Details of Bradley Murdoch’s criminal history across WA before becoming prime suspect in Peter Falconio murder

Outback killer Bradley John Murdoch became a household name when he was outed as the prime suspect in the murder of Peter Falconio — but his criminal past started years earlier in WA. Murdoch was born into a middle-class family in Northampton in 1958 before moving to Perth, growing up in Manning and attending Como Senior High School, where he was known as a “thug and a bully”. It was in 1995 that Murdoch first made headlines in The West Australian, after he was jailed for 21 months for firing shots at a group of Indigenous people who were celebrating a football win in Fitzroy Crossing. Newspaper reports from the time said the then 37-year-old was driving to Brooking Springs station — where he was working as a station hand — from the Fitzroy Crossing River Lodge, when he came across the group. He claimed he was being harassed and sworn at before he went home and got a .22 rifle and a .307 rifle. He then returned to the group and aimed at them, firing four to 10 shots. One of the bullets narrowly missed a woman sitting in a car. Before he was sentenced, he told a forensic psychologist that childhood beatings by Aboriginal people and a business venture hindered by a native title claim had fuelled his resentment of Indigenous people. Murdoch pleaded guilty to going armed in public as to cause terror, receiving stolen property, unlawful possession, not holding a firearm licence and possessing a loaded firearm while intoxicated. The incident sparked racial tensions in the town and there were calls he should have been charged with attempted murder. However, the police commissioner at the time, Bob Falconer, said the charges were appropriate. Six years later, Murdoch was living in Broome working as a mechanic when he was named as a suspect in the Falconio murder. Mr Falconio was killed after he and girlfriend Joanne Lees were ambushed by Murdoch north of Alice Springs in 2001. Mr Falconio’s body is still missing. Broome detectives interviewed Murdoch and passed their findings to NT police. He was known for his love of guns and police believed he travelled outback highways to run drugs from South Australia to Broome and had links to the Broome chapter of the Coffin Cheaters. At one point, he was also said to be involved with a racist Ku Klux Klan group in Fitzroy Crossing. After he was named a suspect, one of Murdoch’s drinking buddies from Broome said he was a “rough nut” but didn’t think he could be Falconio’s killer. ‘‘I knew him as a knuckle man, rather than a gunman. But maybe I didn’t know him that well at all,’’ the man said. The following year, Murdoch was arrested in Port Augusta in South Australia and charged with the abduction and rape of a mother and daughter. He was acquitted of those charges immediately before he was charged with the murder of Mr Falconio. He was brought down with the help of his housemate in Broome, who turned police informant after he recognised Murdoch in footage refuelling his car hours after the murder. With his help, police were able to reconstruct Murdoch’s suspicious movements, including booking his four-wheel-drive in for a service as soon as he returned to Broome, and asking for the back of the car to be remodelled. A new aluminium pod was fitted in place of the canvas canopy. And he also grew a full beard to disguise the tell-tale moustache which appeared in the artist’s impressions of the killer as described by Ms Lees before fleeing to SA. Murdoch’s mother Nance was still living in WA in 2007 when Murdoch requested a transfer to a WA jail to serve out his sentence. He died in Alice Springs on Tuesday night of throat cancer aged 67.