Kelly, Brenton Reginald

Born deaf. Married a born-deaf woman, Elizabeth May, about 1970, and they had a son, Mark. The marriage ran onto the rocks, and Elizabeth separated from Brenton, moving to live with her parents and taking the young boy with her. Brenton felt that her hearing parents were trying to drive a wedge between him and his wife and keep their son from him. On May 4, 1976, he obtained a gun, went to their house, murdered Elizabeth and her parents, kidnapped Mark, and went on the run in Elizabeth's stolen car. Later, he transferred to a train in the Outback, where a police manhunt eventually caught him. In an August 1976 trial, Brenton was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisionment, then after serving time of nearly 20 years, he was released on parole in 1993.