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Thread: Scott Hammond, (48) was brutally bashed to death - thought to be revenge for setting his pit bulls on people

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    Scott Hammond, (48) was brutally bashed to death - thought to be revenge for setting his pit bulls on people

    A revenge attack may have led to the brutal bashing death of a man previously convicted for setting his pit bulls on people in three separate incidents.

    Police found the body of Scott Hammond, 48, about 5.30pm (AEST) on Monday in his Tahmoor home, south of Sydney, after a friend became concerned for his welfare.

    He was well known to police and understood to have many enemies.


    "It is consistent with being a brutal bashing," Acting Superintendent Danny Doherty said on Tuesday.

    The "targeted incident" may have been a retaliation attack on Mr Hammond.

    "We're looking at that line of inquiry," he said.


    The crime scene did not reveal evidence of a struggle, police said, and the incident was unusual for the semi-rural and close-knit community.

    "If you stayed on the right side of him he was a good bloke," one woman told reporters at the scene.

    "I know he had a lot of enemies."


    Mr Hammond's body was found in his living room and a pit bull, suffering paralysis, was also found at the property.

    "We don't know if that was connected to this incident," Act Supt Doherty said.

    He pleaded guilty 12 months ago to using his pit bull terriers, Chocka and Girlie, to attack and wound a teenage boy and three men in three separate incidents at Tahmoor.


    He was handed a seven-month suspended sentence, ordered to pay $14,336 and destroy both dogs.

    Hammond was also banned from owning a dog.


    He lived alone in the dilapidated home and did not appear to have any outlaw motorcycle gang connections.

    Detectives are trying to establish the events leading to Mr Hammond's death but they estimate he was murdered some time on Monday.

    Police are still searching for a murder weapon and are trying to determine if the killer broke in before the assault began.

    The wildlife rescue organisation WIRES had been called in to remove a number of other animals.

    "He had a bit of a variety of different wildlife," Act Supt Doherty said.

    The local council removed the injured dog and placed it in a pound.


    Detectives have yet to establish if the dog defended its owner, or if any forensic evidence, such as DNA, was transferred to the animal during the attack.

    Police have yet to identify any potential persons of interest but are investigating a number of lines of inquiry.

    "It's a concern that a person's been killed in this manner," Acting Supt Danny Doherty said.

    "We're hoping someone in the community would know who it is."

    http://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/latest/...ay-be-revenge/

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    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Bumping to add some stuff that happened after the last post.

    I don't know how I missed this story. I've got to start following your posts Luvit you fib


    **** oh my god - this fucking tablet!! That sentence ^^^ was supposed to say "you FInd all the Best stuff. I can't believe I just called you a liar. (Sooo embarassed)****


    I grew up in this general area. When I was a teen we used to make "Deliverance" jokes & steer clear of this town as much as possible. I think I told some stories about Tahmoor & Bargo (the next little town) in the Xayden? Mifsud thread (manhunt for baby abducted by his dad ).

    The Backpacker Killer, Ivan Milat was in the area frequently because the Milat's own property at Bargo.

    These are really small towns but they have a strangely high rate of weird & violent crimes - more of which I mentioned in the other thread. They're not real country by Australian standards because they're only 20 mins from high density, metropolitan Campbelltown & they each have a small suburban centre. So they're not really urban & not really bush & seem to have developed the worst features of each - city drugs & violence combined with rural isolation, rural police presence & response times. Always a bad combination.

    If this area is still pretty much what it was when I was a teen, the police won't get anywhere relying on public tipoffs. Rule 1 from birth in the western suburbs - you don't dog your mates Rule 2 don't dog your enemies either, if there's justice to be meted out, it'll get done properly & on the quiet.

    Police believe Tahmoor man Scott Hammond knew those who bashed him to death.

    The family of murdered Tahmoor man Scott Hammond have issued a plea to the community to come forward with information about his death.

    Police have confirmed Mr Hammond, 48, was found bashed to death in a Tahmoor home on July 1 in what Detective Acting Superintendent Danny Doherty described as a ??vicious attack??.

    We don?t expect to bury our children before we go. At least give the police a chance and help them find who did this



    Mr Hammond was known to the police and was previously convicted of several dog attacks on residents in the Tahmoor area.

    His mother, Josephine Hammond, said it had been very tough on Mr Hammond?s family not knowing who had killed him.

    ??Somebody out there knows and can help the police found out who did this and why,?? she said.

    ??We don?t expect to bury our children before we go. At least give the police a chance and help them find who did this.??

    Detective Acting Superintendent Doherty said police were still following up several avenues of inquiry.


    ??We have information and we believe that people in the Tahmoor community, even associates of Scott, may have vital information that could certainly assist us in identifying who the person or persons responsible are for this vicious attack,?? he said.

