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Speaker 1: Before we begin. This podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence.

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Speaker 1: This is a production by The Australian and our subscribers.

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Speaker 1: Here episodes first and get full access to photos, video,

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Speaker 1: news stories and features plus all Australia's best journalism twenty

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Speaker 1: four to seven. Join us at Gangstersghost dot com dot au.

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Speaker 2: Well, well, well, here he is. I found him. I'm

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Speaker 2: in the Tweedheads Memorial Gardens the Lawn Cemetery and I'm

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Speaker 2: standing above the gravestone for John Edward Milligan born thirteenth

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Speaker 2: of March nineteen forty four died the third of December

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Speaker 2: nineteen ninety three. Just south of the strange red towering

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Speaker 2: lego like signpost on the M one Highway that marks

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Speaker 2: the southern border between Queensland and New South Wales, you

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Speaker 2: cross a bridge above Terra Noorah Creek and just past

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Speaker 2: the creek you turn left into Kirkwood Road. Soon after,

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Speaker 2: on your right you'll see the entrance to the Tweedhead's

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Speaker 2: Memorial Gardens, a beautifully appointed place for a remembrance of

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Speaker 2: cremated loved ones that has been in operation since nineteen

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Speaker 2: seventy two. It was here I found the last resting

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Speaker 2: place of John Edward Milligans peculiar characters in this story.

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Speaker 2: His little slate stone is so bland compared to the

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Speaker 2: life of this incredible character. This individual, who was intelligent,

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Speaker 2: High Camp Florid, an extraordinary, dynamic individual, came from this

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Speaker 2: region amazing five lives in one real estate agent, accountant, businessman, lawyer,

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Speaker 2: and most importantly, near the end of his life, major

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Speaker 2: major heroin importer, one of the first wholesale heroin importers

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Speaker 2: into Australia in the nineteen seventies. So Milligan kicked around

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Speaker 2: in Brisbane in the early nineteen seventies and his life

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Speaker 2: became entangled with Stuart John Reagan. Reagan started spending a

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Speaker 2: lot of time expanding his criminal empire into Queensland in

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Speaker 2: the early nineteen seventies, and his go to man, his

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Speaker 2: Sunshine State sidekick, was Milligan. This thin, skinny, balding, blonde haired,

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Speaker 2: tousl head character who would dress up in capes where

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Speaker 2: he would dress up as a priest or a bishop,

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Speaker 2: and yet lived this extraordinarily lascivious life if you like

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Speaker 2: underground life in Brisbane came into contact with Reagan in

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Speaker 2: the early seventies. It's one of the more interesting odd

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Speaker 2: couples in this entire story, well in criminal history. Really

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Speaker 2: like any couple, albeit wedded by their criminality, they had

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Speaker 2: their ups and downs, and when they fell out, Milligan

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Speaker 2: was lucky Reagan didn't put a bullet in his head.

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Speaker 2: But Milligan was rat cunning, smart, meticulously organized, and had

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Speaker 2: lots of connections in high places. They called Milligan the

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Speaker 2: clown prints of drugs. He was that and a lot more.

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Speaker 2: He was, in fact, a very dangerous player in the

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Speaker 2: then infant industry of wholesale heroine importation. He was mister

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Speaker 2: Asia before mister Asia, and he could be ruthless. I'm

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Speaker 2: just looking down over the lawn cemetery where mister Milligan

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Speaker 2: is interred, and it just occurred to me, with a

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Speaker 2: bit of a grin on my face, that I don't

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Speaker 2: think Reagan had a clue what he was getting into

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Speaker 2: when he hooked.

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Speaker 3: Up with Milligan.

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Speaker 2: I don't think he had any idea of the roller

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Speaker 2: coaster ride he was about to embark on when he

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Speaker 2: went up to Queensland to do business on several fronts,

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Speaker 2: and there was Milligan in the fray in the picture,

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Speaker 2: his sort of sunshine sidekick, totally eccentric, unpredictable, a brilliant mind,

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Speaker 2: and boy was Reagan in for a shock and a

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Speaker 2: surprise off they went. Know this about Stuart John Reagan.

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Speaker 2: He treated his body like a temple. No fats, no sugars,

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Speaker 2: no smoking, no alcohol. He stood out as a clean

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Speaker 2: skin in a generation that was turning onto marijuana and magic,

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Speaker 2: mushrooms and psychedelics. He led a clean life, but behind

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Speaker 2: the facade he hooked up with the hedonistic John Edward

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Speaker 2: Milligan for one reason and one reason only drugs. I'm

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Speaker 2: journalist Matthew Condon and This is the Gangster's Ghost, a

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Speaker 2: podcast from The Australian. This podcast started out as a

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Speaker 2: clinical look at one of Australia's most reviled gangsters, but

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Speaker 2: when the Reagan family came on board, the project took

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Speaker 2: on another dimension and the question how does a family

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Speaker 2: cope with the generational stain of a murderer whose death

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Speaker 2: was celebrated by criminals and police alike. This is episode seven,

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Speaker 2: Traveling North.

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Speaker 4: Life is great in the Sunshine State.

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Speaker 5: Every Queensland heart sings a song to its table.

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Speaker 2: At the dawn of the nineteen seventy Reagan looked north

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Speaker 2: to Queensland to grow his businesses. If he was going

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Speaker 2: to be the biggest gangster in Australia, then he needed

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Speaker 2: to expand. Like everything he did, Reagan operated at breakneck speed.

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Speaker 6: Was mannic, had.

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Speaker 2: Quickly grown over confident, and the worst thing of all,

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Speaker 2: he'd lost his manners as a gangster. North of the Tweed.

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Speaker 2: He must have thought the banana benders would be easy pickings.

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Speaker 2: It's unclear if Reagan, just in his mid twenties, was

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Speaker 2: aware of the unique characteristics of crime and corruption Queensland style.

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Speaker 2: It was a vastly different arrangement from the system he

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Speaker 2: was used to in New South Wales. Up north, there

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Speaker 2: were no big bosses like Paddles Andersen, Lenny McPherson and

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Speaker 2: George Freeman running the show from the half shadows. No

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Speaker 2: infamous overlords in control of vice, protecting their patch, staying

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Speaker 2: in their lanes and sharing the spoils of their crimes

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Speaker 2: with corrupt police. No, in Queensland, the big dogs who

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Speaker 2: masterminded the criminal network and its operations were the police themselves.

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Speaker 2: They decided who could do what in the underworld. This

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Speaker 2: powerful cabal of corrupt coppers owned the game. Indeed, any

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Speaker 2: criminals who decided to venture into their territory without permission

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Speaker 2: were summarily dealt with. Crooks from top to bottom needed

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Speaker 2: sanction from the infamous rat Pack of corrupt police Tony Murphy,

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Speaker 2: Glen Hallahan, Terry Lewis. To be able to work in

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Speaker 2: the Sunshine State, they had to get a sort of

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Speaker 2: criminal green card. Only then could they earn and in

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Speaker 2: turn surrender a large percentage of the spoils with the cops.

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Speaker 2: The rat Pack had been working the system in Queensland

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Speaker 2: since the nineteen fifties, and by the time Reagan decided

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Speaker 2: to put up a shingle in their backyard, they had

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Speaker 2: perfected their corruption machine, known colloquially as the Joke. But

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Speaker 2: would they accept a so called psychopathic Sydney gangster like

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Speaker 2: Reagan on their turf.

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Speaker 4: All the while every mile as a sun and smile

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Speaker 4: and a welcome and jafel.

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Speaker 7: All friendship sprang in the Sunshine State.

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Speaker 8: The Sunshine firing.

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Speaker 2: By Reagan had already established his deadly reputation. Cross him

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Speaker 2: and your life could be in danger. His numerous Sydney

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Speaker 2: businesses were pulling in good cash. He owned dozens of

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Speaker 2: properties throughout New South Wales none were ever listed in

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Speaker 2: his name, and was always looking to expand his portfolio.

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Speaker 2: Queensland seemed like a good fit and he had some

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Speaker 2: powerful incentives to flex his muscle in some new territory.

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Speaker 2: The brothel Madam Shirley Briffman was in hiding after ratting

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Speaker 2: out criminals and corrupt police in Sydney, and she needed

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Speaker 2: to pay for those loose lips. Reagan, ever, the parasite,

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Speaker 2: must have reasoned he could leverage her for a quid.

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Speaker 2: Then there was his curious relationship with John Edward Miller. Milligan,

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Speaker 2: eccentric and demonstrably gay, was a brilliant former Brisbane judges

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Speaker 2: associate who had turned his back on the law and

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Speaker 2: decided it was more fun and profitable to break it.

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Speaker 5: He was well dressed, always wore business of color, usually

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Speaker 5: a waistcoat. He was very dabba. He was only a

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Speaker 5: smallish man, a small crying and he had a receding chin.

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Speaker 5: He was a generalist. Wonder why he saw the hair

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Speaker 5: receding from the front. Didn't have a lot of hair,

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Speaker 5: but he had some.

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Speaker 2: You know. This is former Federal Bureau of Narcotics agent

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Speaker 2: Brian Bennett. I spoke to Brian years ago about his

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Speaker 2: work on the streets, just as the drug trade was

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Speaker 2: gathering momentum in the late nineteen sixties and early nineteen seventies. Naturally,

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Speaker 2: Brian remembered Milligan.

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Speaker 5: When I say he was Dabba. Recall one time I

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Speaker 5: was up in King's Cross in McClay Street doing the

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Speaker 5: var on another job, and on the old Milligan walks

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Speaker 5: down the street. He was wearing ten striped trousers spats.

