True Crime

[Quadzilla]

46 years ago it was said Adelaide lost its innocence when the 3 Beaumont children went missing at Glenelg beach.

What happened to them has fascinated many (inc me). The person who committed the crime may be dead and we will likely never know.

Every so often a new story emerges ... this year its a doozy ...

Some guy in Kentucky, USA says he has the same birthday as Grant, has a mysterious early childhood and a claim from a family friend that his father stole him from a hospital and is now waiting for SA police to follow up his claims.

link

US man David Estes claims DOE Network shows he is 'identical match' for Grant Beaumont
by: Penelope Debelle From: The Advertiser January 26, 2012 12:00AM

THE saga of the missing Beaumont children has yet another bizarre chapter - 46 years after they became victims of the most infamous unsolved crime in Australian history.

An American man, David Estes, is claiming that he is Grant Beaumont, the youngest of the three children snatched from the Glenelg foreshore on Australia Day, 1966.

Mr Estes, who lives in Kentucky, has claimed that he was kidnapped from hospital when he was four.

link

As I was reading I thought ... hmmm, yea ok, maybe ...????

... until I read this man had previously claimed to be Elvis' love child ...

Ah well, another year passes with no closure.

 

[The Smaller Warrior]

How would he know his birthday?

Infact, how would the family that abducted him know his birthday?

Makes no sense.

 

[Quadzilla]

yes, lots of holes that can be shot in this story ... I gather from the story he has a birth certificate stating his 'date of birth' ... huh????

... explains why SAPOL have not pursued this more rigorously.

You never know, tho'.

(some guy on facebook - replying to the adelaide now story alleges the bodies were discovered o/seas in a container but the story was covered up)

Rumours abounded of people in high places covering up the real story and there is a convicted murderer in prison who knows all but wont tell????

 

[Asgardian]

Some media outlet will arrange for a DNA test

That will prove one way or the other 100%, but I do reckon it's all crap.

 

[Eddie Dingle]

Kev, the prisoner that the rumours are about is the one and only Bevan Spencer Von Einem. There is a photo taken on the day they disappeared with a man that looks like him in the back ground on the Glenelg foreshore.

http://www.beaumontchildren.com/beaumontBevanSpencerVonEinem.html

That page isn't very good but you get the gist.

Is dear old Mr Polites still spending money trying to solve the case?

 

[Ford Fairlane]

It is such a tragic story and it is sad that News Ltd felt the need to dredge it up with this absurd claim.

It is such a frightening story and echoed only a few short years later with the Radcliffe-Gordon disappearance. Then the Family murders another decade on.

von Einem, Derek Percy, we will probably never know what happened or who committed the crime. So many shadows over Adelaide and so few prepared to shine a light.

Sorry to be the one to break the news footyhead but Con has long since shuffled off the mortal coil.

 

[Eddie Dingle]

It is such a tragic story and it is sad that News Ltd felt the need to dredge it up with this absurd claim.

It is such a frightening story and echoed only a few short years later with the Radcliffe-Gordon disappearance. Then the Family murders another decade on.

von Einem, Derek Percy, we will probably never know what happened or who committed the crime. So many shadows over Adelaide and so few prepared to shine a light.

Sorry to be the one to break the news footyhead but Con has long since shuffled off the mortal coil.

It is so sad for that family that they will never know, a fact I'm sure they are long resigned to.

Salman Rushdie summed Adelaide up quite well here...

http://www.adelaidereview.com.au/article/865

As late as 1980, another visiting novelist, Salman Rushdie, had a similar feeling as he walked the streets of Adelaide. He later wrote: “Adelaide is an ideal setting for a Stephen King novel, or horror film. You know why all those films and books are always set in sleepy conservative towns? Because sleepy, conservative towns are where those things happen.” Rushdie’s comments, more than any other writers’, have stuck. This line has been quoted hundreds of times in the years since, given credibility by a host of almost fictional characters like Worrell and Miller, von Einem, Bunting and Wagner, and others.

http://www.adelaidereview.com.au/article/865

Con dead? I didn't even know he was sick.

 

[Quadzilla]

Kev, the prisoner that the rumours are about is the one and only Bevan Spencer Von Einem. There is a photo taken on the day they disappeared with a man that looks like him in the back ground on the Glenelg foreshore.

http://www.beaumontchildren.com/beaumontBevanSpencerVonEinem.html

That page isn't very good but you get the gist.

