Podcast companion: Christopher ‘Badness’ Binse was one of Victoria’s most dangerous and colourful criminals
A bandit and a gunman with a joker’s streak, Christopher ‘Badness’ Binse robbed banks and money guards and has fired nearly as many gunshots as he has jibes towards police. The serial escape artist became one of Victoria’s most notorious career crims. NEW LIFE & CRIMES PODCAST — LISTEN NOW.
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Had modern-day outlaw Christopher Dean Binse been born an American cowboy he might have rivalled the likes of William H. Bonney and Butch Cassidy for the title of “Most Wanted”.
A bandit and a gunman with a joker’s streak, Binse robbed banks and money guards and has fired nearly as many gunshots as he has jibes towards police.
“According to his mum,” a well-versed detective once told the Sunday Herald Sun, “even when he played cops and robbers as a child, he always wanted to be the robber.”
Former hard-boiled armed robbery squad boss Ray Watson likens Binse more to a bushranger than a cowboy, but the imagery is similar in theme.
As knockabout a folklore character Binse liked to play, he is, rightfully, regarded as one of Victoria’s most notorious — and tragically institutionalised — career criminals.
READ MORE:
‘BADNESS’ ONE OF OUR WEIRDEST CRIMINALS
BINSE’S FIVE MONTH CRIME SPREE
CHRISTOPHER BINSE’S SWEARY TIRADE AT JUDGE
In true wild west style during the 1990s while at the height of his career, he gave himself a nickname that would resonate in the papers and rabbit-punch his armed robbery squad adversaries whenever he sent them a signed note or Christmas card.
He called himself “Badness”.
During his lifelong career as a professional criminal, he has been called many other things.
A maverick. A lout. A charismatic romantic. A menace to society. A dangerous and devious individual. An urban terrorist.
Truth be known, Chris Binse was an intelligent crook with a penchant for flair; not a typical dull bottom feeder like some of his criminal brethren.
But as Mr Watson told the Herald Sun: “Most offenders brought into the St Kilda Rd offices of the armed robbery squad were criminals who were either aggressively confrontational or slippery individuals wishing to appease detectives and seek any advantage for themselves.
“Christopher Dean Binse was a combination of both types. He was sometimes alarmingly confrontational if he thought he could bully an investigator.
“On other occasions he could display mute arrogance and would just as quickly portray his role in a comedic sort of way. He played the game of a caged tiger, all the while planning his escape from custody.”
And Binse was a top escape artist.
To date he has managed to break out of a secure hospital wing and several prisons.
He enjoyed playing what he called “just a big game” with the fearsome armed robbery squad.
One day after committing a holdup, he placed an advertisement in a major newspaper stating “Badness Is Back”.
He sent the squad notes signed with “Badness” and Christmas cards showing Father Christmas carrying bags with dollar signs drawn on them.
Binse put personalised “Badness” number plates on his car, he signed off on letters with “Lord Badness” and called a property of his “Badlands”.
Binse was a crook who once told a court that while he didn’t consider himself anything like Robin Hood, he did like giving small amounts of stolen money to churches, drunks and homeless people.
He said he once splurged stolen money on a four-hour limousine “mini tour” around the city with mates on his birthday — they all ate fine food and drank beer and champagne.
“He enjoyed his notoriety and media coverage he received,” Ray Watson says.
“He enjoyed taunting detectives … He was a sinister individual; a bullyboy who saw himself as a misunderstood outlaw.
“There was a touch of Ned Kelly about Binse, as he saw it.”
Originally published as Podcast companion: Christopher ‘Badness’ Binse was one of Victoria’s most dangerous and colourful criminals
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