The Russell Street bombing was the 27 March 1986 bombing of the
Russell Street Police Headquarters complex in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
,
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
,
Australia. The explosion killed Angela Rose Taylor, the first Australian policewoman to be killed in the line of duty. The materials for the bomb were stolen from Tyrconnel Mine. Several men were arrested for suspected involvement with the bombing. Stanley Taylor and Craig Minogue were convicted of murder and various other offences related to the bombing. Peter Reed and Rodney Minogue were acquitted of any offences related to the bombing but Reed was convicted of a number of offences related to his arrest, which involved a shootout with police officers in which he and an officer were wounded. He was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment.
Explosion
![1978-1980 Holden VB Commodore 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/1978-1980_Holden_VB_Commodore_01.jpg)
The explosion was caused by a
car bomb hidden in a stolen
1979 Holden Commodore, bearing Victoria
registration plate
A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate (British English), license plate (American English), or licence plate ( Canadian English), is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identificat ...
, ''AVQ-508''. The explosion caused a massive amount of damage to the police station and surrounding buildings, estimated at more than A$1 million. ''
The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...
'' reported that the blast's impact was enhanced by the open-floor design of the offices, which had acted like a
Claymore mine
The Claymore mine is a directional anti-personnel mine developed for the United States Armed Forces. Its inventor, Norman MacLeod, named the mine after a large medieval Scottish sword. Unlike a conventional land mine, the Claymore is command-de ...
, sending more shrapnel as the blast ripped through the floors and adding more pressure to the blast as it followed its path. The blast seriously injured 21-year-old
Police Constable
A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...
Angela Rose Taylor, who died on 20 April, becoming the first Australian policewoman to be killed in the line of duty. 22 other people were injured.
Investigations
On 7 October 1985,
gelignite
Gelignite (), also known as blasting gelatin or simply "jelly", is an explosive material consisting of collodion-cotton (a type of nitrocellulose or guncotton) dissolved in either nitroglycerine or nitroglycol and mixed with wood pulp and salt ...
and
detonators were stolen from the Tyrconnel Mine at Blackwood. On 25 March 1986, a Commodore was stolen. Both crimes were later found to provide equipment needed for the construction of the bomb.
During the earlier stages of the investigation, detectives initially believed that the bombers target was the
Melbourne Magistrates' Court
The Melbourne Magistrates' Court is the largest venue at which the Magistrates' Court of Victoria sits. It is a court in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia that deals with, and dispenses of, a range of criminal and civil matters, including crimin ...
located opposite the Police Headquarters. Prior the Russell Street Bombing, a
series of bombings and murders had been committed against a number of Family Court judges in Sydney between June 1980 and April 1985.
Detectives initially believed there was a connection, but evidence uncovered during the investigation quickly ruled out links between the Family Court Attack and the Russell Street Bombing.
In the course of the investigation, a group of people, including
Craig Minogue
Craig William John Minogue (born 1962) is an Australian convicted murderer responsible for the 1986 bombing of the Russell Street Police Headquarters in Russell Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Minogue was sentenced to life imprisonment ...
, Rodney Minogue, Stanley Brian Taylor and Peter Reed, were apprehended. The motive for the bombing seems to have been revenge against the police.
A week after the bombing, on 4 April 1986, an anonymous caller had contacted Police Commissioner;
Mick Miller, stating that they had footage of the offenders responsible just before the explosion, the caller then stated they wanted
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
500,000 to placed be in a Swiss bank account.
The caller contacted Miller's office on five separate occasions, each of the calls made were traced to a series of
public phone boxes in and around the
St. Kilda area. In an attempt to get the caller to make contact again, Commissioner Miller and Victoria's Premier,
John Cain offered the caller's amount as a reward for information (not in US currency or placed in a Swiss bank account).
