The story of Angela Taylor, the first female cop murdered in Australia in the line of duty.

On Thursday March 27, 1986, Constable Angela Taylor lost a coin toss.

She and her colleague were stationed at the watch house police cells next to the Melbourne Magistrate's Court in Russell Street. As it neared lunchtime, it was time to decide who would trek across the road to the police headquarters and the police canteen to pick up something to eat.

Accepting her defeat, at 1pm Angela made her way to the traffic lights and crossed the road, metres away from a Holden Commodore parked illegally right outside the building. 

Seconds later, it exploded. 

The car was packed with 60 sticks of gelignite, and it erupted into a fireball at exactly 47 seconds past the hour. 

The damage caused was extensive. 

"One side [of the bomb] shot out flames, and the other side shot out shrapnel. The car bomb had been laced with spanners and nails and any metal they could get their hands on - so it's like being hit with a machine gun," Vikki Petraitis, author of The Russell Street Bombing, told Mamamia's True Crime Conversations.

Listen to True Crime Conversation on Melbourne’s First Terror Attack. Post continues.

Russell Street was strewn with bits of twisted metal, plumes of smokes, spot fires and scores of injured people. For the people of Melbourne, the attack was beyond belief. 

Sergeant Yeoman told The Age, "The court was still sitting and we just heard an almighty bang. I raced outside and it was just a scene of carnage – there was a car on fire, there was glass everywhere, rubber all over the place and people were running and screaming. It was like nothing else I've ever experienced." 

"Certainly that night on the news, people were saying 'it's like Beirut'. And we were looking at Beirut on the nightly news as having, you know, car bombs go off and being a war zone. All of a sudden, our little streets of Melbourne, are like a war zone," reflected Petraitis. 

The front page of The Age in 1986.

The blast claimed the life of Constable Taylor and injured 21 others, including 10 police.  

The 21-year-old junior officer had only recently joined the police force, and was already seen as a rising star who duxed her academy class. She suffered burns to 70 per cent of her body after passing within one metre of the fireball side of the car bomb as it exploded. 

She died in hospital 24 days after. 

Constable Taylor was the first female police officer to be murdered in Australia in the line of duty. 

A 'revenge attack' and a hatred for police. 

The bomb wasn't sophisticated at all; an alarm clock nailed to a block of wood, with a Chux superwipe to separate the wires. 

"The police were amazed that the bombers didn't blow themselves up on the way to Russell Street," said Petraitis.

The burnt out car. Image: Victoria Police Museum.

The car had been stationed outside the symbol of policing in Victoria - a 12-storey headquarters that housed everyone from The Special Operations Group to the homicide detectives. It was obvious the target was either the police or the court system (located just across the road) - or both. 

One of the investigator's early leads were the drill marks left behind when the bombers had removed the car's vehicle identification number. They managed to match the holes to some other stolen vehicles which led them to a petty crook called Peter Reed. 

That led them to three other men; Craig Minogue, his brother Rodney and Stan Taylor, who had all done time in prison. All four men were initially charged over the bombings, after several items were matched to the crime scene. While they never confirmed or denied, police were confident their motive was revenge on them. 

"I don't think we regular citizens understand this incredible hatred that in their minds, they almost feel like they're at war," explained Petraitis.

"But I think personally that there's something else going on in the minds of people who could do that. They could have killed schoolchildren, they could have killed anyone, they could have even killed people that they knew....they just put it there and walked away."

At the end of a six-month trial in 1988, Taylor and Craig Minogue were convicted of murder and various other offences related to the bombing. Peter Reed and Rodney Minogue were acquitted of any offences related to the bombing. Reed was later jailed for 13 years for the attempted murder of two police he shot at during raids connected to the investigation. 

Taylor died behind bars from illness in 2016.

Both Craig Minogue and Reed have since been charged over the alleged rape and abduction of two women the year prior and the year of the Russell Street bombing. They're each facing 38 charges. 

Russell Minogue has spent his freedom running a brothel, allegedly pushing heroin on the streets of Sydney, and cleaning solar panels, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. 

Angela Taylor was posthumously awarded the National Police Service Medal on the 30th anniversary of the bombing, in 2016. 

Angela's parents unveil a Police Memorial in honour of their daughter during a memorial service in 2016. Image: Scott Barbour/Getty.

The Royal Melbourne Hospital's Angie Rose Taylor Ward was named in her honour, and every year an Angela Taylor memorial run is held in Albert Park. 

"It can seem like yesterday or it can seem like 20 years. But missing Angie is still as strong today as it was then; it’s just not accompanied with the pain," wrote her parents Arthur and Marilyn in the Victoria Police Association Journal in 2006.

Not a day goes by when they don’t think of their only daughter. 

Feature image: Australianpolice.com.au