Blood On The Tracks 03 | The Boxer

This is an ABC podcast.

If you're an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person, we want you to know that this series contains the name of someone who has died.

Six months have passed since Mark Haynes was found dead on the tracks.

Winter's set in, and the police investigation is stalling.

The evidence the family handed to the cops-the lighter, the comb, the mat from the boot, it's all led to nothing.

We were hopeful police would have been able to

work out exactly what has happened to Mark,

but that was not the case.

There are still so many unanswered questions.

With no progress from the police, rumors and innuendo grow wilder each day.

Paranoia and violence take hold.

The family's convinced someone else is involved.

With or without the cops, Uncle Duck is determined to find out who.

So, I just done what any

family would do for their loved ones.

Question what has happened.

I'm Alan Clark.

This is Unravel.

A podcast investigating the death of Aboriginal teenager Mark Haynes.

In this episode, Mark's family get fed up with the police and go after their own number one suspect with dangerous consequences.

I said, well, where was you when my nephew was found dead?

I think we hit a nerve, me and Duck.

I said, I'll fight every one of you fools.

One at a time, all at once, I don't care.

I can just feel this whack, whack.

And next when I'm going back, I said, yeah, I think he's broken my jaw.

I said, look, mate, look, just take me to the hospital.

I've been attacked.

On the surface, Tamworth in 1988 was a typical Aussie town.

Rodeos, farmers, and a country women's association with prize-winning jams.

A place that prided itself on old-fashioned country hospitality, where country and Western music was a religion.

But underneath the friendly veneer, a seedy criminal underbelly was thriving.

About 400 plants were found in the plantation, many measuring almost three meters in height.

out surveillance of the area for some 24 hours.

The plants were all mature and are thought to be about four months old.

Police have been asked that two other Tamworth people wanted for questioning in relation to the alleged drug find.

It was common knowledge that there were large marijuana crops growing in the rugged bushland outside of town.

And there were reports of major criminal syndicates with corrupt cops on the take.

How big was the drug racket in Tamworth at the time?

Millions was a lot of money back in the 80s.

I've tracked down one of those dealers and convinced him to talk.

For his safety, we've disguised his voice.

What was the main drug that people were sort of dealing at the time?

Marijuana and the heroin.

The older people are on the heroin and the younger ones are on the yarn.

If you lived in Tamworth in the late 80s and smoked marijuana, you were connected to this world.

And Mark Haynes liked a bit of a chuff.

His cousin Leah used to smoke weed with him.

We used to go when we were 15, see,

into the pub and we'd see people would put us onto people that had bush bud or whatever sticks.

And we'd just grab one and go home back to Wild Road and smoke it.

And yeah.

Back in those days, it wasn't uncommon for potheads after a free bit of leaf or bud to raid small crops.

And so, soon after Mark's death, a rumour about him taking a dangerous risk starts swirling around town.

A group of teenagers at a party hear that Mark was planning to rip off one of the big-time crops and that he'd been killed by the crims behind it.

The police get word of the rumours and take statements from the teens.

People in Tamworth's criminal underworld are hearing these rumours too.

How long after the death did you start hearing hearing rumours about a group of people?

Within the director.

And you're hearing this in some of those drug circles?

Yes, yes, yeah.

So within the drug circle.

In their world, a rumour like this was easy to believe.

He was supposedly getting, organising a couple of people together and

raided it and comes to the back of the crowd.

And just in terms of those circles you ran in back then, if someone was going to steal some marijuana from

a plantation,

what would the, I guess, retribution be?

And had you known of cases like that?

Yeah.

The whole thing was nothing more than a rumor, but it did send a jolt through Mark's family when they heard it.

With the cops focused on their theory that Mark caused his own death, this story about Mark being targeted by drug dealers was the first time they'd heard a plausible motive.

And it offered the first hint as to who might have killed Mark.

The name on the streets of Tamworth was Eddie Davis.

Eddie Davis was mentioned right from the word go.

I knew that he was a semi-professional boxer or a very good amateur boxer.

I believe he was a golden glove.

He'd had some great success.

