July 3, 2025 • 59 mins
In this episode Regan is a suspect following the suspicious death of brothel madam and whistleblower Shirley Brifman in Brisbane where the gangster is using his muscle to expand his various business ventures.
Regan hooks up with the shady Clockwork Orange Gang and rocks the Queensland capital with a series of nightclub fires as he tries to set up a lucrative extortion racket which culminates in the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub firebombing that leaves 15 innocent people dead and becomes the largest mass murder in Australian criminal history.
For the first time Regan’s relationship with the Whiskey tragedy is exposed. And it may just have pulled the trigger on a plot not just to silence him but to get rid of him for good.
Read more about this case and see photographs, videos, timelines and more at gangstersghost.com.au
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Before we begin.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
This podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence. This is a
production by The Australian and our subscribers hear episodes first
and get full access to photos, video, news stories and
features plus all Australia's best journalism twenty four to seven.
Join us at gangstersghost dot com dot a U.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
It's Saturday, March fourth, nineteen seventy two and teenager Mary
Anne Brifman, daughter to Sydney brothel Madame Shirley Brifman, has
woken early. She had been living with relatives in country
New South Wales after her mother famously blew the whistle
on the Sydney Underworld in a national television interview and
(00:56):
sent the family fleeing for their lives. The Brifmans returned
to Brisbane, where Shirley had worked as a prostitute at
the start of her notorious career, and Marianne rejoined them there.
In Brisbane, Shirley had relatives to lean on, and after
being shuffled through a series of safe houses, Shirley, her
(01:20):
husband and their four children finally settled in a flat
at fifty Bonnie Avenue, Clayfield in the Cities Inner Northwest
Shirley had been hunted by Stuart John Reagan after the
television fiasco. He warned her to keep her mouth shut.
(01:42):
He turned up the heat in Brisbane, arriving unexpectedly at
one of her police safe houses, and Shirley, with the
magician on her tail, was a nervous wreck. For months,
she'd given official police interview to both Queensland and New
Southwelles detectives about her public allegations of police corruption and
(02:07):
close ties to the underworld. Shirley didn't hold back, so
by early nineteen seventy two, she was convinced she was
going to be murdered. She was due to appear as
a witness in the trial of Detective Anthony Murphy, the
feared leader of Queensland's rat pack of corrupt police. He
(02:30):
had been charged with perjury on the evidence of Brifman
in the wake of her television expose a and stood
down from his official duties. Briffman and Murphy had been
one time lovers. Now she was due in court intent
on sending him to prison. On that Saturday morning in
early March, Marianne wandered through the spacious Bonnie Avenue apartment
(02:54):
her boyfriend Jim had stayed the night sleeping on a
bed in the foyer. He had left before dawn for
his job at a nearby service station. Meanwhile, mary Anne
went into the spare room and it was there that
she found her mother's body.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
You've got to remember, I'm fifteen. Well it is really
a murder. If that had happened, you think that they
protect the crime scene even back then. But none of
that happened. I can't remember who the police were that came,
or the detectives. I can't recall who they were, but
(03:38):
they were obviously instructed to leave everything very loose. They
allowed me to go back in the room and sit
next to my mother. I was in there for I
don't know, thirty or forty minutes, just sitting there by myself.
Nobody even came and looked.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
Were all out there.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
They had to wait for the fingerprints to be done right,
and maybe they were waiting to take the body. But
we were all walking in and out. The whole family,
like the weaver was round, was allowed to walk in
and out of the bedroom, just saying I died in
this room. You close it off to me, even the
family walking in, even though I remember asking can I
(04:24):
go in and sit with my mother? I remember doing that,
but not to who, some police person, And I was
surprised that I was allowed to stay now as long
as I wanted.
Speaker 6 (04:35):
I don't mean to upset you after all this year,
But what was your mother like?
Speaker 7 (04:38):
She was it just like.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
She's fall to sleep? No, she was like frozen. Well,
obviously the wigged mortison sent in, But no, what.
Speaker 8 (04:52):
Was her position? It wasn't just like she'd gone to sleep.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
No, No, she was laying back on pillows, half sitting up,
like the pillows were propped up, and her hand was
frozen like this up in the air. And yes, she
was like in that position.
Speaker 9 (05:11):
Yeah, I read that an empty bottle of presumably the
bottle that had been delivered to her, was found under
the mattress or something.
Speaker 8 (05:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Was there anything you remember seeing in the room that
was different or that would have stuck out to you?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I was too busy looking at my mother. My sisters
and brother didn't go back in, you know, like they
went in and had a look and didn't but they
didn't stay there. That was too scary for them because
of how she looked and being dead. Do you know
what I mean.
Speaker 10 (05:46):
So I'm journalist Matthew Condon and this is the Gangster's Ghost,
a podcast from The Australian.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
This podcast started out as a clinical look at one
of Australia's most reviled gangsters, but when the Reagan family
came on board, the project took on another dimension and
begged the question how does a family cope with the
generational stain of a murderer whose death was celebrated by
(06:25):
criminals and police alike. This is episode eight Collateral Damage.
Shirley Briffman's death was officially ruled a drug overdose. Police
(06:49):
recommended no autopsy. Her daughter Mary Anne, believed her mother
knew she had to die. For years, she'd paid grass
for protection, but for months leading up to her death,
she'd been exposed and vulnerable.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
She was very depressed and very sad, with very good reason.
And you know, you don't appreciate that as a child,
but as an adult you can see she was racked
with depression. Really, I saw her depressed for many, many years,
but this was different depression.
Speaker 11 (07:29):
I guess it was oppression in the sense she was
crying a lot. I think she felt quite helpless, and
I think That's why she was so mad with the
police commissioner at that time, because nobody.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Would help her, and the more she told, the less
they wanted to help her. And I think she was
conflicted actually over that, and that's why I don't think
that she was smart. My mother definitely wasn't intellectually in
any sense.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
She was bright, very bright, street smart to a degree,
but not enough, very trusting, and not enough to realize that.
