OZ Para Expo in Parramatta, New South Wales | Event planner

OZ Para Expo

Locality: Parramatta, New South Wales

Address: Parramatta Correctional Centre, New & Dunlop Streets 2151 Parramatta, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.ozparaexpo.com.au

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25.01.2022 Happy Father’s Day to all father figures out there. A big shout out to my amazing dad who always helps out in everything I do.

24.01.2022 Due to COVID-19 restrictions, we have had to make the difficult decision to postpone our expo until 20 March 2021. All Stallholders have been contacted (please check your spam if you did not receive your email - or contact us at [email protected]). More information to be provided in the coming months.

23.01.2022 Tune in at 11am Sydney time tomorrow morning :)

20.01.2022 Killer Lawson dies after 50 years in jail These were the headlines 17 years ago when one of Australia’s most notorious killers, Leonard Keith Lawson, known as... Lennie, died in Grafton Gaol. The irony of Lennie was that he was a very famous Comic Book artist in Australia. He was a child prodigy. He broke into the Australian Comic Book scene at the age of 17. He wrote and drew one of the biggest selling comic books of the era the Lone Avenger. His comic books were all about crime does not pay and you will be punished hence the irony. Lennie and his sister were raised in Wagga Wagga by a loving, comfortable, middle-class family. He left school at 15 and went to work for a publishing firm in Sydney as an apprentice commercial artist. Behind the scenes, Lennie made pornographic drawings and sold them. His obsession was with naked women and sex, and his drawings were extremely graphic it is also said by those who have seen the drawings that some of the girls in them appeared to be dead. He married his childhood sweetheart at only 19 and produced two sons and a daughter. From all appearances, he had the perfect life. A good job which paid good money, a wife and a family. But he had a demon inside him which was aching to be released. On 7 May 1954, when Lennie was 26, he took 5 young June-Dally Watkins models on an assignment into the bush at Terrey Hills. Apparently, the girls all liked Lennie. They thought he was fun, and they admitted to flirting with him, as he was an attractive man, looking like a young Errol Flynn or Clark Gable. Their fun didn’t last. Lenny produced a sawn off .22 rifle and a hunting knife. The girls thought he was joking, but not for long. In Lennie’s police report, he told them that he had fantasised about being an Arabian Sheikh who had captured 5 beautiful women and was holding them against his will. The Sheikh knew the girls actually loved him and worshiped him and they wanted to be tied up by him. He took rope which had been precut to the right length to bind the girls, and there were two pieces for each girl, one for their wrists and one for their ankles. He cut on their clothing with scissors and he caressed them as he cut their garments and tied them up. When they were naked, he gagged them with sticking plaster from his bag and lined them up. He ended up rapping three of the girls. He didn’t rape two because one said she was pregnant and the other married the girls told him that if he drove them home, they wouldn’t tell anyone about the rape, and for some reason, he believed them. He even paid them for the assignment. Naturally the girls called the police. After a very sensationalised court case, Lenny was found guilty of rape and sentenced to death. The Crown prosecutor, Mr L. C. Furnell, in his closing address, said: ‘The story of the accused is that, far from being the Beast of the Bushland, he was the Babe in the Wood, taken there by these scheming females to satisfy their lascivious tastes, and to give them the thrill of being raped. That is what you have to accept if you come to this conclusion that these girls are deliberately committing perjury to put a noose around this man’s neck.’ Lennie also wrote 7 confessions for the police, and there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that he was a psychopath. In fact, the court also heard the report of consulting psychiatrist Dr John McGeorge, who said: He (Lennie Lawson) is a very unstable individual and probably belongs to the psychopath class, that is not in any sense insane, but could develop further and become more obviously abnormal. He appears to be lacking in moral sense and takes an almost morbid pride in the offence with which he has been charged. He is prepared to discuss it at considerable length and in complete detail. His account corresponds quite closely with that given in evidence by various witnesses. He is not insane. He is fit to plead. Lennie was sent to gaol , and after a while his rape sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. he became a model prisoner. He studied portrait painting and taught other prisoners drawing skills. His specialty was painting famous people, such as Winston Churchill, and he was even considered for the Archibald Price. He became a staunch Catholic in gaol more irony, and painted scenes from the bible on the walls of Goulburn prison chapel. Clergy came from all over the country to marvel at the work of the reformed man. God had apparently worked a miracle on Lennie Lawson. When Lennie’s parole came about, he had many supporters who said that he had paid his debt to society and would be an asset to the community. Words such as exemplary, reformed and miraculous were used in letters to the Parole Board. So, after only 7 years in gaol, after originally being sentenced to death, Lennie was released. He went to live with his parents in Moss Vale, his wife having left him while he was in gaol. While he was there, he became familiar with the Sydney Church