The caller was later identified as 38-year-old industrial chemist, Vladimir Rhychta who was arrested while calling Commissioner Miller's office from another public phone box by a St. Kilda detective on 16 April 1986 and charged with hindering a police investigation after it was found that Rhychta's information was false.
['' Forensic Investigators'' - ''S02 Ep06 Russell Street Bombing''] As a result, Rhychta was convicted and sentenced to two month imprisonment.
During the search for the anonymous caller, the taskforce then received information from a female witness who stated that she saw a male suspect parking a Commodore identical to the bomb car in front of the Russell Street Police HQ at around 12:30 p.m. on the day of the bombing, the witness' description was enough to provide detectives with an
identikit
A facial composite is a graphical representation of one or more eyewitnesses' memories of a face, as recorded by a composite artist. Facial composites are used mainly by police in their investigation of (usually serious) crimes. These images a ...
picture of the suspect, the identikit matched the description of career criminal, Claudio Crupi. Crupi was a career armed robber who had a hatred towards police and at the time, had a grudge against a detective in the Victoria Police Major Case Squad who worked at Russell Street. Prior to the bombing, Crupi had been charged with a burglary and was on bail.
Crupi had left Melbourne shortly after bombing, in a raid on Crupi's home, taskforce detectives found a homemade device on Crupi's kitchen table, making him a prime suspect, He was later arrested in Sydney on 15 April 1986 and was brought back to Melbourne. Under police questioning, Crupi denied that he had any involvement in the bombing but admitted that the homemade device recovered in his home was a fake and was meant to be planted at a police station in
Flemington.
A major breakthrough in the investigation came from a police report filed three weeks prior to the bombing. On 6 March 1986, a Victoria Police Traffic unit was in pursuit of a stolen red
Daimler Sovereign
Daimler Sovereign was a name applied by British manufacturer Jaguar Cars to a sequence of luxury automobiles built by it but carrying the Daimler badge between 1966 and 1983.
The Daimler Sovereigns were based on contemporary Jaguar bodyshells, c ...
in
East Keilor
Keilor East is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Brimbank and Moonee Valley local government areas. Keilor East recorded a population of 15,078 at the ...
.
During the pursuit, the Daimler turned into a side street and crashed.
The driver fled on foot into nearby
St. Albans
St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman r ...
where he had stolen another car from a passing motorist at gunpoint and made his escape. In the boot of the Daimler, police found a backpack, containing a set of
Victorian number plates that had been cut into pieces. When the pieces were put back together, the number plates, ''CCH-997'', came back to a silver 1985
VK Commodore HDT that also had been stolen before the bombing. This second Commodore matched the description of a vehicle being used in an armed robbery of a bank in
Donvale
Donvale is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Manningham local government area.
It is a leafy and peaceful suburb, with the side west of Springvale Road is desc ...
at 4:00 p.m. on the day of the bombing in which the vehicle was used to
ram-raid the front of the bank. The vehicle was later recovered from the
Yarra River
The Yarra River or historically, the Yarra Yarra River, ( Kulin languages: ''Berrern'', ''Birr-arrung'', ''Bay-ray-rung'', ''Birarang'', ''Birrarung'', and ''Wongete'') is a perennial river in south-central Victoria, Australia.
The lower s ...
at
Wonga Park
Wonga Park is a locality on the edge of Greater Melbourne, beyond the Melbourne Metropolitan Urban Growth Boundary area, 28 km north-east from Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Manningham and Maroondah an ...
on 7 April 1986.
Upon the examination of the silver Commodore by the Victoria Police Stolen Motor Vehicles Squad, detectives discovered that the vehicle's
VIN on the chassis had been drilled out. The drill marks on the silver Commodore's VIN were found to be identical to the VIN on the Commodore used in the bombing. With the silver Commodore's number plates recovered from the Daimler, investigators linked both the stolen Daimler and the Donvale robbery to the Russell Street Bombing.
