Crime story six-pack: murders, mystery and monsters
From unsolved murders to manhunts and crimes that shocked the state and the nation, here are six gripping Queensland crime stories for our subscribers.
Cold Cases
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From unsolved murders to manhunts and crimes that shocked the state and the nation, here are six gripping Queensland crime stories for our subscribers.
The first is a story from regional Queensland, the still-unsolved slayings of Maryborough couple Bill and Edith Moffat in their home in a quiet suburban street.
In September, 1977, the Maryborough bank manager and his wife were found executed in their modest suburban house.
The Moffat murders have puzzled locals and frustrated police for almost 43 years.
No-one has been charged over the baffling crime in suburban Baddow and the motive remains a mystery.
CLICK HERE FOR OUR SPECIAL REPORT ON THE MOFFAT MURDERS
Colder still was the case of Betty Shanks, a woman whose badly-battered body was found dumped in a suburban front yard in The Grange.
The victim, a public servant who worked in the city, had caught the tram to a nearby street and was killed on the short walk home.
An FBI-trained criminal profiler who examined the case found three of four potential suspects stood out in the mystery - which is still the subject of a $50,000 reward.
CLICK HERE FOR THE BETTY SHANKS MURDER STORY
While some crimes happen in secret and the guilty slip away, others take place in public view - with the pursuit and showdown with police unfolding on national television.
In 1993, a murder spree involving three killers and two child hostages began in southern Queensland and ended at a farm house at Cangai northwest of Grafton in regional New South Wales.
Surrounded by armed police, the stand-off took a bizarre twist when the phone in the farmhouse rang - and one of the killers, Leonard Leabeater (pictured) , took a call from A Current Affair host Mike Willesee, with the discussion beamed into living rooms across Australia.
CLICK HERE FOR OUR STORY ON THE CANGAI SIEGE
While bank robberies in Queensland today are relatively rare, in the 1980s and 90s they were a crime of choice for some bandits who specialised in hitting what were then soft targets.
Two men, William Orchard and his stepson Garry Sullivan, robbed banks and armoured cars during a crime spree which lasted from 1985 until 1991.
In a dozen armed robberies they stole more than $2.5m - always escaping without trace until persistent detective work brought them to justice.
CLICK HERE TO READ HOW OUR WORST ARMED ROBBERS WERE CAUGHT
While news of modern crimes is shared rapidly via the Internet, television and social media, history shows that community outrage over past crimes was also quick to spread.
The case of the so-called Longreach Cinderella - a 14-year-old girl murdered in Queensland’s Central West by her wealthy father and stepmother in 1903 - horrified the public.
When the parents of Grace Macdonald appeared in court in 1904 the trial was packed with angry crowds - and the jury took just 45 minutes to return a guilty verdict.
The public was outraged again when they learned that the death sentence was subsequently commuted to life in prison - with the stepmother only serving 11 years and the father just 12.
CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY OF THE LONGREACH CINDERELLA
Another shocking crime from Queensland’s past was the murder of a station manager and a policeman by two bushrangers, Patrick and James Kenniff.
The Kenniffs, who clashed with the station manager on a property near Carnarvon National Park, murdered the manager and a policeman who was helping track them down, burned their bodies and stuffed the remains into saddlebags.
A manhunt involving 50 police officers and 16 Aboriginal trackers eventually tracked down the killers, one of whom was sentenced to life and the other executed in 1904.
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‘Last ray of hope’ snuffed out with no charges over crayfish farm shooting
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