Inside 'Horrible Man'

 

Chapter 1 - "I don’t like hairdressers. I’ll be back.”

– The ‘Horrible Man’.

 

 

Chapter 2 - Portland

“Every crime is solvable, it’s just a matter of finding the right key – that lucky break to open the door – the right suspect and everything fits in. But homicide investigations are rarely as simple as that. There are usually hundreds of keys.”
– Former Victoria Police Homicide Squad Detective Senior Sergeant, John Morrish.

 

 

Chapter 3 - Leaving Home

“She was my best friend.” – Peter Acocks
“We were good friends and we had a lovely life.”
– Robert Penny

 

 

Chapter 4 - The Crucial 90 Minutes

“I went in the front door, tried to open the hairdresser’s door again, but it was locked. I also knocked on the door again – no answer.”
– Shirley Endersby.

 

 

Chapter 5 - Discovering the Bodies

“Oh my God, we’ve gotta get out of here and call the police.”
– Hairdresser, Kay Edwards.

 

 

Chapter 6 - The Early Police Investigation

“Investigations take their time. I didn’t feel any frustration because why would they interview me? I thought they must have had somebody in mind, you know, that type of thing. But the police do their job – it’s not for me to wonder why.”
– Former Portland mayor, Robert Menzel, whose memory of a man he saw running from an area near the crime scene was not transformed into a computer-generated image until two years and nine months later.

 

 

Chapter 7 - Becoming Involved

“… a fox terrier can bring down a Great Dane if it bites him on the balls!”
– Supportive husband.

 

Chapter 8 - Suspects and Theories

“I’m 100% sure none of my work leading up to it contributed to it.”
– Tim Acocks discounting the possibility his job as a policeman led to the death of his mother.

 

Chapter 9 - Portland man, Gordon Smith

“He couldn’t be alibied, he was seen in the area and appeared to have been affected by drugs at the time.”
- Mr Morrish

 

 

Chapter 10 - Melbourne man, Russell Smith

“Russell thought that he was not the perfect son that his dad wanted.”
– Russell Smith’s friend, Sharyn Lovett.

 

 

Chapter 11 - Murder at Sunbury

“I found Renita to be someone with an infectious smile, to have a bubbly and outgoing personality...She was also a devoted mother.”
– Robert Brunton, husband of murder victim, Renita Brunton.

 

 

Chapter 12 - Murder at Bendigo

“We could have hung our hats on it.”
– John Morrish reflecting on initial suspicions the Bendigo killer may have been responsible for the Portland murders.

“It is a front row seat to the greatest show of human behaviour. You get to meet people from all walks of life, all profiles, the good, the bad and the ugly.”
– Former Victoria Police Homicide Squad Detective Senior Sergeant Paul Newman, looking back on his career of almost 38 years in the force.

 

 

Chapter 13 - Adelaide man, Stuart Pearce

“Human beings are really strange things. I have been a copper for 34 years and nothing surprises me to this day. I have seen it all, believe me.”
– Sergeant Steve Harding of South Australia Police.

 

 

Chapter 14 - Murder at St Andrews

“I’m going to have to do something for some money. I’ve killed for money before. I might have to do it again. It’s easy; you just go home, wash up and go to bed. It’s just like a job...If I came home and put $10 in your hand would you care where it came from? It’s just like a job.”
– Alleged conversation by St Andrews murder suspect Lloyd Thompson.

 

 

Chapter 15 - Inside the Criminal Mind

“This is somebody who has been able to get in there, do the deed, stay for a while and extricate themselves very effectively without being caught. It tends to suggest somebody that is more bad than mad.”
– Forensic psychologist, Tim Watson-Munro.

 

 

Chapter 16 - Claire Acocks

“I know of people who used to complain about people snoring, but snoring can be the best music in the world; ask any widow. I still get into the car and sit there waiting for someone else to get in.”
– Husband, Peter Acocks

 

 

Chapter 17 - Margaret Penny

“She was the best mum in the world. I don’t know – what do you say about your mum – she was my best friend...She was just a really special person.”
– Jacqueline Penny

“A great wife and a wonderful friend.”
– Robert Penny

 

 

Chapter 18 - A Cold Case

“...the bell tolls even on each man’s individual island, to recognize that every man must fear the witness in himself who whispers to close the window.”
– Writer, A.M. Rosenthal, commenting on the apathy of witnesses who chose not to intervene as a woman named Catherine ‘Kitty’ Genovese was murdered in New York in 1964.

 

 

Epilogue

Beep, beep. ..
“Saw your article in 2days Standard I know who killed those women I have a story that has never been told”...

 

Chapter 19 - Click here (register for updates)