What drove Mark and Gino Stocco to snap and murder? New details reveal big clues

NEW details reveal Mark and Gino Stocco — once Australia’s most wanted men — shared a bed. For the first time, we peek into their bizarre relationship.

THEY moved at night under the cover of darkness. They knew the back blocks of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland without referring to a map.

For eight long years, father and son fugitives Mark and Gino Stocco turned up on the doorsteps of rural properties asking the owners for a bit of work. They traded their services for a place to sleep and a few home cooked meals.

The pattern was simple. They worked hard for a few weeks, maintained immaculate lodgings and kept to themselves. Then, inevitably, they snapped.

It could be the smallest thing that set them off. An off-the-cuff comment, a tiny criticism of their work. When that happened, they turned on the people who fed them and put a roof over their heads.

The Stoccos were eventually arrested at Elong Elong, approximately 30km from Dunedoo. Picture Neil Keen

The Stoccos trashed house after house, often burning significant structures to the ground. They left millions of dollars in damage in their wake and then left without a trace.

Channel Seven reporter Steve Pennells spent months tracking the Stoccos across three states as police closed in.

Sunday Night has revealed the untold story of how the two men got away with it for so long, what they did when they were alone together and the chilling notes they left for their victims.

“They felt betrayed,” Pennells told news.com.au.

“It was always something small that wouldn’t bother you or I that made them snap.”

Pennells spoke with victims from the Victorian coastal town of Port Fairy, where the men first struck, all the way to Cecil Plains in rural Queensland.

He said each victim told the same story: The Stoccos seemed normal at first and then something set them off.

Gino and Mark Stocco took a beating during their arrest in October.

The manhunt for the pair ended dramatically in October last year in a shootout with police near Wagga Wagga. Ten days ago, they pleaded guilty to one count of murder, two counts of shooting to avoid apprehension and to destroying property by fire.

Sunday Night revealed that before the Stoccos were caught they displayed some particularly bizarre behaviour.

After moving in to a new home, they began removing every door from its hinges. Bedroom doors, bathroom doors, kitchen cabinets. Victims said Gino, 58, and Mark, 36, also shared a bed despite being offered separate rooms.

“It’s anyone’s guess why they did that,” Pennells said.

Among the Stoccos’ victims to tell their story to Channel Seven are Rick and Sandra Zipsin from Glenburn in Victoria, Ian and Shelley Durkin from Coolatai in NSW and Doug Redding from Cecil Plains in the Toowoomba region.

Redding’s property was trashed by the Stoccos after he let them in to his home. He put an ad for a caretaker in the local newspaper and the duo turned up a day later with all their belongings in the back of a ute.

Doug Redding’s property was trashed by the Stoccos but he helped catch them. Picture: Channel Seven/Sunday Night

After Mark and Gino trashed the place and stole his guns, Redding took it upon himself to do what police had failed to for so long.

He used photographs of the pair to create makeshift wanted posters and joined the dots around the country where the Stoccos had struck before.

His amateur detective work is a big reason police were able to track the pair to a rural property where they were eventually caught.

In an interview with Sunday Night filmed days before the Stoccos were caught, Redding urged the pair to return to his Queensland farm and take one more shot at him. Despite knowing they were armed with an imposing arsenal of weapons, he had a simple message for them.

“Come back, fellas,” he said. “Come back and have another go.”

They never did, and it’s probably a good thing they didn’t.

Catch up on Sunday’s Night’s “Catching the Stoccos” here.

Another of the properties the Stoccos used to evade police. Picture: Peter Lorimer