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Speaker 5: Now I've never seen bats in my life left on

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Speaker 5: Philip and he was toiling a gold top cane. It's

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Speaker 5: not about theatrical. I mean, as I said, he was

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Speaker 5: with care for his Christal.

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Speaker 2: Milligan was fascinated with the gangster life and he found

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Speaker 2: its supreme embodiment in Reagan. They were the unlikeliest of

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Speaker 2: criminal partners, the stocky Reagan with his dark good looks

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Speaker 2: alongside the effeminate Milligan with his unconventional fashion sense that

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Speaker 2: included walking canes and capes. John Schobrook, also a former

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Speaker 2: Federal Bureau of Narcotics agent based in Brisbane and friend

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Speaker 2: and work colleague of Brian Bennett, would ultimately arrest Milligan

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Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy nine. And conduct a famous record of

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Speaker 2: interview that would lay bare the corrupt players in the

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Speaker 2: Queensland underworld. Shobrook would pay dearly for being an honest

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Speaker 2: law enforcement officer stuck in a swamp of corruption. And

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Speaker 2: even though he was only in his early twenties when

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Speaker 2: he apprehended Milligan, Schobrook knew he had dynamite on his hand.

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Speaker 2: Milligan was way ahead of his time as a crook.

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Speaker 2: He developed a filing system of small index cards. On

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Speaker 2: the cards, he wrote information on everyone he ever met

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Speaker 2: and kept them for future reference. Information, as they say,

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Speaker 2: is power. For some reason, during their interview, Milligan opened

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Speaker 2: up to Shobbrook, now retired and still living in Brisbane.

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Speaker 2: I asked John about the peculiar relationship between Milligan and Reagan.

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Speaker 2: I'm trying to understand what a flamboyant, bisexual ex lawyer,

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Speaker 2: come real estate agent, come pimp would associate with an

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Speaker 2: absolute a one alpha male Sydney gangster like Stuart John Reagan.

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Speaker 9: Well, we've got to ask yourselves what did he offer them?

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Speaker 9: Maybe it was his intelligence. I don't know how intelligent

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Speaker 9: Stuart John Reagan was, but maybe it was Milligan's intelligence.

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Speaker 9: Maybe on a one to one basis. When you're speaking

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Speaker 9: to the man, you think he's pretty astuid, you know.

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Speaker 9: I mean, all I have was really spoke to him

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Speaker 9: about was his own drug involvement and his partners in that.

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Speaker 9: We never discussed the world situation or anything else for

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Speaker 9: me to assess to he's a student. Perhaps he impressed them,

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Speaker 9: or maybe he named you know that you know of

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Speaker 9: the infamous card file he had he used to keep. Yeah,

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Speaker 9: he had a card file anyone that he met that

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Speaker 9: he thought this person could be of use in some

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Speaker 9: capacity into the future. He'd write down everything that he

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Speaker 9: could get on or quotes from anything. And with his

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Speaker 9: IQ and his memory, perhaps they were impressed by his

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Speaker 9: notice he was a walking computer. If they wanted information

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Speaker 9: in a pre computer day, it's probably the fastest way

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Speaker 9: to get it was to last John Mulligan.

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Speaker 2: In Brisbane, the eccentric Milligan ran a cafe called Willy's Bazaarre,

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Speaker 2: a known drugs hotspot at the cd northern end of

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Speaker 2: the CBD. I spoke to Brisbane identity and journalist Destiny

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Speaker 2: Rodgers about what you could expect at the cafe. Its

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Speaker 2: front counter commandeered by a woman called Willie Ah.

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Speaker 10: She was this old woman that everyone thought was a trainee,

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Speaker 10: but she wasn't. With masses of piled teas, blonde hair,

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Speaker 10: and she.

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Speaker 11: Ran up as like a coffee shop. But basically she

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Speaker 11: let them smoke dope.

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Speaker 10: I've never ever heard that she sold it.

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Speaker 2: Wow, And it was just a marijuana cafe.

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Speaker 10: Yes, So that was the original red light area, was there.

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Speaker 11: So that takes you even back to the National Hotel

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Speaker 11: In earlier days.

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Speaker 2: From Willie's, Milligan graduated to importing buddhisticks or Buddha of

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Speaker 2: Thie sticks cannabis bud skewered on a bamboo stick and

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Speaker 2: dipped in cannabis oil. In the early nineteen seventies, narcotics

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Speaker 2: agent Brian Bennett got a tip off that Milligan was

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Speaker 2: set to take possession of a large importation of buddhisticks

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Speaker 2: at Brisbane Airport. The drugs had been concealed in two

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Speaker 2: roles of decorative carpet from Southeast Asia.

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Speaker 5: On raced out there from there Wid Street the Ta

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Speaker 5: Bottom Store, just in time to see Milligan, who of

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Speaker 5: course I knew by sight. Having to carry out surveillance

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Speaker 5: on walking out of the store with these two rolls

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Speaker 5: of clib over his shoulder like one I overside God.

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Speaker 5: He was a cunning basket and I approached him flashmow Idea,

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Speaker 5: said John Milligan, I'm the senior narcotic agent. What have

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Speaker 5: you got there? And he said, oh nothing, I'm just

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Speaker 5: picking these up for favor for a friend. I said,

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Speaker 5: you're under arrest. A handcuffed him, and he complained that

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Speaker 5: the cuffs were too tight. And then he said, mister Bennett.

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Speaker 5: Now I hadn't actually given my name, and of course

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Speaker 5: he knew my name. He said, mister Bennett, there's no

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Speaker 5: need for those handcuffs. You know, I'm not a violent person.

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Speaker 5: The bars had actually named me, showed he had all

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Speaker 5: as he carried out some countless of violence, played some

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Speaker 5: inquiries about the viewer. You know.

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Speaker 2: Incredible, Incredibly, the case against Milligan fell apart in court.

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Speaker 2: He escaped a conviction. Years later, Milligan opened up to

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Speaker 2: John Schobrook about his relationship with Stuart John Reagan.

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Speaker 12: I first met Reagan in Sydney years ago, and through

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Speaker 12: my association with Reagan, I had a partnership with Reagan

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Speaker 12: at one stage until we fell out. Reagan recruited me

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Speaker 12: in a way in the sense that he used my expertise,

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Speaker 12: also used me up.

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Speaker 2: Schobbrook developed a rapport with Milligan. John's interview with him

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Speaker 2: derailed his police career. Showbrook, courtesy of Milligan, had uncovered

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Speaker 2: for the first time details about the inner workings of

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Speaker 2: Queensland corruption and the joke outlined the hierarchy with Lewis,

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Speaker 2: Murphy and Hallahan the triumvirate at the top. He exposed

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Speaker 2: how the whole system worked and its monstrous scope. So

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Speaker 2: honest John Shabrook, along with his milligant information were quickly

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Speaker 2: shut down. The revelation that Reagan appeared to have been

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Speaker 2: involved in the drug trade shocked Kelly.

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Speaker 13: Wow, So I reckon it's coming back towards heroin and money,

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Speaker 13: isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean those early years of when they were

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Speaker 2: just sorting out the importation stuff.

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Speaker 13: Yes, yeah, when they were just getting their grounding and

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Speaker 13: what was involved in Because I've always also been told

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Speaker 13: that John despised drugs and never wanted anything to do

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Speaker 13: with that.

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Speaker 2: My next door neighbor has a familiar and oft repeated

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Speaker 2: saying it's a small world, but I have no ordinary neighbor.

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Speaker 2: He is former New South Wales undercovered drug squad detective

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Speaker 2: Michael Drury, who way back in June nineteen eighty four,

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Speaker 2: was shot twice through the kitchen window of his home

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Speaker 2: in Sydney. He should have died that night, but didn't.

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Speaker 3: Michael's near death experience was dramatized in the acclaimed nineteen

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Speaker 3: ninety five television series Blue Murder, Help Me, Help Me.

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Speaker 2: Corrupt cop Roger Rogerson was later charged with conspiring to

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Speaker 2: murder Drury along with hitman Christopher mister Rentakill Flannery. Drury

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Speaker 2: had refused a bribe to get drugs charges dropped against

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Speaker 2: Melbourne drug kingpin Alan Williams. Incredibly, Rodger was acquitted. Williams

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Speaker 2: would later admit he attempted to bribe Drury through Rogerson.

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Speaker 2: So yes, it's a small world that a crime journalist

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Speaker 2: would end up befriending one of New South Wales's most

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Speaker 2: celebrated and incorruptible police officers. And in keeping with that saying,

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Speaker 2: Drury of course, had an encounter in his policing days

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Speaker 2: with Milligan in the early nineteen seventies, around the time

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Speaker 2: Milligan was doing business with Reagan. By this stage, Drury

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Speaker 2: had been secondered to the drug squad, the youngest officer

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Speaker 2: in the history of the department, not that I remember.

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Speaker 7: But we actually charged him really, yes, very early seventies.

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Speaker 7: My two workmates and I charged him in Sydney.

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Speaker 6: Do you remember him?

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Speaker 7: Yes, he was a bad criminal. I was told that

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Speaker 7: he was an ex judge's associate from a judging Queens

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Speaker 7: and I couldn't believe it. Yes, John Edward Milligan. I

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Speaker 7: was only thinking about him about a month ago. He

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Speaker 7: pleaded guilty to our charge. I think our charge was

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Speaker 7: in relation to possession of heroin from memory, I mean

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Speaker 7: he was a bad criminal in drugs. I think he

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Speaker 7: might have been gay. Am I correct? About five ten

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Speaker 7: five eleven and he had a very very good head

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Speaker 7: on his shoulders. And I remember speaking to him in

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Speaker 7: the cells at Central Police Station underneath a day or

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Speaker 7: two after we charged him, because he was stilling custody

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Speaker 7: to make sure he was all right. He was going

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Speaker 7: for his first appearance before the magistrates. So we must

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Speaker 7: have charged him on a Saturday. I thought to myself

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Speaker 7: at the time, this man was a judge's associate from

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Speaker 7: Brisbane and look at him now, look at him now

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Speaker 7: you know? Yes, John Edward Milligan.

