Bill Vandenberg: The Triggerman

BILL VANDENBERG: THE "TRIGGERMAN"

The date, 29-5-88, is written in tidy rounded numbers by an officer in the Witness Protection Unit, Long Bay on the top right hand corner of Bill Vandenberg's suicide note. It contrasts with Bill Vandenberg's handwriting which is untidy but generally legible. The entire seven page suicide note is written in angular capital letters. It starts with a message to "G" [name suppressed] and the kids:

"PLEASE REMEMBER SOMETHING I SAID AND SUNG MANY YEARS AGO ON MY ESCAPE TO MELBOURNE.
"WE'LL MEET AGAIN I DON'T [KNOW] WHERE I DON'T KNOW WHEN BUT I KNOW WE'LL MEET AGAIN SOME SONNY [SIC] DAY."

Vandenberg had confessed to being the "triggerman", the hitman who shot Megan Kalajzich, and had recently given evidence against her husband, Andrew Kalajzich, at the trial. His dilemma had been that while testifying against Kalajzich, he was also digging a hole for his best friend, Kerry Orrock.

"G" and "the kids" are Kerry Orrock's family. The day before Vandenberg's suicide, Orrock had been sentenced to life imprisonment for supplying the murder weapon used for the murder of Megan Kalajzich.

I had been following the case since Megan Kalajzich was shot as she slept beside her husband, Andrew, on 27th January 1986. Part of my interest stems from the fact that I am distantly related to Andrew and Megan, (though I had never met Megan) and know many of their friends and relatives. Andrew Kalajzich was a mover and shaker in the early 1980s and built the very successful Manly Pacific International Hotel on Manly beach.

When he was charged and eventually convicted of his wife's murder, I began assembling information on the case with the intention of writing a book.

The Crown presented a case against Kalajzich which centred on Vandenberg's confession to the hitman-style murder. It involves the following cast of characters:

Warren Elkins, the disk jockey/manager of Dalleys Disco on the ground floor of the Manly Pacific International Hotel who asked Vandenberg to find a hitman for his boss. Elkins was a snappy dresser who adorned himself with gold jewellery. Girls were impressed. At the time of Megan's murder he was living with two girls, a Monday to Thursday girl, and a Friday to Sunday girl, and neither knew about the other. He was suspected of sabotaging the hotel's security with a number of expensive pranks, such as the theft of the hotel's keys.

George Canellis, (another self-confessed hitman - now retired) was originally asked to do the job, by Vandenberg. He is a tough looking character, an expert in fire arms and breeder of rottweilers. He claims he followed Megan while she was shopping but when she smiled at him, his hitman's heart melted and he refused to do the job, claiming he "didn't do domestics" . He also refused to return the $5,000 deposit he had been given. So it seemed to Vandenberg that he had no choice but to do the job himself.

Kerry Orrock, who was a gaunt man with serious health problems. He had owned a fuel transporting business (occasionally employing Canellis as a truck driver) as well as a service station in Kurri Kurri. Orrock was convicted for supplying the murder weapon to Vandenberg, who was a close friend.

Many people believe that both Megan and Andrew had been the hitman's targets, and that Andrew had been lucky to escape - if you can call being convicted for murder "lucky". And many people also believe that Vandenberg was not capable of doing this murder.

Four bullets were fired that night: two bullets into Megan's cheek and two bullets into Andrew's pillow. Did the hitman miss his target? Was Andrew Kalajzich then framed for his wife's murder? Kalajzich's solicitor told me he believed the answers to these and many other questions surrounding this case were lost with Vandenberg's suicide on 29th May 1988.

After an Inquiry under Justice Slattery, AO QC failed to cast doubt on Kalajzich's conviction, I was given access to documents and photographs and began my search for the truth.

A suicide note, I suspect, would be the most honest, most heart-felt statement a man could make. Would this be a good place to start? Vandenberg had made many Statements to the police, but he changed his story often, and it is difficult to know which version of the "truth" would be the most reliable.

He was arrested on 14th February 1986 when Detective Inkster and other police knocked on his door and asked if he knew anything about the murder of Megan Kalajzich. Inkster claims he was not expecting a confession and so was surprised when Vandenberg told him to look no further: "You don't have to worry about losing him," he said, "because you have got him now. It was me who pulled the trigger."

In a Statement written in April 1986 Vandenberg recalls Inkster coming to his Elizabeth Bay flat:

…..ONE OF THE QUESTIONS THEY ASKED WAS "WE WANT TO KNOW THE NAME OF THE TRIGGER MAN AND THE NAME OF THE PERSON THAT PAID TO GET THE JOB DONE. ALL OF A SUDDEN I THEN REALISED THEY HAD NO IDEA THAT I WAS THE TRIGGERMAN. SO I SAID TO THEM "HANG ON A MINUTE WITH YOUR QUESTIONS AND LET ME TALK" THEY STOPPED TO LISTEN (AND I MIGHT ADD THAT THEY WERE NEVER RUDE) I SAID "YOU HAVE GONE THIS FAR WITH YOUR INVESTIGATING AND HAVE DONE WELL SO NOW I DON'T SEE ANY REASON TO MAKE THINGS HARDER FOR YOU SO TO HELP THE SITUATION I WILL NOW TELL YOU THAT I AM THE TRIGGERMAN SO THAT SHOULD MAKE IT EASIER FOR YU"

He was driven to Manly Police Station. On the way he pointed to the spot where he had thrown the murder weapon and the police took a photo of him.

