PUBLISHER'S NOTE: In the roughly 10 years since I began publishing The Charles Smith Blog some of the issues I have explored - as well as some of the cases I have been following - have become the subject matter of books. This prompted me recently - as I searched anxiously for ways of keeping me occupied during the languid summer hours - other than sitting on the patio, drinking a cool glass of white wine, and reading the latest Steven King - it occurred to me that a book review series based in my previous posts from the outset of the Blog would be just what the pathologist ordered. I would invite my readers to offer me their own suggestions for inclusion by email to hlevy15@gmail.com. Have a great summer.
Harold Levy: Publisher. The Charles Smith Blog.
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: "Joe Karam is a fascinating man, who, as the following Wikipedia entry shows gave unqualified support- at enormous personal cost to David Bain in his battles for exoneration and compensation. His career shows an extraordinary path from rugby football player, to successful businessman, to seeker of justice for David Bain. As the entry notes: "Based on his extensive research over many years, Karam wrote four books about David Bain's case. The first was "David and Goliath: the Bain family murders" published in 1997. Karam made accusations against two police officers in David and Goliath as a result of which he was sued for defamation. (He won that case as well.) The book created a media furore. Karam appeared regularly on Holmes and 'did a thousand other media interviews'.[1] The second book, "Bain and Beyond" was published in 2000 and the third, "Innocent!: seven critical flaws in the conviction of David Bain" came out in 2001. The fourth book "Trial By Ambush: The Prosecutions Of David Bain" was released in 2012. In this book, Karam accuses Robin Bain of the murders of his wife and three of their children before shooting himself."
Wikipedia entry: "Joseph Francis "Joe" Karam (born 21 November 1951) is a former New Zealand representative rugby footballer who played for the All Blacks. After retiring from rugby, he became a businessman. However, he is most notable for waging a successful 15-year campaign to have David Bain's convictions for murder overturned, and a subsequent campaign seeking compensation for him that has not yet been resolved. Background Karam was born in Taumarunui to a Lebanese father and Irish mother. He grew up on the family farm near Raurimu and attended St. Patrick's College, Silverstream.[1]
Rugby union career: A first XV player at Saint Patrick's, Karam scored 138 of the schools 239 points during the 1967 season.[2] That year he was a North Island secondary schoolboys representative.[3] He spent the 1971 season with Horowhenua. He was selected for Wellington's South Island tour in 1972, becoming the youngest-ever player picked to represent Wellington.[citation needed] An extremely hard trainer at a club level, Karam was named as an All Black for the 1972–73 tour of the British Isles and France. He played 10 test matches for the All Blacks between 1972 and 1975.[3] Rugby league career: Karam switched codes in 1975, signing a three-year deal with the Glenora Bears in the Auckland Rugby League competition $20,000 a year. Karam was horrified that players on the UK tour of 1971 got a pound a day as their living allowance while rugby officials "were flying around the world drinking champagne like it was going out of fashion". For players of "modest employment" slogging it out on the field for their country it meant that "their wife and children were starving back home".[1] He scored 160 points for the Bears in 1976, winning the Painter Rosebowl Trophy as top point scorer. He won the trophy again in 1977. Karam was selected for Auckland almost immediately, playing in six games in 1976 and scoring 53 points. This including playing in Auckland's 17–7 defeat of New South Wales City.[4] He played in one game for Auckland in 1977, kicking six goals. By the final year of his contract, Karam couldn't break into the Glenora side, being succeeded by Warwick Freeman. He reportedly found the tackling work rate to be far more demanding than in rugby union.[5]
Support for David Bain: Main article: Bain family murders: Karam is known for his many years of unqualified support for David Bain, who was convicted in 1995 of murdering all five members of his family. Karam's research and sustained pressure on the justice system culminated in an appeal to the Privy Council in Britain in May 2007, at which Bain's conviction was overturned. The Privy Council found there had been a substantial miscarriage of justice, quashed his convictions and ordered a retrial. After his convictions were quashed, Karam allowed Bain to stay at his house in the Waikato on bail prior to the retrial two years later. Bain stayed for about three months before moving to Auckland.[6] The new trial was held in 2009 and Bain was found not guilty on all five charges.[7] Without Karam's support, it is unlikely there would ever have been a retrial. His interest in the case began in 1996, when he read a newspaper article about "an old music teacher and a bunch of young, long-haired university students" trying to raise money for Bain's appeal by selling jam.[8] He went and gave them money. He began to study the evidence presented at the original trial and began to feel something was wrong with the case.[9] He went to visit Bain in prison in Christchurch and subsequently visited him over 200 times.[9] According to media commentator Paul Holmes, Karam was appalled at the way the family, the Police and the Fire Service arranged to burn the Bain house down.[10]
