Robbery

Peter and Doug Morgan, identical twins born in regional Victoria on this day in 1953, grew up to pull off more than twenty armed robberies across the state as the so-called After Dark Bandit, a single figure police hunted for two years without ever suspecting he was two men. Wearing matching clothes and disguises, the brothers struck rural banks and betting shops in towns just twenty minutes apart, sending detectives chasing a suspect who seemed able to be in two places at once. Their habit of striking near closing time and escaping into the bush under cover of darkness earned them their nickname.

The ruse unravelled on 27 April 1979, when Peter robbed the Heathcote bank for a third time and shot veteran constable Ray Koch twice, leaving him fighting for his life. Fleeing into the bush as nearly two hundred officers swarmed the area, he resurfaced the next morning walking through Bendigo with a suitcase, telling a suspicious unarmed constable, Rick Hasty, that he was headed to Melbourne to watch the football. Inside the case Hasty found a sawn-off shotgun, stolen cash and an old man’s mask. When Morgan drew a pistol, he was unable to fire it, and as Hasty pinned him against a wall, he reportedly said, “You’ve got me, I just made you a hero.”

The investigation took another extraordinary turn when detectives searching Peter’s farm discovered a photograph of him sitting beside another man with the same face, moustache and sideburns. Detective Patrick Brear realised the truth and telephoned his partner: the elusive After Dark Bandit was not one man but two. Peter had an identical twin brother, Doug, and the pair had been using their matching appearances to outwit police for nearly two years.

⬅ See all events from 30 October