Leone Delaney

In early 2013, some researcher going by the name of Leone Delaney set up the following website: http://julianknight-hoddlestreet.ca   By late 2017 that website had become defunct.  The following extracts are what we have gleamed from that website, which Julian Knight (the subject of the website) has referred us to.

We surmise that the author (she/he) was/is a Melbournian, and felt compelled in 2013 at the age of 42, some 26 years after stating on the website of being aged 16 in 1987 at the time of the Hoddle Street shooting spree; to research and write about the incident and to provide an amateur online study about Julian Knight.

For perhaps concerns about Australian website controls and to maintain publishing independence and perhaps anonymity, the website domain was created in distant Canada.  We doubt whether its author, claiming to be Leone Delaney was in fact Canadian.  Rather, we suspect being an Australian of Melbourne, and probably still is.    By 2017, the website had become defunct, perhaps since she/he had got the matter off her/his chest.  Was Leone Delaney indeed Leon Delaney?  The aged appears consistent at least.

Anyway, for the record we reproduce her/his website below with the consent of the targeted subject, Mr Julian Knight.  We found some flaws with the website.

 

About This Site

‘This site has been created to operate as a complimentary information source to a book I am in the process of writing. My book is about my journey to understand the crime of mass murder. My interest in this subject developed as a result of living in Melbourne Australia during the time the Hoddle Street massacre occurred in 1987.  I was 16 and shocked by the breaking news on the evening of 9th August 1987.

In the days that followed we learned that the perpetrator was a 19 year old discharged army cadet who went on a killing spree that seemingly had no rhyme or reason. During the months leading up to Julian’s sentencing I spent my time at the State library researching the information that flowed from the media.

Shortly after Julian was sentenced in November 1988 I wrote a letter to him indicating that my attempts to understand his actions were difficult and impeded by my limited knowledge, mostly fed by media accounts.

This began a mutual correspondence that still exists today. I have been in contact with Julian via mail, telephone and prison visits for the last 21 years. Over this time I have not only gained extensive knowledge of the crime of mass murder from an academic perspective, I have learnt much about myself and my ability to apply tolerance and understanding in adverse personal circumstances.

As a victim of violent crime since knowing Julian personally, I can honestly say that such an event in your life forever alters it. There is something lost when a person violates your rights and your sense of who you are. Can you ever get back what you had? I say no. You can’t go back because you are not the same person. You are changed. In my experience, it is what you do with the path your life has taken that will determine who you become, not the act that was committed against you.

It is my goal and my hope that, by writing and publishing my book “The Knight That Changed Our Lives” that I can share what I have learned personally and professionally about Julian and the crime of mass murder.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

URL:                http://julianknight-hoddlestreet.ca/about-site-author.html    (Editor:  Please note that is website link has been defunct since 2017)

This website was subsequently reported in Melbourne’s The Age newspaper which clained it as a “prank or hoax”… http://www.theage.com.au/national/hoddle-street-killers-chilling-web-prank-20080814-3vbv.html

The author of this website wishes to advise viewers that this site is not a ‘hoax’ or a ‘prank’ and was not instigated by the subject of the site, Julian Knight.

The site was created by myself and my husband as a ‘teaser’ for a book I am writing. The purpose of the current content on this site is to be a ‘filler’. As the project progresses, the site will evolve to contain chapter summaries, a public forum and research materials relating to the crime of mass murder in general and to the Hoddle Street massacre specifically.

This is a project that I have invested many years in. It was born as a result of being denied by the Victorian Office of the Correctional Services Commissioner the ability to conduct research on this case as part of a Masters program I was enrolled in during 1999-2002 in Melbourne.

Apparently it is the belief of the OCSC that my research with a surviving mass murderer has no benefit and can shed no light on the nature of this crime or what we as a society can do to prevent such tragedies.

Since failing to gain approval in 2001, there have been at least 17 similar incidents of mass murder worldwide, one of the most recent being the Virginia Tech mass murder in 2007 where Cho Seung-hui took the lives of 32 people.

So many lives are directly and indirectly impacted by the act of mass murder. I took it upon myself, at age 17, to write to Julian Knight in 1988 and inquire as to why this happened. I have been in contact with Julian for the last 20 years, barring a period of 3 years in the 1990’s when Julian refused contact with me as a result of another person’s book being written about him without his consent, and a brief communication ban placed on me by the Office of Corrections until I agreed to discontinue any academic research efforts.

I make no apologies for my association with Julian Knight. My motivation for pursuing this research has not wavered from the night I heard the news about this tragedy the same as everyone else. This is my attempt to understand these crimes. I have never once been asked by Julian to do anything to further his public image good or bad. He has never interfered with my research and has only commented when asked.

I haven’t done anything wrong. I have never committed a crime and the only contact I have had with the criminal justice system has been as a victim of violent crime. It saddens me that people can try to make me feel guilty, heartless or crazy because I am trying to gain insight into the nature of the crime of mass murder.

I expect to receive negative responses to the project I have undertaken. I welcome constructive criticism. I do not expect to be threatened, harassed or manipulated as a result of this project (All of which I have been subjected to so far).

If you would like to make comments or ask questions please feel free to use the comment section of this site. A public forum is due to be added to this site in the near future.’

Other information on this Canadia-based research website was grouped under the following two content lists.  The website was a work in progress, but seems to have been discontinued and then removed from the Internet in May 2017.

The contents of this Main Menu on the website has been transferred to the following webpages (click hyperlinks below):

The contents of this ‘Remorse‘ webpage on the website has been transferred to the following respective webpages:

References:

[1]  ‘Julian Knight – The Hoddle St Massacre‘, website, http://www.julianknight-hoddlestreet.ca/ (Canada), (website defunct since May 2017)

 

 

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