    ??Every avenue of investigation takes time and resources. We are getting information from the public and that information has led us to form Strike Force Hewitt from Camden Ordinary Command and the Homicide Squad.??

    Detective Acting Superintendent Doherty refused to comment on any possible murder weapons, but said there were a number of items that were found at the crime scene.

    He said police could not discount the possibility that more than one person was involved in the bashing death or in covering up the incident.

    ??Police believe from the investigations we?ve conducted so far that Scott knew who the people were that caused his death,?? Detective Acting Superintendent Doherty said.

    Mrs Hammond and her granddaughter Kylie Gillies came down from Queensland to attend Mr Hammond?s funeral in Leppington on Friday.

    She said she spoke to Mr Hammond regularly on the phone, but had not seen him for a couple of years.

    ??He was like every other boy when he was growing up,?? Mrs Hammond said.

    ??He liked his soccer and he brought home every stray around the place and of course his father and I had to look after them all.??

    But Mrs Gillies said his family saw him only as ??loving and caring??.

    ??He was always there for me and my sister growing up,?? she said.

    ??He wasn?t like that to his family.??

    Anyone with information about the incident should contact Camden Police on 46324499 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

    Camden-Narellan Advertiser
    News report with police & family interviews, public appeal for information & footage of the victim's home - complete with front garden memorial centred around a large wooden cross featuring a tastefully painted marijuana leaf

    Last edited by blighted star; 02-17-2017 at 04:50 AM.

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    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Revenge Murder Casts Suspicion On Town


    http://m.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/...Top+Stories%29

    'Revenge' murder of Tahmoor man Scott Hammond has police on the hunt
    The owner of a pack of vicious pit-bulls who had many enemies has been bashed to death, casting a cloud over the village of Tahmoor in Sydney's southwest.

    Well known to police and feared by many, Scott Hammond, 40, was found dead on the living room floor of his brick house on Fraser St on Monday night. He died from suspected head injuries and police believe revenge was a possible motivation for his killing.

    Locals who gathered outside the house as police investigated yesterday said Mr Hammond had many enemies in the town of 4505 people. They said several people had been attacked by his dogs.

    He had numerous run-ins with police over drug-related incidents and for setting his aggressive pitbulls on people - including a teenage boy who was mauled in 2011.

    "There could be many motives but we're looking at them all," acting Superintendent Danny Doherty said.

    He said the investigation would be difficult, given Mr Hammond's history of clashes with locals: "He was well known to police."

    An injured pitbull was also found in the house where Mr Hammond was murdered.

    "It was paralysed but those injuries appeared to be old, possibly from an incident when the dog was run over a couple of weeks ago," Supt Doherty said.

    There were no suspects at this stage, he said, encouraging people to come forward.

    "Tahmoor is a small tight-knit community and I'm sure someone may have some information about his death," Supt Doherty said.

    "We will treat all information confidentially."

    Mr Hammond last year pleaded guilty to three counts of causing his dog to inflict actual bodily harm and was handed a suspended jail sentence and ordered to pay a $15,000 fine after setting his pitbulls on several people in Tahmoor in 2011, leaving them with serious bite wounds. A teenage boy and three men were wounded by his two dogs, Chocka and Girlie.

    Mr Hammond also allegedly threw one of his pitbulls at two men, aged 33 and 38, who were forced to jump on to a car bonnet for safety.

    In a separate incident, Mr Hammond encouraged his dogs to attack a teenager and his friend as they were walking along a street.

    The 16-year-old boy suffered a deep bite to his buttock and puncture wounds to his knee.

    Local shop owner Danny Forrest also suffered a severe wound after being attacked by Mr Hammond's dogs.

    "A lot of people didn't like him," Mr Forrest said.

    "I'll never forget the day he ordered his dogs to attack me.

    "I told him to keep his dogs away from some children near my shop because they were scared. When I came out of the shop he just said to the dogs 'Get him'."

    Mr Forrest, who says he still carries emotional scars from the attack, admitted he would probably be a suspect and be questioned over the murder. He denied any involvement.

    "I wouldn't say the whole town hated him, but many were afraid of him," he said.

    "Despite what he did to me, I know he has a family and I feel for them."


    Mr Hammond had also been the victim of a number of bashings over the years.

    "One was so bad he was in a wheelchair a couple of years ago," friend Jason Briggs said.

    "Scottie had some demons but he did have a good heart. He loved animals and was loyal to his friends."

    Another friend, Helen Ferris, said she tried to visit him on Saturday but he didn't answer the door: "I knew something was wrong and I rang another friend who said he hadn't heard from Scott. He contacted police."
    Last edited by blighted star; 09-19-2013 at 08:16 PM.