of England Girls’ Grammar School and would watch the girls come and go, and knew their movements. He eventually moved back to Sydney. He found work as a commercial artist and moved into a fashionable apartment in Collaroy. He met and befriended a girl named Jane Bower. He charmed her and her family, telling them we wanted to paint her portrait. She posed for him several times, but then one night, after he had picked her up from her job in the city, and shared dinner with her and her mother, he took Jane back to his apartment so he could sketch her. He filled a sock with sand, and whilst she was seated on his lounge, he swung the sock, hitting her hard on her head and knocking her out. He tied her wrists, took off her clothing and raped her. The body of 16-year-old Jane Bower was found in a bed in Lennie’s flat on 7 November, 1961. She had been killed the previous day. She was naked, except for underwear. She was covered in bruises, had welts around her neck and wrists and a deep one-inch chest wound. Written on the front of her body in eyeliner were the words God forgive me, Len. The police believed that Lennie had sex with Jane under the presumption she was dead, and that he was performing an act of necrophilia. When she woke up, he then stabbed her, and continued with his deed. He also wrote a letter to his parents: ‘Dear Mum and Dad. I have done a shocking and dreadful thing. Whatever this monster that moves into my body is, it did it with vengeance this time. It was something entirely beyond my control, but I’s so fantastic it must be hard to understand. But whatever it is, it sends sanity out of the window and then just as quickly after it is over, I come back to hard logic sanity which is a dreadful experience. I can’t express the horror I feel at what I have done. Jane was one of the finest, sweetest and most virtuous girls I have ever known. As I am completely sane and rational now and I know I have to kill myself, for as long as I live I will only bring misery and unhappiness to all associated with me. Your broken-hearted son, Len. Instead of taking his life he drove down to Moss Vale. He slept in his car overnight and entered the Sydney Church of England’s Grammar School at 9am. The students and teachers turned up for morning prayers, and Lennie appeared with a rifle, pointed right at them. He had a bag filled with rope, and he told them all he intended to hold them hostage so that he could prolong his freedom and negotiate with police. The school’s headmistress, Jean Turnbull, approached Lennie and asked him what he wanted. He told her I am going to hold the girl’s hostage here until 12 o’clock. I have killed someone already and I want to speak to three people. He gave a piece of paper to another staff member who was permitted to leave the chapel with it. To whom it may concern, it said. Read this carefully before any attempt is made to contact the police lives depend on it. By now the police will be hunting me for murder so I am going to hold the girls as hostages for a few hours. He told police to obey his instructions and that if anyone came within 100 feet of the chapel, he’d shoot a girl. I am not bluffing I have killed once, so now I have everything to gain and nothing to lose by killing more it’s the same penalty I must face. Bizarrely, the three people he wanted to speak to were a nun who’d visited him in prison, reigning Miss Australia Tania Verstak, and Olympic athlete Marlene Mathews. The headmistress tried bargaining with Lennie, telling him to shoot her instead of the girls because she had lived a long life, whereas the girls had the rest of their lives left to them. When the police arrived, Lennie got very antsy, and the headmistress, fearing the worst, jumped into action. She grabbed the gun, trying to keep it aimed away from the students, but Lennie fired five shots, one of which went straight through the heart of 15-year-old Wendy Luscombe, killing her instantly. It was the end of the stand off and Lennie was again in police custody. He was assessed by a psychiatrist, who found that his condition was one of a personality disorder with a tendency to rituals. It took the jury on 17 minutes to deliver a verdict of guilty, and Lenny was given a life sentence and sent to Parramatta Gaol. Once again, life in gaol was good for Lennie. He again became a model prisoner, painting artworks and becoming the secretary of the Arts and Crafts group at the Gaol. This group enabled those on special privileges to attend a concert performed by a group of dancers and musicians in the chapel of the prison. Lennie thanked the artists and was standing behind 21-year-old Sharon Hamilton. He placed his left arm around her chest and held a knife near her throat. The other inmates struggled with Lennie to get him off Sharon, and she required a number of stitches afterwards from the cuts he inflicted. Poor Sharon later sought extensive psychiatric treatment and was committed to Chelmsford hospital with PTSD. Six years after the attack she suicided, as a direct result of what occurred to her in prison, making her Lennie’s third murder victim. He ended up spending most of his prison time in Grafton Gaol, a notorious prison which was not kind to its inmates. He attempted to apply for day leave, but his application was rejected. He was found dead in his cell, aged 76, on 29 November 2003. His death was probably a heart attack. Many of his paintings were still hanging in Grafton Gaol before it closed its doors. Peet Banks, owner APPI Ghost Hunts & Tours Sources: https://murderpedia.org/male.L/l/lawson-leonard-keith.htm Never to be Released Paul B Kidd https://www.facebook.com/lenlawson1927 https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au//dc32d9b61af117da4641460 https://www.blogofdeath.com/2003/11/29/lennie-lawson/

