Incredible! Unbelievable! But I was certain it was true. B was too detailed with his descriptions to make this up. Besides, he knew about von Einem’s unit, his car and he knew about the drugs. He even mentioned the names of the drugs that we were interested in. I interrupted B and gave him my pen and asked him to draw the shape of the rod and torch on one of the blank white pieces of typing paper. He did some sketching and continued telling his story.
‘I told him that I wanted to go because the one that I was with was waking up, but it was just an excuse to get away. Bevan said that he would kill the cunt if he woke up. He asked for me to wait and help him get them dressed and take them to someone else’s house. He said that they will sleep all day with the Rohypnol and that he wanted to get them to this drag queen’s place where they could sleep it off.’
A drag queen — more information that fitted with what we already knew.
‘We dressed both of them and carried them to the back seat of the car and propped them up each side of the back seat. Bevan said that if we are stopped by the cops to say that they are both drunk and that we are taking them home. Bevan drove and I was sitting in the front passenger’s seat. I think that we must have taken back streets . . . I remember what the house looked like . . . three drag queens lived there; one was half-Maori and the other two were white. The name, P, rings a bell but I cannot be sure.’
Well, Miss P comes up again. George, the other hitchhiker, was taken to P’s place when he was drugged.
B was taken home and he rang von Einem during the week at work to find out what happened to the boys.
‘. . . he said they slept it off until midday the next day and they went home. The only other thing that I remember is that the one in the lounge was rolling his head and said a few things when we were getting him dressed. Bevan was a bit rough with him. Just throwing his legs around and things like that and he gave him another couple of rollies to keep him quiet. He gave him a bit of water from the kitchen to wash them down.’
During the hours that I typed his statement, B told me another story, describing exactly the same type of deviant behaviour. He described how he met von Einem near one of the boatsheds at Number One beat at about 7 p.m. on a Saturday two or three weeks after they picked up the first two boys. They cruised around in von Einem’s car, scored a bit of grass and went to the Duke of York Hotel for a drink. Later in the evening they picked up two youths about eighteen years of age who were hitchhiking.
One had tattoos; B said that he saw them on his legs later on, when they were undressed at the flat of another associate of von Einem — not at von Einem’s unit this time and at a different place from the other associate’s.
B said that when they arrived, the drag queen was expecting them. They went to the flat, smoked a couple of bongs and von Einem offered the hitchhikers rollies after pretending to take a handful himself. The lads downed about eight or nine rollies each with some beer and, after a couple more drinks, they passed out.
One of the drugged hitchhikers had said he wanted to go to sleep and the drag queen helped him into her bedroom where von Einem helped the drag queen to undress him and put him into her double bed. At this stage, B said he left to go to Patches Disco, a gay club, on North Terrace in the city, while von Einem and the drag queen stayed with the hitchhikers. Later, B asked the drag queen what happened after he left. She said that the one with tattoos fucked her and they left next morning when they woke up. The drag queen said she didn’t know what von Einem got up to with the other one.
B then described a third time, when they picked up another boy. It was the following Saturday night and again they met at Number One beat after B rang to see if they were going to get together. Obviously, B didn’t distance himself from von Einem after the first time they picked up hitchhikers. It was just like Miller and Worrell with the Truro murders. Miller said that he didn’t touch the girls. B is saying that he left before anything happened but here he was continuing to pick up boys and continuing to ask von Einem if they were meeting and going out.
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