Based on his extensive research over many years, Karam wrote four books about David Bain's case. The first was "David and Goliath: the Bain family murders" published in 1997. Karam made accusations against two police officers in David and Goliath as a result of which he was sued for defamation. (He won that case as well.) The book created a media furore. Karam appeared regularly on Holmes and 'did a thousand other media interviews'.[1] The second book, "Bain and Beyond" was published in 2000 and the third, "Innocent!: seven critical flaws in the conviction of David Bain" came out in 2001. The fourth book "Trial By Ambush: The Prosecutions Of David Bain" was released in 2012. In this book, Karam accuses Robin Bain of the murders of his wife and three of their children before shooting himself.[11] Karam was paid $424,480 by Legal Services for his legal work in support of David Bain. Commissioner Nigel Fyfe approved the payment describing Karam's "unique circumstances", and said his legal assistance to Bain's defence was "exceptional" and the "equivalent to a non-qualified legal executive..."[12]
The personal cost; While supporting Bain, Karam spent his "considerable fortune" on the case.[13] He'd become wealthy in various business ventures including hamburger bars and country pubs and the country's first major independent vending machine company. He had more than 20 investment properties, a launch and racehorses and lived on a 10-acre property in Clevedon. Karam says the crusade cost him millions and his friends estimated his personal losses could be as much as $4 million in terms of his time, loss of earnings and costs of legal and forensic experts.[14] He spent it in his pursuit of the case and ended up living in 15 to 20 different rental houses over the past decade while trying to prove Bain's innocence.[13] He received some compensation prior to the retrial by working as a researcher and investigator for Bain's legal team, where he was paid up to $95 an hour.[9][13] Karam acknowledges that fighting the case has taken its toll on him over the years. Interviewed in the New Zealand Herald in 2007 under the headline Joe Karam: Freedom Fighter, he said, "For many years, the mainstream media, judiciary, and politicians just thought of me as a raving redneck who'd lost the plot."[13] He stopped socialising with rich-list friends because people would inevitably "buttonhole him about the case" and he felt compelled to put them straight – "destroying the dinner party" in the process. He said that "every morning for two years, he would wake up, sink to the edge of the bed and cry".[1] When asked what motivated him to keep going, he said it was because of his "innate hatred of unfairness and urge to help those less fortunate".[13]
Defamation cases: Karam also took legal action to defend himself in pursuit of the case. In addition to being sued for defamation by two police officers, he took on the media with litigation against TVNZ, North and South magazine and the New Zealand Herald.[13] He sued journalist Rosemary McLeod over an article that cast doubt on his motives for supporting Bain. They settled out of court.[1] In 2011 he sued Trade Me for defamation over 349 posts on the website's public message boards about Bain.[15]In 2012, Karam began legal proceedings against Kent Parker and Victor Purkiss for defamation.[16] Parker and Purkiss were opposed to David Bain receiving compensation and made numerous derogatory comments about Karam on a number of websites.[17] In April 2014, Justice Patricia Courtney identified about 50 defamatory statements published on Facebook and on a private website by Parker and Purkiss, and awarded Karam $535,000. Parker admitted the defamation under cross-examination and was ordered to pay $350,500. Purkiss, who made defamatory posts on Facebook and the website Counterspin, was ordered to pay $184,500.[18]The judgement can be found here.[19] Karam was also awarded $64,774 in costs, and $11,350 disbursements. Journalist Jock Anderson said it was unlikely Karam would ever receive any of the money because Purkiss left the country and Parker was bankrupt.[12] Karam also sued Fairfax NZ because articles on stuff.co.nz drew attention to the websites that contained the defamatory comments by Parker and Purkiss, but Fairfax settled out of court. Karam said the public campaign against his integrity had been the "worst four years" of his life.[20]
