Ivan Milat's deathbed confession
IVAN Milat confessed his crimes to his mother, and at least one other family member was aware he was a killer - the little sister with whom he had a close personal relationship, it has been revealed.
As the serial killer's cancer has reportedly temporarily retreated, buying him more time, the race to get Milat to confess to the Belanglo backpacker murders and his other crimes continues.
Milat 74, was diagnosed with terminal oesophageal cancer in May and, after hospital treatment, is incarcerated at Long Bay where detectives have visited him to extract a confession, without success.
But the man who put Milat behind bars says Ivan's mother, Margaret, received her son's confession during a visit to Supermax prison just before her death.
Clive Small, author of Milat, Inside Australia's Biggest Manhunt, says Ivan's youngest brother George extracted the information from their mother Margaret.
Margaret had publicly always proclaimed Ivan's innocence. He was her favourite son among her 13 children that included nine boys, three girls and a daughter named Margaret killed in a car crash.
In 1996, days before Ivan's guilty verdict in the Belanglo murders, she insisted he was innocent along with his brothers who Ivan had blamed for his defence case.
Margaret said: "They were living here when those murders were meant to happen. I did all their washing, there was no blood. They're good boys.''
Margaret had always visited her son - known as "Mac" in the Milat family - in prison, from the early days when he was doing time in minimum security for robbery.
But the last time Margaret visited Ivan he had moved into the just opened High Risk Management Unit nicknamed Supermax in September 2001.
Serving seven life sentences for Australia's most infamous serial killings, 56-year-old Ivan's persistent attempts to escape had earned him a cell in the new "escape proof" prison.
By then, Ivan's brutal slayings and his reputation in prison as a "cold, callous psychopath … with no respect for human life" had relegated the Milat name to the annals of infamy.
Clive Small was the commanding officer of Task Force Air that charged Ivan after the bodies of seven backpackers Joanne Walters, Caroline Clarke, Deborah Everist, James Gibson, Gabor Neugebauer, Anja Habschied and Simone Schmidl were found at Belanglo.
After Margaret returned from visiting Ivan, Small says she had lunch with her youngest child who noticed something was up.
George had "looked at her" and said, "Mum, did he tell you something you didn't want to hear?"
George said Margaret replied: "He admitted he was guilty."
But the last time Margaret visited Ivan he had moved into the just opened High Risk Management Unit nicknamed Supermax in September 2001.
Serving seven life sentences for Australia's most infamous serial killings, 56-year-old Ivan's persistent attempts to escape had earned him a cell in the new "escape proof" prison.
By then, Ivan's brutal slayings and his reputation in prison as a "cold, callous psychopath … with no respect for human life" had relegated the Milat name to the annals of infamy.
Clive Small was the commanding officer of Task Force Air that charged Ivan after the bodies of seven backpackers Joanne Walters, Caroline Clarke, Deborah Everist, James Gibson, Gabor Neugebauer, Anja Habschied and Simone Schmidl were found at Belanglo.
After Margaret returned from visiting Ivan, Small says she had lunch with her youngest child who noticed something was up.
George had "looked at her" and said, "Mum, did he tell you something you didn't want to hear?"
George said Margaret replied: "He admitted he was guilty."
