Killers_ The Most Barbaric Murderers of Our Time - Cawthorne, Nigel [74]
‘It really came down to whether you believed it was the dingo or not,’ he said. Plainly, the jury did not.
Lindy, who was eight months pregnant during the trial, went straight to Berrimah jail in Darwin where, less than three weeks later, she gave birth to a second daughter, Kahlia. The baby was taken from her after four hours and given into the care of Michael.
The defence were so shocked by the unexpected guilty verdict, they were ill-prepared for an appeal. There was little new they could say when the Federal Appeal Court convened in Sydney in February 1983. After a month’s hearing and two months’ deliberation, the three appeal judges unanimously rejected the appeal. In a final appeal to the High Court of Australia, the judges let the judgement of the lower courts stand on a majority verdict of two to one. Lindy turned to her faith and resigned herself to spending the rest of her life in prison. But Michael resigned the priesthood. A crisis of faith was rumoured. Many felt that if they had been through what Michael had been through they would have been atheists by then.
But letters of support still poured in. Pleas for Lindy’s release appeared in the press. A film was made showing two versions of the story – the prosecution’s and the Chamberlains’. Somehow they could not get the Crown’s case to hang together dramatically. A prison psychologist who examined Lindy publicly proclaimed that he found himself unable to account for any ‘criminal behaviour on her part’. Newspapers employed their own analysts, handwriting experts and the like, who all proclaimed Lindy innocent. Prominent scientists protested at the interpretation of the forensic evidence. A petition was organised. The Plea of Justice Committee was formed and travelled the country, campaigning on Lindy’s behalf.
Then, in February 1986, David Brett, a British tourist who was climbing on Ayers Rock, slipped and fell to his death. When it was found, his body had been partially eaten by dingos. Near his body a baby’s jacket was found. It was identified as Azaria’s. Organic material that could have been the remains of Azaria’s body was also found. This was all consistent with a dingo taking the baby.
That should have been an end to it, but there were rumours that Brett had Azaria’s name tattooed on his arm. His mother believes that both her son and baby Azaria were victims of black magic. His parting words when he left Britain, she said, were: ‘If anything happens to me, I have been made a sacrifice.’
Nevertheless Lindy was granted parole and was released. T-shirts began appearing in Australia bearing the slogan: ‘Watch out, Kahlia – Mummy’s home.’
A judicial inquiry set up under Federal judge Mr Justice Trevor Morling in 1988 exonerated the Chamberlains. His 380-page report blamed erroneous and unreliable forensic evidence.
Chapter 13
The Night Stalker
Name: Richard Ramirez
Reign of terror: 1984–86
Number of victims: 28
Favoured method of killing: rape, strangulation, stabbing, shooting, beating
Pseudonym: would have preferred the name ‘the Night Prowler’
Calling card: an inverted pentagram
Final note: ‘I am beyond your experience. I am beyond good and evil’
Devil worshipper Richard Ramirez was the Night Stalker who terrorised Los Angeles for two years in the 1980s. A scrawled pentagram – a Satanic symbol – was his calling card and he made his victims declare their love of Satan before he slaughtered them.
The Night Stalker’s murder career began ordinarily enough. On the night of 28 June 1984, the mutilated body of 79-year-old Jennie Vincow was found spread-eagled on the bed of her one-bedroom apartment in the Eagle Rock district of Los Angeles. She had been raped and her throat had been slashed so violently that she had almost been decapitated. There was blood on the walls of the bedroom and bathroom and her flat had been ransacked. But in LA, it was just another murder.
Nine months later he attacked again. Maria Hernandez had just parked her car in her garage in the Rosemead suburb of Los Angeles and was