The Innocence Project: Karam believes the fact that it took 13 years to get Bain's conviction overturned shows how flawed the New Zealand justice system is. In 2007 he said he planned to set up an organisation similar to the Innocence Project in the US, where those with skills and resources offer their help pro bono, like a support club for single crusaders such as himself, Keith Hunter and Mike Kalaugher (the Scott Watson campaigners).[1] An attempt to establish a New Zealand Innocence Project was made in 2009 by a group of lawyers concerned about the life sentence given to Alan Hall.[21] In 2013, the project was re-launched out of the University of Otago, and has now been officially accepted as a branch of the Global Innocence network, becoming the world’s 63rd innocence project.[22] Following the Privy Council decision to overturn the murder convictions of Mark Lundy, Karam said the Lundy case shows again that "an independent body is needed to review potential miscarriages of justice". He says it is too hard for someone to fight their case from prison when the Governor General and the police effectively determine whether the original conviction is accurate.[23] Mark Lundy was convicted at his retrial in 2015.[24]
Publications:
- Joe Karam: David and Goliath: the Bain family murders (Auckland: Reed, 1997) ISBN 0-7900-0564-6
- Joe Karam: Bain and Beyond (Auckland: Reed, 2000) ISBN 0-7900-0747-9
- Joe Karam: Innocent!: seven critical flaws in the wrongful conviction of David Bain (2001) (Auckland: Pohutakawa Productions, 2001) ISBN 0-473-07874-0
- Joe Karam: Trial By Ambush: The Prosecutions Of David Bain (Harper Collins) ISBN 9781869508340
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Karam
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: (From "One Angry Man.") "His bookshelves look like a recommended reading list for Social Justice Crusaders 101: Beyond Reasonable Doubt by David Yallop, In the Name of the Law by David Rose, and everything ever written by John Grisham. His favourite movie? 12 Angry Men. They are fuel for his fire: he relies on past victories to give him hope. It is important to Karam that people believe in what they do: he believes in the sanctity of a fair trial."
See also a fascinating profile of Joe Karam - One Angry Man - by Amanda Spratt, published by The New Zealand Listener on April 21, 2018, at the link below; Sub-Heading: "Winning is everything for Joe Karam, long-time campaigner for the release of convicted murderer David Bain. But as he awaits the Privy Council decision on the case, which could come at any time, he feels that he is also being judged." He had it all. A loving family, successful businesses and an All Black jersey in a wardrobe full of Italian style. His kids went to Auckland's King's College, he drove big cars, he could make a grand in an afternoon. In the champagne days of the 90s, Joseph Francis Karam was a risk-taking millionaire with a generous disposition and a talent for giving things a good spit and polish. He owned 25 investment properties and a winning racehorse. Every year he'd hire a marquee at the races for friends and family. With a galloping enthusiasm for life and an entertaining line in braggadocio, Karam was a middle-aged colt with a nose for making money and an appreciative eye for the fillies. Ten years down the track, the friends and fortune have gone. The woman he loved left him, he sold his home and he doesn't bother going to dinner parties any more, sick of them ending in an argument and a walk-out. And what few people know is that every morning for two years, Joe Karam, former All Black, successful entrepreneur and self-appointed crusader for justice, would wake up, sink to the edge of the bed and cry. "I had to get up and fight the battle all over again by myself ... None of my friends have stuck by me. None ... One of the hardest things has been the loneliness. I'm the only bugger left. No one's there to pat you on the back." Depending on the opinions of five law lords at the Privy Council, the fight may soon be over for both convicted mass murderer David Bain and the man who has spent the past 11 years campaigning for his release. Karam's public credibility has become so fused to his crusade for Bain's release that in a way the court will also be passing judgment on him. Karam lives in Te Kauwhata, an up-and-coming settlement off the Auckland-Hamilton highway. He got the brick house - a deceased estate - for a bargain last year. Brian, the widower owner who died at 91, hadn't touched a thing since the 1960s, leaving Karam with tearaway gardens, exhausted chocolate-box wallpaper and a lot of potential. And one ageing peacock - that he calls Brian - desperately holding on to his last shaky tail feather. The paper trail from the Bain case is hidden in the garage in several floor-to-ceiling shelving units. If Karam does not know off the top of his head how many pairs of trainers Bain owned, he knows exactly what page to find it on. For a man who says he's not in too deep, it's a curious skill to boast about. Karam well remembers the day in 1996 when he read the newspaper article about "an old music teacher and a bunch of young, long-haired university students" trying to raise money for Bain's appeal by