Speaker 1: He said, how much do you drink?
Speaker 2: I said I thirty maybe forty beers and a few scotches.
Speaker 2: He said, what a week? I said, no, a day,
Speaker 2: and he just shook his head. I've just had a shower.
Speaker 2: Remember the towers come off me. I'm running around the
Speaker 2: middle of winter, Adelaide, winter out in the backyard, burying bedding,
Speaker 2: sleeps in cocaine. I'm worried that the police are going
Speaker 2: to walk in the door at anymore.
Speaker 1: And I've rest it for indecent exposure. I'm Andrew Rule.
Speaker 1: This is Life and Crimes, yet again, and yet again,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk with Rod Helsted. Last week we
Speaker 1: heard about his adventures in Sydney, from Aubrey to Sydney.
Speaker 1: This week we're going to hear what.
Speaker 3: Happened after he hit out in Adelaide after getting not
Speaker 3: even a tip off, getting a hint that life could
Speaker 3: be a little bit dangerous if he stayed around Sydney.
Speaker 1: Now, how long did that last? That middleman running stuff
Speaker 1: up and then the highway.
Speaker 2: It's funny when I started writing this book, it corrected
Speaker 2: my memories in that stuff that I thought, you know,
Speaker 2: I've been doing this for three years. Actually turned out
Speaker 2: I've been doing it for maybe four months. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: and one thing runs into another and what have you?
Speaker 1: I started, how did you correct yourself? Did you find
Speaker 1: diaries or no? No, it's all my memory. Oh everything's everything. No,
Speaker 1: I didn't keep anybody. I was just wondering how you
Speaker 1: were able to correct yourself from four years to four months.
Speaker 2: Only because the timelines. When I started writing it, I'm going, well,
Speaker 2: I knew I'd spent six months in Western Australia, but
Speaker 2: then I started thinking, well, how long did I live
Speaker 2: in Hawthornton. I must have been there for buddy three years. Well,
Speaker 2: in fact it wasn't. It was probably not even a year.
Speaker 1: Just explain where that is.
Speaker 2: It's a big old had Hawthorn and Hawthorne is a
Speaker 2: large property on I think it was about two and
Speaker 2: a half acres. The front of the property has got
Speaker 2: to be Iron Gate. It's in Rosendale Avenue in Molara.
Speaker 2: And when you drive in the gate and down to
Speaker 2: the house the house, it's you drive past the house
Speaker 2: on your left and that's the gatehouse and that's got
Speaker 2: five bedrooms and two bathrooms. Good and and then you
Speaker 2: go down to the big house and it's got I
Speaker 2: think it had something like twelve bedrooms and you know
Speaker 2: at a ballroom, and who that originally was owned by originally,
Speaker 2: but it was owned for a long time by the
Speaker 2: shipping line that used to P and O p and
Speaker 2: A lines. Yeah, and that's the house that the captain
Speaker 2: and the directors of the company and their friends would
Speaker 2: stay and when they are in port. Really yes, And
Speaker 2: how how the how my friends ended up taking the
Speaker 2: lease on the house. I have no idea what sort
Speaker 2: of friends were they. They were a mixed group. One
Speaker 2: was a boat builder straight they weren't in the game.
Speaker 2: One was a boat builder, one was one was an attorney.
Speaker 2: One was a journalist there I can't remember his name,
Speaker 2: but here he wrote in about tracking the trucking industry
Speaker 2: didn't work for one of the main There were all
Speaker 2: sorts of There was a tennis court there the front.
Speaker 1: You rented, you had a room or a sweet I.
Speaker 2: Lived in a room for a while, and I thought
Speaker 2: I'd lived there for months. It turned out it's probably
Speaker 2: there for two months or something. But that house was
Speaker 2: really interesting. We used to hold parties there and people
Speaker 2: well in the house and the ballroom, you know, I
Speaker 2: mean Cher has been to a party at that house.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've run into people who have been very friendly.
Speaker 2: With shir Yeah, there you go, there you go. I
Speaker 2: wasn't no, I didn't see. She wasn't there when I
Speaker 2: was there. The Average White Band, we turned the ballroom
Speaker 2: into a ping pong room. So we've got a table
Speaker 2: set up and we're playing ping pong back and back
Speaker 2: and forth. And I'm playing ping pong against Allen, I think.
