A Pack of Bloody Animals - The Walsh Street murders revisited

The verdict in the Walsh Street trial was all four not guilty. Repeat not guilty. All units are warned - keep yourselves under control. Radio newsflash message to all State police. The killings called Walsh Street arose when police and armed robbers went to war. Both sides, convinced the other started the war, were righteous in the letting of blood. The packs held sway and their deeds left many casualties - some celebrated but others unrecorded - and a bitter legacy. Players were driven by the strongest of emotions, sweeping others up in the cruel storm theyd created. The criminal justice systems contribution was a fistful of not guilty verdicts. Using material the jury and the public never saw, A Pack of Bloody Animals tells the story of that war. It re-examines the evidence, much of it in the players own voices or in previously unpublished interviews with the accused shooters made soon after their acquittal. This big story raised the toughest law-and-order questions of the decade, spilled over State borders, provoked grassroots citizen action, and occupied those in the corridors of power, media and the law. Yet the questions, not resolved then, still echo. About the Authors: John Kerr was a court and police reporter. He was the publisher of the classic Walsh Street, the autobiography of Neddy Smith Neddy, and Roger Rogersons The Dark Side. His first true-crime book was Wanted: John & Lucy, an account of a NSW prison escape by helicopter. He has written or edited books on outlaw bikers, crime bosses, the Mr Asia syndicate, drug runners, gangsters women, criminal libel, police killers, the crimes of politicians and police, murder in the family, and other Australian crime subjects. His last book was the first on Australias contract killers, The Hit Men. Ray Mooneys plays have been produced at The Arts Centre, Athenaeum, La Mama, Carlton Courthouse and other Melbourne and Sydney venues, and studied in Australian schools. His novel A Green Light is regarded by many as Australias best crime fiction. With Alkinos Tsilimidos, he wrote the screenplay for Everynight Everynight, which was nominated for two AFI awards, including best adapted screenplay, and won accolades international¬ly. He currently lectures in creative writing at tertiary institutions including Holmesglen Institute and the VCA Film and Television School.