Episode 12: Australian Madness Volume 1 | Morbid

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I have been listening to the Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, which actually Elena recommended to me.

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Good day, weirdos. I'm Ash. I'm Alina. And this is Morbid.

Crocodile Dundee. Was that even a little bit Australian?

I don't know. Let me know. That was a lot of cliche Australian shit.

I hope we didn't just lose all our listeners from Australia.

Come back Australians. We love you. Sorry.

We love you. We were going to talk about something specific and I can't remember what.

Dead air. I can't remember what it was. Maybe it'll come to me.

You were going to say on air that if anything God forbid happens to you, I get all your money.

No. I was not going to say that. I don't know.

I thought so. Not at all. Well, either way, it's been a minute.

Yeah, I feel like it's been a long time.

It has. We're a little late in the week.

It's like low-key my fault. It's totally her fault.

It's also your kid's fault. I know, it totally is.

Your kid's fault. It was first your fault, and then it was my kid's fault.

That's true. Yeah. But either way, we're here.

Do you want to just like cut the small talk and just be like, hey, let's go?

Let's just do this. You know what, guys?

You waited long. Yeah, you know what? We'll talk about all our business that we need to take care of at the end.

So today we're talking about... Australia.

Australian killers. And also, this will not be the only Australian killer episode.

We're going to keep them coming. Yeah, we're not going to do them back to back.

We'll just kind of throw them in there willy nilly. randomly back to back because just an Australian month.

I'm sure some people would love that. Do you know what?

I always say Australian, but it's just Australian.

It's just all. AU. I'm like, Australian.

Australian. That's. It's all of Australians.

All of Australians? You know. You know Australians.

Oh, I just sniffled. I'm sorry. God damn it.

I'm going to have to edit that out. Alina always has to edit out my coughs and my ums and my yas and my sniffs and my pee sounds.

Yeah. Today I was like, I just pee a lot.

And then I was like, oh. That means you're hydrated.

But I'll just make yucky sounds. Oh, gross.

I mean, we're gonna, we're gonna, there's so many.

I mean, Australia is a brutal ass place.

Shit goes down in the outback. I'm sure everybody has seen those videos of all those crazy ass critters that live down there.

Yeah, they got some wild shit. Like everything there is just like super sized and savage.

Yeah, like spiders the size of toddlers.

Yeah. It's no joke. So like all you Australians who are listening, which I know there's some Australians listening because I look at our analytics.

Shout out to you all. So shout out to Australia, which I also have family members in Australia.

What? We have, like, part of our ancestors went to Australia.

What? How do you know that? Yeah, because I know that I know our family.

Good thing one of us does. Yeah. So I'm sure we have some family down there.

I did not know that. But so yeah, so it's beautiful.

I totally want to visit. You guys are rad and you guys have. some crazy ass crime down there.

For reals. But so there's so many that we're definitely going to do a few more episodes that we'll just kind of sprinkle in some more.

You guys, Australia. Yeah. You guys also gave us a lot of really good suggestions when I threw it out there and we grabbed one of them.

So we're gonna do that. I just grabbed it.

I reached out and I grabbed it. Thank you.

Like Ivan Milat's mustache looks like it would reach out and grab you.

Look at that transition. Beautiful. 10 out of 10.

She's skating across the ice. I'm like a news anchor.

I can't think of a news anchor's name, but I tried to.

Savannah Guthrie. Yep. I like Savannah Guthrie.

Laura Spencer. She's on Flea Market Flip.

I don't know who that is. Maybe that's her name.

I'm not positive. You should watch Flea Market Flip.

That's not a news anchor. She's on Good Morning America, though.

Oh, I was like, that's a show. I think she's on Good Morning America.

I don't watch Good Morning America. I'm a Today Show girl.

I just read CNN. This is a Today Show house.

Okay. We are Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb.

I love Hoda. Also, Willie Geist. We are a Willie Geist house.

So we decided that we were going to start with Ivan Milat.

Because I don't think so. It was. What was that?

That was Australian. Try it again. Ivan Milet.

Oh, something touched me. Oh, it was a plant.

Sorry. We're not outside. That's not Australian.

It's Australian. They say, like, oiven. I've been malat, mate.

That's Australian. Okay. That's Australian as fuck.

I think you just added mate at the end. I think that I am Australian as fuck.

I think my ancestors in Australia just... came through me and I became Australian for a second.

That's pretty odd. Hopefully I didn't offend anybody.

I think you might have. No, I think it is.

Listen to Case File. He has good Australian accent.

Wait, where's the guy on... Dark Tourist?

Yes. He's New Zealand. New Zealand. Oh, okay.

You don't want to confuse those two. I know.

They're very different. And he has a cousin from New Zealand.

Yeah, they're very different. So, both really cool accents, though.

They're similar accents, right? They are similar accents.

That's why people confuse them, because the accents sound alike.

Both totally rad accents, so good job. So, Ivan Milat.

He was known as the Backpacker Killer. Okay.

He was Australia's most notorious serial killer for his mustache.

Only for his mustache. Knew it. That was it.

Without the mustache, he was super chill.

You were nothing without your mustache. Yeah, he was nothing without that mustache.

That giant handlebar mustache. So in very tiny shorts, all the pictures of him, he's wearing very tiny shorts.

Was it the 80s? It's unsettling. It was.

That's why. So, yeah. 80s shorts are scary.

But it's unsettling. I don't like it. Yeah, because you're like about to see us.

Yeah, it's not okay. And he's... I don't know.

He just doesn't look right. Oh, he's yucky.

He doesn't look right. So... He was convicted of killing seven people between the ages of 19 and 22 years old.

So he had a pretty small demographic. I'm 22.

Almost, there's almost definitely more than the seven that they know about out there.

Sorry, I feel like I'm losing my voice a little so I sound a little crackly.

I swear on air I get nervous and I start to sniffle.

And I start to lose my voice. On air. I'm really nervous, guys.

I'm so nervous. Ew. Sorry. Edit that out.

No, it was my noise. Oh, I was like, wow, that was mean.

Stupid noise. I feel like that was so stupid.

No, my noise. Anyways, sorry, I'm hot. Helter Svelter.

I hate this pod lab. Love it. There's an inflatable giraffe in the corner.

Or actually, I was thinking about taking a picture of that and writing just pod lab things.

Just pod lab things. On our Instagram. We should both pose next to it.

We really should. I think we'll probably post a photo of this blow-up giraffe.

We will. Because why not? This is my house.

So there's definitely more than the seven.

I'm thinking they're already trying to attribute like a bunch of more. cold cases to them they keep popping up all the time i bet they can now with the dna right that's happening see shit's gonna happen yeah like i just want to really quick the um april tinsley case yeah Huge case from, of course, I'm not going to remember how long ago it was because I don't have anything written down about it.

It's a really awful case. I believe it was in the 80s.

And it was like an eight-year-old girl got abducted, raped, and murdered.

Awful, awful, awful. She was so adorable too.

And the killer was, like, writing messages afterwards saying he's gonna kill again, admitting that he did it, and, like, leaving, he would leave, like, used condoms.

Ew. on playgrounds with a note saying like i'm gonna come get you again like he was a piece of absolute shit And they just caught him like 30 years later through the familial DNA thing.

So, hell yes for science. Yes, science. And I am so glad that that family finally has... Closure, at least.

Oh, my God. I can't even... That case...

We'll cover that case at some point just because they have the guy now and it's at least there's some kind of closure and it's a... really awful case, but I think it's one that needs to be told.

But yeah, so score one for DNA. Hell yeah.

Score two. Score two. Yeah, score two for DNA.

There's probably 85 scores in there. Yeah, there's a lot of scores, but two that we are talking about right now.

So there's also one survivor of Ivan Millett.

And do you know what his name is, everyone?

It's a pretty awesome name. I didn't know, but I read Elena's notes before this.

She copies off me all the damn time. His name... is Paul Onions.

And we will get to him later. Yes. But we just wanted to throw that out there.

So remember Paul Onions, because he's going to come up later.

Ivan Milat's Killing Ground was, which we mentioned last podcast because we were talking about woods and shit.

Yeah. It was the, I just did a really very unsettling dance, by the way.

I loved it, personally. Just so you know.

His killing home was the Belanglo State Forest in the southern portion of Australia between Sydney and Canberra.

Fun fact, the horror movie Wolf Creek is loosely inspired by these events.

I saw Wolf Creek in the theater. I didn't.

It was a long time ago. But it's a fucked up movie.

So this guy's fucked up. Of course you went to see it in the theater.

