Did family man keep evil secret over deaths of Beth Williams, Shirley Collins and Susan Oyston?

CRIME SPECIAL: A SUSPECTED serial killer investigated over the murders of three women watched as a popular radio announcer took the blame for one of the deaths.

The John Bryan Kerr murder trial generated a huge amount of public interest, with many wanting to hear the case inside court. Pi

A FORMER bank teller and tennis coach has emerged as the man police have investigated over the murders of three young women in one of Victoria's most enduring historical murder cases.

The Herald Sun has spoken to a woman who handed over written documents detailing his "deathbed'' confessions that he had killed three women and watched with fascination as he let an innocent man be sentenced to death over one of his murders.

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John Bryan Kerr was sentence to hang, later commuted to a 20-year prison sentence.

Homicide detectives launched an investigation after the new suspect's former carer, Belinda, handed over the written notes she took from an elderly man detailing the deaths of Beth Williams, 20, in 1949, Shirley Collins, 14, in 1953 and Susan Oyston, 18, in 1954.

The Herald Sun has chosen not to name the suspect, who died in 2005, out of fairness to his family.

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Belinda, when contacted earlier this year, said she had been shocked by the elderly man she met as a waitress in a Camberwell cafe, who seemed to revel in telling her his crimes.

"We all know the truth. It's just the evidence, or lack of it,'' Belinda said.

"I have come to a conclusion he wasn't just a crazy old man telling stories. He was telling the truth.''

Belinda said he was not a threat physically and had come forward to see justice was done.

"A lot of people remember this (case). You know there were three (murders)?,'' she said.

"The way he presented, he was frail, dying. I could push him over with my little finger.

"He definitely had a mental illness. He would suss out my reactions and give me more. I think he liked the shock value as well.

"He kind of ruined my view of old people.''

The suspect's daughter, who wished not to be named, has told the Herald Sun her father was not capable of hurting a woman.

She said her father, who suffered anxiety and paranoia, had been taken advantage of by three waitresses, including Belinda, in his final years.

Belinda, however, was given money and a property after befriending him and at one point was his power of attorney.

But the daughter confirmed her father worked as a teller at a city branch of the then-National Bank from where Ms Oyston fell to her death.

It has been alleged Ms Oyston was killed, rather than committed suicide, because she became aware of a previous murder.

"That's absolute rubbish if you think my father's done something like that, absolute rubbish,'' she said.

"My father suffered from paranoia. These people (waitresses) were playing on his psychiatric illness and that's the problem.

"He was never in that (bad) element. He was a tennis coach.

"If he did make any claims there's probably no substance to them whatsoever.

"If Dad was alive today he would just laugh and say, 'are you being ridiculous?'.

"Dad wasn't violent. He would be absolutely horrified if someone said he was violent. He was scared of women … he was shy.''

Kerr's family is fighting for a posthumous pardon for him over his conviction for murdering typist Beth Williams at Albert Park beach.

His former wife Denise Duncan and daughter Kate Wallace have held talks with barrister Brian Bourke, who met the Toorak-raised Scotch College-educated Kerr in a Spring St pub after his release from jail.

The homicide squad has also spoken with Mr Bourke about the Kerr case.

Ms Duncan, who married Kerr in the 1980s, said she wanted to clear his name and had even contacted Belinda following her revelations to police.

But she said she has since been stonewalled.

"John's a victim in this whole thing now,'' she said.

"Not one of the people (involved in his prosecution) believed he was guilty.

"The thing about Belinda is her conscience made her come forward and we need to appeal to that.''

Ms Duncan said she was one of the few people to whom he divulged his history.

"He told me what he needed to, pretty early on,'' she said.

"We met in the 1980s and we married. Within our first few meetings he told me and I was one of the only people he ever did.''

The fiercely proud Kerr, whose promising radio career was ended by his conviction and subsequent prison term, fathered two children with Ms Duncan after changing his name to Wallace.

His conviction was always considered controversial and sparked a campaign after his incarceration following three controversial trials.

Kerr was convicted on the third and final Supreme Court hearing only minutes before he was to be automatically acquitted.

Crucial evidence by a police officer, who is suspected of forging an unsigned confession by Kerr, was part of the injustice his family says left him hiding his true identity for the rest of his life - even from his children.

Kerr's daughter, Kate, was never meant to know her family secret but came across archived newspaper reports of his trial.

Her brother has been unaware of his dad's history.

"Dad never knew that I found out,'' Kate Wallace said.

"He was very proud and wouldn't have wanted me to know."

Ms Wallace said she had a privileged upbringing but felt the pain of her father, who was considered to have a golden voice, never living up to his potential.

"It was stripped away from him,'' she said.

"His dreams were taken away, a career in radio. That was his dream and he never got to live it.''

After his release from prison, Kerr moved to Sydney and later returned to Melbourne as a pharmaceutical salesman.

He became entrenched at the Richmond Football Club as a coterie member and forged friendships with club figureheads Bill Durham, Ian Wilson and Dr David Marsh.

He proclaimed his innocence until his death in 2001 of Parkinson's disease, only holding a grudge against the officers who testified he had confessed to the killing.

Linking the murders of Ms Williams, Ms Collins and Ms Oyston was among the first cases taken on by the reinvented Cold Case Unit in 2012.

Solving the murder of 14-year-old Ms Collins - whose mutilated body was found in a Mt Martha driveway after being abducted from Richmond North train station - is considered the unit's most important unsolved case.

Victoria Police's cold case unit has been attempting to corroborate evidence that has been difficult because of the time elapsed.

It is believed the detailed notes taken by Belinda contain detailed information only the killer is likely to have known.

The Office of Public Prosecutions reviewed the file and the investigation continues.