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Speaker 1: Before we begin.

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Speaker 2: This podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence. This is a

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Speaker 2: production by The Australian and our subscribers hear episodes first

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Speaker 2: and get full access to photos, video, news stories and

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Speaker 2: features plus all Australia's best journalism twenty four to seven.

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Speaker 2: Join us at gangstersghost dot com dot a U.

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Speaker 3: It's Saturday, March fourth, nineteen seventy two and teenager Mary

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Speaker 3: Anne Brifman, daughter to Sydney brothel Madame Shirley Brifman, has

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Speaker 3: woken early. She had been living with relatives in country

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Speaker 3: New South Wales after her mother famously blew the whistle

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Speaker 3: on the Sydney Underworld in a national television interview and

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Speaker 3: sent the family fleeing for their lives. The Brifmans returned

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Speaker 3: to Brisbane, where Shirley had worked as a prostitute at

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Speaker 3: the start of her notorious career, and Marianne rejoined them there.

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Speaker 3: In Brisbane, Shirley had relatives to lean on, and after

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Speaker 3: being shuffled through a series of safe houses, Shirley, her

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Speaker 3: husband and their four children finally settled in a flat

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Speaker 3: at fifty Bonnie Avenue, Clayfield in the Cities Inner Northwest

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Speaker 3: Shirley had been hunted by Stuart John Reagan after the

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Speaker 3: television fiasco. He warned her to keep her mouth shut.

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Speaker 3: He turned up the heat in Brisbane, arriving unexpectedly at

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Speaker 3: one of her police safe houses, and Shirley, with the

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Speaker 3: magician on her tail, was a nervous wreck. For months,

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Speaker 3: she'd given official police interview to both Queensland and New

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Speaker 3: Southwelles detectives about her public allegations of police corruption and

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Speaker 3: close ties to the underworld. Shirley didn't hold back, so

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Speaker 3: by early nineteen seventy two, she was convinced she was

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Speaker 3: going to be murdered. She was due to appear as

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Speaker 3: a witness in the trial of Detective Anthony Murphy, the

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Speaker 3: feared leader of Queensland's rat pack of corrupt police. He

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Speaker 3: had been charged with perjury on the evidence of Brifman

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Speaker 3: in the wake of her television expose a and stood

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Speaker 3: down from his official duties. Briffman and Murphy had been

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Speaker 3: one time lovers. Now she was due in court intent

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Speaker 3: on sending him to prison. On that Saturday morning in

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Speaker 3: early March, Marianne wandered through the spacious Bonnie Avenue apartment

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Speaker 3: her boyfriend Jim had stayed the night sleeping on a

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Speaker 3: bed in the foyer. He had left before dawn for

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Speaker 3: his job at a nearby service station. Meanwhile, mary Anne

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Speaker 3: went into the spare room and it was there that

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Speaker 3: she found her mother's body.

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Speaker 4: You've got to remember, I'm fifteen. Well it is really

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Speaker 4: a murder. If that had happened, you think that they

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Speaker 4: protect the crime scene even back then. But none of

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Speaker 4: that happened. I can't remember who the police were that came,

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Speaker 4: or the detectives. I can't recall who they were, but

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Speaker 4: they were obviously instructed to leave everything very loose. They

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Speaker 4: allowed me to go back in the room and sit

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Speaker 4: next to my mother. I was in there for I

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Speaker 4: don't know, thirty or forty minutes, just sitting there by myself.

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Speaker 4: Nobody even came and looked.

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Speaker 5: Were all out there.

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Speaker 4: They had to wait for the fingerprints to be done right,

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Speaker 4: and maybe they were waiting to take the body. But

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Speaker 4: we were all walking in and out. The whole family,

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Speaker 4: like the weaver was round, was allowed to walk in

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Speaker 4: and out of the bedroom, just saying I died in

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Speaker 4: this room. You close it off to me, even the

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Speaker 4: family walking in, even though I remember asking can I

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Speaker 4: go in and sit with my mother? I remember doing that,

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Speaker 4: but not to who, some police person, And I was

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Speaker 4: surprised that I was allowed to stay now as long

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Speaker 4: as I wanted.

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Speaker 6: I don't mean to upset you after all this year,

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Speaker 6: But what was your mother like?

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Speaker 7: She was it just like.

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Speaker 4: She's fall to sleep? No, she was like frozen. Well,

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Speaker 4: obviously the wigged mortison sent in, But no, what.

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Speaker 8: Was her position? It wasn't just like she'd gone to sleep.

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Speaker 4: No, No, she was laying back on pillows, half sitting up,

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Speaker 4: like the pillows were propped up, and her hand was

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Speaker 4: frozen like this up in the air. And yes, she

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Speaker 4: was like in that position.

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Speaker 9: Yeah, I read that an empty bottle of presumably the

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Speaker 9: bottle that had been delivered to her, was found under

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Speaker 9: the mattress or something.

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Speaker 8: I don't know.

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Speaker 3: Was there anything you remember seeing in the room that

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Speaker 3: was different or that would have stuck out to you?

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Speaker 4: I was too busy looking at my mother. My sisters

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Speaker 4: and brother didn't go back in, you know, like they

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Speaker 4: went in and had a look and didn't but they

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Speaker 4: didn't stay there. That was too scary for them because

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Speaker 4: of how she looked and being dead. Do you know

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Speaker 4: what I mean.

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Speaker 10: So I'm journalist Matthew Condon and this is the Gangster's Ghost,

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Speaker 10: a podcast from The Australian.

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Speaker 3: This podcast started out as a clinical look at one

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Speaker 3: of Australia's most reviled gangsters, but when the Reagan family

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Speaker 3: came on board, the project took on another dimension and

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Speaker 3: begged the question how does a family cope with the

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Speaker 3: generational stain of a murderer whose death was celebrated by

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Speaker 3: criminals and police alike. This is episode eight Collateral Damage.

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Speaker 3: Shirley Briffman's death was officially ruled a drug overdose. Police

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Speaker 3: recommended no autopsy. Her daughter Mary Anne, believed her mother

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Speaker 3: knew she had to die. For years, she'd paid grass

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Speaker 3: for protection, but for months leading up to her death,

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Speaker 3: she'd been exposed and vulnerable.

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Speaker 4: She was very depressed and very sad, with very good reason.

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Speaker 4: And you know, you don't appreciate that as a child,

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Speaker 4: but as an adult you can see she was racked

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Speaker 4: with depression. Really, I saw her depressed for many, many years,

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Speaker 4: but this was different depression.

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Speaker 11: I guess it was oppression in the sense she was

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Speaker 11: crying a lot. I think she felt quite helpless, and

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Speaker 11: I think That's why she was so mad with the

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Speaker 11: police commissioner at that time, because nobody.

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Speaker 5: Would help her, and the more she told, the less

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Speaker 5: they wanted to help her. And I think she was

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Speaker 5: conflicted actually over that, and that's why I don't think

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Speaker 5: that she was smart. My mother definitely wasn't intellectually in

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Speaker 5: any sense.

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Speaker 4: She was bright, very bright, street smart to a degree,

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Speaker 4: but not enough, very trusting, and not enough to realize that.

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Speaker 4: I mean, it's black and white, but heck, would you

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Speaker 4: not realize you're going to lose your life when you

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Speaker 4: start telling on everyone.

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Speaker 3: On the night Shirley died, Mary Anne and her boyfriend

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Speaker 3: Jim both said they saw a visitor come to the

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Speaker 3: apartment in Bonnie Avenue around midnight. The visitor handed Shirley

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Speaker 3: a small medicine vial. A few hours later, Shirley took

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Speaker 3: the contents of the vial and died. Her daughter still

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Speaker 3: believes Shirley was given an ultimatum, kill yourself or will

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Speaker 3: kill your children. Briffman's death was a war watershed in

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Speaker 3: the story of true crime in twentieth century Australia. She

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Speaker 3: was the intersection of several roads where corrupt police, politicians,

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Speaker 3: and the underworld collided. She embodied everything you needed to

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Speaker 3: know about organized crime in Australia at that time. Shirley

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Speaker 3: was made by corrupt police and she was destroyed by them.

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Speaker 3: Her suspected murder, too, was emblematic of how ruthlessly, violent

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Speaker 3: and reckless crime had become in the lucky country. Here

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Speaker 3: was a critical whistleblower with intricate knowledge of corrupt systems

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Speaker 3: in two states, and her extermination had been simply passed

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Speaker 3: off as just another prostitute who lost her life through

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Speaker 3: a drug overdose. Reagan was a critical part of this story.

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Speaker 3: Who had ordered him to put pressure on Briffman? And

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Speaker 3: you have to ask the question, was he the mysterious

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Speaker 3: visitor who delivered the fatal drugs to Shirley on the

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Speaker 3: night she died. I needed to get to the eppy

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Speaker 3: center of Brifman's death. I had to stand in the

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Speaker 3: room where she died, in that upstairs flat in Clayfield

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Speaker 3: to try and understand what had happened and why. That's

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Speaker 3: how I met Gary. His family had owned the small

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Speaker 3: block of flats in Bonnie Avenue for decades. He was

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Speaker 3: a teenager when the Briffmans moved into their apartment back

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Speaker 3: in late nineteen seventy one. He's now an old man,

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Speaker 3: but he's never forgotten the time a criminal whistleblower and

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Speaker 3: her family came to live upstairs in apartment number two.

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Speaker 8: And this has been empty for some time, been happy

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Speaker 8: for ten years.

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Speaker 12: Okay, So this was coming in through the back door here, Garrett, Yeah,

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Speaker 12: into the kitchen.

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Speaker 13: But it's at all that everybody used. So it's pretty

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Speaker 13: much the same layer, isn't it. As when so Marianne

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Speaker 13: said this, Sonny was asleeping here on that night. So

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Speaker 13: it was March three into March four, nine seventy two.

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Speaker 3: So Sonny, she said, was here and that there was

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Speaker 3: a middle bedroom.

