The Russell Street Bombing

by Vikki Petraitis

  Another bright spot on Donadio's horizon were the constant visits from his squad mates who he'd gone through the Academy with. Both Carl Donadio and Angela Taylor had constant police guards while they were in the Royal Melbourne Hospital in case the attack against them was personal. Donadio's squad mates were utilised for this guard duty. Whether he needed protection or not, Donadio enjoyed their visits. Unlike the adults around him who saw the severity of his injuries and put on the kid gloves, his young peers ribbed him and joked around. One of the sources of great mirth for his visitors was the fact that a police woman had removed her shirt to tourniquet his leg at the scene.

  'Mate, you are the only bloke to get her shirt off!'

  Donadio laughed along with them.

  The Bomb Car

  While Donadio slowly recovered, the wheels of the investigation continued to turn. The bombed Holden Commodore had been fitted with a V8 engine which still had its original engine number. As noticed at the scene, the chassis number had been drilled out with a series of circular drilling motions. The holes were 8mm in diameter. Casts were made of the drilled holes to be compared - should the investigators locate it - with the drill responsible. Both the vehicle identification number (VIN) plate and the identification plate had been removed from the radiator support panel leaving behind only one rivet and a piece of alloy from each plate. It appeared that one rivet from each plate had been removed, and then both plates had been torn away leaving the other rivet behind.

  In addition, the bomb car was examined for fingerprints in a way that had never been done before. Latent fingerprints that are faint and can't be seen with the naked eye or with the help of powders, can become visible after fuming with superglue. Normally, superglue fuming is done on small items placed in a tank at the Fingerprint Branch, but in the case of the bomb car, something bigger was needed. Under the direction of fingerprint experts, the car was placed in a freight container along with tubes of superglue. Heaters were used to evaporate the glue to form fumes. The fumes solidify on objects that contain water and since fingerprints are made up primarily of water and fats, investigators hoped that some prints would show up on the car. Unfortunately, nothing of evidentiary value was found.

  When the bomb car was finished with, it was returned to the Stolen Motor Vehicle Squad's compound in Port Melbourne.

  The Blanket

  The red and white chequered blanket from the bomb car was examined by Bob Barnes at the Materials Research Laboratory. The blanket didn't belong to the owner of the stolen bomb car so it must have been put there by the bombers. The rug was in remarkably good condition considering that Barnes concluded it had been used to cover the timing device of the bomb. Barnes examined the blanket for explosives residue and in the process, found some short dog hairs from a terrier-type dog. He passed his findings on to detectives from the Taskforce.

  The Bread Crates

  Another link was made. The bread crates found in the debris of the bomb blast were identified as being similar in make and colour to some stolen from a milkbar robbery in Braeside in 9 February - six weeks before the bombing. Also stolen in the raid on the milkbar, were a quantity of cigarettes and confectionary.

  Russell Taskforce

  Detective Sergeant Bernie Rankin was in Adelaide on vacation when he heard a radio newsflash that a bomb had exploded outside the Russell Street police headquarters. Like many detectives, he had come across a couple of crooks in his day who might hate the police enough to do this. One such crook had recently lost a friend in a shoot-out with the SOG and had openly discussed revenge against the police. Rankin's experience as a detective told him that there were not a lot of people who could have done this. They would firstly need to hate the police enough, and secondly, they would need the know-how to build a bomb. And bomb skills were not all that common on the curriculum vitae of your ordinary crook.

  When the Russell Taskforce was set up on the day of the bombing, Rankin contacted the detective in charge, Daryl Clarke. Clarke asked Rankin if he wanted to come on board when he returned to Melbourne. Like every cop in the state, Rankin wanted the bombers caught. Within a week, he was back home and a part of the team.

  A room at the Russell Street police headquarters had been set aside for the Taskforce. Initially consisting of a dozen detectives, the number had increased to thirty in the week following the bombing. The brass wanted a couple of detectives from northern, eastern, south-eastern and the western suburbs so that they could draw on local knowledge from all points of the compass. Also seconded to the Taskforce were members of the Arson Squad, Major Crime Squad, and Homicide. O'Connor was one of the thirty.

  Detective Senior Constable Chris O'Connor was working afternoon 3-11pm shifts and was at home between shifts when the bomb had exploded in Russell Street. He belatedly caught the news as he got ready for work at the Preston CIB. While O'Connor was watching the live TV coverage, the enormity of what happened could only be guessed at. And for cops, the bombing would be like the day JFK got shot - every one of them remembered where they were when they heard about it.

  By the time O'Connor became part of the Taskforce, the bomb site had been cleared. The only reminders where the shallow crater in the road where the car had exploded, and the shrapnel chips in the brick wall of the Russell Street police headquarters. When the bomb had exploded, O'Connor had considered himself lucky - he had been standing across the road from it at the same time the day before it had gone off. He also realised how fortunate it was that more people hadn't been killed. Around 1pm, the Magistrates' Court usually began emptying of people for the lunch break, and there were usually buses of school children - visiting either the Courts or the police communication centre at D-24. When children visited D-24, they lined up along the wall between the north and the south door of the headquarters. It was sheer luck that a class of kids weren't caught in the fireball. And because the bomb had gone off at 1.01pm, it hadn't given the Court time to empty. Thank God.