I mean, it's black and white, but heck, would you
not realize you're going to lose your life when you
start telling on everyone.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
On the night Shirley died, Mary Anne and her boyfriend
Jim both said they saw a visitor come to the
apartment in Bonnie Avenue around midnight. The visitor handed Shirley
a small medicine vial. A few hours later, Shirley took
the contents of the vial and died. Her daughter still
(08:46):
believes Shirley was given an ultimatum, kill yourself or will
kill your children. Briffman's death was a war watershed in
the story of true crime in twentieth century Australia. She
was the intersection of several roads where corrupt police, politicians,
(09:10):
and the underworld collided. She embodied everything you needed to
know about organized crime in Australia at that time. Shirley
was made by corrupt police and she was destroyed by them.
Her suspected murder, too, was emblematic of how ruthlessly, violent
and reckless crime had become in the lucky country. Here
(09:33):
was a critical whistleblower with intricate knowledge of corrupt systems
in two states, and her extermination had been simply passed
off as just another prostitute who lost her life through
a drug overdose. Reagan was a critical part of this story.
Who had ordered him to put pressure on Briffman? And
(09:57):
you have to ask the question, was he the mysterious
visitor who delivered the fatal drugs to Shirley on the
night she died. I needed to get to the eppy
center of Brifman's death. I had to stand in the
room where she died, in that upstairs flat in Clayfield
(10:17):
to try and understand what had happened and why. That's
how I met Gary. His family had owned the small
block of flats in Bonnie Avenue for decades. He was
a teenager when the Briffmans moved into their apartment back
in late nineteen seventy one. He's now an old man,
(10:39):
but he's never forgotten the time a criminal whistleblower and
her family came to live upstairs in apartment number two.
Speaker 8 (10:56):
And this has been empty for some time, been happy
for ten years.
Speaker 12 (11:01):
Okay, So this was coming in through the back door here, Garrett, Yeah,
into the kitchen.
Speaker 13 (11:05):
But it's at all that everybody used. So it's pretty
much the same layer, isn't it. As when so Marianne
said this, Sonny was asleeping here on that night. So
it was March three into March four, nine seventy two.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
So Sonny, she said, was here and that there was
a middle bedroom.
Speaker 14 (11:25):
Which was which was that this was actually my bedroom
for thirty years, and.
Speaker 9 (11:33):
In her bedroom, so Marianne said she was in here.
Speaker 13 (11:37):
Yeah, that's the other bathroom.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yeah, and big foyer, and of course this is the room.
Speaker 9 (11:47):
Where Shirley's body was found.
Speaker 13 (11:48):
Yes, let's go in over here. I understand up against
the wall there, so I've been told.
Speaker 15 (11:55):
She was on the bed.
Speaker 14 (11:58):
I didn't actually get to see her, but I'm told
that she was saying, leaning against the wall.
Speaker 13 (12:02):
But there was a stain about here running down.
Speaker 14 (12:06):
The wall, and I swear it was from draw or
something from her mouth after I said she was laying
against her Well, you said she was laying against the
wall or something.
Speaker 13 (12:16):
Yeah, And it had this stain running down the wall.
Speaker 16 (12:20):
How long was that there?
Speaker 17 (12:21):
For?
Speaker 7 (12:22):
Oh?
Speaker 13 (12:22):
Years? Years?
Speaker 14 (12:25):
In the thirty years I was living here, it must
have been here. And my mother had a time machine here.
Speaker 17 (12:34):
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Multiple theories emerged in the wake of Shirley's death. Was
it Reagan finally getting the job done after his attempt
to strangle her with a coat hanger had failed the
previous year in Sydney? Or was she killed by corrupt police?
A rumor assisted for decades that Fred Froggy Cray from
(13:03):
Sydney shoved the fatal drugs down Brifman's throat. Was he
the mysterious midnight visitor? Or had Tony Murphy arranged it
without Brifman His perjury trial collapsed and he went from
strength to strength as Queensland's most feared and corrupt copper.
(13:24):
You'll remember the infamous drug dealer John Edward Milligan from
our last episode. After his arrest in nineteen seventy nine
by Federal Bureau of niicotics agent John Shobrook. Milligan had
this to say in his record of interview. These are
his words read by a voice actor.
Speaker 18 (13:44):
Shirley Brefman was the mistress of several Sydney gangsters, and
she told the truth, and she was murdered by sleeping
tablets down her throat. I was told by Glenn Hallahan
four days before she was murdered that Shirley Breafman's problem
had finally been sold, that she'd be no more worries shortly.
That's the freaking truth.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
None of this made any difference to Reagan. By the
time Shirley's body was transported to the city Morgue and
then flown to her childhood town of Atherton in far
North Queensland, where she was buried in a gold coffin,
Reagan had several firm footholds in Queensland. His friendship with
the drug dealer Milligan might have been on the Wayne,
(14:28):
but he was building up a stable of criminal associates
he could rely on in Queensland, including a local psychopath
who may have been even more ruthless than Reagan himself.
As a criminal chemical mix, it would prove explosive. Meanwhile,
(14:50):
Kelly never relented in her search for documents about her
second cousin. She had miraculously secured Reagan's consorting cards, and
the next big fish was his actual criminal record. Kelly
was thrilled to hear early in her search that she
was entitled to see Reagan's records, but there was one catch.
(15:12):
They were missing. No surprise there. This is Kelly in
one of her audio diary entries.
Speaker 19 (15:19):
For transparency. My cousin has rightly or wrongly been portrayed
as a murdering psychopath for five decades, and to discover
that his criminal history is missing is if I'm being
kind a joke. To my knowledge, John has never been
convicted of murder, yet since his death he has been
labeled at will, including the death of a three year
old child. This tells me that his criminal record should
(15:40):
be in the files of up to twelve unsold murders,
not taking into account the fifteen people who died at
the Whiskey Go Go Fire. Further, don't get me started
on how a microfilm goes missing. And then I've just
given him my availability and my phone number. And if
I was a conspiracy theorist, I could have a right
little party. But let's just keep this adventure going because
(16:01):
it's an interesting journey and I knew it I would
face some hurdles, but this is not a hurdle. This
is a complete and utter attempt at a roadblock with
really flimsical material to hold the roadblock together.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Kelly was naturally suspicious. It was hard enough to get
the consorting cards. Now the criminal record of one of
the biggest gangsters and alleged killers of his era had vanished.
