Read Online The Russell Street Bombing by Vikki Petraitis - Free Book Online

penalties are usually
lighter for those who cooperate with police. There was enough forensic evidence
to link them all to the bombings.
    Later on that morning, the Minogues appeared in the Swan Hill Magistrates'
Court. In the interview room Craig, aged just 23, gave detectives his name and
address, and otherwise sat silently with a half-smile on his face. He was
charged with nine offences in total including the murder of Angela Taylor and
the attempted murder of Carl Donadio and Magistrate Iain West.
    Rodney Minogue, aged only 20, was held for further questioning. Unlike his
brother, Rodney made what police referred to as a 'full and frank confession'.
He told detectives that the bombing had been planned by Stan Taylor.
     
    While the suspects were in custody being questioned, Wayne
Ashley and his team of crime scene examiners were searching for evidence at the
two Birchip houses. Beginning at Watchem Road, the crime scene examiners
searched inside and outside the neat white weatherboard house. Even though it
looked like the house of a respectable middle-aged man, Ashley found small
things that marked Taylor a crook. The number on the compliance plate of his
Ford LTD parked under the carport, didn't match the chassis number. Along with
the car, other items were taken and handed on to either Chris O'Connor or Bob
Barnes.
    After the dawn examination of Taylor's house, the crime scene examiners went
straight to the Lockwood Street home of the Minogue brothers which had been
secured and guarded since the unsuccessful pre-dawn raid. The Minogues had two
suspected stolen vehicles at their house. Inside the house, the crime scene
examiners found ammunition, a shotgun cartridge of the same brand found at
Reed's house, and a loaded shotgun in one of the bedrooms. In the same bedroom,
it was obvious that the brothers had been doing it rough. A sleeping bag lay on
top of a mattress on the floor. Next to the bed was Cold Power detergent box.
Inside it, were three multi-frequency scanners. All three were connected to a
power-board which in turn was plugged into a wall electrical outlet. In a nearby
chest of drawers, they found two more scanners. The Minogues too had been
listening in on police frequencies. Since the scanners found in the raid on
Peter Reed's house, radio silence had been adopted prior to all subsequent
raids. If the bombers were listening in, the police would remain silent.
    In another drawer was a book on Bull Terrier dogs. At the Lockwood Street
house, the crime scene examiners noticed the bull terrier dog that the SOG had
being playing with as they surrounded the house earlier that morning. The rug
found in the bomb car had terrier-type hairs on it. This dog and its hair could
provide another important forensic link between the Minogues and the bomb car.
Ashley gently removed some samples from the dog. The hairs would later prove to
be consistent with the ones found on the bomb car rug.
    It was in the kitchen that Wayne Ashley found what investigators had been
looking for all along. Plugged into an extension cord and resting on the old
kitchen bench was a high-speed engraving device. The spinning end of it looked
to be the same size as the drill that had drilled out all the chassis numbers of
the stolen cars and the serial numbers of the firearms found at other raids. It
would have to be tested, but it looked promising.
    Not only did the Minogues have evidence at their house, but police found out
that Craig Minogue had rented a storage garage in North Albury. The day after
the Birchip raids and the arrest of the Minogues in Swan Hill, the crime scene
examiners travelled from Swan Hill where they had spent the previous night, to
Albury to examine the storage unit. Police photographers caught the contents on
film before it the forensic examination begun. The photographs captured the
clutter of furniture, boxes and tool boxes. During the subsequent search, police
found detonators and an explosives handbook. They also found