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Speaker 2: Drury found it interesting that Milligan would team up with Reagan.

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Speaker 2: They were almost polar opposites or were they? Well, he

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Speaker 2: hooked up with Reagan as friends as criminal associates.

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Speaker 7: Milligan was a drugs man, So that to me is

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Speaker 7: proof that if he was running with Reagan in Sydney

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Speaker 7: and or Brisbane, Reagan was involved in drugs because I

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Speaker 7: don't think Reagan was ac DC. He may have been, but.

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Speaker 2: Wow, yes, when Reagan first decided to head up to

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Speaker 2: Queensland and do business, he was his typical bullet Gate.

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Speaker 2: He didn't ask the rat Pack for permission, he didn't

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Speaker 2: tell anyone about his plans. He just hit the ground running.

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Speaker 2: Milligan told Shobrook that Reagan caused dramas the second he

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Speaker 2: arrived in the Sunshine State. He particularly infuriated corrupt detective

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Speaker 2: and ratpacker Glen Hallahan. This is from the transcript between

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Speaker 2: John Schobrook and Milligan. These are their words, but not

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Speaker 2: their voices.

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Speaker 12: Reagan just rang up without permission from anyone, and in

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Speaker 12: those days, Reagan received permission to even change suburbs from

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Speaker 12: Lenny McPherson. Reagan, without getting permission from Lenny just arrived

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Speaker 12: in Queensland, rang up Murphy from outside the Cecil Hotel

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Speaker 12: and told him to come down and meet him in

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Speaker 12: the Cecil Hotel. Murphy refused, rang Glen Hallahan. Glenn rang

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Speaker 12: Lenny McPherson in Sydney and wanted an answer to the

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Speaker 12: whole thing. That they weren't just going to turn up

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Speaker 12: when Reagan told them to. And anyway, apparently the phones

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Speaker 12: ran hot for a couple of days.

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Speaker 10: How do you know that, John, How do you know

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Speaker 10: the story about Reagan?

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Speaker 14: Who told you?

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Speaker 12: Reagan told me when he came up there, he lived

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Speaker 12: in my flat and he told me his side of

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Speaker 12: the story, and Glenn I contacted him.

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Speaker 2: According to Hallahan, Reagan was bad news. In late nineteen

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Speaker 2: seventy one, just as partner marg gave birth to their

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Speaker 2: second child, a daughter, Helen. Back in Sydney, Reagan was

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Speaker 2: tracking the whereabouts of Shirley Briffman, the runaway squealer who

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Speaker 2: was now giving everybody up in a series of formal

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Speaker 2: interviews with Queensland and New South Wales police after whistleblowing

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Speaker 2: on national television. Briffman was holed up at the time

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Speaker 2: in her sister's old Queenslander in Leafy Brindle Street in

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Speaker 2: Paddington in Brisbane's in a West. Her nerves were shot.

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Speaker 2: Investigating police were not sure whether to believe anything she said.

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Speaker 2: I interviewed legendary Queensland detective Abe Duncan about Briffman several

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Speaker 2: years ago before he passed away in his nursing home

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Speaker 2: in Brisbane. On the day I sat down with him

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Speaker 2: in his small unit, I noticed a classic detective's black

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Speaker 2: pork pie hat in the corner of the lounge room.

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Speaker 2: Old Abe instantly remembered Briffman.

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Speaker 15: She came in and made the coup pint about the

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Speaker 15: Brisbane police. You know, I never had to round her

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Speaker 15: up and chase her. I had to wait until she

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Speaker 15: came in and he wandered the responsible offer to interview,

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Speaker 15: And I showed back night after night and took statements

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Speaker 15: from her.

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Speaker 5: She's very sortful.

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Speaker 2: You can't one will let she say, so, where did

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Speaker 2: you interview her in the city or he may pulish

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Speaker 2: eag bought her.

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Speaker 6: Yes and Abra how long was that?

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Speaker 15: Ah Viperia about three months, I think, And she willingly

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Speaker 15: came in and oh yeah, she came in. Used to

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Speaker 15: come in Old sort of might be half threats about

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Speaker 15: what would be done or nothing that we will be done.

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Speaker 15: And once or twice she walked out with you're being interviewed,

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Speaker 15: and I had to run up and start on the

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Speaker 15: excitement again. She said, Oh, I don't know whether anybody's

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Speaker 15: doing anything for me or not, you know, But I said, look,

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Speaker 15: I'm not taking the excitements and we'll see what happens.

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Speaker 15: Then We're going to wait and see what happens in

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Speaker 15: your health Wild first, because she was already on a

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Speaker 15: chart in your Health Wild and we worked out a

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Speaker 15: superseded chart in Queensland. Are going back checked up fifteen

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Speaker 15: or twenty years with something that was current in this

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Speaker 15: South Wild. I continued on this pasis and I had

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Speaker 15: to round up and continue to attack the step.

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Speaker 2: And from Griffman's agitation was understandable. She told police she'd

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Speaker 2: been confronted at her safe house by Stuart John Reagan

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Speaker 2: and a thin young man with blonde hair that had

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Speaker 2: to have been Milligan. This is what Brifman told police.

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Speaker 16: Johnny Reagan came to visit me here. He came to

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Speaker 16: where I'm living now. He came in a little red

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Speaker 16: sports car with a new South Wales number plate. It

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00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:15,760
Speaker 16: was about two or three weeks ago. Reagan came to

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Speaker 16: the door and said to me, I've just come back

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Speaker 16: from up north Mariba and Herbiton and in the mining area.

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Speaker 16: He mentioned Clermont too. Have you got the lease of

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Speaker 16: the mind they talk about in the paper? I said yes,

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Speaker 16: but I haven't got it here. I have a mine

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Speaker 16: at Herberton, called the Last Chance. I said, how did

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Speaker 16: you find out where I live? He said, I've got

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Speaker 16: ways and means. He did not threaten me, but I

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Speaker 16: was shocked to see him.

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Speaker 2: This was classic Reagan. He was in town on business

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Speaker 2: and used the Briffman situation to extort a tin mine

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Speaker 2: license from her and in the process do a favor

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Speaker 2: for either some of his criminal mates in Sydney or

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Speaker 2: corrupt hops or both by intimidating her. He was an

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00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:09,800
Speaker 2: apex predator. He took what he could get on the fly.

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Speaker 2: In Brisbane, Reagan was Milligan's house guest. The law school

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Speaker 2: dropout had an Art Deco style apartment in fashionable New

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Speaker 2: Farm on the bend of the Brisbane River, just northeast

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Speaker 2: of the CBD. Milligan decided to give the Sydney tough

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Speaker 2: guy a tour of the local underground drug scene and

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Speaker 2: by complete chance, a local celebrity got caught up in

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Speaker 2: the drama.

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Speaker 6: A very good evening, everyone, Welcome to seven National News.

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Speaker 6: I'm Mike Higgins. Very good evening everyone. My Higgins tonight

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Speaker 6: claims of widespread ripoffs in the Queensland home building industry.

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Speaker 6: Good after learn everyone, Mike Higgins for seven National News.

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Speaker 6: Australia's consumer price index rows by.

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Speaker 14: Three point Fiveewitness.

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Speaker 2: News in the big country town that was Brisbane in

407
00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:09,880
Speaker 2: the late nineteen sixties and early nineteen seventies, everybody knew

408
00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:11,680
Speaker 2: newsreader Mike Higgins.

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Speaker 6: Strongly worded telegrams were sent today to the Prime Minister,

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Speaker 6: Mister Whitlam and Acting Minister for Science Stocks.

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Speaker 2: Higgins was young, attractive and wore a trademark handlebar mustache.

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00:32:33,080 --> 00:32:38,960
Speaker 2: He also had a velvet voice. Born in Sydney, Higgins

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Speaker 2: worked in rural radio before quickly working his way up

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Speaker 2: the TV ladder, settling at Channel seven in Brisbane as

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Speaker 2: a midnight cowboy style alpha male who read and reported

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Speaker 2: the news. He could have walked straight out of an

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00:32:54,840 --> 00:33:01,360
Speaker 2: advertisement for Marlborough cigarettes. Higgins was an instant sensation and

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00:33:01,400 --> 00:33:05,960
Speaker 2: the ratings soared at Channel seven by the early nineteen seventies.

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00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:10,200
Speaker 2: With a short lived marriage behind him, heart throb Higgins

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00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:14,360
Speaker 2: lived in a sharehouse in Kelvin Grove in the Inner

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Speaker 2: City with a group of female art and university students.

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Speaker 2: He quickly learned that the old Queenslander was some sort

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Speaker 2: of shop and go from marijuana enthusiasts. Then an eccentric

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Speaker 2: character started turning up at the house, as Higgins writes

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Speaker 2: in his memoir Trouserless under the news desk. Things started

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00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:42,200
Speaker 2: to get serious when a skinny little bloke called Milligan,

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Speaker 2: who supplied the girls with most of their grass, began

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00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:50,360
Speaker 2: to drop in. Sometimes he was a bit unhinged and

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00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:55,120
Speaker 2: occasionally wore a priest's outfit as a disguise with a

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Speaker 2: gun hidden in its folds. As if Milligan wasn't alarming enough,

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Speaker 2: The arrival of Reagan, Milligan's associate, sent the dashing newsreader

432
00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:12,080
Speaker 2: into a spin. This was no longer a joke. This

433
00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:17,640
Speaker 2: was getting serious. I tracked down Mike Higgins, now in

434
00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:23,760
Speaker 2: his seventies on Queensland Sunshine Coast. He remembered his encounter

435
00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:26,360
Speaker 2: with the underworld like it was yesterday.