It was a busy day at the Manly Police Station. Three interview rooms were in use. Elkins who had been arrested while Duty Free shopping with one of his girlfriends, and Orrock, who had been arrested at his home in Kurri Kurri were each being interviewed. Their records of interview were typed (this was before the compulsory recording of the interview, and pre-computers), a tedious process by modern standards. Carbon copies were made, which were slid under the door of each room to be picked up by police in a central area, who could assemble the information.

During his first interview, Vandenberg told police that "two Yugoslav types" were behind the murder and he was supposed to murder both Megan and Andrew. The best way to get Andrew, he had been told, was from a public car park at the rear of the Many Pacific, which looked down onto the exit ramp to the hotel car park.

Vandenberg had a break for dinner between five and seven, and it was during this break that Andrew Kalajzich was arrested. On his solicitor's advice Kalajzich said nothing.

Vandenberg changed his story after this and again over the next two days. Now it was Andrew Kalajzich who wanted his wife murdered because she was selling shares in the hotel.

His suicide note continues:

"TO J AND M [Vandenberg's brother and sister-in-law]
"I HAVE GONE IN SEARCH OF MY GREATEST LOVE I HAD IN LIFE "ANTHONY" AND I'LL PRAY AND HOPE I DO MEET HIM THERE."

Then, in the bottom right hand corner of the page this:

THANS FOR ALL YOUR
WHOLE DAMNED LIFE
YOU TRIED TO GIVE YO
THROUGHOUT YOUR LIFE,
IF THERE IS SUCH A THING
A HEAVEN YOU'LL BE
A FRONT RUNNER
I'LL MISS SO MUCH
BILL

Anthony was Vandenberg's young nephew (J & M's son) who had died a few months before Megan's murder after a long illness with muscular dystrophe. They were very close and Vandenberg slept in the same room with his young nephew whenever he visited his brother.
This last paragraph is probably addressed to young Anthony, whom he hoped to meet again after death.

Another six pages of suicide note were found in his cell, still attached to a lined A4 sized writing pad. They were examined by an expert who confirmed that the handwriting was Vandenberg's.

Photographs of his cell, taken shortly after he was found dead, show him on the floor against the far wall, his head near a toilet and hand basin. He hanged himself from a high cupboard door, using torn-up and knotted green fabric from the workshop area of the prison, which was normally used for rags. Sheets and blankets, a green garbage bag and a small television set are also on the floor in this corner of his cell.

On top of the bunk bed (on the other side of the cell) is a white plastic chair, a packet of Winfield cigarettes and a box of matches. Beside the bed is a small triangular table. He probably moved the television off this table, and used it and the chair to elevate himself somehow before slipping the noose around his neck. It would have been difficult to do this from the bed, since the distance between the chair and the cupboard looks to be at least ten feet.

A desk or bench unit abuts the cupboard. Vandenberg's glasses are next to the cupboard. He would have needed them to write his final message, removing them before slipping the noose over his head. Under this bench there is an Adler electric typewriter, connected to a power point by an extension power cord. Why did he not use this instead of the green fabric?

The typewriter is interesting. In it is a sheet of ruled A4 paper and unreadable words to "Max" [a fellow inmate] written large in red texta. Also in red texta on the case of the typewriter a further message to Max, telling him to "please take this".

Vandenberg's body was photographed from a number of positions. There are striped welts on his neck from the noose. In one photo his eyes and mouth are open, as if speaking. The skin on his scalp and ears is purple, like bruising, though his face is pale. On his freckled back, there is also apparent bruising. It is not bruising though, it is peripheral cyanosis, the blueness of the skin caused by lack of oxygen. He wears a towel under his trousers, like a nappy.

On the third page of his suicide note he apologised to the officer who would find his body:

"… AS THIS IS THE SECOND TIME IN TWO WEEKS HE'S HAD TO PUT UP WITH THE SHIT I LEFT HIM BUT PLEASE BE ASSURED I DIDN'T PLAN THIS FOR WHEN YOU WERE ON AS I HAVE A HIGHER REGARD FOR YOU…
"… BECAUSE OF WHAT I KNOW ABOUT DYING THIS WAY I WANTED TO MAKE IT AS CLEAN AS POSSIBLE FOR THE PEOPLE FINNG [SIC] ME UP. I HOPE THAT LITTLE PART MIGHT BE APPRECIATED."

I have no doubt that Vandenberg wanted to kill himself.

