James Gargasoulas, the man who rammed down pedestrians in Melbourne’s Bourke St, was thought of as a bit “crazy” from a young age with some revealing that he displayed sociopathic tendencies from his school years.
ABC’s Four Corners profiled the man, showing his long history of criminal behaviour from his school days with problems stemming from a childhood defined by violent punishments from his single father in the opal mining town of Coober Pedy.
Gargasoulas and his brother, Angelo, did not have a happy upbringing. His brother states that Gargasoulas struggled at school, attending special education classes and getting picked on by other students. At age 14, he smuggled explosives into school to get back at those giving him a hard time. His problems, however spiralled out of control after he started smoking weed.
Speaking to the ABC, Angelo described his brother as a man capable of “extreme violence, especially towards women”.
“I’ve seen him drop a woman onto the floor, drag her by the hair, knock a woman unconscious, completely,” Angelo said.
In the hours leading to the Bourke St attack that led to the killing of six people, Angelo was also stabbed by his brother.
Questions by his own brother are raised as to why Gargasoulas had not been locked up sooner.
“It could’ve saved so many lives. It could’ve saved so much drama,” he said.