Speaker 2: And John was sitting on one of the bean bags
Speaker 2: rolling a joint or some so. And there are a
Speaker 2: couple of other people in there. And one of the
Speaker 2: girls burst into the room with this guy, two guys,
Speaker 2: and she said, boys, I've got the manager of the
Speaker 2: Average White Band here. I'm going to take him upstairs
Speaker 2: and we're going to have some fun. This is the
Speaker 2: lead singer, can you look after him? And the lead
Speaker 2: singer of a major band. He's well and truly cut
Speaker 2: as well, I must say. On the Booze and.
Speaker 1: WB known by their un known by their acronym.
Speaker 2: That's right. Anyway, We said, yeah, yeah, yeah, it'll be right.
Speaker 2: Get out of the way, and he's sort of there
Speaker 2: and said just sit over in the corner there John
Speaker 2: Riley my joint. Will you sit over in the corner
Speaker 2: that it doesn't get in the way. We're playing serious game.
Speaker 2: He wasn't used to being spoken to her this way,
Speaker 2: so he stuck around long enough to grab the joint,
Speaker 2: and then he disappeared. And when we finished our game
Speaker 2: of a ping pong or whatever you call it, me
Speaker 2: and gone into my room, and there he has collapsed
Speaker 2: on my bed, flaked out. So we decided we'd tared
Speaker 2: him up a bit. So we put a tennis cracket
Speaker 2: in one hand, a long handled feather duster in the
Speaker 2: other hand. We squirted some what do he called a
Speaker 2: toothpaste on his thing. We got some sugar and sprinkled
Speaker 2: it down and having his fly and dropped it down
Speaker 2: some down there. And we got whipped cream and put
Speaker 2: that in various places and what have you. And I
Speaker 2: might put a motorcycle helmet on his head. And then
Speaker 2: we were retired to various places to get a bit
Speaker 2: of kip. I went upstairs to know whose room it was,
Speaker 2: but I found a nook and I lay down had
Speaker 2: a sleep, And the next morning, apparently I didn't hear this,
Speaker 2: but he woke up and in a rage you know,
Speaker 2: all this sugar and stuff made him. It's like crazy.
Speaker 2: He's belleted and roared and he's come out of the bedroom,
Speaker 2: knocked the door off its hinges, and unfortunately a blake
Speaker 2: called Michael from the bushes. He lived in a cardboard
Speaker 2: box up in the garden area. Yeah, Michael was harmless,
Speaker 2: you know, totally harmless. Anyway, he knocked Michael out, and Shirley,
Speaker 2: the house mother, called us all down. He just took off.
Speaker 2: We don't know whether singer of the Average White Band went,
Speaker 2: but it wasn't with us. And Shirley called us down,
Speaker 2: and she said, and I wrote a note and put
Speaker 2: it on his chest and the note said you are
Speaker 2: now known as the Tasty Morsel. And Shirley said, I
Speaker 2: want you all to write on a note you are
Speaker 2: now known as the tasty so I can determine who
Speaker 2: did wrote. And I've got my left hand and I'm
Speaker 2: right handed. I've got my left hand on trying, and
Speaker 2: then we're all doing the same thing, laughing about it all. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was quite funny.
Speaker 1: Trying to think who he was called. Were very famous.
Speaker 2: I knew his name for a long time, Alan somebody maybe. Anyway,
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: They were so famous that there were send ups of
Speaker 1: the name. You know. I had a friend who was
Speaker 1: a very funny Greek guy who played Berzooki in a
Speaker 1: traditional Greek band at weddings because it was good money.
Speaker 1: And he called his band the Berzoki Band, the A.
Speaker 2: W B.
Speaker 1: Average wog band, that that was the Greek guy's I joke. Yeah,
Speaker 1: funny guys.