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Speaker 14: Which was which was that this was actually my bedroom

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Speaker 14: for thirty years, and.

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Speaker 9: In her bedroom, so Marianne said she was in here.

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Speaker 13: Yeah, that's the other bathroom.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and big foyer, and of course this is the room.

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Speaker 9: Where Shirley's body was found.

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Speaker 13: Yes, let's go in over here. I understand up against

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Speaker 13: the wall there, so I've been told.

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Speaker 15: She was on the bed.

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Speaker 14: I didn't actually get to see her, but I'm told

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Speaker 14: that she was saying, leaning against the wall.

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Speaker 13: But there was a stain about here running down.

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Speaker 14: The wall, and I swear it was from draw or

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Speaker 14: something from her mouth after I said she was laying

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Speaker 14: against her Well, you said she was laying against the

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Speaker 14: wall or something.

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Speaker 13: Yeah, And it had this stain running down the wall.

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Speaker 16: How long was that there?

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Speaker 17: For?

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Speaker 7: Oh?

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Speaker 13: Years? Years?

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Speaker 14: In the thirty years I was living here, it must

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Speaker 14: have been here. And my mother had a time machine here.

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Speaker 17: You know.

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Speaker 3: Multiple theories emerged in the wake of Shirley's death. Was

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Speaker 3: it Reagan finally getting the job done after his attempt

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Speaker 3: to strangle her with a coat hanger had failed the

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Speaker 3: previous year in Sydney? Or was she killed by corrupt police?

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Speaker 3: A rumor assisted for decades that Fred Froggy Cray from

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Speaker 3: Sydney shoved the fatal drugs down Brifman's throat. Was he

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Speaker 3: the mysterious midnight visitor? Or had Tony Murphy arranged it

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Speaker 3: without Brifman His perjury trial collapsed and he went from

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Speaker 3: strength to strength as Queensland's most feared and corrupt copper.

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Speaker 3: You'll remember the infamous drug dealer John Edward Milligan from

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Speaker 3: our last episode. After his arrest in nineteen seventy nine

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Speaker 3: by Federal Bureau of niicotics agent John Shobrook. Milligan had

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Speaker 3: this to say in his record of interview. These are

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Speaker 3: his words read by a voice actor.

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Speaker 18: Shirley Brefman was the mistress of several Sydney gangsters, and

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Speaker 18: she told the truth, and she was murdered by sleeping

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Speaker 18: tablets down her throat. I was told by Glenn Hallahan

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Speaker 18: four days before she was murdered that Shirley Breafman's problem

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Speaker 18: had finally been sold, that she'd be no more worries shortly.

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Speaker 18: That's the freaking truth.

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Speaker 3: None of this made any difference to Reagan. By the

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Speaker 3: time Shirley's body was transported to the city Morgue and

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Speaker 3: then flown to her childhood town of Atherton in far

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Speaker 3: North Queensland, where she was buried in a gold coffin,

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Speaker 3: Reagan had several firm footholds in Queensland. His friendship with

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Speaker 3: the drug dealer Milligan might have been on the Wayne,

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Speaker 3: but he was building up a stable of criminal associates

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Speaker 3: he could rely on in Queensland, including a local psychopath

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Speaker 3: who may have been even more ruthless than Reagan himself.

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Speaker 3: As a criminal chemical mix, it would prove explosive. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 3: Kelly never relented in her search for documents about her

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Speaker 3: second cousin. She had miraculously secured Reagan's consorting cards, and

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Speaker 3: the next big fish was his actual criminal record. Kelly

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Speaker 3: was thrilled to hear early in her search that she

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Speaker 3: was entitled to see Reagan's records, but there was one catch.

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Speaker 3: They were missing. No surprise there. This is Kelly in

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Speaker 3: one of her audio diary entries.

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Speaker 19: For transparency. My cousin has rightly or wrongly been portrayed

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Speaker 19: as a murdering psychopath for five decades, and to discover

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Speaker 19: that his criminal history is missing is if I'm being

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Speaker 19: kind a joke. To my knowledge, John has never been

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Speaker 19: convicted of murder, yet since his death he has been

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Speaker 19: labeled at will, including the death of a three year

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Speaker 19: old child. This tells me that his criminal record should

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Speaker 19: be in the files of up to twelve unsold murders,

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Speaker 19: not taking into account the fifteen people who died at

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Speaker 19: the Whiskey Go Go Fire. Further, don't get me started

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Speaker 19: on how a microfilm goes missing. And then I've just

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Speaker 19: given him my availability and my phone number. And if

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Speaker 19: I was a conspiracy theorist, I could have a right

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Speaker 19: little party. But let's just keep this adventure going because

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Speaker 19: it's an interesting journey and I knew it I would

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Speaker 19: face some hurdles, but this is not a hurdle. This

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Speaker 19: is a complete and utter attempt at a roadblock with

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Speaker 19: really flimsical material to hold the roadblock together.

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Speaker 3: Kelly was naturally suspicious. It was hard enough to get

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Speaker 3: the consorting cards. Now the criminal record of one of

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Speaker 3: the biggest gangsters and alleged killers of his era had vanished.

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Speaker 3: So Kelly wrote to then New South Wales Police Commissioner

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Speaker 3: Mick Fuller, he was police top dog from March twenty

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Speaker 3: seventeen to January twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 19: I'm shocked at how this can be, and know that

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Speaker 19: John was involved with corrupt police in both New South

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Speaker 19: Wales and Queensland, but it was forty seven years ago,

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Speaker 19: so what harm would a criminal record create. I'm aware

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Speaker 19: that John is a person of interest in several killings.

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Speaker 19: We find it pretty scary that a record of one

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Speaker 19: of Sydney's most notorious criminals has simply been lost. I

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Speaker 19: am not a crackpot, at least I don't think so,

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Speaker 19: and I am struggling to see how this could happen.

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Speaker 3: After further letters to state and local politicians and anyone

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Speaker 3: else who might be able to help, and exhausted, Kelly

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Speaker 3: was told the elusive documents had in fact been found

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Speaker 3: and were on their way. On the cover sheet of

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Speaker 3: the records was the now iconic mugshot of Reagan, taken

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Speaker 3: when he was just sixteen years old. Someone has hand

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Speaker 3: written across the top left portion of the sheet, this

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Speaker 3: man very anti police, makes false allegations against police. Question

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Speaker 3: with due caution. What is astonishing about the old document

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Speaker 3: is that in the vast majority of cases, his charges,

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Speaker 3: ranging from assault and robbery to rape, are ultimately dismissed.

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Speaker 3: He could not escape jail time over a charge of

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Speaker 3: conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in early nine

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Speaker 3: sixty eight, You'll remember that was when he wrote to

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Speaker 3: the Colonel seeking books on yoga and psychokinetic powers. But

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Speaker 3: the sentence columns are filled with the words dismissed, acquitted,

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Speaker 3: or discharged, and not a single charge relates to a

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Speaker 3: scam he pulled off that was so audacious that you

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Speaker 3: have to hear it to believe it. Less than a

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Speaker 3: fortnight after Reagan's murder in Marrickville, in September nineteen seventy four,

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Speaker 3: Sydney newspapers hinted that the dead gangster may have been

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Speaker 3: involved in a real estate scam that had seen hundreds,

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Speaker 3: if not thousands, of ordinary mums and dads in search

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Speaker 3: of the great Australian dream, fleeced of their hard earned savings.

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Speaker 3: Two months later, Neville Ran, the working class Balmain boy

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Speaker 3: who went on to become a long serving Premier of

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Speaker 3: New South Wales, was an ambitious member of Parliament and

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Speaker 3: leader of the Labor Opposition, and he had a bombshell

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Speaker 3: to drop. He stood in the Parliamentary chamber and asked

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Speaker 3: a question without notice to Deputy Premier and Minister for

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Speaker 3: Local Government Sir Charles Cutler. The Premier of New South

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Speaker 3: Wales at the time was the corrupt Robert Askin. Ran

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Speaker 3: took the floor.

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Speaker 20: Is the Minister aware of the growing number of people

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Speaker 20: in New South Wales who have been duped by questionable

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Speaker 20: companies which purchase at bargain prices land in country areas

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Speaker 20: sold at auction by local government authorities for non payment

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Speaker 20: of rates and then resell it for vast and extortionate profits. Further,

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Speaker 20: is the Minister aware that In recent months, a group

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Speaker 20: of interlock companies that were all associated with the recently

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Speaker 20: murdered Stuart John Reagan have been purchasing at auction from

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Speaker 20: council land at such places as Tamworth, Whereas Creek and Cessnock,

295
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Speaker 20: and at other country centers and reselling it at prices

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Speaker 20: of up to five thousand dollars a block.

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Speaker 3: Ran was alluding to what would prove to be just

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Speaker 3: the tip of the iceberg when it came to Reagan's

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Speaker 3: outrageous fraud across three states. The crux of the scam

300
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Speaker 3: was this. A team of salesmen in Queensland, New South

301
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Speaker 3: Wales and Victoria advertised desirable blocks of land in regional areas.

302
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Speaker 3: The ads flaunted attractive parcels more than suitable for building

303
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Speaker 3: a house upon the land, fully sewed and powered. In Queensland,

304
00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:48,920
Speaker 3: potential interstate buyers were plied with food and booze before

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Speaker 3: handing over cash deposits. All convancing could only be handled

306
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Speaker 3: by the seller's own lawyers. As it turned out, Reagan's

307
00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:06,520
Speaker 3: complex net of companies never possessed title deeds to any

308
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Speaker 3: of the blocks. They fraudulently sold and resold the cash

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Speaker 3: for land disappeared from the late nineteen sixties through to

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Speaker 3: the late nineteen seventies. Several years after Reagan's death, the

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Speaker 3: scam operated unhindered from law enforcement, despite the press reports

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Speaker 3: and parliamentary agitation. Reagan's lawyer, Michael Seymour told us that

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Speaker 3: Reagan's real estate venture into the regions was a perfectly

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Speaker 3: legitimate business venture.

