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The Hoddle Street Massacre

Melbourne’s Hoddle Street Massacre took place on the night of 9 August 1987 when 19-year-old disgruntled ex-army recruit Julian Knight opened fire at random with a rifle on passing motorists along a 200-metre stretch of Hoddle Street between the Eastern Freeway overpass and the Clifton Hill railway station.

By the time the killing spree was over seven people lay dead and another 17 were wounded. The assassin spared no one. One of the victims was a 21-year-old woman who was shot from behind as she got out of her car to help two people lying in Hoddle Street; she thought they had been involved in a car accident.

Knight was arrested near the scene about half an hour after the shootings began at 9.50 pm. What police found was a very disturbed young man.

Like several of Australia’s worst killers, Julian Knight was adopted at an early age. His adoptive father was an army officer who lectured in languages and the family moved considerably within Australia and overseas. His adoptive parents separated when Knight was 12.

Knight showed his aggressive side from about age 14 onwards. He was handy with his fists and didn’t mind using them. In his spare time he read military magazines and would expound on the virtues of killing and death to anyone stupid enough to listen. His dream was to join the army to fight and kill in combat. He dreamt of becoming a war hero; his hero was Adolf Hitler.

Knight applied to study at the Defence Academy but was deemed to be below the intellectual standard required. He applied and was accepted into Australia’s equivalent of West Point – the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in the Australian Capital Territory.

But there were conflicting reports on Knight’s assessments at Duntroon. Psychologists judged him as good at making friendships and having the potential to be a good leader. In the more practical arena, his instructors had different ideas. One said, ‘Knight was a real sicko. One of our worst mistakes.’

In June 1987 Knight was expelled from Duntroon for stabbing a superior officer with a pocket knife in a Canberra nightclub. Between his dismissal from the army and the Hoddle Street Massacre there was an assault charge after he bashed someone at a party when he was drunk. Knight had developed into a loudmouthed brawler with murder on his mind. People were giving him as wide a berth as they could.

The Hoddle Street killings took place in the wake of Knight’s rejection by his Reserve Army unit, expulsion from Duntroon and his natural mother’s failure to respond to the many letters he wrote to her after acquiring her name and address when he turned 18. Combined with a drinking problem and an unbalanced mind, it was a recipe for disaster.

At his committal hearing Knight, who claimed to have had a nervous breakdown two days earlier, sat crying with his head in his hands as the charges were read out. He was charged with seven counts of murder, 39 of attempted murder, 12 of intentionally causing serious injury and 10 of intentionally causing injury.

The court heard from the Crown prosecutor, Mr Joe Dickson, that Knight ‘basically wanted to see what it was like to kill someone and he wanted to see what it was like in combat.’ Mr Dickson also said that Knight had planned on killing himself should he be captured and kept one bullet aside to shoot himself. But when he was eventually cornered he couldn’t do it.

Mr Dickson told the court that on the day of the massacre Knight had been rejected by his former girlfriend and his car had broken down. He had spent hours drinking alone during which time he suffered further rejection from a barmaid. He decided that these were good enough reasons to go and get his guns and kill a few people and when it was all over he hoped the police would kill him.

At his trial Knight pleaded guilty to all of the charges. The court was told that on the night of the massacre Knight had gathered up three guns from the family home – a Ruger .22 semi-automatic rifle, a 12 gauge pump-action shotgun and a .38 M14 semi-automatic rifle. The court heard that the .22 had been an 18th birthday present and the other two guns had been bought legally.

The court heard that Knight loaded the rifles and shotgun and took spare ammunition and at about 9.30 pm made his way towards Clifton Hill railway station. On busy Hoddle Street he stopped beneath a billboard on a nature strip near the station, set up his little arsenal for rapid fire and from a kneeling position shot motorists in passing cars. In all he fired more than 100 rounds at cars and people on foot and at least one motorcyclist.

A witness told the court that he watched Knight for about two minutes as he fired at traffic from underneath a roadside billboard. The witness said the gunman kept firing, reloading and then firing again, going from one gun to another. A police helicopter hovering over the street was hit by gunfire and made an emergency landing on a nearby field. None of the officers on board were injured.

By the time he put down his guns and fled into the arms of waiting riot squad police, seven people were dead and another 17 wounded. His blood alcohol reading was well over the limit at 0.08.

Julian Knight was sentenced to seven life terms on the seven murder counts and 460 years jail on 46 attempted murder counts. Incredibly he was given only a 27-year non-parole period.