Although once married, Vandenberg was a homosexual. Paul Blake, an attractive red-headed young man, was his "special" friend at the time of Megan's murder (though Blake was married and denies he had sexual relations with Vandenberg). Blake received $10,000 shortly after the murder from Vandenberg, which he used to pay off his bankcard. He did not give evidence at the trial. Police claimed he couldn't be found, but eight years later during the Slattery Inquiry, he told the court that he'd been living in Adelaide, and had received a subpoena from South Australian police. However, he did not feel inclined to travel to Sydney to appear at the trial, and no one seemed to insist.

In 1985, the year before Megan was murdered, Vandenberg was the manager of the Sea Galleon restaurant in the Rex Hotel in Kings Cross and did his drinking at the "Bottom's Up Bar", a bar described by John Bracey, a private investigator hired by the Kalajzich legal team, as:

...possibly the most sleaziest bar in Sydney. The clientele varies from numerous farely [sic] assorted criminals the bottom end for want of a better term of the homosexual community...and probably New Zealand based transvestites. Prostitution both male and female would seem to be a popular vocation to a number of the members of the clientele. We find it quite likely that should one wish to find some unsavoury person on the Sydney scene at the Bottoms Up Bar would certainly be the most appropriate place to attempt to locate such persons...

In late 1985 and early 1986 Bill Vandenberg was drinking heavily. Friends, such as Kerry Orrock, described him as frightened and confused. His drunken confabulations included plots involving gold shipments, the Philippines and prominent politicians. No one believed him. On New Years Eve 1985 he quit his job at the Sea Galleon and went on a drinking binge.

A few days later he was staying at the Crest Hotel in Kings Cross, too frightened to go back to his flat in nearby Elizabeth Bay. Kerry Orrock had travelled down to Sydney to rescue him from this situation by taking him back to Kurri Kurri.

There, Vandenberg was given lessons in firing a gun. Both Orrock and Canellis described him trying to hit an aviary in Orrock's backyard. Canellis, who was prone to using colourful language told the court that Bill: "couldn't hit a bull in the arse with a shovel full of wheat." When he aimed at the aviary and missed, they "shit-split outta there".

Yet the bullet holes in Megan's cheek, were one centimetre apart - a sign of a marksman with a steady hand.

Vandenberg told the police he had never met Kalajzich. There is hearsay evidence from his friend, Paul Blake, that he spoke to someone who claimed to be Andrew Kalajzich on the phone.

Eight years after the event, during the Slattery Inquiry, Blake gave the following evidence to Michael Finnane, QC (now Judge) of this overheard telephone conversation.

"What had he said about Mr Kalajzich before this?" Finnane asked.
"Well, of course, when he mentioned about the proposed murder, he had said to me that - I asked who the lady was, he said it was a lady." Blake hesitated under the influence of apparently strong emotion. "He said it was a lady that he had to -"
"Murder?" Finnane helped him find the word that seemed to be stuck.
"Yes, murder, and he mentioned the name Megan Kalajzich and Andrew Kalajzich, Andrew Kalajzich owning the hotel over in Manly."
"So he gets the phone call, he puts his index finger up to his lips, he mouths the word Kalajzich to you?" Finnane prompted.
"That's correct." Blake nodded.
"You then walk over to him; you sit next to him and you listen to the conversation and you could tell the person speaking was a male, it was a male voice?"
"Yes."

Hearsay evidence like this would not normally be permitted during a trial in front of a jury, but this was an Inquiry, with no jury, and the rules of evidence were stretched at Justice Slattery's discretion.

According to Blake, the conversation Blake he overheard went like this:

Kalajzich: "How come it didn't happen?" (referring to a failed attempt at the murder of Megan)
Vandenberg: "Because your son was there."
Kalajzich: "Fuck my son, I want her dead"
Vandenberg: "I'm not going to kill your son. It's bad enough I've got to kill one person. I'm not going to kill an innocent boy"
Kalajzich: "I don't care who's in the fucking house, my son, my mother-in-law, I want her fucking dead, do you understand me, fucking dead"
Finnane asked Blake how it was that his memory for this overheard telephone conversation was so good after eight years, to which Blake replied:
"Well, if you think about it, what kind of a person would say something like that about their own family. It is something you would etch in your mind for the rest of your life, believe me."

I sat next to an elderly friend of the Kalajzich family who had known Andrew since he was in short pants. She gasped every time the "f" word was said and seemed upset. Later she told me she couldn't believe Andrew would ever say such a thing, and I'm not sure which worried her most - the "f" word or the allegation that he had also wanted his son and mother-in-law killed.

In none of his statements did Vandenberg mention this telephone conversation with Paul Blake within earshot, though in a hand-written Statement he describes an occasion when Warren Elkins (allegedly Kalajzich's agent) came to his flat in Elizabeth Bay.