In a statement given to the detectives, the traffic officer caught a glimpse of the driver from the Daimler during the chase and out of a series of mugshots, identified the driver as Peter Reed. Reed (born Peter Komiazyk) was a suspected armed robber and car thief. As Reed was a person of interest in matters relating to several violent armed robberies and car thefts, his address and the addresses of Reed's family members (who were also suspected in matters relating to theft of motor vehicles) and several of his associates were placed under police surveillance.
One of the addresses under surveillance was a house of an associate on Haros Avenue in
Nunawading
Nunawading is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 18 km (11 miles) east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Whitehorse, Whitehorse Local g ...
. Police checks on the house identified the associate as Karl Zelinka, while Zelinka had no criminal background, he was known to Reed who visited Zelinka on multiple occasions.
Arrests
On 25 April 1986, ten
Victoria Police
Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the Australian state of Victoria. It was formed in 1853 and currently operates under the ''Victoria Police Act 2013''.
, Victoria Police had over 22,300 staff, comprising over 16,700 ...
officers raided the
Kallista
Kallista is a locality within Greater Melbourne beyond the Melbourne metropolitan area Urban Growth Boundary, 36 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government area. K ...
home of Peter Michael Reed at 5:45 a.m. It was alleged that upon attempting to enforce the arrest by forcing entry to the premises, Reed produced a
.455 Smith & Wesson
Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. (S&W) is an American firearm manufacturer headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States.
Smith & Wesson was founded by Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson as the "Smith & Wesson Revolver Company" in 1856 ...
revolver and fired at police, seriously wounding Detective Sergeant Mark Wylie. Reed was then fired upon by Det. Sgt. Steve Quinsee, who was also wounded, and then Reed was arrested.
During the search of Reed's home, detectives found several firearms with drill marks on the serial numbers similar to the drill marks on both the bomb car and the stolen silver Commodore. Also recovered at Reed's home was a police scanner, several stolen number plates and two detonators sitting on a backpack identical to the detonators used in the bombing. Inside of the backpack were sticks of gelignite identical to the sticks of gelignite used in the bomb car.
Fingerprints found on the door of the toilet at Reed's home matched to Craig Minogue, and fingerprints found on the newspaper wrapped around the sticks of gelignite matched Craig Minogue's brother, Rodney Minogue. Further investigations had revealed that both Rodney Minogue and Peter Reed had served time in prison together.
Police later raided Zelinka's house; evidence recovered from the house matched components used in the construction of the bomb, including:
* a fence post from a neighbouring yard that matched a block of wood found at the Russell Street scene
* a metal rubbish bin that matched a metal strip used to hold the wired components of the bomb in place.
Under police questioning, Zelinka admitted that he knew Peter Reed through his association with Craig Minogue, Zelinka also admitted that he saw Craig Minogue pulling into the garage of Zelinka's home in a Holden Commodore identical to the bomb car. Zelinka also stated that Craig Minogue had paid for Zelinka and his girlfriend to fly to Sydney for the Easter holiday with airline tickets dated, the day before the bombing occurred, with the return airline tickets dated for after the bombing. Zelinka stated the when he and his girlfriend returned from Sydney after the bombing, he saw the Minogue brothers filling up a small trailer and was told by Craig Minogue that he and his brother were moving out from Zelinka's home. Zelinka then admitted that Craig Minogue had told him to grab the lid of the metal rubbish bin and put it on the a pile in the trailer.
When the detectives asked about the pile in the trailer, Zelinka admitted that the Minogue Brothers took the pile in the trailer to a rubbish tip.
