BOOK LAUNCH: A THOUSAND MILES FROM CARE by Steve Johnson

Join Steve Johnson to celebrate the launch of his book, A Thousand Miles From Care, his memoir of the 30-year search for justice against his brother’s killer.

Come along to hear about this incredibly important story exposing prominent homophobia and a string of gay hate crimes in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s and contributing to the plebiscite for gay marriage through Steve’s decades of relentless campaigning. This story is equal parts heart-breaking and heart-warming as Steve dedicates over thirty years to find out the truth about his brilliant and gentle brother’s death and bring his killer to justice.

Steve will be in conversation with Penny Sharpe.

Books will be available for purchase and signing.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

A gripping and heartbreaking new Australian true crime story about murder and corruption, A Thousand Miles From Care tells the story of the extraordinary 30 year quest Steve Johnson undertook to uncover the truth about his brilliant brother’s murder in Manly. Scott Johnson’s 1988 gay hate murder was finally solved in 2022 after a lengthy personal crusade for justice by Steve. This is gripping true crime: a testament to a brother’s love, a slow-burn investigation, and a moving and compelling account of a successful thirty-year search for a killer.

The Scott Johnson case has dominated news headlines in Australia for over thirty years. It has been the subject of many media stories, a documentary Never Let Him Go on Disney+ and not one but two episodes of Australian Story, in 2013 and 2020.

In 1988, Scott Johnson went over the edge of North Head cliffs at Manly, 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 to find out what really happened to Scott.

In this profoundly impactful account, Steve traces the steps he 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, 32 years after Scott’s death.

Since 2005, Steve spearheaded efforts in Australia to honour 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 Scott. His efforts helped presage a national plebiscite for gay marriage legalisation, which was finally passed in December 2017, and also led to the landmark inquiry, the 2022 NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes, led by the Honourable Justice John Sackar.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

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

PRAISE:

‘Motivated by love and loss of his brother, this inspiring and heartbreaking true story provides a timely and powerful reminder to never take no for an answer in the pursuit of justice. Steve Johnson has ensured Scott Johnson’s legacy would be a safer world for gay men, and that legacy is now enduring.’ Alex Greenwich MP

‘An extraordinary memoir. By turns harrowing, infuriating, and inspiring, it is partly a requiem for a loved one and a lament for all of the brilliant, wonderful people the world was robbed of, simply because they were gay. The pitiless pointlessness of it all is breathtaking, but so too is the decency and love that permeates this book.’ Gareth Russell, The Palace