The Russell Street Bombing (5 page)

'If I were a betting man,' Adams said, 'I would say these two cars were
connected.'

Could this be a coincidence? A Commodore explodes in Russell Street at 1.01pm
and three hours later, another Commodore with the same drill markings is
involved in a bank robbery in Donvale at the exact time when all available
police resources were tied up in the city.

The three Stolen Motor Vehicle Squad detectives were able to provide another
connection. Three weeks before the bombing a stolen red Daimler car was pursued
by traffic police along the Calder Highway in East Keilor. The car crashed and
the driver escaped. Shortly after, the driver stole another car at gunpoint. He
was dangerous and the police were anxious to catch him.

In the boot of the crashed Daimler was a bag containing cut up pieces of car
number plates. The car was reported as stolen and detectives from the Stolen
Motor Vehicles Squad were called in. Putting the pieces together, investigating
police found plates from the stolen Brock Commodore Special - CCH 997. Detective
John Bradbury made a note in the police data base that if the Brock Commodore
was found, he wanted be notified immediately.

When forensically examined, the holes drilled into the chassis number in the
Brock Commodore were 8mm in diameter - the same size as those drilled in the
bomb car. The VIN plates as well as the compliance plates had also been removed
using the same method as the bomb car - while some of the pop rivets were still
in place, the plates had been torn off. As with the bomb car, the engine number
hadn't been touched.

Clarke and Rankin discussed this new development. They couldn't ignore Crupi
as their strongest suspect, but at the same time, they needed to explore this
new lead. Clarke put a small team of detectives to follow up the Brock Commodore
link.

Nineteen days after the bombing, police finally caught up with
Claudio Crupi. News footage captured him being led out of the Russell Street
police headquarters over to the Magistrates' Court. The irony of the proximity
to the bomb site didn't escape the news commentators.

Two Taskforce detectives, interviewed Crupi, and at the end of the interview
told waiting colleagues that a lot of work would have to be done to prove he was
involved. Crupi was charged with an aggravated burglary that he had committed
before the bombing. Apparently the bomb that he had been seen making was a fake
one and he intended throwing it through a window of the Flemington police
station. If Crupi was innocent, then he had certainly picked the wrong day to
make a fake bomb.

On Wednesday 16 April the anonymous caller made one more call
to the Chief Commissioner. This time, the police were ready. As soon as the man
was on the line, D-24 sent out a call to all St Kilda detectives. They all drove
around to as many public telephone boxes as they could on what was now a
well-practiced routine. And sure enough, an alert local detective, Mark
Caulfield, saw a man talking in a phone box. When Caulfield approached him and
took the receiver from his hand, the Chief Commissioner was on the other end of
the line. They had caught their anonymous caller.

The man, was an industrial chemist called Vladimir Rhychta. It didn't take
police long to see that he didn't have any real information. They charged him
with hindering a police investigation. It was frustrating for the detectives -
they couldn't have ignored his calls, but many hours had been lost chasing
Rhychta that could have been more productively used hunting the real bombers.

But with the connection between the bomb car and the bank robbery in Donvale
uncovered two days earlier, the investigation had gained a new momentum.

While Crupi was the main suspect, he soon had another strong
contender. With the spotlight on the connection between the stolen red Daimler
and the Brock Commodore, it was imperative that police locate the driver who had
crashed the Daimler and later hijacked another car at gunpoint. Detectives spoke
to the traffic cop who had originally chased the stolen Daimler. He had caught a
glimpse of the driver and picked him out of a group of mugshots. He recognised
the driver as Peter Reed who had form as a car thief. Police began a massive
manhunt to locate Reed who was also wanted for questioning in connection with a
number of bank robberies.

Head of the Taskforce, Daryl Clarke, left the Brock Commodore crew of
detectives to follow up the Reed connection, while other crews devoted their
time to the investigation of Crupi and other suspects.

Detectives from the Armed Robbery Squad told the Taskforce that they were
interested in Reed for some particularly violent armed robberies on banks.
Indeed, the silver Brock Commodore had been used to crash through the front
window of the bank in Donvale on the afternoon of the bombing.

