A Pack of Bloody Animals: The Walsh Street Murders Revisited

The Killings called 'Walsh Street' arose when police and armed robbers went to war. Both sides, convinced the others started the war, Were righteous in the letting of blood. The packs held sway and the deeds left many casualties - some celebrated but others unrecorded - and a bitter legacy. Players were driven but the strongest emotions, sweeping others up in the cruel storm they'd created. The criminal justice systems contribution was a fistful of not guilty verdicts. 'A Pack of Bloody Animals' tells the story of that war. It re-examines the evidence, much of it in the players' own voices or in previously unpublished interviews with the accused shooters made soon after their acquittal. This big story raised the toughest law-and-order questions of the decade, spills over state borders, provoked grassroots citizen action, and occupied those in the corridors of power, media and the law. Yet the questions, not resolved then, still echo. 'The verdict of the Walsh Street trial was all four not guilty. All units are warned. Keep yourselves under control' - Radio newsflash message to all State police