Murder On Easey Street

1977, Collingwood. Two young women are brutally murdered. The killer has never been found. What happened in the house on Easey Street? On a warm night in January, Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett were savagely murdered in their house on Easey Street, Collingwood – stabbed multiple times while Suzanne’s sixteen-month-old baby slept in his cot. Although police established a list of more than 100 ‘persons of interest’, the case became one of the most infamous unsolved crimes in Melbourne. Journalist Helen Thomas was a cub reporter at The Age when the murders were committed and saw how deeply they affected the city. Now, forty-two years on, she has re-examined the cold case – chasing down new leads and talking to members of the Armstrong and Bartlett families, the women’s neighbours on Easey Street, detectives and journalists. What emerges is a portrait of a crime rife with ambiguities and contradictions, which took place at a fascinating time in the city’s history – when the countercultural bohemia of Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip brushed up against the grit of the underworld in one of Melbourne’s most notorious suburbs. Why has the Easey Street murderer never been found, despite the million-dollar reward for information leading to an arrest? Did the women know their killer, or were their deaths due to a random, frenzied attack? Could the murderer have killed again? This gripping account addresses these questions and more as it sheds new light on one of Australia’s most disturbing and compelling criminal mysteries. ‘An overdue examination of the Easey Street murders that adds tantalising new information to known and forgotten facts.’ —Andrew Rule, journalist and co-author of Underbelly ‘Helen Thomas’ meticulous examination [is] chilling reading.’ —The Age

One summer night in January 1977, Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett were savagely murdered in their house on Easey Street, Collingwood - stabbed multiple times while Suzanne's sixteen-month-old baby slept in the next room. Although police established a list of 130 'persons of interest', the case became one of the most infamous unsolved crimes in Melbourne. Journalist Helen Thomas was a cub reporter at The Age when the murders were committed and saw how deeply they affected the city. Now, forty years on, she has re-examined the cold case, chasing down new leads and talking to members of the Armstrong and Bartlett families, the women's neighbours on Easey Street, detectives and journalists. What emerges is a portrait of a crime rife with ambiguities and contradictions, which took place at a fascinating time in the city's history - when the countercultural bohemia of Helen Garner's Monkey Grip brushed up against the grit of the underworld in one of Melbourne's most infamous knockabout suburbs. Why has the Easey Street murderer never been found, despite a million-dollar reward for information? Was the investigation mishandled? Did the women know their killer, or were their deaths due to a random, frenzied attack? Could the murderer have killed again? This gripping account addresses these questions and more as it examines one of Australia's most disturbing and compelling criminal mysteries.

"Might and Power is a legendary Australian racehorse, one of the few horses to win the coveted Melbourne and Caulfield Cup double, and the darling of racegoers all over the country. A plain brown horse that was passed in at the yearling sales, Might and Power earned an incredible $5 million in prize money and made front page news with a life-threatening illness. At the height of his powers, he was the kind of horse that people would flock to see: a horse with personality and heart - and a story that brought him into the orbit of many of racing's most famous jockeys and trainers. There are few horses who have captured the imagination of the Australian public in the way Might and Power did - his is a story that Hollywood would love"

An entire household massacred. A family feud. A sheriff found dead. Neighbor turned against neighbor. Reports of ghosts, bounty hunters, deathbed confessions, and legacy fortunes. In 1874, the Saxtown massacre rocked a nation reeling from economic depression and shattered a small German immigrant farming community in Illinois. The murder of the Stelzriede family led investigators through forests and farmland, chasing footprints, bloody tobacco leaves, and the marks of an ax dragged away from the scene. Nicholas J. C. Pistor’s The Ax Murders of Saxtown is a gripping tale of suspense and suspicion that exposes brand new information about the century-old crime and showcases the flaws of the nineteenth-century justice system.

The discovery of the body of Beth Barnard in her Phillip Island farmhouse in 1986, began a homicide investigation that rocked a peaceful community.It also created an enduring mystery, for no one was ever brought to trial for her brutal death, and the main suspect disappeared - never to be seen again.Beth Barnard, a popular and attractive 23-year-old, had been having an affair with a local married man.On the night of her brutal murder, a car belonging to Vivienne Cameron - wife of Beth's lover - was found abandoned near the bridge that connects the famous tourist island to the mainland.No trace of Vivienne was ever found, and her disappearance has never been adequately explained.Nevertheless, a Coroner's Court found that Vivienne had killed her rival then jumped to her death into the waters of Westernport Bay. The case was closed but not forgotten.Ever since their first edition of The Phillip Island Murder, in 1993, Vikki Petraitis and Paul Daley have been regularly contacted by people wanting to know more; people who, like the authors, let the case get under their skin.More than three decades later the mystery, rumours and arm-chair solutions continue.

This is the story of Christopher Wilder: the surf-loving son of a decorated naval war hero born in the suburbs of Sydney, who became the most wanted man in America – a psychopathic serial killer who slaughtered more than sixteen young women in the USA and is the prime suspect in the infamous Australian Wanda Beach murders. Wilder was handsome and charming, and time and time again he managed to convince beautiful young women that he was a fashion photographer looking to help them start a career in modelling. What followed were some of the most brutal, sadistic crimes the world has ever seen – as well as a years-long police operation, dogged by missed opportunities and bad decisions, to track the killer down. Featuring new evidence unearthed from case files and interviews with FBI agents, witnesses and survivors, some of whom have spoken for the first time since the horrendous crimes were committed, The Pretty Girl Killer takes us right into the mind and moment of one of Australia’s most heinous exports.

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