Speaker 2: So anyway, I was. I was living there. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: had Hawthorne and something gone wrong with a shipment that arrived,
Speaker 2: and I got a call from Gator and we had
Speaker 2: a red phone in the house and I go, Roud,
Speaker 2: there's a call for you, And I went over and
Speaker 2: there he said.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: He said, listen, can you meet me at that place
Speaker 2: where we you know, we exchanged those squash bags. And
Speaker 2: I immediately heard something in his voice and I thought,
Speaker 2: I'm no longer for this planet if I'm meeting and
Speaker 2: I said, I can't mate. I said, I'm sorry. I'm
Speaker 2: getting on a plane going to Tasmany very shortly, and
Speaker 2: I got out of there and I got a plane
Speaker 2: back to South Australia and I stayed there for a
Speaker 2: year and a half. It all cleared up what was
Speaker 2: that about. It was about a shipment of tysticks that
Speaker 2: I had picked up at the airport that I was
Speaker 2: paid for with in kind. It was with thirty thousand
Speaker 2: dollars where of goodies, and I then just delivered it
Speaker 2: to my mate and he then I didn't know what
Speaker 2: happened to it from there, but he then took it
Speaker 2: up to the central Coast and stored it in a
Speaker 2: house was for rent and stupidly didn't check. He must
Speaker 2: have got word from one agent, yeah you can do that,
Speaker 2: and didn't talk to another agent who showed a couple
Speaker 2: through the house to rent and what's this big box?
Speaker 2: And of course they called the police and the box
Speaker 2: is gone and the box is worth millions in today's terms.
Speaker 2: So he's trying to work out how that could have
Speaker 2: gone off and he just wasn't thinking straight. And I
Speaker 2: was first man in his sight or something. Who knows,
Speaker 2: and he rang me nothing to do with you, No, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: I didn't know where it went.
Speaker 1: So this is gator rings. Yes, and you just went
Speaker 1: straight to the airport. I thought, I'm off straight the
Speaker 1: airport and you told him you're going to Tazzy. You
Speaker 1: flew to Adelaide and you stayed in Adelaide. Why did
Speaker 1: you do that? You sort of had a target on
Speaker 1: your back, Oh yeah, or possibly on your forehead.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, and not the last one either. My
Speaker 2: sister was working in a pub there, the Broadway Hotel,
Speaker 2: and I'd been there a couple of weeks before, just
Speaker 2: to say good ador. I had time on my hand,
Speaker 2: so I flew over there and she introduced me to
Speaker 2: a blake called the Gouger. It was interesting. I did
Speaker 2: a lot of drinking with the Gouger's right. Every day.
Speaker 2: Every day I just drank. I didn't do any business.
Speaker 1: What did you use for money?
Speaker 2: I had a lot, Yeah, had a lot of mone
Speaker 2: What sort.
Speaker 1: Of money had you made in that time in Sydney?
Speaker 1: How long were you in Sydney and working on the
Speaker 1: drug thousands and so in this era, I was a
Speaker 1: kidne I made three grand in a year you made
Speaker 1: you made fifty.
Speaker 2: On one weekend, I made thirty thousand, which was more
Speaker 2: than the chairman of the BHP.
Speaker 1: You made a year's salary for the.
Speaker 2: Chairman of BHP.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you got thirty thousand for two days work. Is
Speaker 1: that right? So you were obviously taking big risks you
Speaker 1: would have done twenty years in or whatever, fifteen years
Speaker 1: and five serious jail time. That's the risk you were taking.
Speaker 1: And they paid you well and there was no problem
Speaker 1: until there's a consignment goes missing, which is nothing to
Speaker 1: do with you. Do you think the other block that
Speaker 1: put it in the rented house is just a dial
Speaker 1: or did he set it up?
Speaker 2: Who knows?
Speaker 1: What do you think?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I've never even thought about it. It
Speaker 2: would be pure speculation. I don't know who put it
Speaker 2: in the house.
Speaker 1: Oh it's not nobody union box.
Speaker 2: It's in his garage. He gives me my pay. I'm
Speaker 2: off right, right, and he whatever he did, he did right,
Speaker 2: paid cash for you. No, no, I didn't paid cash.
Speaker 2: I got paid sticks. Oh okay, I got paid sticks
Speaker 2: which I sold and made.
Speaker 1: So eighteen months in basically one pub, and you get
Speaker 1: very sick of that pub in Adelaide.
Speaker 2: Oh no, not at all.
Speaker 1: Nod you like a drink, Oh help, not as much
Speaker 1: as you did. I wasn't as sister, not as thirsty
Speaker 1: as you.
