Port Arthur Massacre and Martin Bryant’s Innocence:
A New Perspective from Tasmania
By Mary W Maxwell, PhD, LLB

In reply to my article on GumshoeNews, which talked about Naomi Wolf and the media handling of “Port Arthur,” I received a surprising email. It was from an elderly chap who said he knows (or at least can surmise) who did the shooting that day, and it wasn’t Martin Bryant.

At first I doubted this Australian’s claim, but he provides clues that have not previously appeared in the literature. So I offered to interview him under the pseudonym Shane Gingkotree and he graciously agreed. “Shane” was living in Tasmania on that famous day April 28, 1996, but he was not near the site of the shootings (thank God).

Mary Maxwell: Thank you for sending me that old newspaper clipping about David Everett (from an article in the Launceston Examiner, dated July 5, 2008). I have to agree with you that he looks a lot like Martin .

Shane Gingkotree: Yes, and one of the Port Arthur witnesses said the gunman had hair parted in the middle, which is the way David Everett wore his hair.

Mary: Oh, but that would negate the famous allegation that the Martin impostor wore a wig.

Shane: I see what you mean. Anyway, Martin doesn’t part his hair in the middle.

Mary: You have told me that on the day of the massacre, David Everett was supposedly in prison for another crime. That gives him an alibi.

Shane: Yes, it’s a matter of public record that Davis Everett was in prison, from 1991 to 2002.

Mary: The first thing that came to my mind was that, in 1967, James Earl Ray was in prison in America, but the authorities needed him to be outside so he could (allegedly) shoot Martin Luther King. Hence they helped him make an escape. Sort of the reverse of David Everett, if you are correct. Now please tell me your story.

Shane: I suspect that the massacre involved SAS people. Although David, who was born in 1962, had quit the service by the time of the Port Arthur massacre, you can’t really be sure these guys are not still attached to the SAS.

Mary: You also told me that David appeared to have been struck in the face, before the event at Broad Arrow Café.

Shane: I had read that he got beat up in prison around that time, but I really don’t know.

Mary: Didn’t Wendy Scurr say that she saw a man who looked like a “boxer”?

Shane: Yes, and by the way I attended Officer Macgregor’s talk in Devenport and he hinted at an SAS presence. He has written a big DVD book about the innocence of Martin Bryant, called Deceit and Terrorism in Port Arthur.

Mary: I regret that Wendy Scurr is in hiding or at least does not make herself available for questions. Her hour-long talk on Youtube is very helpful however. I have no hesitation in trusting her. She’s a hero. And she was on the premises the whole day.

Shane: She wasn’t in the café when the shooting occurred; she was further down toward the gate where the tourist buses come in.

Mary: Tourism reminds me that my husband and I visited Port Arthur in 1981. It was so sad to learn of the way the convicts were treated. And they had a sadistic guard who taunted them. Many years later he came back to visit and was so arrogant that he walked among the men unarmed. They ganged up on him and finished him off.

Shane: There are two parts to my story. One is that as soon as I heard about the massacre I “twigged” that it was David’s work, simply because I had already been following his exploits, as mentioned above.
In fact I was so sure he did it, that when a neighbor of mine said to me, right after April 29, 1996, “They ought to take Martin Bryant out to a tree and hang him,” I said “He didn’t do it.” Boy, did I get a funny look from my neighbor.

Mary: If you had said it to me in 1996, I would have given you a funny look, too. I didn’t get clued in till 2005, first about 9-11, and then, thanks to links on the Internet, to many other “conspiracies.” By the way, an Australian girl named “Shizzaa” uploaded a video sympathetic to Martin, but she hasn’t checked into her Youtube channel “Opinion Hour” for the last 8 years. I worry about her.

Shane: I don’t know her. I have read some of Keith Noble’s book, Mass Murder, online. It is very thorough. He provides a lot of testimony.

Mary: I like the way Noble lashes into the legal system. Surely there is not a judge anywhere in the world who could read the details of Martin’s “court case” and not realize it was unethical. But why don’t they comment?

Shane: They might be killed.

Mary: You, too, might be killed, so thanks for speaking out. Now what is the second part of your story?

Shane: In 1996, I was living in a town near Devenport, which is where the ferry comes in. On the Monday before the massacre there was a small mention in the local paper that a troop of SAS had come across from the mainland, and would be camping in West Tasmania. That is actually why, when we were told Martin did it, I figured it was the SAS.

Mary: you realize a critic would say “The presence of the SAS in Tassie at the right time does not prove anything.”

Shane: I don’t claim it is proof. It is enough to satisfy me, and since I am getting old I want to get the word out there.

Photo of David Everett, from Channel 7 “Cancer kills notorious SAS man,” by Gary Adshead, May 16, 2013, in the West Australian.