Zelinka then told the detectives that while the Minogue brothers were staying at his home, they were visited on several occasions before the bombing by an associate known to Craig Minogue. Zelinka described the associate as an older male aged in his fifties who was referred to as "Stan the Man", Zelinka's description of "Stan the Man" matched armed robber, Stanley Brian Taylor. Born 28 September 1937,
Stan Taylor had an extensive criminal record dating back to his childhood in the late 1940s. Taylor first came attention to the authorities at the age of 8 when he was arrested for truancy and spent two years in the Bayswater Boys Home at
The Basin where he was subjected to physical abuse from the other inmates and staff and had been introduced to a life of crime. In 1949, he was arrested again after being caught fishing in a prohibited area. During his young adult years, Taylor had been in and out of jail on criminal charges relating to theft of motorcycles and burglary. In 1961, Taylor was convicted of an armed robbery on a
milk bar
In Australia, a milk bar is a suburban local general store. Similar, but not identical, establishments include tuck shops, delicatessens or "delis", and corner shops or corner stores. Milk bars are traditionally a place where people buy new ...
in
Clayton and was sent to
Pentridge's notorious H Division where he met
Ronald Ryan
Ronald Joseph Ryan (21 February 1925 – 3 February 1967) was the last person to be legally executed in Australia. Ryan was found guilty of shooting and killing warder George Hodson during an escape from Pentridge Prison, Victoria, in 1965. ...
.
While in prison, Ryan approached Taylor and offered Taylor to take part in Ryan's infamous 1965 escape, but Taylor refused. Instead, Taylor and another prisoner escaped from Pentridge only to be recaptured five days later during which, he committed seven bank robberies.
While in prison, Taylor became a model prisoner and took part in several prison stage shows. In 1971, Taylor was interviewed in a television documentary about life inside Pentridge.
[Australian Crime Stories - S04 Ep07 - Attack on Police HQ] After his release in 1978, Taylor became a social worker to help young men avoid a life of crime. As a bit-part actor, Taylor starred in a 1979 episode of
Prisoner
A prisoner (also known as an inmate or detainee) is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement, captivity, or forcible restraint. The term applies particularly to serving a prison sentence in a prison. ...
.
Detectives arrested Taylor in a pre-dawn raid on his home at
Birchip
Birchip is a town in the Mallee region of Victoria, Australia on the Sunraysia Highway north of Donald. The town is located in the Shire of Buloke local government area. At the , Birchip had a population of 694, down from the 2016 figure o ...
on 30 May 1986. A search of Taylor's property only turned up a vehicle that later came back as stolen. Under questioning, Taylor claimed that he had no involvement in the bombing and that he knew Craig and Rodney Minogue through his job as a social worker and that he met them to prevent them from getting involved in any further crimes. He alleged that Craig Minogue, Rodney Minogue and Peter Reed were responsible for the Russell Street Bombing.
Detectives ran a search for Craig and Rodney Minogue and found that they moved into a house within close distance of Taylor's home in Birchip. A raid on the house failed to locate the Minogue Brothers, but turned up evidence linking them to Russell Street Bombing. At the house, detectives recovered evidence linking the Minogue Brothers to the bombing including:
* A large high-speed engraving machine that matched the drill marks found on both the stolen silver Commodore used in the Donvale bank robbery and on the bomb car.
* Terrier-type dog that matched the hairs found on a travel rug recovered from the bomb car.
Hours after Taylor's arrest, detectives had located both Craig and Rodney Minogue at the Motor Inn Motel in
Swan Hill
Swan Hill is a city in the northwest of Victoria, Australia on the Murray Valley Highway and on the south bank of the Murray River, downstream from the junction of the Loddon River. At , Swan Hill had a population of 11,508.
Indigenous Peo ...
. Under police questioning, Both Craig and Rodney Minogue had denied that were involved in the bombing. However after speaking to their mother,
Rodney Minogue later admitted that he and his brother along with Peter Reed and Stan Taylor was responsible for the Russell Street Bombing and had named Taylor as the mastermind behind the bombing.
Further police investigations revealed that the Minogue Brothers, Reed and Taylor were known members of an armed robbery crew dubbed the Animals and The Boys Crew.
The Animals and The Boys Crew under Stan Taylor had been named in several armed robberies and several thefts of motor vehicles.
