These actions, however, didn’t show that von Einem killed boys. The boys were released from von Einem’s control and sent home. The sending of the boys home, in fact, helped prove that he wasn’t a killer — rather, the opposite. The fact that von Einem picked up boys, drugged them and abused them did not mean that he forcibly grabbed Richard Kelvin and drugged and abused him before killing him. However, history has shown that a man does not sexually abuse every woman he picks up even though he might be a serial rapist. Just in the same way, a killer does not murder every person he meets. Von Einem could fit into this situation, in which he picked up some boys, let some go, spiked the drinks of others and abused them, then let them go. However, it was possible there were a few that he did not let go. It was possible that he killed them.
The other boys could give evidence that they were picked up by a helpful stranger who they could identify as von Einem. Again, this does not prove that von Einem would forcibly drag someone into a car but the evidence against him was starting to build. With many police investigations, once the arrest occurs the case gets stronger and stronger. With von Einem it was no different.
When the employees at von Einem’s work were interviewed, all of them said that they knew or suspected he was a homosexual. Some thought he was harmless, while others thought he was a bit off, especially when he used to perv at the young men on the Coca-Cola truck who delivered drinks to the work site.
One of the employees at von Einem’s work told of an episode which clearly demonstrated just how much von Einem couldn’t help himself. The co-worker found von Einem in the warehouse one weekend. Once again he was with a young boy and they were in von Einem’s car. It was between the time he was first spoken to by us in July and before he was arrested on 3 November 1983. He was continuing to pick up young boys even though he knew the police were interested in him.
One of the female employees at Pipeline Supplies of Australia went regularly to the Mars Bar in Gouger Street and was supplied drugs by von Einem. She knew that he picked up boys. The woman told about the time that von Einem met her at one of the pie carts in the city. Pie carts are an Adelaide institution; caravans would come into the city at night to serve hot food such as pies, pasties and soup to late-night revellers. Von Einem had a boy with him. He rushed towards her and put his arm around her neck and whispered in her ear.
‘There you are. I’ve been looking for you,’ von Einem said to his work colleague. ‘Pretend you are my wife. I’ve told the kid you are my wife and I’ve been looking for you.’
One time she asked him about a boy that she helped him pick up.
‘What did you do with the lad?’
‘Oh, I just took him home and let him sleep it off.’
Then von Einem embellished his story.
‘Oh, when I got him there I hit him up in the foot because not many look for injection holes in people’s feet and then I fist fucked him and I used surgical instruments and put them up his anus.’
This information from the work colleague of von Einem occurred after I left Major Crime and, when I read her statement years later, memories came flooding back.
Injection sites. Ross James, the pathologist, thought there may have been an injection site in Richard’s arm but he couldn’t be sure. There was a suggestion of Rohypnol in Richard’s system but the forensic scientists couldn’t be sure about that either but Rohypnol, however, was one of von Einem’s drugs of choice when abusing boys. I remembered members of the team searching for snuff movies and them finding the video Fist Fuckers of America — all about placing a fist in someone’s anus.
He was also telling the woman who worked with him about placing surgical instruments up the boy’s anus and I vividly recalled B, the young deviate, drawing pictures of the torch and crochet needle he saw von Einem putting up the anus of the drugged hitchhiker.
We had the evidence of B who told about von Einem’s potential for violence when one of the drugged boys in his unit was waking up. The words were pretty blunt: ‘Bevan said that he would kill the cunt if he woke up.’ Legally, this didn’t prove von Einem was a murderer — far from it. The words were hearsay and there are strong rules of evidence to prevent hearsay being admitted in a criminal trial. But the words did indicate that the man had a disposition towards violence.
Von Einem denied knowing or having anything to do with Richard Kelvin when he was first interviewed on 28 July 1983. However, even with all of this information, our case was still lacking, as the disappearance of Richard Kelvin was different. He wasn’t picked up like the others — in the sense that he went voluntarily. He was abducted.
We knew Richard was abducted because on the Tuesday after he went missing we found our first witness saying that he heard cries for help and a car speeding away. Since that time we had found other witnesses who heard Richard’s
