A Thousand Miles From Care with Steve Johnson

Content Warning: the content of this event may be emotionally challenging and potentially triggering material may be discussed, including descriptions of homophobia, violence/murder and police. For support, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or text 0477 13 11 14.

Join Steve Johnson as he shares the gripping and heartbreaking 30 year quest to uncover the truth of his brother's murder in A Thousand Miles From Care.

In 1988, Scott Johnson went over the edge of North Head cliffs at Manly, and police deemed it suicide almost immediately. But Steve Johnson never believed his brother would take his own life, and over the course of three decades he embarked on an arduous quest and personal crusade for justice. 

This profoundly impactful book traces the steps Steve and his family and friends took to solve the mystery, including navigating an openly hostile police force and a maze of dead ends, unreliable informants, teenage gangs, a faked confession, and setbacks at every turn. And yet their quest ended with an extraordinary outcome: a stunning turnaround by police who apprehended a suspect in 2022, 32 years after Scott's death.

Books will be available for purchase and signing on the night.

$5.00 + booking fee

Non-alcoholic refreshments and nibbles on arrival.

Ages 18+

Bookings required.

Enquiries: 8495 5028 or libraryprograms@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au

Library programs terms and conditions apply. The library is a safe, inclusive space for all members of our community and we expect our attendees to model these same values.

Steve Johnson has been a technologist, entrepreneur, private investor, and philanthropist for 30 years, professionally specialising in building innovative technologies into successful enterprises, with a personal and philanthropic focus on education, climate change awareness, the arts, and gay rights equality. 

Since 2005, Steve has been spearheading efforts in New South Wales to honor and seek justice for hundreds of victims of gay hate crimes that ravaged the Australian gay community in the 1980s and 1990s, and took the lives of dozens of men, including Steve's younger brother, Scott, in Sydney in 1988. This effort helped presage a national plebiscite for gay marriage legalization, which was finally passed in December 2017.

Photo credit: Bear Gutierrez