  A week after the bombing, Easter forgotten for the investigators, a clear picture had emerged of the bomb, and therefore the intentions of the bombers. The explosives - about 50 sticks of gelignite - had been packed into the boot, centre console, or the front seat area of the two-tone 1980 Holden Commodore which had been stolen two days before the bombing. Among the debris found in Russell Street, the remains of a plastic bread crate had identified. According to the experts, the main part of the bomb had been packed in the crate then covered with assorted metal sockets, tools and leftover detonators. These became deadly flying shrapnel when the bomb went off, making its design and intention callous beyond belief. It was pure luck that the number of severely injured was only three.

  A week on from the bombing, Angela Taylor hadn't regained consciousness. With burns to seventy percent of her body, doctors had told Taskforce detectives that if she lived, it would be nothing short of a miracle.

  Bomb experts also knew from the amount of unexploded detonators and gelignite that the bomb had failed to reach its deadliest potential. The first explosion had detached a mechanism from the second explosive which had failed to detonate.

  The timing device of the bomb was an alarm clock nailed to the block of wood that Dennis Tipping had found next to the exploded car. It was the same size and type of wood used for fence posts. When the alarm sounded, the metal piece at the back of the clock would click over and connect with wires thus completing the circuit and setting off the bomb. The fact that the bomb makers had used a Chux Superwipe to keep the wires from connecting, meant that the bomb was probably built by relative amateurs. In fact experts were amazed that the bomb hadn't exploded as it was being driven to Russell Street. It would have only taken a small jolt to dislodge the Superwipe and set off the bomb. The bombers had been very lucky.

  The type of bomb also gave investigating police an insight into the type of offenders they were looking for. They were not experts or experienced in handling explosives - in other words, they were lucky rather than master criminal-ty
pes. They had wrapped the gelignite in newspaper in a crude attempt to stop the gelignite from sweating and possibly exploding.

  The bomb was homemade yet powerful enough to have killed anyone standing anywhere near it. Also, in the week after the bombing, no group had claimed responsibility as was the pattern with bombings overseas. Detectives had questioned politically-motivated fringe groups, but no solid suspects emerged. That could mean that the bombers could be anyone with a grudge against the police.

  Regardless of who did it or why, from the moment the bomb exploded, the cops took the attack personally. It was on their turf, and one of their officers was fighting for her life in hospital. Detectives were usually on the outside of a crime looking in. This time, they were the target and the victims, and they badly wanted to find those responsible. At the same time, they had to put personal feelings aside, and gather strong admissible evidence to present at a trial for when they caught the perpetrators. And no one doubted they would.

  Not only were the police in shock, but the city of Melbourne was also reeling from the senseless attack in their downtown district. Why would anyone want to bomb the Russell Street police headquarters? Theories of a payback were foremost in the minds of the investigators as forensic experts began to piece together the events leading up to the explosion.

  So keen were the police to find those responsible, they used a time-honoured method of investigation. They made their presence known in other areas of petty and not-so-petty criminal areas. The gaming industry was as good as shut down during the investigation, which meant that the police weren't the only ones interested in having the case solved. If enough pressure was exerted in the right directions, then information could come from unlikely sources.

  A link was soon made with the gelignite. On 6 October 1985, a large quantity of gelignite had been stolen from the Triconnel Mine at Blackwood. The bomb gelignite was identical to that stolen in the robbery. This meant that the bombers had planned this for at least six months.

  The Reward

  In the days after the bombing, an anonymous caller telephoned Chief Commissioner Mick Miller five times in response to media appeals for information. He said that not only did he know who the bombers were, but he also had photographs of them. The caller couldn't be ignored; if what he said was true, he could hold the key. The only catch was that that man wanted a significant reward for his information.

  The calls were traced to several public phone boxes around the St Kilda area. Police were unsure whether the caller had genuine information or whether the whole thing was a hoax. In any case, they begin to stake out local telephone boxes and local detectives soon became familiar with the location of every St Kilda public phone box.

  On Friday 4 April, eight days after the bombing, Premier John Cain and Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mick Miller offered a reward of $500,000 for information leading to the capture and conviction of the bombers. Police hoped that that if the anonymous caller was indeed genuine, the promise of such a large reward would flush him out. As soon as the reward was announced, additional police were used to watch phone boxes around the St Kilda area.

  The anonymous caller wasn't the only member of the public phoning police with potential information. Regular re-enactments and reminders in the media brought forth hundreds of phone calls. One woman said that she had seen a man parking a two-tone Commodore in front of the Russell Street police headquarters at 12.30pm on the day of the bombing. With the help of police, she compiled an identikit photo of him that was circulated among detectives. Several thought the photo bore a strong resemblance to a small-time crook called Claudio Crupi.