[After a failed attempt Warren Elkins] "SAID HE WOULD RING HIS BOSS BUT HE WOULD NOT BE VERY PLEASED WITH THE WHOLE MATTER SO HE RANG BACK TO HIS BOSS… AFTER A WHILE HE STOPPED TALKING TO WHOEVER AND ADDRESSED ME SAYING HE WANTS TO TALK TO YOU AND I SAID "OK".
… THE VOICE AT THE OTHER END SAID AND HE SOUNDED A VERY ARROGANT MAN "YOU HAVE REALLY MADE A MESS OF IT." I EXPLAINED THAT I NEVER REALLY INTENDED TO GET INVOLVED WITH IT BUT I HAD AND THE SITUATION HAD GONE WRONG AND THERE WASN'T MUCH I COULD DO ABOUT IT.

About midnight of the 10/11 January, 1986, a couple of weeks before Megan was shot, she was attacked in the carport of their Fairlight home. She described this attack in a letter to a friend:

If you have any spare bodyguards I could do with one. The other night I
came out of the garage to find some "jerk" waiting for me with a black balaclava & a batton [sic] in his hand he managed to hit me on the head but my scream scared him off. He knocked me off balance so [I] came down the stairs like the flying Nun. So I'm covered in bruises and the nerves are shot to pieces.

Vandenberg was a short, slightly built man who wore glasses. He admitted to this assault as well as the murder, but stressed that he wore "a green army hat" pulled down low, and that he carried a cut down rifle with a silencer on the end. When he aimed to shoot her, he said, the weapon didn't fire, so he tapped her on the head with it instead and she fell down some stairs and screamed. He is adamant in a number of records of interview and court transcripts that he did NOT wear a balaclava.

So did Megan make a mistake in her description? It seems unlikely that she would imagine a balaclava, even in the semi-darkness of an unlit carport.

Bill Vandenberg would turn in his grave if he saw the way this scene was depicted in the telemovie "My Husband My Killer". He is a bumbling clown, wearing a balaclava over a pair of glasses that kept fogging up, and therefore unable to see what he is doing.

Megan reported hearing a car start, followed by a car door slamming, and felt that the man who attacked her had an accomplice in a car nearby. She assumed she had sprung a would-be thief, but was puzzled because he didn't grab her handbag.

Earlier that night she'd had dinner with Andrew and some friends. The day before the assault she had taken Andrew's car to be serviced while he had driven hers to the hotel. They had swapped cars at the end of the evening in the hotel carpark, and she drove home in her own car while Andrew spent a little more time at the hotel doing his routine checks before returning home. It is likely that whoever assaulted Megan was confused by the car swapping.

Megan was assisted into her house that night by a neighbour who had heard her screaming. Police were called. She suffered a few bruises to her legs and a small abrasion behind her ear where someone had hit her, but, as her letter suggests, she did not take the episode very seriously.

When Kerry Orrock heard the news of Vandenberg's suicide he refused to believe it. He was convinced his friend had been murdered in his cell and was upset that he was not permitted to give evidence at the Coroners Inquest into Vandenberg's death. In a handwritten letter dated 24th May 1988 Vandenberg complained to Kerry:

"I AM HAVING TROUBLE SLEEPING TONIGHT AND I CAN'T GET A SLEEPING TABLET AS THE DOCTOR TOOK ME OFF THEM DUE TO AN ACCIDENTAL OVERDOSE OF THEM. SO NOW ON A NIGHT LIKE TONIGHT I'M IN TROUBLE AND THERE IS NOT A DAMNED THING I CAN DO ABOUT IT."

Five days later in his suicide note he states:

"MY PILLS ARE NOW STARTING TO WORK ON ME AND I'M JUST WAITING FOR [OFFICER] TO MAKE HIS HOURLY CHECK THEN I WILL WISH YOU GOOD LUCK IN THE FUTURE…"

What pills? Where did he get them? asked Orrock, now panic-stricken. If Vandenberg had been murdered, he thought, he was also a likely candidate.

Despite apparently rigid controls within our correctional institutions, drugs of all kinds seem to be available to inmates, even illegal ones, even to "at risk" and suicidal inmates, even in the high security, Witness Protection Unit at Long Bay. The coroner did not question the fact that Vandenberg had somehow got hold of some "pills".

The doctor who performed the physical examination of Vandenberg's body commented that he looked older than his 46 years. X-rays of the larynx showed a linear fracture in the right greater horn of the hyoid bone which is typical of a death by hanging. Routine screening tests for poisons and alcohol were negative, but no specific tests were done to determine what type of "pills" he had taken.

Four days before his suicide Vandenberg had a brief appointment with a psychiatrist. He had been prescribed anti-depressant medication previously but had stopped taking the tablets. This psychiatrist did not believe the earlier accidental overdose was a suicide attempt, accepting Vandenberg's explanation that he had merely taken the tablets he had been hoarding to get rid of them because of a spot search of his cell. They had only made him sleepy.

The Psychiatric Report at the Inquest makes interesting reading. Vandenberg was the sixth of eight children. His mother had divorced his father and emigrated to Australia when he was fourteen. Vandenberg had a poor relationship with the significant women in his life, and blamed his mother because she had not taken proper care of her family. He also blamed his ex-wife for having an affair with a policeman before their divorce, and blamed his daughter for only ringing him when she needed money. So, the psychiatrist could understand why he was willing to murder Megan Kalajzich, particularly when he believed that she had been losing a million dollars a day gambling on the stock market. Unfortunately, when he later learned that this was not true, and that in fact she was a nice lady, it led him to feelings of remorse and depression.

