John Travers

Infobox Criminal
subject_name = John Raymond Travers

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date_of_birth = birth date and age|1967|2|27
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conviction = Murder
penalty = Life imprisonment
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John Raymond Travers (born February 27 1967) is an Australian convicted murderer. He was sentenced to life imprisonment along with four others in his gang, for the 1986 murder of Anita Cobby in New South Wales.

The oldest of eight children, Travers had a history of violence and was considered the ringleader of the gang of attackers responsible for the murder.

Biography

John Travers was raised in Mount Druitt, near Blacktown, Western Sydney.

He was caught smoking marijuana at the age of 12, and by 14 was an alcoholic cite web|url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/young/cobby/2.html|title=The Murder Of Anita Cobby: Australia's Worst Crime|last=Kidd|first=Paul B. |work=truTV|accessdate=2008-07-14] . He had a reputation for extreme violence and often carried a knife. A series of further criminal activities during his teenage years were often reprimanded by local police and courts.

Travers was expelled from high school during Year 10 for being continually disruptive to other students. Beyond schooling he held very few jobs and preferred to claim unemployment benefits to provide means for an income Fact|date=June 2008.

He was eventually committed to Boys Town, a juvenile detention facility, by his mother. His father, with whom he never shared a close relationship, left the household in 1981, leaving Travers as the head of the family. Finding it difficult to support the family, Travers relied on crime to provide food, stealing animals such as chickens and ducks from nearby households. The health of Travers' mother eventually deteriorated, and he and his siblings were sent to live with foster families while she was hospitalised Fact|date=June 2008.

Travers was also known to display cruelty to animals from an early age, a common trait of psychopaths and serial killers. A zoosadist, he was known to have had sexual intercourse with animals he had stolen before slitting their throats. Travers has a distinctive teardrop tattoo under his left eye.

References

* Sheppard, J. (1991) ""