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Speaker 12: So you've introduced him to the real estate gameh Yeah.

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Speaker 21: In the late sixties. Over the years, I made a

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Speaker 21: bit of money out out in real estate.

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Speaker 22: Can you goodbye little semi shurs although fifteen thousand dollars

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Speaker 22: bag at those and through an accountant, I bought up

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Speaker 22: the street in maccaboy streetscu Will and then at one

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Speaker 22: stage John Yalway had these propertly Forgarten. The idea that

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Speaker 22: try and make money down real estate and cheap properties

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Speaker 22: in the inner city area.

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Speaker 21: The city expands, goes.

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Speaker 22: Up and expanse only didn't meet something wants to an

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Speaker 22: idea there you'll.

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Speaker 7: Go after him.

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Speaker 22: Yeah, twenty towns. The local councils. It rapes out paid

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Speaker 22: for a period of time. The council seizes the land

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Speaker 22: and sells a lot. So Reagan found out some add

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Speaker 22: in the paper whatever that there were hundreds and hundreds

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Speaker 22: of blocks of land.

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Speaker 21: They said, So if my office had the lper gome

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Speaker 21: to where all the plank pluntcasts.

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Speaker 22: So he had a little office in the regions, treat

336
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Speaker 22: himself in a little office, yeah, the real estate office.

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Speaker 21: Well, he is trying to sell these lands. So he

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Speaker 21: Floyd a salesperson.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and regent Stream John was selling.

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Speaker 22: Them for about seven fifty for one half thousand flood,

341
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Speaker 22: a huge profit.

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Speaker 3: But those on the inside had a different story. I

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Speaker 3: spoke to a source who was intimate with the Reagan landscam.

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Speaker 3: We have disguised his voice to protect his identity. Believe

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Speaker 3: it or not, Even after all these years, there are

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Speaker 3: many people associated with Reagan who are still terrified of

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Speaker 3: repercussions for speaking out.

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Speaker 17: It started in young and New South Wales, where he

349
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Speaker 17: coming from. But the first thing they'd do they find

350
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Speaker 17: his little out of town places and go there and

351
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Speaker 17: go to the local council chambers and say, is there

352
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Speaker 17: any subdivisions with separate deeds in this trickler town blocks

353
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Speaker 17: of land that had never been divided up and sold off,

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Speaker 17: And go through the council chambers and a pliant and

355
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Speaker 17: I'll say, well, there's one hundred blocks out of such

356
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Speaker 17: and such a road. The guy had an idea of

357
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Speaker 17: being a developer and he ran out of cash. But

358
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Speaker 17: they've all got separate deeds. All I can say is this,

359
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:14,480
Speaker 17: if you pay the rates at something on it, because

360
00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:16,199
Speaker 17: no rates have been paid on it for ten or

361
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Speaker 17: fifteen years, we'll sign it over to you. So that's

362
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Speaker 17: what it is. Because those sort of people went broke.

363
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Speaker 17: So but say is you just pay the rates and

364
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Speaker 17: it's yours.

365
00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:31,679
Speaker 3: With the cheap land secured, Reagan's scam artists went to work.

366
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Speaker 17: They get it all done nicely, and if there was

367
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Speaker 17: a creek, they'd have it all painted in blue, you know,

368
00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:39,680
Speaker 17: to make out it was flashy. And then they would

369
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Speaker 17: advertise somewhere in Sydney or wherever it be, own your

370
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Speaker 17: own block of land. And then the wife or the

371
00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:49,400
Speaker 17: husband said, well, I have a look at this man,

372
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Speaker 17: I own Boca land. We are nothing.

373
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Speaker 7: Wouldn't we buy it?

374
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Speaker 17: And the next thing they reply to the ad by telephone.

375
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Speaker 17: There's no emails in those days and no mobiles, and

376
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Speaker 17: that'd go out there and there it is there and

377
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:04,640
Speaker 17: at which block. Do you want the corner block? This

378
00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:08,000
Speaker 17: is grab whatever he can and deposit because there was

379
00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:10,720
Speaker 17: no credit card details and that he just grab it

380
00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:13,359
Speaker 17: in cash. But before he'd leave, he'd say, now, I

381
00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:15,560
Speaker 17: make sure you got the money, because when you see this,

382
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Speaker 17: you'll buy it. Okay, I don't want to waste my time.

383
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Speaker 17: You're living out of para matter.

384
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Speaker 7: You know.

385
00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:22,000
Speaker 17: It was an hour's run. But if you don't like it,

386
00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:24,160
Speaker 17: that's fine, but just make sure you have the money

387
00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:27,719
Speaker 17: with you. So this is the way it grunts him

388
00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:29,760
Speaker 17: on the phone. You go out there, and the way

389
00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:31,600
Speaker 17: the maps and everything. We're done, and the creeks are

390
00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:35,280
Speaker 17: all nice and blue. Yeah, okay, we'll take this one.

391
00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:39,080
Speaker 17: So they'd buy that one. And he said I'd just leave,

392
00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:41,320
Speaker 17: and he said part it would I pull up in

393
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Speaker 17: Matuda or jag I'd love that. I thought, shit, look

394
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Speaker 17: at this car.

395
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Speaker 7: This guy is a property developer.

396
00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:46,840
Speaker 17: You know.

397
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Speaker 3: One Queensland salesman I tracked down believed he was carrying

398
00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:56,399
Speaker 3: out legitimate business. If he knew Reagan was behind the scam,

399
00:25:56,520 --> 00:25:59,640
Speaker 3: he didn't say, but as a justice of the piece

400
00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:03,800
Speaker 3: at the time, his signature became a handy asset for

401
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:09,960
Speaker 3: Reagan's operations. We have also altered this source's voice.

402
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:12,560
Speaker 15: I threw the under Sydney and brought back people and

403
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:14,760
Speaker 15: threw them up to harvey By and go and go

404
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:15,800
Speaker 15: and meet them up there.

405
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Speaker 7: And we're selling thousands of dollars a weekend.

406
00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:20,880
Speaker 3: It was a good business.

407
00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:23,240
Speaker 7: What good business here?

408
00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:27,120
Speaker 1: And did you ever do some land sales with Stuart

409
00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:28,120
Speaker 1: John Reagan at all?

410
00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:30,159
Speaker 7: He was a criminal.

411
00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:33,160
Speaker 15: I knew as he was tied up with the other

412
00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:39,680
Speaker 15: black in uh Reagan and the other black criminals and

413
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:41,000
Speaker 15: selling and acquisition.

414
00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:42,680
Speaker 7: I knew him through that.

415
00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:45,680
Speaker 15: Why should that not dubs in the valley in Brisbane

416
00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:49,280
Speaker 15: at the times, or forgive their names. They had a

417
00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:51,199
Speaker 15: lot of money's champering them, but they didn't know how

418
00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:55,000
Speaker 15: to handler, not made a sewer for him. So I

419
00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 15: fly there in the Sydney and bring back a flock

420
00:26:57,080 --> 00:27:00,080
Speaker 15: of people, and I knew how to handle a bars.

421
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:04,560
Speaker 7: And I picked people with money that was not bullshitting here,

422
00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:04,919
Speaker 7: you know.

423
00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:07,280
Speaker 15: And I played the air fear back up here and

424
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:10,200
Speaker 15: I made at Brisbane Airport and so they came out

425
00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:13,520
Speaker 15: and I sold properties and you get the commission.

426
00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:16,840
Speaker 7: It was good days for me.

427
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:20,280
Speaker 3: And did you do that on behalf of your mates

428
00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:22,640
Speaker 3: in the valley who owned those clubs.

429
00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:26,919
Speaker 15: Yeah, yeah, yeah, there were several of the victim White

430
00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:29,520
Speaker 15: sold out to other fellows. And when they did that,

431
00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:31,040
Speaker 15: I went along with the sale.

432
00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:31,399
Speaker 23: You know.

433
00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:35,080
Speaker 15: So that paper, oh my re spreens is not far

434
00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:37,560
Speaker 15: end Sidney and put an and in the like of

435
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:40,639
Speaker 15: paper in Sydney Morning Held or something like that, and

436
00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:42,440
Speaker 15: stay in a big part.

437
00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:43,159
Speaker 7: Of bullshit, you know.

438
00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:45,919
Speaker 15: And so I just worked just as salesman for the

439
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:48,119
Speaker 15: people and they said, oh Easter Hamles.

440
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:51,200
Speaker 7: I kept it like that, and I didn't talk just

441
00:27:51,359 --> 00:27:52,160
Speaker 7: the taps.

442
00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:53,280
Speaker 21: At the time.

443
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:56,320
Speaker 3: Did it occur to you these guys might be sort

444
00:27:56,320 --> 00:27:58,760
Speaker 3: of laundering their money through the land deals, do you

445
00:27:58,800 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 3: know what I mean?

446
00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:04,120
Speaker 15: Oh, Bapore, Now they had money where I get their money?

447
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,280
Speaker 15: And I talk about business. I just said, oh, just

448
00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:09,960
Speaker 15: would you leardle it for me? I'll had in mind

449
00:28:10,359 --> 00:28:14,240
Speaker 15: selling it, so let me look at it. In the

450
00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:16,840
Speaker 15: Marston has a lot of shit, and I'm going to cheerful.

451
00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:19,960
Speaker 15: You're to be cheerful and you get the lot of

452
00:28:20,040 --> 00:28:22,280
Speaker 15: aid a bullet in you if you're not careful in

453
00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:25,560
Speaker 15: that bob in the valley at the time, there's a

454
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:28,680
Speaker 15: lot of gluity. You hungry your basards, you know. I

455
00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:31,440
Speaker 15: just to let him know, doesn't don't bullshit for the way.

