PETER KEOGH -

MURDERER OF VICKI CLEARY - COMMITS SUICIDE - 2001

Peter Keogh, covered in blood, in the aftermath of Vicki's murder. How could judge George Hampel give him less than four years in gaol?

Mystery lives as killer dies

By PHILIP CULLEN

MELBOURNE HERALD SUN -27 June 2001

 

A Key suspect in one of Melbourne's most chilling murder mysteries is dead. Peter Raymond Keogh, a sadistic serial criminal who killed the sister of former politician and football star Phil Cleary in 1987, was interviewed over the 1980 murder of Thornbury bookshop owner Maria James. Keogh is believed to have killed himself in Northcote on Monday. He was also the prime suspect for an arson attack this year on the home of a former partner, who claimed Keogh stalked and harassed her.

 

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PUBLIC ENEMY

THE LIFE AND VIOLENT CRIMES OF PETER KEOGH

BY JOHN SILVESTER

The Melbourne Sunday Age

August 29 - 2001

There was something about Peter Keogh that men didn't like. Perhaps it was the way his eyes darted about - never returning a gaze. Perhaps it was the nervous habit of shifting his weight from one foot to the other, as if deciding whether to attack or run. There was something about Peter Keogh that men didn't like. Perhaps it was the way his eyes darted about - never returning a gaze. Perhaps it was the nervous habit of shifting his weight from one foot to the other, as if deciding whether to attack or run. Or perhaps it was the way he would grind his teeth, as though he was only one misunderstanding away from exploding into violence. Even bad men didn't like him.

When he was in jail, he needed protection from fellow criminals who could see beyond the tough-guy tattoos to the inherent weakness beneath. He needed a billiard cue, a broken glass or a knife to express his anger and his targets were usually women - or sometimes little girls. But some women could not see that side until it was too late. Not the attractive bar worker, the single mother, the impressionable teenager, or the younger sister of a star footballer who would later enter federal politics. Keogh was short, shifty and not too smart. He was unskilled - a drifter - the type many fathers would describe as a "no hoper".

But the Cleary family didn't like to make judgments, although they privately hoped Vicki would grow out of her interest in the older man with a past and no future. They were confident she would ultimately realise the man, 13 years her senior, was a waste of time and effort.

 

Vicki Cleary poses for her first day of school with her big brother, Phil, in February 1967.

Her elder brother, Phil, VFA footballer, political activist, media identity and future federal MP, knew that expressing doubts about Vicki's partner would be useless. He was confident she would conclude the relationship was not long term. Better, he thought, to remain silent. He was not to know the man he tried to tolerate for the sake of his sister was dangerous, obsessive and a potential killer. "People knew things about him that they did not divulge to us," he says. "I just wish I had known. He was not just a knockabout bloke with a bit of a past.

TO BE CONTINUED........

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