So Kelly wrote to then New South Wales Police Commissioner
Mick Fuller, he was police top dog from March twenty
seventeen to January twenty twenty two.
Speaker 19 (16:36):
I'm shocked at how this can be, and know that
John was involved with corrupt police in both New South
Wales and Queensland, but it was forty seven years ago,
so what harm would a criminal record create. I'm aware
that John is a person of interest in several killings.
We find it pretty scary that a record of one
of Sydney's most notorious criminals has simply been lost. I
am not a crackpot, at least I don't think so,
(16:57):
and I am struggling to see how this could happen.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
After further letters to state and local politicians and anyone
else who might be able to help, and exhausted, Kelly
was told the elusive documents had in fact been found
and were on their way. On the cover sheet of
the records was the now iconic mugshot of Reagan, taken
(17:22):
when he was just sixteen years old. Someone has hand
written across the top left portion of the sheet, this
man very anti police, makes false allegations against police. Question
with due caution. What is astonishing about the old document
(17:43):
is that in the vast majority of cases, his charges,
ranging from assault and robbery to rape, are ultimately dismissed.
He could not escape jail time over a charge of
conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in early nine
sixty eight, You'll remember that was when he wrote to
the Colonel seeking books on yoga and psychokinetic powers. But
(18:10):
the sentence columns are filled with the words dismissed, acquitted,
or discharged, and not a single charge relates to a
scam he pulled off that was so audacious that you
have to hear it to believe it. Less than a
(18:31):
fortnight after Reagan's murder in Marrickville, in September nineteen seventy four,
Sydney newspapers hinted that the dead gangster may have been
involved in a real estate scam that had seen hundreds,
if not thousands, of ordinary mums and dads in search
of the great Australian dream, fleeced of their hard earned savings.
(18:54):
Two months later, Neville Ran, the working class Balmain boy
who went on to become a long serving Premier of
New South Wales, was an ambitious member of Parliament and
leader of the Labor Opposition, and he had a bombshell
to drop. He stood in the Parliamentary chamber and asked
a question without notice to Deputy Premier and Minister for
(19:17):
Local Government Sir Charles Cutler. The Premier of New South
Wales at the time was the corrupt Robert Askin. Ran
took the floor.
Speaker 20 (19:31):
Is the Minister aware of the growing number of people
in New South Wales who have been duped by questionable
companies which purchase at bargain prices land in country areas
sold at auction by local government authorities for non payment
of rates and then resell it for vast and extortionate profits. Further,
is the Minister aware that In recent months, a group
(19:52):
of interlock companies that were all associated with the recently
murdered Stuart John Reagan have been purchasing at auction from
council land at such places as Tamworth, Whereas Creek and Cessnock,
and at other country centers and reselling it at prices
of up to five thousand dollars a block.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Ran was alluding to what would prove to be just
the tip of the iceberg when it came to Reagan's
outrageous fraud across three states. The crux of the scam
was this. A team of salesmen in Queensland, New South
Wales and Victoria advertised desirable blocks of land in regional areas.
(20:32):
The ads flaunted attractive parcels more than suitable for building
a house upon the land, fully sewed and powered. In Queensland,
potential interstate buyers were plied with food and booze before
handing over cash deposits. All convancing could only be handled
(20:55):
by the seller's own lawyers. As it turned out, Reagan's
complex net of companies never possessed title deeds to any
of the blocks. They fraudulently sold and resold the cash
for land disappeared from the late nineteen sixties through to
(21:17):
the late nineteen seventies. Several years after Reagan's death, the
scam operated unhindered from law enforcement, despite the press reports
and parliamentary agitation. Reagan's lawyer, Michael Seymour told us that
Reagan's real estate venture into the regions was a perfectly
(21:38):
legitimate business venture.
Speaker 12 (21:42):
So you've introduced him to the real estate gameh Yeah.
Speaker 21 (21:48):
In the late sixties. Over the years, I made a
bit of money out out in real estate.
Speaker 22 (21:53):
Can you goodbye little semi shurs although fifteen thousand dollars
bag at those and through an accountant, I bought up
the street in maccaboy streetscu Will and then at one
stage John Yalway had these propertly Forgarten. The idea that
try and make money down real estate and cheap properties
(22:16):
in the inner city area.
Speaker 21 (22:17):
The city expands, goes.
Speaker 22 (22:20):
Up and expanse only didn't meet something wants to an
idea there you'll.
Speaker 7 (22:24):
Go after him.
Speaker 22 (22:25):
Yeah, twenty towns. The local councils. It rapes out paid
for a period of time. The council seizes the land
and sells a lot. So Reagan found out some add
in the paper whatever that there were hundreds and hundreds
of blocks of land.
Speaker 21 (22:42):
They said, So if my office had the lper gome
to where all the plank pluntcasts.
Speaker 22 (22:48):
So he had a little office in the regions, treat
himself in a little office, yeah, the real estate office.
Speaker 21 (22:57):
Well, he is trying to sell these lands. So he
Floyd a salesperson.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Okay, and regent Stream John was selling.
Speaker 22 (23:04):
Them for about seven fifty for one half thousand flood,
a huge profit.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
But those on the inside had a different story. I
spoke to a source who was intimate with the Reagan landscam.
We have disguised his voice to protect his identity. Believe
it or not, Even after all these years, there are
many people associated with Reagan who are still terrified of
(23:34):
repercussions for speaking out.
Speaker 17 (23:37):
It started in young and New South Wales, where he
coming from. But the first thing they'd do they find
his little out of town places and go there and
go to the local council chambers and say, is there
any subdivisions with separate deeds in this trickler town blocks
of land that had never been divided up and sold off,
(23:59):
And go through the council chambers and a pliant and
I'll say, well, there's one hundred blocks out of such
and such a road. The guy had an idea of
being a developer and he ran out of cash. But
they've all got separate deeds. All I can say is this,
if you pay the rates at something on it, because
no rates have been paid on it for ten or
fifteen years, we'll sign it over to you. So that's
what it is. Because those sort of people went broke.
