South Australia is known as one of Australia’s more conservative states. From the 1960’s to the 1980’s it also acquired the reputation of being one of the most bloody, after a number of kidnappings and murders of children and young people, many of which remain unresolved today.

With such high levels of homicide it was perhaps unsurprising that people drew up their own theories about the perpetrators. One of the most famous – and enduring – was that of “The Family”.

This alleged that a group of homosexual men in powerful and privileged positions were responsible for kidnapping, torturing and murdering young men and that they were being protected by others in high places.

Where did this theory come from? There appear to be a number of factors that may have contributed to it.

Firstly was the obvious concern at the apparent inability of the police to apprehend the perpetrators of so many of the crimes committed over the three decades. For many people this simply was not logical.

Secondly, was the nature of some of the killings, particularly those of five young men abducted between 1979 and 1983. In four out of the five cases, cause of death had been established as massive loss of blood following the insertion of a large blunt object into the anus. Forensic tests also showed that at least four of the victims had been drugged (the body of the fifth victim had been so badly burned that drug testing was impossible).

Thirdly was the fact that the acts perpetrated on the young men could not have been carried out by one individual; another person or other people must have been involved.

Police inquiries amongst the gay community identified a number of possible suspects, although hard evidence appears to have been limited. Only one man was ever brought to trial and convicted – Bevan Spencer von Einem in 1984. And he was only found guilty of one murder:subsequent attempts to convict him of other killings failed.

In the course of the proceedings various names were raised – all allegedly homosexual men –  then suppressed due to lack of evidence. Then one witness went as far as accusing von Einem of committing abductions and murders of young children from as far back as the 60’s.

The raising of names and the adding of other crimes served to stir up the waters of speculation enormously. For example, if von Einem had been committing other crimes as far back as the 60’s then it followed that his accomplices must have been doing the same. But the victims of many of these earlier crimes had been girls and young women: this seemed inconsistent with the ‘homosexual’ aspect of the rapes of the young men.

And then another twist emerged when it was discovered that von Einem had been in the vicinity when a gay man – University lecturer George Duncan – had been murdered in 1972. Only this time his role had been as rescuer of a second victim who, like Duncan, had been beaten up and thrown in the river to drown after visiting a well-known cruising area.

(Officers from Adelaide’s Vice Squad were alleged to have been responsible for George Duncan’s death but refused to testify at a Coronial inquest and an open verdict was recorded. In 1987 two of the officers were charged with Dr Duncan’s manslaughter but were acquitted after they refused to give evidence.)

So now it was the police who were the perpetrators and the accused was one of the rescuers!

Yet despite the lack of charges against any other individual, the myth of a high-powered, homosexual “Family” persists. In the 1980’s the police stated that there was no evidence to support the existence of such a network. They repeated this in 2008, insisting that, in the case of the five murdered young men, they were treating these as five separate murder investigations:

“There are similarities between some of the crimes, but there are also dissimilarities.”

Nonetheless, the media continue to make references to “The Family”. For example in June 2011 the Adelaide Daily Mail reported that:

“An interstate doctor with alleged links to the “Family” murders has been ordered to stand trial on sex charges.”

A quick Google search of “South Australia Family Murders” will bring up a number of sites that continue to perpetuate the notion that “The Family’ existed. But there are others that challenge it. As one commentator has noted, South Australia is still “divided into the landed gentry and their underlings” and there is deep resentment amongst the latter:

“This deep resentment between the haves and the have-nots can turn deadly. A sense of entitlement on the one hand and a sense of being disenfranchised on the other.

Bevan Spencer von Einem was convicted of one of five murders known as the Family murders. The Family murders have spawned one of South Australia’s most enduring myths.

The story goes that some of the state’s most high-profile, high-society individuals were involved in the kidnapping, torturing and murder of young boys.

There are rumours that some sort of paedophile circle still exists, and there are more rumours about snuff films, porn, and famous faces at dodgy parkland gay beats.

It’s the idea of the rich and powerful slumming it, of their depravity and the way they inflict it on the less powerful that make it an enduring conspiracy theory.”

(Tory Shepherd, The Punch)