AUS$5m (£2m) reward "Family Murders", in which five young men were mutilated and killed in a particularly grisly fashion.
Police are conducting a cold-case review of the murders, in which five young men were mutilated and killed during the seventies and eighties.It is understood the review has uncovered new evidence implicating a number of key suspects, but that police are still lacking crucial information that could lead to more arrests.
The major crimes investigation section recently re-interviewed the only man convicted of involvement in the crimes.In 1984 Bevan Spencer von Einem, a former accountant, was found guilty of murdering 15-year-old Richard Kelvin, the son of a television personality.But another four killings remain unsolved. Persistent rumours have linked them to an alleged paedophile ring, known as the "Family" and supposedly linked to the Adelaide establishment.The ring's existence has never been proved, but von Einem hinted during an interview in 1989 that he could give names but was afraid to.Police are preparing to offer a AUS$5m (£2m) reward in the hope of cracking a 20-year-old case: the so-called "Family Murders", in which five young men were mutilated and killed in a particularly grisly fashion.A former accountant, Bevan Spencer von Einem, was convicted in 1984 of murdering 15-year-old Richard Kelvin, the son of a television personality. But the other killings are unsolved, and persistent rumours have linked them to an alleged paedophile ring, the "Family", comprising pillars of the Adelaide establishment. While the ring's existence has not been proved, von Einem hinted during an interview in 1989 that he could give names but was afraid to.Richard Kelvin is believed to have been drugged and tortured for five weeks. Von Einem was also charged with murdering 17-year-old Alan Barnes and 18-year-old Mark Langley but was not convicted. Several victims died of blood loss after being anally mutilated. Mark Langley's body was missing sections of small intestine. The murders horrified the people of Adelaide, which has a long and unhappy history of serial killings and bizarre disappearances. Locals still shiver when they think about the three Beaumont children who vanished from a crowded city beach one morning in 1966 and have not been seen since. Two more girls, aged 11 and four, disappeared without trace from an Adelaide Oval football game in 1973.
During the late 1970s, seven teenage girls were abducted and murdered in Adelaide and its environs, and most recently, in 1999, eight dismembered bodies were found in barrels of acid in a disused bank vault in Snowtown, a small town outside Adelaide.
The Snowtown cases were solved when four men were convicted of a total of 11 murders, but the Family Murders remain an open wound. The state premier, Mike Rann, said the government would help police to boost the reward in the hope that it might lead to the "arrest, prosecution and successful conviction of those who were involved in some of the worst, vilest, most evil killings in the history of Australia".
The major crimes investigation section recently re-interviewed the only man convicted of involvement in the crimes.In 1984 Bevan Spencer von Einem, a former accountant, was found guilty of murdering 15-year-old Richard Kelvin, the son of a television personality.But another four killings remain unsolved. Persistent rumours have linked them to an alleged paedophile ring, known as the "Family" and supposedly linked to the Adelaide establishment.The ring's existence has never been proved, but von Einem hinted during an interview in 1989 that he could give names but was afraid to.Police are preparing to offer a AUS$5m (£2m) reward in the hope of cracking a 20-year-old case: the so-called "Family Murders", in which five young men were mutilated and killed in a particularly grisly fashion.A former accountant, Bevan Spencer von Einem, was convicted in 1984 of murdering 15-year-old Richard Kelvin, the son of a television personality. But the other killings are unsolved, and persistent rumours have linked them to an alleged paedophile ring, the "Family", comprising pillars of the Adelaide establishment. While the ring's existence has not been proved, von Einem hinted during an interview in 1989 that he could give names but was afraid to.Richard Kelvin is believed to have been drugged and tortured for five weeks. Von Einem was also charged with murdering 17-year-old Alan Barnes and 18-year-old Mark Langley but was not convicted. Several victims died of blood loss after being anally mutilated. Mark Langley's body was missing sections of small intestine. The murders horrified the people of Adelaide, which has a long and unhappy history of serial killings and bizarre disappearances. Locals still shiver when they think about the three Beaumont children who vanished from a crowded city beach one morning in 1966 and have not been seen since. Two more girls, aged 11 and four, disappeared without trace from an Adelaide Oval football game in 1973.
During the late 1970s, seven teenage girls were abducted and murdered in Adelaide and its environs, and most recently, in 1999, eight dismembered bodies were found in barrels of acid in a disused bank vault in Snowtown, a small town outside Adelaide.
The Snowtown cases were solved when four men were convicted of a total of 11 murders, but the Family Murders remain an open wound. The state premier, Mike Rann, said the government would help police to boost the reward in the hope that it might lead to the "arrest, prosecution and successful conviction of those who were involved in some of the worst, vilest, most evil killings in the history of Australia".
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