- Aug 17, 2006
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Just following on from the Craigslist Killers story, I thought I'd create a thread about Alex MacDonald and his story, which I first read in Underbelly 2 (by John Silvester and Andrew Rule). I always found this story very interesting and I'm surprised it isn't more well-known. A link to the original story is here.
The facts are:
I wonder if he would have been able to get away with it. Once his mates from Yaringa identified him, would they have been able to track his boat by the navigation equipment back in those days (mid-late 1990s)? And by that stage, would he have been long gone? Apparently he told his drinking buddies at the Somerville pub that he was going to the Solomon Islands as well, which makes me doubt that it was his true destination. When he was being interviewed by police, he also told them that once he reached the Solomons, he was going to commit suicide, because he would be in 'more pleasant surroundings', which also sounds like bollocks to me. He had made over 320k on his bank robberies since escaping from prison and while he'd surely had some reasonable expenses over that time, it seems to me that he was building up a war chest to try to live comfortably for as long as he could.
The facts are:
- Alex MacDonald, a former Vietnam veteran, was serving time in prison in Queensland for a number of armed robberies and had previously been in prison for attempting to extort money out of hotels in Western Australia, by threatening to blow them up. He made good on the threat in the case of the Crown Hotel in Collie, causing extensive damage to the hotel and coming close to killing a police officer, who had handled the bomb minutes earlier.
- MacDonald escaped from prison and was soon committing robberies on banks in Queensland. His trademark was to use bicycles to get away, or merely run into the bushland, where he used his survival skills to camp out, until it was safe for him to leave the area. MacDonald had hoped to create the impression that he was camping in Queensland permanently, when in reality, he was living in Victoria and made the trip up to commit the robberies and then get out of the state.
- Ron Williams was a loner who responded to a classified ad put in the Herald-Sun by MacDonald (as 'Paul Jacobs'): GENERAL HAAND GEO. SURVEY. Duties include camp maint D/L essential. Suit single person 35-45 able to handle long periods in remote areas...
- Williams was interviewed by MacDonald. They were the same age and looked remarkably similar. After several interviews, where MacDonald was able to get personal documents from Williams and find out a lot about his personal history, he advised Williams that he was the successful applicant and put him on a retainer (more than Williams earned in his regular job) to lock him in.
- MacDonald then drove Williams across the country to WA. Williams had written several postcards; MacDonald advised that he would post them out for him. After arriving at the town, MacDonald took Williams fishing at a remote area. When it got dark, he shot Williams dead and buried him. He then removed the licence plates from the car, dumped it and hitchhiked back to Victoria. He was now Ron Williams (he had been able to get a licence, passport and other official documents made up as Williams).
- MacDonald was living near Tocumwal over the NSW border and had bought a boat which was moored at the Yaringa Marine National Park in Western Port. He spent several months fixing up the boat and installing navigation equipment. His plan (as he later told police) was to sail the boat to the Solomon Islands, but he needed more money.
- He appeared on Australia's Most Wanted, which is where his plan began to unravel. Someone recognised him and led police to the car he was using. The car had been registered to 'Ron Williams' and Williams was a reported missing person. He was arrested in Fawkner, charged and convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
I wonder if he would have been able to get away with it. Once his mates from Yaringa identified him, would they have been able to track his boat by the navigation equipment back in those days (mid-late 1990s)? And by that stage, would he have been long gone? Apparently he told his drinking buddies at the Somerville pub that he was going to the Solomon Islands as well, which makes me doubt that it was his true destination. When he was being interviewed by police, he also told them that once he reached the Solomons, he was going to commit suicide, because he would be in 'more pleasant surroundings', which also sounds like bollocks to me. He had made over 320k on his bank robberies since escaping from prison and while he'd surely had some reasonable expenses over that time, it seems to me that he was building up a war chest to try to live comfortably for as long as he could.
