The Fatalist

Book excerpt: AS SEEN ON AUSTRALIAN STORYShortlisted for The Ned Kelly Awards Best True Crime 2018Shortlisted for The Danger Prize (writing about Sydney and crime) 2018'I first met Lindsey Rose playing pool at The Burwood Hotel in 1988. I was two years out of high school. He'd already committed three murders. None of us knew.'We knew he was a brothel owner, we knew not to get on his wrong side, but we knew nothing of his lives past: fitter and turner, ambulance officer, private investigator, car thief, hijacker, arsonist, mercenary, drug dealer. Murderer. 'I drank at The Burwood on and off for six years. The last time I saw Lindsey as a free man was in early 1994 when he came to a poker game at my home. By then he'd committed two more murders - on Valentine's Day 1994 - and that made five.'What factors are at play in the creation of a cold-blooded killer? How can a relaxed, sociable, loving man with a strong work ethic keep the truth of his inner life, his dark side, hidden from friends, family and even the woman he marries?Informed by the science of criminal psychology, court documents and transcripts, correspondence and many interviews with Rose in the notorious Goulburn Supermax prison, Campbell McConachie's account is a unique and fascinating journey into the life and mind of a multiple murderer.