They were the father and son fugitives likened to modern-day bushrangers who remained on the run for eight years as they waged war on farmers across three states.
But there was nothing romantic about the crimes of Gino Stocco and his son Mark which included the cold-blooded murder of a caretaker on a cannabis-growing farm.
The itinerants roamed Australia’s eastern states taking casual agricultural work then would turn on their employers over some perceived slight and destroy their property.
A new book called The Stoccos: The Eight-Year Manhunt that Captured Australia by ABC journalist Nino Bucci tells the full story of the homicidal misfits.
Gino Stocco in the back of a police vehicle as he is taken into Dubbo police station after he and his son Mark were arrested on October 28, 2015, near Dunedoo in central western NSW

Police took this picture of Gino Stocco after his arrest near Dunedoo on October 28, 2015

Mark Stocco after being arrested with his father Gino Stocco at a property near Dunedoo


Mark (left) and Gino Stocco (right) spent more than eight years on the run from police in several states. They caused damage worth millions of dollars to various employers’ property
The Stoccos stole goods, broke machinery and burnt buildings, causing damage worth millions of dollars during their time on the run. In one act of vengeance they drilled holes in almost 100 tyres.
A psychiatrist late found the pair had developed an ‘anti-authority belief system’ after years living isolated lives in the bush.
Their crime wave came to an end after a 12-day police chase across Victoria and NSW in October 2015 during which they twice shot at officers.
When the pair was finally cornered on a property called Pinevale at Elong Elong, near Dunedoo, in central western NSW, police found the body of 68-year-old caretaker Rosario Cimone, who had been shot dead.
The Stoccos had been helping Cimone grow hydroponic cannabis in a shed but fell out with him as they had with others in the past.
After an argument with the caretaker, Mark Stocco produced a 12-gauge shotgun and his father shot Cimone twice in the stomach.

Gino Stocco sits in the back of a police vehicle as he is being taken to Dubbo police station


Gino Stocco (left) and his son Mark Stocco (right) were among Australia’s most wanted men

Mark (left) and Gino (right) Stocco are serving jail terms of 30 and 28 years respectively
The killers then dumped Cimone’s body in bushland and fled. Within a week they attracted police attention in southern NSW and Victoria.
They returned to the Pinevale property and detectives were tipped off. On October 28, 2015, heavily armed police moved in on the pair.
Eventually the Stoccos would plead guilty to a raft of crimes including murder, shooting to avoid apprehension and arson.
Both would be sentenced in March last year to 40 years in prison with Mark, then 37, receiving a minimum term of 30 years and Gino, then 59, getting 28 years.
Detective Inspector Darren Cloake, who led Strike Force Kalkadoon, which hunted and caught the Stoccos, rejected comparisons between the fugitives and bushrangers such as Ned Kelly.
‘There’s no romance about this, or letting these two be cult heroes,’ Cloake has said.

This map shows the locations of confirmed and reported crimes and sightings of the Stoccos

Police seized this LandCruiser when they search the property where the Stoccos were found

The Stoccos: The Eight-Year Manhunt that Captured Australia by Nino Bucci. Published by Viking, RRP: $34.99. Bucci first covered the Stocco case as a journalist for The Age
The following is an extract from The Stoccos, The Eight-Year Manhunt that Captured Australia by Nino Bucci. Published by Viking. Recommended retail price: $34.99.
Each Tuesday night, Darren Cloake plays water polo. It’s a fairly niche sport wherever it is played, but particularly so in the country. On the Tuesday of 27 October 2015, just before Cloake was about to jump in the pool, he received a phone call. ‘It was a copper, and he’s told me, “We’re at this property, we’re pretty confident the Stoccos are here, but we have to do more surveillance before an arrest.”‘
In some ways, the property was perfect for a covert arrest operation, since there was nothing else around; this meant there was almost no possibility of members of the public being caught in the middle. The property was surrounded by bush, with only limited tracks leading in or out, so it would be easy for police to cordon off. And there was no need to rush: as long as the property was monitored, there was little prospect that the pair could escape, if, as police suspected, they were inside.

