When the body of Scott Johnson was found at the bottom of a cliff in North Head, Sydney, with his clothes folded neatly at the top of the cliff with a pen resting on top, the police easily ruled it a suicide. That was the direction in which the evidence was pointing, and there was no need to investigate any further.
Scott’s brother, Steve, could never accept that Scott would kill himself. Scott was almost finished his PhD. He had moved to Australia from America only two years prior to live with his partner. But he was also an out gay man in the 1980s, a time when homophobic violence was rampant, particularly in Sydney. Steve was determined to investigate his brother’s death, properly and thoroughly, and with the help of a dedicated journalist, the eventual backing of the NSW police, a couple of million dollars, two coronial inquests, and almost 32 years of waiting, a man named Scott Phillip White was finally arrested for the murder of Scott Johnson, on May 12, 2020.
EPISODE NOTES:
Scott Johnson was sadly one of the many gay men who were overlooked or discounted by the NSW Police in the late 1980s. It was well known that gangs of young men would rove around “gay beats” – areas where gay men would frequent for hook ups – in search of victims to bash. Many men were beaten, many were killed, but homophobia and the AIDS panic were at fever pitch. Many of gay men just felt like the police weren’t interested in protecting them.
Over the years, many inquests, investigations, and reviews have been held into the murders of gay men in Sydney. In 2005, it was found that two other young men who had died after ‘falling’ of a cliff top were victims of a gay hate crime. Scott Johnson’s former partner forwarded the story to Steve Johnson, questioning whether or not that could have been what happened to Scott, too. Neither man ever really believe Scott had killed himself. Steve pushed for a new investigation, put literally millions of dollars and years of his own life into finding out the truth about what happened to his brother. Finally, in 2020, there has been an arrest – an arrest which has prompted investigations in to four other potential gay hate crimes from around the same era. Justice has come late for Scott Johnson, and for his family and friends. But hopefully, finally, there will be some closure in this case, and the right thing will finally be done by all the victims of hate crimes who have gone without a voice for so long.
You can watch the episode of Australian Story about Scott and Steve Johnson here https://www.abc.net.au/austory/on-the-precipice/9170140?fbclid=IwAR2VBUsu7dznI--ylDQ1-i8uC-TvJN02hm0aAzxFiTwcJvaQYQY3Txn2ur0 (if you’re in Australia).
A longform article about the case can be found here https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-moment-that-inspired-steve-johnson-to-find-his-brother-s-killer-20200512-p54sbr.html?fbclid=IwAR1VKHJdQbIbeE38WnwmHqY5ZS5uYR6wy7ogrhW0gVn_o2b0Bjfh56wteHA
A timeline of Scott’s life can be found here https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-16/scott-johnson-saga-from-the-80s-to-now/8120902?nw=0&fbclid=IwAR1CVhzFlQW2Z-L6gKhkB9kkZaeMDKcBUoI2HtgokQGMMQ-WLgmjk0UAMWs
Information about the arrest can be found here https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/11/metro/cambridge-mans-search-justice-brother-slain-australia-results-arrest/?fbclid=IwAR2VBUsu7dznI--ylDQ1-i8uC-TvJN02hm0aAzxFiTwcJvaQYQY3Txn2ur0
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