27

The Murder of Mrs Virginia Morse

On 13 November 1973, Constable Brian Neale was patrolling near Newcastle, north of Sydney, when a Holden sped past him. A routine check showed the car had been stolen a fortnight earlier. The vehicle had been seen near Narrabri, in northern New South Wales, where the body of Ian James Lamb had been found 10 days earlier, killed by a shot to the neck.

Neale called for assistance as he gave chase. Constable Bill Millward and Senior Constable George Jones arrived in time to see Neale’s car forced off the road by the stolen vehicle. Millward drew alongside the speeding car. Jones yelled at the driver, ordering him to stop. The man accelerated. As the constables approached again, the passenger fired a rifle at them.

The two cars continued exchanging gunfire. A shot blasted the police car’s windscreen and struck Millward in the forehead. His injury wasn’t fatal, but Millward and Jones were out of the chase.

Constables Wayne Hore and Ken Snedden arrived to see the stolen car lose control and leave the road. The fugitives fired shots as they ran through a paddock towards the Hunter River. Hore and Snedden returned fire.

By now all available police were in the area. Out of ammunition, Kevin Crump and Allan Baker eventually emerged. Police searched their vehicle and found items belonging to Ian Lamb. The pair admitted to the murder. But police knew this was not the full extent of their crimes: on 7 November, 33-year-old Virginia Morse had gone missing from a farm at Collarenebri, and this crime too needed solving.

•••

Allan Baker was born on 16 January 1948. One of six children, he left school at 14 and worked mainly as a labourer before turning to crime. He had multiple convictions for breaking and entering and firearms offences.

Kevin Crump was born on 1 October 1949. He, too, worked mainly as a labourer before making crime his livelihood, and had numerous convictions for larceny and petty crimes. The pair became friends in prison.

When he was released, Baker went to work as a farmhand. Crump, who had been out of prison for a while, stole a Holden on 30 October and drove to meet his friend. Not relishing gainful employment, Baker was easily persuaded to quit. The pair decided to rob and steal for a living. On Saturday, 3 November, they purchased a .308 rifle.

On the same day, Ian James Lamb, 43, was heading west from his home on the NSW central coast in search of employment. He drove as far as Narrabri, 325 kilometres away, before pulling over to sleep.

Crump and Baker watched Lamb settle for the night. Baker later spoke to the police.

 

Baker: We both got out of the car. I got the rifle. I loaded it and I walked over to the car and I pointed the rifle through the window of the driver’s side and I seen a man asleep on the front seat. Kevin looked in the back to see if he was by himself and he was. I knocked on the door with both hands and said ‘Hey you!’ The bloke sat up and I pulled the trigger and shot him.

Then for about 10 minutes nothing happened. It was deathly quiet. I was scared. I then went around to the other side of the car, the passenger’s side and opened the door. Kevin opened the driver’s side while I went through the man’s pockets. I got about $20 out of his pockets.

 

Crump’s statement varied little from this, except that he tried to convince police he didn’t know Baker was going to murder Lamb.

Baker and Crump moved Lamb’s body out of the driver’s seat and Baker drove to a remote stretch of road with Crump following. The pair then dragged Lamb’s body out and left it on the roadside. They ransacked the car and drained it of petrol, pouring what they could into their stolen vehicle.

Police continued to interrogate them, but both men still denied knowledge of Virginia Morse’s disappearance three days earlier. After almost 24 hours, Crump relented. Police said: ‘We are going to ask you a number of questions in relation to the disappearance of a woman named Mrs Virginia Gai Morse from her farm in Banarway on the 7th of November. Do you know anything about this woman’s disappearance?’

‘Yes,’ he admitted. ‘We took her away and shot her.’

When told of this, Baker also confessed. From then on each tried to implicate the other.

Years earlier, Baker had worked on the Morse property. He had slept under the same roof as Virginia, her husband Brian and their three children. Later, Crump told police that he and Baker had discussed their intentions.