The Psychiatric Report failed to mention that Vandenberg was homosexual, or anything of his love for his nephew, Anthony.

What drove Vandenberg over the edge was learning that his friend Kerry Orrock had received a life sentence for his involvement in the murder of Megan. This remorse and depression is supported by his suicide note:

MY ACTIONS ARE DONE WITH A HEAVY HEART BUT FIND MYSELF INCAPABLE OF LIVING WITH MYSELF. THE SENTENCE GIVEN TO KERRY IS IN MY OPINION THE UNFAIREST SENTENCE I HAVE YET HEARD OF AND HAS PUT ME IN THE POSITION OF HAVING DISTROYED HIS LIFE AS WELL AS [G] AND THE KIDS AND THAT IS UNBEARABLE.
I HOPE THE APPEALS COURT WILL MAKE GOOD THAT INJUSTICE TO KERRY. HIS PART WAS SO MINOR COMPARED TO WARREN [ELKINS].
…. I DIDN'T WANT TO DIE BUT I ALSO CAN'T LIVE WITH THE SHAME OF MY DOING TO KERRY'S KIDS WHOM I REGARDED AS MY VERY OWN …

Vandenberg does not dwell on the murder. I assume he is referring to Megan and her family when he writes:

I DISTROYED THE LIFE NOT ONLY OF THE WOMAN BUT JUST AS MUCH HER DAUGHTER AND SON AS WELL AS HER MOTHER. ALL OF THEM ARE THE INNOCENT VICTIMS OF MY TERRIBLE CRIME.
WHAT I HAVE DONE TONIGHT SHOULD STILL BE LAWFUL AS I THINK I'VE TAKEN A LIFE AND DESERVE TO LOSE MINE.

He does not refer to the shooting at all.

When he adds "I think I've taken a life" I wonder if perhaps he is unsure, but I have no doubt he feels responsible for Megan's death, in the same way he feels responsible for the other lives he has "distroyed", that is, members of her family, Orrock and Orrock's family.

The Coroner needed to be certain that Vandenberg's death was suicide and not murder because of an alleged murder plot that had been uncovered in the Long Bay Programmes Unit in late 1986. This alleged plot became the focus of an ICAC Inquiry into the Use of Informers, and received considerable media attention.

Many prisons have Programmes Units. In theory these are small units wherein prisoners may undertake courses or programmes of training, aimed at improving their socialisation both within the prison system and outside in society. The Programmes Unit at Long Bay in 1986 was a euphemism. Staff and prisoners more appropriately called it "The Dog Box". It occupied two levels, ground and first floor (called "middle landing") and was physically separated from the Metropolitan Remand Centre by an iron-barred gate covered with toughened perspex.

Most prisons also have a Protection Area for prisoners who are considered at risk within the main prison. The Programmes Unit at Long Bay contained up to fifty "dogs" or informers, or witnesses against other criminals. It also housed "rock spiders" - persons accused of sexually assaulting children. Mainstream prisoners tended to exact their own brand of justice within the prison system and so "dogs" and "rock spiders" needed protection.

Bill Vandenberg was housed in the Programmes Unit at Long Bay because he was giving evidence against Andrew Kalajzich, and perhaps also because of rumours that he was a "rock spider". He preferred his own company and made himself useful by painting the cells and hallways, when he wasn't working as "sweeper" in the visiting area.

The alleged plot to murder Vandenberg was another complex conspiracy to murder involving particularly "heavy" criminals, including Peter Drummond, Fred Many and Tom Domican.
Peter Drummond, on his own application, entered the Programmes Unit in September 1986. He was on remand for murder, and did not fit the usual profile of a prisoner needing protection. It was alleged that he had gained entry to the Programmes Unit specifically for the purpose of murdering Vandenberg.

Fred Many was also in the Programmes Unit in late 1986. Earlier that year, while on parole, he had raped a fifteen year old girl and left her for dead. Because this brutal crime provoked a lot of questions from the media about the advisability of releasing prisoners like Many on parole, he was vulnerable to attack if he had been housed within the main prison.

According to Fred Many, one day late in September, or early in October 1986, Peter Drummond had told him "the old dog has got to go", meaning Vandenberg. Drummond asked Many for help.

However, the alleged plot to murder Vandenberg came unstuck when Drummond was transferred away from the Programmes Unit a month later. Tom Domican now entered the plot according to Many's story, though he was not held in the Programmes unit.

Meanwhile, on December 2, 1986 Bill Vandenberg was moved to Parklea. It was claimed to be for his own safety, but the prison van did a considerable detour via Castle Hill Police Station where Vandenberg signed a Statement for Detective Inkster and agreed to give evidence for the Crown against Andrew Kalajzich.