(24:22):
So but say is you just pay the rates and
it's yours.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
With the cheap land secured, Reagan's scam artists went to work.
Speaker 17 (24:32):
They get it all done nicely, and if there was
a creek, they'd have it all painted in blue, you know,
to make out it was flashy. And then they would
advertise somewhere in Sydney or wherever it be, own your
own block of land. And then the wife or the
husband said, well, I have a look at this man,
I own Boca land. We are nothing.
Speaker 7 (24:51):
Wouldn't we buy it?
Speaker 17 (24:52):
And the next thing they reply to the ad by telephone.
There's no emails in those days and no mobiles, and
that'd go out there and there it is there and
at which block. Do you want the corner block? This
is grab whatever he can and deposit because there was
no credit card details and that he just grab it
in cash. But before he'd leave, he'd say, now, I
(25:13):
make sure you got the money, because when you see this,
you'll buy it. Okay, I don't want to waste my time.
You're living out of para matter.
Speaker 7 (25:20):
You know.
Speaker 17 (25:20):
It was an hour's run. But if you don't like it,
that's fine, but just make sure you have the money
with you. So this is the way it grunts him
on the phone. You go out there, and the way
the maps and everything. We're done, and the creeks are
all nice and blue. Yeah, okay, we'll take this one.
So they'd buy that one. And he said I'd just leave,
and he said part it would I pull up in
(25:41):
Matuda or jag I'd love that. I thought, shit, look
at this car.
Speaker 7 (25:45):
This guy is a property developer.
Speaker 17 (25:46):
You know.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
One Queensland salesman I tracked down believed he was carrying
out legitimate business. If he knew Reagan was behind the scam,
he didn't say, but as a justice of the piece
at the time, his signature became a handy asset for
Reagan's operations. We have also altered this source's voice.
Speaker 15 (26:09):
I threw the under Sydney and brought back people and
threw them up to harvey By and go and go
and meet them up there.
Speaker 7 (26:15):
And we're selling thousands of dollars a weekend.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
It was a good business.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
What good business here?
Speaker 1 (26:24):
And did you ever do some land sales with Stuart
John Reagan at all?
Speaker 7 (26:29):
He was a criminal.
Speaker 15 (26:30):
I knew as he was tied up with the other
black in uh Reagan and the other black criminals and
selling and acquisition.
Speaker 7 (26:41):
I knew him through that.
Speaker 15 (26:43):
Why should that not dubs in the valley in Brisbane
at the times, or forgive their names. They had a
lot of money's champering them, but they didn't know how
to handler, not made a sewer for him. So I
fly there in the Sydney and bring back a flock
of people, and I knew how to handle a bars.
Speaker 7 (27:01):
And I picked people with money that was not bullshitting here,
you know.
Speaker 15 (27:04):
And I played the air fear back up here and
I made at Brisbane Airport and so they came out
and I sold properties and you get the commission.
Speaker 7 (27:15):
It was good days for me.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
And did you do that on behalf of your mates
in the valley who owned those clubs.
Speaker 15 (27:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there were several of the victim White
sold out to other fellows. And when they did that,
I went along with the sale.
Speaker 23 (27:31):
You know.
Speaker 15 (27:32):
So that paper, oh my re spreens is not far
end Sidney and put an and in the like of
paper in Sydney Morning Held or something like that, and
stay in a big part.
Speaker 7 (27:42):
Of bullshit, you know.
Speaker 15 (27:43):
And so I just worked just as salesman for the
people and they said, oh Easter Hamles.
Speaker 7 (27:48):
I kept it like that, and I didn't talk just
the taps.
Speaker 21 (27:52):
At the time.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Did it occur to you these guys might be sort
of laundering their money through the land deals, do you
know what I mean?
Speaker 15 (28:00):
Oh, Bapore, Now they had money where I get their money?
And I talk about business. I just said, oh, just
would you leardle it for me? I'll had in mind
selling it, so let me look at it. In the
Marston has a lot of shit, and I'm going to cheerful.
You're to be cheerful and you get the lot of
aid a bullet in you if you're not careful in
(28:22):
that bob in the valley at the time, there's a
lot of gluity. You hungry your basards, you know. I
just to let him know, doesn't don't bullshit for the way.
I don't want to know. I don't want to know
who that was with it. If you want to know,
I'd mentioned strong names. I said, Oh, you might just
need to do things for him, are you know? You know? Yeah,
(28:45):
Just leave it at that, and they think shit through
the camp, play with that basket. I'll finish up with
the bullet in me.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
One of Reagan's early business partners in real estate said
in Queensland was a man called Vincent Odempsey. Odempsey had
been born and raised in Warwick, a farming community southwest
of Brisbane. His family had worked the land there for generations.
In his mid teens, o'dempsey had been incarcerated in a
(29:19):
mental institution and medically diagnosed as a psychopath. By his
early twenties, the word around town was that he had
murdered a local man who was set to testify against
him in court over a robbery. By the time Vince
hooked up with Reagan in the early nineteen seventies, he'd
been jailed for bashing a police officer. Then in the
(29:41):
mid nineteen sixties, o'dempsey paid several visits to Sydney looking
for criminal jobs. He soon gained employment with Frederick Paddles Anderson,
the boss of bosses. You'll remember Anderson was present at
Reagan's twenty first birthday at Chequers Nightclub. At precisely this time, o'dempsey,
(30:04):
known as a ruthless gun for hire, was doing odd
jobs for Paddles. It's almost certain this is when Reagan
and odempsey first crossed paths. Incredibly, o'dempsey and Reagan invested
in land in Odempsey's hometown of Warwick. Here's my source again.
Speaker 17 (30:24):
A Dempsey's father was selling real estate up in Warwick
because A Dempsey knew Reagan pretty well. Next thing he
says to he's dead. Is there anything any subdivisions that's
never been done?
Speaker 3 (30:36):
It would soon prove to be a deadly business partnership.
