Author(s): James Phelps

True Crime

BEHIND THE WALLS OF GOULBURN JAILAn unprecedented spate of murders in the 1990s - seven in just three years - earned Goulburn Jail the ominous name of 'The Killing Fields?. Inmates who were sentenced or transferred to the 130-year-old towering sandstone menace declared they had been given a death sentence. Gang alliances, power plays, contracted hits, the ice trade, the colour of your skin - even mistaken identity - any number of things could seal your fate. The worst race war in the history of Australian prisons saw several groups - Aboriginal, Lebanese, Asian, Islander and Anglo - wage a vicious and uncontrollable battle for power. Every day there were stabbings. Every day there were bashings. And then there was murder A controversial policy known as 'racial clustering? might have put an end to the Killing Fields, but soon something far scarier would arise, something called Supermax . . . Within the stark white walls, clinical halls and solitary confinement, it is where Australia?s most evil men are locked away. It is home to serial killer Ivan Milat; the 'Terror Five?, militants who plotted attacks across Sydney in 2005; Brothers 4 Life founder Bassam Hamzy and gang rapist Bilal Skaf, to name a few.Murderers, terrorists, serial killers, gangsters and rapists - soon you will meet them all inside Australia?s most murderous prison.