Of course I did. um so ivan robert marco malat long name right was born December 27th, 1944, which is a day before my birthday.

So many correlations. He was born in Guildford, New South Wales, Australia.

Oh my god, that's where you were born. Exactly.

I mean, this might be me. Crazy. Yeah. Hope not.

I hope not either. Let's see. All right.

We don't know where this is going. It could be me.

Take me down the path. Yeah, let's do this.

We'll go together. Journey with us. La la la.

He was one of 14 children. Nope, not me.

Fuck that. Also, way too many kids. Legitimately...

Way too many kids. They could have their own reality show.

On TLC. He was one of 14 children born to his father, who was a Croatian immigrant named... Sorry.

Stéphane, Marco, Stephen, quote, Malat. So they were just like, let's call you Stephen.

It worked. and his mother, who was an Australian woman named Margaret Elizabeth Millett.

I like that name, Margaret. That is a cute... It's a cute name.

Shout out to you if your name is Margaret.

Shout out all you Margarets out there. The Malats were super, like...

You know... Backwoods. One might say. They were very into rural... living.

That's a very hard word to say. Very much like Ash.

Rural. Ash is so rural. I am rural as fuck.

My fake Birkenstocks make me hella rural.

Yes, very rural. That's a very hard word to say.

That's like the rural juror. No, you wouldn't know that.

Somebody's going to know that because somebody watched 30 Rock and appreciates that reference.

Annie? Rural juror. Just remember. Okay, well, anyone out there who watched 30 Rock, great show, will know what I'm saying when I say rural juror.

I'm going to start watching it so I know.

Watch it so you know. Okay. It's a good joke.

So they were super isolated. So it is kind of tough to get, like, reliable information about his childhood.

Were they, like, survivalists? They were just kind of like living their lives in the backwoods of Australia.

Like they were just like, we don't need you.

Yeah. But there have been interviews with his brother Boris to help, you know, piece the pieces together a little bit.

Why am I thinking of a duck named Boris?

Is that a thing? I don't really know. A duck named Boris.

A duck named Boris. There's some show with a duck named Boris.

I did not watch that show. I hope I'm not actually losing it.

You might be losing it, but it's okay. Leave that in so someone knows.

Someone will know. So according to Boris, not the duck, the brother.

LOL. Ivan appeared to exhibit psychopathic, sociopathic tendencies pretty early on.

But all of the other members of his family are like...

No, he didn't. He's great. Well, he was great.

So we'll see. Um, Malat was described as good looking, muscular.

He loved hunting and he really loved guns.

He was like one of those people. who loves guns.

And he was also known to take very good care of his appearance, which shows in that flawless mustache of his.

His parents were hardworking and super strict, but they also had 14 fucking kids.

So, Malat and his brothers were kind of like...

Free range kids. Where did he lie in the 14?

Do you know? I honestly don't know. I didn't write that down, which is weird.

Usually I do. But I don't know. He was in there somewhere.

I mean, it doesn't matter. I was just curious.

But... They had a reputation for being troublemakers in the neighborhood.

Because they were just kind of always... Because there's 14 of them.

And the parents couldn't watch... 14 kids.

So the kids just ended up being, you know, running amok.

Amok, amok, amok. Amok, amok, amok. There ended up being a lot of police visits to the farm as the children grew older.

It just became more and more of a problem.

So they were like little dicks. they were little dicks you're a little dick so from the age you know little side track here I didn't want to call someone a dick in front of my kids the other day.

So I called them a porch and it took a minute.

But you got there. When I explained it to you, you were like, okay.

Why the fuck would I ever make that reference by myself though?

No, you wouldn't. No one would. But like in my head, it made sense.

Cause I was like that person in seat. Cause you say that's, that guy's a porch. because he's a dick but you don't want to say dick and you wanted to say deck like he's a deck But you also thought that might be interpreted as dick by your kids.

So you go to porch. mom life brought to you by Elena that's just a little tip from me to you misunderstood by ash Moving on.

So from the age of about 17, Ivan was constantly in trouble with the police.

Uh-oh. He had like various charges on his record from housebreaking, home invasion, car thefts, and armed robberies.

And when I read housebreaking, it made me think of like, he was like a dog and he had a charge of like housebreaking.

I don't know why. 1971 at the age of 27 years old.

Ivan was put on trial for the alleged rape of two female hitchhikers oh no Yeah, they testified that he threatened them with a very large hunting knife during the attack.

He was acquitted on the rape charges when the prosecution failed... basically to make a compelling case against him.

That's so shitty. Which is such a bummer.

Because think about it, if he had gotten convicted for that, who knows?

Maybe none of these people would have died.

Thanks a lot, prosecution. Prostitution.

Prostitution. Big prostitution. Sometimes when we're on air, I just can't talk.

You just malfunction. It happens. So his known killing spree started in 1989.

He was 45 years old and it spanned until about 1992 from what we know.

I wasn't alive any of those years. Dear God.

I like to talk about when I wasn't alive.

I was alive all those years. People feel old.

Yeah. ash is uh basically an embryo well actually if i was around back then and i was me right now i would possibly be one of his victims because I'm 22.

22. Yeah, but you wouldn't be backpacking.

Get the fuck out of here. Like, you'd be trekking through a forest.

Yeah, no. I tried to come up with a valid argument.

No, totally. No, you would not. Fuck that.

You'd be Charlie Manson's victim. Yep. I'd be on LSD in a bus.

Yep. I stand by that. Sorry, Papa. I've never done that.

I'd be on LSD in a bus. I've never done acid.

No. But you would have if you were back then.

For sure. For sure. Yeah. I'm glad we just know that.

Absolutely. We just accept that. So his victim profile ranged.

He was not one that just went after women.

He didn't just go after men. He was just like, hey, if you're here and you have a backpack strapped to you, you're done for.

You're my dude. And it mostly seemed his murders were of just convenience.

He would pick up a hitchhiker or see... like an unsure, often foreign backpacker, and he would take advantage of the situation.

So it was always, they kind of just, he was like kind of lazy.

They fall into his lap. He was lazy. They would just fall into his lap.

Yeah. They just fell right into his mustache trap.

Exactly, which is very easy to do. Never trust anyone with a mustache.

Not with that kind of mustache. No, my personal opinion is most mustaches, I'm like...

I don't know about you. I don't know. Sometimes mustaches.

But then again, I think of like BTK had a mustache.

And he can literally go fuck himself, so.

There's legit. You hate BTK so much. I do too.

I have such a vendetta against BTK. There's, like, a whole thing.

Like, that guy has a profile stash. That's true.

I don't trust many guys with my stash. I'm sorry, y'all.

I mean, some of them are okay. I don't know.

Honestly, I mean... If it's like all, what's it called when it's all together?

A mustache and a beard and some side chops.

What's that? facial hair i don't know what is that a goatee a goatee With the wrong emphasis on the wrong syllable.

A goatee. A goatee? It sounds like a kind of drink.

A goatee? What? A goatee? A goatee is...

When it's like a mustache beard, like just chin beard.

So circle around the lips. Like one of those essentially.

I'm making a very uncomfortable circular motion around my mouth.

I'm legit so fucking uncomfortable. It's just like, you know, I'm just gonna sit here and draw with my pointer finger around my lips.

I don't know why I felt like just drawing an oval around my lips was going to make you be like...

I get what that is. Yeah. It's a goatee.

Ooh, a goatee. I'm crying. There are tears in my eyes right now.

Oh my god, I love making people laugh until they cry.

I'm crying. I hope I'm making you laugh in traffic.

But not too much that you crash. Yep, definitely don't want that.

I went there. Thanks for bringing it to that place.

Sorry. So Paul and his mustache. Nope, not Paul.

Nope. Ivan and his mustache. Ivan and his mustache.

This is not Paul Onions yet. We have not got to him.

Onions. Onions. Onions. So. Woo. All right.

So all in all, he killed two men and five women.

Okay. So you could say he had a little bit of a thing for women, but I think it was just they were there.

Yep. So most victims were found, which this is just like a weird little thing.

Most victims were found with the zipper of their pants unzipped, but the top button still buttoned.

So he was just trying to make it look like he did something?

No, I think he did. I'm sure he did. But it was just weird that he always kept the top button button because it was almost like he didn't because some were undressed like some didn't have pants on so it's not like he was like shameful of, like, taking their pants off.

Maybe it was just, like, another laziness thing.

I think it was literally a laziness thing.

Yeah, like, just unzip, just get to where you need to get to, which is, he's a dick.