In October nineteen seventy six, the New South Wales Labour
MP for la kember Vincent Durick offered a detailed examination
of Reagan's scam in Parliament. He was concerned about hundreds
of his constituents who had been duped into buying useless
(30:57):
land in the regions of Gulgong and Munchie through a
company called Dabamu based at Bondi Junction in Sydney. Durwick
had discovered that not only were parcels of land sold
without title deeds, but some blocks had been sold several
times to different people. He told Parliament that the company
(31:19):
had firstly represented to buyers.
Speaker 24 (31:23):
The land that they were purchasing was fertile and of
good quality for the purposes of grazing and market gardening opportunities,
and that was a good investment. Second, that there was
adequate permanent supply of water for the purposes of irrigation. Third,
that there was an adequate general availability of services and
amenities for farming activities contemplated by these people. Fourth, that
(31:47):
there were opportunities for a quick capital gain. Fifth that
the nearby town of Golgong was represented on the face
of the ten dollar note, and that the railway would
be coming through shortly. Sixth that the main highway would
soon be constructed, and last, and this is the daddy
of them all, that an opera house was to be
(32:08):
built for them, and that other general facilities would be
made available.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Jurich asked the Attorney General, Frank Walker, to investigate and
explained Stuart John Reagan's links to the scam and asked
the pertinent question how could loans be arranged with finance
companies for the purchase of properties from vendors who had
no title to the land. The Sydney Morning Herald reported
(32:36):
that CIB detectives believed the scam, active in Queensland, New
South Wales and Victoria, may have been the biggest land
fraud in Australian history. Somehow, the network of salesmen involved
in the racket managed to sell blocks for ten times
their value to unsuspecting punters.
Speaker 25 (32:57):
Senior police say the multimillion dollar swindle is likely to
rival the scale of recent huge company frauds. They have
established that hundreds of people paid millions of dollars to
land companies whose principles have now vanished. At this stage,
police believe John Stuart Reagan set up the criminal network.
When he was murdered, his accomplices went their own ways,
(33:18):
taking shares of his real estate activities. It is believed
Reagan had a quarrel with one of his colleagues shortly
before his death over how the spoils would be divided.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
As if we didn't already have enough of them. Here
was yet another possible motive behind Reagan's murder. But back
in Brisbane, Reagan's frequent visits to the Queensland capital before
and after Shirley Briffman's death had put the local underworld
as well as corrupt police, on permanent alert. Rumors circulated
(33:53):
that Reagan was planning a full blown takeover of the
tropical city's prostitution, illegal ga gambling and extortion rackets, and
that some of his Sydney contemporaries were about to follow suit.
The gossip drums were beating loudly through the city's pub network.
One prominent hotel manager, who asked to remain anonymous let's
(34:14):
call him Jack, had a front row seat to much
of the drama fermenting in Brisbane in the early nineteen seventies.
He managed pubs, some with questionable reputations, in the inner
city suburb of spring Hill as well as down in
the CBD. He was acquainted with many of Brisbane's principal criminals.
(34:35):
Jack recalled talk about Reagan was getting louder and louder.
It was as if a fox had suddenly entered the
Chicken coop. I spoke to Jack at a table outside
an Asian dumpling restaurant in Inner Brisbane.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
So when did you first lay eyes on Reagan?
Speaker 9 (34:54):
So Smoby Septchamber August September of nineteen about seventy two,
might have been a little bit later, but not much later.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
And how did you come across him?
Speaker 8 (35:09):
The real estate for us across the road ranketing like that.
He came across as a customer of theirs. We talked
on different things. Did you know who he was? I
found out a little bit who he was, and he
was always very sillable with me.
Speaker 21 (35:31):
How did he strike him physically?
Speaker 8 (35:34):
Just easy going?
Speaker 23 (35:35):
I wasn't in a suit, always dressed and smartish, casual
and just a quiet, easy going like never be bet.
Speaker 8 (35:46):
He was with keV quite a lot. Who's keV?
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (35:51):
This is where we were, yep, run, I'm going to
just call him keV now.
Speaker 23 (35:55):
And I explained that he was in real estate and
they would definitely had partnerships or joint business dealings.
Speaker 12 (36:05):
Right, And do you know what sort of real estate
he was interested in? Was it I heard the bought
or built a block of flats in New Farm he
could have done.
Speaker 23 (36:15):
They were, They dabbled in bits and that mostly land
vacant land, but there were you know, if there's a
property or something that those guys were the other side
of the other fellow that Kev's partnerships. Those guys sold
land on Russell and Lamb Island. That's got a island
(36:37):
real estate, and keV sold land over there as well.
Speaker 12 (36:43):
These are the famous land scams, Harvey Bay cresting his
up whales before.
Speaker 23 (36:49):
Have we got plenty of people in Melbourne, Sydney, the
other places of the World warf land.
Speaker 8 (36:55):
That's a whole saga.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Yeah, were there any other It's just as where he
came across him.
Speaker 8 (37:03):
You might have seen him for a month. Then you
could see him for two or three days.
Speaker 23 (37:07):
He once came up with a fellow that I didn't
like too much, and the manager from there was definitely
with him at least once inside the bar with him,
and I saw them at least one other time.
Speaker 8 (37:22):
You know, Willie's bizarre.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
It was poor, yes, yeah, yeah, so Willi's bizarre.
Speaker 12 (37:27):
One of Reagan's associates before they had a falling out
was John Edwards Milligan that's the knife, yeah, Jack said.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Everyone knew Milligan was a drug dealer. He thought he
was nothing more than a grub and apart from Reagan,
other big time criminals were starting to pop up in Brisbane.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Do you observe other criminals coming in out of town?
Speaker 8 (37:50):
I heard a couple.
Speaker 23 (37:52):
My best man is to let me know what was
happening in town. There were a couple of others at
the ring. First definitely on tour coach. I never saw him,
but I believe he had been in the whiskey. You
could talk you on possibly with you had definitely been
(38:12):
there at cost One.
Speaker 8 (38:13):
He had been to a couple of other night clumps.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Jack was also pested by criminal and psychopath John Andrews
Stewart and.
Speaker 8 (38:22):
Stuart phone Maya from Balls down In made it. He
got on the phone and I said, yeah, he's this.
He said one as John Stewart.