I remember seeing this awhile ago ... creepy ... either von Einem did it or knows, I reckon or that Qld phsyco ... Arthur Brown?

We need Agent Gideon from Criminal Minds to interview Mr von Einem?

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

About 8 years ago my mate from uni footy days and who occasionally posts on big footy, Weatherchap, bought the book Young Blood – the story of the family murders, by the junior detective on the Richard Kelvin case, Bob O’Brien . In the early 90's about 8 of us ex croweaters, who knew each other from uni and/or uni footy days ended up in Sydney thanks to State Bank recession we had to have. footyhead knows this group of my mates.

We all read the book as we passed it on from one to the other, and I remember 4 or 5 of us were talking about it at the pub one day and how upset it made us and the general consensus was - there but for the grace of god go I as all us in the late 70's early 80's were in that age group that von Einem and his crew went after. 20+ years the overwhelming feeling was still one of anger.

Adelaide being Adelaide I was one degree of separation from this. My cousin lived on the same street as Mark Langely and she went out with him for a while. Another cousin was in the same class as Peter Stogneff for a few years. I remember both being greatly affected when they discovered the bodies. My dad's cousin was a forensic scientist who work for the government. He discovered traces of Mandrax in Kelvin's system. This evidence was passed on to the cops who went through a long laborious task of checking all the prescriptions for Mandrax and matched a von Einem prescription.

In the final chapter of his book, O'Brien details how the senior detective believes that von Einem was either the kidnapper or involved in the kidnapping of the Beaumonts and the Radcliffe-Gordon cases. Whilst its a joining the dots exercise rather than hard evidence, its hard not to come to the same conclusion.

When von Einem was locked up the disappearance of multiple young people seemed to stop. The Bunting body in the barrels murders is an appalling case, but these deaths happened to people who knew each. The killings were "contained" within the immediate group. The random multiple deaths appears to have stopped when von Einem was locked up.

The prick has now passed his non-parole period so who knows he might get out in the next few years. The bastard got off on and an inadmissible evidence technicality in 1990 about being prosecuted for the other murders.

I feel for the parents and concur fully with part of the story

Detective Superintendent Grant Moyle yesterday asked that respect be shown for the children's parents, Nancy and Jim Beaumont.

"The ongoing publicity of the Beaumont (children's) abduction causes considerable distress for Mr and Mrs Beaumont," the Major Crime chief said.

"Out of respect for them on the anniversary of the abduction, I do not wish to provide any further comment at this time."

 

[Eddie Dingle]

Von Einem will never walk out of jail alive.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Does anyone know why the prick is Port Augusta and not maximum security in Yatla??

 

[Eddie Dingle]

Does anyone know why the prick is Port Augusta and not maximum security in Yatla??

He must have been reclassified as low risk.

I heard years ago from an "acquaintance" who did a little time that Von Einems cell and general life in Yatala was a little bit better than everyone else's.

Alleged differences were:

Carpeted cell
Big fridge with known contraband
Big tv (this was late 80's so no flat screen but bigger than normal)
Solo cell.
Well protected by guards and other inmates due to "extra" money he was allowed.
Steady supply of "willing" sexual partners.

Now all of this could have been bull shit as this "acquaintance" was a known exaggerator but bits of it make sense. I mean how the **** didn't he end up with a shiv in his neck Keithy George style unless he was being well looked after? He would have been in protective custody as a paedophile but they've been got at before.

 

[tribey]

It is so sad for that family that they will never know, a fact I'm sure they are long resigned to.

Salman Rushdie summed Adelaide up quite well here...

http://www.adelaidereview.com.au/article/865

As late as 1980, another visiting novelist, Salman Rushdie, had a similar feeling as he walked the streets of Adelaide. He later wrote: “Adelaide is an ideal setting for a Stephen King novel, or horror film. You know why all those films and books are always set in sleepy conservative towns? Because sleepy, conservative towns are where those things happen.” Rushdie’s comments, more than any other writers’, have stuck. This line has been quoted hundreds of times in the years since, given credibility by a host of almost fictional characters like Worrell and Miller, von Einem, Bunting and Wagner, and others.

http://www.adelaidereview.com.au/article/865

Con dead? I didn't even know he was sick.

Con's been gon for eons.

 

[Eddie Dingle]

Con's been gon for eons.