  When Taskforce detectives went looking for Crupi, further witnesses came forward to say that they had seen him wrapping up what appeared to be sticks of gelignite on the day of the bombing. He was also known to have a grudge against a detective at the Major Crime Squad. A number of search warrants on Crupi's house and places he was known to frequent were unsuccessful. It was rumoured that he'd left town soon after the bombing.

  Hunting Crupi

  On Sunday 13 April, Taskforce detectives raided a number of houses of associates of Claudio Crupi. In one of the raids, police found a photo of Crupi's car which had been involved in an accident. In the background of the picture another car was parked adjacent to his. Police checked the registration number and found out it belonged to associates of Crupi's who lived in Moe. Perhaps Crupi had headed in that direction so they headed there too, but the illusive suspect stayed one step ahead of his pursuers.

  At this stage, a circumstantial case against Crupi was slowly building. A witness described someone who looked like Crupi parking the bomb car outside Russell Street headquarters on the day of the bombing; he had been seen on the day of the bombing wrapping gelignite in newspaper; neighbours said he had left his home a few hours before the bombing and returned a few hours later; and finally, he had a known hatred of police. And the fact that he'd left town straight after the bombing, also weren't the actions of an innocent man. With the evidence stacking up, against him, Crupi quickly became one of the main suspects.

  The Lucky Break

  When Inspector Bruce Knight had initially mobilised his Special Operations Group colleagues to respond to the explosion in Russell Street, all members assisted. However, at 4pm that day, he had to deploy a team to respond to a bank robbery in Donvale. The get-away vehicle used in the robbery was a stolen Holden Brock Commodore Special. The SOG members arrived too late, and the Commodore was nowhere to be found.

  Detectives from the Armed Robbery Squad had asked members of the Stolen Motor Vehicle Squad for a list of any stolen silver Brock Commodores that might be the car from the Donvale heist. One such vehicle was fished out of the Yarra River near Wonga Park on 7 April.

  On Monday 14 April, Detective Sergeant Arthur Adams from the Stolen Motor Vehicle Squad arrived at the Port Melbourne compound to examine the Brock Commodore. The car was in the process of being transported to the Stolen Motor Vehicle Squad's compound which also housed the bomb car. While he waited for it to arrive, Detective Adams, and fellow detectives, John Bradbury and Steve Quinsee looked over the bomb car and noticed the caterpillar of holes where the chassis number had been drilled out. Like the investigators who had examined it before them, they too though the drilling out of the number was unusual. Bradbury and Quinsee had never seen numbers removed like that before, and Adams had only seen it once - a decade earlier. And like their colleagues, their observations were purely academic - until the stolen Brock Commodore was delivered. To the amazement of the three detectives, the Brock Commodore had its serial numbers drilled out in exactly the same way as the bomb car. Arthur Adams immediately alerted the Taskforce and met with Bernie Rankin and Daryl Clarke.

  'If I were a betting man,' Adams said, 'I would say these two cars were connected.'

  Could this be a coincidence? A Commodore explodes in Russell Street at 1.01pm and three hours later, another Commodore with the same drill markings is involved in a bank robbery in Donvale at the exact time when all available police resources were tied up in the city.

  The three Stolen Motor Vehicle Squad detectives were able to provide another connection. Three weeks before the bombing a stolen red Daimler car was pursued by traffic police along the Calder Highway in East Keilor. The car crashed and the driver escaped. Shortly after, the driver stole another car at gunpoint. He was dangerous and the police were anxious to catch him.

  In the boot of the crashed Daimler was a bag containing cut up pieces of car number plates. The car was reported as stolen and detectives from the Stolen Motor Vehicles Squad were called in. Putting the pieces together, investigating police found plates from the stolen Brock Commodore Special - CCH 997. Detective John Bradbury made a note in the police data base that if the Brock Commodore was found, he wanted be notified immediately.

  When forensically examined, the holes drilled into the chassis number in the Brock Commodore were 8mm in diameter - the same size as those drilled i
n the bomb car. The VIN plates as well as the compliance plates had also been removed using the same method as the bomb car - while some of the pop rivets were still in place, the plates had been torn off. As with the bomb car, the engine number hadn't been touched.

  Clarke and Rankin discussed this new development. They couldn't ignore Crupi as their strongest suspect, but at the same time, they needed to explore this new lead. Clarke put a small team of detectives to follow up the Brock Commodore link.

  Tuesday 15 April

  Nineteen days after the bombing, police finally caught up with Claudio Crupi. News footage captured him being led out of the Russell Street police headquarters over to the Magistrates' Court. The irony of the proximity to the bomb site didn't escape the news commentators.

  Two Taskforce detectives, interviewed Crupi, and at the end of the interview told waiting colleagues that a lot of work would have to be done to prove he was involved. Crupi was charged with an aggravated burglary that he had committed before the bombing. Apparently the bomb that he had been seen making was a fake one and he intended throwing it through a window of the Flemington police station. If Crupi was innocent, then he had certainly picked the wrong day to make a fake bomb.