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    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    A list of article links on the case -

    http://www.hotheadlines.com.au/redir...&artid=2313349

    To get a feel for the place -
    DescriptionTahmoor memes focuses on the dirty grubby things in the Tahmoor/Bargo area *make your own and send pics in* ! STRAYA ♥
    (Straya is how Australia is pronounced by many western (&other) suburbs residents)

    Tahmoor memes
    https://m.facebook.com/weallknowsome...981605372&_rdr


    TAHMOOR, NEW SOUTH WALES AU - PIT NUTTER SUFFERS A BRUTAL BASHING DEATH AND HIS PIT BULL WAS LEFT PARALYZED - WAS IT A REVENGE KILLING?
    Comment at bottom of page say police shouldn't bother investigating because some things are better left alone
    http://www.dogsbitedecatural.com/201...it-nutter.html


    An article on the dog attacks that are rumoured to have provoked the murder -
    http://api.news.com.au/content/1.0/d...ne&size=medium

    A MAN who used his pit bull terriers to attack several people including two teenagers has been given a seven-month suspended prison sentence and must pay almost $15,000 to a local council.

    Scott Ian Hammond, 47, from Pudney, pleaded guilty to three counts of causing his dog to inflict actual bodily harm and was also given a suspended jail sentence.

    A teenage boy and three men were wounded by his two dogs, Chocka and Girlie, in Tahmoor, southwest of Sydney, last year.

    In Goulburn Local Court on Friday, Magistrate Doug Dick handed Hammond a seven-month suspended sentence and ordered him to pay $14,336 to Wollondilly Shire Council and destroy both dogs.

    Hammond was also banned from owning a dog.

    On October 20 last year, two men aged 33 and 38 at the time of the incident were set upon by the pit bull terriers after Hammond encouraged his dogs to attack them.

    Police alleged Hammond threw one of his pit bulls at one of the men, who jumped onto a car bonnet for safety.

    Both men suffered minor injuries.

    In a separate incident a teenager and his friend were set on the dogs while walking along a street in Tahmoor after Hammond encouraged his dogs to attack them.

    The 16-year-old boy suffered a deep cut to his buttock and puncture wounds to his knee.

    A 51-year-old shop owner also suffered a severe wound after he was attacked by the dogs when he asked Hammond to leave his shop.

    Where is Tahmoor -



    An hour from the coast & not a beach in sight it's part suburban with a small industrial area & surrounded by semi-rural properties bordering untouched scrub, bush & river gorges.


    Last edited by blighted star; 09-17-2013 at 08:30 PM.

  5. #5
    has supermodel tits neenerneener's Avatar
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    Yeah, I'm not overly sad about this guys death.
    Quote Originally Posted by Ron_NYC
    I want to kiss your lips. Both sets.
    * wow you truly are the sterial cunt here are yo not.I fuckin hate you cunt* - Loonywop
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    Senior Member kevansvault's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by neenerneener View Post
    Yeah, I'm not overly sad about this guys death.
    Seriously. This motherfucker was asking for it. You sick your dogs on me, or my kids and that's the end of your ass. And fuck his friends too. No one who "has a good heart" allows and encourages his dogs to attack people. No one.
    Don't like what I have to say? I respect that. Go fuck yourself.

  7. #7
    Cousin Greg Angiebla's Avatar
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    A pit bull is considered a deadly weapon in some places. Obviously this guy didnt really give a shit about his dogs, he knew they would be euthanized if they bit anyone. This asshole probably trained them to be aggressive and pumped them up on steroids. I don't really feel bad for him.


    Eta: what goes around comes around.
    Last edited by Angiebla; 09-18-2013 at 09:06 AM.

    "The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man" -Charles Darwin

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    Senior Member zeebee's Avatar
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    This story reminds me of the murder of Ken McElroy, the "town bully" in Skidmore, MO. He was shot to death in the downtown area in the middle of the day, and despite some 40 odd potential witnesses, none of them "saw anything".
    "...Jeffrey Dahmer... actually confessed and accepted his punishment. Had real remorse for the sick things he did. It's pretty bad when Jeffrey Dahmer is a better person than you are." ~Justice11 (re: Jodi Arias)

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    fun hater Shins's Avatar
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    Don't go looking for fire, and then be surprised when you get burned.
    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    Listen, if no one cares when a crazy noodle walks in and executes children with a gun, no one cares about anything.

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    Senior Member UncomfortablyNumb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by neenerneener View Post
    Yeah, I'm not overly sad about this guys death.
    Right? Good riddance.
    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    She transitioned from a stupid asshole to a dumb bitch.

  11. #11
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    I cannot believe that I posted that sentence about Luvit & didn't even notice - for eleven !! days. It's a good thing I already knew where to get a hamster sorry cake



    Last edited by blighted star; 09-19-2013 at 08:26 PM.

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    I'm curious about the sentence.

