubber duffel bag, green extension cord, lengths of clothesline wire and yellow electric wire, grey gloves, deer bag, bread, sweet rolls, Spam, peanuts, sandwiches, a box of raisins, deodorant and toilet paper, but NO medication which he was supposed to be taking on a regular basis.