Speaker 23 (38:32):
I'm up here representing the big fellows from Sydney and
where he had telex squeeze and I said, well, good
talking to me. I said, I don't under place. I said,
I'll have to talk to him. My own called me
back to my so I called Estole. The next morning,
I said, Listen had this play off on the phone,
(38:55):
and I said, where do you think I should go?
She said, leave it with me and I'll give back
to you, and Stuart ran the second time.
Speaker 7 (39:02):
Well, I'll tell you.
Speaker 8 (39:04):
If you've just the fuck that were you giving back?
If you've both your knows here a fucking wild hors
I know. I never heard another word or for him.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
John Andrew Stewart, the Weekend Gangster. He'd returned to Brisbane
after his adventures in Sydney, including trying to murder Reagan
in broad daylight in Oxford Street, Paddington back in nineteen
sixty five. Back home, he was trying to earn a
quick quid through extorting nightclubs, pubs and restaurants. He hinted
at big Southern criminals like Reagan and Lenny McPherson wanted
(39:39):
to get a cut of Brisbane vice. Most people, like Jack,
thought it was a joke, but others were more cautious.
Tony Bellino always viewed himself as a successful entrepreneur, a
visionary businessman, and as a proud Italian a bit of
a crooner, but along with his brother Jerry, the belief
(40:00):
heos became synonymous in Brisbane with nightclubs, bars and gambling
joints in ceed Fortitude Valley. From the nineteen sixties, they
ran spaghetti bars and licensed clubs. Jerry had a handful
of illegal casinos and even a funeral parlor. Only later,
courtesy of the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption, was Jerry
(40:22):
Bellino identified as a leading criminal figure and jailed for
paying off police. It was said that at its peak,
Jerry's crime syndicate, which included brothels and escort agencies, was
kicking back up to twenty thousand dollars a month to
police in the mid nineteen eighties. His brother Tony denied
(40:43):
any criminal involvement. He said he was the proprietor of
Pinocchio's nightclub.
Speaker 7 (40:49):
And ran a spaghetti bar.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
I had the pleasure of speaking to Tony shortly before
he died in September twenty twenty two, and he told
me a curious story in his heavy italianate English about
a visit from Sydney crime boss Abe Saffron in the
early nineteen seventies, just as the word was out that
Brisbane vice was about to be hijacked by Southerners. Do
(41:14):
you remember where you met Abe Saffron.
Speaker 21 (41:18):
When he was at Brisbane. I remember him, Yeah, a
little hat.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
Do you remember where you had a meeting.
Speaker 21 (41:26):
Upstairs?
Speaker 7 (41:27):
Then?
Speaker 20 (41:29):
So he came to your club?
Speaker 21 (41:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 16 (41:32):
Wow?
Speaker 7 (41:33):
And you didn't know who he was then?
Speaker 8 (41:36):
How do you know who he was?
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Now?
Speaker 7 (41:39):
How will I find out? Did you talk that and
never came back?
Speaker 21 (41:43):
Might have been a good thing you didn't know who
he was.
Speaker 7 (41:46):
No, I would just make him ride in the fight
and picked them how to pick them off?
Speaker 16 (41:49):
Who he was?
Speaker 26 (41:50):
I do you know he will have talked to me?
I said, yes, were your name? I didn't even know
his name was saved Severn? I said what can I
do for you? What he said to me?
Speaker 21 (42:00):
It was, well, I ran Sydney.
Speaker 7 (42:02):
I said, so you run Sidney? He said, oh yeah.
Speaker 26 (42:06):
He said yes, you'll actually join us and we give
the protection and you run Brisbane. And I said, wait
a minute, you mean to say, then I'm gonna run Brisbane.
What do you do stand over Texas? They're gonna find money?
He said yes. I said, not here. I am very sorry,
(42:26):
but not even Brisbane. And I was really cranky. And
I get cranky, I really get cranky? Can I get angry?
And I said, I am tradition.
Speaker 21 (42:36):
I do well here.
Speaker 7 (42:37):
I will never do that.
Speaker 26 (42:38):
My father would have shot me so away. He said, Okay,
if you ever come to see me, come to see me.
I said, I don't come to see you. I could
talk to fancy Sydney. I don't want to get mixed
up with anything like that. Then he told some of
the boys there that they bring me up and said,
you're bad from Sydney. Wow, I said, bigger pardon.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Tony Bellino never heard from Saffron again. With Reagan cooking
up deals left, right and center, and John Andrew Stewart
warning of a Sydney criminal takeover, with Lenny McPherson and
Abe Saffron appearing out of nowhere, Brisbane was suddenly a
pressure cooker. Reagan had established a relationship with psychopath Vinco Dempsey,
(43:23):
the man, as they said, who owned his own private
graveyard to dispose of his murder victims, and through Oh Dempsey,
Reagan hooked up with a rag bag group of petty
crooks ominously called the Clockwork Orange Gang. They were named
after the violent Stanley Kubrick film based on the novel
by Anthony Burgess. The story centered on psychopath teenager Alex,
(43:47):
who along with his gang members or druids, wore bowler hats.
Speaker 27 (43:52):
There was any that is Alex and my three drus
that is Pete, Georgy and Dim, and we sat in
the Corova Milk Bar trying to make up our razoo
docs what to do with the evening. The Corova Milk
Bar sold milk plus, which is what we were drinking.
(44:13):
This would sharpen you up and thank you ready for
a bit of the old ultra violence.
Speaker 7 (44:25):
Hi Hi, Hi, there my little druggies.
Speaker 3 (44:31):
The Brisbane Clockworkers were petty criminals Gary Shorty Dubois, Peter Hall,
Tommy Hamilton and Keith Meredith known as Jimmy O. Dempsey.
A thug called Billy mcculkin and a grifter called Billy
Stokes came in and out of the group. They prowled
the streets of Brisbane at night, committing burglaries. They lifted
(44:51):
goods off the backs of delivery vans. They drank and
took drugs and got into fights and caused mayhem.
Speaker 7 (44:59):
Years ago, I.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
Interviewed one of the former Clockwork gang members, Peter Hall,
who moved away from crime, had a family and now
leads a perfectly respectable suburban life outside Sydney back in
the day. Though he and his mates were dangerous tearaways.
