Ivan Milat was evil “right to the last bone”, one of his brothers says, but most of the family don’t believe the former road worker was a serial killer.
Boris Milat is the only one of the Milat family to speak out against his brother who died on Sunday aged 74, having spent more than two decades in jail for the brutal murder and torture of seven young backpackers.
“I am definitely embarrassed to be a Milat,” Boris Milat told Nine’s 60 Minutes program.
“To me, he died a long time ago … he’s nothing but an evil killer.”
But most of Ivan Milat’s family don’t believe he did it.
“They’re denying that he killed anybody. They are saying that the police made it all up,” Boris Milat told Nine.
“I’m putting it out there on the family now, these mongrels hate my guts because I’m the one guy that speaks out … I just want the truth out there.”
Ivan Milat, who had been in prison since 1994, was diagnosed with oesophageal and stomach cancer in May and died at Long Bay Hospital on Sunday.
The former road worker was sentenced in 1996 to seven consecutive life sentences for murdering seven backpackers whose bodies were found in makeshift graves in NSW’s Belanglo State Forest in the 1990s.
But he is suspected of many more murders than the one he was convicted of – murders he denied committing despite the efforts of detectives to get him to confess.
These included the killings of at least three people whose bodies were found in three other forests between 1971 to 1991.
Former detective Clive Small, who led the NSW Police investigation into the backpacker killings, believes Ivan Milat thwarted police to keep his “power”.
“Ivan, having information that he knew others didn’t have, he saw himself as being the boss or in control of the situation,” he told 2GB radio.
“I think he believed that once he gave that information up he no longer had the power.”
Meanwhile, Ivan Milat’s sister-in-law Maureen, with whom he once had an affair, said her brother-in- law could be “charming”.
“I’d rather remember the person I knew – a nice person,” she told Nine.