EXCLUSIVE: A woman who claims she was a cellmate of Neo-Nazi murderer, Melony Attwood, has revealed the notorious WA killer threatened other inmates with finger guns, drew pictures for her young son, and had inmates braid her hair. Nour Ahmad reports.
In April 2016, Melony Jane Attwood, her white supremacist lover Robert Wayne Edhouse, and two other accomplices bludgeoned an innocent man with a claw hammer while he slept in his Girrawheen home.
The man was 42-year-old Alan George Taylor, Attwood’s partner and the father of her young child. Attwood, 37 at the time, allegedly committed this act to claim what she thought was a $1 million life insurance policy on Mr Taylor. Both Attwood and Mr Edhouse were sentenced in May 2018 to a minimum 21 years in prison for the crime motivated by greed and violence.
True Crime News Weekly reported on the case four years ago, bringing to light the Facebook posts of the victim’s friends, with one defending the FIFO worker as an “ordinary fella” who wasn’t a Nazi but instead a recovering drug addict. The same friend referred to Attwood as a “psycho”, “walking sack of lies” and “fucking vermin who made [her son] an orphan”. Meanwhile, the house where Mr Taylor’s murder occurred was said to have been a base-of-sorts for all kinds of White Supremacists, Neo-Nazis and assorted fascists when visiting Western Australia from interstate and elsewhere.
At the time of Mr Taylor’s senseless killing, Edhouse was the president of the Perth chapter of the far-right neo-Nazi group Aryan Nation. While Attwood herself was the proclaimed leader of the Aryan Girls.
Now, six years after the heinous murder that resulted in Melony Attwood receiving a decades-long prison sentence, a woman has reached out to True Crime News Weekly wishing to share her story of her time with the female Neo Nazi killer.
The woman, who initially gave her full name but later asked to remain anonymous, claims she was at Bundyup Women’s Prison in northeastern Perth with Attwood between February 2019 to May 2019.
The woman, who also disclosed she is a victim of child sex trafficking, stated she lived in the same unit as Attwood for three months but was, at first, unaware of her identity.
“I was put into B-unit and I met her there,” she said. “She seemed friendly enough. I had no idea who she was. I had no idea who anyone was.”
Following the brutal murder of her partner – in which the offenders turned on loud music to mask any sound – Attwood maintained her innocence. She appealed her sentence but ultimately lost the appeal in April 2020.
When asked if Attwood ever told a different version of events, the source replied no.
The woman stated the former Aryan Girls leader “always played the victim”.
Other than Melony Attwood and Robert Edhouse, 22, fellow white supremacist Corey Joshua Dymock, 21, and an unnamed minor were also involved. In the 2018 court case, Dymock’s 19-year-old girlfriend, Skye Elizabeth Dunn, revealed all four took turns bashing Mr Taylor with the hammer.
The woman claims Attwood never spoke about her co-offenders or late partner and only spoke about “her boy”.
Before his murder, Mr Taylor planned to take his young son and raise him away from Attwood, according to Facebook posts from the victim’s family friend. The family friend referred to Mr Taylor and Attwood’s son as an “orphan with a murderer for a mother”.
However, our source and former cellmate said Attwood often spoke of her supposed fondness for her child.
“[Attwood] would draw pictures for him. She had lots of photos of him in her cell. I actually did a nameplate drawing for her to give to him,” the former cell buddy told True Crime News Weekly.
The woman claimed Attwood followed the rules as far as she could tell, adding that she was in jail with her while Attwood was waiting for her appeal. However, she admitted she saw a nasty side of her once in relation to an encounter with a previous cellmate.
“I saw her make a gun kind of hand signal towards this other prisoner in this threatening manner and there was full malice and spite in this gesture,” she said.
And no, this isn’t a scene from Orange Is The New Black, this is a real-life story.
Despite referring to herself as “a friend” of Attwood’s, the source claimed that other inmates viewed the murderer in an unfavourable manner.
“She made it seem like she had enemies all over the place and a lot of people just don’t like those sorts of characters in jail,” our source explained.
“Amazing, coloured eyes” but a heart of evil: Melony Attwood with fellow Neo-Nazi murderer, Robert Edhouse (Image: Supplied)
In photos of Melony Attwood, she can be seen smiling with Robert Edhouse by her side. Her piercing blue-green eyes stare into the camera on full display.
Attwood’s former cellmate revealed this particular feature stood out to her the most: “She’s got amazing, coloured eyes”.
She then went on to describe Attwood’s physical state at the time, indicating the convicted killer had been eating well and staying healthy in jail, seemingly enjoying the delights of the prison kitchen.
“She was quite chubby when I was there,” the former cellmate revealed. “Actually, when I was over there – I braided her hair. So we hung out.”
However, after three months of living in the same unit, the woman claims Attwood ended up moving to a self-care unit with Justine Campbell – a woman convicted for murder in 2016 after being part of a group plot to bash and burn alive a 30-year-old male victim.
“[Attwood and Campbell] ended up sharing the same cell. So, two jail neighbours together,” our source summed up.
Following her time in Bundyup Women’s Prison, Attwood was moved to Melaleuca Women’s Prison in Canning Vale, WA. She is currently serving the remaining 16 years of her 21-year sentence there.
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