The wrong suspects, the tip-off and the killers who got away

August 7, 2026 — 11:40am

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I have been reporting on crime in Melbourne since 1978 and there are just some mysteries you can’t shake – crimes where a wrong turn or a dead-end means there will never be justice, and others where the answer is on the tip of the tongue of someone whose mouth remains firmly shut.

One of the first murder scenes I attended was at a small second-hand book store in High Street, Thornbury, back in 1980.

A few years earlier I would pass it on the tram when I worked at the Croxton Park Hotel just up the road. It was so stacked with books you couldn’t see through the window – a factor that kept the killer hidden.

The victim was Maria Theresa James, 38, who on June 17 was stabbed 68 times in her bedroom. The front and rear doors were locked, and two coffee cups were on the counter suggesting she knew the killer.

Homicide detectives set up their headquarters inside the shop, and within days I was invited in for a look. It was a tiny dwelling and the blood on the carpet was still visible.

James lived a few hundred metres from the Catholic Church and had a problematic relationship with the local priest, Father Anthony Bongiorno. Not that we knew it at the time, for he arrived at the bookshop hours after the body was discovered to hold a press conference.

Many years later, a theory emerged that Bongiorno was the killer who stabbed Maria to silence her as she was about to expose him as the paedophile who molested her son.

You can pick holes in any theory but many of the stab wounds were flicks and nicks – injuries meant to inflict pain – punishment rather than attempts to swiftly silence.

The killer ran from the shop not wearing a disguise, and was nearly bowled over in High Street, which made the Bongiorno press conference bizarre because if he was the killer, he risked being identified from his photograph in the newspapers.

It doesn’t make sense to me – the wounds were slow and deliberate. The killer took his time and moved her during the attack. This was not an urgent act to silence the victim and her allegations – but to punish her.

The offender stayed in the house for an extended period, and........

© The Age