‘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