Speaker 2: So I used to sit at the bar with the
Speaker 2: gouger from about ten in the morning.
Speaker 1: Till what was he using for money? Your money.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I held him out a bit, you know, And
Speaker 2: he was punting. And then we started an sp book.
Speaker 2: We started the book and the gouger would sit in
Speaker 2: the pub and the bets and he'd bring him straight
Speaker 2: through to me on the payphone. I was up in
Speaker 2: my house that i'd rented up in Allgate, up in
Speaker 2: the hills, and i'd write the bets down. So on
Speaker 2: there one Saturday and I'm riding the bets down. I've
Speaker 2: just had a shower. I've got a towel wrap round.
Speaker 2: I'm a big bugger, you know. It's bigger than I
Speaker 2: am now, ninety five kil isn't it. And the gouge
Speaker 2: rings me and he says, I've got some bets. I said,
Speaker 2: hang on a minute, there's someone at the door. The
Speaker 2: blake was at the door. I'd break my own rule.
Speaker 2: I've had some cocaine I was selling for a friend,
Speaker 2: the only time of salt powder. And there's the result
Speaker 2: of it. And I let this bike in. He shut
Speaker 2: up the cocaine and fell on his back and swallowing
Speaker 2: his tongue in my kitchen and I.
Speaker 1: Say, as you tell us this, you are holding up
Speaker 1: to the microphone a hand that's only got four fingers
Speaker 1: because one thirty and the seventh one once knocked off
Speaker 1: at the first at the first joint, which is why
Speaker 1: you're telling this story. You've poked your finger down his neck.
Speaker 2: Then he's straight. Well, he's choking, so I want in
Speaker 2: diamond my finger. He chewed down on the finger. Thought
Speaker 2: I prised his mouth up and I got the finger out,
Speaker 2: and I thought, I'll knock him out. And when I
Speaker 2: got the finger out, he chewed it right down to
Speaker 2: the bone. Didn't chew the finger off, just chewed it
Speaker 2: down to the buck and chewed the tendon off. And
Speaker 2: did it hurt. No, No, you don't think about stuff
Speaker 2: like that while it's happening. Nothing hurts while that's happening.
Speaker 2: Fear doesn't come into it while it's happening. It all
Speaker 2: comes at the plain, and the fear come hard towards right.
Speaker 1: And then you had to go to apostle.
Speaker 2: And then I rang the gouger while this blake's vibrating
Speaker 2: across the floor chewing a finger and punching me in
Speaker 2: the head. I've got the phone stuck under my ear,
Speaker 2: and I said, I get an ambulance up here. I've
Speaker 2: got a blake's overdosing on cocaine. And then I prized
Speaker 2: his jaw appen, which is you've got to be bloody
Speaker 2: strong and desperate to do that. And the minute I
Speaker 2: got my finger out, he relaxed, and he's land up
Speaker 2: against the wall and he's wiped his face in his
Speaker 2: bloody Your blood, yeah, my blood, I said, not your blood, mine,
Speaker 2: I said, listen, get out the ambulances on this way.
Speaker 2: The copers won't be far behind it. So then I'm
Speaker 2: running around. I've just had a shower. Remember the towels
Speaker 2: come off me. I'm running around the middle of winter, Adelaide,
Speaker 2: winter out in the backyard, burying bedding, slips under cocaine,
Speaker 2: worried that the police are going to walk in the
Speaker 2: door at any moment.
Speaker 1: And I've reached it for indecent exposures exactly see. And
Speaker 1: who turned up the ambulance.
Speaker 2: No one, no one. I just got everything buried, and
Speaker 2: then I threw some duds on and I raced down.
Speaker 2: I went to the Orgate hospital. They dressed it, and
Speaker 2: then I got in the car and I drove down
Speaker 2: to the Broadway and I said to the gouger. He said,
Speaker 2: everything all right, and I said, well, no, not really.
Speaker 2: And I was shod him the finger, which is all
Speaker 2: bandies up. And he said, I said, I can't believe
Speaker 2: the police didn't arrive and the Amblace didn't arrive. I
Speaker 2: said it, I didn't call them. I said, you didn't
Speaker 2: call them. I said, I told you Blaker's buddy possibly
Speaker 2: going to die. He said, we'd have buried the body.
