Ivan Milat

In 1996, road worker Ivan Robert Marko Milat was convicted of murdering seven tourists between 1989 and 1992 in the Australian State of New South Wales. Known as the “Backpacker Murders,” the torture and execution-style killing of the young hitchhikers is still considered Australia's largest homicide investigation.

Born in 1944 to Croatian immigrant, Steven, and his much younger wife, Margaret, Ivan was the fourth of 14 children raised on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia, in working-class Liverpool. Ivan mirrored his father's strong work ethic and obsession for order, starting his working life as a heavy manual laborer at the age of 15. All the Milat boys were infamous for their love of guns, knives, and criminal exploits. Ivan, like his brothers, began his ongoing battle with ...