456
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:33,480
Speaker 15: I don't want to know. I don't want to know

457
00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:35,040
Speaker 15: who that was with it. If you want to know,

458
00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:39,320
Speaker 15: I'd mentioned strong names. I said, Oh, you might just

459
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:44,000
Speaker 15: need to do things for him, are you know? You know? Yeah,

460
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:48,400
Speaker 15: Just leave it at that, and they think shit through

461
00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:51,240
Speaker 15: the camp, play with that basket. I'll finish up with

462
00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:52,000
Speaker 15: the bullet in me.

463
00:28:57,560 --> 00:29:00,200
Speaker 3: One of Reagan's early business partners in real estate said

464
00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:05,520
Speaker 3: in Queensland was a man called Vincent Odempsey. Odempsey had

465
00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:09,600
Speaker 3: been born and raised in Warwick, a farming community southwest

466
00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:13,600
Speaker 3: of Brisbane. His family had worked the land there for generations.

467
00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:19,040
Speaker 3: In his mid teens, o'dempsey had been incarcerated in a

468
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:24,760
Speaker 3: mental institution and medically diagnosed as a psychopath. By his

469
00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:27,719
Speaker 3: early twenties, the word around town was that he had

470
00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:31,200
Speaker 3: murdered a local man who was set to testify against

471
00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:34,920
Speaker 3: him in court over a robbery. By the time Vince

472
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:38,160
Speaker 3: hooked up with Reagan in the early nineteen seventies, he'd

473
00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:41,160
Speaker 3: been jailed for bashing a police officer. Then in the

474
00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:45,840
Speaker 3: mid nineteen sixties, o'dempsey paid several visits to Sydney looking

475
00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:51,880
Speaker 3: for criminal jobs. He soon gained employment with Frederick Paddles Anderson,

476
00:29:52,440 --> 00:29:56,600
Speaker 3: the boss of bosses. You'll remember Anderson was present at

477
00:29:56,680 --> 00:30:04,400
Speaker 3: Reagan's twenty first birthday at Chequers Nightclub. At precisely this time, o'dempsey,

478
00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:08,480
Speaker 3: known as a ruthless gun for hire, was doing odd

479
00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:12,480
Speaker 3: jobs for Paddles. It's almost certain this is when Reagan

480
00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:19,440
Speaker 3: and odempsey first crossed paths. Incredibly, o'dempsey and Reagan invested

481
00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:23,600
Speaker 3: in land in Odempsey's hometown of Warwick. Here's my source again.

482
00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:28,720
Speaker 17: A Dempsey's father was selling real estate up in Warwick

483
00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:32,160
Speaker 17: because A Dempsey knew Reagan pretty well. Next thing he

484
00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:34,920
Speaker 17: says to he's dead. Is there anything any subdivisions that's

485
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:35,640
Speaker 17: never been done?

486
00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:40,400
Speaker 3: It would soon prove to be a deadly business partnership.

487
00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:45,680
Speaker 3: In October nineteen seventy six, the New South Wales Labour

488
00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:50,200
Speaker 3: MP for la kember Vincent Durick offered a detailed examination

489
00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:54,440
Speaker 3: of Reagan's scam in Parliament. He was concerned about hundreds

490
00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:57,800
Speaker 3: of his constituents who had been duped into buying useless

491
00:30:57,880 --> 00:31:01,480
Speaker 3: land in the regions of Gulgong and Munchie through a

492
00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:07,160
Speaker 3: company called Dabamu based at Bondi Junction in Sydney. Durwick

493
00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:10,040
Speaker 3: had discovered that not only were parcels of land sold

494
00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:14,520
Speaker 3: without title deeds, but some blocks had been sold several

495
00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:19,080
Speaker 3: times to different people. He told Parliament that the company

496
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:22,520
Speaker 3: had firstly represented to buyers.

497
00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:25,400
Speaker 24: The land that they were purchasing was fertile and of

498
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:29,600
Speaker 24: good quality for the purposes of grazing and market gardening opportunities,

499
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 24: and that was a good investment. Second, that there was

500
00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:38,320
Speaker 24: adequate permanent supply of water for the purposes of irrigation. Third,

501
00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:42,240
Speaker 24: that there was an adequate general availability of services and

502
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:47,680
Speaker 24: amenities for farming activities contemplated by these people. Fourth, that

503
00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:51,360
Speaker 24: there were opportunities for a quick capital gain. Fifth that

504
00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:54,240
Speaker 24: the nearby town of Golgong was represented on the face

505
00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:56,840
Speaker 24: of the ten dollar note, and that the railway would

506
00:31:56,840 --> 00:32:01,120
Speaker 24: be coming through shortly. Sixth that the main highway would

507
00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:05,240
Speaker 24: soon be constructed, and last, and this is the daddy

508
00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:08,000
Speaker 24: of them all, that an opera house was to be

509
00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:11,080
Speaker 24: built for them, and that other general facilities would be

510
00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:11,800
Speaker 24: made available.

511
00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:17,800
Speaker 3: Jurich asked the Attorney General, Frank Walker, to investigate and

512
00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:22,680
Speaker 3: explained Stuart John Reagan's links to the scam and asked

513
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:27,880
Speaker 3: the pertinent question how could loans be arranged with finance

514
00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:31,600
Speaker 3: companies for the purchase of properties from vendors who had

515
00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:36,240
Speaker 3: no title to the land. The Sydney Morning Herald reported

516
00:32:36,280 --> 00:32:40,400
Speaker 3: that CIB detectives believed the scam, active in Queensland, New

517
00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:44,080
Speaker 3: South Wales and Victoria, may have been the biggest land

518
00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:49,080
Speaker 3: fraud in Australian history. Somehow, the network of salesmen involved

519
00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:52,400
Speaker 3: in the racket managed to sell blocks for ten times

520
00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:55,240
Speaker 3: their value to unsuspecting punters.

521
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:00,240
Speaker 25: Senior police say the multimillion dollar swindle is likely to

522
00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:03,880
Speaker 25: rival the scale of recent huge company frauds. They have

523
00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:06,880
Speaker 25: established that hundreds of people paid millions of dollars to

524
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:11,040
Speaker 25: land companies whose principles have now vanished. At this stage,

525
00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:14,240
Speaker 25: police believe John Stuart Reagan set up the criminal network.

526
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:17,720
Speaker 25: When he was murdered, his accomplices went their own ways,

527
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:21,920
Speaker 25: taking shares of his real estate activities. It is believed

528
00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:24,600
Speaker 25: Reagan had a quarrel with one of his colleagues shortly

529
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:27,920
Speaker 25: before his death over how the spoils would be divided.

530
00:33:30,120 --> 00:33:33,200
Speaker 3: As if we didn't already have enough of them. Here

531
00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:39,960
Speaker 3: was yet another possible motive behind Reagan's murder. But back

532
00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:43,880
Speaker 3: in Brisbane, Reagan's frequent visits to the Queensland capital before

533
00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:48,000
Speaker 3: and after Shirley Briffman's death had put the local underworld

534
00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:53,680
Speaker 3: as well as corrupt police, on permanent alert. Rumors circulated

535
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:57,440
Speaker 3: that Reagan was planning a full blown takeover of the

536
00:33:57,520 --> 00:34:02,360
Speaker 3: tropical city's prostitution, illegal ga gambling and extortion rackets, and

537
00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,680
Speaker 3: that some of his Sydney contemporaries were about to follow suit.

538
00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:10,400
Speaker 3: The gossip drums were beating loudly through the city's pub network.

539
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:14,799
Speaker 3: One prominent hotel manager, who asked to remain anonymous let's

540
00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:17,879
Speaker 3: call him Jack, had a front row seat to much

541
00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:21,800
Speaker 3: of the drama fermenting in Brisbane in the early nineteen seventies.

542
00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:27,160
Speaker 3: He managed pubs, some with questionable reputations, in the inner

543
00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:30,640
Speaker 3: city suburb of spring Hill as well as down in

544
00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:35,360
Speaker 3: the CBD. He was acquainted with many of Brisbane's principal criminals.

545
00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:39,680
Speaker 3: Jack recalled talk about Reagan was getting louder and louder.

546
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:43,160
Speaker 3: It was as if a fox had suddenly entered the

547
00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:46,600
Speaker 3: Chicken coop. I spoke to Jack at a table outside

548
00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:49,400
Speaker 3: an Asian dumpling restaurant in Inner Brisbane.

549
00:34:50,640 --> 00:34:53,200
Speaker 1: So when did you first lay eyes on Reagan?

550
00:34:54,120 --> 00:35:01,200
Speaker 9: So Smoby Septchamber August September of nineteen about seventy two,

551
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:06,399
Speaker 9: might have been a little bit later, but not much later.

552
00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:08,040
Speaker 1: And how did you come across him?

553
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:12,640
Speaker 8: The real estate for us across the road ranketing like that.

554
00:35:13,280 --> 00:35:17,720
Speaker 8: He came across as a customer of theirs. We talked

555
00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:21,840
Speaker 8: on different things. Did you know who he was? I

556
00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:27,200
Speaker 8: found out a little bit who he was, and he

557
00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:30,400
Speaker 8: was always very sillable with me.

558
00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:32,760
Speaker 21: How did he strike him physically?

559
00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:35,600
Speaker 8: Just easy going?

560
00:35:35,719 --> 00:35:39,960
Speaker 23: I wasn't in a suit, always dressed and smartish, casual

561
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:44,600
Speaker 23: and just a quiet, easy going like never be bet.

562
00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:49,399
Speaker 8: He was with keV quite a lot. Who's keV?

563
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:51,440
Speaker 2: Yeah?

564
00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:54,440
Speaker 8: This is where we were, yep, run, I'm going to

565
00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:55,640
Speaker 8: just call him keV now.

566
00:35:55,680 --> 00:36:00,080
Speaker 23: And I explained that he was in real estate and

567
00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:05,280
Speaker 23: they would definitely had partnerships or joint business dealings.

