‘Bevan Spencer von Einem, you are charged that between the 16th June 1979 and the 25th June 1979 at Adelaide or another place you murdered Alan Barnes. How do you plead?’
‘Not guilty.’
‘Bevan Spencer von Einem, you are also charged that between the 26th February 1982 and 9th March 1982 at Adelaide or another place you murdered Mark Andrew Langley. How do you plead?’
‘Not guilty.’
The wording of the charges indicated a weakness in the case. After all these years, we still could not show where the boys were actually killed. We knew that Richard Kelvin was at von Einem’s Paradise home at about the time he was killed but he could have been taken there just before or just after he was killed. From the scientific evidence, I certainly believed that Richard was killed there.
Many places were checked over the years as being possible locations where the boys had been killed, but too much time had passed before the houses were checked for blood, fingerprints and cutting instruments, such as a saw and a knife. We had located the homes of most of the women where von Einem took boys who he had picked up. We also located the homes of most of the women where von Einem had taken boys he had picked up. However, four years had passed between the times Alan Barnes and Richard Kelvin went missing and another six years passed before these new charges were laid and members of von Einem’s clan, had moved homes at least once.
From the beginning of the committal, Mark Griffin and Marie Shaw, von Einem’s new defence counsel, argued that there would be an abuse of justice if von Einem was committed to stand trial. There had been too much publicity about the murders and the possibility of von Einem’s involvement for him to receive a fair trial.
This time Brian Martin was assisted by Tom Birchell, and Brian argued that the case against von Einem with respect to Alan Barnes revolved around von Einem picking up hitchhikers. There were von Einem’s denials about knowing the boys, but B said von Einem was with Alan Barnes immediately before he was killed. The Mark Langley case relied on evidence that von Einem also denied knowing Mark Langley on 25 March 1982, when he was interviewed at the Adelaide Jail. He admitted driving around on that night, including being near the River Torrens during the early hours when Mark went missing. Circumstantial evidence showed also that his death was similar to Richard Kelvin’s.
When Detective John Anderson spoke to von Einem about the murder of Mark Langley, von Einem said that he was out and about that night. He said that he was drinking at home and left for a drive at about 11 p.m. He took the back streets to miss random breath stations. He drove through back streets to the Hackney Hotel, which is next to the Hackney Bridge, which crosses the River Torrens. He drove to North Adelaide and drove down Melbourne Street and up the hill to O’Connell Street, North Adelaide and bought some fish and chips — just as he said he intended to do when he grabbed Richard Kelvin. This man was a creature of compulsion and habit. He said he drove to Pipeline Supplies of Australia and checked the security lights before travelling along Port Road and Hindley Street. He went to the Mars Bar at 1.30 a.m. before leaving at 3.00 a.m. to travel home by the back streets of Stepney — exactly the way Mark Langley would have been trying to go home.
As I read this statement and the statements of the females who picked up boys for von Einem, all the theories and practices recorded about the stalking phase of serial killers rang true. These actions reminded me of someone moving out at night going for a hunt — looking for prey.
Different women gave evidence about von Einem picking up boys. One of the ‘females’ who von Einem used as bait gave evidence. She met von Einem at Number One beat in 1972, when she was a man. She changed her sex ten years later, in 1982. She was also a druggie who had a problem with Mandrax when it was commonly available. After Mandrax, she was addicted to heroin. She told the court about Mandrax and the picking up of boys, which she did about ten times with von Einem.
‘They were called “randy mandies” and they would often go around a pub — [the] best way to start an orgy was for that sort of thing to happen.
‘. . . it was never a planning thing. It would just happen. Like, I could be getting a lift — and it would usually be weekends. Weekends were mainly the times he went out. And, I mean, it wasn’t like he’d ring me up or I’d ring him up and we’d say “Let’s go out and pick up hitchhikers” or anything like that. It would be if I was getting a lift with him, he might just divert and start doing that.’
Yes, I thought. Just like Miller with Christopher Worrell picking up girls who later ended up the Truro victims. Miller said that the picking up wasn’t planned. They didn’t have to plan it because it was a natural thing both of them did. This was no different.
‘What time of the night did that occur, if there was a particular time?’ Brian Martin asked.
‘Usually late at night and sometimes it could have been from . . .’ she paused ‘. . . I could have been over at a friend’s place and wanting a lift home if I wasn’t going to sleep there.’
‘Did the defendant ever say anything to you about the type of hitchhikers that he liked?’
‘He didn’t say the type that he liked; he just . . . the type that he liked were young, sort of rough-looking people.’
‘Was there any word in the gay scene for that type of person or any expression that covered them?’
‘Probably “rough