Usually, the female victims were found with their shirts and bras pulled up.

Like around their shoulders. Oh no. Which is like really aggressive and gross.

Yeah. It indicates, obviously, that they were molested, sexually assaulted, and he often killed in pairs.

Which is crazy. Yeah, like that he was able to subdue two people at once.

And that he went after two people at once.

You always think when you're in a pair that you have an advantage, that nobody's really going to want to go after you if you're in a pair, but... What were his measurements?

I don't know what his measurements were.

32 by what? I don't really know what he said.

He was a big dude. He was big? Yeah, he was a big dude.

Okay, that's all I needed to know. like buff too yeah you could look at him he was solid so that's pretty that's probably yeah if i can find his measurements i'll put them up on the Instagram.

Caption it, what were his measurements? Yeah, what were his measurements?

His victims would be gagged, tied up, and... sometimes held on makeshift leashes.

What? Yeah. So it was very important for Malat to feel in control.

That's really fucked up though. That's part of his like psychology is that he needs to be in control.

He has a very real need for complete control.

So he would make makeshift leashes out of like sash cords, like those little hook cords.

Right. And he would use those to literally control them like dogs.

Oh, no, no, no. Which just brings so many awful images back.

Yeah, I'm not. I hate it. Yeah. So he had multiple methods of murder.

He did not have one thing that he stuck to.

He didn't just shoot them with his machine guns?

No, he had some things that he kind of seemed to like more than others, but he would stab, he would strangle, he would shoot.

Or he would beat people to death. Oh my god.

Yeah. Sometimes he would even kill two people together in totally different ways.

Wow. So one person he would shoot and kill and the other person he'd strangle.

Shit. But all his victims were stabbed in the torso at one point.

So that is one thing he did stick to. Every single one was stabbed in the torso.

Oh, okay. So here are his victims. The first and second victims of Ivan Milat were Deborah Everest and James Gibson.

They went missing in 1989 and they weren't discovered until October of 1993.

Oh, shit. Yeah, this happened a lot because they were in such remote areas.

So in October 1993, a local man named Bruce Pryor discovered a human skull in a femur in a very remote section of the Belanglo State Forest.

I literally never want to find human remains.

I can't say that. I know and that's why you're fucked up.

It's just like a thing. I don't want that.

I'm not saying I want to. I'm just saying, like... It would be cool in, like, the...

I don't know if I can say that. I think I just don't want the hassle of having to be questioned after that.

I just don't want the hassle of fucking nightmares afterwards.

Yeah, because I don't think that would be my issue.

I think it would literally be like, shit, now I'm... automatically have to be questioned like and i don't want that hassle so this guy bruce prior that found the human skull in the femur he returned to the area with police Good on him.

And two bodies were very quickly discovered and identified as Deborah Everest and James Gibson.

Gibson's skeleton showed eight stab wounds.

A large knife had cut through his upper spine, which would have caused paralysis.

Oh my god. And this happened, this was another thing he did.

He would cut to paralyze so they couldn't move.

Which is real fucked up. So he knew what he was doing, too, because he hunted.

Mm-hmm. And he knew if I just said it was fine.

I mean, anybody knows that. And it's like that whole thing, like, C5, stay alive.

If you cut below the C5 vertebrae, you'll stay alive, but you'll be paralyzed.

Oh, fuck. So it's one of those things, like, anything above that, if you sever the spinal cord, you're in trouble because it...

It controls what helps you breathe. So you'll... It'll be really difficult, if not impossible, for you to breathe.

But... Below the C5 vertebrae, you can still survive.

You're just going to be paralyzed. It's pretty low.

They would basically cut it. He probably cut them in the lower back.

And so this is, so he had a lot, so Gibson had a large knife cut through the upper spine, which would have caused paralysis and he had stab wounds. in his back and chest that would have punctured his heart and lungs oh my god yeah Everest had been savagely beaten that's the woman yeah And he seemed to have beaten the women mostly.

Yeah, that's what I saw. What a dickhead.

Her skull was fractured in two places, her jaw was broken and there were knife marks on her fucking forehead.

What? Yeah. So she had been stabbed in the fucking head.

In the face. She had been stabbed once in the back as well.

The presence of Gibson's body in Belanglo State Forest was... kind of weird to the investigators because they had found his backpack and camera Like, previously, when they went missing, they found the backpack and camera by the side of the road at Galston Gorge in northern Sydney. suburbs, which are like 75 miles to the north.

So he took it with them. Yeah, I guess he must've dumped them somewhere else.

And as you'll see, he does a lot of things with people's stuff.

He likes to keep things from people. He's a trophy guy.

Yeah, which makes sense because he's a hunter.

It kind of makes sense with his psychology that he would want to keep trophies from his kills.

So, Malat's third victim was Simone Schmeidel.

She was the only victim to be murdered alone. which is sad i hate that so much and she went missing on january 20th 1991 which is my brother's birthday and was found on November 1st in 1993.

Her skull was found in like a clearing in the forest.

By Police Sergeant Jeff Trichter. The skull was later identified as that of Simone.

And she was from Regensburg, Germany. So he did get a lot of tourists.

Which makes sense. Exactly. They're backpacking and they're unfamiliar with their surroundings.

So they're... They're kind of like ripe for the picking.

She was last seen hitchhiking on January 20th, 1991, the day she went missing.

And clothing found at her scene was not hers, but matched that of another missing bagpiper.

A bagpiper? A bagpiper. It matched a bagpipe.

We're not in Scotland this week. We are not.

But we will go there. Hell yeah. Because Scotland rules.

We're Scottish. We're Scottish. And yeah, we have like a fucking clan and shit.

We have a clan, we have a tartan, we have a castle.

Get it. We have a, I mean, Scotland has thistles.

Yeah. Sure. We have a thistle. We have thistles all over the place.

And bagpipes, for that matter. And bagpipes.

But what they found here was not a bagpiper.

But they found clothing at Simone's scene that was not Simone's, but actually was another missing backpacker's.

Named Anya Habshid. Did he kill her too?

We will see. Well, he must have if he had her clothes.

So, Simone's skeleton showed at least eight stab wounds.

And two had severed her spine. Oh, damn.

Others had punctured her heart and lungs.

So it seems like he really knew where he was going with these stab wounds.

So the fourth and fifth victims were former German soldier Gaber Neigbauer.

And his girlfriend, Anya Habshid. So they were missing since December 1991 and were discovered on November 3rd, 1993.

Their bodies were in shallow graves about 160 feet apart.

Oh, that's so sad. I don't like that. I hate it.

I hate it. I'm mad. No, I am. She just had emotions right now.

I did. I hate when couples get killed in general.

Yeah, that's a bummer. And then I hate when they get separated.

Yeah, that's no good. So fucking evil. well gabber was likely strangled because and they know this because that was the man okay and he was a former german soldier that's what i was thinking he was a comment on that So they know this because he had a fractured hyoid bone, which is like a free-floating bone in your throat.

That it's a very hard, basically when it's broken, it shows that there's been pressure.

On that part of your throat. And it's really only broken from... Strangulation.

Like, very specific pressure from strangulation.

Talk bony to me. So... So they always look for a broken hyoid bone in cases where they think someone was strangled.

Got it. It's kind of like the one thing they look for.

It's like the smoke and bone. Noted. Yeah.

Did you hear that, Nerd Home? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hilarious. So, shut up. So he also had six bullet holes in his skull.

Oh, man. And one bullet hole in his upper body.

Jesus. I wonder if he tried to run away.

Well, three of the bullets entered at the base of his head and three more from the left side.

So maybe not. I don't really know. Well, no shell casings or bullets were found near his grave, which was a thing with Ivan.

Was he moved? He would never leave. bullets or shell casings around.

This kind of indicated that he was either murdered elsewhere And brought there, or that Millette was savvy enough to pick up the casings.

Jesus. So over the whole area at one point, there was 90 shell casings found at one point.

So he really used a lot. Anya had been decapitated.

Oh god. Which was a first. um experts say that malat had likely had her kneel with her head facing the ground before he so she was alive her head her head has never been found I hate, no.

That's so awful. Yeah, like decapitation freaks me out, man.

It's just like fucking medieval. dude it is her pants were found near the crime scene of Simone like I said before Simone Schmeidel So she was likely raped, too.

Experts believe he kept... Anya on a leash made from a sash cord for a bit before he killed her.

That's so fucked up. He's real fucked up.

The sixth and seventh victims were Caroline Clark and Joanne Walters.

This is pretty fucked up. Oh, no. These two were backpacking in Australia.