568
00:36:05,239 --> 00:36:07,640
Speaker 12: Right, And do you know what sort of real estate

569
00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:11,680
Speaker 12: he was interested in? Was it I heard the bought

570
00:36:11,760 --> 00:36:14,880
Speaker 12: or built a block of flats in New Farm he

571
00:36:15,120 --> 00:36:15,680
Speaker 12: could have done.

572
00:36:15,719 --> 00:36:20,360
Speaker 23: They were, They dabbled in bits and that mostly land

573
00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:23,200
Speaker 23: vacant land, but there were you know, if there's a

574
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:28,920
Speaker 23: property or something that those guys were the other side

575
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:34,480
Speaker 23: of the other fellow that Kev's partnerships. Those guys sold

576
00:36:34,640 --> 00:36:37,480
Speaker 23: land on Russell and Lamb Island. That's got a island

577
00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:41,640
Speaker 23: real estate, and keV sold land over there as well.

578
00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:47,200
Speaker 12: These are the famous land scams, Harvey Bay cresting his

579
00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:49,160
Speaker 12: up whales before.

580
00:36:49,320 --> 00:36:53,120
Speaker 23: Have we got plenty of people in Melbourne, Sydney, the

581
00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:55,000
Speaker 23: other places of the World warf land.

582
00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:56,280
Speaker 8: That's a whole saga.

583
00:36:56,400 --> 00:37:00,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, were there any other It's just as where he

584
00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:01,000
Speaker 1: came across him.

585
00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:05,360
Speaker 8: You might have seen him for a month. Then you

586
00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:07,080
Speaker 8: could see him for two or three days.

587
00:37:07,520 --> 00:37:10,200
Speaker 23: He once came up with a fellow that I didn't

588
00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:13,800
Speaker 23: like too much, and the manager from there was definitely

589
00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:19,160
Speaker 23: with him at least once inside the bar with him,

590
00:37:19,920 --> 00:37:22,120
Speaker 23: and I saw them at least one other time.

591
00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:23,920
Speaker 8: You know, Willie's bizarre.

592
00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:27,520
Speaker 1: It was poor, yes, yeah, yeah, so Willi's bizarre.

593
00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:30,399
Speaker 12: One of Reagan's associates before they had a falling out

594
00:37:30,520 --> 00:37:37,080
Speaker 12: was John Edwards Milligan that's the knife, yeah, Jack said.

595
00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:39,920
Speaker 3: Everyone knew Milligan was a drug dealer. He thought he

596
00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:42,520
Speaker 3: was nothing more than a grub and apart from Reagan,

597
00:37:42,680 --> 00:37:46,920
Speaker 3: other big time criminals were starting to pop up in Brisbane.

598
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:50,399
Speaker 1: Do you observe other criminals coming in out of town?

599
00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:51,799
Speaker 8: I heard a couple.

600
00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:54,800
Speaker 23: My best man is to let me know what was

601
00:37:54,880 --> 00:37:58,640
Speaker 23: happening in town. There were a couple of others at

602
00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:04,719
Speaker 23: the ring. First definitely on tour coach. I never saw him,

603
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:08,600
Speaker 23: but I believe he had been in the whiskey. You

604
00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:12,160
Speaker 23: could talk you on possibly with you had definitely been

605
00:38:12,239 --> 00:38:13,080
Speaker 23: there at cost One.

606
00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:15,600
Speaker 8: He had been to a couple of other night clumps.

607
00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:21,200
Speaker 3: Jack was also pested by criminal and psychopath John Andrews

608
00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:22,520
Speaker 3: Stewart and.

609
00:38:22,600 --> 00:38:27,640
Speaker 8: Stuart phone Maya from Balls down In made it. He

610
00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:29,400
Speaker 8: got on the phone and I said, yeah, he's this.

611
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:31,720
Speaker 8: He said one as John Stewart.

612
00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:36,080
Speaker 23: I'm up here representing the big fellows from Sydney and

613
00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:41,000
Speaker 23: where he had telex squeeze and I said, well, good

614
00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:44,239
Speaker 23: talking to me. I said, I don't under place. I said,

615
00:38:44,239 --> 00:38:47,680
Speaker 23: I'll have to talk to him. My own called me

616
00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:51,240
Speaker 23: back to my so I called Estole. The next morning,

617
00:38:52,040 --> 00:38:55,000
Speaker 23: I said, Listen had this play off on the phone,

618
00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:57,160
Speaker 23: and I said, where do you think I should go?

619
00:38:57,560 --> 00:38:59,640
Speaker 23: She said, leave it with me and I'll give back

620
00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:01,879
Speaker 23: to you, and Stuart ran the second time.

621
00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:03,560
Speaker 7: Well, I'll tell you.

622
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:05,759
Speaker 8: If you've just the fuck that were you giving back?

623
00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:08,919
Speaker 8: If you've both your knows here a fucking wild hors

624
00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:12,200
Speaker 8: I know. I never heard another word or for him.

625
00:39:16,120 --> 00:39:20,360
Speaker 3: John Andrew Stewart, the Weekend Gangster. He'd returned to Brisbane

626
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:23,840
Speaker 3: after his adventures in Sydney, including trying to murder Reagan

627
00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:27,360
Speaker 3: in broad daylight in Oxford Street, Paddington back in nineteen

628
00:39:27,400 --> 00:39:30,360
Speaker 3: sixty five. Back home, he was trying to earn a

629
00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:35,240
Speaker 3: quick quid through extorting nightclubs, pubs and restaurants. He hinted

630
00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:39,040
Speaker 3: at big Southern criminals like Reagan and Lenny McPherson wanted

631
00:39:39,080 --> 00:39:43,279
Speaker 3: to get a cut of Brisbane vice. Most people, like Jack,

632
00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:47,440
Speaker 3: thought it was a joke, but others were more cautious.

633
00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:53,320
Speaker 3: Tony Bellino always viewed himself as a successful entrepreneur, a

634
00:39:53,560 --> 00:39:56,920
Speaker 3: visionary businessman, and as a proud Italian a bit of

635
00:39:57,000 --> 00:39:59,960
Speaker 3: a crooner, but along with his brother Jerry, the belief

636
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:04,920
Speaker 3: heos became synonymous in Brisbane with nightclubs, bars and gambling

637
00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:08,839
Speaker 3: joints in ceed Fortitude Valley. From the nineteen sixties, they

638
00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:13,800
Speaker 3: ran spaghetti bars and licensed clubs. Jerry had a handful

639
00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:17,759
Speaker 3: of illegal casinos and even a funeral parlor. Only later,

640
00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:22,240
Speaker 3: courtesy of the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption, was Jerry

641
00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:26,440
Speaker 3: Bellino identified as a leading criminal figure and jailed for

642
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:29,800
Speaker 3: paying off police. It was said that at its peak,

643
00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:34,239
Speaker 3: Jerry's crime syndicate, which included brothels and escort agencies, was

644
00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:38,160
Speaker 3: kicking back up to twenty thousand dollars a month to

645
00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:43,640
Speaker 3: police in the mid nineteen eighties. His brother Tony denied

646
00:40:43,719 --> 00:40:47,160
Speaker 3: any criminal involvement. He said he was the proprietor of

647
00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:49,040
Speaker 3: Pinocchio's nightclub.

648
00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:50,520
Speaker 7: And ran a spaghetti bar.

649
00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:53,719
Speaker 3: I had the pleasure of speaking to Tony shortly before

650
00:40:53,760 --> 00:40:57,040
Speaker 3: he died in September twenty twenty two, and he told

651
00:40:57,120 --> 00:41:02,280
Speaker 3: me a curious story in his heavy italianate English about

652
00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:05,680
Speaker 3: a visit from Sydney crime boss Abe Saffron in the

653
00:41:05,760 --> 00:41:09,200
Speaker 3: early nineteen seventies, just as the word was out that

654
00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:13,920
Speaker 3: Brisbane vice was about to be hijacked by Southerners. Do

655
00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:17,240
Speaker 3: you remember where you met Abe Saffron.

656
00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:21,200
Speaker 21: When he was at Brisbane. I remember him, Yeah, a

657
00:41:21,239 --> 00:41:21,759
Speaker 21: little hat.

658
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:25,320
Speaker 3: Do you remember where you had a meeting.

659
00:41:26,600 --> 00:41:27,080
Speaker 21: Upstairs?

660
00:41:27,160 --> 00:41:27,879
Speaker 7: Then?

661
00:41:29,120 --> 00:41:30,320
Speaker 20: So he came to your club?

662
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:31,480
Speaker 21: Yeah?

663
00:41:32,239 --> 00:41:32,479
Speaker 16: Wow?

664
00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:35,359
Speaker 7: And you didn't know who he was then?

665
00:41:36,400 --> 00:41:37,239
Speaker 8: How do you know who he was?

666
00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:37,440
Speaker 2: Now?

667
00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:41,800
Speaker 7: How will I find out? Did you talk that and

668
00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:42,560
Speaker 7: never came back?

669
00:41:43,560 --> 00:41:45,000
Speaker 21: Might have been a good thing you didn't know who

670
00:41:45,040 --> 00:41:45,320
Speaker 21: he was.

671
00:41:46,200 --> 00:41:47,640
Speaker 7: No, I would just make him ride in the fight

672
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:49,080
Speaker 7: and picked them how to pick them off?

673
00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:50,400
Speaker 16: Who he was?

674
00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:52,600
Speaker 26: I do you know he will have talked to me?

675
00:41:52,680 --> 00:41:54,600
Speaker 26: I said, yes, were your name? I didn't even know

676
00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:57,719
Speaker 26: his name was saved Severn? I said what can I

677
00:41:57,840 --> 00:41:59,920
Speaker 26: do for you? What he said to me?

678
00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:01,720
Speaker 21: It was, well, I ran Sydney.

679
00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:05,120
Speaker 7: I said, so you run Sidney? He said, oh yeah.

680
00:42:06,080 --> 00:42:09,719
Speaker 26: He said yes, you'll actually join us and we give

681
00:42:09,880 --> 00:42:14,520
Speaker 26: the protection and you run Brisbane. And I said, wait

682
00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:18,600
Speaker 26: a minute, you mean to say, then I'm gonna run Brisbane.