 

Crump: We talked about it … and Allan said that if there was anyone on the property they would recognise him and that we might have to kill someone.

 

They had further discussions outside the Morses’ farm.

 

Crump: Allan said we would have to get rid of her, but we would take her away and rape her first … Allan said that I would have to prove myself and shoot her.

 

In the very early morning of 6 November, Crump and Baker drove to the Morse property and parked their car nearby. At dawn they drove to an abandoned police station several hundred metres from the farmstead. Keeping an eye on the home, they waited while the family had breakfast. Afterwards, Brian Morse drove the children to school, and then went to work on the property. Crump and Baker maintained their vigil, ensuring that Virginia was alone.

 

Baker: I asked Kevin to go around to the back door and knock, and Mrs Morse came to the back door, where Kevin was, and I was behind Mrs Morse with a rifle. I said, ‘Don’t turn around.’ And she did. I took her in the bedroom and tied her up and she asked me what I wanted and I said I wanted money.

 

Crump and Baker searched the house, finding about $30 and a .222 rifle. They then bundled Virginia Morse into her own car and drove back to the old police station. They threw her, bound and gagged, into their stolen car and drove away.

During the journey, the pair bought beer and petrol. They took turns raping their victim.

Just before they reached the Queensland border, Crump and Baker parked in a clearing. They tied Virginia spread-eagled between two trees and raped her repeatedly. Then they drove a further 100 kilometres over the border, where both men raped her again. Finally, they decided to kill her Baker explained.

 

Baker: I aimed at her with the .308 and Kevin had the .222 and it was going to be like a firing squad and Kevin pulled the trigger and she fell to the ground before I could pull the trigger of my gun.

 

Crump and Baker were charged with murdering Ian James Lamb, maliciously wounding Constable Millward with intent to prevent lawful apprehension and shooting at with intent to prevent lawful apprehension. They couldn’t be charged with the murder of Virginia Morse in New South Wales, as the crime had been committed in Queensland. Instead, they were charged with conspiracy to murder.

At their trial, both Crump and Baker argued they had not committed murder.

 

Baker: I am not guilty of murder or conspiracy to murder. I did not mean to shoot the man in the car. The gun was a scare weapon. All I meant to do was tie the man up and rob him. When I went over to the car and knocked on the door, I said ‘Hey you!’ and the guy in the car sat up suddenly and made a noise and I jumped backwards and the gun went off. I didn’t know I shot the man until Kevin Crump told me.

 

Crump, too, tried to worm his way out.

 

Crump: I did not kill Mr Lamb. I agreed to rob him. I knew Baker had a gun. I never thought he would use it. In fact I never intended to do any harm to Mr Lamb except tie him up and rob him.

As far as the death of Mrs Morse is concerned, there was no agreement between me and Baker to do so. I was forced to kill Mrs Morse because he wanted me in it as deep as him. He said he was going to kill me if I didn’t.

 

The jury returned a verdict of guilty on all counts. In sentencing them, Mr Justice Taylor was blunt and harsh.

 

Justice Taylor: You have outraged all accepted standards of the behaviour of men. The description of ‘men’ ill becomes you. You would be more aptly described as animals, and obscene animals at that. I believe that you should spend the rest of your lives in jail and there you should die. If ever there was a case where life imprisonment should mean what it says – imprisonment for the whole of your lives – this is it.

If in the future some application is made that you be released on the grounds of clemency or of mercy, then I would venture to suggest to those who are entrusted with the task of determining whether you are entitled to it or not, that the measure of your entitlement to either should be the clemency and mercy you extended to this woman when she begged you for her life.

You are never to be released.

 

Despite numerous appeals over the years for a fixed parole date to be set, Kevin Crump and Allan Baker will never see the outside of a prison. In June 2001, the NSW premier, Bob Carr, announced that he would bring about legislation that would ‘cement Crump and Baker’ into their cells. He did. And that is where they will die.