I wondered why it was necessary to use Castle Hill Police Station for this. Did the knowledge of a murder plot brewing within the prison motivate Vandenberg to put pen to paper?
Tom Domican claims this was the case on his web site. He asserts that there never was a plot to murder Vandenberg, that it was a scare campaign devised by Detective Inkster, whom he described as "an ambitious man". He claims that:

"in transit to Parklea prison, Vandenberg was taken to Castle Hill police station where Det. Sgt Bob Inkster was waiting, the ground work already done by Many [and others]… he had little trouble convincing Vandenberg that Kalajzich and Elkins was [sic] out to poison him.
… [Vandenberg] provided Inkster with statements which implicated Andrew Kalajzich, Warren Elkins and Kerry Orrock in the murder of Megan Kalajzic [sic]. This raises the serious question, what weight can be given to statements obtained in this manner, where the coercion and inducements are so blatantly obvious?

Domican and Drummond, the two remaining alleged conspirators in this alleged plot to murder Vandenberg, were tried and found guilty. They were sentenced to fourteen years each in March 1987.

A new Witness Protection Unit (WPU) was established at Long Bay to replace the old Programmes Unit. Detective Inkster had been instrumental in forming this unit and Vandenberg was one of its first inmates. He was transferred to the WPU from Parklea.
It all came undone though when Leigh Johnson, a solicitor visiting another prisoner, claimed Fred Many had spoken to her within the visiting area and had told her that the evidence he had given implicating Domican and Drummond in the plot to murder Vandenberg was untrue.
So, when Drummond and Domican appealed their convictions, the Court of Criminal Appeal ordered that they be retried. However, in view of Leigh Johnson's statement casting doubt on Many's original evidence, the Director of Public Prosecutions declined to proceed further against them.

If we believe what Fred Many told Leigh Johnson - that there never was a plot to murder Vandenberg - then we should also be aware that he was rewarded for giving this original (false) evidence against Drummond and Domican with the promise of an early release - a promise that prison authorities fulfilled.

In its chapter on the Plot to Murder Vandenberg the Independent Commission Against Corruption Report concludes under the subheading "Happy Ending", with this:

"In the circumstances there is no reason why the two prisoners should not have received some rewards for their assistance. It cannot be right that assistance will be recognised and rewarded only if it results in convictions, because that would inevitably lead to perjured evidence as desperate prisoners sought to buttress their testimony so as to secure a conviction."

But it was not so happy for Kirstyn Austin who had been raped by Fred Many and left for dead in September 1986. She was then fifteen years old. When Fred Many was released early as his "reward", despite threats he had made against her while he was in prison, she was forced to assume a new identity and enter the witness protection program. Fred Many's early release received considerable media attention in New South Wales. Not long after his release he was found dead in his girlfriend's flat from a drug overdose.

In March 1988 Andrew Kalajzich and Kerry Orrock were tried for conspiring to murder Megan Kalajzich.

Warren Elkins, having been offered an immunity from prosecution if he pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to murder, gave evidence for the Crown against Andrew Kalajzich. He was sentenced to ten years. Vandenberg had been sentenced to Life. Orrock was expecting an immunity from prosecution similar to Elkins, but did not get it and was charged and tried with Andrew Kalajzich.

Chester Porter QC, Kalajzich's trial barrister expressed his doubts that Vandenberg was the hitman who killed Megan, telling the Slattery Inquiry that he believed it more likely that Vandenberg was the "wheels".

During the 1988 trial, Vandenberg's knowledge of guns was tested when he was asked to hold the murder weapon - a rusty cut down rifle threaded to take a silencer, with no stock or trigger guard. He held it out in front of him as one might hold a pistol. There were titters and giggles from the jury and court watchers at the back of the courtroom.

When asked how he held the gun on the night he murdered Megan he said, "I don't really know". Nor did he know what a cocking mechanism was, and he seemed confused about the functions of other parts of the weapon.

In his address to the jury, the Prosecution predicted there may be some concern amongst them about whether or not Vandenberg had committed the murder. He reminded them that Vandenberg was not on trial, and had already been sentenced. The jury's duty was to determine whether Andrew Kalajzich had been the person who had instructed a hitman to murder his wife.

Justice is blind, I thought, but I could not turn a blind eye to this absurdity. Vandenberg's "confession" was the foundation of the case against Kalajzich, and yet it had not been challenged in a court of law, apart from a hearing for sentencing. How could a jury arrive at a valid verdict on Kalajzich's guilt or innocence under these circumstances? Perhaps they could not understand why a man might confess to a murder if he hadn't done it. I recalled Evan Whitten's observation in his book Trial by Voodoo:

"persons with even modest experience know that an innocent person may falsely plead guilty to a crime for any number of reasons, including that he is mentally disturbed, that he is shielding someone else, or most usually, because unscrupulous police have told him he is "down" for it and that if he pleads guilty they will put a word in for him, but if he does not they will "load" (fabricate evidence against) him with other more serious crimes. But even in the face of such experience, English law, unlike European law, does not require the Crown to actually prove the case against a man who pleads guilty; it proceeds straight to sentence.

