The Truro Serial Murders

From the Beginning

James Miller had spent the best part of his 34 years behind bars. Friendless and a loner, Miller was from a family of six kids and had left home at a very early age. At age 11 he was sent to the Magill Reform School and with no formal education he resorted to stealing for a living and sometimes worked as an itinerant labourer.

In the following years Miller was convicted on more than 30 occasions for car theft, numerous forms of larceny and breaking, entering and stealing. But, as Miller strenuously pointed out time and again, he had never had a conviction for violence or a sexual offence.

Miller was doing three months, the shortest custodial sentence he had ever received, in Adelaide Jail for breaking into a gun shop, when he met Christopher Worrell who was awaiting trial on a rape charge. Worrell was also on a two year suspended sentence for armed robbery at the time of his arrest.

The homosexual Miller became infatuated with the handsome young man with long dark hair and slim build and they became friends. Within a week they were sharing a cell together. The 20-year-old Christopher Worrell told Miller that he had never known his real father and when he was six years old his mother married his stepfather. Worrell claimed to have served time in the Royal Australian Air Force.

Worrell was sentenced to four years on the rape charge and an additional two years for breaching his suspended sentence. When Worrell was sentenced the judge described him as a 'depraved and disgusting human being'. Both Miller and Worrell were transferred to Yatala Prison where, although they no longer shared a cell, they remained inseparable friends until Miller was released after serving his three months.

But it wasn't long before Miller was back at Yatala with his new friend Chris Worrell. This time he got 18 months for stealing 4000 pairs of sunglasses and offering them for sale in hotels around Adelaide.

Nine months after Miller was released Worrell was granted early parole and they teamed up on the outside where Miller lived with his married sister and her two little girls. Christopher Worrell was a regular visitor to the Miller household and the two men planned on getting a flat together.

The passive Miller often performed oral sex on Worrell while he read bondage magazines but Worrell obviously preferred women and eventually the sexual side of the relationship diminished and they became more like brothers. Soon they were working together in the same road labouring gang on the Unley local council. James Miller described these times as the best in his life.

There was nothing that the besotted Miller would not do for his friend, Chris Worrell. However, the relationship was often difficult because Worrell was a very strange and moody person who would fly into fits of rage over the slightest thing and it took all of Miller's calming persuasion to quieten him down.

Sylvia Pittman

By now Chris Worrell was 23 and very good looking. His natural gift of the gab saw to it that he had no trouble picking up girls. While Miller drove him around in his old 1969 blue and white Valiant car, Worrell would solicit girls at bus stops, hotels and railway stations. Miller would drive the couple to remote spots and go for a walk while Worrell had sex with the girl in the back of the car.

Often Worrell would tie the girls up. When he thought that they would be finished Miller returned to the car and drove them back to town. According to Miller's unsigned statement this happened many times and he had no reason to think that Worrell would start killing the girls.