Its my opinion, based on personal experience: if you disagree with any of it that's fine with me
My TLDR point was that despite popular perceptions of the Western Suburbs in the 90's, once I lived there I realised it was all smoke and mirrors. I didn't have loads of money and neither did my uni friends, but we still went to the conti, the same as we went to the loft, the grosvenor or wherever. We liked the live music scene so we gravitated towards the shents, Harbourside etc but if you put on a dress shirt, comb your hair and stand with 2-3 people having a drink you're as good as local and no-one ever looked ME up and down or made me feel like we were intruders in an exclusive private school club lol.
My German friends from uwa used to go to an international student night at "Red Rock" years ago and the none of them could understand the reputation either.
Claremont speedway closed about 20 years ago didn't it?
Won't be seeing anyone dropping into claremont before of after it I imagine.
An ex used to go to Clubber with her netball mates and she said it was a dump: loads of men in their 30s and over trying to pick up drunk uni girls. She said it was good for cheap drinks but you wouldn't want to be left on your own there because of all the creeps. Thats a far cry from an exclusive nightspot with a privileged, classy clientele it's often portrayed as. I can't imagine it was much different in the mid 90s.
I doubt the CSK had a grudge against what he saw as classy western suburbs girls and wanted to extract revenge for some grudge or grievance by targeting "rich girls" in an exclusive area. IMO it's more likely he (or they) knew there would be drunk uni girls everywhere, knew that the area is deserted at night beyond Bayview Terrace/Gugeri St and that it had several carparks and dark places to lay in wait. If it was the same guy as the KK attack, he probably knew how deserted Railway Rd is at night and chose these areas as his hunting ground.
I used to walk home often from Loch St station at night through the Cemetery and out the other side behind that sailmakers or yacht place near the council yard (forget what its called now).
I can tell you now, I hardly saw a soul on that walk anytime after 9pm. Northbridge would have provided a lot of pretty young girls, but less opportunity to blitz attack one of them due to all the activity, the other cars etc. I believe he chose Claremont purely because it was convenient and had everything he wanted: drunk uni girls, access to quiet, dark streets and access to either Stirling Highway or Railway Rd to get to and from the area.
Anyway thats my $2.50.