Matthew Wales blamed mother's control for killing Margaret Wales-King and her husband Paul King
THE notorious Society Murders gripped Melbourne, bringing together high society, intrigue and mystery about a shocking double murder in which a son was the prime suspect.
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DETECTIVE Charlie Bezzina returns to the quiet spot where Margaret and Paul were found, beneath the soil, mulch and rocks their son thought would hide his crime.
The mind of a killer
The Black Saturday bushfires decimated the region in 2009, but the visible reminders of that horrific day are quickly being consumed by new growth.
Retracing Matthew’s steps on the night he buried the couple, former Homicide Squad detective Bezzina says he gets a sense of what had been going through the mind of the novice killer, alone in the scrub.
"He's arrived at this location, finally found a dirt road that pulls off the main highway. I think he would've believed he was safe by that stage, he could breathe a sigh of relief, Bezzina says.
"There wasn't any passing traffic … he believed he was in the middle of nowhere."
Society Murders - the disappearance
Society Murders - the investigation
In fact, the site is not as secluded as Matthew had thought, and two campers had seen him with his trailer.
He had a crowbar, a mattock and a shovel, but the soil was full of shale and Bezzina says he probably didn’t anticipate how difficult the task would be.
It was dark when he finished.
"Through sheer laziness, or sheer exhaustion, he could only get down 2m in depth," Bezzina says.
"Here’s a man that’s has been a hairdresser, he’s not used to manual labor.
"When that final mound of dirt went on top of the bodies … I think he was more confident then that the deed was done. He’d got rid of the bodies."
Matthew justifies his murderous plan
MATTHEW Wales blames neither greed nor malice, but instead cites honour for his actions on April 4, 2002.
In a biography penned two years later by a fellow criminal in jail, he recalls the "last straw" as being a lie his mother supposedly told him about seeing his beloved Maritza with another man.
He describes himself as being prepared to meet the "supreme challenge" for any man, to lay down his life for his wife and child – which may have been a fine sentiment, had their lives been in danger.
Matthew gives a chilling account of his emotions leading up to the killings in "Warts and all: The Matthew Wales Story", recalling how he justified his murderous plan.
"THIS time was different to those others when I had dreamt of killing my mother," he says.
"There was no guilt that I was planning a double murder, nor was there a sense of apprehension -- although I well knew that this time seemed far more realistic than at any time before.
"This time it had not only involved me, but those I loved more dearly than anyone else on earth.
"No, there's no other way.'' I kept repeating those words to myself as the day progressed, convinced in my own mind that my mother would never cease to meddle in my life."
Finances the trigger for murder
BUT in a record of interview immediately after his arrest, Matthew told police that the trigger had been a financial dispute.
The argument had been over a family trust property in Surfers Paradise several months earlier, in which he felt he’d been treated differently to other relatives.
"Everybody will probably think it’s about money …and it is about money.
"Not for the use of me getting the money, it’s the way she used her … her power for money. She used it against us all the time.
"She used to manipulate us. She was always sitting there and there was this dominating type of aura about her.
"Sitting back and always thinking that she's a queen. That's the way she is."
"I just bottled it up inside for so long"
Det-Sgt Van Veenendaal says Matthew’s demeanor lurched from one emotional extreme to the other as he detailed his crime to detectives.
"He was calm … he was upset at times. He was remorseful at times at what he did, and then at other times he was quite angry," Det-Sgt Van Veenendaal recalls.
I'm the victim - killer tells cops
HE wept as he told police his hostility towards his mother had been with him since childhood
"I have never shown it to her emotionally. I just bottled it up inside for so long.
"I just wanted to get this out of my system."
He claimed he’d been alienated from the rest of the family by his mother’s "manipulations".
"I walked through my sister’s house the other day and I realised that everybody else’s photo was up except mine," he said.
Matthew clearly saw himself as the victim. His brothers and sisters viewed things differently.
"Mum adored Matthew to the stage where we used to call him 'Golden Boy' - he could do no wrong in mum's eyes," one of his sisters said to police.
They saw him as an indulged youngest child who’d been given more latitude than the rest by their mother, perhaps because he’d been only seven when his parents divorced.
Matthew and his mother fought often over money.
About 18 months before the murders they’d had another big dust-up over funds from a trust Matthew wanted to use for a new business.
Margaret wanted him to put it towards a house.
The conflict was only resolved when Margaret gave in and let Matthew have his own way.
WHILE Matthew saw their fights as his mother’s attempts to stop him achieving financial independence, other family members saw her efforts as those of a woman trying to teach her son lessons he could use to better himself.
"She was an advocate for you, always trying to be positive and build you up," Supreme Court Justice John Coldrey would later tell him.
But the judge would also note that it was not reality, but Matthew’s perception of it, that was relevant in sentencing him.
Matthew’s IQ was limited at 83, and psychologists reported he was obsessed with the "injustices" he had suffered at the hands of his mother, whom he felt had never accepted him as an independent man.
This distorted perspective was fuelled by a view of himself as some sort of hero who had to act to protect his wife and child.
In sentencing him to 30 years’ jail with a minimum of 24 years, Justice Coldrey said Matthew had no remorse, "since the elimination of your mother and stepfather represented the consummation of an intensely held ambition".
Matthew put it more simply when speaking to his father, Brian, in prison shortly after his arrest.
"My motive is clear. Just utter hatred for the couple."
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