selling jam. He speaks in a tone that could be exasperation from telling it so many times or frustration at a system that makes people do such a thing for justice: he rode in and gave them money. Karam also split from his wife that year. They remain friends. It wasn't his crusade that broke them up: the marriage was over before he began his affair with the Bain case, he says. If anything, the separation drove him to it. Vulnerable and maybe a little disillusioned, Karam was an accident waiting for the Bain case to happen. With his interest piqued by Bain's exuberant first lawyer Michael Guest, Karam read through the trial material. By the time he had become angered enough at the perceived injustices to write David and Goliath, two main pieces of evidence stood out as troubling: the time the computer, which contained a purported suicide note and admission of guilt from father Robin Bain, was turned on; and the photos and statements from police about where a lens from a pair of glasses said to be worn by David that day was found. But in those early weeks, Karam says he was most swayed by meeting Bain: believing himself to be a good judge of character, Karam thought it "odd" that anyone could think this guileless man was a killer. He says the 11-year war was the fault of the police. Besides the "millions" he says it has cost him directly and in lost earnings, the toll so far includes a Police Complaints Authority review, a judicial review, two hearings by the Court of Appeal, a high-profile defamation suit, two Privy Council hearings and several settlements between Bain and various media organisations. They started it, says Karam, by attacking him personally as if he were "some sort of hellraiser". He believes he had no choice but to fight back. "Two firms of private investigators were hired to follow me around. My phone was tapped. It was like the KGB. That was what I was subjected to." It emerged in court during the defamation trial against Karam that a private investigator had indeed been hired by the two officers taking the case: the sleuth was hired to investigate Karam's finances and to check the statements he was making about the two men. There is no evidence that the investigators tapped his phone. "People think that I've had an obsession, which means that I've got so emotionally and every other way involved in this that I'm prepared to stop at nothing to try to get my belief believed by other people. But what really happened," he says, "is that every step of the way it wasn't really my decision. There's always another battle to fight. And I have won every battle. "The police have come at me again and again. They've tried to keep me down. But every time Joe Karam rises like a phoenix." Some of his case rests for validity on the supposition of police conspiracy: if I knew police like he did, says Karam, I'd understand. He also took up the case when others didn't, he says, because he was "naïve" enough to believe that the police would be horrified by the inaccuracies he had uncovered, and because he is "a thinker". "People ask me what I do, and I say, I think. That's how I make my money. I spend a lot of time on my own and you can make a lot more money thinking than you can working. With the Bain case, I think about things that never dawn on other people." As an example, he says he was the only one who thought about what possible motive David would have to suddenly shoot his family. Discussing the case with Karam can be infuriating. He knows every detail and uses a fair bit of that old spit and polish to make his arguments seem shiny and convincing. He states boldly that "we now know Robin Bain was psychotic", but the only new evidence since the trial was that Robin was clinically depressed. Karam is defensive when challenged, and still bitter about a magazine article by journalist Rosemary McLeod that cast doubt on his motives for supporting Bain. He sued: her publication settled out of court. Another victory. Police, of course, beg to differ with Karam's version of events. Karam got personal as well, making accusations against individual police in David and Goliath, which led to the defamation trial (Karam won). Since Karam's involvement, a Police Complaints Authority report, a Ministry of Justice inquiry and a Court of Appeal decision have found that although the police could have been more thorough, sound evidence for Bain's conviction remained. For Karam, this shows how flawed the justice system is. He plans to set up an organisation similar to the Innocence Project in the US, where those with skills and resources offer their help pro bono, like a support club for single crusaders such as himself, Keith Hunter and Mike Kalaugher (the Scott Watson campaigners). But he'll probably only do it if he wins. "People like winners, not losers, especially when it comes to money. If I won, I would be able to expound my views with a degree of importance. People would listen. I would have the success to act as a mentor [to other crusaders] and to pull them along." For Karam, victory is important. Friends say he strives to win to the highest level, but only if