I think he was one of those sort of characters around town that you just didn't mess with because of his boxing skills and the fact that I guess he was known as a bit of a tough guy.

The theory was that Eddie, the boxer, was a standover man, a muscle for hire, for heavies in the drug trade.

and that he'd been sent in to take care of Mark as a warning to anyone thinking about stealing crops.

And let's be honest, Eddie had a tough guy rep and people were scared of him, which lent weight to the rumours.

When I first started looking at this case, I knew I needed to try and get to the bottom of those rumours.

But here's the rub.

Eddie Davis didn't want to talk to me.

Are we recording?

Okay.

Great.

Should we have headphones?

Can you hear yourself?

I don't have a headphones.

This is Susie Smith, the senior investigative producer on this podcast.

Susie's a veteran journal who's worked all over the world.

She's been helping me on this case, and I asked her to help me find Eddie.

Susie, so you know Eddie Davis.

I've been trying to get in contact with him for the past five years.

It's been very difficult.

Yeah.

And he's never gotten back to me.

I don't even know if he's getting my messages.

So I'm a bit stuck.

I think it'd probably be better if you tried to talk to him or find a way.

I think he'd be more receptive to to talking to you than me.

He's probably assuming that I'm yeah, that I'm too in bed with Mark's family and that.

Yeah, he doesn't know you.

But also sometimes women are a little less scary than blokes in this situation.

Look, I think it'd be great if you could reach out.

It's worth a try, right?

Susie reached out to Eddie, and finally, after all these years of silence, he responded.

He agreed to meet with her in Tamworth at the same place he trained as a boxer three decades ago.

This is the first time he's ever spoken publicly about the case.

Eddie thanks for joining us.

Pleasure.

Can you take me back?

When did you first move to Tamworth?

I first moved to Tamworth in 1987 specifically with the purpose of bettering my chances of making an Olympic boxing team.

Do you think the fact that you were a boxer and probably a bit scary

fueled the rumours?

I think perhaps it did.

You know,

people associate boxers with

violence, so they think that somehow that makes you a standover merchant.

And I think if you have a look at most boxers, they're extremely soft-hearted.

Eddie still remembers what he told police back then.

One of the the first things they asked me was where I was on the night.

I said that's some time ago now, you know, but I'm pretty certain I'd have been at home in bed at that time, as I was almost every night in bed asleep by 9.30.

Eddie, did you kill Mark Haines?

We'll get back to that, but first, you need to know all the things that happened leading up to this moment.

Let's rewind to Tamworth 1988.

The police investigation looks like it's going nowhere.

For Mark's uncles, the rumours about Eddie Davis are like kerosene on a fire.

And I said to my cousins in Maury, I said, look, you know, I'm believing that

Mark, you know, has been murdered.

At the time, Duck was living in Maury, three hours away.

I'm thinking that we may need to go up here and investigate, look at these things ourselves.

We might have to go and face these people.

And what was the plan?

I mean, what were you aiming to do?

Bring enough of my people back here

and really,

you know, to be seen, to let them know, give them the message.

that

yeah, we're looking out for what happened to Mark and if you've got anything to do with what happened to Mark,

we're here for you.

Like a vigilante group.

We don't call ourselves vigilantes.

We're here in search of the truth and still are.

Duck and Eddie finally cross paths on the outskirts of Tamworth.

I'd finished work early today, so I went to see my cousin.

He's a big lad, a bricky and a boxer, and he's got a fearsome rep.

Duck's family are convinced Eddie's their man and they're keen to ask him a few direct questions.

I think from memory it was a Saturday.

My sister was driving

and yeah,

we might have been hidden that way, spotted him, said, you want to ride?

And guy pulled up, another brother.

pulled up and asked me fine with guns.

Good, sweet.

The car leaves Caldal and drives drives along an empty country road.

Suddenly, the mood in the car shifts.

I said to my sister, pull over here to the right, because it was all open country.

It was all paddock.

Both the driver and the passenger turned around and looked at me, while the guy on the left of me said,

You killed my nephew, didn't you?

I was a bit taken aback.

