Last Podcast On The Left
Episode 619: Martin Bryant Part II - The Port Arthur Massacre
Fri, 9 May 2025
This week the boys conclude the story of the most irritating man in history with the series of events that would lead to the deadliest massacre in modern Australian history and an attack that would change the way the country looked at gun control forever. This is the story of the Port Arthur Massacre of April 28th 1996. For Live Shows, Merch, and More Visit: www.LastPodcastOnTheLeft.comKevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Last Podcast on the Left ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.
Chapter 1: What events led to the Port Arthur Massacre?
For Martin's later testimony, though, while the idea was just sort of floating around the whole time he was buying his guns, the idea began to actually crystallize after Martin became obsessed with two true crime stories that occurred in Australia and the UK, respectively, in 1996.
The first occurred in the early part of the year, when an eight-year-old boy was kidnapped in a scheme masterminded by a career criminal named Jeffrey Peter Radloff. Directing a crew of three, including himself, Radloff told his guys to abduct the boy from his home in the middle of the night and take him to a hotel.
The henchmen, however, panicked almost immediately because they believed the police were onto them, so they dumped their abductee in the middle of the street just 18 hours after the kidnapping before the ransom had a chance to go through.
See, I see this as some form of, this is a plot to a film that none of us will ever see. Yeah. This is literally Problem Child 4, where they kidnapped the most able, evil, strong-willed, and cunning child possible.
Yeah.
And then somehow there was a worse boy than Martin Bryan. And they found him. And they had to bag him and release him. They literally were like, this is actually too hot for my blood. He ruined the headquarters. He flooded my grandmother's house.
Where did he get a crossbow from? Now, Martin was obsessed with this kidnapping case. Such was his fascination that when he was arrested for the massacre, he recognized one of the detectives who'd worked the crime, and Martin treated him like a celebrity.
And what was, I'm sure, a chilling statement to the officer, Martin told him that the kidnapping had partially inspired Martin to commit his crimes because the case had given him the idea to kidnap someone after the shooting to use as a hostage.
But the incident that inspired Martin far more than the kidnapping case was a mass shooting that occurred in March of 1996 at a primary school in the Scottish town of Dunblane. There, a disgruntled 43-year-old former scoutmaster named Thomas Watt Hamilton murdered 16 children and a teacher with two 9mm pistols and two .357 revolvers, while 12 other kids and three other teachers were wounded.
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Chapter 2: What role did Martin Bryant's upbringing play in his actions?
This is all I need. This is all I need. I bring it out there, pour it on the coral. They love it. Makes it Italian.
Then he finally stopped at a third station to buy coffee and $15 worth of gas, again going on and on about the surfing.
There's a little part of me that also thinks that he was doing this because he kind of... He knows criminals make alibis.
Yeah.
He's not present. He's deeply mentally ill. I will say he also knows a lot more than he knows. But he knows the difference between right and wrong. Definitely. But it's like he's such a wackadoo cartoon character at this point that he literally is just like, If I'm going to be a big time criminal, I need to set up my alibi. And then just go and does it like it's a chapter in a video game.
Wasn't he also obsessed with pretending to know how to surf? Yes, he was. Wasn't that one of the things? He was a poser.
He always had that yellow Volvo. He always had a surfboard on the rack up top, but didn't know how to surf at all. Yeah. And he always dressed it like one of his like costumes was like a very like, I guess you would call it like a version of the surfer dude, but it would be very exaggerated. And he would like talk and like the surfer dude, like voice.
Well, that's like all the clothes in Australia.
Yeah.
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Chapter 4: What psychological factors influenced Martin Bryant?
See, Martin, even after making his earlier admission, you'll find who did it, me, he was still maintaining his innocence, floating one easily disproved alibi after another just to see if anything would stick.
At one point, Bryant even tried claiming that he was out of the country altogether on the day of the massacre, all while his lawyer patiently explained that there were hundreds of witnesses ready to testify to the contrary. But finally, lawyer John Avery told Martin that he wouldn't represent him if Martin continued to plead innocence. And eventually, Martin agreed.
It still, however, took three extremely long and tedious meetings with Bryant, totaling 20 hours before he finally admitted the truth to his lawyer, his extraordinarily patient lawyer.
He just knew because they were trying to save the 200 people they were going to need to bring in as witnesses to the trial. And at first, Martin Bryant wanted the trial because he was so excited. He said this to his lawyer. I want them to pick me out. I want them to sit on the stand. I want them to point at me and tell them it's me. I want everyone to do it. Like, he wanted that pain.
He wanted to feel the pain of all of it. Yeah. And watch them all cry and scream.
Yeah. And he wanted to have the entire thing recounted to him. Yes. Over and over again. Over and over again. Yeah. Now, he knew what he was doing at every point.
But even when John Avery thought he'd made a breakthrough with Martin, Bryant began asking if he could plead guilty to the 35 murders, but not guilty to the 23 attempted murders, because it seemed like he believed that he was in more trouble for injuring people than murdering them. But I think this is also another possibility.
ploy it's just him trying to meet the witnesses being a piece of shit annoying as fuck yeah he wanted to meet the witnesses yes yeah he wanted to meet the people that he shot he wanted someone if you want people to come and say that's the guy who shot me because that's the thing he's he was mostly focused on how much evidence was against him and avery soon came to the conclusion that bryant was angling for a trial just so he could relive the massacre in gory detail in public
In the end, though, Bryant finally pled guilty, but only after he giggled in open court while all the charges against him were read. As far as where Martin Bryant is now, he was sentenced to 35 life sentences at Risdon Prison Complex, nicknamed the Pink Palace, due to its unconventional pink cement walls and open plan cage designs. Oh, open plan. I love an open plan. Very feng shui.
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