The "Family" Murders

Resolution to the Beaumont Children Mystery?

Mr. B said that Von Einem had also told him that he had picked up the Beaumont children at Glenelg Beach on 26 January, 1966. Von Einem had told him that he went to the beach regularly to have a perve on people in the showers and had picked up three children and had performed some "brilliant surgery on them" and that he had "connected them up" and one had died. Von Einem said that he had dumped the childrens' bodies at Moana or Myponga, south of Adelaide.

Mr. B also said that Von Einem told him that he had also picked up two children at a football match and killed them and even though Von Einem didn't mention any names it seemed apparent that he was talking about Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirsty Gordon who had gone missing from the Adelaide Oval in 1973. Mr. B said that Von Einem didn't elaborate any further.

Mr. B alleged that an Adelaide trader who he says could have helped kill Alan Barnes was in court while he was giving his evidence. "You've got no idea what I've had to go through... coming here... facing crap like (the Adelaide trader) sitting in the body of the court," he said.

The magistrate, Mr. David Gurry, immediately suppressed the name of the Adelaide trader whom Mr. B claimed could have helped kill Alan Barnes. The man's counsel said the trader categorically denied being with Von Einem and Barnes the night Barnes was last seen alive.

The trader was not called as a Crown witness. The trader's counsel said that his business of 20 years would be ruined if he was identified and also challenged Mr. B's claim that the trader was in the public gallery listening to evidence.

Garry Wayne Place, an insurance worker in his 30s, said that he came forward late the year before as he had "had enough" after 11 years of telephone threats to his life if he talked. Mr. Place said that the last anonymous call was about a week earlier and the caller told him to "keep your mouth shut or you and your wife will get it."

Mr. Place told the court that Alan Barnes had introduced Von Einem one Saturday at an Adelaide hotel about a week before his murder. Barnes had also introduced three other people with Von Einem — a doctor whose name sounded like Goodard, a man called Mario, and a woman. There had been talk about a party that night where there would be "women, drugs, booze — anything you like."

Later that week Place and Barnes had gone to a hotel where Von Einem had told him (Place) that if he provided sex, he would get "drugs, women, anything" and the same things would be provided if he brought along some young lads.

Mr. Place told the court that the first threatening telephone call came the night he learnt that Alan Barnes had been murdered. A muffled male voice had said something like: "Keep your mouth shut or you're going to get it," and there had been about 20 other calls that night.