Publication Date: January 14, 2025
Soon to be a MAJOR MOVIE. A gripping and heartbreaking story, A Thousand Miles from Care tells the 30-year quest Steve Johnson undertook to uncover the truth about his brilliant brother’s death.
At the entrance of Sydney Harbor, the cliffs rise fourteen stories above the Pacific, like a gigantic skirt made of sandstone. North Head, one of the most memorable cliffs, is a gorgeous place to watch the sunrise. But it’s an unforgiving place to lose your footing. When Steve Johnson’s younger brother Scott went over the edge in 1988, he hit an outcrop on the way down and exploded on the rocks below.
A Thousand Miles from Care draws upon the mountain of exclusive materials Steve amassed over his 32-year fight for answers, including sealed court transcripts, police records, interviews with suspects, inquest reports, correspondence with gang members, private investigations, and much else. It utilizes unique details, interview transcripts and insights based on Johnson’s close relationship with authorities and high-ranking New South Wales officials developed over more than three decades.
This profoundly impactful book traces the steps Steve Johnson, his family and friends took to solve the mystery of Scott’s alleged suicide, navigating an openly hostile police force and a maze of dead ends, unreliable informants, skinhead gangs, a faked confession, police-connected drug rings, and setbacks at every turn. A Thousand Miles from Care is above all, a love story between two brothers but shared by everyone who worked so long for truth and justice for Scott.
The death of Scott Johnson, an American in Australia, gets chalked up as routine by authorities. It takes more than three decades before his family finally receives justice.
Author Steve Johnson shares the details in A Thousand Miles from Care. Not only did Steve have to fight authorities on another continent, but he also had to contend with prejudice regarding his brother’s sexuality.
The first part of the book offers a solid introduction to the Johnsons as a family, noting the challenges of growing up with divorced parents. Both boys showed superior intellect, with Scott standing out for his mathematical abilities.
The remainder of the book details the family’s perspective of searching for the truth. A dive before the surface leads to assumptions and conclusions absent of factual information.
The author’s determination for closure and justice unfolds throughout the three formal inquests and countless interviews drawing attention to a culture that refused to look beyond the victim’s sexuality.
A Thousand Miles from Care offers a powerful demonstration of a brother’s love and endless quest for answers.
Steve Johnson has been a technologist, entrepreneur, private investor, and philanthropist for thirty years, professionally specializing in building innovative technologies into successful enterprises, with a personal and philanthropic focus on education, climate change awareness, the arts, and gay rights equality. Since 2005, Steve has been spearheading efforts in New South Wales, Australia to honor and seek justice for hundreds of victims of gay hate crimes that ravaged the Australian gay community in the 1980s and 1990s, and took the lives of dozens of men, including Steve’s younger brother, Scott, in Sydney in 1988. This effort helped presage a national plebiscite for gay marriage legalization, which was finally passed in December 2017.