436
00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:29,600
Speaker 6: Anyway, I got home from work one day from Channel

437
00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:33,480
Speaker 6: seven and went into my bedroom and there was a

438
00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:38,400
Speaker 6: bloke sitting on my bed, cleaning and taking apart a

439
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:42,680
Speaker 6: most dangerous looking automatic weapon. I don't know whether it

440
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:45,600
Speaker 6: was a sawn off weapon. I couldn't tell you exactly

441
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:47,120
Speaker 6: what it was, but it gave me a hell of

442
00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:50,200
Speaker 6: a fright because there was also a suitcase on the

443
00:34:50,239 --> 00:34:53,440
Speaker 6: bed with little bags of white powder. And then the

444
00:34:53,520 --> 00:34:58,480
Speaker 6: penny dropped and I thought, these friends of my flatmates

445
00:34:59,239 --> 00:35:03,680
Speaker 6: are not really good people. I was pretty sure it

446
00:35:03,800 --> 00:35:07,040
Speaker 6: was heroin or cocaine or something. I'd never used them myself.

447
00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:09,279
Speaker 6: I'd smoked a few joints, of course, as we all

448
00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:14,680
Speaker 6: did when we were twenty. But I became quite paranoid,

449
00:35:14,840 --> 00:35:18,440
Speaker 6: really now. The guy on the bed was John Reagan,

450
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:22,719
Speaker 6: and it wasn't until some years later that I discovered

451
00:35:22,719 --> 00:35:24,000
Speaker 6: how lucky I had been.

452
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:28,719
Speaker 2: I emailed Higgins's photographs of Reagan in his twenties, and

453
00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:32,120
Speaker 2: the old newsreader confirmed that it was the magician he

454
00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:36,400
Speaker 2: saw in his bedroom that night. He had no doubt

455
00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:40,560
Speaker 2: Reagan was associated with Milligan in the drugs trade. He

456
00:35:40,640 --> 00:35:42,040
Speaker 2: recalled Milligan.

457
00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:45,960
Speaker 6: He was a pretty smart cookie. He was also very

458
00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:50,200
Speaker 6: hyper and well for a start, he was a heroin dealer,

459
00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:55,080
Speaker 6: I discovered, and he used to wear a priest's outfit,

460
00:35:55,880 --> 00:35:58,280
Speaker 6: and I think at one stage she had a black

461
00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:01,800
Speaker 6: one like the regular black priest thing with a white collar.

462
00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:05,279
Speaker 6: But he also had a brown one with a cow

463
00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:09,799
Speaker 6: like a hood like a monk. And he used to

464
00:36:09,840 --> 00:36:13,040
Speaker 6: have a gun occasionally under there. And he told me

465
00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:17,920
Speaker 6: that he used to bring in heroine through the airport

466
00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:24,120
Speaker 6: in his priest's outfit, and that Clow he did it. Now,

467
00:36:24,480 --> 00:36:28,640
Speaker 6: what happened after I got home and saw John Reagan,

468
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:32,160
Speaker 6: who I later discovered was a contract killer and a

469
00:36:32,239 --> 00:36:36,640
Speaker 6: murderer and a very nasty character. I decided that I

470
00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:38,160
Speaker 6: wanted to get out of the house.

471
00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:39,440
Speaker 14: Now.

472
00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:43,960
Speaker 6: This all happened in the course of a couple of days.

473
00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:48,239
Speaker 2: What terrified Higgins even further was that Milligan had a

474
00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:50,280
Speaker 2: lucrative proposition for him.

475
00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:53,680
Speaker 6: Milligan said to me, he said, I want you to

476
00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:56,279
Speaker 6: fly to Sydney. I've got an offer for you. If

477
00:36:56,320 --> 00:36:59,759
Speaker 6: you fly from Brisbane to Sydney and back again once

478
00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:03,439
Speaker 6: a mo with a suitcase full of grass, we will

479
00:37:03,480 --> 00:37:07,520
Speaker 6: give you a unit on the Gold Coast. And it

480
00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:11,439
Speaker 6: was either a Ferrari or a Jaguar or some sort

481
00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:14,640
Speaker 6: of sports car. I don't remember which one it was.

482
00:37:14,800 --> 00:37:17,600
Speaker 6: Did you take him seriously? I meant an extraordinary Oh.

483
00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:23,040
Speaker 6: I took him very seriously, very seriously, because I did

484
00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:26,279
Speaker 6: make the mistake of I went to a dinner one

485
00:37:26,360 --> 00:37:30,279
Speaker 6: night at a Chinese restaurant in the valley. Now there

486
00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:34,240
Speaker 6: was John Reagan, there was John Milligan, and a couple

487
00:37:34,239 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 6: of blokes allegedly who were I don't know whether they

488
00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:42,399
Speaker 6: were in the tow Cutters gang or whether they were

489
00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:46,080
Speaker 6: connected to the toe Cutters gang. I'm not sure. Anyway,

490
00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:49,440
Speaker 6: Milligan said, you know, will you go down and bring

491
00:37:49,480 --> 00:37:53,400
Speaker 6: back a bag of marijuana, a suitcase full of marijuana

492
00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:57,239
Speaker 6: once a month, because it would be you'd be beyond suspicion.

493
00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:00,680
Speaker 6: Being a television news reader. You know, they wouldn't think

494
00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:07,160
Speaker 6: that anyway. I realized, after having seen the contract killer

495
00:38:07,239 --> 00:38:11,040
Speaker 6: on my bed with a gun and what appeared to

496
00:38:11,080 --> 00:38:14,600
Speaker 6: be either heroine or cocaine or something. But what suitcase

497
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:17,960
Speaker 6: that I'd been asking me, It would never just contain grass.

498
00:38:18,080 --> 00:38:23,080
Speaker 6: It would have had heavy, dangerous drugs in the suitcase.

499
00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:29,200
Speaker 6: So I said, sorry, no, thank you. Milligan's response was

500
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:31,480
Speaker 6: if you don't do this, I'm going to shoot you

501
00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:37,800
Speaker 6: in the kneecaps. Now. The very next day I left Brisbane.

502
00:38:38,320 --> 00:38:42,400
Speaker 2: Higgins in fear for his life, literally bolted.

503
00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:47,359
Speaker 6: The fear suddenly became very real, and Surge and I

504
00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:50,360
Speaker 6: and my future wife then, who worked at a radio station,

505
00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:54,160
Speaker 6: we all took off an headed north, got away from

506
00:38:54,160 --> 00:38:58,080
Speaker 6: Brisbane as soon as possible. Well, we only got a

507
00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:01,080
Speaker 6: few hundred kilometers up to Queensland coast and I walked

508
00:39:01,080 --> 00:39:04,080
Speaker 6: out one Sunday morning and my face was plastered over

509
00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:09,279
Speaker 6: every newsstand, you know, the little wire news stands outside newsagents,

510
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:13,319
Speaker 6: and I thought, oh my god, I'm everywhere. So at

511
00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:17,760
Speaker 6: that point in my mind I had Reagan and Milligan

512
00:39:17,840 --> 00:39:22,200
Speaker 6: looking for me. I also had the police looking for me,

513
00:39:22,360 --> 00:39:26,160
Speaker 6: which was a fact because Channel seven had enlisted me

514
00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:29,160
Speaker 6: as a missing person. The police went up to my

515
00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:32,719
Speaker 6: locker at Channel seven and broke it open to try

516
00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:34,200
Speaker 6: and find where I'd gone.

517
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:39,200
Speaker 2: Ken Digger Blanche of the popular Brisbane Sunday Sun newspaper

518
00:39:39,880 --> 00:39:44,200
Speaker 2: eventually tracked down Higgins in Mount Isa, the mining town

519
00:39:44,480 --> 00:39:48,000
Speaker 2: in the far northwest of the state. The newspaper and

520
00:39:48,120 --> 00:39:50,279
Speaker 2: Blanche trumpeted.

521
00:39:50,719 --> 00:39:54,240
Speaker 8: Mike Higgins, former golden boy of Brisbane television, is today

522
00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:57,640
Speaker 8: running for his life. Higgins told me in an exclusive

523
00:39:57,680 --> 00:39:59,840
Speaker 8: interview that he had split from Brisbane to a ho

524
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:02,840
Speaker 8: half months ago, fearing death or maiming at the hands

525
00:40:02,840 --> 00:40:06,680
Speaker 8: of criminals deeply involved in Australia wide drug pushing. For

526
00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:10,640
Speaker 8: the past five weeks, twenty five thousand Northwestern Queenslanders have

527
00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:13,600
Speaker 8: listened to the golden voice of Mike Higgins thinking they

528
00:40:13,640 --> 00:40:17,200
Speaker 8: were listening to a suave breakfast session announcer named Mike Morrison.

529
00:40:17,520 --> 00:40:20,719
Speaker 8: The radio station bosses knew who Higgins was, but they

530
00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:23,279
Speaker 8: kept it a close secret to protect him.

531
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:26,800
Speaker 2: Higgins eventually found his way back to his news desk

532
00:40:27,120 --> 00:40:30,880
Speaker 2: at Channel seven up on Mount Coother in Brisbane.

