Ruth Spitzer

Sydney Living - a Happy You!

A friend recently steered me in the direction of a snippet from Bill Bryson’s book titled “In a Sunburned Country”.  Here he describes people who work in Sydney and commute by ferry …

“An air of cheerful industriousness suffuses the scene.  These are people who get to live in a safe and fair-minded society, in a climate that makes you strong and handsome, in one of the world’s great cities – and they get to come to work on a boat from a children’s storybook, across a sublime plane of water, and each morning glance up from their Herald’s and Telegraph’s to see that famous Opera House and inspiring bridge and the laughing face of Luna Park.  No wonder they all look so damned happy!”

I couldn’t think of a more apt description.  Even those who don’t travel on the ferry, but have ventured down to Circular Quay and sat on the bench to ‘people watch’, or simply relax and marvel at their surroundings, have front row seats to our famous landmarks.  

 

Book Review 'Sins of the Brother' - Ivan Milat story

Last night I turned the last page of my book, and can’t remember when last I’ve been so disappointed and dejected by an ending.  Totally engrossed in this book, I’ve been through a myriad of emotions as each chapter unfolds.  From anger, to disbelief, to puzzlement.  Frustration, some hatred in between, more anger, boredom and then as we’re gearing toward the last 100 pages, your anticipation builds.  You’re so eager to get to the part where you’re hoping the authors will give you some insight into Ivan’s motives, his thought process.  You want to know the man, what makes him tick? It becomes an obsessive desire to want to know.  You can’t think of anything else.  I think I might have crossed into fixated territory as I’ve Googled everything ‘Milat’.  And what fascinating finds there were over that glorious World Wide Web.  How did we ever function and prosper without it?

The first aspect I was eager to discover is the visual.  This book depicts Ivan as a ‘chick magnet’.  They often refer to him with his trade mark ‘Merv Hughes’ moustache, which turned out to be a crucial piece of evidence from a surviving victim.  Do you think I had any idea what ‘merv hughes’  meant, naturally not to this South African born lady, who doesn’t follow Australian cricket,  but hey, I jumped onto Google fast enough.  I’m the first to admit I’m not a big fan of facial hair.  I prefer my men smooth, and so my first reaction upon seeing Ivan with his ‘merv hughes’… well, yuck.  But I can almost understand how that must have been a ‘hot’ look in the days.   

So back to the book … I reiterate again, a bit of an anticlimax.  I’ve been through several thousand words, page after page after page.  Read till 3am some mornings, disregarding sleep and the fact that I have to be up in 3 hours for work, missing my train station on the odd occasion, so immersed was I.

So completely occupied and fascinated by this dysfunctional, dishonest, disrespectful family and the hurt they inflicted on so many.    Mark and Les (authors) do an outstanding job of relaying so much intense detail over so many years.  It takes you through the Milat Parents’ life and their growing brood, the direction each child takes, the misfits, the crimes, prison time, an often occurrence throughout their childhood for many a sibling.  Then half way through,  it gets a bit tedious as we’re introduced to the travel habits of all the backpackers and their families, their birth countries, then moving on to the start of uncovering all the bodies by a curious bushwalker in the Belanglo State Forest.  The task force assigned to the case, the house raids on the various Milats.  The overwhelming array of guns, knives, and backpacker memorabilia and personal belongings found.  And a 4 month trial with over 100  witnesses.  With a resounding guilty verdict, purely on overwhelming circumstantial evidence. Ivan’s last words upon a guilty verdict “I’m not guilty of it.  That’s all I have to say”.  As you get to know him throughout the book, you come to expect such an arrogant comment.

And so that’s where the story ends.  Life imprisonment with no eligibility for parole.  And to this day Ivan has still refused to give an interview behind bars.  So we’ll never get inside his head, which just reinforces the disappointment. The expectations of reading about such horrific events, at the very least is to understand what would possess a human being to engage in such inhuman behavior.  It’s our natural morbid curiosity to want to know!  Back to Google it is for me to try and discover more.