Why didn't anybody tell me?

 

[MacMum]

As looney and far fetched as this mans (american) story is, I would like to think he has a DNA test at least!

The police should leave absolutely no stone unturned....as unlikely as it may be, check it out anyway!

Then, it can either help the case.....or the guy promptly forgotten about..

I was a child myself when these poor kids disappeared, scared the hell out of me ... I have always hoped to see the case solved before I leave this earth..

..but more importantly, for their parents....before they are gone.

 

[Quadzilla]

As looney and far fetched as this mans (american) story is, I would like to think he has a DNA test at least!

The police should leave absolutely no stone unturned....as unlikely as it may be, check it out anyway!

Then, it can either help the case.....or the guy promptly forgotten about..

I was a child myself when these poor kids disappeared, scared the hell out of me ... I have always hoped to see the case solved before I leave this earth..

..but more importantly, for their parents....before they are gone.

Agreed ... $7k was raised in the 1960s to dig up a Somerton Park warehouse for this case ... $10k is needed in US for a DNA test ... get ch9 ACA OR ch7 TT to cough up?

 

[Asgardian]

there but for the grace of god go I

Adelaide being Adelaide I was one degree of separation from this.

I lived about a 5 minute walk away from the Beaumont's in 1966, Arnna was about 2 months older than me. My recollections are that my life of freedom came to an end.

 

[Ebert80]

Does anyone know why the prick is Port Augusta and not maximum security in Yatla??

Not sure, but I recall there was a bit of a "scandal" a few years ago when he was supposedly getting some type of "preferential treatment", was reported in the local press. I'm thinking that may have had something to do with the move from Yatala.

 

[WhyAlwaysMe]

As looney and far fetched as this mans (american) story is, I would like to think he has a DNA test at least!

The police should leave absolutely no stone unturned....as unlikely as it may be, check it out anyway!

Then, it can either help the case.....or the guy promptly forgotten about..

I was a child myself when these poor kids disappeared, scared the hell out of me ... I have always hoped to see the case solved before I leave this earth..

..but more importantly, for their parents....before they are gone.

I dunno, if this guy has already claimed to be Elvis's love child then he sounds like a total nut. Not even worth wasting 10k on. They'd be better off getting Gerard Croiset back than paying for this lunatic to get a DNA test. The fact it's been reported on the anniversary of the disappearance and not back in September or whenever this first surfaced proves it's just the media looking for a story.

 

[The Smaller Warrior]

lol Dont waste 10k on this looney.

I will tell you right now, he aint the guy.

 

[Ebert80]

When von Einem was locked up the disappearance of multiple young people seemed to stop. The Bunting body in the barrels murders is an appalling case, but these deaths happened to people who knew each. The killings were "contained" within the immediate group. The random multiple deaths appears to have stopped when von Einem was locked up.

Whilst this does seem correct, it does make you think when you hear about things like this. But yeah there doesn't appear to have been the regular missing people in that age group, that there was in late 70's/early 80's.

http://www.australianmissingpersonsregister.com/Sheppard.htm

On a slightly different tangent, its interesting to hear some of the names who have been linked to "The Family". I'm obviously not going to list them here, but some I've heard are quite high profile.

 

[Eddie Dingle]

The "Law" man?
The "Radio" man? (Whose wife allegedly committed suicide when she found out he was involved).

God it's been so long they are the only ones I can remember.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/adelaide/murders_3.html

By now the zealous press was convinced that the murders were the work of a group of surreptitious Adelaide homosexuals in very high places throughout the community; politicians, judges, religious leaders and the like, who paid handsomely for kidnapped young men who they drugged and kept alive for their pleasure. When the victim was no longer any use to them the procurers disposed of the bodies.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/adelaide/murders_3.html

It was a scary time to be a young male in Adelaide...

 

[Natman]

A mate of mine saw VE in jail - no, he wasn't an inmate, but there on business - his words to me when he VE were that "he just looked like pure evil - you could see it in his eyes"

 

[Ebert80]

I recall there was a leading amateur footballer with the VE surname a decade or so ago, always fell sorry for the bloke with a name like that.

 

[Eddie Dingle]

I recall there was a leading amateur footballer with the VE surname a decade or so ago, always fell sorry for the bloke with a name like that.

Greg Von Einem played at Burnside-Kensington at one stage. Was a very good footballer.