533
00:40:31,120 --> 00:40:32,960
Speaker 6: Thanks to you for joining us tonight from seven National

534
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:35,360
Speaker 6: News around Australia and from Mike Higgins here in Brisbane.

535
00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:36,400
Speaker 12: Good night to you at Gobless.

536
00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:42,760
Speaker 2: Apart from terrorizing Brisbane celebrity newsreaders, Reagan also found time

537
00:40:43,040 --> 00:40:47,120
Speaker 2: to do a few real estate deals. Noel Barbie was

538
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:49,360
Speaker 2: a young solicitor who'd put up a shingle in the

539
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:54,200
Speaker 2: city's historically seedy suburb of Fortitude Valley, just north of

540
00:40:54,239 --> 00:40:58,640
Speaker 2: the Brisbane, CBD. It had once been a major shopping hub,

541
00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:04,239
Speaker 2: but over the years its prestige had slipped away. Barbie,

542
00:41:04,360 --> 00:41:08,560
Speaker 2: who specialized in criminal law, was a sole practitioner who

543
00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:12,880
Speaker 2: mainly did business with fallow Italians. He would go on

544
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:17,720
Speaker 2: to legally represent members of the city's reputed Bellino crime family,

545
00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:24,280
Speaker 2: particularly brothers Geraldo and Tony Geraldo or Jerry was jailed

546
00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:28,800
Speaker 2: following the Fitzgerald Royal Commission into Police and political corruption

547
00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:33,000
Speaker 2: in Queensland in the late nineteen eighties, but back in

548
00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:37,160
Speaker 2: the early seventies Barbie was a young talented lawyer on

549
00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:40,760
Speaker 2: the make. Barbie agreed to be interviewed in his offices

550
00:41:40,800 --> 00:41:44,080
Speaker 2: above a low rise shopping complex in the now elite

551
00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:49,880
Speaker 2: riverside suburb of Newfarm, the same suburb John Edward Milligan

552
00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:54,040
Speaker 2: once called home Knowls still practicing on the turf, he

553
00:41:54,120 --> 00:41:57,160
Speaker 2: claimed when he first started out as a lawyer.

554
00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:01,480
Speaker 17: I remember Milligan, and you know there's a pale fellow,

555
00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:04,719
Speaker 17: well met and then as fair as that's concerned, sociable, affable,

556
00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:09,160
Speaker 17: you knew his way round land matters etc. And you'd

557
00:42:09,160 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 17: come across him if you were dealing with a client.

558
00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:14,360
Speaker 17: And then there was some transaction and there was Milligan

559
00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:16,200
Speaker 17: in the middle of it, and I think he might

560
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:20,360
Speaker 17: have used some of that bona fides or credentials because

561
00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:23,440
Speaker 17: of the associate thing he was in to go and

562
00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:25,799
Speaker 17: develop that so that he could say he could use it.

563
00:42:26,239 --> 00:42:30,240
Speaker 17: But it was always something where it was shady or

564
00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:33,240
Speaker 17: some sort of problem with it. There was always something

565
00:42:33,280 --> 00:42:34,080
Speaker 17: going on like that.

566
00:42:34,680 --> 00:42:38,200
Speaker 2: And it was through Milligan that Barbie met Stuart John

567
00:42:38,239 --> 00:42:40,240
Speaker 2: Reagan at that time.

568
00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:43,040
Speaker 17: In relation to Reagan, the only thing that I can

569
00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:46,040
Speaker 17: recall now the sticks out a lot since you've called

570
00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:49,640
Speaker 17: me I thought about it, is that there was a fellow.

571
00:42:49,920 --> 00:42:53,120
Speaker 17: I don't know whether he frequented Brothers Rugby club or not,

572
00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:57,920
Speaker 17: but there was a fellow there called Pat Oswald at Brothers.

573
00:42:57,920 --> 00:43:00,000
Speaker 17: He was a brother stall at, a roll boy or something.

574
00:43:00,719 --> 00:43:03,200
Speaker 17: Reagan must have got a shine with him, or knocked

575
00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:08,280
Speaker 17: around at Brothers or mixed whatever. Oswald had an aunt

576
00:43:08,640 --> 00:43:11,800
Speaker 17: or some relation that had property here in Elliston Road

577
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:16,239
Speaker 17: in New Farm and somewhere or other. He must have

578
00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:20,920
Speaker 17: had some sway with the yard to sell it to Reagan.

579
00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:24,319
Speaker 17: There's a block of flats there now or units that

580
00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:26,719
Speaker 17: they built, and I'm pretty sure I didn't do the

581
00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:29,279
Speaker 17: conveyance as such, but it was that sort of thing.

582
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:31,400
Speaker 17: I don't think I've ever appeared for him in a

583
00:43:31,480 --> 00:43:32,040
Speaker 17: court matter.

584
00:43:33,920 --> 00:43:37,400
Speaker 2: Later I went to see Reagan's ambitious development just around

585
00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:41,480
Speaker 2: the corner from Noel Barbie's office and a stone's throw

586
00:43:41,560 --> 00:43:45,200
Speaker 2: from Milligan's former home in the Art deco apartment building

587
00:43:45,560 --> 00:43:51,279
Speaker 2: overlooking New Farm Park. So I'm standing outside of a

588
00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:55,640
Speaker 2: block of units at fifteen Elliston Road and New Farm

589
00:43:55,800 --> 00:44:00,440
Speaker 2: This is where Solicitor Noel Barbie said that Reagan bought

590
00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:06,040
Speaker 2: this land off the auntie of someone he met in

591
00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:11,360
Speaker 2: Brisbane and clearly demolished the house, huge block and built

592
00:44:12,239 --> 00:44:18,960
Speaker 2: this three level block of cream brick flats. It's called

593
00:44:19,080 --> 00:44:25,040
Speaker 2: Rosedale Lodge. It's ten second walk to Newfarm Park, beautiful spot,

594
00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:33,280
Speaker 2: incredible and it backs onto the New Farm Bowls Club.

595
00:44:34,520 --> 00:44:39,919
Speaker 2: It's a big block of apartments. It looks like garages

596
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:44,040
Speaker 2: on the ground level, breethes through besser brick, cream brick

597
00:44:44,200 --> 00:44:50,359
Speaker 2: and then two levels of apartments. I'm just looking at

598
00:44:50,400 --> 00:44:58,239
Speaker 2: the letterboxes, so we've got eleven apartments. Can't believe he

599
00:44:58,320 --> 00:45:04,839
Speaker 2: had the foresight too take this huge suburban block in

600
00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:09,719
Speaker 2: the early seventies and had the vision to build this

601
00:45:11,200 --> 00:45:19,120
Speaker 2: massive apartment complex incredible and there's even an old Hill's

602
00:45:19,200 --> 00:45:27,160
Speaker 2: house out the back. So, according to Noel Barbie, this

603
00:45:27,360 --> 00:45:31,919
Speaker 2: was a Reagan investment and it must have paid off

604
00:45:31,960 --> 00:45:33,800
Speaker 2: incredibly handsomely.

605
00:45:35,080 --> 00:45:35,840
Speaker 12: At that point.

606
00:45:38,160 --> 00:45:44,359
Speaker 2: Yet another example of Reagan's real estate entrepreneurship right here,

607
00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:59,200
Speaker 2: I'll have to rink Kelly. A huge question started to

608
00:45:59,320 --> 00:46:02,880
Speaker 2: loom the more we learned about Reagan's real estate activities

609
00:46:02,920 --> 00:46:06,880
Speaker 2: in Brisbane, and as we'd soon find out further up

610
00:46:06,920 --> 00:46:12,640
Speaker 2: the coast and even into rural Queensland. That question was this,

611
00:46:13,640 --> 00:46:17,200
Speaker 2: Where did Reagan, at this stage, only about twenty six

612
00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:22,160
Speaker 2: or twenty seven years old, secure the significant finances needed

613
00:46:22,560 --> 00:46:27,319
Speaker 2: to fund investments like Rosedale Lodge? Where did all the

614
00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:32,800
Speaker 2: money come from? Former New South Wales drug squad operative

615
00:46:32,840 --> 00:46:36,200
Speaker 2: and my neighbor Michael Drury had no doubt that Reagan,

616
00:46:36,680 --> 00:46:40,760
Speaker 2: through his association with Milligan, had to be involved in drugs.

617
00:46:41,520 --> 00:46:45,040
Speaker 2: We have the hapless newsreader Mike Higgins bumping into Reagan

618
00:46:45,160 --> 00:46:49,160
Speaker 2: cleaning a gun with an open suitcase of drugs beside him.

619
00:46:49,800 --> 00:46:52,720
Speaker 2: I began to suspect that Reagan was a bigger player

620
00:46:52,719 --> 00:46:57,200
Speaker 2: in the drug trade than anyone knew, a fact obscured

621
00:46:57,520 --> 00:47:00,279
Speaker 2: in the half century since his death, and that his

622
00:47:00,360 --> 00:47:04,399
Speaker 2: business partner, John Edward Milligan, too was far more than

623
00:47:04,400 --> 00:47:09,520
Speaker 2: the clown prince of a rapidly growing drug trade. I

624
00:47:09,600 --> 00:47:13,560
Speaker 2: turned to my mate Jim Slade for advice. Jim is

625
00:47:13,600 --> 00:47:16,400
Speaker 2: one of the most honest and decent people you'll ever meet.

