Carolyn Orphin

Carolyn Orphin, a 19 year old woman was raped and murdered in June 1966 at Mt Ousley, Wollongong NSW.

Cec Johnson, a former detective who had investigated the Wanda Beach murders, was given a painting in 1975 by Alan Bassett. Bassett had been jailed for murdering Carolyn Orphin, a 19 year old woman, in June 1966. Sent to prison for life, he served 29 years before being released in 1995.

The painting that Bassett gave Johnson showed an abstract landscape. Looking at the picture, however, Johnson became convinced that it showed a scene from the Wanda Beach murders that only the killer would know, as well as clues to the murders of Kruger and Dowlingkoa. He became convinced that Bassett was the Wanda Beach killer.

Other detectives were far less convinced, but Johnson wrote a book about the case. Before it could be published, however, he was knocked down and killed in an accident. The book was never published. Other detectives, while retaining professional respect for Johnson, concluded that he was wrong in his belief that Bassett was the killer.

One person he convinced, however, was crime reporter Bill Jenkings. Jenkings repeated Johnson’s claims in his ghostwritten memoirs, As Crime Goes By, devoting a whole chapter to the Wanda Beach murders. Most of the chapter was essentially a repeat of what he’d written in his earlier book Crime Reporter, but he mentioned Johnson, Bassett and the painting as well.

Bassett threatened legal action, but Jenkings died shortly afterwards, and Bassett did not go through with his threat. Since his release, Bassett has offered to give DNA to clear his name, but whether or not he has been eliminated as a suspect by DNA has yet to be publicised.