You couldn't miss them on their turf on Brisbane's North side,
cruising the streets in their American Studebakers Hall's was a
(45:23):
British Racing Green nineteen sixty two.
Speaker 20 (45:26):
GT.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
Dubois had a violet Daytona and Hamilton a candy Apple
red GT. They also had another distinctive vehicle. How the
so called Clockwork Orange Gang began, or how it was
even named Philly Stakes, so he named it.
Speaker 7 (45:47):
He named it.
Speaker 28 (45:48):
He's nicknamed for Tom Wood Clockwork because Tom had a
bola hat that he used to wear and only had
a top hat.
Speaker 7 (45:56):
And Shorty and Jimmy never rode with us.
Speaker 28 (46:00):
It was just me and him in the buick hearse
we purchased, and we should drive around of a Sunday
morning just being a pair of idiots in the hearse,
you know, pulling up beside people on the side of
the road. It's want to earn a couple of dollars.
We got one in the back here that needs to
be buried. And they used to give us a look
(46:21):
or a couple of times we managed to run into
a real hearse we're going to a funeral and pulled
up alongside them.
Speaker 3 (46:31):
That were you or Tommy? Actually influenced by the film
of The Clockwork Orange.
Speaker 21 (46:37):
No, we've seen it, liked it.
Speaker 28 (46:38):
I thought it was funny that you never called urself
clockwork garage king or anything like that.
Speaker 7 (46:45):
That was Stokes.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
In early nineteen seventy three, when Adempse offered the gang
a substantial sum to torch a restaurant called to Reno's
in Fortitude Valley, they jumped at the chance. They broke
into the restaurant, lashed patrol around and set it alight,
not accounting for the fumes erupting into a fireball. They
nearly killed themselves, but they got away with it, and
(47:10):
the crime remained unsolved for over forty years until Hall
finally confessed during Odempsey's trial for a triple murder in
twenty seventeen.
Speaker 28 (47:21):
A Dempsey told Shorty to tell us that it was
an insurance job that the owners of the nightclub were
going belly up and they wanted want it out, and
it seemed pretty feasible at the time that that's what
it was, because they said the person that lived on
the premises won't be there on this night, and that
(47:46):
was the night we were to go in and set
fire to the joint.
Speaker 3 (47:51):
It later dawned on Peter Hall that there appeared to
be a pattern in a string of fires around Brisbane
before and after the Torino's job.
Speaker 7 (48:00):
We never got offered another job.
Speaker 28 (48:02):
That there was a few other burnings too that I
think were all mixed into the Saints and that's for
people behind it.
Speaker 3 (48:10):
One source would later tell police that he offered his
services to Odempsey and Mculkin in several of the arson jobs,
hoping to win his way into the gang. The gang
would often steal from the premises before they were torched.
The keen but hapless newcomer was seriously burned during one job.
He was told that the arsons were ordered by Stuart
(48:30):
John Reagan. One of those jobs, the fire bombing of
the Whiskey, a Go Go nightclub on Saint Paul's Terrace
in Fortitude Valley, got completely out of hand? Did Reagan
order the burning of the whiskey?
Speaker 29 (48:50):
The Whiskey of Go Go was bombed at ten past
two on the morning of March the eighth, nineteen seventy three.
It was a mass murder which sent a wave of
outraids through a country which is often apathetic about crime, and.
Speaker 3 (49:03):
The Whiskey of Gogo saga is murky, complicated and riddled
with lies. Critical documents associated with the case of disappeared
chief witness statements were unsigned. Corrupt police worked overtime to
control the Whisky narrative, and the biggest crooks of the
day did the same. It was and remains one of
(49:23):
the country's biggest criminal cover ups. Fifty years after the event,
the public is still awaiting a coronial inquest report into
the mass murder. Worse still, the Whisky case has a
long and seemingly unending tale. A domino of murders followed
the firebombing to silence potential witnesses. People with information are
(49:45):
still in fear for their lives, and the families of
the victims have waited more than half a lifetime for
some sort of explanation as to who set fire to
those two drums of petrol in the downstairs foyer of
the club in the early hours of March eighth, nineteen
seventy three, flicked a match and started a blaze that
would see fifteen innocent men and women perish within minutes.
(50:10):
Remember John Andrew Stewart and James Finch, the two wannabee
gangsters who tried to murder Reagan in that daytime gunfight
in Sydney. Both were charged with and convicted of the
Whisky murders in twenty seventeen. After Odempsey and Dubois were
found guilty of murdering Barbara mcculken, wife of clockworker Billy,
(50:32):
and her two daughters in nineteen seventy four, possibly in
an attempt to silence Barbara given her knowledge of the
whiskey attack, the Queensland Attorney General ordered a new inquest.
Speaker 30 (50:44):
The state's worst mass killings will be the subject of
another coronial inquest more than forty years after the Whiskey
Go Go fire. The Attorney General believes a fresh investigation
may entice witnesses to reveal what really happened.
Speaker 3 (51:00):
Stewart had already died in prison in nineteen seventy nine.
Du Bois would be found dead in his prison cell
a month before the new in quest, and just prior
to the second set of hearings for the refreshed inquest.
James Finch, who had been deported back to the UK
in nineteen eighty eight, also turned up dead.
Speaker 31 (51:23):
James Finch also was meant to testify from overseas, but
it was revealed in court he died in the past
few months.
Speaker 21 (51:29):
That will leave some questions unanswered.
Speaker 3 (51:33):
But how did shotgun Johnny Reagan fit into all of this?
The story repeated for half a century was that Reagan
was in Sydney when the whiskey went up in Brisbane. Then,
out of the goodness of his heart and as a
strange sort of public service, Reagan flew north to assist
police in bringing the primary suspects, Stuart and Finch to justice.