Mary: Legally I would say “the opportunity was there” for David Everett, if he were in that group that came over.

Shane: No, “officially” he wasn’t there. As I said, he was in prison.

Mary: Do you know what crime he was convicted of? I thought in the military you get court martialled and serve time in the brig.

Shane: It was a robbery of a cinema, plus the home invasion of the cinema owner, and, later, an IGA shop. In 1991 he got caught, then escaped for 10 months, and so he was “Australia’s Most Wanted Criminal.” The media reporting of his crimes is what made me aware of his existence.

Mary: Ah, I see he’s got a page in Wikipedia. It says he was in the Air Services Regiment and that his job took him to Burma. He decided to help the oppressed Karen people there after he finished his military service. How unusual. He was teaching marksmanship to soldiers there!

Shane: Did you know that a former head of the SAS – I forget his name -- said he thought he himself was one of the world’s best shots, but that after he saw the results of Port Arthur he would rate that gunman as even better?

Mary: No I didn’t know that. As for the part about Everett becoming a volunteer to the folk of Burma, it’s more likely he was a covert agent. I’m speculating that he was “programmed” to be a helper in Burma, to do the robberies in Perth, and then, maybe, to use his shooting skills at Port Arthur.

Shane: Yes, I similarly consider David to have been probably as much a victim as Martin. Poor things. I think they might be told what to do under hypnosis.

Mary: I speculate that all manner of experts – singers, sports heroes, scientists, have been brain-enhanced. I am an amateur singer and I miss a note every now and then, but professional entertainers absolutely never fail. How is that possible?

Shane: Like you, I don’t want to blame David Everett. Anyway he is deceased. I am only interested in seeing Australia do the right thing by Martin Bryant.

Mary: Although I know I should care about Martin, I have to say that my main interest here is selfish. It makes me nervous to live in a country where the entire legal profession is mum on the subject. Any schoolchild knows the correct way for a trial to proceed. As I said in an earlier Gumshoe article, even the coroner broke the law, by not having an inquest.

Shane: The coroner said no inquest was needed because “everyone knows what happened.”

Mary: Yes, as I am ashamed to say, for the first nine years I “knew” that Martin did it.

Shane: I know a really good lawyer in Hobart; they’re not all bad.

Mary: I know two in Adelaide. Maybe we should publicize a register of all lawyers who support Martin. Then when folks are looking for an honest lawyer they can choose one of those.

Shane: OK. I am glad you’re on the case for Martin.

Mary: I got on it because Dee McLachlan and I produced a show for the Adelaide Fringe, “Puppetry of the Watermelons.” We tried to spoof some of these mysteries.

Shane: Port Arthur is not really a mystery.

Mary: OK. I agree. When a coroner refuses to look into the cause of death of 35 people, and gets away with that breach of the law, it’s no mystery. It is bare, plain, obvious: some people “high up” must be the killers. Isn’t that awful?

Shane: Yes. I will send you more information if I obtain any.

Mary: OK, thanks a mil for your info. I invite anyone to copy this Gumshoe interview and to be brave and do the right thing.

Shane: Thank you.

Postscript. After the interview, I realized that the 2008 article about David Everett was actually a review of a book he wrote called Shadow Warrior. Here is the publisher’s blurb:

“A far-from-strapping lad from Tasmania, Dave proved everybody wrong by passing the gruelling selection course to join the SAS. Unsatisfied by the regiment, he left to take up the cause of the oppressed Karen people of Burma, becoming a seasoned jungle-fighter in the process.

“On his return to Australia, Dave became every government's nightmare: a highly skilled special-forces soldier on a crime spree. On a mission to raise funds for the Karen, he kidnapped people from their homes, robbed movie theatres and plotted some of the most audacious crimes ever conceived in Australia. At the height of his infamy, every police officer in the country was on the lookout for him, while the tabloid press fuelled the public's fear of a trained killer gone crazy.

“Dave was blown up, shot at, bashed, interrogated, tortured and locked in solitary confinement, but nothing diminished his wild streak. While serving his jail sentence, he had time to reflect. In Shadow Warrior, he tells his story with unflinching honesty and larrikin wit.” [Emphasis added]

I wondered if my library has a copy of Shadow Warrior, so I looked it up on Worldcat.org. Turns out 70 libraries in Australia have it, and 37 overseas, including the library of Harvard College. The author, David Everett, died in 2013, age 51. Martin Bryant is now 48.

In the review article, sent to me by “Shane Gingkotree,” there is mention that David at age 46 was on a pension for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and possible neurological damage “like his Dad.”

When are we going to stop treating each other this way?

-- Mary Maxwell has a law degree from University of Adelaide. Her website is ProsecutionforTreason.com. TrineDay is about to publish her new book, Fraud Upon the Court: Reclaiming the Law, Joyfully.