I couldn't understand who he meant or what he meant.

At worst I thought he'd mistaken me for somebody else.

I said, who?

What?

Mark Haynes, you killed him, didn't you?

You know, I was willing to take to anyone myself.

I had a bloody bundie in the car.

A bundie stick is a traditional Aboriginal hunting club.

It sort of looks like a baseball bat.

I saw it a baseball bat.

I thought, I've got to get out of here.

Anyway,

I jumped out and I grabbed this bundy and I was going to take to this fella.

Eddie moves first and punches the guy sitting next to him, Duck's mate.

So I unbuckled the seatbelt and

turned towards him and punched him straight in the face and

climbed out the window.

He took off across the road into the paddock.

The police are keen to put a lid on the family's attempts at DIY investigating and come up with an unconventional solution.

Eddie gets a call telling him to come into the cop shop.

I said, I've told you everything I know.

I said, no, we don't want any more trouble on the street like we had a few weeks ago.

So we want to just sort this out

so that we don't have that trouble like that again.

Mark's uncles, Duck and Jack, also get a call from the police.

I think we hit a nerve, me and Duck, when we was going out.

We hit a nerve and that's why they wanted this meeting to try and tell us to back off.

The police solution, get the victim's family.

and the bloke the family reckon killed their nephew in the same room and get them to talk it out.

You know, we're all cramped in this little office.

Would you say four meters by four meters, something like that?

The superintendent was saying a few words as well.

Well, Don, you know, you've got your boy, you know, death.

We understand you're upset and you'd like to know

what's happening, but you can't go around making accusations

about

people without any evidence or otherwise you could be charged.

My first response though was, well, there'd be no brawls if they just left me alone.

The cops mediation session goes downhill fast.

And it got really hairy in there.

Really hairy.

Eddie didn't say anything.

He just looked there and stared at me like this.

He didn't worry about Jack, he was just looking at me.

Well, it started a lot of yelling, loud voices,

jumping up and down.

We were just about to punch on.

The boss was called in to hose things down.

He knew it was getting a little bit out of control because it just all would have been one big fight in that small little room.

The meeting was a total failure.

It ended with not a lot of progress was made.

I don't think I had any impact on trying to convince them that I didn't have anything to do with it and that I didn't even know him.

At the end of it,

the officer asked, you know, if there'd be any more trouble.

I looked straight at

Duck and whoever else was there with him.

I said, there'll be no more trouble, but

if you come near me or my family again,

I won't be able to show

any mercy.

To the family, the failed mediation is further evidence the police aren't taking Mark's death seriously.

The cops' attempts to calm everyone down have only made things worse.

Violence is taking hold, and it erupts soon after that meeting at a pub in town.

I was at the town talk hotel.

I was watching a game or pool.

I had a beer in my hand.

Across the room, Duck sees Eddie Davis' brother, Robbie.

They start talking.

He said, I hear you've been asking some questions about my brother,

Eddie, and saying that he was possibly responsible for your nephew's death or murder.

And he said, no, well, he wasn't.

And I said to him, where was you?

Where was you when my nephew was found dead?

And the games of pool continue around them.

So anyway, as my eyes in that area watching the ball roll up and down the thing there and having a sip of beer, I can just feel this whack, whack.

And next when I'm going back, I still got the beer in my bloody hand, you know.

And I'm back against the table or whatever, never hit the floor or anything.

And I pick myself up, put the beer down, I can feel my jaw separating.

Duck's jaw is broken.

The other couple of friends I was with there, you know, said, well, Duck, what are you going to do?

You know, what do you want to do?

I said, well, just give me another bloody, grab me a double scotch, okay, just to deal with the pain.

I'll sort this out tomorrow.

Duck's friends jump into counter-attack while Robbie's mates put in a call to Eddie.

So I walked up to the two guys, my friends who were bouncers there, they were standing out the front.

And I said, which one of these fools got into my brother?

They pointed out a few of the guys that had taken part in it.

I said, I'll fight every one of you fools, one at a time, all at once, I don't care.

And I just ran at them.

and they scattered in all directions.