Gino Stocco was captured on CCTV footage filing up this Toyota LandCruiser at a service station in rural Victoria shortly before his he caught with son Mark in country NSW


CCTV image of fugitive Gino Stocco (left) outside a supermarket at Bairnsdale in Victoria’s East Gippsland district seven days before he was captured. Son Mark Stocco (right) is shown on CCTV at Castella, north-east of Melbourne, six days before the pair’s arrest in NSW
But in other ways, Pinevale represented a horror scenario. They were trying to capture the Stoccos on their own turf. The forest around the houses could be booby-trapped, as could the houses and sheds on the property. The whole thing could be an ambush, with the Stoccos just sitting back and waiting for police to walk right into it, while they picked off officers with their rifle from a perfect crow’s nest. They could even be hundreds of kilometres away, hoping that Pinevale had created a diversion and given them clear air for a few hours.
As surveillance officers kept watch over Pinevale, dozens of other police were making their way towards the property from Sydney. These officers included the Tactical Operations Unit – as close as a police officer can get to being in the military. It is a long road to get there, involving advanced weapons, tactical and equipment training, and gruelling mental and physical tests, as well as psychometric testing of psychological and behavioural limits. Ten months earlier, some of the officers had been responsible for storming the Lindt Cafe in Sydney’s Martin Place after Man Haron Monis took eighteen people hostage.

Police establish a road block near Dubbo on the day of their arrest after a reported sighting


The police who arrested fugitive killers Gino and Mark Stocco came armed with assault rifles

NSW detectives were aware that the Stoccos had previously worked on the Pinevale property
It is hard to imagine two more different settings than Pinevale and Martin Place. But they had something in common, the day the Tactical Operations Unit were called: they were both occupied by crazed gunmen who did not think twice before shooting at police.
The Tactical Operations Unit were joined by robbery and serious crime squad detectives and uniform police at a muster point about ten kilometres south of Pinevale. Among the police were Detective Chief Inspector Mick Banfield and Detective Inspector Virginia Gorman – the two officers who would be charging the Stoccos, should they be at the property. It was the morning of 28 October, and Pinevale had been watched for at least eight hours. Still, it was no clearer whether the Stoccos were inside. Banfield, Gorman and tactical police kept waiting for a signal.

Armed police stormed the property Pinevale at Elong Elong, where the pair had been hiding

Police were quick to trumpet the arrests of the desperate fugitives Gino and Mark Stocco

Security around the property where the Stoccos were hiding out including CCTV cameras
The Stoccos liked a sleep-in. And so it appeared that morning. The police who had lain in wait around the property overnight finally radioed through at 9.20 am. A man had been seen. Fifteen minutes later came the description: he was in his fifties and wearing a grey shirt. It looked like Gino Stocco. Over the next forty minutes, the officers watching Pinevale decided to change position. Then came the next dispatch: a white ute could be seen on the property, tucked in behind a Navara. The signs were promising, but not firm enough to trigger a move. At 10.45 am, another man was seen. He looked like Mark, but the officers had not been as sure as they were with Gino. They were asked to firm up the sighting, and did so. By 11.05 am, a decision had been made to move in.
Tactical police made their way to 300 metres south of Pinevale. They found the gate padlocked and decided to cut through the fence. At 11.30 am, their progress was halted again: they had lost phone coverage, so they had to pause while waiting for their radios to come back online. Ten minutes later, they moved in.

Police arrive at the Pinevale property the day after the capture of Gino and Mark Stocco


Murdering fugitive Mark Stocco is lead into Dubbo police station after his arrest in 2015

Police said Gino Stocco resisted officers and suffered minor injuries during his arrest
Mark and Gino had been inside the farmhouse at Pinevale, but something made them go outside. At 11.43 am, the Stoccos walked from the house and were swarmed by police, semi-automatic rifles pointed at their heads, shouts of ‘on the ground’ echoing in their ears. But Mark and Gino did not give in; they spent their last seconds of freedom trying to steal more time, not face-down in the dirt waiting for cable ties to tighten around their limp wrists. Their final resistance, however, was quickly subdued with blows to their heads.
It had not been straightforward for police: at least eleven hours of waiting in the bush, weighing up the risks of raiding an isolated house with two armed men inside who they suspected would be willing to kill them, before storming the property and having to violently restrain them. But it had not been the Lindt Cafe or Stringybark Creek either. ‘They did not surrender to police or hand themselves in,’ acting Assistant Commissioner Clint Pheeney said. ‘There was some resistance to the arrest.’ For the first time since 2007, the Stoccos were in custody. ‘They knew the bush very well, they knew all the ways and times to avoid police,’ Pheeney said. ‘But it was . . . only gonna be a matter of time before we tracked them down.’
The Stoccos: The Eight-Year Manhunt that Captured Australia by Nino Bucci is published by Viking. RRP: $34.99.

Captured killer Gino Stocco is escorted by two police officers at Dubbo police station