Speaker 1: Oh is that right? Yeah, this is the goucher the
Speaker 1: go and he's a pretty hard case.
Speaker 2: For she was a very hard case. It was a
Speaker 2: good blake. But he killed too man in his time.
Speaker 2: One punch death's or he punched somebody and they'd just
Speaker 2: fallen the wrong way. And I think he carried the
Speaker 2: weight of that. I remember him saying to me when
Speaker 2: we were our caps one night. Don't ever kill anybody,
Speaker 2: he said, just stays with you for life. You don't
Speaker 2: ever shake it. He's dead. Yeah, I haven't killed anybody,
Speaker 2: and I don't want to kill anybody. And I don't
Speaker 2: want to have to dispose of a body. I think
Speaker 2: it's just it goes against the way I was raised.
Speaker 2: So I'd have to drop myself in it, you know,
Speaker 2: come up with some story. But drop myself in it,
Speaker 2: and anyway, I'm glad it didn't work out that way.
Speaker 2: But then I ended up in Flinder's Medical Center because
Speaker 2: I wake up the next morning. They said, change the
Speaker 2: dress in every two hours or something. Put this powder
Speaker 2: on it, and of course I got drunk and went
Speaker 2: home and just didn't wake up ten hours later with
Speaker 2: my hand under my NAIs and stinking, and I immediately
Speaker 2: went down to Flint's Medical Center and I had septa seemia,
Speaker 2: so they put me under and scraped the skin and
Speaker 2: flesh away and down to the bone. Your surgeon came
Speaker 2: to see me afterwards, and he said how much do
Speaker 2: you drink? He said, you're aware that you came out
Speaker 2: of the the anesthetic twice and I said, yeah, I
Speaker 2: know that. I said, you're telling the nurses, you're impressing
Speaker 2: them about the new Mercedes you sport. He just looked
Speaker 2: at me, stunned, and he said how much do you drink?
Speaker 2: I said, oh, I don't know, thirty maybe forty beers
Speaker 2: and a few scotches. He said, what a week? I said, no,
Speaker 2: a day, and he just shook his head.
Speaker 1: He was and you'd come out of the a a
Speaker 1: seat because your body.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he said, we put more. I can't remember the drake,
Speaker 2: but we put more of that into you than we've
Speaker 2: ever used on any patient in this medical center.
Speaker 1: He said, yep.
Speaker 2: There were two moments in time where it's sort of
Speaker 2: jumping forward a bit, but where I break on the record,
Speaker 2: and that was one and the other was when they
Speaker 2: pinched me in Wagga eventually pinched me in Wogan. I
Speaker 2: end up in jail, and when in my core case
Speaker 2: they said that the New Sophial's Drug Laboratory has analyzed
Speaker 2: this marijuana miss Hols it was caught with, and it
Speaker 2: has got the highest level of THC content of any
Speaker 2: drugs ever analyzed in this laboratory. Oh is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Only ever saw a good day. I shouldn't. I shouldn't
Speaker 2: make fun of it. I'm actually if anybody is the
Speaker 2: ideal candidate as a campaigner against drugs, it's me. I
Speaker 2: hate the bloody things. I don't dislike field graum marijuana.
Speaker 2: It's got its medicinal services and properties, and I don't
Speaker 2: know that I've never known anybody to go with their
Speaker 2: trolley smoking dape. More people on booze as you well know.
Speaker 2: But as to powder acid, the marijuana they grow these
Speaker 2: days using chemicals to I hate it. I despise it,
Speaker 2: and I despised and Rex families, not just the individual
Speaker 2: Rex family. So I'm a I'm a big Andi drug.
Speaker 1: Campaigner and you know from the inside out. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: that's Adelaide. You've lost a finger. You've gained a friend
Speaker 1: who's maybe I don't know if he's an asset to
Speaker 1: you or not.
Speaker 2: The gouger, the gouger introduced me to Bob Hawk. We
Speaker 2: got on.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well the gouger was a shearer and a labor party man. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Mick Young, Mick Young, Mick Young. He introduced me, and
Speaker 2: Mick Young took me to Mick Young's house for a
Speaker 2: labor thing one night, did he yep? And when he
Speaker 2: was head of the trade union, he burst into the
Speaker 2: door of the Broado Hotel one afternoon lunchtime.