They had come from England, and they actually met each other in a hostel in Australia.

They didn't know each other before this.

And they met, and this was in April of 1992 that they met.

And they were like, yo, let's backpack together.

We're both from England. We're trying to do this.

Like, let's do it. So they were going to backpack around Australia together, and they were hoping at this time that they disappeared to get seasonal fruit-picking jobs, which was apparently a thing.

They were discovered in an area of the forest called Executioner's Drop on September 20th, 1992.

They disappeared from Inner Sydney suburb of King's Cross in April of 1992, which is basically when they met, like right when they started out.

So these were the first of Malat's victims to actually be discovered out of all of them.

They were discovered first. Their bodies were discovered first.

Oh, okay. Two runners discovered a decaying corpse while... orienteering in the Belango State Forest in New South Wales, Australia, the following day after they found this decaying corpse.

Police Constables Roger Gouge and Suzanne Roberts discovered a second body 98 feet from the first.

Damn. Police quickly confirmed that the bodies were those of Clark and Walters.

Walters? No, this is where... No. Walters had been stabbed 14 times.

Holy shit. Four times in the heart and lungs, one in the neck and nine times in her back.

Oh my God. So violently that her spinal cord had been cut.

Clark had, now that was Walter's, Clark had been shot in the head 10 times. what like that's overkill and had one stab wound she also had a piece of fabric that was wrapped around her head That is thought to have depersonalized her.

No. And experts believe that Millat had used Clark's head. for target practice because of the different angles that the bullets entered her skull.

What? While she was alive? Yeah, like they tied her up and just shot her in the head and used her head for target practice.

Oh, man. Everything I read was like, oh, the fabric must have depersonalized her.

But personally, I kind of think the fabric was used because it allowed him to see where his bullets were entering.

Right, that's what I was thinking. It's like a target.

Right. Without it, he wouldn't have been able to see it because blood would have mixed and everything.

That makes more sense. Or I mean, they both make sense.

But that fabric, he could literally aim and see where he was hitting.

It's like the cutout that they give you at the shooting range.

I think it was his fucked up version of that.

That's just me personally. I don't know.

No, because I thought that too. Yeah. I couldn't, I didn't find that anywhere because people. just think it was must have been a depersonalization thing but i don't think it works as both i don't think that though But I don't think he needed to depersonalize.

I mean, why would he do that? I don't think he was the type of killer that needed to He didn't have any feelings.

And he didn't depersonalize the other girl.

So it's like, no, I don't think that. Yeah, no, I agree with that.

So no more evidence was found in the surrounding areas.

And since they were the first of his victims found at the time, police didn't think there was really any reason to believe.

That anybody else was going to be found, but little did they know that then they were going to find all the other victims.

It does seem that Millat derived sexual gratification from...

The control. Like the total control over his victims.

He was one of those. Ew. Now this makes him at least partially a sexual sadist in my opinion.

Yeah. Like Ted Bundy. Yeah. Like, he liked... He, like, got off on it.

He could only get it up when someone's in pain and completely...

You know, in his control. Which is the same as Bundy.

It always comes back to Bundy. Okay, bye.

It was Charlie. Sorry. Charlie's not a serial killer, though.

I know. You didn't tell me that Charlie Manson was on that episode of Dark Tourist.

Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. And his, like, friend.

Yeah, his friend who was, like, yeah, who was, like, super all about him.

Yeah, again, watch that show, guys. Also, his friend literally reminded me so much of Charlie Manson.

Oh, I know he did. He really did. And it's, yeah, watch Dark Tourist on Netflix.

It's so good. Because that shit is great.

And there's a, I forgot to say it because I was so insane about that haunted house.

I think it's the same episode. They go to the United States twice.

Yeah, and they go to visit... Charlie Manson's pen pal slash friend.

Who got his body when he died. Who his body was left to.

So go check that out because that shit's crazy.

Yeah, sorry for the random introduction.

No, that was good. Everybody watch that.

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So obviously gags and restraints were used in most of the murders, which proves my point further.

And it shows that Malat did have the control he wanted through these things.

He was able to get it. So he would also spend a lot of time with the victims.

These weren't quick, like, boom, boom, you're done.

I'm leaving. Your body's in the woods now.

Do you think that was a sexual thing? I think it was, because he would spend time before, during, and after their murders.

Near each grave site, there were makeshift fireplaces, cigarette butts, and sometimes cans with bullet holes.

Like, he would hang out there. So afters and, like...

Perhaps days after? Yeah, like he might have like, because there was like cans with bullet holes.

He would just sit and like shoot the shit.

Well, they were probably tied up in pain.

Like he could have paralyzed them with a shot to like a stab to the back and then just hung out.

While they were like writhing in pain. That's like super fucked up.

Right? Like he's a fucked up dude. And that means he was confident enough to stay around his victims for long periods of time without fear of anything happening.

Wicked, secluded. But you're not even afraid, because I don't know if he paralyzed all of them right away.

You're not even afraid that one of them is going to try.

Oftentimes, he would get two people at once.

Or that like another backpacker is going to come along.

Exactly. That's the thing. It's like he wasn't afraid.

He was probably just like fucking look at them too.

He's like I'll fucking kill them too. Yeah.

Damn. He's a scary motherfucker. Well, that makes sense in the... control thing like he's he probably had um some kind of complex oh for sure he had that he was like this control guy yeah he totally did And he did dispose of all his victims in the same manner.

So all his victims were dumped obviously in the same area of the Belanglo State Forest.

And each victim was placed face down with their hands put behind their backs.

And then he would make a pyramid. Out of sticks and ferns on top of their bodies.

Why? Almost like a grave marker. It's very weird.

That doesn't signify any kind of sympathy, does it?

No. No, especially face down. Yeah, face down.

That's degrading. Why a grave marker, though?

I don't know. Almost like he wanted to be like, ha ha, I did this.

Yeah, like I almost think it was just fun for him.

I don't even know. I can't even think of something that makes sense there.

That's very strange. Yeah. Well, after developing a profile of the killer that they got from all these bodies...

Investigators applied link analysis technology to roads and traffic authority vehicle records, gym memberships, guns licensing, and internal police records.

So they were trying to come up with any list of suspects they could.

So the list of suspects did narrow because of that. from a list of 230 people to an even shorter list of 32.

And this list of 32 included Ivan Milat.

Okay. Now, let's talk about Paul Onions, the sole survivor.

Onions. Onions. Onions, onions, onions, onions, onions, onions, onions, onions, onions.

By the band Evil Onion. Yeah, oh my god.

Oh my god. Full circle. Love it. It just got hella loud there.

So Paul Onions. Onions. Onions. Onions. Paul Onions was visiting from England and was hoping to get a ride to go fruit picking.

Not vegetable picking? Everyone's going fruit picking.

It's a thing. And he was picked up by Ivan Milat on January 25th, 1990.

At 42 Walloway, Walloway, Walloway. What's happening?

42 Wallaby Road, Sydney. Is that Finding Nemo?

Yes. Did I also just die in the middle of that?

You did. You know what happened? You malfunctioned.

I actually malfunctioned. We have to replace your batteries.

I think it's Wallaby. I can't remember. I don't remember.

Wallaby. On to the next one. So, during this whole thing where Ivan Milat picked up Paul Onion's...

So many names that are awesome. And Malat was initially very friendly.

He introduced himself as Bill, which, um, I don't know if you're keeping score, but that's not his name.

Spoiler alert. Wasn't Bill. It's Ivan Milat.

Oh my god. Sorry. Whoa. Just ruined it for you.

I totally had no idea. Sorry if you guys were just like, who could? this be?

Were you on the edge of your seat? You were.

I was. Onions found Malat's personal questions about his plans a little unnerving.

What was he asking? I don't know exactly what he was asking.

He hasn't really revealed a lot, but he said he just became...

Like weird. He just started giving off a weird vibe, which good for Paul Onions for like.

Yeah. Yeah, fuck politeness, as my favorite murder would say.

My favorite murder is right, fuck politeness.

Because if you get a vibe, get the fuck out of there.

Yeah, I don't care if the car's moving, just get out.

And he said he became really concerned for his personal safety because Malat started ranting. making racist and xenophobic remarks and just being like a dick.

So they drove for a while. And then Paul began to get like the heebs from Bill.

Like he was like... You're giving me weird vibes.

Take it down a notch, Bill Ivan. He was like, I think Bill Ivan you need to, like, I think Biven you need to chill.

Biven. Like, chill Biven. So he was just getting him, he was giving him bad vibes.