Chester Porter QC, believed Vandenberg enjoyed the publicity and notoriety he received as a result of this confession. He reminded the Slattery Inquiry that every high profile murder brings some crazies out of the woodwork.

Was Vandenberg mentally disturbed? Certainly he was depressed, and drinking heavily in the weeks before Megan was murdered. Was he protecting someone? It is possible he was protecting Paul Blake who received $10,000 shortly after the murder, but has an alibi for the night of the murder.

Vandenberg was terrified of George Canellis, the man who claims he was originally asked to do the murder, but didn't. Canellis does not have an alibi for the night of the murder, something the police neglected to check, until this was revealed by the Kalajzich legal team at the Inquiry.

Andrew Kalajzich believes Canellis was the man who entered his house, shot his wife and fired two bullets at him, but missed. On his web site he says: "I allege that Canellis had the gun, the silencer, the contract for murder plus the experience and skill to carry it out. Canellis was confident enough to state 'I am serious in telling the jury I am prepared to murder but not to lie to protect myself'."

In April or May 1988, (some time during the trial) Vandenberg was interviewed for a television special by Steve Barratt, of Channel 9. In an unprecedented move, a television crew entered the Witness Protection Unit where they filmed an hour-long interview. Because of his suicide a few days later, it was never broadcast. We saw it at the Slattery Inquiry.

Alive, Vandenberg reminded me of a mouse - a timid, tidy little man with big ears, who twitched and blinked and spoke rapidly when he was excited. When Steve Barratt asked him about the actual shooting he looked down at the floor shrugged his shoulders and said "I can't talk about that".

Is this because he has difficulty coming to terms with it, or because he wasn't there?
Towards the end of this long suicide note, he becomes less coherent. Here he mentions killing a cat and sending a dog to the RSPCA.

DO YOU KNOW THAT I RAN OVER A CAT AND KILLED MAYBE EARLY SIXTYS AND THAT TOOK ME DAYS TO GET OVER.
I ONCE LIVED IN GLADESVILLE AND HAD A MONGREL DOG BUT I LOVED IT AN SEND IT TO THE RSPCA BECAUSE MY LITTLE NEPHEW KEPT PICKING UP AND EATING THE SHIT AND THAT TOOK ME A LONG TIME TO GET OVER.

I was looking for the truth - some sort of confession in this suicide note. It is apparent that the truth has not been told from the following cryptic message:

I SAW A PRIEST FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THIS UNIT ABOUT LAST SEPTEMBER AND HAVE NOT SEEN ONCE SINCE. TONIGHT BROTHER JOHN PROMISED TO SEND ONE FATHER TERRY MCDONALD TO SEE ME BUT UNFORTUNATLY THAT'S TOO LATE I FELT I COULD HAVE POURED BY COMPLETE HEART OUT TO HIM WITHOUT RESTRICTING THE MAN SO THE FINAL PIECES WOULD HAVE FALLEN IN PLACE FOR BOB [INKSTER] AS TO WHY A RESPECTABLE MAN CAME TO GET HIMSELF INVOLVED IN SUCH A DISASTROUS MESS. I OFTEN HOPED [J] MIGHT HAVE COME ON HIS OWN BUT NEVER HAD THE HEART TO TELL [M] NOT TO COME AS I HAD TOO MUCH FEELING FOR HER AS MY SISTER IN LAW TO SAY I COULDN'T TALK IN FRONT OF HER.

Is this not a cry from a man who wants to unburden himself and tell someone - a priest or his brother - the whole story? I was fascinated by the phrase: "I could have poured by complete heart out to him". It looked like a Freudian slip, and I had to check it against photographs of the original letter to be sure this was what he wrote. "By heart" suggests something learned by rote, not necessarily the truth, so that the "pieces would have fallen in place for Bob" (Detective Inkster).

Vandenberg has nothing but praise for the man who arrested him, Detective Inkster. He thanks Inkster and another detective for their "HONESTY IN THIS WHOLE MATTER" and says that

"NOTHING WAS BASED ON VERBALS… THEY HAD EVERY RIGHT TO TREAT ME WITH CONTEMPT BUT ALWAYS ACTED THE THROUGHOUGH GENTLEMEN AND IF THIS CASE DOES NOT GIVE THEM THE CREDIT THEY DESERVE THEN THE POLICE FORCE WOULD NEED TO BE DISBAND AND RESTRUCTURDED AS THEY HAVE PROVEN TO BE THE MOST HONEST PEOPLE I HAVE HAD THE GREAT PLEASURE (UNFORTUNATELY UNDER TERRIBLE) CIRCUMSTANCES. THEY NEVER ONCE SUGGESTED ANY THREAT NOR DID THEY EVER OFFER ME INDUCEMENTS THEY ONLY EVER ASKED ME TO SEARCH MY CONSCIENCE FOR THE TRUTH SO AS TO MAKE IT EASIER TO LIVE WITH MYSELF.