626
00:47:17,320 --> 00:47:20,400
Speaker 2: His refusal to accept a bribe as a Queensland Police

627
00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:24,360
Speaker 2: officer in the nineteen seventies and eighties literally led to

628
00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:27,920
Speaker 2: the Queensland Government setting up the Royal Commission into Corruption,

629
00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:33,799
Speaker 2: headed by Tony Fitzgerald in nineteen eighty seven. That inquiry

630
00:47:33,920 --> 00:47:37,000
Speaker 2: brought down the rat Pack and the government of long

631
00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:42,400
Speaker 2: term Premier Jobioki Pedison. But before the Fitzgerald drama, Jim

632
00:47:42,560 --> 00:47:46,040
Speaker 2: was a prodigy as an undercover agent for the Queensland

633
00:47:46,080 --> 00:47:51,880
Speaker 2: Police's Bureau of Criminal Intelligence. He put together a picture

634
00:47:51,920 --> 00:47:56,319
Speaker 2: of drug manufacture and importation into Australia that was so

635
00:47:56,440 --> 00:48:01,440
Speaker 2: comprehensive that it was taken by corrupt police and disseminated

636
00:48:01,800 --> 00:48:07,719
Speaker 2: to select drug dealers. The crooks were using Jim's information

637
00:48:07,960 --> 00:48:12,320
Speaker 2: as a template on how to avoid detection and arrest.

638
00:48:13,120 --> 00:48:17,520
Speaker 2: Jim had conducted some covert surveillance on Milligan at his

639
00:48:17,560 --> 00:48:20,839
Speaker 2: block of flats in Newfarm and that's how he learned

640
00:48:20,880 --> 00:48:25,680
Speaker 2: about Reagan. Jim was and remains convinced that Reagan was

641
00:48:25,719 --> 00:48:29,000
Speaker 2: a serious player in the heroin trade at the time.

642
00:48:29,960 --> 00:48:31,920
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, there was no doubt about it. But

643
00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:35,920
Speaker 4: what an absolute incredible man Reagan was.

644
00:48:37,080 --> 00:48:39,720
Speaker 3: Why do you say that? Oh, you know, like, how.

645
00:48:39,520 --> 00:48:43,760
Speaker 4: Can a human being be so different? In one minute

646
00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:47,120
Speaker 4: he's doing this thing and the next minute he's doing

647
00:48:47,560 --> 00:48:51,239
Speaker 4: another incredible body criminal act, and then he's involved with

648
00:48:51,600 --> 00:48:54,920
Speaker 4: all of these body criminals, and then he's able to

649
00:48:55,000 --> 00:48:59,120
Speaker 4: move between these groups which at that time were bloody

650
00:48:59,200 --> 00:49:03,959
Speaker 4: dead against each other, like they were adversaries, and yet

651
00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:06,719
Speaker 4: he was able to move freely between them all.

652
00:49:07,239 --> 00:49:11,239
Speaker 2: Do you think even Reagan could have got in over

653
00:49:11,280 --> 00:49:14,000
Speaker 2: his head with the big drug gamer?

654
00:49:14,800 --> 00:49:17,239
Speaker 4: I think, you know, there's two ways of looking at that.

655
00:49:17,280 --> 00:49:20,399
Speaker 4: There's that one, but the one I look the one

656
00:49:20,440 --> 00:49:24,759
Speaker 4: that I favor, is that he saw he didn't have

657
00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:27,160
Speaker 4: to go to all of that trouble, that he could

658
00:49:27,239 --> 00:49:31,040
Speaker 4: deal with Neddie Smith and Milligan and those after the

659
00:49:31,120 --> 00:49:34,840
Speaker 4: drugs came in. So why worry about that one? Just

660
00:49:34,960 --> 00:49:37,439
Speaker 4: do that and he would have put money in. There's

661
00:49:37,480 --> 00:49:39,680
Speaker 4: no doubt in my mind that he was happy to

662
00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:43,719
Speaker 4: triple his money and then buy the heroine for his

663
00:49:43,760 --> 00:49:46,600
Speaker 4: own business once it got into Australia.

664
00:49:47,560 --> 00:49:49,880
Speaker 2: And is that smart or is it more dangerous?

665
00:49:50,840 --> 00:49:51,280
Speaker 6: No?

666
00:49:51,280 --> 00:49:54,279
Speaker 4: No, I think it's smart because number one, all of

667
00:49:54,280 --> 00:49:58,000
Speaker 4: that group could see that Reagan wasn't going to be

668
00:49:58,320 --> 00:50:01,279
Speaker 4: a threat to them. He was being used because he

669
00:50:01,320 --> 00:50:05,600
Speaker 4: was putting money into the big imports and he was

670
00:50:05,640 --> 00:50:08,080
Speaker 4: being given a deal. And what it looks like when

671
00:50:08,160 --> 00:50:13,240
Speaker 4: you look back over from informants and history, Reagan's heroin

672
00:50:13,719 --> 00:50:16,439
Speaker 4: was very very strong. So that tells me that it's

673
00:50:16,520 --> 00:50:21,040
Speaker 4: being obtained very close to the importer. If that heroin

674
00:50:21,120 --> 00:50:23,960
Speaker 4: had sort of come down to about fifty percent, I

675
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:27,440
Speaker 4: wouldn't go along with that idea that I've got, because

676
00:50:27,800 --> 00:50:31,360
Speaker 4: that heroin would have been obtained well down the line

677
00:50:31,400 --> 00:50:33,160
Speaker 4: from ready Smith and Milligan.

678
00:50:33,440 --> 00:50:35,279
Speaker 2: Right, so he was closer to the source, and then

679
00:50:35,320 --> 00:50:36,960
Speaker 2: he could cut it all down and make more.

680
00:50:36,840 --> 00:50:38,480
Speaker 6: Profit, exactly right.

681
00:50:38,840 --> 00:50:41,080
Speaker 4: And because he was doing that, and because he was

682
00:50:41,120 --> 00:50:44,839
Speaker 4: one of the investors, everything went along fine.

683
00:50:44,680 --> 00:50:49,080
Speaker 2: But he didn't carry the risk of the importation exactly right, Yep.

684
00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:55,000
Speaker 2: At some point Reagan and Milligan had a huge falling

685
00:50:55,040 --> 00:50:59,080
Speaker 2: out in Brisbane. Jim Slayer believes it involved a failed

686
00:50:59,120 --> 00:51:03,560
Speaker 2: heroin importation at the time. As it turned out, Federal

687
00:51:03,640 --> 00:51:08,000
Speaker 2: Narcotic's agent Brian Bennett ended up meeting Reagan in a

688
00:51:08,080 --> 00:51:13,080
Speaker 2: backstreet near the Lord Alfred Hotel on Petrie Terrace, in

689
00:51:13,160 --> 00:51:16,640
Speaker 2: the shadow of the famous rugby league field Lang Park

690
00:51:17,280 --> 00:51:21,080
Speaker 2: now known as sun Corpse Stadium in the Cities Inner West.

691
00:51:21,640 --> 00:51:24,600
Speaker 2: Reagan had contacted an officer he knew in the Queensland

692
00:51:24,600 --> 00:51:29,160
Speaker 2: Police Department offering to give up a major drug dealer,

693
00:51:29,719 --> 00:51:34,799
Speaker 2: namely Milligan. But the Queensland cop felt the matter was

694
00:51:34,920 --> 00:51:39,000
Speaker 2: too big for the local constabulary and called in Bennett

695
00:51:39,120 --> 00:51:42,680
Speaker 2: and the Knarks. If this was true, it could be

696
00:51:42,760 --> 00:51:46,480
Speaker 2: a major bust. It also showed how there was no

697
00:51:46,800 --> 00:51:52,360
Speaker 2: honor among thieves. Reagan didn't hesitate to rat out Milligan

698
00:51:52,600 --> 00:51:56,120
Speaker 2: when it suited him. Bennett and his partner went to

699
00:51:56,160 --> 00:52:00,200
Speaker 2: meet Reagan, though they didn't yet know the identity of

700
00:52:00,239 --> 00:52:01,760
Speaker 2: this new drugs informer.

701
00:52:05,239 --> 00:52:08,680
Speaker 5: The rendezvous was said there was a lame way on

702
00:52:08,719 --> 00:52:12,440
Speaker 5: the northern side of that raid. A lane went in

703
00:52:12,800 --> 00:52:14,959
Speaker 5: and then it did a dog leg to the Rock

704
00:52:15,719 --> 00:52:19,440
Speaker 5: and that's where we had to meet this side and

705
00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:23,719
Speaker 5: I drove the car. Vince was got into the back.

706
00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:29,080
Speaker 5: We pulled up and it was John Reagan. Uh huh,

707
00:52:31,160 --> 00:52:34,640
Speaker 5: who was later murdered at marathle in nineteen seventy four.

708
00:52:35,120 --> 00:52:36,880
Speaker 5: John Reagan, Yeah, what was he like?

709
00:52:36,960 --> 00:52:37,719
Speaker 10: I loved him here.

710
00:52:40,520 --> 00:52:46,080
Speaker 5: He had the colder eyes. Yeah, blue eyes, chillingly blue eyes.

711
00:52:46,239 --> 00:52:48,680
Speaker 5: He had the colder's eyes on a human being. I

712
00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:52,360
Speaker 5: have the scene there was extremely fit. I remember seeing

713
00:52:53,480 --> 00:52:56,879
Speaker 5: when he was sitting in the car his eyes sort

714
00:52:56,920 --> 00:52:59,879
Speaker 5: of bulged with muscle. He was like a you think

715
00:52:59,880 --> 00:53:03,320
Speaker 5: he been a soccer player or something, which are standing

716
00:53:03,400 --> 00:53:07,520
Speaker 5: knocked around the dog league in this flight waiting for us. Anyway,

717
00:53:07,600 --> 00:53:10,600
Speaker 5: he told us that he was a businessman from Sidney

718
00:53:11,400 --> 00:53:18,000
Speaker 5: and he was in Brisbane demolishing and renovating homes. He

719
00:53:18,200 --> 00:53:23,360
Speaker 5: said that he'd met this fellow Milligan, John Edward Milligan.

