The Fishermen.avi

Retired detective, Gordon Davie, guides us on a chilling journey into the mind of notorious child murderer James Ryan O'Neill in The Fishermen: A Journey Into The Mind Of A Killer.

O'Neill was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of two young boys near Hobart shortly after arriving in Tasmania in late 1975. He is Tasmania's longest-serving prisoner for a single offence. Twenty-seven years later Davie was curious to know the circumstances that led to a good-looking, intelligent young man spending so long in prison. He also wanted to investigate the links between a number of other possible murders and abductions that raise frightening questions about O'Neill's past activities.

Over the course of three years Davie and O'Neill built a relationship aided by their shared love of fishing and hunting. Sitting around a crude wood-heater in an iron shed at Tasmania's Hayes Prison Farm, Davie takes O'Neill through the story of his life. It is clear that James O'Neill is no ordinary prisoner. He is softly spoken, eloquent and obviously well educated.

The film also includes material about the abductions and murders of other young children, including the Beaumont children, in which O'Neill is an alleged suspect.