page_title: Murder of Andrew Pea
section_title: Murder
hierarchical_section_title: Murder of Andrew Pea / Murder
caption_attribution_description: English: Murder Location, Barrack St, Perth (9.42pm, 1 July 2013)
context_page_description: Andrew Pea, also known as Andrew Ronald Smith, was a 22-year-old Victorian who'd moved to Perth, Western Australia in 1975 and worked as a State Energy Commission labourer. Pea lived alone in a Salvation Army hostel in East Perth and was known as a casual drinker at many Perth inner-city hotels; being seen at various times in the Paddington, the Criterion, the Imperial, the Railway, the Globe and the Victoria. Pea’s murder shocked Perth as it was one of the first cases of gang-style killing in the city. Only two weeks prior to his murder Pea had been involved in another fight, in which he’d dislocated his shoulder.
context_section_description: At 9pm on Saturday 1 July 1978 Pea was seen drinking in the Paddington Hotel's infamous basement Tube Bar, which was described as being "dark and dingy with pool tables, that was frequented during the week by a strange mixture of people: poofters, lesbians, bikies and crims". Witnesses stated that Pea left the basement bar shortly after 9pm and walked to a nearby TAB betting shop to collect a bet in Barrack Street. The betting shop being located approximately 500m from the Paddington Hotel.
  About 9.30pm Pea was seen by witnesses talking to a newsboy near the corner of Barrack and Wellington streets when a man approached Pea and told him not to hassle the newsboy, with one witness claiming to have heard Pea say "what's it got to do with you". A short fist fight then followed in which the significantly larger Pea (reported to be approximately 6’2 and over 110kg) got the better of the man who was described as being 5’9 and of medium build. The fight ended with the smaller man seen running a few metres up Barrack Street towards Murray Street; while being overheard by witnesses muttering something about getting even. But within a matter of seconds the man had returned, and armed with a 10cm pocketknife he'd been carrying walked back towards Pea and started "swinging wild" with the weapon, stabbing Pea in the head, back and chest 21 times and wielding the weapon with such force that it managed cut through Pea's skull and other bones (the fatal blows being those delivered to Pea's heart and through his ear into his brain). 
  According to reports a crowd of roughly 50 people witnessed the fatal attack, but stood back too frightened to act. However one man, Mark Forrest (a 20-year-old backpacker from Sydney), decided to intervene when he saw Pea slump to the ground and scream because "he looked beaten". In an attempt to have the assailant drop the knife Forrest dragged the man off Pea and slammed his head into the pavement up to half a dozen times. Despite his efforts the assailant managed to break free from Forrest, threaten him with the knife and run across the nearby Barrack Street Bridge. Forrest, and other bystanders, then pursued the assailant but lost him as he disappeared into the Northbridge nightclub district.
  Police were called from all parts of the metropolitan area in an attempt to cut off the assailant’s escape route but failed to apprehend the attacker. Pea was rushed to nearby Royal Perth Hospital but died soon after arrival at about 9.57pm 1 July 1978. At the time of the post mortem examination analysed samples showed that Pea had 0.362% alcohol in his blood.
  Mark Forrest was later awarded the Bravery Medal (Australia) in November 1978 (medal number: 865694) for the courage he displayed in struggling with Pea’s killer.
caption: Murder of Andrew Pea - Murder Scene - Barrack St, Perth
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