Ivan Milat’s prison letters reveal ramblings of a madman
Notorious backpacker killer Ivan Milat was known as a prolific letter writer. He would send letters to everyone from prison bosses to journalists. But he shared most of his missives with his family. READ SOME OF MILAT’S LETTERS
True Crime
Don't miss out on the headlines from True Crime. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Bargo couple Bill and Carol Milat refuse to believe Bill’s brother Ivan Milat is responsible for
the brutal slayings of seven backpackers.
In the days before Ivan’s death, Carol asked him directly what everyone wanted to know.
“I said: ‘Look, I know you’re Christian so tell me, did you do it or not? Because if you want to speak to a priest we can arrange it’,” Carol told The Sunday Telegraph.
“Mac said: ‘No’ and he started rattling off the reasons and times and days of why he couldn’t have done those things. But nobody wants to hear that.
“Nobody wants to hear Bill and I were with him on some of the days the backpackers disappeared. I apologised to him for asking. I told him we knew he didn’t do it and were just asking because everybody wanted to know.”
During that final visit, a frail Milat handed Bill and Carol a letter to be read after his death.
Unlike the immaculate handwriting in the hundreds of letters Milat had penned from Goulburn’s Supermax and Long Bail Jail over the past 25 years, this one showed his physical frailty.
MORE NEWS
Greater West 2770 gang in prison fight over pies
Sydney suburb comes to life 130 years after plans drawn up
“Due to my health issues, I wish to leave you all I have: All funds held in my prison account and to possession of all other the items/property and legal trial and appeal review documents held on my behalf by Corrective Services NSW,” Milat wrote in the letter dated October 24, 2019.
“Keep this letter Bill, show it to your solicitor, that you are sole beneficiary,” he said.
“Please don’t pay for any funeral service or contribute in any way. Corrective Services NSW to fund it all, a pauper burial or whatever is suitable.
“I have advised the Commissioner of Corrective Services NSW of my wishes.”
The majority of Milat’s letters are his thoughts about the justice system, his failed appeals and his commentary on his Supreme Court trial.
Despite evidence linking victims’ belonging to him described as “so comprehensive, and so overwhelming in its force”, Milat’s final words penned to his closest family were: “I am innocent of the crimes convicted of”.
Originally published as Ivan Milat’s prison letters reveal ramblings of a madman