And after about an hour of this bad vibe, Biven stopped the truck.

Out of nowhere. And he pulled over and he claimed that he was going to the back of the truck to get a...

Some cassette tapes because he wanted to listen to some music.

Oh, you just keep those in the back of your truck, you fucking weirdo?

Well, Paul noticed that there were like a ton of cassette tapes in the front of the truck.

And so he went to tell Bill that, like, it was cool and they could keep listening to, you know, like, the Kylie Minogue that was playing.

Yeah. I just picked a random Australian musician from 1919.

Well, when he went to get out of the truck, because I think he was gonna like tiptoe away.

I think he was just gonna be like, yeah, like Irish goodbye, that shit.

And when he tried to do that, Bill pulled out some ropes and attempted to tie onions by the hands. and pulled a gun on him.

Oh, awesome. How the fuck did he get away?

Now, at this point... He managed to get the hell out of the car while Biven shot at him.

Was he just like zigzagging across the Australian outbacks?

Yeah, he was like serpentining. And... Paul jumped the hell out of the truck.

While I was moving? And ran straight into oncoming traffic.

And at first, Byvon stayed in the truck just grinning.

Like just watching him run into traffic.

And then he made an attempt to wrestle Paul.

In the middle of the street? Yep. So Paul managed to get a woman named Joanne Berry to stop her car.

And he dove into her back seat and they fucking split.

Spooked the fuck out of her. Like. Went to the nearest police station.

Yes, Joanne. Now, why is this all very important?

Because after news started going crazy about all those bodies being found in the woods... Composite sketch.

No. Cool. I tried. That was good. But the woman who saved Paul's life in the car, Joanne Berry... called the hotline number for the task force.

1-800-I-Know-Who-Byven is. He was like, I guess.

I got this dude named Byvin that I think did it.

He fits your bill. But the hotline was overloaded due to the amount of calls that the hotline was receiving.

Did you just notice that I said he fits your bill and I didn't even mean to?

Oh. My. Damn. Pun not intended. That was so good.

I was clever and I didn't even fucking know it.

I loved it. I loved it, and I didn't even know I loved it, but I love it.

Sorry, I just hit your toe. During this time, there was also the girlfriend of a man who worked with Ivan Milat. who was like, I think you should question Ivan Milat.

The girlfriend of a friend. Of a guy who worked with him.

Oh, okay, okay. So the girlfriend of a dude who worked with Ivan Milat was like, maybe he did it.

She thought he should be questioned over the case and called the hotline as well.

Because she got the heebie-jeebies. So they got two calls from two different, like, Two very intense calls that were like, I think he did it.

They were making the hotline bling. it you know what my favorite I don't even American Horror Story right that one scene where Hotline Bling plays over murder and mayhem some Some people loved it.

I fucking loved it. Every fiber of my being.

I was writing for, cause I was a TV writer for bustle.com.

Which was really fun. And I used to have to live write for American Horror Story.

And live writing for that scene... All the writers were going fucking bananas.

Oh, hell yeah. Like we were going nuts. Also, everyone, doesn't live writing kind of sound a little bit like hell?

It is hell. It's pretty hellacious because you're not really watching.

You're just frantically trying to get an article out as fast as possible me and elena like to watch tv together and i was never invited over when she was live writing yeah it's a bummer it was But I'm not doing that anymore, so now when Game of Thrones comes back, I can actually watch Game of Thrones.

I can't fucking wait. for two seasons I have not really watched it I've had to just frantically write through it I literally cannot fucking wait Game of Thrones.

So, Bill, Ivan, Hotline Bling, Ring Ring.

November 13th, 1993. Paul Onions heard about the bodies that were being found in Australia, and he was like, huh.

And he did that. He was like, huh. And then he decided to call the task force number.

Also, I'm making a lot of hand gestures right now.

So many. But I'm very intense right now.

So he decided to call the task force number and give them information about that situation because he was like, Yo, maybe my attacker is this guy.

Oh, fuck, but he was, like, this guy named Bill.

This guy named Bill. So the responding officer thanked him for the information and hung up.

And that was it. Nothing really happened at first.

So, come April 13th, 1994, Detective Gordon...

Found a note regarding Paul Onion's call.

Okay. And that was five months earlier. All right.

So nothing was done for five months, and then all of a sudden Detective Gordon finds this note.

Sounds a lot like police work. Superintendent Clive Small immediately called for the original report from Boweral Police.

But it was missing from their files. Of course it was.

Of course. So fortunately, Constable Janet Nicholson, so many names, had taken the full report in her notebook.

Fuck yeah, Janet. That's right. writing down shit in notebooks all the way.

Now this notebook provided even more details Than anything.

Like, she had the whole original statement.

Janet knew what she was doing. Which, like, good job, Janet.

Hell yeah, Janet. Fuck yeah, Janet. Damn it, Janet.

Love that. Good band name. It's a Rocky Horror Picture Show reference.

I'm making a lot of references right now.

I think that I know you're not going to get so I need to stop doing them yeah I think but I know a lot of people people get that one.

That's one of your favorite pastimes is making references I don't get.

It's true. Damn it, Janet. People will get it.

No, I've seen that. Yeah. Just not for a long time.

Yeah. Anyway. So, Janet. Police confirmed that Ivan's brother... Now...

I think his brothers, like his whole family was kind of getting looked at here because people were like, Yo, those Mille Lacs.

So they started looking at like his brothers and shit.

But they confirmed that his brother Richard, who people were really like thinking maybe could have done it too, they confirmed that he had been working on the day of Paul Onion's attack.

But Ivan was not. So the files... Oh, he wasn't?

He was not. Huh. He was bivining that day.

Oh, correct. So the files for both Paul Onion and the woman who saved his life, Joanne Berry. were placed under the lead file now so they finally got upgraded don't you think it's kind of wild that everyone was trying to pick fruit and then joanne berry saved the day Whoa.

Just saying. That's crazy. I think so. I feel like that's, like, the universe or something.

Fuck yeah, it is. I don't know. I love the universe.

Well, like I said, the police were already looking into the Malat family based on... you know, Milat's history of allegedly raping and kidnapping two girls in 1971.

He had been acquitted for the charge, but it was still arousing quite a bit of suspicion.

Shortly after the notes for his attack were found, Onions flew to Australia.

So he came to Australia from England, where he's from.

Oh, okay, okay. He flew back to Australia to show the officers exactly where it took place.

And on May 5th, 1994, he was able to pick Milat out of a video lineup of suspects.

Oh, wow. Yes. Yes, Paul Onions. So it was because of Paul's ability to pick out Malat, all the warrants were granted and evidence tying Malat to the murders was discovered.

Now, police learned that Milat had served prison time before for his bullshit.

He wasn't charged or convicted with the rape and assault of those women, but he was charged.

So he did serve prison time in 1971. They also, so that was pertinent to this, that he was capable of that.

They also learned that he and his brother Richard Mallatt worked together on road gangs along the highway. highway between sydney and melbourne okay and that he owned property in the vicinity of belanglo okay and had sold a Nissan Patrol four-wheel drive vehicle right after the discovery of the bodies of Clark and Walters.

And it makes sense that he would need a four-wheel vehicle. vehicle to get in and out of the forest oh yeah so acquaintances also told the police that malat had a fucking obsession with weapons Good.

And he had a ton of those pictures of him fucking holding 17 huge guns and shit.

Yeah, what a fucking tool. With his fucking huge mustache and his tiny dick.

So... Savage! Sorry. So, after... A very lengthy negotiation.

Now, Wayne Gordon was the negotiator trying to get Ivan out of his house.

Okay. You know that like in Mindhunter when holding forward.

Opening scene and then he shoots himself right in the head.

Yeah. That didn't happen here though. Good.

So it was a very lengthy negotiation. Malat was arrested on May 22nd, 1994 at his home at Cinnabar Street, Eaglevale.

After 50 police officers surrounded the premises, including heavily armed officers from tactical operations units, and also the homes belonging to his brothers Richard, Alex, Boris, Walter, and Bill.

Bill. He had a brother, Bill. Oh, damn. Were also searched at the same time by over 300 police officers.

Wow. Holy smokes. Yeah. Now, the search of Milat's home revealed a lot.

Uh-oh. They revealed a cache of weapons, including parts of a .22 caliber rifle that matched the exact type used in the murders.

Oh. plus a shitload of trophies that he had collected from his murder victims.

Including? Now, this included clothing, camping equipment, and cameras belonging to several of the victims.

There was even foreign money belonging to victims found among his shit.