  13. #13
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by luvit View Post
    I'm curious about the sentence.
    Well that's a relief. Maybe it's not widely used? Good!! It's used to indicate that you think someone is lying. So fib = lie, fibber= liar. I just checked with my kids who say teachers use it, but kids don't, so I guess it's going the way of other extinct colloquialisms. I've never used it, it was a cranky grandparent word when I was a kid (usually accompanied by "I can see a lie-worm in your eye" if you denied said fib). Anyway, I basically had a sentence sitting there - for 11 days, that says "blah, blah, blah, YOU LIE" which is probably a good way to offend people.

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    Senior Member zeebee's Avatar
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    Did you delete it or something? I am so confused right now.
    "...Jeffrey Dahmer... actually confessed and accepted his punishment. Had real remorse for the sick things he did. It's pretty bad when Jeffrey Dahmer is a better person than you are." ~Justice11 (re: Jodi Arias)

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    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by zeebee View Post
    Did you delete it or something? I am so confused right now.
    Sorry! It's hard to find because I posted so much. Lol. I should've just sneakily deleted & no-one would've known. Sigh, hindsight.
    I left it in - it's the second line of my first post - the second one in the thread. Ha, not only did no-one know what it meant, no-one saw it anyway


    ETA the fact that it was my own post & even I didn't notice for 11 days should've been a clue no-one else did either. Lesson learned.
    Last edited by blighted star; 09-22-2013 at 08:53 AM.

  16. #16
    Senior Member zeebee's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by blighted star View Post
    Sorry! It's hard to find because I posted so much. Lol. I should've just sneakily deleted & no-one would've known. Sigh, hindsight.
    I left it in - it's the second line of my first post - the second one in the thread. Ha, not only did no-one know what it meant, no-one saw it anyway


    ETA the fact that it was my own post & even I didn't notice for 11 days should've been a clue no-one else did either. Lesson learned.


    I think I just kind of blew by that part and went right to the story as it did not pertain to me or the story. I seriously went back and looked for it in your posts too, and didn't see it.

    BTW I don't thin "fib" or "fibber" is antiquated just yet, I know what it means.
    "...Jeffrey Dahmer... actually confessed and accepted his punishment. Had real remorse for the sick things he did. It's pretty bad when Jeffrey Dahmer is a better person than you are." ~Justice11 (re: Jodi Arias)

  17. #17
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    After filling half this thread with unneccesary crap, I'd better redeem myself by hunting down something relevant sometime soon. I will begin digging
    Last edited by blighted star; 02-17-2017 at 04:57 AM.

  18. #18
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Here we go, a teensy bit more info on his previous charges & also the name of the street where the attack occurred -


    Revenge killing a possibility: police

    ByEmmaPartridge

    Police say there are many reasons why someone may have wanted Scott Hammond dead and are not ruling out a revenge killing after he used his pit bull terriers to attack and wound four people in 2011.

    Mr Hammond was found savagely beaten to death in his house on the outskirts of south-western Sydney along with a paralysed pit bull on Monday afternoon.

    Police said they found the 48-year-old on the lounge room floor of an Ibbotson Street house at Tahmoor after a friend called concerned for his welfare.

    Camden police Acting Superintendent Danny Doherty said homicide detectives were treating the death as a targeted attack and had many motives to sift through.

    ''It appears that the incident was a targeted attack and we have other motives that have to be looked at,'' Acting Superintendent Doherty said. ''There are a number of lines of inquiry including the man's history in relation to previous dog attacks.''

    Mr Hammond pleaded guilty to using his pit bull terriers, Chocka and Girlie, to attack and wound four people in separate incidents at Tahmoor in 2011.

    He was given a seven-month suspended sentence, ordered to pay $14,336 and destroy both dogs.

    Several items were seized from the house but police would not comment on the suspected weapon used to inflict serious head injuries.

    Police were waiting on the results of an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.

    ''But it appears he has sustained significant injuries, substantial head injuries,'' Acting Superintendent Doherty said.

    Mr Hammond had been unemployed and living by himself.

    Police removed two dogs from the house and are checking to see if evidence, such as DNA, was transferred to them during the attack.

    Detectives are yet to establish whether the paralysed pit bull was injured before or during the attack.

  19. #19
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    I saw the "fib" written but didn't remember the sentence, It doesn't faze me at all. I enjoyed my cake, so all is cool. I've been called worse lol

    cheers bs

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    Sofa King Tired PunkerDuckie's Avatar
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    I'm not sad this guy is no longer on the planet. His poor dogs, man.
    Quote Originally Posted by UncomfortablyNumb View Post
    I want that fucking meat.

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    Senior Member u2addict's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by zeebee View Post
    This story reminds me of the murder of Ken McElroy, the "town bully" in Skidmore, MO. He was shot to death in the downtown area in the middle of the day, and despite some 40 odd potential witnesses, none of them "saw anything".
    I remember that. Wonder if these two fuckers made the list on http://regator.com/blog_profile/3860...l_see_in_hell/

    Good riddance Mean Dog Man from hell!
    Don't let the flames of hell lick ya in the arse......

