Carney Vaughan

The Cooktown Grave Carney Vaughan

For orphaned twins, Danny and David Brannigan, it was said, 'growing up they were as close as two coats of paint.' If, as children, either was ever picked upon whoever did the picking would have to cope with both.

In adulthood Danny and his then boss, Jim Mitchell, were both murdered for asking the wrong questions and David, blamed for his brother's manslaughter, was gaoled but escaped.

Known only as Mac, a pseudo drunken bum and loner, David became hidden in the North Queensland fishing fleet without incident for the next ten years. But on a pub crawl in Cairns one evening he became the victim of a vicious assault and admitted - a comatose John Doe - to the Cairns Base Hospital. Upon waking David, feigning amnesia to avoid too close scrutiny by police was, nevertheless, photographed by the police rounds man from the Cairns Sentinel in an attempt to identify him. He fled the ward.

Too late!

David's photo crossed the desks of two who sought his recapture. Detective Sergeant Russell Byers wanted him back in gaol to serve his remaining term. Phillip Benson, a drug baron and engineer of Danny's murder, wanted him dead, he sent two men on a mission to kill. One a psychopath, the other a neurotic coward. Along the way, they accounted for many innocent victims in their relentless, and ultimately successful, hunt for their quarry.

David and the two killers squared off on a muddy bank in the far north of Cape York Peninsula.