Ron Iddles haunted by his first homicide case from 1980

IT WAS a crime so chilling that decades later, it still haunts one of Australia’s top detectives. Even now, the details are utterly horrific.

RON Iddles has seen a lot during his career, but he will never forget the chilling murder of Maria James.

It’s a cold case that has haunted him for almost 40 years. The former police detective still thinks about that bloody bookshop and still talks to Maria’s son, who is still fighting to find the killer.

As Mr Iddles, a man who has been dubbed “Australia’s greatest detective”, retires from his position as secretary of Victoria’s Police Association, he has revealed the sinister stories that have stuck in his mind during his 25 years on the homicide squad.

Maria was his first homicide case in June 1980. He was called to a bookshop in Thornbury just north of Melbourne’s CBD, and found the shop’s owner, Maria, had been brutally attacked. She was stabbed almost 70 times, while the phone hung off the hook. Her former husband had been on the line at the time she was killed. As they spoke, somebody entered the book shop and she told him to hang on and the last he heard of her was her blood curdling screams.

John James and his then wife, Thornbury bookshop murder victim Maria James. Picture: Supplied

She was a 38-year-old mother of two and had a good relationship with her ex-husband and would talk often.

The Herald Sun reports in a statement to police, Mr James said his former wife rang him at his work but he was busy. She told his secretary there was someone in the bookshop and he needed to call back. Maria told him to hang on when he phoned her five minutes later.

“I then held on and while doing this I heard discussion in the background and then a bit of a scream and then there was more discussion and then silence,” he said in the statement.

“I then started to get edgy and started to whistle into the phone to attract someone’s attention.

“I could then still hear the conversation in the background and I couldn’t hear the exact words, but Maria was talking fairly loudly.

“I then heard a second scream. I then really thought something was wrong so I decided to go to the shop to see what was up.”

Mr James ran to the shop, which was eerily quiet when he arrived. The front door was locked and a customer was waiting outside to get in. When Mr James peered through the window he saw the curtain, which separated the shop from the staff only area, move.

According to his statement, Mr James went around to the back window but whoever was inside, had appeared to have escaped out the front of the store.

Mr James saw Maria laying on the floor with her hands bound.

Ron Iddles still haunted by the cold case of Maria James. Picture: Mitch Bear

Mr Iddles told the Herald Sun as a detective, he had a gut feeling Maria knew who killed her.

He thought they could’ve even been having a cup of tea, as there were two dirty mugs sitting on the front counter.

“It’s somebody she is comfortable with,” he said.

“For whatever reason, an argument has taken place.

“The killer has grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stabbed her in the heat of the moment. It was a weapon of opportunity, rather than a planned weapon. It wasn’t a planned murder.

“I don’t subscribe to the theory she was tortured or the ropes suggest it was some sort of bondage fantasy, a murder with sexual motive.

“I believe she had an argument with somebody she knew. That person didn’t go there with the intention of harming her. There was a lot of hatred and anger.”

Mr Iddles believed it was a frenzied attack and the number of stab wounds reflected an emotional connection.

A knife believed to be used in the murder of Maria James.

There were suggestions a local priest may have committed the murder.

Father Anthony Bongiorno was questioned by police but he was never charged.

He died in 2002 and since his death Maria’s son Mark has called for the priest to be dug up so DNA could be tested against some of the killer’s blood found in the bookshop.

According to the Herald Sun, Father Bongiorno was questioned as the local priest and was asked if Maria had said anything to him in confession. The question angered him.

It is also believed within hours of the murder, he turned up to the school Maria’s sons attended and broke the news to them.

The Thornbury bookshop where owner Maria James was murdered in June 1980. Picture: Supplied

A number of people phoned Crime Stoppers suggesting Father Bongiorno knew something about the horrific crime and in a strange turn of events, Father Bongiorno then told police she was a prostitute servicing clients in the room at the back of the bookshop. No evidence suggested this.

Before his death, Father Bongiorno was charged with indecently assaulting three boys in the early 1980s.

In a book about Mr Iddles’ career, The Good Cop, he says “sometimes the motive for murder is revenge, sometimes it is lust, sometimes it is broken relationships, sometimes it’s over finances”.

“But sometimes you can look deeply for a motive and it can be obscure or minor,” he said.

During his time as an Australian detective, Mr Iddles’ investigated more than 300 murder cases and his conviction rate was 99 per cent.