720
00:53:24,200 --> 00:53:28,640
Speaker 5: I can't recall the circumstances how he met him, but anyway,

721
00:53:28,920 --> 00:53:32,359
Speaker 5: he discovered that Milligan was heavily involved in the importation

722
00:53:32,520 --> 00:53:36,960
Speaker 5: of drugs on a large scale, and he said, I

723
00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:41,319
Speaker 5: am against drugs personally. Now I happen to know that

724
00:53:41,400 --> 00:53:46,719
Speaker 5: John Reagan did in fact former a citizens group of

725
00:53:47,040 --> 00:53:52,400
Speaker 5: naive people which was sort of aim mainly a corrupt police,

726
00:53:53,040 --> 00:53:56,400
Speaker 5: but it was basically under the umbrella of anti drugs.

727
00:53:57,160 --> 00:54:01,960
Speaker 5: I mean, that's documented anyway for this skin too around

728
00:54:02,120 --> 00:54:05,480
Speaker 5: that killer al right, I mean he said have been

729
00:54:05,600 --> 00:54:10,280
Speaker 5: responsible for thirday murders, thirday name murders, including that five

730
00:54:10,360 --> 00:54:12,359
Speaker 5: year old boy of one of his prostitutes.

731
00:54:12,800 --> 00:54:13,239
Speaker 14: That's right.

732
00:54:14,120 --> 00:54:16,120
Speaker 3: What was the point of him giving you that information?

733
00:54:16,280 --> 00:54:22,640
Speaker 5: You think, well, very strange because I mean obviously he

734
00:54:22,840 --> 00:54:27,080
Speaker 5: believed that Milligan had enough on him that could destroy him,

735
00:54:27,400 --> 00:54:30,680
Speaker 5: but he couldn't get at it. I mean, obviously he

736
00:54:30,800 --> 00:54:35,399
Speaker 5: believed Milligan had planted evidence in a solicitor's office or

737
00:54:36,400 --> 00:54:39,680
Speaker 5: with someone safe where the evidence would emerge if in

738
00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:43,319
Speaker 5: fact John just shot it. You know, obviously he was

739
00:54:43,400 --> 00:54:48,000
Speaker 5: scared of the repercussion of actually killing Milliger. Now, he

740
00:54:48,120 --> 00:54:54,279
Speaker 5: produced photagraphs, he was extremely professional. I mean, it's been said,

741
00:54:54,320 --> 00:54:59,200
Speaker 5: and I believe it that Stuart John Reagan was one

742
00:54:59,239 --> 00:55:04,960
Speaker 5: of the first criminal in Australia the adopted American organized

743
00:55:05,040 --> 00:55:07,720
Speaker 5: crime methods, you know, modern you sort of neplid.

744
00:55:09,040 --> 00:55:12,520
Speaker 2: It's interesting that Brian Bennett mentioned here how Reagan had

745
00:55:12,600 --> 00:55:17,200
Speaker 2: absorbed criminal techniques from the United States, that as a

746
00:55:17,239 --> 00:55:21,719
Speaker 2: gangster he was way ahead of the curve. Time and

747
00:55:21,760 --> 00:55:25,359
Speaker 2: again in our research down the years, we've come across observers,

748
00:55:25,760 --> 00:55:31,080
Speaker 2: both police and criminals, who'd mentioned that Reagan, especially towards

749
00:55:31,120 --> 00:55:34,920
Speaker 2: the end of his life, had adopted a Chicago style

750
00:55:35,080 --> 00:55:42,120
Speaker 2: of gangsterism. And what did that mean? Thinking big, overwhelming

751
00:55:42,160 --> 00:55:47,080
Speaker 2: your rivals, being quicker and smarter, and taking out your

752
00:55:47,200 --> 00:55:52,880
Speaker 2: enemies when necessary, irrespective of any so called loyalty to

753
00:55:52,960 --> 00:55:56,880
Speaker 2: a pecking order. Brian Bennett continued with his one and

754
00:55:56,920 --> 00:55:58,560
Speaker 2: only meeting with Reagan.

755
00:56:00,080 --> 00:56:05,480
Speaker 5: He produced these photographs big blow up Old Milligan, taken

756
00:56:05,719 --> 00:56:09,160
Speaker 5: front and side, just like a mugshot. And obviously he

757
00:56:09,480 --> 00:56:12,640
Speaker 5: or someone else had a gun on Milligan because Milligan

758
00:56:12,760 --> 00:56:17,320
Speaker 5: was pasing, not looking happy, of course front and side photographs.

759
00:56:17,719 --> 00:56:20,160
Speaker 5: And he gave us a number of quite a number

760
00:56:20,160 --> 00:56:25,000
Speaker 5: of documents belonging to Milligan, so he claimed, and amongst

761
00:56:25,080 --> 00:56:29,240
Speaker 5: those documents I've never forgotten this was a best ofs

762
00:56:29,239 --> 00:56:34,400
Speaker 5: card on Peter Weir. Peter Weir, of course now is

763
00:56:34,440 --> 00:56:39,120
Speaker 5: a well known Australian film director made Delipoli and so forth.

764
00:56:40,040 --> 00:56:42,960
Speaker 5: But in those days. Apparently he was only in the

765
00:56:43,000 --> 00:56:48,520
Speaker 5: strugg Off Street or in very early career. And Reagan

766
00:56:48,680 --> 00:56:51,920
Speaker 5: told us that the Illigan was the sort of black

767
00:56:52,080 --> 00:56:54,400
Speaker 5: who would document.

768
00:56:54,239 --> 00:56:55,280
Speaker 14: Everyone he met.

769
00:56:55,520 --> 00:56:59,600
Speaker 5: He'd run a little diary entry on them and indicate

770
00:56:59,760 --> 00:57:03,520
Speaker 5: their potential and their weaknesses. You know, he had an

771
00:57:03,520 --> 00:57:07,200
Speaker 5: eye for the future. And Peter Weired's card was attached

772
00:57:07,200 --> 00:57:10,600
Speaker 5: to a filing card and I forget the comments on it,

773
00:57:10,719 --> 00:57:17,160
Speaker 5: but they were. They weren't adverse to Peter Weird or complimentary. Actually,

774
00:57:17,640 --> 00:57:21,680
Speaker 5: something along the lines of this fire very smart and

775
00:57:21,760 --> 00:57:24,560
Speaker 5: will probably go far in his profession.

776
00:57:24,320 --> 00:57:28,520
Speaker 14: For extraordinary thing to do for Milligon find of this well,

777
00:57:28,760 --> 00:57:33,000
Speaker 14: I mean, Reagan wasn't the only one using advance organized

778
00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:37,960
Speaker 14: prime type methods anyway, So Reagan claimed that they were

779
00:57:38,000 --> 00:57:43,880
Speaker 14: sort of business partners in this renovation business office buildings

780
00:57:43,920 --> 00:57:44,680
Speaker 14: and so forth.

781
00:57:45,360 --> 00:57:48,840
Speaker 5: Anyway, obviously it had been a split and that was

782
00:57:48,880 --> 00:57:52,760
Speaker 5: the result someone pulled a gun on Milligan and adding

783
00:57:52,880 --> 00:57:56,680
Speaker 5: posts for photographs and ripped off all his paperwork. Ben

784
00:57:56,720 --> 00:57:59,920
Speaker 5: Reagan said, Okay, well I'm going back to Sydney. Sho

785
00:58:01,080 --> 00:58:04,520
Speaker 5: go for this blacky big time. It all pay off.

786
00:58:05,920 --> 00:58:09,440
Speaker 5: And I think that was the only major contact we

787
00:58:09,560 --> 00:58:10,400
Speaker 5: had with Reagan.

788
00:58:13,360 --> 00:58:17,040
Speaker 2: In the meantime, Reagan was still buzzing around Brisbane trying

789
00:58:17,040 --> 00:58:21,200
Speaker 2: to drum up business. He wanted to expand his prostitution

790
00:58:21,400 --> 00:58:25,960
Speaker 2: business into western Queensland and up the coast. He was

791
00:58:26,000 --> 00:58:31,920
Speaker 2: also keeping track of Shirley Briffman. While she was singing

792
00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:35,200
Speaker 2: like a canary to the police down in police headquarters

793
00:58:35,200 --> 00:58:39,440
Speaker 2: in Roma Street, Reagan was meeting associates not far away

794
00:58:39,840 --> 00:58:46,000
Speaker 2: in the fancy Lennon's hotel. Back in Sydney, Reagan's long

795
00:58:46,080 --> 00:58:50,800
Speaker 2: suffering de facto Margaret was coping with a newborn Helen,

796
00:58:51,840 --> 00:58:57,280
Speaker 2: but Reagan's entrepreneurship took precedence and he was more intent

797
00:58:57,800 --> 00:59:00,919
Speaker 2: on tracking down a former lover and intitute who worked

798
00:59:00,960 --> 00:59:05,240
Speaker 2: for him, a young woman called Sheryl Ann Mitchell. She

799
00:59:05,320 --> 00:59:09,320
Speaker 2: had fled Reagan and Sydney and ultimately decided to hide

800
00:59:09,320 --> 00:59:12,280
Speaker 2: out in Brisbane. She was kicking around with a crook

801
00:59:12,360 --> 00:59:17,120
Speaker 2: called Leslie Giggler. Gigler managed some so called health studios

802
00:59:17,200 --> 00:59:21,680
Speaker 2: on the Gold Coast. Reagan was intent on killing them both.

