The Sydney Hilton bombing of 1978. Children skip rope while singing in rhyme about it. Punk rock groups rehearse odes to the dastardly event in darkened warehouses, while theorists much like you and I lie awake at night in failed attempts to retrace the puzzling pieces that led to that fateful day.
It is our mission at ForTheDishwasher to come to solid and irrefutable conclusions as to the mysteries left unanswered, then put to song. Whether it be the Son of Sam/Processan connection, San Francisco's Zebra Killer, "I buried Paul...", or, God forbid, the infamous Zodiac Killer, we will not rest until we root out such mongers of evil through the microscope of music.
From members.tripod.com/~Hilton_Bombing/index.html:
On the 13 February 1978 at 1.40 am, a bomb exploded outside Sydney's Hilton hotel, killing three men and seriously injuring several others. Commonwealth heads of government were staying at the Hilton hotel at the time of the explosion.Many government leaders claimed the bomb was meant for them. The media went into a frenzy describing it as the first act of terrorism in Australia. The then Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, called out the army and a highly publicised hunt for the bombers began. The New South Wales Special Branch was assigned the task of finding those responsible.
Soon after the bombing a drifter and drug user named Richard Seary offered to help Special Branch find the bomber. He said he thought the Hare Krishna were responsible, however he was told to infiltrate the international meditation and social service group Ananda Marga. The India Prime Minister at the Hilton hotel claimed Ananda Marga tried to kill him with the bombing.
Five months later three members of Ananda Marga, Ross Dunn, Tim Anderson and Paul Alister were in jail charged with conspiracy to blow up the leader of a Neo-Nazi group leader, Robert Cameron. In court Seary also claimed they confessed to doing the Hilton Bombing. Although never charged with the Hilton bombing, they were convicted of the Cameron charge and sentenced to 16 years without parole.
Seven years later they were freed after a special Inquiry found that a serious doubt surrounded their conviction. They were given a full governmental pardon and compensation. Four years later Even Pederick claimed he had done the bombing under the influence of Tim Anderson. Pederick received a life sentence for his guilty plea while Tim Anderson successfully defeated his conviction in the appeals courts. The judges rejected Pederick's evidence as unreliable, contradicting known facts about the case.
Years into Pederick sentence, he expressed doubt about his own guilt, however he was made to serve his sentenced until his release in late 1997 (see "Pederick or Ananda Marga" link).
Many people, included policemen and army men, believe ASIO and Special Branch were the most likely to be responsible for the bombing.No one claimed responsibility for the bombing and the only ones to benefit were the security forces.
Technical Information:
Artist: The Thought Criminals
Album: Hilton Bomber 7" E.P.
Year: 1978
Audio Codec(s): mp3
Encoding: lossy
Rip: vinyl rip, split tracks
Bitrate: 320 kb/s
Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Bits per sample: CBR
Channels: 2
File size: 19 MB
Length: 0:08:16
Tracklisting:
01. 'Hilton Bomber' (2:04)
02. I Won't Pay (For Punk Records) (1:48)
03. Fun (3:05)
04. O Bleak T.V. (1:19)
Hilton Bomber 7" Megaupload Link