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    Senior Member DaddyO's Avatar
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    Yeah, I hope his dogs are ok !! Its people like this that give pit bull owners a bad name.

  23. #23
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    This case is still unsolved.

    The article I'm posting is super long & 3 yrs old. But I missed it at the time & it gives a very different perspective on things.

    My reactions reading this were firstly : "Oh fuck he was Stolen Generation"
    & secondly, "Damn Tahmoor. You never change". Right now I'm having flashbacks to the friday night a group of school friends & I pulled into the carpark outside the local pub there & people suddenly opened the door & ran out screaming, closely followed by a guy waving a chainsaw over his head. It was like a horror movie. For real.

    We drank in Picton that night & forever after.

    Anyway, like I said, this is really, really long, but I'm posting the whole thing in case it eventually turns into a dead link



    http://www.smh.com.au/national/a-tow...316-34waw.html

    A town called malice

    When Scott Hammond was found brutally murdered in his house in rural NSW, many of the locals didn't seem to care.
    John Safran

    On the first day of July last year, a man called Scott Hammond was found bludgeoned to death in his home in a tiny town in rural NSW. A news report had drawn me to this particular murder. The bizarre sound bite was that everyone in the town was a suspect. That's how hated Scott Hammond was.

    A local must know something, the police said, but no one was coming forward.Six months after the crime, no one had been arrested.


    Supporters ? Rachael Taylor, Scott Hammond's last remaining relative in Tahmoor, with her partner, Mitchell Briggs. Photo: Wolter Peeters



    Tahmoor is one hour and 40 minutes down the highway from Sydney airport. The town's two big employers are the nearby coal mine and abattoir. The abattoir was the big news story before Hammond's murder - animal rights activists had snuck in and filmed workers punching and kicking live turkeys.

    "Scotty used to sick his dogs on people," a red-haired woman in the pub tells me. "So, you know, like, he was just a scumbag."



    Scarred ? Danny Forrest was attacked by Scott Hammond's two white pit bull dogs. Photo: Wolter Peeters
    She tells me the citizens of Tahmoor aren't exactly on board with the investigation. "Nobody's speaking. It's just that nobody cares enough to say, 'Well, who killed that fella?' Because everybody's going, 'Thank God somebody did.' "

    "Sure," I say, "but when a person dies ..."

    "It's not a person," she interrupts. "It's an it. He was an it."

    Outside the pub, another local tells me he also didn't like Scotty. Scotty once fired an arrow at him.


    Christ, who was this guy?

    Tahmoor has a small town centre with supermarkets, the local MP's office, a second-hand bookshop and some fast-food joints, like Danno's Takeaway. Its owner, Danny Forrest, has narrow eyes and a horseshoe moustache. Someone, or several someones, spray-painted "RIP Scotty" on his shop shutters the day after the murder.

    "His friends thought that I had done it," Forrest says. "The detectives come out and they said, 'You are one of the main suspects of it because what he done to you with the dogs.' "

    A couple of years back, some young girls were eating fish and chips at the outside tables. They bolted into the shop. Hammond and his two white pit bulls had frightened the bejesus out of them.

    "I said, 'Scotty, get away from here with your dogs.' He says, 'You, you f...ing c..., I'll get my dogs to tear your f...ing throat out, you arsehole.' "

    Hammond then disappeared. Forrest takes me to the back door of his shop. A metal bar rests against the door. He says he was so worried Hammond was waiting for him out the back that he tucked this metal bar in his pants.

    "As soon as I opened the door ... he dropped the two leads and set the two pit bull terriers on me. One of them was on the front of my leg and I was belting it with the bar. The other one just kept circling me and it actually took a great big chunk out the back of my leg."

    Forrest's leg is still lumpy with scars after all this time. "You could see the main artery to my heart pumping," he recalls. "The doctor said another millimetre and I would have died. Those dogs were lethal weapons and he got a seven-month [good behaviour] bond."

    Forrest says his accusers think he was motivated by revenge, but he not only denies any involvement in Hammond's death, he denies he is angry. "I'm a businessman in town. Why would I waste my energy? I said to the detectives, 'That's water under the bridge, I don't really give a stuff now. At first, yes, I was bitter, what happened to me, but I don't really care.' "

    Instead, Forrest looks elsewhere for an explanation for Hammond's demise. "He was well known around the town for selling drugs," he mutters.

    Scott Hammond was 48 when he died. Plenty of people in town thought his death was tied to a drug deal gone wrong. His murder wasn't the first time violence rained upon Hammond. A few years back, someone broke into his home and snapped both his legs. Hammond had his dogs pull him around the streets in a wheelchair, like reindeer, Forrest says.

    Hammond's house is no longer the fortress everyone told me it was, with dog cages and junk out the front, surveillance cameras and electric grids along the roof. The council swooped in after the murder and now it's brown and bland, with a rich green lawn.