Like Indonesian rupee banknotes, which forensic investigators found among...

Australian cash on his bedside table in his bedroom.

And what they found out was that German foreign soldier Geber Naug, Bauer?

Nagbauer? Is that how I said it before? I'm sorry if I'm really butchering this name.

It's okay, you try. Nagbauer. The 21-year-old that they found in the forest.

Yeah. And his girlfriend, Anya. That was their money.

That couple had been on holiday in Indonesia before arriving to Australia.

So it was fucking theirs. So boom. Some of these items Malat was stuffing into the fucking walls while negotiators were trying to get him out of the house.

Like he broke holes in the wall and we're trying to shove shit in the walls.

Yeah. No. This shit is even crazier. Here's my fucking issue.

What? If you want to do all this, when you finally get caught, you know what?

You got caught, so that's it. You can't be a human and start owning up to your shit.

It makes me... Crazy. But no, and that's the thing.

So they found all this shit like belonging to victims in his house and he's like, I didn't do it.

He's dead now. Oh. I think. Yeah, he's dead.

So that's good. So... Now, he also took and wore a shirt that was Paul Onions.

Wow. Yeah. It was found in his garage and people said he literally wore it around.

So he liked to wear shit from like people he fucked with.

Now this is even crazier. And I am posting a photo of this on the Instagram.

Paul Onions got his shirt back. No. It was later discovered that he had taken a Benetton shirt from victim Caroline Clark and had given it to his girlfriend.

That is so fucked up. His girlfriend, Shalinder Hughes, apparently had no idea what was going on.

Which... Likely story. I don't know. I don't know.

Like, where's your boyfriend been? I know.

It shocks me about, like, BTK's wife and kids, too.

But then I really don't think they knew what was going on either.

Yeah, that's true. So it is kind of crazy.

Sorry, Shalonda. But... There is a photo of her standing on the beach wearing the fucking shirt.

That's so fucking weird. And there's also a photo of Caroline Clark wearing the shirt.

Okay. And if you put them next to each other, it's really fucked up.

That poor girl. Maybe she didn't know. Ugh.

And forensic psychiatrists believe that he probably got a real thrill out of seeing one of his murder trophies worn unknowingly by someone.

And, of course, his girlfriend, too. Like, that's really fucked up.

Like, weirdly sexual. Now, on May 30th, 1994... following a lot of police investigations Millett was charged with the murders of seven backpackers, and in March 1996, the trial started and lasted 15 weeks.

His defense team was like, I don't know what to do here because they found all this shit.

So obviously they know someone here did it.

They just tried to shift the blame to other members of his family.

Like his brother Richard. I mean, there was 13 other people.

They were like, let's give this a shot. Didn't work.

On July 27th, 1996, a jury found Malak guilty of seven murders.

Wow. And he was also, which, go Paul Onions, he was also convicted of the attempted murder, false imprisonment, and robbery of Paul Onions.

Holy cow. Which I'm really glad about because Paul deserves that.

Yeah. So he received six years in jail for each count against Paul Onions.

Oh. So he received six years in jail for the attempted murder, six for the false imprisonment, and six for robbery.

Now, for the murders of Caroline Clark, Joanne Walters, Simone Schmeidel, Anya Habshid, Gaber Nagbauer, James Gibson, and Deborah Everest.

He was given a life sentence for each count.

Holy cow, so he has 18 years plus seven.

And all those sentences were going to run consecutively, and he had no possibility of parole.

Because fuck you, Ivan. What was that face you just made?

Oh, my leg is asleep. So he didn't do so hot in prison.

How come? Because, you know, he likes to be in control.

And with prison, you're not in control. No.

Now, Malat has been known to cut off a piece of his own finger.

He swallowed razor blades. He swallowed staples and other metal objects to try to get hospital visits.

In 2011... Malat went on a hunger strike and lost 25 kilograms in an attempt to get a PlayStation.

What? Fuck you. Yeah, literally, fuck him.

Either way, there's... A few more bodies that are possibly attributed to Malat, and I'll just give you a few so you can see.

So five young women who disappeared over a 20-year period from the Newcastle area in New South Wales Hunter Valley region. are strongly believed to have been murder victims of Malap.

According to Wayne Gordon, the negotiator, He thinks that it's weird that in each of the five cases, the young women were hitchhiking or walking to their homes.

And at the time, Malat was working in the Newcastle area with the DMR Roads Repair Gang.

Oh. Yeah. Police said he is also the prime suspect for an eighth unsolved murder, that of Peter David Letcher. who was 18 years old and he disappeared hitchhiking from Liverpool in his parents' Bathurst home in November 1987.

So it's in the same time and area that he was killing.

He was also questioned in 2003 about his possible involvement in the disappearance of two young nurses from a Western Sydney hotel in 1980.

These were 20 year old nurses. They were last seen at 7.30 p.m. on Saturday, June 12th, 1980.

They were leaving the Tollgate Hotel in Church Street, Parramatta, with a man... dressed in dirty work clothes and wearing a floppy black cowboy style hat, which he is known to wear.

Gross. At the time, Milat was living in his mother's Guildford home and working at the Department of Main Roads Depot at Rose Hill. which is less than two kilometers from the Tolgate Hotel.

And it was... Also, that was a very popular drinking spot for DMR workers at the time.

Oh. So he definitely could have been there.

For sure. Um, so yeah, so that's kind of crazy.

Some weird aftermath for this case. His, Michael Malat, who is Ivan's great nephew.

Mm-hmm. That sounds familiar. Well, he and his friend Cohen Klein, they're both 19 years old, they killed...

17-year-old David Octorloni in Belanglo State Forest in 2010.

He was just taken after his uncle. Octor Loney was hit in the head with an axe.

Oh, my God. And left close to where some of Ivan's victims were found.

That's really fucked up and weird. There was a cell phone recording of the axe hitting him.

No way. And it was played in court. Michael told the judge, quote, that's, meaning murder, is what the Malats do.

What the fuck? Michael received 43 years in prison while Klein received 32 years.

So apparently it is in the family. Yeah.

Isn't that fucked up? Yeah. Yeah. So that's Ivan Milat.

That's fun, right? Yeah, that's fun. So...

Yeah. Ash is still processing. Yeah, I am.

So that's Ivan Milat. So the next case we're just going to hit real quick.

We're going to hit one more case tonight.

It's going to be kind of a doozy. It's a hella doozy.

This one's a rough one. But I think it's important because it's a very fascinating case and a very awful case.

This is the murder of Anita Cobby. So I'm sure a lot of people from Australia will know this case because it's like a really intense one.

Anita Cobby was a teen beauty pageant winner.

She was on the trajectory for a successful modeling career.

But instead, she decided to pursue nursing because she wanted to help people.

That's so humble. So she became a nurse.

She had no known enemies and wasn't involved with drugs or like the party scene.

She wasn't a drinker. And the year before her murder, she had just separated from her husband, John Cobby.

How old was she? She was 26 years old at the time of her murder.

She had just moved back in with her parents because she had separated from her husband.

And she had basically just taken to her job as a nurse.

She was really dedicated, long hours. And she was working at the Sydney Hospital.

She and John, at the time of her murder, were attempting to reconcile again.

Oh, that's awful. Now, after finishing her shift on the afternoon of February 2nd, 1986, Cobby and two friends from the hospital... changed out of their uniforms and went to a restaurant called the Red Fern for dinner.

Now, One of the nurses dropped Cobby off at Central Station just before 9pm that night so she could catch a train back home. where her parents lived.

Her parents were Gary and Gracie Lynch, and they lived in Blacktown.

Now, her usual practice... when she got to the station, because she would take this home all the time.

Right. Her usual practice was to call her dad from the station, and he would pick her up.

Aww. Now, because she often stayed at friends' places in the city or if she had to pull a double shift, you know, but she had told him that night that she was going to be having dinner with friends.

When she didn't call him, he didn't really think a lot of it because he was like, oh, she must be working late or she's staying with her friends.

And she was 26. Exactly. She's like a teenager.

Yeah. who just did, you know. Now, when the staff from Sydney Hospital called her father the following morning, asking if they knew why Anita didn't come to work.

He immediately began to worry, obviously.

Well, it makes my heart hurt. So when there was no word from Anita by that afternoon, he panicked and he immediately filed a missing persons report.

So what we know is that she did catch the 9.12 p.m. train from to Blacktown in outer western Sydney.

Now, when she arrived at Blacktown Station, it was just before 10 p.m., So at that time, she had gone to find a phone at the station to call her dad.

