First a declaration or two - Andrew Rule (the author and journalist mentioned in this book) is a good friend of mine, we were neighbours when the events in this book unfolded, in fact I was living with my young family in Andrew's farm at Floradale in 1996 while my farmhouse was being renovated.   I was also a member of Victoria Police (25385) and I know many of the members involved in the murder inquiries following the deaths of Jenny Tanner and Adele Bailey.

Until I read Ron's book this week I was certain  Dennis Tanner killed Jenny Tanner and probably Adele Bailey too.  Jenny was his sister-in-law - she was found with a bullet hole in each hand, two .22 bullets in her head and local police (probably mates I thought) made an initial suicide report without calling for detectives to attend the crime scene.  Adele Bailey was a transsexual prostitute from St Kilda, she was supporting a big heroin habit and Dennis was a young copper at shakedown-central St Kilda police station when she disappeared.   Tanner had locked Bailey up a few times and to top it all off, Bailey's body was found in a mineshaft just miles from Tanner's old farm and the place where Jenny met her maker.

Andrew Rule (who led most of the early reporting on the Tanner/Bailey inquests) is my mate and we spoke daily about these matters as Andrew was putting his reports together.   But Ron's book shows in excruciating detail how selective leaks, trial-by-media, misguided ambition (on the part of senior police), a culture of cover-up and the manipulation of facts to suit a preferred agenda can deliver grotesque results.

This book is forensic in its detail - that makes it a hard read and probably ensures that only people with a forensic interest will plough through it.   That is a terrible shame, because it's the commentators, the media experts, the Twitterati and talk-show hosts who should read it.   Twice.

Victoria Police of my generation learned a few things - "every touch leaves its trace" is one but so was the exhortation from superiors to "always keep an open mind".   Always enquire.   Be skeptical.   Look for facts.   And remember that facts are facts; as Churchill said, "the truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but there it is."

This is an important book for an innocent man, Dennis Tanner.   But the late Ron Irwin's most important contribution to the broader community is in the epilogue to his book which I'll reprint here.

It's easy to fall victim to the seductive glamour of media glow - likewise no one wants to be the focus of a negative media campaign put together by masters of the dark art.   Even Royal Commissions.

That's why anyone involved in the law/media/government and public affairs should read this book and learn the lessons that cost Denis Tanner so dearly.

Vale Ron Irwin.   Rest in Peace.

http://www.mmg.com.au/local-news/benalla/ron-is-remembered-1.47910