    Up the street, an elderly couple are out on their porch, shading themselves from the searing heat. They have known Hammond since he was a little boy. That was how long he had been a part of Tahmoor. They used to go camping with him and his parents.

    "He was adopted," the old woman says. "He was always in trouble. How should I say this? As a little boy, I think he craved affection but probably didn't get it, if you know what I mean? I'm not having a go at his parents, because they were nice people."

    Hammond's dad is dead and his mother moved to Queensland long ago. Hammond has a sister - an adoptee, too - who is also up north.

    The elderly couple tell me that when Hammond was about 20, he smashed his car into a telegraph pole nearby. Wet weather and speeding. His girlfriend - she was about 16 - was killed. Hammond served a little time for reckless driving and left Tahmoor afterwards.

    "We didn't see him for a long time, but he came back. Because he's part-Aboriginal, I think they got him the housing commission house, three bedrooms on his own, and he just sold drugs out of it."

    "Did he look Aboriginal?" I ask, fishing for some race angle. Did that play into why he was hated?

    "Well, I would never have picked that when he was a child," the old woman says.

    "When you look hard, then you realise," the old man mutters.

    Around the corner, a younger couple invite me inside. I tell them about the redhead in the pub who said everyone was happy Hammond was gone. "She's talking off the top of her head," the younger woman says, distressed. "She obviously doesn't know the person, she's obviously going on what she's heard and she obviously hasn't lived here for years like Scott and we have."

    "He wasn't aggressive", the younger man says, also upset. "He would get extremely reactive to the point that it would look like aggression."

    He says the people of Tahmoor bullied Hammond, not the other way around. Hammond was the town freak. He didn't shower. He lived in filth. His front lawn was a mess. Arseholes would throw firebombs at the house from passing cars just for fun. The dog attacks were Hammond standing up for himself, or standing up for local kids who were also being pushed around.

    "The kids here in Tahmoor, my son included, loved him," the man says. "Scotty would ride past here on his pushbike and he would make my son feel important. Now, is that a bad person?"

    Hammond would invite the kids into his house to see all the birds and dogs he kept inside. At one point, he had six pit bulls. If a kid was hungry, he'd put on pizza. If someone had been kicked out of home, he'd let them crash on his couch.

    "He sold a bit of dope," the woman concedes. "Because he wasn't bashful about that, I think that really deflated his reputation."

    Chickens scream in the couple's backyard as they speak. They recovered them from Hammond's house after he was killed. "People need scapegoats," the woman says. They, like nearly everyone, believe a local killed Hammond. What was the motive? It was because of a rumour: Hammond had a tin filled with a lot of money. "They've gone there thinking they're going to come across some mythical treasure," the woman says. "There's no treasure."

    I ask them who they think the killer is. "I'm not going to go there," the man says. He tells me Danny from Danno's Takeaway was being melodramatic and that no one in town really thought he killed Hammond. The locals who'd spray-painted his shop were just annoyed he was blabbing to the media.<<<cont'd>>>

  24. #24
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    The evening air has cooled down Tahmoor. Rachael Taylor, Hammond's niece, sits in her front yard with her partner, Mitchell Briggs. Both are in their mid-20s. Briggs has Ned Kelly's gun inked on his arm. Taylor was Hammond's last remaining relative in Tahmoor. Everyone else left long ago.

    Taylor says that a few years back, Hammond headed off to find his birth mother and father. "I think for him it was about accepting himself. [It] was something he was striving for, for a long time. He tried to track down his real mother also for the sake of verifying his indigenous status."

    Hammond did find his mother and he did get his verification paperwork. His Aboriginality, Taylor says, played into the town's resentment, but in an unusual way.

    An old Aboriginal woman lived in his home before he did. It was public housing set aside for indigenous people. When she died, and Hammond moved in, her family was furious. Hammond's skin is too light, the family seethed at everyone in town: "He's called himself Aboriginal and he's not!" Another reason for the people of Tahmoor to hate Scott Hammond.

    Rachael Taylor loved her uncle, however, and checked up on him all the time. Since his murder, the police had left her in the lurch. "I just want someone to call me back, please," she says sadly. "I've left numerous messages, just asking. Especially around the time of his birthday."

    The police did spend quite a few hours with Taylor right after the murder, though. They wanted information out of her, and in the course of this, she got information out of them.

    The police told her that there was continuous brutal force to Scott Hammond's head with a blunt object. That the bashing was so severe his eye popped out and he lost part of his ear. That the injuries were to the back of his head, which meant he might not have seen it coming.

    "It was someone he knew," Briggs says, scratching his Ned Kelly gun.

    "He had that house monitored like Fort Knox," Taylor explains. "If you were let into his house, he trusted you. The police said there was no break and enter. It was someone who he knew and trusted, or someone who was already in the house."

