Martin Bryant was 28 years old and his body was covered in burns when psychiatrist Paul E. Mullen went in to see him, just 48 hours after the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, on April 28, 1996.
Bryant looked at him and asked, smiling: “Did you know I hold the record now?”.
There was no crying or justification. Bryant only seemed interested in the notoriety he had gained after murdering 35 people, including children; he had studied other lone shooters before acting, with the sole aim of surpassing them in the number of victims. The psychiatrist would later describe him as a man deeply concerned with his own importance and the attention he received.
But perhaps the most bewildering thing was the contradiction that had accompanied Martin for practically his entire life.
He was blond, blue-eyed, and physically attractive. At first glance, he could also appear intelligent. The problem was that from an early age, he failed to live up to any of the expectations his appearance created. Those who began talking to him quickly discovered his enormous limitations in understanding situations, relating to others, and maintaining a more complex conversation.
The tests conducted before and after the massacre placed his IQ at 66, within the lowest 1 or 2% of the population. Mullen himself believed that his appearance may have worsened his social difficulties.
At school, he had serious academic and socialization difficulties. His classmates mocked him, and he became known derisively as “Stupid Martin”. He also began displaying problematic and violent behaviors, was suspended from primary school, and eventually transferred to special education.
When he definitively left school, his prospects were not encouraging either. An assessment conducted to determine whether he could receive a disability pension stated that he could barely read and write and warned that he would probably have enormous difficulty managing without his parents’ help.
Martin seemed lost, but then Helen Harvey appeared.
The heiress to a fortune met Bryant when he was doing gardening work. She too led a solitary life, and an unconventional romantic relationship developed between them.
Bryant moved in with her and, for the first time, gained access to a life that until then had seemed completely beyond his reach.
Things took a strange turn in 1992, when she died in a car accident. Everything indicated that it had not been an accident, and Bryant was the main suspect, but due to a lack of evidence he could not be charged and ended up inheriting a substantial amount of money.
He thought that at last the money would bring him friends, and although many people approached him, it was always to gain some benefit or take advantage of him. He remained practically alone.
Martin Bryant entered the Broad Arrow Café like any tourist. He ordered food. He went back inside, pulled out a rifle, and in 90 seconds killed 20 people inside the establishment. Before that morning, he had already murdered David and Noelene Martin, the owners of the Seascape property.
When it was all over, 35 people were dead and 23 wounded. The worst massacre committed by a single man in modern Australian history.
The court-appointed psychiatrist Ian Sale found traits of conduct disorder, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorder, but it was not enough to deem him unfit to stand trial. No report found a single cause.
Bryant pleaded not guilty. He later changed his account. On November 22, 1996, he received 35 life sentences, without parole. He remains imprisoned.
Australia, by contrast, changed forever: within weeks it tightened its gun laws and bought back nearly 650.000 prohibited weapons.