The rumour concerning Richard probably started after the media publicised that he was wearing a dog collar when he went missing, but it was the reporting of von Einem’s alibi that fueled it. Von Einem suggested that Richard had homosexual tendencies with his story that he had taken him home to play his harp. Anyone not following the case closely would have read about the alibi, and perhaps some newspaper readers or radio listeners could have thought that von Einem’s version was true. Those who knew the whole story knew it to be calculating lies in an attempt to beat the murder charge. Those in the court and those people in the jury heard how the prosecution completely discredited his alibi. There was nothing to suggest that Richard was a homosexual — on the contrary, all the pointers were facing the opposite direction. Richard Kelvin did not have homosexual tendencies. He was interested in women and he took the dog collar from his neck when he was told that it made him look silly.
Von Einem continues to protest his innocence and still says that he let Richard go after he picked him up. He says that someone else picked him up after he let him go. He doesn’t try to explain why he had hidden drugs in his bedroom. He doesn’t explain about those drugs which were found in Richard’s body and in other boys whom he picked up and abused. He doesn’t give an answer to the scientific evidence, which shows Richard Kelvin at his home at about the time he was murdered, not five weeks earlier as von Einem claimed. Von Einem does not give an explanation for his lies other than to say he didn’t want to upset his mother, who already knew he was gay. So, why should he have to hide the fact that he brought Richard home from his mother, if he did nothing wrong? He doesn’t say anything because his answers will implicate him and his associates even more. The evidence showed his guilt and yet von Einem continues to tell his same story time and time again, working on the belief that if you say it long and loud enough someone will believe you. However, as in most crimes, the victims are not the only ones directly involved. On the other side of the ledger, families hurt forever. Betteanne Kelvin expressed her grief on 7 February 1991, one week after the last charge against von Einem was dropped. She wrote a letter to The Advertiser newspaper.
When your child is murdered everything you have ever believed in is destroyed. Your belief in a happy future is taken. Your belief in your child’s right to grow and have a happy life with children of his or her own [is] ripped away . . . The only tangible thing you can hang on to is the belief that in the society we live in, justice will prevail.
Chapter 15
The Family
The sub-title, referring as it does to ‘The Family Murders’, was an appropriate one in the broadest sense. Von Einem had a natural family as we all do. His mother gave evidence during the trial and supported her son. He also has a brother and sister who live in Adelaide. As mothers do, his does not truly believe the guilt of her son. She knew her son was a homosexual but she didn’t know the side of her son that went on the prowl on weekends. Deep down she must have had concerns lingering in her mind. She must have believed something was not quite right. The odd hours he kept would have sent those signals to her. Also, other members of his family, on reflection, might have wondered if something was not right. Like the night von Einem took a boy to Lower Hermitage where the Alcorns lived — the home where Thora von Einem stayed regularly. Von Einem bogged his car on the property and Ken Alcorn found both of them and allowed them to stay the night. The car was freed the next day and von Einem left. Nothing happened on the property but what was von Einem doing with the boy?
Von Einem also had close friends. Like most of us, he only had a few really close friends but von Einem also had many associates. They were part of his ‘extended’ family; not a blood family but some of them were linked through the abuse of boys and the spilling of young blood.
Obviously, there were others close to von Einem at the time who have not spoken out or have only told half the story. They were von Einem’s ‘extended family’ of deviates and were probably involved intimately with the murder.
There was no doubt that von Einem murdered Richard Kelvin. The jury thought so and the Court of Criminal Appeal thought so as well. The facts of the Kelvin case and the details from the other murders show that he would have to be a very strong suspect to be one of the killers of Alan Barnes and Mark Langley as well.
I believe that von Einem was involved with the murders of Alan Barnes and Mark Langley. The drugs, anal injuries and circumstances surrounding their deaths all point to von Einem and the Family. Alan Barnes, like Richard Kelvin, was most likely killed at von Einem’s Paradise home and in the same way as Richard Kelvin. We know Richard was in von Einem’s home at about the time of his death and then he was dumped in the Adelaide Hills to the north-east of the city. Alan Barnes was dumped in the same area.
The Family would also have to be strong suspects in the murders of Neil