    "Do you have your suspicions?" I ask.

    "I do."

    Taylor gives me a name. "He has known my uncle for a long time; he was the last one who was seen walking out of the house."

    A neighbour spotted this man leaving the house, at a time the police believe Hammond was dead. The neighbour asked the man where Hammond was. The man said he was inside doing the dishes. Scott Hammond was famous for living in filth. Doing the dishes didn't sound like a very Scotty thing.

    The police thought that more than one person was involved. And that they had been let in via the back door, where, unlike the front entrance, there were no surveillance cameras.

    "They found the dog, the red-nose pit bull, with a broken back," Briggs says.

    The killer, or killers, had chucked the dog, still alive but immobilised, on Hammond's body. Briggs thinks they would have broken the dog's back before they got to Hammond to stop it from savaging them while trying to protect its master.

    There were possible witnesses to the murder but they're of limited help. Briggs leads me to them - cockatoos in the garage. Explains Briggs, "They were in the house with him all the time, so there's some pretty crazy things they say, just anything, all schizo sayings.

    "It's full sentences, because Scotty was diagnosed with schizophrenia, so he'd sit there by himself and rant and rave. Sometimes it's real creepy."

    "Shut the f...in' door, you c...," is one of the bird's favourite refrains.

    Back at my motel room, attached to the pub, I track down The Last Man To Leave The House on the internet. His profile picture shows him huddled up with blokes wearing outlaw motorcycle club tops. He is tucked up the back, so I can't see if he is wearing one himself.

    The next morning I find a woman purporting to be the girlfriend of The Last Man To Leave The House. "Definitely was not him," she says, defending her man. "He loved Scott too much." She tells me her boyfriend met Hammond in jail long ago. Hammond was serving time for his part in the car crash that killed his girlfriend.

    I ask her why her boyfriend was in jail. "I think the first time he cut someone's ear off," she says.

    "But isn't someone who could cut someone's ear off," I say, "someone who could whack Scott?"

    "He was doing it for somebody else, not for himself, " she tells me, convinced this was a comforting explanation. "I've never seen him angry."

    "He's not going to cut off my ear for writing a story?" I ask.

    "No, he's calmed down in his old age."

    She says she passes by Hammond's old house most days. "He's still in there - there's no way he's not there. And he's an angry ghost, too."

    Around the streets, I hear versions of one particular story. Hammond wanted to leave Tahmoor because he hated how people treated him. He was saving his money to buy land up north, somewhere tropical.

    He lived off the proceeds of selling dope, but he never spent a cent of his pension. This he secured in a tin and he had accumulated tens of thousands of dollars. The tin was hidden somewhere in Tahmoor and no one knew where.

    Some people told me that there wasn't an actual hidden treasure, but that it was a strong enough myth to motivate a murder. I was told that Hammond's lover at the time, a girl who worked at a local shop, was visited by people after the murder. They were convinced she knew where the treasure was buried. That it was under some house nearby. She has since left town.

    "The story is for Good Weekend," I tell a muscular guy stacking his belongings in a truck, moving out of home.

    "Yeah?" he says squinting. "Oh, you don't have any good weekends out here, mate, I can tell you."

    A few locals have told me I should visit this man, to find out more about the murder. "And so ..." I say.

    "I've got nothing to say, mate. He was my drug dealer. I used to score pot, that's it."

    "Yeah, but it seems ..."

    "Can't help you, mate," he snaps.

    I drop my voice to a whisper. I tell him what people have told me. That he and another bloke helped The Last Man To Leave The House kill Hammond. The Last Man was already inside and had creaked open the back door and let them in.

    "Yeah?" he says, very interested.

    "That's one version I heard."

    "They'll never know," he says.

    "They'll never know?"

    "No," he snaps. "And best you better get off my lawn before you piss me off even more now."

    Not long after this encounter, I track down another bloke some thought could have been an accomplice to The Last Man. He was sitting under a tree by the railway line, equally unhappy to see me. "What makes you think I know anything?" he asks.

    I tell him that people around town have pointed the finger at him.

    He demands names. I say I didn't take their names.

    "That's 100 per cent not the story, but yeah, whoever's spinning you that shit I'll f...in' go and kill them, mate."

    Seemingly out of nowhere, a car drifts up and stops by the tree. "Stay out of the f...in' street, stay away," the man warns. He jumps into the car. It takes off, leaving me alone by the railway line.

  25. #25
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    I drive my blue rental car back to the pub and park just outside my motel door. Just before 11pm my mobile phone buzzes. The man at the other end of the line tells me a local has passed on my business card. He asks me who I have been talking to in town. "Well, you haven't given me your name," I say.

    He tells me his name. It is The Last Man To Leave The House.

    "You sound a bit hesitant after hearing my name," he says.

    I stutter out a "Yeah, okay." He wants to know what names, besides his, have come up in my snooping.