803
00:59:22,800 --> 00:59:26,560
Speaker 2: As Shirley Briffman told police when this was all happening.

804
00:59:28,200 --> 00:59:31,480
Speaker 16: I've seen Reagan four times the time I saw him

805
00:59:31,520 --> 00:59:34,840
Speaker 16: in Lennon's. He did not see me. I think informant

806
00:59:34,880 --> 00:59:38,800
Speaker 16: would probably be blondeheaded joker. They were looking for Gigler.

807
00:59:39,080 --> 00:59:41,400
Speaker 16: You must have contacts to find out where he is,

808
00:59:42,000 --> 00:59:46,000
Speaker 16: Reagan said. Nobody double crosses me or something. He's got

809
00:59:46,000 --> 00:59:49,480
Speaker 16: a girl with him that he shouldn't have. Also something

810
00:59:49,480 --> 00:59:52,520
Speaker 16: to do with the car. Nobody takes something which belongs

811
00:59:52,560 --> 00:59:54,600
Speaker 16: to me. I'm going to shoot him when I get him,

812
00:59:54,600 --> 00:59:55,959
Speaker 16: when I find him.

813
00:59:56,720 --> 00:59:59,760
Speaker 2: Mitchell was found dead of a drug overdose in her

814
00:59:59,760 --> 01:00:03,280
Speaker 2: fl at on Old Burley Road in Surface Paradise in

815
01:00:03,360 --> 01:00:08,480
Speaker 2: late October nineteen seventy one. During Mitchell's inquest, it was

816
01:00:08,520 --> 01:00:11,880
Speaker 2: alleged that she had left behind a letter that predicted

817
01:00:11,920 --> 01:00:18,360
Speaker 2: her own death. Reagan featured prominently in the letter, to.

818
01:00:18,320 --> 01:00:21,160
Speaker 18: Whom it may concern, this is to say that it

819
01:00:21,240 --> 01:00:23,040
Speaker 18: is my belief that a man by the name of

820
01:00:23,120 --> 01:00:26,760
Speaker 18: John Reagan, of fifty six Duke Street, Kensington, will make

821
01:00:26,800 --> 01:00:30,200
Speaker 18: an attempt on my life. Up until several months ago,

822
01:00:30,400 --> 01:00:32,480
Speaker 18: I was living with him, and he was taking the

823
01:00:32,480 --> 01:00:35,000
Speaker 18: money that I earned as a prostitute in King's Cross.

824
01:00:35,520 --> 01:00:39,840
Speaker 18: He had consistently annoyed and persecuted my friends and family.

825
01:00:41,640 --> 01:00:45,200
Speaker 2: Another witness who knew Mitchell told the inquest.

826
01:00:46,240 --> 01:00:49,120
Speaker 19: She was a nice, quiet type of person. She told

827
01:00:49,120 --> 01:00:51,480
Speaker 19: me John Reagan was a gangster in Sydney and that

828
01:00:51,520 --> 01:00:53,680
Speaker 19: she used to go with him, and when she broke

829
01:00:53,800 --> 01:00:56,320
Speaker 19: up with him, that he threatened to get her. That's

830
01:00:56,320 --> 01:00:59,080
Speaker 19: why she came to Brisbane. She said she was frightened

831
01:00:59,120 --> 01:01:02,200
Speaker 19: of Reagan, very frightened of him, and that he'd probably

832
01:01:02,240 --> 01:01:03,080
Speaker 19: get her in the end.

833
01:01:10,360 --> 01:01:13,760
Speaker 2: It's difficult to weed out fact from fiction here, given

834
01:01:13,760 --> 01:01:17,640
Speaker 2: Mitchell's letter about her impending death somehow found its way

835
01:01:17,680 --> 01:01:22,960
Speaker 2: into the hands of ratpacker Glendon Patrick Hallahan, and it

836
01:01:23,000 --> 01:01:26,480
Speaker 2: was Hallahan who was pushing the theory that Reagan had

837
01:01:26,640 --> 01:01:31,560
Speaker 2: murdered Mitchell. Reagan was a threat to the harmony of

838
01:01:31,600 --> 01:01:35,600
Speaker 2: the corrupt system known as the Joke. If Reagan got

839
01:01:35,600 --> 01:01:39,360
Speaker 2: a foothold in Queensland, then the floodgates might open to

840
01:01:39,520 --> 01:01:45,320
Speaker 2: Southern criminals taking over. What is inescapable is that Reagan

841
01:01:45,480 --> 01:01:52,160
Speaker 2: was sowing chaos left, right and center, and what shines

842
01:01:52,240 --> 01:01:55,800
Speaker 2: through is one of his underlying character traits that made

843
01:01:55,880 --> 01:01:59,919
Speaker 2: him then and today such a disagreeable, some would say,

844
01:02:00,160 --> 01:02:07,160
Speaker 2: despicable human being. Beneath almost everything he did was violence

845
01:02:07,280 --> 01:02:13,120
Speaker 2: towards women, his de facto margh lovers sex workers in

846
01:02:13,160 --> 01:02:18,560
Speaker 2: his employ He had an infantile attitude when he said

847
01:02:18,560 --> 01:02:22,120
Speaker 2: that nobody took one of his women. How much of

848
01:02:22,160 --> 01:02:27,720
Speaker 2: this hatred stemmed back to the Colonel. Amidst the madness,

849
01:02:27,760 --> 01:02:31,200
Speaker 2: Reagan also found time to enter a business partnership with

850
01:02:31,360 --> 01:02:37,320
Speaker 2: psychopath Queensland gangster Vince o'dempsey, who not only worshiped Reagan

851
01:02:37,720 --> 01:02:43,040
Speaker 2: but modeled his entire criminal persona on him. More of

852
01:02:43,120 --> 01:02:47,560
Speaker 2: Reagan's deadly doppelganger in the next episode. And in these

853
01:02:47,640 --> 01:02:51,160
Speaker 2: later years, and at the peak of his powers, Reagan

854
01:02:51,240 --> 01:02:56,640
Speaker 2: perpetuated a monstrous cash rich real estate scam that was

855
01:02:56,720 --> 01:03:01,960
Speaker 2: so successful it outlived him. But all of this pales

856
01:03:02,360 --> 01:03:05,200
Speaker 2: in comparison to the mass murder at the Whiskey, a

857
01:03:05,280 --> 01:03:09,200
Speaker 2: go go nightclub on Saint Paul's Terrace in Brisbane's Fortitude

858
01:03:09,280 --> 01:03:15,080
Speaker 2: Valley in the early hours of March eighth, nineteen seventy three.

859
01:03:15,120 --> 01:03:21,320
Speaker 2: Fifteen innocent people perished, crooks and corrupt police ran for cover.

860
01:03:22,360 --> 01:03:25,800
Speaker 2: Reagan said he was in Sydney when the Whisky went up.

861
01:03:26,960 --> 01:03:31,439
Speaker 2: He even volunteered his services to police to track down

862
01:03:31,520 --> 01:03:36,720
Speaker 2: the dastardly killers. Yet half a century later, the true

863
01:03:36,840 --> 01:03:40,480
Speaker 2: story of who was behind the Whiskey massacre has never

864
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Speaker 2: been told. And the biggest question is this, on that

865
01:03:46,880 --> 01:03:51,440
Speaker 2: deadly night, was Johnny Reagan where he said he was?

866
01:03:54,840 --> 01:03:58,280
Speaker 2: But to get to the truth of the Whiskey this

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01:03:58,440 --> 01:04:02,480
Speaker 2: story must base the court wops of Vice Queen Shirley

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Speaker 2: Margaret Briffman. In the next episode of The Gangster's Ghost.

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Speaker 20: Well, obviously the rig Mornison tagging, but she was laying

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Speaker 20: back on pillows and Jahan was frozen like this, up

871
01:04:19,200 --> 01:04:22,080
Speaker 20: in the air, and she was in that position.

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Speaker 1: The Gangster's Ghost is a production of The Australian. It's

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Speaker 1: written and presented by Senior writer Matthew Condon and produced

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01:04:39,280 --> 01:04:43,440
Speaker 1: and edited by multimedia editor Leat samaglu Our. Executive producer

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01:04:43,520 --> 01:04:48,040
Speaker 1: is Me, Editorial director Claire Harvey. Special thanks to Lara Kamenos,

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01:04:48,120 --> 01:04:53,360
Speaker 1: Erica Rutlidge, Kristin Amiot, Jasper Leek, Stephanie Coombs, Sean Callanan Lachland, Clear,

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Speaker 1: Ryan Osland, Amanda Winn Williams, Christine Keller, Tarn Blackhurst, Magdalena Zajak,

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01:04:58,760 --> 01:05:03,640
Speaker 1: Gisel Buetti, Jennefer Rammel, Lauren Bruce Sus Rolf and Yaquina Carlson.

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Speaker 1: We can only do journalism like this with the support

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01:05:06,640 --> 01:05:10,080
Speaker 1: of US subscribers, who hear episodes first and get full

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01:05:10,120 --> 01:05:14,240
Speaker 1: access to photos, video, news stories and features, plus all

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01:05:14,280 --> 01:05:17,760
Speaker 1: Australia's best journalism twenty four to seven. Join us at

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01:05:17,800 --> 01:05:38,080
Speaker 1: Gangstersghost dot com dot au