Wife killer Andrew Kalajzich out of jail

ANDREW KALAJZICH walked free from jail yesterday, 25 years after he was convicted for paying hit man Bill Vandenberg $20,000 to murder his wife, Megan. She was shot dead as she slept next to her husband.


Kalajzich had it all - a beautiful wife and children, luxury homes, a respected reputation in the community as hotel and restaurant owner and all the power and privilege that went with it. Now 71 years old, he will collect an old age pension and live on a meagre income because his millions have all been spent on legal fees – to no avail. A Supreme Court murder trial, a court of criminal appeal challenge, an application for special leave to the High Court and a special judicial inquiry costing more than $3.5 million, all dismissed his protestations of innocence.


Kalajzich had an eye for the ladies and started dating a Yugoslav girl, Marcellina Iurman, who worked in his fish restaurant. In September 1973, while in a relationship with Iurman, there was a mysterious incident in which Kalajzich was driving his wife and young son Andrew when he suddenly felt sick, opened the car door and rolled out. The car, with his wife and Andrew, then seven, inside, careered over a cliff and it was a miracle they weren’t both killed. Police wrote the incident off as an accident and there was no complaint from Megan or her son.






In the mid 1980s, Kalajzich became infatuated with his executive secretary, Marlene Watson who was madly in love with him but it is not known if this was the motive for wanting his wife dead. But it soon became clear that he was determined to have his wife killed because he made the mistake of telling too many people that he was looking for a hitman to do the job.


Franciscus Wilhelmus (Bill) Vandenberg, a sometime grocer and foundry worker had no experience of firearms and on January 11, 1986, he came up behind Megan as she left her car at Fairlight but he forgot to cock the rifle and panicked, hitting her over the head with the weapon, breaking off the silencer, and left. Megan fell down a flight of steps. Kalajzich sympathised with his wife over the bungled assault but said he still wanted the hit to proceed.


At first it was decided that Vandenberg would shoot Kalajzich in the leg but later agreed he should roll off the bed instead. In the early hours of January 27, 1986, Vandenberg walked in through a door left open by Kalajzich, found the bedroom and fired twice into Megan's head and when Kalajzich rolled off the bed, he fired twice into his pillow.


Bill Vandenberg confessed to being the "Triggerman" and subsequently committed suicide in prison. In his confession, he claimed he fired two bullets into Megan's head and then two bullets into Andrew's pillow a few centimetres from his head. He claimed he deliberately missed, so that it would look as if Andrew had also been a target.


After the funeral where Kalajzich seemed distraught, he took a holiday to Yugoslavia and when he returned, on December 18 1986 he was arrested.


But he has always maintained he didn’t do it when all the evidence shows that he did. I find it strange that his family has remained faithful, his children Andrew and Michelle believe he’s innocent and so did Megan’s mother who was living with them at the time of her murder.


Kalajzich's son Andrew, who changed his name to his mother's maiden name, has a business in Fairlight and his sister Michelle lives nearby with her husband and children in Manly. Their father’s 25 year non-parole period ended in December 2011 and he’s been granted parole under strict conditions for the next three years.