TOOK FAMOUS PHOTO OF ’ 72 OLYMPIC TERROR
RUSSELL MCPHEDRAN | 1936- 2018
Former Associated Press photographer Russell McPhedran, whose balcony photo of a hooded terrorist at the 1972 Munich Olympics became one of the iconic images of the 20th century, has died after a heartrelated illness. He was 82.
Mr. McPhedran, who was inducted into the Australian Media Hall of Fame last November, worked at the Sydney bureau of the Associated Press from 1985 until his retirement in 2003. He was the longest- serving photo editor at the Sydney bureau of the AP.
The Glasgow, Scotland- born Mr. McPhedran arrived in Sydney with his parents in 1950 and became a copy boy for The Sun newspaper in Sydney. He later spent four years on Fleet Street in London, during which time the subjects of his photographs included The Beatles and Ronnie Biggs, who was better known as the Great Train Robber.
The most famous photo of his career came during a scheduled rest day for Mr. McPhedran at the Munich Olympics. Mr. McPhedran, then working in the Australian media, was tipped off that something was happening at the athletes’ village.
On Sept. 5, 1972, members of the Palestinian “Black September” group attacked Israelis at the Munich Games, killing an athlete and a coach and taking nine others hos- tage. The hostages died later during a botched rescue attempt at a military airfield outside Munich.
In all, 11 Israelis were killed in the siege that shocked the world and ushered in a new era of global terrorism. Mr. McPhedran’s photo appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald; a near- identical AP photo was published widely.
Mr. McPhedran was on vacation when he attended a party thrown by Biggs in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to celebrate 20 years on the run by the Great Train Robber.
While working for the Daily Express in Britain, Mr. McPhedran had covered the initial robbery, on Aug. 8, 1963, when Biggs was one of a 15- member gang that attacked the Glasgow- to- London mail train, stealing 2.6 million British pounds.
Mr. McPhedran-asked friends at the Daily Express in London “to print up a bunch of poster prints of the fugitive showing his life on the run, Ronnie going to jail, the Scotland yard mug shot before escaping from England, what he looked like after surgery that sort of thing.”
Mr. McPhedran went to see Biggs on his arrival in Rio, and it was a good result: “As soon as he saw the poster prints he said, ‘ these will look great on the wall at the party,’” McPhedran said. “And I said, ‘ yes they will, but only if I come with it,’ and he said, ‘ you are in, son.’”