Speaker 1: Goager, here you going there? We're going down the port
Speaker 1: for a drink.
Speaker 2: And Gougers said, Bobby said, I'd like you to meet
Speaker 2: my friend, right, He said, here, you're going right, and
Speaker 2: I right on me And I'll tell you what. When
Speaker 2: you're in Bob's company and you were talking with him,
Speaker 2: you're the only person in the room as far as
Speaker 2: you're concerned. He never took his eyes off you, and
Speaker 2: he was genuinely interested. He was a very interesting man.
Speaker 2: I've never seen anybody hold a room the way Hawpit
Speaker 2: hold of room. So we went down the port and
Speaker 2: we got on the turfs here and there were blacks
Speaker 2: off from the getting a fridge or get him a TV.
Speaker 2: You know, they were all working on the docks, and
Speaker 2: Bob graciously declined on each occasion.
Speaker 1: Yes, he was home, really South Australian. And what happened next.
Speaker 2: Left Adelaide, went to Aubrey, met a girl, got married,
Speaker 2: and it was good for a while. It was good
Speaker 2: for a long time.
Speaker 1: Actually, we're still on the booze.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I was still drinking.
Speaker 1: You're in Aubury, you're on the booze big time. You're married.
Speaker 1: I think your father in law doesn't love it, because
Speaker 1: you'd be described yourself with a critical light at that time.
Speaker 1: You're a smart ass.
Speaker 2: He would have seen me as such. Yeah, and quite frankly,
Speaker 2: you know, yes I was, because I remember a good
Speaker 2: made of mine saying to him years and years later
Speaker 2: when I save it up and back in Aubury. He said,
Speaker 2: when you were living here in Aubury at that time,
Speaker 2: he said, you were the most pompous person I'd ever
Speaker 2: met in my life. And I was stunned to hear it.
Speaker 2: But on reflection, that's exactly what I was. I was
Speaker 2: so full of myself, you know, the Blaker has been
Speaker 2: everywhere and done everything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was a bore and which, by the way.
Speaker 2: Is the worst insult you can ever offer a man. Yes,
Speaker 2: you're a.
Speaker 1: Bore any version of that word. Really, And you got
Speaker 1: interested in acting at some point? Was that much later?
Speaker 1: That was later, But that's all part of the game.
Speaker 1: There was a bit of an actor, A hell of.
Speaker 2: A lot of acting in the in the d trade,
Speaker 2: in bar work, just in being you know, in winning.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of acting in winning. Some people call
Speaker 2: it people pleasing. I don't call it that. That's a
Speaker 2: deliberate attempt to make people like you that always comes
Speaker 2: to disaster. It's so obvious. It's about fitting in, being entertaining,
Speaker 2: and allowing the other person to get their bloody word
Speaker 2: in you. If you're going to talk all the time
Speaker 2: and over the top of people, you are a.
Speaker 1: Bore, you know, fully yourself because you've had ups and
Speaker 1: downs and ups and downs and ups and downs. What
Speaker 1: happened next?
Speaker 2: A mate from North Queensland contacted me and said I've
Speaker 2: got this stuff and can you move afore me? And
Speaker 2: I'd retired. I got out of the game. I hadn't
Speaker 2: been pinched and not even been questioned about it, and
Speaker 2: I said, yeah right. I wanted to make some money
Speaker 2: because I was working as a barman, getting barman's wages.
Speaker 2: And when you go from thirty grand in two days
Speaker 2: to barman's wages, the temptations too strong and I got
Speaker 2: pinched and police pistol in my head in Wagga and
Speaker 2: I ended up in court and ended up being given
Speaker 2: a year on the bottom and six years on the top.
Speaker 2: I got the year on the bottom because of the
Speaker 2: incredible bloody argument my barrister put up. They wanted to
Speaker 2: give me eight months which mains straight to maximum security,
Speaker 2: with a year to silver Water. I was in silver
Speaker 2: Water for about six weeks, got transferred from there to
Speaker 2: go directly to Manus Prison farm in Tambaramba via Golban
Speaker 2: for one night, but the screws were on strike out,
Speaker 2: spending four days and nights in Golban and the first
Speaker 2: day that I was in there, they released me into
Speaker 2: Sea Yard. And the stuff I saw in Sea Yard
Speaker 2: was so vile. What these guys weightlifting and what have you?