they're causes he believes in. But he has always had a strong sense of justice. At 16, he seriously considered becoming a priest. He later read a book about the existence of God that served only to prove the opposite, so he converted to another religion, rugby. But, he says, he has always been "pastoral" and finds it "difficult to walk past a person with a problem". Friends say he'd be the first one to offer help when they needed it. The eldest child and only son of his Lebanese father and Irish mother, Karam had a blessed childhood on the family farm just out of Raurimu. They weren't rich, but there was no great hardship. His sisters went to Horowhenua College, while Karam was sent to St Patrick's Catholic boys' college in Silverstream, Upper Hutt. He was, in a sense, an underdog: a country kid thrown in "with all these kids who had everything. They moaned about the food and that there was nothing to do on Friday night. I treasured it." He grabbed every opportunity: he was a member of the public-speaking team, a prefect and even played a Maori boy in the 1968 school production. He was liked, he says, but didn't court popularity: he'd be the one training while his friends were smoking by the river. He excelled in sport. Other students could run faster and kick better, he says, but they didn't use their brains like he did. His notebooks of that time reveal much about Karam's fastidiousness and determination. From 14 on, he kept meticulous records of all his games with the First XV: the venue, the teams, scores (half-time and fulltime), players and positions, tries and penalties (for and against), the conditions and a critical but fair, and always optimistic, commentary on their performance, including his own. Each page is numbered: on the back page he has included an index. Against Taita in 1968: "We played a shocking game ... and my kicking was very poor ... however, we look forward to better things." Karam shows me a newspaper clipping that he says will help to get "a better understanding" of what kind of person he is. It is a write-up of his "outstanding" performance at an interschool athletics tournament. It attributes much of the school's win to Karam: the saviour of St Patrick's. Better things did soon come to Karam: the youngest-ever player picked to represent Wellington, he is widely accepted as one of the best All Black fullbacks ever. Karam was even better known for being the first high-profile union player to defect to league, joining an Auckland club in 1975 for $20,000 a year. Teammates cried when they heard the news, he says: it was like being excommunicated from the Catholic Church. His move had much in common with his decision to stick with the Bain case: he saw hypocrisy and injustice in rugby management. Karam was horrified by the financial burden that players experienced. On the UK tour of 1971, they got a pound a day as their living allowance. It was enough, says Karam, for a pint of beer in a London pub, and for players of "modest employment" slogging it out on the field for their country it meant that "their wife and children were starving back home". At that time, he says, rugby officials "were flying around the world drinking champagne like it was going out of fashion". "It was a form of protest. I've always been, well, people might say obnoxious," he says. "I've never been afraid to do what I wanted to do even when it doesn't fit the pattern." His decision wasn't just based on principle, though: Karam, by now newly married, knew he didn't have many seasons left, and, ever the entrepreneur, took the money. Karam wonders whether, if he hadn't been an All Black, his campaign would have gained so much traction. He expresses dismay that All Blacks, with their high public profile, contribute so little to society. A few years ago, he attended an All Black centenary celebration and was overwhelmed by the response he got. "It's not exaggerating to say more than 20 wives of players that I met over the years came up to me and said quietly, 'Well done, Joe, I think what you're doing is fantastic. I wish that my husband and all of his cronies would do something. They think that their lives start and end down at the local rugby club. It's a shame they won't take a better interest in society.'" He doesn't subscribe to "the Lion Red mentality" that life is "rugby, racing and beer", and that, he says, is one of the reasons the rugby fraternity view him with "a great deal of suspicion". "If they look at what I'm doing too closely, all it would do is force them to examine their conscience, which they wouldn't really want to have to look at, because who are the All Blacks who have become such great leaders? Where are the All Blacks who have stood up for anything that is actually really that admirable?" What, I ask, about John Kirwan fronting a campaign for mental health? "I don't think he's putting his life out to help others. Where do we see examples of All Blacks stepping outside their comfort zone with possibly a little bit of personal risk to do something that actually helps New Zealand society? We all think All Blacks are gods, so they must be