20.01.2022 You may recognise him from being on the door at every Expo, or behind the BBQ at our events. He is my darling dad, Les. And only last month we were given the shocking news, with no preparation, that he was riddled with cancer and only had weeks to live. He had outlived his prognosis, but is very, very sick and won’t be with us for long.... Added to this my mum is currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer, and my brother-in-law has stage 4 melanoma. It’s a horrific year for my family. A wonderful cousin of mine has organised this GoFundMe to assist with the ever growing list of things which need to be paid for when looking after somebody terminal. My younger sister, who lives in Germany, has been on a priority waiting list with the Australian Consulate in Germany, and has been offered a one-off ticket home to spend time with dad in his final weeks. Unfortunately, due to the current climate, this means 2 weeks in quarantine as well. So any money raised will also go towards that. If you can donate only $10, it would be the biggest help! I hate doing this but I also hate that my dad is dying so I’m swallowing my pride to post this. Much love to you all, Peet Banks gf.me/u/y22zbr

15.01.2022 Just because the expo has been postponed, it doesn’t mean you can’t still purchase your goodies online! I THOROUGHLY recommend Essential Earth Gifts!!! https://www.facebook.com/eegifts/

14.01.2022 Bring your kids to the Oz Para Expo on 31 October, all dressed up in their Halloween costumes! They can trick or treat with the stallholders, pick themselves up some goodies, and also take part in the fun scavenger hunt we will have going all day. They can also enter the spooky haunted house we will have happening on the day.... Oz Para Expo 31 October 2020 Parramatta Gaol

09.01.2022 Vale Les Banks. Always ready to greet the Expo guests with a smile. The Expo won’t be the same without his happy face.

08.01.2022 SAVE THE DATE!!!!! On Saturday 13 February, 2021, APPI, the organisers of the Expo, turns 10! I am stunned that my little business has been around for an entire decade, and the passion for all things paranormal just gets stronger.... To celebrate, we are throwing several events, the likes of which we have never done before - so save the date and I hope tickets will go on sale within the next week or so!

07.01.2022 We are planning on sending out the Exhibitor Information Packs, and releasing some early-bird stall holder spots this coming Sunday, 1 December! There is still time to register your interest in having a stall :) https://forms.gle/498Qk9yLZg4i6PJu8

05.01.2022 Jeanette and Jen have joined us every single year at the expo since it’s inception. They even came to the tiny little one we did at the Parramatta Town Hall in 2013. We love them dearly and wish them all the very best in this difficult time.

05.01.2022 No amount is too little. Dan is a brilliant investigator and a great friend. He has presented at the Expo in the past and he is just an all round amazing bloke. He’s going through the hardest trial of his life right now

03.01.2022 It is with great sadness that we advise the cancellation of the Oz Para Expo, which was meant to be held on 20 March 2021. With the current restrictions, it is just not possible to hold the event, and it breaks our heart. We hope to run it again later in the year, assuming all is good in the world.... Until then, we have drag bingo, a murder mystery night and a sleepover at Parramatta Goal on 13 February, so if you want to join us for any of these fun events, please visit our ticket page: https://www.stickytickets.com.au/appighosthunts/events