The Beat: A True Account of the Bondi Gay Murders (18 page)

French: Couldn’t handle that, mate. I think I’d be locked up again if one of them started chattin’ me up.

Howard: Or goin’ down to Bondi and going for a swim, or goin’ down near the Wall or something. Fuck that. D’you know that Matthew Davis, you know Matthew Davis? Don’t know him? Sent to Patto just for killin’ another poof down at Bondi.

French: No, I don’t know him.

Howard: Don’t know him? You know the other two lads that were involved in that? They come from Waterloo. They live in John Street. They’re two brothers. McGavin or something. I don’t know their names. They’re down at Patto … Brad knows ’em. He says that I, I know ’em, but. I’ve met ’em before, but … That Matthew Davis is gettin’ bashed down Patterson … All the time. Talkin’ about how he bashed fags and all that … Coupla curries turned up
[3]
… He told me about it. He, he threw it off. I think it was in a park where youse got that other one. I think he threw it off that one at Bondi. At the cliff there. I think that was exactly the same spot, I’m not sure. He said he threw it off a cliff.

French: That’s a huge cliff, man. The one that comes down in between two, two lots of flats … It’s a huge one. That’s about 20-, 30-foot drop.

Howard: Is it? I think, I think that’s the one he threw it off.

French: Fuckin’ hell, that’s huge.

Howard: Yeah? Did you go all the time to Bondi?

French: I’ve been there a couple of times. About three or four times … It’s a bit far to go, but … Like the close spots, mate. Waterloo, Alexandria … Like, one time we went to Centennial … rode on the bikes, we had nothin’ else to do. We used to go for a ride and we used to fly down the hill. Just something to do. Fuck it, while we’re here we may as well go down.

Howard: Eh?

French: Used to go to the Junction. Just go for a walk there.

Howard: Should have took that bloke’s car, man. Did you think about it? Did you search it, heaps good?

French: No, not heaps good. There was a good jacket in it … A leather jacket.

Howard: Still got it?

French: Sold it, mate.

Howard: Where was the car?

French: You know near Pete’s shop at the corner? Just there. You know the shop next to the school?

Howard: Our school?

French: Yeah.

Howard: Oh, no. I was talking about the one at Bondi … when you … when you got that cunt and you got that car with the keys and that.

French: Oh, Bondi Beach where it’s got that pool?

Howard: Yeah. Was was it locked or unlocked?

French: Unlocked.

Howard: Should have took it, man.

French: Can’t drive.

Howard: Fuck … Did you search it by yourself? Was it rainin’ or dry or what?

French: It was dry. I wouldn’t go out there if it was rainin’. Don’t go nowhere if it rains.

Howard: Was it at nighttime or…

French: Yeah. At night … about 11, 11.30.

Howard: Did you hear about that fag that Morgo and that got? And Morgo hit him across the head with a sledgehammer in the mouth?

French: A sledgehammer?

Howard: Yeah. They went up to him and go, ‘What are you gay for?’ And the bloke went to say something and Morgo says, ‘Don’t talk, ’cause you’re dead.’ Hit him across the mouth with the sledgehammer. It’s only a little one. I think, think Morgo told me that one. And the way he tells it, tells you, it’s funny, man … I suppose Ronnie done heaps of them. He used to go every day, eh?

French: Yeah. Him and Norm, mate, they used to go every day.

Howard: Did Ronnie Morgan tell you about the other one down at Alex? [Alexandria Park]

French: What happened to him?

Howard: That one that got killed. That Allen bloke.

French: I think He told me about that one…

Howard: He?

French: I’m pretty sure. Yeah, it was He.

Howard: I don’t know. I think that’s what Morgo told me. He told me a lot of names.

French: I only heard of He, Bentley, Ben…

Howard: That’s what Morgo told me…

French: All the assaults that I’ve been on, I’ve never used any weapons on gaffs.

Howard: No? They used something, eh?

French: I heard they used a screwdriver.

Howard: Fuckin’ dickheads, eh? You’ve gotta think they are a bit…

French: Yeah, the lot of ’em, eh? They’re lucky, mate … got away.

Howard: True. There was only three, eh? There was only three of ’em? There was eight of us. That might be why [they got away].

Later.

Howard: Reckon Sharkey will be handling all the poofters over in England?