683
00:42:18,960 --> 00:42:21,800
Speaker 26: What do you do stand over Texas? They're gonna find money?

684
00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:26,520
Speaker 26: He said yes. I said, not here. I am very sorry,

685
00:42:26,600 --> 00:42:30,040
Speaker 26: but not even Brisbane. And I was really cranky. And

686
00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:33,760
Speaker 26: I get cranky, I really get cranky? Can I get angry?

687
00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:35,600
Speaker 26: And I said, I am tradition.

688
00:42:36,200 --> 00:42:37,080
Speaker 21: I do well here.

689
00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:38,400
Speaker 7: I will never do that.

690
00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:42,160
Speaker 26: My father would have shot me so away. He said, Okay,

691
00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:44,759
Speaker 26: if you ever come to see me, come to see me.

692
00:42:45,960 --> 00:42:47,680
Speaker 26: I said, I don't come to see you. I could

693
00:42:47,719 --> 00:42:50,319
Speaker 26: talk to fancy Sydney. I don't want to get mixed

694
00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:53,560
Speaker 26: up with anything like that. Then he told some of

695
00:42:53,640 --> 00:42:56,120
Speaker 26: the boys there that they bring me up and said,

696
00:42:56,160 --> 00:43:00,720
Speaker 26: you're bad from Sydney. Wow, I said, bigger pardon.

697
00:43:02,239 --> 00:43:07,880
Speaker 3: Tony Bellino never heard from Saffron again. With Reagan cooking

698
00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:11,080
Speaker 3: up deals left, right and center, and John Andrew Stewart

699
00:43:11,200 --> 00:43:14,440
Speaker 3: warning of a Sydney criminal takeover, with Lenny McPherson and

700
00:43:14,520 --> 00:43:18,320
Speaker 3: Abe Saffron appearing out of nowhere, Brisbane was suddenly a

701
00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:23,400
Speaker 3: pressure cooker. Reagan had established a relationship with psychopath Vinco Dempsey,

702
00:43:23,719 --> 00:43:26,640
Speaker 3: the man, as they said, who owned his own private

703
00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:31,160
Speaker 3: graveyard to dispose of his murder victims, and through Oh Dempsey,

704
00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:34,320
Speaker 3: Reagan hooked up with a rag bag group of petty

705
00:43:34,440 --> 00:43:39,000
Speaker 3: crooks ominously called the Clockwork Orange Gang. They were named

706
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:42,560
Speaker 3: after the violent Stanley Kubrick film based on the novel

707
00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:47,240
Speaker 3: by Anthony Burgess. The story centered on psychopath teenager Alex,

708
00:43:47,520 --> 00:43:51,440
Speaker 3: who along with his gang members or druids, wore bowler hats.

709
00:43:52,400 --> 00:43:56,680
Speaker 27: There was any that is Alex and my three drus

710
00:43:56,960 --> 00:44:01,400
Speaker 27: that is Pete, Georgy and Dim, and we sat in

711
00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:04,080
Speaker 27: the Corova Milk Bar trying to make up our razoo

712
00:44:04,160 --> 00:44:08,319
Speaker 27: docs what to do with the evening. The Corova Milk

713
00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:11,520
Speaker 27: Bar sold milk plus, which is what we were drinking.

714
00:44:13,239 --> 00:44:15,680
Speaker 27: This would sharpen you up and thank you ready for

715
00:44:15,760 --> 00:44:18,400
Speaker 27: a bit of the old ultra violence.

716
00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:27,280
Speaker 7: Hi Hi, Hi, there my little druggies.

717
00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:36,439
Speaker 3: The Brisbane Clockworkers were petty criminals Gary Shorty Dubois, Peter Hall,

718
00:44:36,719 --> 00:44:41,080
Speaker 3: Tommy Hamilton and Keith Meredith known as Jimmy O. Dempsey.

719
00:44:41,280 --> 00:44:44,120
Speaker 3: A thug called Billy mcculkin and a grifter called Billy

720
00:44:44,200 --> 00:44:47,800
Speaker 3: Stokes came in and out of the group. They prowled

721
00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:51,360
Speaker 3: the streets of Brisbane at night, committing burglaries. They lifted

722
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:54,400
Speaker 3: goods off the backs of delivery vans. They drank and

723
00:44:54,520 --> 00:44:58,080
Speaker 3: took drugs and got into fights and caused mayhem.

724
00:44:59,520 --> 00:45:00,120
Speaker 7: Years ago, I.

725
00:45:00,120 --> 00:45:03,680
Speaker 3: Interviewed one of the former Clockwork gang members, Peter Hall,

726
00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:07,080
Speaker 3: who moved away from crime, had a family and now

727
00:45:07,200 --> 00:45:11,840
Speaker 3: leads a perfectly respectable suburban life outside Sydney back in

728
00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:15,160
Speaker 3: the day. Though he and his mates were dangerous tearaways.

729
00:45:15,560 --> 00:45:18,520
Speaker 3: You couldn't miss them on their turf on Brisbane's North side,

730
00:45:18,719 --> 00:45:23,239
Speaker 3: cruising the streets in their American Studebakers Hall's was a

731
00:45:23,280 --> 00:45:25,879
Speaker 3: British Racing Green nineteen sixty two.

732
00:45:26,040 --> 00:45:26,320
Speaker 20: GT.

733
00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:31,080
Speaker 3: Dubois had a violet Daytona and Hamilton a candy Apple

734
00:45:31,200 --> 00:45:37,480
Speaker 3: red GT. They also had another distinctive vehicle. How the

735
00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:41,680
Speaker 3: so called Clockwork Orange Gang began, or how it was

736
00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:46,640
Speaker 3: even named Philly Stakes, so he named it.

737
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:47,920
Speaker 7: He named it.

738
00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:53,200
Speaker 28: He's nicknamed for Tom Wood Clockwork because Tom had a

739
00:45:53,239 --> 00:45:55,319
Speaker 28: bola hat that he used to wear and only had

740
00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:55,959
Speaker 28: a top hat.

741
00:45:56,360 --> 00:45:59,840
Speaker 7: And Shorty and Jimmy never rode with us.

742
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:02,760
Speaker 28: It was just me and him in the buick hearse

743
00:46:02,880 --> 00:46:06,320
Speaker 28: we purchased, and we should drive around of a Sunday

744
00:46:06,400 --> 00:46:10,760
Speaker 28: morning just being a pair of idiots in the hearse,

745
00:46:11,480 --> 00:46:14,279
Speaker 28: you know, pulling up beside people on the side of

746
00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:16,520
Speaker 28: the road. It's want to earn a couple of dollars.

747
00:46:16,600 --> 00:46:18,360
Speaker 28: We got one in the back here that needs to

748
00:46:18,440 --> 00:46:21,600
Speaker 28: be buried. And they used to give us a look

749
00:46:21,760 --> 00:46:24,120
Speaker 28: or a couple of times we managed to run into

750
00:46:24,160 --> 00:46:27,160
Speaker 28: a real hearse we're going to a funeral and pulled

751
00:46:27,239 --> 00:46:28,160
Speaker 28: up alongside them.

752
00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:34,800
Speaker 3: That were you or Tommy? Actually influenced by the film

753
00:46:34,880 --> 00:46:36,360
Speaker 3: of The Clockwork Orange.

754
00:46:37,239 --> 00:46:38,800
Speaker 21: No, we've seen it, liked it.

755
00:46:38,960 --> 00:46:42,359
Speaker 28: I thought it was funny that you never called urself

756
00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:44,440
Speaker 28: clockwork garage king or anything like that.

757
00:46:45,040 --> 00:46:46,080
Speaker 7: That was Stokes.

758
00:46:48,200 --> 00:46:51,359
Speaker 3: In early nineteen seventy three, when Adempse offered the gang

759
00:46:51,440 --> 00:46:55,480
Speaker 3: a substantial sum to torch a restaurant called to Reno's

760
00:46:55,640 --> 00:46:58,799
Speaker 3: in Fortitude Valley, they jumped at the chance. They broke

761
00:46:58,840 --> 00:47:02,080
Speaker 3: into the restaurant, lashed patrol around and set it alight,

762
00:47:02,600 --> 00:47:05,880
Speaker 3: not accounting for the fumes erupting into a fireball. They

763
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:10,279
Speaker 3: nearly killed themselves, but they got away with it, and

764
00:47:10,400 --> 00:47:14,799
Speaker 3: the crime remained unsolved for over forty years until Hall

765
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:18,800
Speaker 3: finally confessed during Odempsey's trial for a triple murder in

766
00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:20,160
Speaker 3: twenty seventeen.

767
00:47:21,400 --> 00:47:25,400
Speaker 28: A Dempsey told Shorty to tell us that it was

768
00:47:25,440 --> 00:47:29,759
Speaker 28: an insurance job that the owners of the nightclub were

769
00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:35,440
Speaker 28: going belly up and they wanted want it out, and

770
00:47:35,560 --> 00:47:38,200
Speaker 28: it seemed pretty feasible at the time that that's what

771
00:47:38,360 --> 00:47:41,239
Speaker 28: it was, because they said the person that lived on

772
00:47:41,360 --> 00:47:46,440
Speaker 28: the premises won't be there on this night, and that

773
00:47:46,680 --> 00:47:49,359
Speaker 28: was the night we were to go in and set

774
00:47:49,400 --> 00:47:50,120
Speaker 28: fire to the joint.

775
00:47:51,160 --> 00:47:53,520
Speaker 3: It later dawned on Peter Hall that there appeared to

776
00:47:53,560 --> 00:47:56,600
Speaker 3: be a pattern in a string of fires around Brisbane

777
00:47:56,719 --> 00:47:59,319
Speaker 3: before and after the Torino's job.

778
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:02,160
Speaker 7: We never got offered another job.

