Jailed Sydney businessman reveals what it was like to share a cell with notorious killer John Travers - SkyNews.com
A Sydney high-flyer, whose life spun off the rails, has given a haunting insight into the mind of one of Australia’s must notorious killers.
A high-flying businessman — whose life spiralled out of control — has given a chilling insight into the mind of one of Australia’s must notorious killers.
After a “blessed” upbringing in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, 53-year-old Greg Fisher worked his way up through the ranks of the corporate world until the share price of his company crashed and he fell into an expensive ice addiction.
He found out he was under investigation for a corporate offence and turned to selling cocaine, ecstasy and ice to fund his habit, until he was arrested, charged and locked up for seven years and 10 months for fraud and dealing.
It wasn’t long after Mr Fisher was incarcerated in 2005 he ended up sharing a cell with an inmate whose horrific crimes stunned Australia.
Mr Fisher didn’t know it, but the man on the top bunk of his Lithgow jail cell was John Travers, one of the five men who raped and murdered Sydney nurse Anita Cobby in 1986.
John Travers was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Anita Cobby in 1986
“I hadn’t put two and two together,” he told news.com.au. “I think I was numb anyway from the first six months I was in jail.”
Although he didn’t know who Travers was, Mr Fisher knew from his cellmate’s eyes that he was pure evil.
“The thing that struck me immediately was his eyes,” he said. “He had eyes like I’d never seen before. Before I spoke to him, it was like I could see through them to the back of his head.
“There was no reflection. There was no emotion. There was no soul, and I’m not a spiritual-type person at all. It was absolutely like a physical thing that I could see to the back of his head. He simply wasn’t normal.”
It didn’t take Mr Fisher long to find out who he was sharing his room with, and his heart sank when he did.
Another inmate pulled him over to one side, explained who his cellmate was and told him not to worry.
“I immediately worried and called my lawyer and the governor,” he said. “The governor came to see me and said: ‘Look, he’s a model prisoner, and it’s up to you. I can move you if you want’.”
Greg Fisher will be speaking about remorse on SBS’s Insight tonight
However, Mr Fisher’s six months behind bars had taught him some of the tough rules of prison politics, and he decided he wouldn’t move because it might put him “on show” — meaning he would be targeted and beaten by other inmates.
“It was confronting to say the least because John’s never to be released, so that’s his home,” he said. “I was given the ground rules by him straight away. I had to take the top bunk and everything had to be kept meticulously tidy.
“I accepted the rules, therefore we got on well. And you’re locked in there for a long time, often for days on end when the jail’s short-staffed, so you get to know your cellmate very well.”
The pair started to talk about their crimes.
Travers, along with brothers Michael, Gary and Les Murphy and Michael Murdoch, spotted Ms Cobby on the evening of February 2, 1986 as she was walking home.
The registered nurse had been out for dinner with friends and alighted at Blacktown railway station around 10pm.
The men, who spotted her from the car they were travelling in, dragged Ms Cobby into the vehicle and drove 5km to a rural farm in Prospect.
There they took turns raping the 26-year-old before Travers slit her throat and left her to die.
Two days later, a farmer found Ms Cobby’s naked body face down in the Prospect paddock.
She had been beaten, repeatedly raped and tortured — her fingers broken and bones dislocated.
Anita Cobby’s murder stunned Australia in 1986.
Mr Fisher — who’d begun to hate himself for what he’d done in his life — was stunned by how the infamous killer saw his crimes.
“He kept saying he wanted to get a group of law students and a professor to take him on as a project to get him released,” he said.
Intrigued, Mr Fisher asked whether he would like to say sorry to Ms Cobby’s family, but Travers was defiant in his refusal, saying he’d already been punished enough in prison.
“He said it was all about his future now, and there was absolutely no indication of remorse,” Mr Fisher said. “He was the victim now, in his eyes, because he’d been there too long.”
Mr Fisher said he was fascinated by the killer’s outlook, but there was no point trying to change his mind.
“Arguing with someone like that is simply not an option,” he said. “His constant response, when asked about his crimes, was ‘that wasn’t me’.”
It was as if, in his mind, Travers had distanced himself from the person who’d killed Ms Cobby.
The pair passed the days away by playing cards and watching TV, but Mr Fisher said it was clear his cellmate was a loner.
Five men who murdered Anita Cobby in 1986. From left: John Travers, Michael Murphy, Leslie Murphy, Gary Murphy and Michael Murdoch
Later in his stint behind bars, at Cooma jail, Mr Fisher acted as a peer support inmate for another notorious killer, Matthew Elliott.
He was serving life for the 1988 rape and murder of 20-year-old Janine Balding — who was kidnapped from Sutherland train station by a group of homeless men and youths.
She was taken to Minchinbury — a small suburb in western Sydney — where she was raped and drowned in a dam.
Mr Fisher said Elliott “truly believed that he should die”, not only because he didn’t want to be in prison anymore but because his crimes were “so hideous” he couldn’t live with what he did.
The dramatically different outlooks of the two killers reshaped the way Mr Fisher saw the justice system.
“Before I went to jail I was opposed to the death penalty, not because it’s too cruel, but it’s too kind,” he said. “When I went to jail that view was reinforced because when you’re never to be released, that’s taking away the only thing you ever had and that’s hope.
Matthew Elliott was found guilty of the 1989 murder of Janine Balding.
“If you don’t have hope, you don’t have anything. Death is a much better option for them because it’s over and it’s finished.”
However, in terms of his own journey, Mr Fisher believes his time behind bars allowed him to reboot physically and mentally from the ice addiction that ruined his life and the lives of those he loved.
It spurred him to use his skills to make a difference, and he is now CEO of a charity called, Thread Together, that provides clothing and shoes for the underprivileged.
Mr Fisher will share some of his prison experiences in a discussion on how the law handles remorse in an episode of SBS’s Insight, which airs tonight.
Greg Fisher features on Insight’s episode titled ‘Remorse’, which will air tonight on SBS at 8.30pm and later be available on SBS On Demand