Duck's badly injured and needs a getaway plan.

In Peel Street, Tamworth's main drag, Duck and his mates make a run for the taxi.

As I'm trying to get in there, they grab me, they drag me back out of the taxi, they pull me to the ground there, and all I do is get into a ball, roll myself up, trying to protect me head and me jaw and all I can feel is these punches and kicks and whatever.

Did you fear for your life?

Of course, because there's no one else in the street.

No one.

Eddie claims he calls an ambulance and sends Duck to the hospital.

I felt sorry for him.

You know, he's lost his nephew and he's there with a busted jaw, almost in tears.

We waited for a taxi to pull up and a taxi pulled up and we said, can you take this guy up to the hospital?

Taxi drivers just saw all the blood and just took off.

So we then rang an ambulance.

We waited for the ambulance, put him in the ambulance and went looking for the rest of the people who got into my brother.

30 years later, Eddie and Duck's memories of these events differ.

Eddie says the fight happened before the mediation and that he never laid a hand on Duck.

Because at that point in my life,

the only fights I'd ever have had

with any other black people

was the night they jumped my brother.

Since that night, I've still to this day never had a fight with another black fella.

He also disputes Duck's jaw was broken inside the pub during the altercation with Robbie.

He says it happened on the street outside.

We should also say that everyone remembers Robbie being in jail when Mark died and we're not suggesting that he was involved in Mark's death.

I was

absolutely mortified at being blamed for his death, for anyone's death.

But for another young brother,

it sickens me to my stomach to think that

anyone could think that I would do that to anyone, much less another brother.

So how did it get to this point?

How did two black families, both descendants of the Gomeroy people, become locked in such a bloody feud based solely off hearsay?

Over the course of this investigation, we've tracked down the people that gave those first statements to police about Eddie being a standover man.

They were only teenagers at the time.

They still don't want to talk publicly, but they've told me they now believe the stories were just gossip.

Our senior investigative producer, Susie Smith, put the rumours to Eddie Davis one last time.

There was a rumour going around that Mark Haines owed money to drug lords, that he'd been stealing marijuana from the fields and the yode money, and that they taught him a lesson.

What did you think of that?

I think the notion that Mark was taught a lesson for stealing drugs or owing money was fanciful beyond belief.

I think people have watched too many gangster movies.

Were you a standover merchant back then?

Never, not then, not now.

Eddie, did you kill Mark Haines?

didn't kill Mark Haynes.

I didn't

do him any harm.

I didn't know him.

I had never,

to my knowledge, ever even clapped eyes on him.

Eddie has moved on with his life and has since gone to university.

Like Duck Haynes and his family, Eddie blames the Tamworth police for for the unanswered questions that still linger so long after Mark's death.

If had they

done the job properly, then

the poor family wouldn't still

be chasing phantoms.

So if they'd done their job properly, we wouldn't be 30 years later having this fight between you and the Haynes and the Craigie family.

I think if had they investigated more thoroughly, I think a lot of grief could have been saved for the family.

I know for certain that a lot of grief could have been saved for me.

Do you understand that with Duck and the Craigies that they were acting out of intense grief?

Do you forgive them for that?

I think

I have to forgive them.

You know,

even if I didn't at the time

understand their grief,

they've suffered for a long time.

I want them to be at peace.

So if Eddie didn't kill Mark, who did?

What the family really needed was evidence, not teenage rumours.

And after months of agitation, they were about to find out exactly what evidence did exist.

In the next episode, the coronial inquest into Mark Haynes' death begins and the full horror of what happened out there on the tracks is revealed.

I had to block it out because it was just too distressing.

All I could see was red

and

I had to look away sort of because I didn't see the whole photographs.

There was a subdural hematoma.

Now, they don't develop within seconds.

Could that subdural hematoma have developed as a result of some other event?

I never heard that before.

Something untoward has happened to Mark.

If you know anything about this case, write to us.

Our email is unraveltruecrime at abc.net.au.

And And if you haven't already, don't forget to subscribe to Unravel wherever you get your podcasts or download the ABC Listen app.