She was going to call her dad. When she got there, somebody had vandalized the phone, so it didn't work.

So she was like, okay, it's a nice summer night.

I'm going to walk home. How far was the walk?

I don't think it was crazy far. I'm not sure how far, but it was...

Not something that would have been like, oh shit, I have to walk home.

I think it's like, oh, I'll just take a nice walk home.

So as she did... Oh my god. A dirty white... tannish car slowed beside her and stopped.

This like stresses me out so badly. Two of the five men that were in that car jumped out and grabbed her oh my god pulling her into the car as she screamed and fought like hell to get away from them oh my god oh my god Now, witnesses heard her, saw this happen.

A lot of them tried to stop it. Like, got in their cars, or they were, like, running after the car.

Oh my god, this is stressing me out so bad.

And they called the police, and they, like, reported this, but there wasn't a lot, you know...

They didn't catch them. So it was like nobody knew what to do.

So they were looking for this vehicle. So in the car, they stripped off her clothing immediately. and repeatedly punched, beat, and raped her in the car.

They pulled into a gas station at one point, because they were running out of gas or petrol, as it's called down there.

Petrol. And they stole $15 from her purse to pay for the gas.

Fuck you guys. Right? Like, doesn't that just fucking piss you off?

Like, seriously? Now, we found out later, and I'll mention it again later, that this car was stolen.

Oh. Yeah. So Anita was brutally beaten, raped, and tortured before having her throat cut to end her life.

Oh my god. So severe was this cut that it literally almost left her decapitated.

So they cut it so deep that... And didn't you say that she was alive when they did it?

Yeah, she was alive when it happened. So it's just so awful.

Her bloodied naked body was left in a secluded cow paddock. at Prospect, not far from Blacktown.

And it wasn't discovered for two days. The way it was discovered, it was by, now this was in a cow paddock, which is like a little cow area on a dairy farm.

This is one of the most horrifying things ever.

It's awful. Yeah, it really is. Like I'm processing this as you continue to talk.

Luckily, there's I guess there's like a good ending because they find like spoiler alert.

They find who did this. I hope they all got the shit kicked out of them so fucking badly in jail.

I really hope so. Because she was found by the dairy farmer who owned the farm, named John Reen, on February 4th.

So at around 9.30 a.m. that morning, he saw that his cows were, like, gathering in an area.

And he was like, what the fuck? But he didn't go to check because he was like, eh, whatever, cows are weird.

Were they like around her? They were. And he said they were gathered in an area he referred to as the boiler paddock.

And he kind of found it odd, but he was like, all right.

He went to a cattle sale. Like he just had to go.

So he was like, bye. So he returned home two hours later and the cows were in the same spot.

So he was like, okay, what? So he was like, uh, guys, what are you doing?

So he approached them and that's when he saw the battered and bruised body of Anita Cobby lying on her stomach.

And he immediately called the police in the panic.

Fucking God. Now, huge bruises covered this woman's entire body. she had several broken bones including her shoulders and fingers she was naked except for her very unique wedding ring Oh, no.

It was a rushing wedding band that had three interlocking bands of yellow gold, white gold, and rose gold, which is super unique.

I'm surprised they didn't steal that. I know, right?

I don't think that's what they were there for.

They were there to rape her and kill her.

That's all they wanted. Fuck them. Right.

And there were signs that she had defensive wounds.

So it points to her fighting for her life.

Now. autopsy results would find that she was still alive when her throat was slit.

When her body was found, people went fucking insane.

The New South Wales government posted a $50,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest.

And in the hope of like getting people to remember that night and maybe hopefully be like, oh shit, I saw her and I saw these guys. a police officer, a woman police officer, actually dressed like Cobby and traveled the exact path.

Just to jog someone's memory. Just to see if somebody's like, oh shit.

I remember seeing her. And I think they recorded it.

Wow. So they like played it so everybody could see.

What a brilliant tactic. And while this was going on, her colleagues interviewed. people around her being like, did you remember seeing someone looking like, which is so fucking brilliant.

I'm like, yeah, Australia. Like, damn. And good for her.

It seems like Australia has their shit together.

I feel like they fucking have to. Like, investigations and shit.

I'm like, yeah. They have their shit together.

Because a lot of times, like, American serial killer stories, you're like, guys, come on.

Like, it just seems like it's, like, shit.

But... So obviously the whole of Australia was outraged.

Of course. They were flipping out. Even the police that were investigating said that they were like, fucked up over this.

Like, they said finding her was the most brutal shit they've ever seen in their careers.

Oh, man. God. The investigation was led by Detective Sergeant Ian Kennedy and Detective Sergeant Graham Rosetta.

And Kennedy was like the lead. Now, Kennedy stated what struck him most were her eyes when he found her.

He said, quote, the look in that girl's eyes, I will never forget those dead eyes.

You could see she had gone through hell.

You could see it. Stop. That hurts. Yeah.

Everything. Now, when the news was brought to Anita's family, like her whole family was there.

They brought her ex, well, separated her estranged husband, John Cobby.

They brought them all together and they basically asked if they needed someone to identify the body.

Oh, oh, oh. Like they needed, they were like, somebody needs to come to the morgue and identify.

And the mother was like, I literally can't.

No. Like I cannot see her. How could you ever?

And so the father stepped up and was like, I'll do it.

Like somebody has to do it. For my daughter.

And so he went with her sister's husband.

So her sister's husband went with him. When the sheet was pulled back at the morgue, it was said that he almost, like, his knees buckled.

And they had to, like, catch him. And when he finally got himself together, he said, quote, I wish I could say it was someone else's daughter, but it's not, is it?

Oh. Yeah. I feel like I'm going to cry.

Oh, my God. No, this one gets me because it's like... That's someone's kid.

I can't imagine them pulling a sheet back and it's your kid.

I don't even know, like, I can't even. So, at first, I mean, the obvious way to go is to look at her husband, her estranged husband, John Cobby. especially because they were strange and she had obviously been recently separated from him and you know the husband always did it so it's kind of always the first thing like So they interrogated, they brought him to the station, they interrogated him for a long time.

They kind of started out slow, like... Just asking about the separation, asking about this and that.

And then they were like, where the fuck were you that night?

And like, what was this? What was that? But he had like, obviously an alibi.

So at one point he was pushed against a wall and accused of murdering his wife.

Jesus. Like it just happened. And then at that point he said, I must have done it.

And basically what they found out was... Because what happened later was he was so devastated by this.

And did they just break him down so much?

Well, they found out that he probably said that because...

He said, I must have done it because I wasn't there to protect her.

So I must have done it. Like, this is my fault.

Like, yeah. Because he didn't do it. And the thing is, it was pretty clear from the autopsy report that this was definitely not a crime of passion.

Oh, and... How could one person? And that one person had not done this.

Yeah. They were like, no, there's no way.

And this didn't have a crime of passion feel to it.

I mean, although, like, I think they were focusing a little on him because after the separation he became kind of like... obsessively trying to get her back right it seemed like he would do anything to get her back and like her co-workers were saying he called a lot and he was very like But it was just love.

Yeah. So they were like, he's not dangerous.

He's just... And it's really sad because after all of this, he ended up moving out of Australia to the States at one point just to get away from it all. and like he's still to this day and he got into like drugs and alcohol really bad because just to cope and to this day he doesn't know the names of the people who did it because he doesn't want to know because he'd fucking yeah like he literally doesn't want to know and it's like so sad The state governments then announced that the $50,000 reward was going to be doubled to $100,000.

Good. They really wanted information. Now, a week after Cobby's body was found, an informant came forward and said, Hey, you should look at these people.

Who was it? Now, these people... were 19-year-olds John Travers and Michael Murdock, and the Murphy brothers, who were 33-year-old Michael Murphy.

28 year old Gary Murphy and 22 year old Leslie Murphy.

Now, It took just under three weeks for police to track them down, arrest them, and charge them with murder.

Holy cow. Fuck yeah, Australia. That's fast.

Yeah, this case was done. They did a really good job with this.

Now, all these guys came from pretty fucked up backgrounds.

And they were all of below average intelligence.

Well, fuck them, I don't care. And... And I don't mean below average intelligence like they had that as an excuse.

Oh, no, I know. They were... below enough to be considered not understanding what happened like they were just dumb as fuck basically like they were assholes who were also dumb So John Travers was 19 years old.

He was the leader, which is funny. That's weird.

Because there's a 33 year old, a 28 year old and a 22 year old.

Um, but he was really fucked up. Like he was a fucked up kid.