Covert surveillance teams began watching Peter Reed very closely. Again.

Despite the faint hope that she would survive her injuries,
Constable Angela Taylor, died on 20 April. For 24 days, her family sat by her
hospital bed as she slowly lost her battle for survival.

Still in hospital himself, Carl Donadio had wanted to visit Angela but he had
contracted a golden staph infection and decided to hold off. He didn't get
another chance because she died before he'd recovered enough to see her. Carl's
parents had met Angela's parents in the hospital canteen, and become friendly.
They were united in their anxiety and bedside vigils for their children. Bev
Donadio had even visited Angela. The dying policewoman was a sight she would
never forget, but Bev had her own anxieties. There was a time that the doctors
wondered whether her son would keep his badly injured leg, and the golden staph
infection on top of his injuries was serious.

Against the advice of his doctors, Donadio was determined to attend her
funeral. He had received so much support and encouragement from the police
force, and he wanted to give something back. He also wanted to go for Angela. He
had only known her to nod to when they passed each other at work, but now they
would be forever united as the two police victims of the bombing - the one who
survived and the one who didn't.

It wasn't until Donadio put on his police uniform that he realised just how
much weight he had lost and the four weeks since the bombing. The young sports
fanatic had lost most of his muscle tone and his ribs stuck out.

Angela Taylor's funeral was held at the Victoria Police Academy and was
attended by over 1200 people including Victorian Premier John Cain, Governor
Davis McCaughey and the Chief Commissioner of Police Mick Miller. Such was the
impact of her death, Angela Taylor's graduation photo became easily recognisable
for most Victorians. Five hundred cops lined the route leaving the chapel on the
way to the cemetery.

For Taskforce detectives, Angela's death strengthened their resolve to find
the bombers and charge them with her murder.

On 25 April, Anzac Day, Taskforce detectives met for a pre-raid
briefing at the Nunawading police station at 4am. They had located Peter Reed
and simultaneous raids had been planned for Reed and some of his associates.
Working with the Taskforce were Wayne Ashley and a crew from the forensics lab.
A number of detectives were nominated to initiate the raid, and the crime scene
examiners would wait until they got the go-ahead before they entered the
scene.

From Nunawading, a convoy of police vehicles drove to Kallista
around fifty kilometres east of Melbourne and assembled outside Reed's. As
agreed, Wayne Ashley and his crew waited outside in their van while the initial
raid took place.

So much evidence had been uncovered in the bombing, detectives needed the
crime scene examiners to check premises in order to find evidence that matched
the bomb scene - drills that drilled 8mm holes in the chassis of the bomb car,
terrier dog hairs - or indeed a terrier dog - with hair matching those found on
the blanket in the bomb car, small bunches of wire, socket sets with tools
missing, gelignite from the same batch as that stolen during the burglary at the
Triconnel Mine or even the fence post that the block of wood had been sawn from
that held the bomb clock in place.

Detectives John Bradbury and Steve Quinsee from the Stolen Motor Vehicle
Squad accompanied Taskforce detectives. Reed was connected to their stolen car
investigation which carried links to the bombing investigation and the raid was
a joint effort.

As the police had stormed the house, guns drawn, shouting, 'Police! Don't
move!' over and over again, Steve Quinsee entered with Taskforce detective,
Sergeant Mark Wylie. While some of the detectives headed into a bedroom on the
right of the central passageway, Quinsee approached a bedroom on the left. The
house was in darkness, illuminated only by the hand-held torches carried by the
police raiders. As Quinsee came to the doorway of the room, he reached around
and when he found the light switch, he flicked it on. In the sudden light, a
figure from the room was reflected in the bedroom window. Out of sight from the
doorway Peter Reed, wearing pyjamas, was kneeling on the bed pointing a gun
towards the door.

For Mark Wylie, the seconds between the shouting, 'Police! Don't move!' and
coming around the door is known as the 'tunnel of death' - in a raid, it is the
moment of extreme vulnerability - the crooks knows where you are from your
shouting, but you don't know where they are. The sight that greeted him was the
same on that Quinsee could see in reflection - Peter Reed pointing a gun
straight at him.

