Cuckoo: a true story of murder and its detection

by Andrew Rule

Story of Raymond Edmunds, a convicted rapist and double murderer who was active in Victoria, Australia from the 1960s to the mid-1980s. Edmunds was dubbed "Mr Stinky" by a newspaper editor due to his offensive body odour which was believed to have been caused by a mixture of milk, manure and chemicals from his work as a share-cropping farmer on dairy properties. Edmunds was convicted of the 1966 double murder and rape of an 18-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl. The man was shot through the head and the girl was raped and then bludgeoned to death.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

237 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Cate · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Mr Stinky" aka Ray Edwards. Non-descript, loner who managed to beat uip 2 wives, sexually interfere with his daughter, murder 2 teenagers in Shepparton & then commit multiple rapes in Melbourne's eastern-north eastern suburbs, eluding detection for 20 years. Until finally, one day he was seen masturbating in his car in a small town in New South Wales, resulting in him being arrested & fingerprinted by the NSW Police. The finger print went to the Central Fingerprints Bureau where it was matched to the print lifted from the Shepparton murder crime scene all those years ago. Edwards pleaded guilty to the 2 murders & 5 rapes/attempted rapes & was given a life sentence. Extraordinary tale of luck on the part of Edwards, the inadequacy of police investigative methods in relation to Victorian police & finger printing. Ultimately this case lead to a change in Victorian law that allowed police to take fingerprints. I found it a fascinating read.

[Kerryn Forsyth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was born and raised in Shepparton and 8 years old at the time of the murder of Gary and Abina so I grew up with the mystery and some accounts of the terrible toll it took on their family and friends.
Andrew Rule wrote a marvellous, straightforward and easy to follow account of the often convoluted details of nearly twenty years of dead-end leads, investigative bungles, innuendo and evil.
Finally solving the investigation and catching 'Mr Stinky' came down to fingerprints and keen-eyed, devoted officers despite the ridiculous disparities in the laws between our States.
I wish I had read this book years ago.