779
00:48:02,239 --> 00:48:04,279
Speaker 28: That there was a few other burnings too that I

780
00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:07,279
Speaker 28: think were all mixed into the Saints and that's for

781
00:48:07,400 --> 00:48:08,279
Speaker 28: people behind it.

782
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:12,440
Speaker 3: One source would later tell police that he offered his

783
00:48:12,680 --> 00:48:16,520
Speaker 3: services to Odempsey and Mculkin in several of the arson jobs,

784
00:48:16,800 --> 00:48:19,279
Speaker 3: hoping to win his way into the gang. The gang

785
00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:22,360
Speaker 3: would often steal from the premises before they were torched.

786
00:48:22,840 --> 00:48:27,279
Speaker 3: The keen but hapless newcomer was seriously burned during one job.

787
00:48:27,560 --> 00:48:30,760
Speaker 3: He was told that the arsons were ordered by Stuart

788
00:48:30,840 --> 00:48:34,400
Speaker 3: John Reagan. One of those jobs, the fire bombing of

789
00:48:34,440 --> 00:48:37,600
Speaker 3: the Whiskey, a Go Go nightclub on Saint Paul's Terrace

790
00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:42,480
Speaker 3: in Fortitude Valley, got completely out of hand? Did Reagan

791
00:48:42,880 --> 00:48:44,880
Speaker 3: order the burning of the whiskey?

792
00:48:50,120 --> 00:48:52,800
Speaker 29: The Whiskey of Go Go was bombed at ten past

793
00:48:52,880 --> 00:48:55,960
Speaker 29: two on the morning of March the eighth, nineteen seventy three.

794
00:48:56,680 --> 00:48:58,640
Speaker 29: It was a mass murder which sent a wave of

795
00:48:58,760 --> 00:49:02,680
Speaker 29: outraids through a country which is often apathetic about crime, and.

796
00:49:03,480 --> 00:49:07,440
Speaker 3: The Whiskey of Gogo saga is murky, complicated and riddled

797
00:49:07,480 --> 00:49:11,600
Speaker 3: with lies. Critical documents associated with the case of disappeared

798
00:49:11,920 --> 00:49:17,040
Speaker 3: chief witness statements were unsigned. Corrupt police worked overtime to

799
00:49:17,200 --> 00:49:20,080
Speaker 3: control the Whisky narrative, and the biggest crooks of the

800
00:49:20,200 --> 00:49:23,680
Speaker 3: day did the same. It was and remains one of

801
00:49:23,719 --> 00:49:28,040
Speaker 3: the country's biggest criminal cover ups. Fifty years after the event,

802
00:49:28,280 --> 00:49:31,759
Speaker 3: the public is still awaiting a coronial inquest report into

803
00:49:31,840 --> 00:49:35,239
Speaker 3: the mass murder. Worse still, the Whisky case has a

804
00:49:35,320 --> 00:49:40,280
Speaker 3: long and seemingly unending tale. A domino of murders followed

805
00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:44,960
Speaker 3: the firebombing to silence potential witnesses. People with information are

806
00:49:45,200 --> 00:49:48,759
Speaker 3: still in fear for their lives, and the families of

807
00:49:48,800 --> 00:49:51,880
Speaker 3: the victims have waited more than half a lifetime for

808
00:49:52,040 --> 00:49:55,320
Speaker 3: some sort of explanation as to who set fire to

809
00:49:55,400 --> 00:49:58,640
Speaker 3: those two drums of petrol in the downstairs foyer of

810
00:49:58,680 --> 00:50:01,520
Speaker 3: the club in the early hours of March eighth, nineteen

811
00:50:01,600 --> 00:50:05,160
Speaker 3: seventy three, flicked a match and started a blaze that

812
00:50:05,200 --> 00:50:09,080
Speaker 3: would see fifteen innocent men and women perish within minutes.

813
00:50:10,360 --> 00:50:13,960
Speaker 3: Remember John Andrew Stewart and James Finch, the two wannabee

814
00:50:14,040 --> 00:50:17,840
Speaker 3: gangsters who tried to murder Reagan in that daytime gunfight

815
00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:21,520
Speaker 3: in Sydney. Both were charged with and convicted of the

816
00:50:21,640 --> 00:50:27,000
Speaker 3: Whisky murders in twenty seventeen. After Odempsey and Dubois were

817
00:50:27,040 --> 00:50:32,040
Speaker 3: found guilty of murdering Barbara mcculken, wife of clockworker Billy,

818
00:50:32,280 --> 00:50:35,560
Speaker 3: and her two daughters in nineteen seventy four, possibly in

819
00:50:35,640 --> 00:50:38,759
Speaker 3: an attempt to silence Barbara given her knowledge of the

820
00:50:38,800 --> 00:50:43,360
Speaker 3: whiskey attack, the Queensland Attorney General ordered a new inquest.

821
00:50:44,160 --> 00:50:47,440
Speaker 30: The state's worst mass killings will be the subject of

822
00:50:47,520 --> 00:50:51,560
Speaker 30: another coronial inquest more than forty years after the Whiskey

823
00:50:51,719 --> 00:50:55,719
Speaker 30: Go Go fire. The Attorney General believes a fresh investigation

824
00:50:56,280 --> 00:50:59,520
Speaker 30: may entice witnesses to reveal what really happened.

825
00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:04,359
Speaker 3: Stewart had already died in prison in nineteen seventy nine.

826
00:51:05,320 --> 00:51:08,399
Speaker 3: Du Bois would be found dead in his prison cell

827
00:51:08,600 --> 00:51:12,200
Speaker 3: a month before the new in quest, and just prior

828
00:51:12,280 --> 00:51:15,520
Speaker 3: to the second set of hearings for the refreshed inquest.

829
00:51:15,880 --> 00:51:18,839
Speaker 3: James Finch, who had been deported back to the UK

830
00:51:19,040 --> 00:51:22,439
Speaker 3: in nineteen eighty eight, also turned up dead.

831
00:51:23,160 --> 00:51:26,560
Speaker 31: James Finch also was meant to testify from overseas, but

832
00:51:26,680 --> 00:51:28,919
Speaker 31: it was revealed in court he died in the past

833
00:51:29,000 --> 00:51:29,560
Speaker 31: few months.

834
00:51:29,880 --> 00:51:32,319
Speaker 21: That will leave some questions unanswered.

835
00:51:33,520 --> 00:51:36,960
Speaker 3: But how did shotgun Johnny Reagan fit into all of this?

836
00:51:37,800 --> 00:51:40,960
Speaker 3: The story repeated for half a century was that Reagan

837
00:51:41,160 --> 00:51:45,000
Speaker 3: was in Sydney when the whiskey went up in Brisbane. Then,

838
00:51:45,239 --> 00:51:46,960
Speaker 3: out of the goodness of his heart and as a

839
00:51:47,080 --> 00:51:50,920
Speaker 3: strange sort of public service, Reagan flew north to assist

840
00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:55,520
Speaker 3: police in bringing the primary suspects, Stuart and Finch to justice.

841
00:51:56,000 --> 00:51:59,800
Speaker 3: He offered his expertise as a gangster free of charge

842
00:52:00,120 --> 00:52:03,040
Speaker 3: and would bring the fugitives in There was no love

843
00:52:03,160 --> 00:52:06,480
Speaker 3: lost between these three criminals. When Stewart and Finch were

844
00:52:06,520 --> 00:52:09,640
Speaker 3: captured by police a few days after the blaze, Reagan

845
00:52:09,840 --> 00:52:14,239
Speaker 3: returned to Sydney. That story, it now appears, was a

846
00:52:14,360 --> 00:52:18,560
Speaker 3: total lie. I'd been told that as part of Reagan's

847
00:52:18,600 --> 00:52:21,719
Speaker 3: power play in Brisbane, he'd started his own nightclub in

848
00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:25,560
Speaker 3: the city. Arrival to the Whiskey Checkers and the Jet Club,

849
00:52:25,680 --> 00:52:28,439
Speaker 3: as well as other venues. His club I was told

850
00:52:28,600 --> 00:52:31,520
Speaker 3: was called Blinkers in Albert Street, right in the heart

851
00:52:31,560 --> 00:52:35,840
Speaker 3: of the CBD. Could this be true? The rumor was

852
00:52:35,920 --> 00:52:38,840
Speaker 3: that Reagan owned a half share in the horse racing

853
00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:43,800
Speaker 3: themed club with Sydney mob boss Lenny McPherson. It sounded

854
00:52:44,000 --> 00:52:48,680
Speaker 3: far fetched, really an entire nightclub. Then I learned that

855
00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:52,120
Speaker 3: not only did Blinkers exist, but it had an opening

856
00:52:52,320 --> 00:52:56,880
Speaker 3: night party and wait for it, that celebration was held

857
00:52:57,280 --> 00:53:01,000
Speaker 3: just hours before the Whisky a Goo Goo was firebombed

858
00:53:01,480 --> 00:53:05,279
Speaker 3: on the evening of Thursday, March seventh, nineteen seventy three.

859
00:53:07,200 --> 00:53:11,759
Speaker 3: Present at Blinkers was Brisbane lawyer Noel Barbie. You met

860
00:53:11,880 --> 00:53:14,879
Speaker 3: Noel in our last episode, who done some real estate

861
00:53:15,000 --> 00:53:16,120
Speaker 3: work for Reagan.

862
00:53:18,160 --> 00:53:20,799
Speaker 6: The partner sticks out with me more than anything else

863
00:53:21,080 --> 00:53:24,320
Speaker 6: was that it was either the night after or the

864
00:53:24,440 --> 00:53:27,279
Speaker 6: night itself of the Whiskey a Go Go bombing, and

865
00:53:27,360 --> 00:53:30,320
Speaker 6: there was a little nightclub in Albert Street called Blinkers

866
00:53:31,280 --> 00:53:34,920
Speaker 6: like the horse Blinkers and the Pungarians that ran it

867
00:53:35,040 --> 00:53:40,880
Speaker 6: called Nemathy later bought the Saint Bernard's Hotel up at Tambourine.

