Few stories have captivated Sydney like the mystery surrounding the death of Scott Johnson over 30 years ago. Scott’s naked body was found at the base of the cliffs at Bluefish point in Manly in December 1988. Bluefish Point is surrounded by scrubland and was a known gay beat at the time. Scott’s clothes were found neatly folded at the top of the cliff. The competing theories were that he committed suicide or he was the victim of a hate crime. Scott had previously spoken of the desire to end his life and some theorise that the pen found on top of his folded clothes was holding down a suicide note that blew away in the wind. On the other hand, stories abound of gangs of men, including soldiers from the nearby Army barracks, converging on the area and committing gay hate assaults and robberies.

There have been 3 inquests into his death. The first inquest found Mr Johnson took his own life, the second did not make findings on how he fell, the third inquest in 2017 found that he was the victim of a gay hate attack and was either pushed off the cliff or fell trying to escape his attackers. ABC’s Australian Story did a piece on this in 2013. There is a lot of evidence of police mishandling gay hate crimes committed around Sydney gay beats during the 80s and 90s.

In 2020 the reward was increased to $2M for information leading to the arrest and conviction of his killers. This led to the arrest of a suspect whose trial is currently underway. Hopefully Scott’s family will soon find peace.