The Thornbury Bookshop Killer | Phil Cleary episode artwork

EPISODE · Mar 31, 2026 · 47 MIN

The Thornbury Bookshop Killer | Phil Cleary

from Real Crime with Adam Shand · host Podshape

In June 1980, Maria James was stabbed 68 times in her Thornbury bookstore. Her killer was never charged. For years, investigators and a high-profile podcast pointed the finger at local parish priest Father Anthony Bonjourno — but Phil Cleary has always believed the real killer was someone else entirely. Phil Cleary is no stranger to violent crime. In 1987, his sister Vicki was murdered by her ex-partner Peter Raymond Keogh. And the deeper Phil dug into the Maria James cold case, the more he became convinced Keo was responsible for that killing too. In this episode, Adam Shand sits down with Phil Cleary to lay out the case against Keogh — a man with a documented history of violence against women, a flimsy alibi that was later rescinded, a witness who picked him out of a photo board years after the murder, and a chilling statement made to Vicki weeks before her own death: I'll do to you what I did to the woman in the bookshop.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Mar 31, 2026

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This episode was published on March 31, 2026.

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