868
00:53:41,800 --> 00:53:45,520
Speaker 6: But coming back, I remember in Blinkers Reagan was there

869
00:53:46,440 --> 00:53:49,279
Speaker 6: and I'm sure that when I was sitting with him

870
00:53:49,360 --> 00:53:52,360
Speaker 6: like that he was either wounded or cupped or something

871
00:53:52,440 --> 00:53:55,480
Speaker 6: had happened to him, because he's had a slight cut

872
00:53:55,640 --> 00:53:56,920
Speaker 6: or bleeding or something not.

873
00:53:57,000 --> 00:53:58,279
Speaker 32: So what happened to he said, I either a bit

874
00:53:58,280 --> 00:54:01,200
Speaker 32: of a staple or something like that, because he was

875
00:54:01,239 --> 00:54:04,720
Speaker 32: a solid boy, you know, mean like like you wouldn't

876
00:54:04,719 --> 00:54:07,239
Speaker 32: want to pick anything with him because his solid, thick,

877
00:54:08,280 --> 00:54:09,480
Speaker 32: muscular Oh yeah.

878
00:54:09,400 --> 00:54:11,760
Speaker 6: Yeah, and you know he wouldn't have any problem getting

879
00:54:11,760 --> 00:54:14,879
Speaker 6: into a fight. But remember this night, and I don't

880
00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:17,000
Speaker 6: know it was that close to that whiskey at Go

881
00:54:17,160 --> 00:54:19,959
Speaker 6: Go time. I think either Blinkers opened on the same

882
00:54:20,080 --> 00:54:22,960
Speaker 6: night and it was a disaster of it, or the

883
00:54:23,120 --> 00:54:25,680
Speaker 6: night after. It was very close in time. You'd probably

884
00:54:25,719 --> 00:54:28,960
Speaker 6: be able to find that somewhere Blinkers not there anymore,

885
00:54:29,000 --> 00:54:29,600
Speaker 6: of course, but.

886
00:54:29,719 --> 00:54:32,120
Speaker 21: Reagan was in town when the whiskey went. Oh yeah.

887
00:54:33,160 --> 00:54:37,000
Speaker 6: The choint I'm getting at is that he was at

888
00:54:37,040 --> 00:54:38,920
Speaker 6: the nightclub and it was just it just I just

889
00:54:39,000 --> 00:54:42,000
Speaker 6: remember that part with him. The trouble with a lot

890
00:54:42,040 --> 00:54:46,280
Speaker 6: of this stuff is your memory tends to add scenes

891
00:54:46,320 --> 00:54:49,680
Speaker 6: that are not factual. But that time there that I

892
00:54:49,840 --> 00:54:51,680
Speaker 6: know that there be no doubt in my mind that

893
00:54:52,239 --> 00:54:54,440
Speaker 6: he was in Brisbane at the time of that a

894
00:54:54,520 --> 00:54:55,320
Speaker 6: go go business.

895
00:54:56,520 --> 00:55:00,640
Speaker 3: According to police records, the Blinkers grand opening was indeed

896
00:55:00,800 --> 00:55:04,880
Speaker 3: on March seventh, nineteen seventy three, just before the Whisky

897
00:55:04,960 --> 00:55:07,319
Speaker 3: went up at two ten a m. On March eight,

898
00:55:08,360 --> 00:55:12,160
Speaker 3: whiskey owner Brian Little and his manager John Bell attended

899
00:55:12,200 --> 00:55:15,920
Speaker 3: the Blinkers party before returning to the Whiskey close to midnight,

900
00:55:16,200 --> 00:55:19,680
Speaker 3: just a couple of hours before the fire bombing. According

901
00:55:19,719 --> 00:55:23,560
Speaker 3: to the late investigative journalist Tony Reeves, Reagan had dropped

902
00:55:23,680 --> 00:55:27,240
Speaker 3: into the Whisky nightclub on several occasions in the days

903
00:55:27,320 --> 00:55:32,120
Speaker 3: before the fire. McPherson and Paddles Anderson had also been

904
00:55:32,200 --> 00:55:37,400
Speaker 3: seen there. Reeves was also told that the notorious Roger Rogerson,

905
00:55:37,600 --> 00:55:40,240
Speaker 3: then a hot shot young detective who had been assigned

906
00:55:40,280 --> 00:55:43,919
Speaker 3: to help investigate the Whisky firebombing, had also been seen

907
00:55:44,000 --> 00:55:46,560
Speaker 3: in Brisbane before the Whisky went up.

908
00:55:47,760 --> 00:55:49,000
Speaker 7: The official story.

909
00:55:48,800 --> 00:55:51,920
Speaker 3: Always was that Rogerson had flown up from Sydney on

910
00:55:52,040 --> 00:55:55,800
Speaker 3: the day of the fire with his mentor, Detective Noel Moury.

911
00:55:56,960 --> 00:56:00,439
Speaker 3: Before his death last year, Rogerson, in jail for life

912
00:56:00,560 --> 00:56:04,800
Speaker 3: for murder, appeared as a witness at the New Whiskey inquest.

913
00:56:05,960 --> 00:56:09,440
Speaker 31: Appearing by video length from Long Bay Correctional Center, Rogerson

914
00:56:09,560 --> 00:56:12,840
Speaker 31: looked frail, dressed in prison greens and making jokes before

915
00:56:12,960 --> 00:56:16,200
Speaker 31: being called compelled by the coroner to answer questions, The

916
00:56:16,280 --> 00:56:19,160
Speaker 31: eighty one year old denied Finch was verbaled. I know

917
00:56:19,280 --> 00:56:22,120
Speaker 31: I was present when the record of interview was being conducted.

918
00:56:22,400 --> 00:56:25,360
Speaker 31: It was factual and it took place. He couldn't remember

919
00:56:25,440 --> 00:56:28,520
Speaker 31: details or recall how Finch was given his statement, but

920
00:56:28,680 --> 00:56:31,080
Speaker 31: doubted it was put in his pocket. He went on

921
00:56:31,200 --> 00:56:34,000
Speaker 31: to describe whiskey killer John Stewart as a rat bag

922
00:56:34,160 --> 00:56:37,480
Speaker 31: whose Sydney criminals wanted nothing to do it, saying Stuart

923
00:56:37,680 --> 00:56:41,120
Speaker 31: was an idiot. Rogerson was asked whether he was associated

924
00:56:41,200 --> 00:56:43,400
Speaker 31: with Sydney criminals who was said to be jealous of

925
00:56:43,440 --> 00:56:46,200
Speaker 31: a heroine operation being run out of the Whiskey and

926
00:56:46,280 --> 00:56:49,520
Speaker 31: who had threatened to burn the club, declaring I had

927
00:56:49,600 --> 00:56:51,520
Speaker 31: nothing to do with the Whiskey Go go.

928
00:56:53,680 --> 00:56:58,000
Speaker 3: So did Johnny Reagan shotgun Johnny Nano the Magician have

929
00:56:58,120 --> 00:57:02,480
Speaker 3: a hand in the Whiskey mass murder. Was Reagan sipping

930
00:57:02,560 --> 00:57:06,080
Speaker 3: his orange juice or tonic water and nursing some sort

931
00:57:06,120 --> 00:57:10,719
Speaker 3: of mysterious wound at the opening of his new nightclub, Blinkers,

932
00:57:11,800 --> 00:57:16,240
Speaker 3: as innocent clubgoers at the Whiskey were screaming and suffocating

933
00:57:16,400 --> 00:57:21,040
Speaker 3: on carbon monoxide just two kilometers or a casual thirty

934
00:57:21,200 --> 00:57:26,520
Speaker 3: minute walk away in Fortitude Valley. In the next episode

935
00:57:26,880 --> 00:57:28,480
Speaker 3: of The Gangster's Ghost.

936
00:57:29,160 --> 00:57:33,240
Speaker 16: I saw a white light. Sounds stupid mind taking over.

937
00:57:33,320 --> 00:57:37,120
Speaker 16: I was on point of clap, but I honestly, totally,

938
00:57:37,240 --> 00:57:39,959
Speaker 16: utterly believe I was on the point of dying.

939
00:57:50,800 --> 00:57:53,640
Speaker 2: The Gangster's Ghost is a production of The Australian. It's

940
00:57:53,720 --> 00:57:57,160
Speaker 2: written and presented by senior writer Matthew Condon and produced

941
00:57:57,200 --> 00:58:00,400
Speaker 2: and edited by multimedia editor le at Sama Group. Our

942
00:58:00,440 --> 00:58:04,680
Speaker 2: executive producer is me editorial director Claire Harvey. Special thanks

943
00:58:04,720 --> 00:58:09,280
Speaker 2: to Lara Kamenos, Erica Rutlidge, Kristin Amiot, Jasper Leek, Stephanie Coombs,

944
00:58:09,400 --> 00:58:14,400
Speaker 2: Sean Callanan, Lachlan Clear, Ryan Osland, Amanda Willian Williams, Christine Kellet,

945
00:58:14,520 --> 00:58:19,280
Speaker 2: Taron Blackhurst, Magdalena Zadjak, Giselle Boetti, Genevieve Rammel, Lauren Bruce,

946
00:58:19,640 --> 00:58:23,360
Speaker 2: sus Rolf and Jachina Carlson. We can only do journalism

947
00:58:23,520 --> 00:58:26,040
Speaker 2: like this with the support of US subscribers, who hear

948
00:58:26,160 --> 00:58:30,160
Speaker 2: episodes first and get full access to photos, video, news

949
00:58:30,200 --> 00:58:34,200
Speaker 2: stories and features, plus all Australia's best journalism twenty four

950
00:58:34,200 --> 00:59:03,160
Speaker 2: to seven. Join us at Gangstersghost dot com dot au, SCN, CAR, S.

951
00:59:05,480 --> 00:59:10,320
Speaker 17: S, S

952
00:59:12,680 --> 00:59:12,720
Speaker 4: S