Speaker 2: What they were doing with these three white boys. I
Speaker 2: called the screw over and I said, if you don't
Speaker 2: get me out of this yard now, I'm never going
Speaker 2: to leave jail. I'm either going to get killed or
Speaker 2: I'm going to stay here for murder because I will
Speaker 2: go over there to those weightlifters and I will tear
Speaker 2: into them. Now, how many am I going to do?
Speaker 2: The serious boys? So the screw very kindly sent me
Speaker 2: up to the library and I spent three days in
Speaker 2: the library and then I'm transferred to Manus Prison Farm,
Speaker 2: where I did the remainder of my sentence, which was
Speaker 2: about four months. Hopefully I was in there for twelve months.
Speaker 2: But if they say you've done something wrong with you
Speaker 2: stepped out of line, then they can extend it and
Speaker 2: send you back to the bay. I mean, I had six.
Speaker 1: Years on the top, so it could have ended up. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean some of those guys who were getting booze
Speaker 2: brought into the perimeter fence and going running down there
Speaker 2: after dark and grabbing it, and one of them offered
Speaker 2: me a beer, and one of the other guys said, no,
Speaker 2: don't you doddy touch it. He said, you do anything wrong,
Speaker 2: He said, you get shango back. I was looked after.
Speaker 2: I mean, I was thirty years of age, obvious, baby
Speaker 2: or anything. But these guys, if they like you, they'll
Speaker 2: steer you right, It's like, and why did they like you?
Speaker 2: I was genuine. Now I'd look them in the eye,
Speaker 2: I'd tell them the truth. I refer umpire a game
Speaker 2: of footing in there. One of the most dangerous hour
Speaker 2: and a half.
Speaker 1: Is that a fact?
Speaker 2: They looken't like the whistle being blown on him.
Speaker 1: Oh they didn't, were they were? They a little bit rough?
Speaker 2: Oh the blakes are coming up and chesting me and saying,
Speaker 2: you know what do you think you're doing? That's not
Speaker 2: a free kick. And I said, mate, I'm just I
Speaker 2: couldn't play because I had a crooked legs, so I
Speaker 2: couldn't run off.
Speaker 1: Oh that's not good.
Speaker 2: And you don't run.
Speaker 1: Anyway, No, you don't run's refereeing. The most dangerous time
Speaker 1: of your very dangerous life was umpiring a game of
Speaker 1: reels football at tumb on a prison fan.
Speaker 2: There was another time we played a game of a
Speaker 2: cricket against the town Is on the town Oval. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I played in it. Oh yeah, and I whacked
Speaker 2: a few balls and what have you. But this this
Speaker 2: other guy has gone crack and he's hit a massive
Speaker 2: six over the fence and into the trees and bushes,
Speaker 2: and well, every ey that was blake playing again says
Speaker 2: we're fielding. Every fielder on the field started running for
Speaker 2: the fence.
Speaker 1: Convicts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, screws are blowing their whissels right there, can't anybody
Speaker 2: go over the events.
Speaker 1: A couple of them may not come back. Yeah, Oh,
Speaker 1: how funny is that? Now your book is.
Speaker 2: Called take My Advice? I'm not using it published by
Speaker 2: published by Allen.
Speaker 1: And how many years in the making.
Speaker 2: Well, Barry Humphreys suggested I write it twenty six years ago. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'd thought about writing a book well before then. But
Speaker 2: he's saying that to me.
Speaker 1: Prompted me an AA meeting, was it? Yeah, at the
Speaker 1: end we're at Bundo Beach, Bundo Beach. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: talk too much about AA. We ourselves, we don't use
Speaker 1: to publicize ourselves. But saved my life, so I'll say that,
Speaker 1: and you know it's a piece of history. Barry, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Barry's always alcohol. We're very yeah, and I have to you.
Speaker 2: Know, I met some wonderful people there. But he suggested that.
Speaker 2: So that was twenty six years ago. And then I
Speaker 2: got saber and built businesses. And I started one business,
Speaker 2: a pressure washing business in aubury when I was sixty two.
