Life
O'Neill attended Brighton and Caulfield Grammar Schools and Scotch College following which he began working in real estate. He later became a gun dealer and is known to have associated with members of Melbourne's underworld.
Between 1965 and 1968, O'Neill (as Bridgart) worked in the opal industry which required frequent travel between Melbourne and Coober Pedy in South Australia. He then obtained work on a cattle station in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. In 1969, a business partner accidentally shot him in the head while playing with a pistol. The bullet, which entered his right forehead and came out of his neck, destroyed his sense of smell and taste. Bridgart went on to give many reasons for the bullet wound to various people including it being the result of serving in Vietnam, that his mother's boyfriend had shot him and being an ASIO spy.
In 1971 Bridgart was charged with 12 offences involving abductions and sexual assaults of four boys in Victoria. He skipped bail and fled to Western Australia. In November 1974 he moved to Tasmania and changed his name to James Ryan O'Neill.
Read more about this topic: James Ryan O'Neill
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