He also sings the praises of various other officers within the corrective services department:

"THEY HAVE GENERALLY DONE MORE THAN SHOULD EVER BE ASKED. I DO HOPE THAT SOME OF THIS LETTER WILL SOMETIME BE PRODUCED…"

He offers advice on how some of the other inmates should be treated, suggesting that they be given more sympathy and trust.

Later, he mentions Les Murphy, one of the Anita Cobby murderers.

[RW - a Senior Corrective Services Officer] OWES ME SOMETHING IN REGARDS TO LES MURPHY AND I HOPE HE MAKES THAT UP BY ALLOWING LES TO COME TO ME AT THE VERY END AND THAT WOULD NATURALLY IF HE WANTS TO HIMSELF BUT WOULD MAKE UP FOR ME AS FAR AS I WAS CONCERNED.

It has been suggested to me through the prison grapevine that this refers to a homosexual relationship between Vandenberg and Les Murphy during his time at Parklea before he was transferred to WPU at Long Bay. Murphy and Vandenberg wrote to each other and, according to other correspondence, money was transferred from Vandenberg's account to Les Murphy's account. When his friend was transferred to another part of Long Bay, Vandenberg had requested a visit, but the request was refused.

Vandenberg concludes his suicide note with a further message to his brother and his sister-in-law:

I SHOULD MENTION AS IT S UNFORTUNATELY A VERY BIG PART IN MY LAST FEW YEARS AND THAT I'M NOW CRYING OVER AND THAT WAS THE LOSS OF MY VERY SPECIAL NEPHEW ANTHONY WHO AS A PERSON MEANT MORE TO ME IN MY LIFE THAN ANYTHING ELSE HAD AND WHEN HIS END CAME THAT WAS THE BEGINNING OF MY END.
I HOPE IT'S NOT LOOKED DOWN ON BY HIS FATHER BUT I HAVE TO SAY I'VE MIST YOU I AM NOW SO TOTALLY WORN OUT I CAN HARDLY SEE THE LETTERS SO I HAVE TO FINISH THIS OF SO …
PLEASE DON'T LET THEM TREAT ME AS A CRIM IF I'M DEAD I SHOULD RETURN TO THE BOSOM OF MY FAMILY AS I SERVE MY TIME VERY HARD BUT UNABLE TO GO ANY FURTHER.
FOR THE FAMILY MY APPRICIATION WOULD BE THAT I'VE SHAMED YOU WHILE I LIVED PLEASE DON'T ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN WHILE I'M DEAD. I HOPE TO TAKE MY LAST BREATHS WITH ANTHONY IF YOU DON'T MIND [J] AND [M] AND KIDS.
PS
I INTENDENT LEAVING NO NOTE ALL ALL BUT FELT I COULDN'T LEAVE THE FAMILY AS WELL AS WPU AND BOB INKSTER WITH SOME EXPLANATION BECAUSE GUESSING AND KNOWING IS A DIFFERENT MATTER.

The primary message I get from this suicide note is that Bill Vandenberg was a heart-broken man, grieving for the love of his life, his young nephew Anthony. I can't help but be moved by this. After Anthony's death, Vandenberg began drinking heavily. He was vulnerable. It was important to him to apologise to everyone concerned for the "mess" he has left them to deal with - in fact he seems obsessively concerned about this (e.g. the nappy, the dog shit his nephew ate, as well as the more relevant concerns for Orrock's and Megan's family). His involvement in the murder of Megan (and I have no doubt he was involved) put him on track for this inevitable suicide.

In his confessions he called himself the "triggerman" (not the shooter or the murderer). According to the Macquarie Dictionary the word "trigger" means "to start or precipitate something, as in a chain of events or scientific reaction". He knew little about guns. I cannot imagine him holding a rifle with silencer attached to Megan's head and firing two bullets into her brain, then calmly aiming for Andrew (or his pillow) and firing two more bullets. Perhaps he felt responsible for initiating the chain of events that led to Megan's murder and the "mess" he created afterwards.

I hope the truth did not die with Vandenberg. If there is reasonable doubt about the role Vandenberg played in this murder, we must ask: Who was he protecting, and why?

Copyright Pippa Kay, 2001.
First published in On Murder 2: True Crime Writing in Australia, edited by Kerry Greenwood, Black Inc. 2002.

FURTHER READING & REFERENCES:

Pippa Kay, Doubt & Conviction: The Kalajzich Inquiry,Pippa Kay Pty Ltd, PO Box 237, Gladesville NSW 2111, 2002;
Austin, K, & Fife-Yoemans, J, Injustice, Random House, 1998
Whitton, E., Trial by Voodoo, Random House, 1994
I.C.A.C. Report on The Use of Informers, January, 1993
Report of the Inquiry into the conviction of Andrew Kalajzich, Hon, John Slattery, AO, QC. 30 May 1995.
The Andrew Kalajzich Website: www.kalajzich.com
Tom Domican's Website: www.tomdomican.com.au