Speaker 2: Started with five grand, and I sold it eight years later.
Speaker 2: It maybe a million dollars. I didn't get a million
Speaker 2: dollars for it. I got six figures for it, mid
Speaker 2: six figures, and I owned a house out of it ditch,
Speaker 2: had no debt. But yeah, I may well over a
Speaker 2: million dollars off that five grand, purely by getting out
Speaker 2: of bed early and working and by selling by marketing.
Speaker 2: Marketing is the key to body business success. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: don't know you're there. They won't come.
Speaker 1: So possibly your next book might be about how I
Speaker 1: turned five bucks into whatever. You know now, I dare say.
Speaker 1: We could go on a lot, but you can't tell
Speaker 1: every story that's in the book, because there are dozens
Speaker 1: of stories in the book, and this is just a
Speaker 1: select sample of them. Where did the title come from?
Speaker 2: An AA meeting. Did it, Yeah, it's not my thought.
Speaker 2: Somebody said that really early on? Did that? He said
Speaker 2: take my advice, I'm not using it, and I heard it.
Speaker 2: That's the title. The reason this book is with Alan
Speaker 2: Arman is because I was at a literary event at
Speaker 2: Aubrey Library and Chris Masters was speaking yes and he
Speaker 2: was talking about a particular businessman and he's involvement in crime.
Speaker 2: And I went up to him after as I said,
Speaker 2: you're on the money, and he just looked me up
Speaker 2: and down. He said, how would you know? And I
Speaker 2: told him about my history with Gaeta and say Fith
Speaker 2: and we had a chat for about ten minutes and
Speaker 2: I told him I was intended writing my last story
Speaker 2: and he said, if you have any trouble getting a publisher,
Speaker 2: give me a call, and he gave me his card.
Speaker 2: I was sitting at home ten years later on a
Speaker 2: Sunday watching the show that Masters put on about Robert Smith,
Speaker 2: and I thought I still got his number and I
Speaker 2: look at my phone. There it was. I sent him
Speaker 2: a text three o'clock Sunday, AVO. A minute later I
Speaker 2: got a text back sent me the first thirty pages,
Speaker 2: which I did half hour later. I got a text back,
Speaker 2: do you want me to approach my publisher or do
Speaker 2: you want to do it nice a year please? And
Speaker 2: he's the one who introduced me to Elizabeth Wes, the publisher. Yes,
Speaker 2: and but for Chris, I'd still be knocking on doors.
Speaker 1: I shook his hand last night at a riper Blakes
Speaker 1: but yeah, great reporter and yeah, very gutsy, gutsyutsy, great
Speaker 1: family full of Yeah. Yeah, yeah, well that's so wonderful
Speaker 1: young you and Chris Masters.
Speaker 2: I just want to say thanks to him, because that
Speaker 2: sort of help is invaluable, and to yourself too, and
Speaker 2: to Bill Gray and to all the other people who
Speaker 2: have stepped in and give me a leg up. You know,
Speaker 2: I don't mention Blake's names. They might not appreciate it,
Speaker 2: but there are people in the radio game who have
Speaker 2: really through introductions of people. Don't know. I looked at
Speaker 2: my phone recently, got four thousand names in there. Two
Speaker 2: thousand of my clients, but two thousand of my No. Personally,
Speaker 2: what do you doing that? You sold your business in aubury?
Speaker 2: What are you doing now? Book in the book? That's it?
Speaker 2: By copy?
Speaker 1: With that? Yeah? Oh well, I promise and that's all
Speaker 1: I'm talking to people listening to us out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: won't regret it. Rod Helsteed, thanks for coming in all
Speaker 1: the way from Aubrey and we hope to see you again.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I want to thank you.
Speaker 1: Andrew.
Speaker 2: Thanks very much for having.
Speaker 1: Me, Thanks for listening. Life and Crimes is a Sunday
Speaker 1: Herald Sun production for true crime Australia. Our producer is
Speaker 1: Johnny Burton. For my columns, features and more, go to
Speaker 1: Heroldsun dot com dot au forward slash Andrew rule one word.
Speaker 1: For advertising inquiries, go to news podcasts sold at news
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