    "Like I don't understand why - it seems ..."

    "F...in' tell me the names you've been given, c... ."

    "But why, but ..."

    "It's not a f...in' question and answer, it's a f...in' order."

    "The ..."

    "Do it!"

    "There were, there were ... there were just lots ..."

    "John?" he interrupts.

    "Yes?"

    "Please stop treating me like a f...wit."

    "I just got lots of stories from lots of ... lots of stories and you were just in one."

    "Well, I didn't kill Scotty. The police did it and set me up."

    He tells me the name of a local detective. And that Hammond was an informer and knew too much, so the detective had to get rid of him. I tell him I didn't find that story too credible.

    "We should meet up, mate," he says. "Where are you staying?"

    I give out a nervous chuckle.

    "Cat got your tongue, Johnny? Where are you staying?"

    "Just with friends."

    "Oh, you just happen to have friends in Tahmoor?" he sneers.

    Everything was quiet except for the airconditioner.

    "Is your little blue car parked out in front of your room?"

    Fear bolts through my body. I have never been more frightened. "Walk out the front," he commands.

    "No, please don't."

    "Come on, walk out the front."

    "Please don't."

    "Walk out the front!" he screams.

    "Are you going to hurt me?"

    "F...in' walk out the front, c...!"

    He tells me he has left something for me at the car.

    "Kneel down in front of the driver's side door. There's a note with a name on it. Pick it up."

    The phone cuts out. I scan the room for a weapon. I grab the fork next to the kettle, squat down beside the bed and ring the police. It is getting close to midnight.

    An hour later - after I have made a second phone call to the police, asking them where they are - a policeman and policewoman knock on my door.

    "Mate, it's best ... just stay away from these people," the policeman says.

    They check the car but can't find any note. "I don't know where you're from, mate, but ..."

    "Melbourne."

    "But, yeah, people around here, mate, it's not the type of town you want to be going and giving your name and phone number out to people, okay? The names you mentioned? To us ... to us ..."

    "... to us are scary," the policewoman says, completing his thought.

    They offer a shocked giggle when I tell them that I've been door-knocking around town.

    "I wouldn't be going to their doors off duty," the policeman says. "It's not good because once they get an eye on where you're staying, shit's going to start and it's obviously started."

    I tell them I'm planning on leaving right now. "It wouldn't be a half-bad idea," the policewoman says. "I would get out of town if I were you."

    They tell me they will escort me out of Tahmoor to make sure no one follows. "When we get to Picton," the policewoman says, "I'll put my arm out the window, where you'll see a sign that points to Sydney. Just follow that all the way out to the freeway, okay?"

    "Cool."

    "And then, sorry to be rude, but then get out of here."

    I was meant to spend five days in Tahmoor, but am flushed out after three. When I pull into Sydney at 2.30am, I crank back the driver's seat and try to get to sleep by the side of the road.

    Why did it take two calls, and an hour, for the police to get to my motel? After I tell them that the apparent main suspect in a murder case is threatening me? Why didn't they ask if I wanted to press charges? Why didn't they assure me they'd go after the guy? I couldn't help but stack my experience in the same pile as Taylor's. The one where the cops refuse to update her (or Hammond's mother) on the investigation.

    One dark thought kept travelling through my mind during my three days in Tahmoor. "I just keep on thinking the killer felt comfortable," I told Taylor, "because he knew the town hated Scott."

    "I feel that's exactly right," Taylor said.

    Weeks later, I find myself in the police station in Narellan, not far from Tahmoor, with the cop in charge of the investigation. I am not the interviewer this time. I am the interviewee.

    The policeman explains that he has called me in because he wants to know what I found out over my three days in Tahmoor, if there is anything that could help with the investigation. But, to be honest, in actuality he seems to be wanting to solve the case of why this Melbourne comedian is poking around in this no-name case, and what is he going to write?

    As it is a live case, he says, he can't tell me anything. The only thing I manage to draw out of him over the hour is that he doesn't think the man who called me was The Last Man To Leave The House. He thinks it was one of the two supposed accomplices I had confronted, pretending to be The Last Man. He thinks the claim a cop killed Hammond is exactly the type of ridiculous conspiracy one of those clowns would try on.

    Weeks after this, the policeman finally sends through a statement. "We are working hard to solve this murder. We're aware of many theories and ideas about what happened and who's responsible, but our job is to examine the evidence. That is exactly what we're doing. I urge anyone with information to come forward to police."

    So the cops are in one ear telling me the case is top of mind, while Rachel is in the other ear telling me it's not.

    I text her, telling her about the police statement. "I hope the police are staying on top of it," she replies. "They still won't get back to me or talk to my family. There should be no reason for them to slack off ... but being who he was, I really don't think they genuinely care."
    & for anyone who doesn't know what "Stolen Generation" refers to

    http://www.australianstogether.org.a...en-generations

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