Malcolm George Baker made ’kill list’ before Central Coast massacre
CHILLING new details have come to light which suggest Malcolm Baker sat in the pub making a list of the people he would kill in a “bloody odyssey” across the Central Coast.
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MALCOLM George Baker sat in a Terrigal pub and wrote a list of people he was going to kill before going home, sawing off the butt of a 12 gauge shotgun and embarking on a “bloody odyssey” that would leave six people dead.
The sensational claims Baker wrote a “kill list” comes 25 years to the day, tomorrow, after the then 45-year-old unemployed mechanic gunned down his ex-girlfriend, her pregnant sister, their father, another couple and his own son in the Central Coast’s — and one of Australia’s — worst massacres.
The Express Advocate was granted exclusive access to the original Supreme Court file, archived off-site at an undisclosed location, ahead of the anniversary of a murderous rampage that would forever change the psyche of the Central Coast.
While this newspaper could not find any direct evidence in the file Baker wrote a list of people he intended to kill, one of the victim’s brothers remains adamant it was common knowledge at the time of his trial Baker big noted himself in a pub just moments before going on his infamous shooting spree.
Speaking publicly for the first time Paul Smith, the younger brother of Baker’s fifth victim Ross Smith, 35, said Baker intended to kill others that fateful night on October 27, 1992.
“After overhearing his girlfriend (Kerry Gannan) with Chris (Gall) he’s gone down to the pub and had a couple of beers and wrote a list of everyone he hated and told people he was going to kill them,” Mr Smith said.
“No one believed him, they said ‘yeah, right’.
“I was on that list and so was my dad.”
His comments however, are supported by statements tendered in the police brief of evidence that Baker told a friend Anthony Wakefield earlier in the day “I should go around and shoot the lot of them. Her old man thinks I’m mad. I’ll show him how f...ing mad I am”.
Almost a week earlier he also told his daughter Tammy Marcelle Campbell: “I’m going to shoot them, when the time’s right, I’ll kill them all” and told one of his ex-wives Lola Baker “if I start on one of you I’ll kill the lot of you”.
A week after the killings Baker rang her collect from Long Bay Gaol and said “I told you I’d do it”.
Mr Smith said he had only moved out of his brother’s North Wyong home two weeks before Ross Smith was shot in the bath.
“Instead of Leslie (Read) opening the door it would have been me,” he said.
“It was a horrible time. Not one day goes past where you don’t think about it ... it’s like its tattooed on the back of your eyelids.”
Mr Smith also revealed the untold story of the failed business deal which put his brother in Baker’s crosshairs.
“My brother owned a house removal business, he had a number of jobs on but as it happens the business went bankrupt and he was in the middle of Baker’s job,” he said.
Mr Smith said Baker blamed his brother for losing the deposit he paid for a house Baker wanted relocated to another property where he wanted to get his ex-girlfriend “away from Terrigal” and the influence of her family who Baker blamed for breaking them up.
“My brother confided in me that he had been stalked by Baker and had been followed. If he went to the hardware store, Baker’s car would be there parked outside. He wanted Ross to see it. (Ross) would report it to the cops but what could they do?”.
It was Mr Smith’s 31st birthday the day of the massacre and he said his brother was killed in the bathtub while getting ready to go out with him that night for drinks.
“I find it really hard because it was my birthday,” he said.
“When someone rings and says ‘happy birthday’ I think, no it’s not. I f...ing hate my birthday.”
Mr Smith also had to clean the bathtub after forensic police finished examining the crime scene.
“I guess we’re lucky in some ways because you see some murderers get a slap on the wrist and they’re out in 15 years,” he said.
■ TOMORROW: Why Malcolm Baker’s sentence was too harsh
However he said it was a double-edge sword given it cost taxpayers “over $1 million a year” to keep maximum security prisoners locked up.
“Truth in sentencing had come in a few years before and it was a good thing (but) there’s no winners with a situation like that,” he said.
“All those people weren’t murdered, they were assassinated.
“I just wish they would have had victim impact statements back then. I would have liked to tell the court how my dad had had his third stroke from all the stress, I basically had to shut my business down. It had a huge snowball effect on everybody.”