Who bombed the Hilton? Read Online Free PDF Page A

and penetrates his spleen. He is dead.
    Favell’s torso is blown 40 metres back down George Street.
    On the footpath, 15 metres from the truck, is a ‘portion of spinal column and scalp’. There is also‘spine attached to portion of pelvis and remnants of thighs’. For a further 90 metres north of the truck more human remains are scattered. ‘The largest part identified [is] a right leg found in the front window of the Fletcher Jones store’. 7
    Manfred Von Gries sees ‘a policeman go up in the air’. 8
    Constable Burmistriw is hit in the head with shrapnel and swallows his tongue. Sergeant Hawkins clears his airway.
    Constable Terry Griffiths has part of his foot blown off and his abdomen perforated by fragments from the blast.
    Colin Nicholls’s right leg is split from knee to pelvis.
    Seven others are injured.
    The marble hotel lobby is littered with debris and splashed with blood.
    12.44 am. The sirens start. People are wailing, sobbing, screaming. Young coppers are dazed. There are people rushing towards the Hilton to look. A senior Commonwealth policeman takes charge and shoos people away. The first ambulance arrives and they begin frantically working on Burmistriw. The area starts to fill up with uniformed and Special Branch officers, firemen and ambulancemen.
    Upstairs, Malcolm Fraser, woken by the explosion, is joined by his press secretary David Barnettand Foreign Affairs Minister Andrew Peacock. Fraser goes straight down to the main floor of the Hilton in his pyjamas and red dressing gown. He walks down to the scene of the blast. Security will not let him out onto the street, fearing another bomb. He is in a unique position. Upstairs are the leaders of 10 countries (the President of Bangladesh has not yet arrived) and a bomb has just exploded on their doorstep. He is responsible for their safety.
    Around 1 am, Fraser calls a meeting of all involved in security from Special Branch, Commonwealth Police, New South Wales police and Hilton security — all are in intense shock. 9
    The immediate task is to ensure that the Hilton itself is safe. The police search the hotel for further explosives. All remaining garbage bins are checked. The air conditioning is turned off and the ducts searched.
    The next thing is to review the security for CHOGRM, due to commence in seven hours. The 12 leaders are expected to travel by train to Bowral, a few hours from Sydney, on the second day of the conference.
    1.30 am. Suzanne Jones on the CIB switchboard receives another call from the man with the foreign accent. Again he says, ‘Put me through to Special Branch.’ She does but the caller hangs up when the phone is not answered. 10
    1.45 to 2 am. A new bomb scare. An objectwrapped in hessian is located on the fire escape. It’s a wrapped brick used to prop open the door.
    Superintendent Reginald Douglas briefs the press in the media centre. He accepts responsibility for not telling police to search the rubbish bins.
    3 am. The hotel is sealed. No one is allowed to enter. The police bomb squad continues searching for further explosives.
    3.30 am. Before Fraser retires for the remainder of the night, he asks for a full written report on the security assessment of the Hilton and the Bowral visit.
    Outside, the Scientific Branch detectives and Army experts begin to examine the wreckage. A team of up to 12 Scientific Branch detectives work through the night. 11
    In a few hours Norm Sheather will read the following eloquent précis of the crime scene compiled by Detective Sergeant RD Millington. This report will take him through that long, warm night and bring him to the moment he forms the Hilton bombing task force.
    The government Medical Officer has been contacted and all human remains will be x-rayed in an effort to locate any foreign metal substances that would assist in this inquiry.
    Numerous Police attended under the control of Supt. Douglas of Police Headquarters and