great leaders. But start analysing it. It's bloody dreadful that All Blacks don't individually do more." He appears to have forgotten men like Sir Wilson Whineray. Whether Karam is, as he believes, doing society any good remains to be seen. We'll probably never know. Even he admits that the Bain case has become so layered that no one will ever know with certainty what happened at 65 Every St in 1994. Karam may not have gone into this most unlikely of partnerships for the fame, but it is clear that he has enjoyed the attention. The furore when David and Goliath was launched was, he says, "incredible". He appeared regularly on Holmes, blew the TV1 show's ratings through the roof, and did a thousand other media interviews, without so much as a personal assistant to manage his calls. The journalists who wooed him have since lost interest: Holmes, who once wrote that "I love my friend, Joe Karam", never calls. Karam repeatedly talks about how unique he is, and what an underdog he is. He is the only New Zealand citizen, he says, to be sued by the police with their mighty resources. (In fact, two individual police officers, not the department, sued Karam for defamation over allegations made in his book.) It seems everyone - police, the courts, the NZ Herald, even the Montana Book Awards judges - has had it in for him. David and Goliath remains one of the best-selling books in New Zealand, he says, but he wasn't even nominated for a Montana. When he talks about the Bain case, he refers back to himself and about finding evidence that is "good for me" rather than "good for David". His bookshelves look like a recommended reading list for Social Justice Crusaders 101: Beyond Reasonable Doubt by David Yallop, In the Name of the Law by David Rose, and everything ever written by John Grisham. His favourite movie? 12 Angry Men. They are fuel for his fire: he relies on past victories to give him hope. It is important to Karam that people believe in what they do: he believes in the sanctity of a fair trial. It explains his view on Osama bin Laden. He doesn't condone what bin Laden has done, but unlike George W Bush, says Karam, at least bin Laden believes in what he stands for. The year of the Crewe murders, Karam broke his kneecap and while recuperating became engrossed in the investigation. It might have left a mark on his subconscious. In David and Goliath, he writes that he had to remind himself that Thomas was found guilty twice before his release. And the Bain case, he says, is bigger than Thomas's in terms of its impact on New Zealand history. "The thing with causes célèbres of this nature - miscarriages of justice like Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six - is that you see history repeating itself. You even get posthumous pardons. When truths are hidden, they eat away at people until they attack." The loneliness has consumed some of Karam. His three children, Richard, 30, Matt, 28, and Simone, 24, have stuck by him. When he talks about them, he is engaging, enthusiastic and happy. His friends, he says, have not been as loyal. "I understand why. It's a lot to put up with ... They'd say, 'Do we invite Joe Karam for dinner? Well, if you want a row during the second course.'" He admits that the rows might have been as much his fault as anyone's and that he relegated relationships, and every? thing else, to second place. But, he says, he needed all his energy to fight. His one true regret seems to be his break-up with runner Allison Roe. He wanted to marry her, but she couldn't take the fallout from his campaign any more. It was the first time he'd ever been dumped, and it probably did him good, he says. Karam put himself out to pasture then: it was easier, he says, to be alone. He's coming right now, though. He once remarked to a journalist that he knew he was down when he'd lost his appetite for women. He seems to have found it again. Today his shirt is a little faded but still Lacoste, the shoes Prada: even when he was penniless and renting, he always dressed as if he had money. Karam seems to equate wealth with happiness. He's got plans: there are his franchises, his coffee business and property. He's already made $1 million in the past 18 months through investments. He wants to renovate the house; his new granddaughter, Lola, and her mother are close by, and there'll be another book. He is cautiously optimistic about the Privy Council's decision. One suspects if he is wrong, it will be like a death in the family. Karam knows it is also his chance for vindication. "If we lose, the jury will be out on me. There'll be those who admire and respect me and then there's the Establishment that will say we were right all along and that Karam was a loose cannon." Of course, if the Privy Council upholds Bain's conviction, it's not over - where there's life, there's hope, he says. But for now he waits, sitting in his black leather chair in the corner with a cigarette and a bottle of sauvignon, dropping ash on the carpet, listening to a recording of Winston Churchill's greatest speeches, waiting to hear whether he is winner or widower. The only bugger left."