Trial
Reed was charged with attempted murder, recklessly causing serious injury, using a firearm to prevent apprehension and possessing explosives in suspicious circumstances in addition to charges related to the Russell Street bombing. Reed later reportedly stated at his trial in unsworn evidence that ''"the police started the shooting and I only used
yfirearm in self defence."''
Prosecutors did not allege that any person played any particular role in the bombing, but that each of them were members of a team which planned the bombing and caused the bomb to explode. Evidence against the accused was as follows:
* Gelignite and detonators used in the construction of the bomb were of the same type as those stolen from a mine.
* Gelignite was found at Reed's house wrapped in newspaper with Rodney Minogue’s fingerprints on it.
* Craig Minogue owned a pair of side cutters which produced cuts similar to those found on detonator wires.
* A file with traces of brass deposits matched with brass deposits found at the bomb site.
* A block of wood from which a part of the bomb had been sawn was found at Craig Minogue's premises.
* Tinned copper wire, similar to that used with detonators at the bomb site, was found at Craig Minogue's premises.
* Residue of gelignite matched residue found at a previous address of Craig Minogue in Lower
Templestowe
Templestowe is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 16 km north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Manningham local government area. Templestowe recorded a population of 16,966 at the .
The s ...
.
* Evidence from a witness that Craig Minogue called around Easter 1986, to ask about the use of detonators.
* A witness testified that Craig Minogue was seen driving a 1979 Commodore around the CBD before the explosion.
* Karl Zelinka testified that before the bombing, that he discovered a box of explosives in the garage of the Haros Avenue home.
At the end of a six-month trial in 1988 in the Supreme Court of Victoria before Justice Vincent, Taylor and Craig Minogue were convicted of murder and various other offences related to the bombing. Peter Reed and Rodney Minogue were acquitted of any offences related to the bombing, but Reed was convicted of a number of offences related to his arrest, and was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.
Taylor was sentenced to life imprisonment with no minimum term (i.e. never to be released), the first person in Victoria to be so sentenced. Taylor died in prison at the age of 7
Craig Minogue was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 28 years. Although Minogue thus became eligible for parole in 2016, the Victorian Parliament has twice legislated to keep him in prison. Minogue and Reed have both been recently charged with sexual assault offences that allegedly occurred just before the bombing.
Aftermath
In 1995, police headquarters moved to the Victoria Police Centre with the old headquarters many years later redeveloped into an apartment complex. There is a memorial plaque to Angela Rose Taylor on the side of the building. Wylie, who was shot by Reed, later recovered from his wounds, but eventually left the police force; in July 2014, he died by suicide, aged 61.
Media
* ''
Phoenix (Australian TV series), Phoenix'' – a 1992–1993 13-part Australian police drama television series loosely based on the Russell Street bombing
* The case was covered by ''
Casefile True Crime Podcast
''Casefile True Crime Podcast'', or simply ''Casefile'', is an Australian crime podcast that first aired in January 2016 and is hosted by an Australian man who remains anonymous. The podcast is released on a Sunday (EST) for three consecuti ...
'' on 2 and 9 July 2016.
* A dramatisation of the bombing was featured in the
"A Step Closer to the Madness" episode of the Australian drama series ''
The Newsreader
''The Newsreader'' is an Australian television drama series created by Michael Lucas, broadcast on ABC. The six-part series, exploring the personal and professional lives of journalists and crew within a 1980s Australian newsroom, premiered on ...
'', broadcast on
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
on 5 September 2021. Scenes depicting the bombing were filmed at the actual site.
References
{{Reflist
Explosions in 1986
March 1986 events in Australia
Murder in Melbourne
Car and truck bombings in Australia
Organised crime events in Australia
Attacks on police stations in the 1980s
1980s in Melbourne
1986 murders in Australia
Terrorist incidents in Australia in the 1980s
Terrorist incidents in Oceania in 1986
Australian police officers