As Wylie pulled back from the door, Detectives John Bradbury yelled out,
'Peter, I'm John Bradbury from the Stolen Motor Vehicles Squad. Put the gun
down!' But the madness had started and Reed's response was to fire two shots at
Mark Wylie's retreating figure. They swooshed past Wylie's nose and thudded into
a plaster wall. As soon as shots were fired, the raiding police knew that Reed
intended to shoot it out.

Using Reed's reflection in the window, Wylie returned fire back into the
room. He pointed his pump-action shotgun at the door and fired twice through it
to where he though Reed was. Momentarily distracted by a jam in the shotgun as
he reloaded, Wylie looked up to find that Reed was no longer on the bed where he
had been. Wylie edged forward to take another shot at Reed. From behind the
door, Reed could see the barrel of Wylie's shotgun coming around the door and
fired twice through the door shooting the police officer. Bradbury dragged Wylie
back down the passageway and Quinsee took his place. By this time, Reed had
moved from behind the door and was standing on the window-side of the bed. He
fired two shots at Quinsee, missing him completely. Quinsee returned fire,
aiming for the central body mass and shot Reed twice in the stomach. The injured
man fell to the floor and Quinsee ran to him and kicked the gun out of his hand
and handcuffed him. They weren't taking any chances.

Bleeding from the stomach, Mark Wylie staggered into the lounge room with the
help of his fellow officers. He was wearing a parka with an elasticised band.
When he unzipped the parker, the bullet, which had passed right through him,
dropped from the band and landed at his feet. He was aware enough of what was
happening to tell his men to mark it as evidence.

Raids were always tense. Police at every entrance, bursting
into premises shouting. And for those waiting outside, the worst thing was to
hear guns go off followed quickly by urgent voices over the police radio:
'Member shot, ambulance required'. Something had gone terribly wrong. And the
waiting crime scene examiners could do nothing but look on helplessly as
ambulance arrived and attended to the wounded.

By the time Wayne Ashley and his team made their way up the steep driveway to
the country property, he was walking past ambulances with their lights flashing
parked among the police cars.

Bomb expert Bob Barnes joined Wayne Ashley and the other crime scene
examiners at the house. Because he and Kiernan had spent the last month
examining the bomb car and the evidence directly connected with the bomb itself,
his knowledge was needed to spot evidence that others might miss. When the crime
scene crew entered the house in Kallista, ambulance officers were still
attending to Mark Wylie in the lounge room and Peter Reed in the bedroom. When
the injured men had been taken to hospital, and the house cleared, they began
their examination. The shooting had turned the house into two different crime
scenes - one for potential bomb links and the other for the shooting. Each had
to be processed separately.

The Kallista house was the equivalent of a crime scene examiner's gold mine.
Ashley collected a Smith and Wesson .45 calibre Magnum revolver from Reed's
bedroom. Its serial number had been drilled out in the exact same manner as the
bomb car and the Brock Commodore. Under a pillow in the laundry, Ashley found a
sawn-off Winchester 1500 shotgun. The serial number had been drilled out
too.

In the lounge room, several items of interest were scattered around the
floor. There were old and new pairs of overalls, car registration plates, VIN
and compliance plate numbers. Near the fireplace, Ashley collected Mark Wylie's
blood-stained parka and bagged it for evidence. Learning against the northern
wall of the lounge room were two Remington shotguns. On the floor near the
shotguns, were items of clothing, and a canvas bag. On top of the canvas bag
were two detonators with very short white and blue wires. In among the weaponry
were two sawn-off Browning shotguns. Three of the shotguns had their serial
numbers drilled out in the now familiar caterpillar of joined holes.

Also in the lounge room were four sticks of gelignite individually wrapped in
sheets of newspaper. Bob Barnes carefully removed the gelignite from the
newspaper and gave the wrappings to a sergeant from the Fingerprint Branch.