1993: The Phone Call That Named Ivan Milat: a Survivor Finally Reports the Man Called Bill
Paul Onions had carried the memory for three years. In 1990 a stranger who called himself Bill picked him up hitchhiking in New South Wales, drove him toward Belanglo Forest, then produced a gun and rope. Onions fled the car and flagged down a passing driver, escaping with his life while the man he knew only as Bill disappeared back into the bush.
He returned home to England believing it was over, until news reports of bodies found in the same forest reached him. On this day in 1993, Onions rang Australian police from England and described Bill in detail, down to his name. The description matched Ivan Milat exactly, and it became the thread that unravelled one of the country's most notorious serial killings, leading investigators directly to the man responsible for the backpacker murders.
