Cobby murder confession: 'They said do it ... so I cut her'
The public can now hear for the first time a secret tape which snared the gang of killers and rapists responsible for one of the most shocking crimes in Australia's history.
A recording by a woman known only as Miss X caught ringleader John Travers confessing what he and four others had done to nurse Anita Cobby in Sydney. It was a savage crime that caused an almost unprecedented outrage around the nation.
Travers confession was heard during his trial three decades ago, but a second tape has never surfaced until now.
“We were all drunk and she’d f...ing seen all of us,” Travers said.
“ ... I said she’s got to be done and they said ‘do your thing’.
“So I just cut her.”
Now, 30 years later, a second recording has come to light, revealing Miss X had also convinced a second rapist, Michael Murdoch, to confess.
The confessions led to Travers, Murdoch, Michael, Gary and Les Murphy being sentenced to spend the rest of their lives behind bars over the brutal rape and murder.
The second tape had never been heard before tonight's 7 News special investigation, Anita, by investigative journalist Steve Pennells.
Miss X had been married to Travers uncle and quickly began to suspect the 18-year-old was involved in Anita's murder after the public became aware of Anita's savage death.
She approached police. They gave her a secret recording device. Travers named everyone involved. Shortly afterwards, Murdoch also confessed for Miss X's microphone.
Twenty-six days after Anita died, all five men were in custody.
Anita
The crime that shocked Australia like few, if any, have before or since.
Anita Cobby was walking home from work 30 years ago after getting off a train at Blacktown in Sydney when a gang of men grabbed her.
Days later the details of the shocking crime that followed started to become clear. A hunt for the men who committed the crime would commence in earnest.
The 26-year-old nurse had been savagely raped and beaten for hours. One of her attackers slit her throat so badly she was almost decapitated.
Now, three decades later, her husband, witnesses and her loved ones have spoken of the savage crime which outraged not just Sydney, but the entire nation.
John Cobby, speaking to 7 News investigative reporter Steve Pennells for the special report Anita, said the 'amazingly beautiful' woman had quickly become a major part of his life almost immediately after they met.
Anita and John had to start a family together.
Missing
But after marrying and moving to Coffs Harbour to start their married lives, the relationship hit what John called a 'hiccup'. Anita moved back home to Blacktown with her family.
On a Sunday, not long afterwards, Anita vanished after leaving work at a Sydney hospital.
John Cobby said the separation led him to blame himself for Anita's death ever since. He became a suspect early in the investigation.
At one stage, he said he even confessed to the crime. His life spiralled out of control.
He said he wanted to die. He tried heroin in the hope that he might overdose rather than live without Anita.
But John Cobby was not responsible for her death. Five men, led by a violent young criminal called John Travers were.
The crime that stunned Australia
A gang of 'loser thugs' had dragged her into a stolen car after spotting her walking home from the train station at Blacktown.
Locals heard her screams. A 16-year-old raced outside to see what was happening. He saw a car with its lights turned off driving down Newton Road and the face of John Travers looking back at him.
With a neighbour, they gave chase trying to find the car but to no avail.
Inside the car, Travers, Michael, Gary and Les Murphy and Michael Murdoch stripped Anita naked. In the hours that followed they stole her money, tortured her and raped her.
She was discovered several days later, face down and naked. Her eyes were still open. Her throat was slashed.
There were signs she had fought for her life. The terror and agony of the atrocity, according to the police called to the scene, must have lasted hours.
The men who subjected the young woman to such a brutal end had even stolen her money and used it to buy petrol for their car on their way to the field where they would kill her.
The hunt
A search of the crime scene failed to turn up any clues. Police feared the men could strike again.
The race to capture them was urgent.
Police were working 18 to 19 hours per day but there were no suspects.
Then radio host John Laws obtained a leaked copy of Anita's autopsy report and read aloud the details of Anita's death.
Police and family were upset but the details made the public furious.
After a police re-enactment of Anita's walk home shored up the timelines of the crime, witnesses came forward reporting seeing a woman being dragged into a HJ Holden.
A similar car had been reported earlier. The names Travers and Murdoch were mentioned in connection to the theft.
Police swooped on the pair, catching them in bed together in the early hours of the morning. Les Murphy was also arrested over the car theft.
Police knew they had their men. They just didn't have the evidence to link them to the murder.
The killers
The men responsible came from poor and troubled backgrounds. Travers was given up by his mother to state care after becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol in his early teens.
They were characterised by those that knew them as 'unintelligent', petty or violent criminals, 'losers and thugs'.
Travers, despite his young age, was already wanted for raping a boy while holding a knife to his throat in Western Australia just weeks before Anita Cobby's death.
Others in the gang were known to steal cars and commit other violent crimes. One was an armed robber who had previously escaped from jail.
The police who had dealt with them in the past knew something much more sinister would eventually happen by their hands.
The aftermath
The public anger was such that a debate over the re-introduction of the death penalty ensued.
A police officer, during the course of the trial, had admitted stepping on one of the men's heads during his arrest. Those in court all but applauded his matter of fact confession to that act.
Even today, John Cobby says he 'would love to kill them.'
"It'd be gold. It'd be pure gold," he told Steve Pennells.
When the five men were sentenced never to be released, 'the roof blew off the court'.
The public had the result it wanted. The depraved killers would never walk free again.
But for those who loved Anita Cobby, the pain of what happened in Blacktown and Prospect all those years ago will never fade.
As speculation now emerges that, perhaps, the killers may one day walk free, John Cobby is resolute in how he would react if that were to happen.
"I'd do what I should have done in the first place," he said. "Kill them all".