He was accused on his 18th birthday of raping a sheep.

And cutting its throat while he was doing it.

And then he cooked the sheep and ate it.

And later when the police asked him about this when they arrested him, he literally was like, you gotta eat.

What? Yeah. But you don't have to rape a sheep.

According to him, you do, apparently. Ew, what the fuck?

He had been accused of stealing a car that matched the description of the one that abducted Anita.

I just literally want to go to jail and punch all of them in the face.

Well, this is the crazy thing. So while Travers was in custody...

It was learned that he was really close to one of his aunts who was his like blood uncle's wife.

Okay. Now, I'm not going to name her because she is in the witness protection program now.

Oh, shit. I'm just going to call her Aunt X. So...

She approached investigators saying that she had been having trouble sleeping.

She was really messed up about this because she knew John was to blame.

Okay. Now. Can you imagine? Yeah. And she, and when she came to them, she was like, I just can't handle this.

Like, I know he did it. Yeah. And so they convinced her, which is bananas, they convinced her to wear a wire and get a confession from him.

So her husband, who was... john's blood uncle actually like they went to him too because she was like we need to talk to him because this is his nephew Like we need to at least tell him what's going to happen here.

And his uncle was like, I totally agreed that this was the right thing to do.

And he also convinced her, like, you're doing the right thing.

Like, don't think that you're doing something against me.

Obviously she was brutally murdered, but...

That is a hard decision to come to. Oh, yeah.

Absolutely. Wow. So she wore the wire in her bra.

Oh, my God. Yeah, crazy. And when she started talking to John Travers, he opened right up to her.

Because he was so fucking stupid. And he even named all the other suspects as being involved. like he just gave her everything and they actually just released recently the confession tapes like some of the clips basically he's just like Yeah, like she saw us, so I had to cut her.

So he's gross. Yeah. Like maybe just don't fucking do that.

You're going to have to kill someone. Aunt X here had to stand there.

And listen to all of that. And just take this like it's normal.

Like they told her just talk to him. like normal okay but that's not normal how do you even react and some of the police even said while they were watching her talk to him because she was talking to him in the police station They said she was, like, trembling and, like, clearly very upset by this.

So even with that, she agreed. to wear another wire to get Michael Murdock to confess as well.

Wow. And so she's a badass. I was going to say, what a badass bitch.

Like she's courageous as fuck. No, he confessed completely, too.

Like, he... He was a little, like... He was less so than Travers willing to talk, but he gave enough.

Like... He gave what they needed. Now, the trials were a huge security risk.

Because mobs and mobs of people waited outside because they literally wanted to rip these people apart.

I hope they got shit thrown. I'm sure they did.

There was a dummy dangling from a noose that was tied to a tree branch.

And some held, like, signs that were literally saying we wanted... restore the death penalty for them.

Like, they were like, this is... And then some that were showing solidarity with Kabi, like... wore their police, their nurse uniforms.

Oh, my God. Yeah. That just gave me chills.

I know. Now, these tapes, along with the fact that Travers shocked everyone and pleaded guilty to everything, which no one really thought he would.

This led to the convictions of all five of them.

Good. They all tried to blame the other people and they all basically blamed Travers saying that he had the knife and he did it.

Like, we were just there raping her. Would she have died regardless, though, because of all her wounds, or no?

I don't think she... I mean, it's hard to say.

I don't... It's hard to say. She could have survived.

If no one found her for two days, she might have, because she might not have been able to bring herself.

Because there was also evidence, and they... confess to this that she was dragged through a barbed wire fence so she might yeah There's an autopsy report somewhere out there that people that is said to be like the most.

I don't even know. Seeing the injuries is like the worst thing you've ever heard.

And despite them trying to all blame Travers, they all got life in prison.

And all of their files for imprisonment were marked never to be released.

And the judge made it clear in the sentencing, like, I am... recommending that you all be marked never to be released.

I don't want to hear your fucking plea for a parole bargain.

It's crazy. And then an even weirder thing with this one. is that Gary Murphy, one of the Murphy brothers, his defense attorney, who was a woman named Lee Johnson, She had got like a reputation during this trial.

She was very... sweet to gary and seemed to be way too much basically people thought she was sleeping with him Ew, what the fuck?

And there was a story that I heard actually on the the podcast case file which is a great podcast listen to it you really should it's this like australian guy who has a very soothing voice and he's so detailed and very well researched.

And he's very respectful. And he has just a great podcast.

So go Casefile. But I actually heard this on there that...

There was a story where one of the investigators came into the courtroom one day And she had placed chocolate eggs on the defense table.

And they were like, what the fuck is that?

And she was like, well, it's Easter time.

It was just for the boys. Oh, the murderous motherfuckers who slaughtered a human?

The investigator went and smashed all the chocolate eggs and was like, you can't have those in the courtroom.

And then... smashed her fucking stupid face in.

Like, ridiculous. And I was reading... an article that she was interviewed for recently, I think in like February 2016, where she was like, Everyone just said that we were sleeping together because I'm a woman.

No. And that's it. And it's like, no, I think it's because you brought him chocolate eggs.

Like, why would you ever... Ew, what the fuck?

So that's just a weird story. I've said what the fuck so many times throughout this entire podcast today.

Yeah. So that's just like a quick overview of the case.

I didn't want to go into too much because this is a really rough case.

It's horrible. But... Yeah. So, yeah, Australia.

You did the damn thing. You do it. And again.

That's the case of Anita Cobby. And I'm really glad that they found those fuckers and that they're never going to be released.

I need like a drink. I know. I know. You have some Bailey's downstairs.

I'm saying. And again, we're going to cover some more cases because narrowing this down was really tough.

But I wanted to get a little into both the cases.

I didn't want to just quickly review both of them.

So we could only do two today. But we'll definitely do more on a future episode of Australian Madness.

I only have the brain capacity for two tonight.

Because I want to cover the Snowtown murders.

The bodies in the barrels murders. Oh God.

It's a crazy one, but that one will needs an episode by itself.

So we will cover snow town, which I'm sure some of you were wondering about.

And yeah, I think. Next week, I think we're going to do like a little bit of a departure.

And I think we're going to do an episode...

Where we're just going to talk about crazy-ass medieval torture methods.

Whoa. Because those things are crazy. So I think we're going to do that next week.

So look forward to that. And then we'll come right back around to serial killers.

Maybe we'll hit a big guy. Heavy hitter?

Maybe we'll hit a heavy hitter. Who do you think we want to do?

Let's give them a small hint. Maybe we'll hit somebody who works at night.

And maybe had bad breath. Stinky motherfucker.

Maybe smelled like wet leather. And maybe... liked star shapes on his palms yeah maybe we'll hit someone like that after our medieval torture episode i don't know i don't know you decide all right so yeah i don't think that gave it away i don't think so no no so you can find us on instagram find us on instagram at morbid podcast find us on twitter at a morbid podcast because somebody already had the twitter handle morbid podcast oh no And find us on Facebook and send us emails, morbidpodcast.com. at gmail.com slide into our dooms slide into our dooms and also Keep those reviews and ratings on iTunes coming because you guys are fucking rad.

You guys are so rad. That's so nice. I think next time I'll read some of the reviews from iTunes.

Yeah, let's do that. Because those have been really good.

And so keep reviewing on iTunes and I'll read your review next week because I think we're going to start doing that.

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Yes. What we're going to do. We've been telling you this for weeks, I know, but we wanted to make sure we had something to actually give you before we did it.

But a few of our ideas are that maybe we will give you guys some kind of bonus episodes.

So tell us what you would want in a bonus episode.

We have some ideas. Some of our ideas were like, you know, reviewing and just discussing fun horror movies.

Which sounds super fun. Which would be fun, I think.

Hell yeah. Yeah. and maybe also letting you guys like as a patreon gift letting you guys pick an episode topic, and then that episode is your episode.

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Enjoy the rest of your week. I thought you were going to say something creepy.

So yeah, we hope you keep listening. We hope you keep it weird.

Good day. Good day, mate. Is that? Oh, that was good.

Yeah. An ancestor came through there. I'm positive.

Ciao. I'm in the outback. I'm in the outback.

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[Australian Serial Killers: The Horrors of Ivan Milat and the Murder of Anita Cobby]-[Episode 12: Australian Madness Volume 1]

📋 Summary

Unveiling the Shadows of the Outback: The Morbid Reality

The Backpacker Killer: Ivan Milat

The Sole Survivor: Paul Onions

The Tragic Case of Anita Cobby

Conclusion

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript