Anita Cobby: The monsters who killed the young Sydney nurse

THE RAPE and murder of Anita Cobby is one of the most infamous cases in Australian criminal history, but who were the men that committed such unspeakable acts on the young nurse and former beauty queen?

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THE RAPE and murder of Anita Cobby is one of the most infamous cases in Australian criminal history, but who were the men that committed such unspeakable acts on the young nurse and former beauty queen?

The five men convicted of the crime that shocked Sydney in 1986 all hailed from the western suburbs and had a history of violence and trouble with the law.

Two of them - including the gang’s leader - were only teenagers. Three of them were brothers.

Together they abducted, tortured and killed a young woman with the world in front of her.

THE LEADER - JOHN TRAVERS

Travers was just 18 years old when he stood over Cobby’s bruised and battered body and, without an inkling of remorse, cut her throat before walking away as she bled to death in the middle of a Western Sydney paddock.

He and his gang of depraved followers had subjected the young nurse to such sickening abuse and torture it shocked seasoned investigators working the case and brought hundreds out of their homes and to Blacktown courthouse calling for their heads.

Travers was the leader of the gang and admitted to cutting Anita Cobby’s throat.

Despite his age, Travers was the leader of the group and when he confessed to the crime in a secretly recorded jailhouse conversation with a friend, there was no emotion, no regret.

“We were all drunk and she f...ing seen all of us,’’ he can be heard saying.

“They said ‘Go on and do your thing, Trawnie’. They weren’t going to do it, so I had to.”

For someone so young, Travers had a violent history that included the suspected rape of nearly 20 men and women in NSW and Western Australia.

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He had a habit of boasting about these crimes to a young friend - the same woman he confessed to about Cobby.

One such attack happened when Travers and his gang were in Western Australian town of Mandurah the year before Cobby’s murder.

They had fled to the tourist spot after raping and bashing a young woman in Toongabbie who had identified one of her attackers as having a tear-shaped tattoo under his left eye.

Travers had started a relationship with a 17-year-old boy in the area but one booze-filled night brought his friends to watch as he beat and raped the teenager and left him for dead.

With the police hot on their tails, the gang returned to Sydney.

Anita Cobby was abducted, raped and murdered on February 2, 1986.

The young nurse and former beauty queen, pictured here with husband John, was on her way home from a dinner with friends when she was taken. Picture: John Cobby

There was an uproar from the community when Travers was allowed out of prison to attend a funeral.

Once back in the city he recounted to Miss X in graphic detail the sexual and physical abuse he had inflicted on the young man and even produced photographs taken by one of the others.

The eldest of seven kids, Travers grew up in the Western Sydney suburb of Mount Druitt and found himself in trouble with the law from a young age.

His father, a bus driver, left the family when Travers was 13 and the teenager was expected to step up and provide for the family.

Unable to cope with the split, Travers’ mother began to get sicker and often needed to be hospitalised, eventually leading to the seven kids being sent to foster homes.

Travers liked to kill animals - an early behaviour often seen in serial killers - and had a sickening reputation for having sex with them.

MICHAEL MURDOCH

Michael Murdoch had been friends with Travers for years and was said to idolise him.

Murdoch, who was also 18 at the time of Cobby’s murder, had been friends with Travers for years and is said to have idolised the gang leader.

The two were inseparable and often gave each other tattoos, according to veteran Sydney commentator Paul B Kidd.

There were rumours the pair were more than just good friends, but they denied they had a romantic relationship.

Like his mentor, Murdoch’s past was littered with run-ins with police and he also came from a broken home in Sydney’s west.

When police got their big break in the Cobby case and raided a Wentworthville home, Murdoch was in bed with Travers when they were arrested and taken into custody.

But their bond wasn’t as strong as Travers probably hoped with Murdoch turning on him while being interrogated.

THE MURPHY BROTHERS

Michael Murphy had escaped from prison six weeks before Cobby’s murder.

Michael Murphy leads police around the crime scene.

Michael, Gary and Les Murphy were part of a large family - nine kids in all - who lived in Sydney’s west.

Michael, the eldest of the three, had been on the run for six weeks when he was involved in Cobby’s rape and murder.

He was serving a lengthy prison term in Silverwater Jail for a string of robberies and somehow found himself on the outside of the prison walls on trusted duties when he and another prisoner made a run for it.

Years earlier he had been involved in another elaborate scheme to break free from Parramatta Jail but his grandmother would foil what could have been the biggest prison breakout in NSW history.

It was rare for the three brothers, including Gary (pictured), to be out of jail at the same time.

Gary Murphy claimed he was beaten by police when he was arrested.

Not the brightest of inmates, Murphy had been involved in a months-long dig out of the jail - with prisoners working through the night on a hole that had been concealed under a cupboard in a cell.

When they had finally dug all the way to the outside of the prison, Murphy made a quick phone call to his grandmother.

“I have some great news. I’m getting out this weekend. See you on Sunday,” he said to her before hanging up.

Unaware her grandson wasn’t being lawfully released, she called the prison to ask what time he was getting out. Alarms bells started ringing and the whole plan came undone.

The three brothers spent years behind bars - more inside than out.

It was rare that they were all out at the same time when they joined up with Travers and Murdoch to rape and kill Cobby.

Les Murphy was the youngest of the brothers.

In 1996, Gary Murphy wrote a letter claiming he was innocent and was bashed by police and forced to sign a confession.

He said he had developed epilepsy as a result of the assault by police, but conceded nobody would believe his claims of innocence.

“I deeply feel that whatever I would like to say regarding this matter, the people of the community will strongly disagree, as I am one who has been convicted with the crime,” he wrote.

“It is not easy for me week after week. I wonder to myself why am I here knowing I am doing time for a crime I did not commit.

“Deep down in my heart, I am very sorry for both the family and Anita’s death. Whether you wish to believe me or not, I am innocent of this crime. I was not there when this happened.

“If I was, I must honestly say Miss Cobby would be alive today, and this ain’t just words. I am saying I mean it. I say to myself the truth will come out one day.”