French: No … he’s got no choice, mate. They’ll gang rape him over there if he says anything.

Howard: Has he written and told you about any, any of ’em or anything?

French: No. Fuckin’ don’t want to hear about poofters any more. Don’t want nothin’ to do with ’em. Not worth it.

Howard: True. I suppose it had a good run, but. Eh?

French: We did. All the cash we got … jackets … But I’d rather have made nothin’ and not be in here.

Howard: True. Very true.

French: I can still remember the first time I went, man. Go rushing down Alex Park … Heaps ago, mate. Years and years ago … There was … Brad, I think you were there. Brad, Morgan, Alex, Churchie … There was heaps of us, mate. Fuck, there would have been about 20 of us there … Just smashed the cunt in the toilet …I think you were there. I’m pretty sure you were there.

Howard: I’ve only done one job at Alex Park … That’s the Johnson one.

French: Oh? Oh, you mustn’t have been there. Who was there? Benny, He. Heaps of boys there. Fuck. Smashed him.

Howard: Do you remember all the times you used to go fag bashin’? Can you remember all the ones you got?

French: I can remember fuckin’ heaps, mate. Heaps.

Howard: Which one do you reckon was the worst one you done?

French: Waterloo … Jumped onto the roof … on his fuckin’ head and shit … Brad was there … There was three of ’em in the toilet. One of ’em left. We gave one a small beatin’. The other one, we cracked him … Cops come.

Howard: Did you get caught?

French: Nah. We were sittin’ over in the flats across the road, watchin’ … We’ve been out there heaps of times. We went to Centennial, eh? You were there when we got the guy with the wig?

Howard: No, what happened? Tell me.

French: There was Trindall, me, Sharkey, Brad. We were just gonna walk by him and Sharkey goes, ‘I know that poofter, man. I’ve seen him before. I’ve belted him before.’ They’d belted him at, oh, Moore Park when they was up at the Cross before and took his wig. Trindall pissed in it and they chucked it in a hollow tree. Just knockin’ him around, man … That was one of the funniest days, man. You were there when we got the lad, you know that big thing in the middle of Centennial Park, across from the football paddocks?

Howard: Which big thing? Like a, a dome or something?

French: Yeah, with all them poles. You were there when we got him, weren’t you?

Howard: And we chased him on the, on the bikes? … Up into the bushes…

French: No, we chased him from the bushes … Punched him in there, mate … I can remember when we used to go out to Centennial Park every day.

Howard: I never done any at Bondi. I done Centennial and that and Moore Park.

French: Bondi, man. That was like Moore Park. You know the walkway that goes around? … That goes, when you go from Bondi to Tama? … There’s all fuckin’ tunnels, mate, and it led up, led up in the bushes…

Howard: Is that near that lookout thing?

French: There’s all poofters up in there. Heaps of ’em. Fuck … There’s all bushes. Heaps bushy, mate. And there’s just these little passages…

Howard: What? And they go in there? Is that where you got that poof from before?

French: … I don’t know who was there, man, but they hit him with this skateboard … Cracked him.

Howard: What, on the head? Did he have a go back after you hit him?

French: He just fuckin’ screamed like they all do.

Howard: What did you do after that?

French: Just kept crackin’ him. Someone pushed him over the thing about, like, a three, four foot drop. Something like that.

Howard: Who? Who pushed him? You?

French: No, not me. I was going over to pick up his skateboard. I was gonna hit him again … Heaps funny. Used to love how they scream, eh?

Howard: Yeah. What did you say when you first seen him?

French: Oh, well, I wasn’t, I wasn’t there when they said something to him first off. I was comin’ down from the top, from where the lookout is.

Howard: What, was he near the railin’?

French: No, he was down near … underneath the cliff. Just standin’ there. One of the boys said, ‘You’re a poof, eh?’ And I’ve come runnin’ down the stairs and I just looked around, mate. They were punchin’ into him.

Howard: Who was that?

French: Kerry, Justin, Manuel, James … Who else was there? I think little Popey was down, too.

Howard: What did you do when you ran down there?

French: Beat him. Fuckin’ grabbed his keys, ran back up to his car, searched his car … I think it was a Camry … Couldn’t find nothin’ in the car, found about three dollars … Just tossed them [the keys].

Howard: Whereabouts?

French: In the sea.