Deadline: Tragic, glamorous wives of men not found guilty of anything
The tragic passing of Greg Lynn’s first wife reminds longtime observers of the 1988 death of an Essendon chemist’s spouse.
Police & Courts
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Andrew Rule and Mark Buttler with their weekly dose of scallywag scuttlebutt.
TRAGIC REMINDER OF ANOTHER SAD EXIT
It’s the case on everyone’s lips but not a lot more can be said yet about the alleged Wonnangatta homicides, pending court appearances by unhappy camper Greg Lynn.
Totally unrelated to the sinister disappearance of Russell Hill and Carol Clay last year is the tragic passing of Greg Lynn’s first wife, Lisa, in 1999, a coincidence which reminds longtime observers of the sad exit of Essendon chemist’s spouse Anne Louise Crawford in 1988.
Lisa Lynn, a former airline steward, was found dead at the troubled couple’s Mt Macedon estate, chockablock with alcohol and overdosed on prescription drugs, a suicide scenario that her closest friends found hard to believe.
The only similarity between Lisa Lynn’s death and that of Anne Louise Crawford is that the two deceased women were both glamorous and popular wives of successful men not found guilty of anything.
Anne Louise was married to Essendon chemist Ronald William Crawford right up until the day she was found crushed to death beneath her car in the driveway of the couple’s home in De Havilland Ave Strathmore.
Suburban police — trusting souls in those days — saw nothing strange about an impeccably dressed and manicured mother-of-two crawling under her car while changing a flat tyre, only to have it collapse on her.
As if, cynics might say. Cynics who suggest you don’t actually get underneath a car to change a tyre.
By 2004 the cops caught up with the cynics when an alleged underworld hitman, name suppressed, claimed $10,000 had changed hands to stage Anne Louise’s fatal “accident”.
The hitman and the now remarried Crawford were both charged.
But Crawford was acquitted after his defence counsel, the astute Con Haliotis, sold the jury the story that the hitman (known as “PS” in court) had killed Anne Louise while robbing the house and then staged the flat tyre charade to cover his tracks.
The acquittal was a courageous decision by a jury whose members overcame their natural scepticism to give the accused hubby the benefit of the doubt.
There have been other cases like this, such as the unpleasant death of dairy farmer’s wife Nancy Kaye King near Shepparton in 1991.
Kaye, as she was known, was found drowned, her body speared headfirst in a small water “sump” in an old pig pen on the farm. Despite deep mud and manure surrounding the spot, her new gumboots were so spotless that her adult children (and others) came to suspect she had been carried to the spot and held under. She happened to be wearing jewellery and a new top she never wore while working around the farm.
Her husband, Graeme King, a once popular country football identity with local police contacts, endured two jury trials and was acquitted in the second after the jury was told the court wanted a verdict, not another hung jury. The result was a bitter disappointment to three of his four children, who had agitated for their father’s arrest.
They never believed the inventive defence proposition that cows had knocked their mother into the sump. Any more than most of Anne Louise Crawford’s friends and family believe she was killed changing a wheel. Possibly because she would no sooner crawl under a car in her good clothes than rob a bank.
Justice is, of course, blind.
MURDER SUSPECTS NEED NOT APPLY
Jetstar has made possibly the least surprising announcement in the history of press releases after its pilot Gregory Lynn was arrested over the Wonnangatta case (see above).
The carrier last week moved to clarify its position, stating: “As a matter of course, the employee has been removed from duty as a result of their arrest”.
It’s reassuring that the cheap and cheerful airline has a zero tolerance approach to murder suspects flying its planes. Of course,
Mr Lynn was not going to be available to take the controls for some time, given he was charged with the murder of Russell Hill and Carol Clay two days later.
FIRST CLASS FOR MONGOL HORDE
Bikie runs have changed plenty since the old days.
There was a time when an outlaw bikie outfit converging on a country town was more likely to have involved a bunch of dishevelled, bearded blokes swilling bourbon while camping in swags at the local footy oval.
Locals who didn’t avert their eyes quickly enough might have noticed that some seemed to wear leathers in the most unsuitable of weather, and smelled that way.
Not so for Mongols boss Toby Mitchell, who last week celebrated his 46th birthday with 130 clubmates in Echuca.
Mitchell has been shot, jailed and duked it out in the ring, experiences that perhaps lead him to appreciate the good life even more.
Images from his weekend away show him waking to river views in swanky digs — and a birthday cake decorated with $100 bills and brand logos, including Rolex, Grey Goose and Harley Davidson.
FALCON UNBELIEVABLE
They say Australia is, or was, divided into Ford people and Holden people: the Brocky-Moffatt fault line.
A crook who has been firing on all cylinders in Melbourne’s north is definitely in the Ford camp.
The fellow, a 33-year-old from Greenvale, was arrested last week as part of a Moreland CIU investigation into his very specialised criminal interests.
They found three stolen Ford Falcons at his home, which is just a few of the 34 manufactured between 1993 and 1999 that he is accused of stealing in recent months.
Investigators believe the thefts are part of a rebirthing ring which apparently caters for a rather niche nostalgia hot car market.
The Ford fan has been charged with 29 offences.
HAVE A LOOK IN THE MIRROR
If you drink then drive you’re a bloody idiot, the old slogan says.
And a Tarneit man proved it again last week, not only choosing to hit the road over .05 but running into the worst possible obstacle.
The 41-year-old was motoring along Queens Rd in South Melbourne when he sideswiped a police vehicle.
After seeing their mirror get clipped, members of the public order response team took off and grabbed the driver on Kings Way.
He blew .106 and will face a raft of traffic charges.
A couple of days later, again in South Melbourne, another drink driver was grabbed after also giving himself away badly.
That bloke fell asleep at traffic lights on Clarendon St and failed to move when the red went green, giving police the easiest pinch of all time.
A GUTFUL OF NEGATIVE FEEDBACK
We recently told the story of the organised crime figure who arrived for a spell in prison and asked for the dinner menu.
Well, no one made too much of a fuss, unlike another poor fellow a while back who complained about the food.
He had been staying in a cottage-style unit where inmates look after themselves and a very scary gym-junkie underworld figure was doing some of the cooking.
One of his cottage buddies was foolish enough to make some uncomplimentary comments about the standard of the fare and soon paid the price.
He was bashed by the offended crime identity, who then shaved his head for dessert.
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