A colleague at work mentioned a movie based on the book,  ‘Wolf Creek’.  I immediately dailled my local DVD store for a copy.  Picked it up that same night, dashed home, excitement building.  The movie starts off so incredibly slow, you’re tempted to turn it off and rather watch re runs of Faulty Towers for some entertainment.  But I was adamant and curious as hell for some action.  Hoping for some really intense scenes.  Eventually even that turned out to be a let down.  The entire movie is based on three kids, heading off for a hike, their car breaking down, Ivan coming across them to offer assistance and tow them back to his place for repairs, they wake up the next morning gagged and tied down and so the torture begins.  Not nearly as gruesome as I was expecting.  And again, the book depicts none of this, which we’d only really know if Ivan spoke up and admitted the true details.  The only comparison between the book and movie are the manner in which the killings occur -  savage. A signature MOD for Ivan and whomever acted with him .. speculation still exists.  Will we ever know?

 

Book Review 'Sins of the Brother' - Ivan Milat story

A topic of heated debate between my girlfriends and I the other day, raised an interesting question.  How does one evolve into a seriel killer?  Are we born with these inherent tendencies or are they developed later in life, and it takes an instant, a visual, an event to spark that desire buried deep in our subconscious.

 And so came about the mention of the book ‘Sins of the Brother’ – “the definitive story of Ivan Milat and the backpacker murders” by Mark Whittaker & Les Kennedy, which I’m now inexplicable and totally engrossed in and can’t wait to get to the part where Ivan gives insight into how and why. 

 The book tells the true life tale of Australian Ivan Milat, who murdered seven backpackers between 1989 and 1992.  Ivan, one of fourteen children, born to Margaret and Steve Milat.  Fourteen children, wow, that’s almost ludicrous, yet surreal.  Margaret’s entire brood, save for a daughter who died in a car accident, have had run in’s with the law.  Some repeat offenders, with varying degrees of unspeakable crimes.

 And so we come back to the question: Are we born with the urge to kill or eased into this mind set by the guidance (whether conscious or sub conscious) by our parents, our peers, our upbringing, yet don’t we choose our own destiny regardless of the influence of others.  From what I’ve read so far, I’m inclined to believe it was the very values instilled by Ivan’s parents that lead him down that delusion and destructive path.

 From the very onset of this book, you’re completely captivated.  Wanting to absorb all you can about his life, I suspect this is possibly spurred on by the very fact that I actually live in the same country that he did where these murders took place, and in some bazaar way, it’s kind of thrilling, that such deplorable events could occur in this amazing place, where crime is minute.  And I base this on the fact that I come from South Africa where it wouldn’t be an ordinary day if some horrific event didn’t take place.  Australia is, in a sentence, the perfect life in every way.  And you tend to forget that lurking under the surface are demons, all around us, hidden from the average Joe / Jane until you read about it days later and then you snap out of your little bubble and realise that crime occurs even in the best of places.

 So the story begins with a prologue, taking us to the day that Ivan and his brother are arrested yet again, this  time for the seven murders.  You read about how arrogant he is, believing he’ll get off again as he always has despite mounting evidence.  And the lengths a mother will go to, to protect her children.  I guess a parent’s love is unconditional.

 Then we’re taken to the start of what will hopefully be an exciting 500 pages.  We learn how Ivan’s parents met.  Margaret was fourteen, Steve thirty two and she literally ran into him with her bicycle and so the courting began in that instant.  It’s almost a really sweet love story.  Boy meets girl, boy smiles at girl, they fall madly and instantly in love.  Not long after, Margaret dropped out of school and shortly after turning sixteen, they were married.  He was thirty four.  Much to the disapproval of the town folks, yet the union blessed and encouraged by Margaret’s parents.   Personally ... and I stress, this is my personal opinion, but that encouragement from a parent condoning that pattern of behaviour to drop out of school, run off and marry a man at the tender young age of sixteen, doesn’t instil concrete family values to me.

 And so I can almost draw the conclusion of understanding how Margaret and Steve producing over a dozen offspring, could lead them down a path of delusional fantasies.  But hey, it takes all kinds to make a world and it’s an intriguing, yet scary story so far ... stay tuned!