(51:56):
He offered his expertise as a gangster free of charge
and would bring the fugitives in There was no love
lost between these three criminals. When Stewart and Finch were
captured by police a few days after the blaze, Reagan
returned to Sydney. That story, it now appears, was a
total lie. I'd been told that as part of Reagan's
(52:18):
power play in Brisbane, he'd started his own nightclub in
the city. Arrival to the Whiskey Checkers and the Jet Club,
as well as other venues. His club I was told
was called Blinkers in Albert Street, right in the heart
of the CBD. Could this be true? The rumor was
that Reagan owned a half share in the horse racing
(52:39):
themed club with Sydney mob boss Lenny McPherson. It sounded
far fetched, really an entire nightclub. Then I learned that
not only did Blinkers exist, but it had an opening
night party and wait for it, that celebration was held
just hours before the Whisky a Goo Goo was firebombed
(53:01):
on the evening of Thursday, March seventh, nineteen seventy three.
Present at Blinkers was Brisbane lawyer Noel Barbie. You met
Noel in our last episode, who done some real estate
work for Reagan.
Speaker 6 (53:18):
The partner sticks out with me more than anything else
was that it was either the night after or the
night itself of the Whiskey a Go Go bombing, and
there was a little nightclub in Albert Street called Blinkers
like the horse Blinkers and the Pungarians that ran it
called Nemathy later bought the Saint Bernard's Hotel up at Tambourine.
(53:41):
But coming back, I remember in Blinkers Reagan was there
and I'm sure that when I was sitting with him
like that he was either wounded or cupped or something
had happened to him, because he's had a slight cut
or bleeding or something not.
Speaker 32 (53:57):
So what happened to he said, I either a bit
of a staple or something like that, because he was
a solid boy, you know, mean like like you wouldn't
want to pick anything with him because his solid, thick,
muscular Oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (54:09):
Yeah, and you know he wouldn't have any problem getting
into a fight. But remember this night, and I don't
know it was that close to that whiskey at Go
Go time. I think either Blinkers opened on the same
night and it was a disaster of it, or the
night after. It was very close in time. You'd probably
be able to find that somewhere Blinkers not there anymore,
of course, but.
Speaker 21 (54:29):
Reagan was in town when the whiskey went. Oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (54:33):
The choint I'm getting at is that he was at
the nightclub and it was just it just I just
remember that part with him. The trouble with a lot
of this stuff is your memory tends to add scenes
that are not factual. But that time there that I
know that there be no doubt in my mind that
he was in Brisbane at the time of that a
(54:54):
go go business.
Speaker 3 (54:56):
According to police records, the Blinkers grand opening was indeed
on March seventh, nineteen seventy three, just before the Whisky
went up at two ten a m. On March eight,
whiskey owner Brian Little and his manager John Bell attended
the Blinkers party before returning to the Whiskey close to midnight,
just a couple of hours before the fire bombing. According
(55:19):
to the late investigative journalist Tony Reeves, Reagan had dropped
into the Whisky nightclub on several occasions in the days
before the fire. McPherson and Paddles Anderson had also been
seen there. Reeves was also told that the notorious Roger Rogerson,
then a hot shot young detective who had been assigned
(55:40):
to help investigate the Whisky firebombing, had also been seen
in Brisbane before the Whisky went up.
Speaker 7 (55:47):
The official story.
Speaker 3 (55:48):
Always was that Rogerson had flown up from Sydney on
the day of the fire with his mentor, Detective Noel Moury.
Before his death last year, Rogerson, in jail for life
for murder, appeared as a witness at the New Whiskey inquest.
Speaker 31 (56:05):
Appearing by video length from Long Bay Correctional Center, Rogerson
looked frail, dressed in prison greens and making jokes before
being called compelled by the coroner to answer questions, The
eighty one year old denied Finch was verbaled. I know
I was present when the record of interview was being conducted.
It was factual and it took place. He couldn't remember
details or recall how Finch was given his statement, but
(56:28):
doubted it was put in his pocket. He went on
to describe whiskey killer John Stewart as a rat bag
whose Sydney criminals wanted nothing to do it, saying Stuart
was an idiot. Rogerson was asked whether he was associated
with Sydney criminals who was said to be jealous of
a heroine operation being run out of the Whiskey and
who had threatened to burn the club, declaring I had
(56:49):
nothing to do with the Whiskey Go go.
Speaker 3 (56:53):
So did Johnny Reagan shotgun Johnny Nano the Magician have
a hand in the Whiskey mass murder. Was Reagan sipping
his orange juice or tonic water and nursing some sort
of mysterious wound at the opening of his new nightclub, Blinkers,
as innocent clubgoers at the Whiskey were screaming and suffocating
(57:16):
on carbon monoxide just two kilometers or a casual thirty
minute walk away in Fortitude Valley. In the next episode
of The Gangster's Ghost.
Speaker 16 (57:29):
I saw a white light. Sounds stupid mind taking over.
I was on point of clap, but I honestly, totally,
utterly believe I was on the point of dying.
Speaker 2 (57:50):
The Gangster's Ghost is a production of The Australian. It's
written and presented by senior writer Matthew Condon and produced
and edited by multimedia editor le at Sama Group. Our
executive producer is me editorial director Claire Harvey. Special thanks
to Lara Kamenos, Erica Rutlidge, Kristin Amiot, Jasper Leek, Stephanie Coombs,
Sean Callanan, Lachlan Clear, Ryan Osland, Amanda Willian Williams, Christine Kellet,
(58:14):
Taron Blackhurst, Magdalena Zadjak, Giselle Boetti, Genevieve Rammel, Lauren Bruce,
sus Rolf and Jachina Carlson. We can only do journalism
like this with the support of US subscribers, who hear
episodes first and get full access to photos, video, news
stories and features, plus all Australia's best journalism twenty four
to seven. Join us at Gangstersghost dot com dot au, SCN, CAR, S.
Speaker 17 (59:05):
S, S
Speaker 4 (59:12):
S
Before we begin.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
This podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence. This is a
production by The Australian and our subscribers hear episodes first
and get full access to photos, video, news stories and
features plus all Australia's best journalism twenty four to seven.
Join us at gangstersghost dot com dot a U.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
It's Saturday, March fourth, nineteen seventy two and teenager Mary
Anne Brifman, daughter to Sydney brothel Madame Shirley Brifman, has
woken early. She had been living with relatives in country
New South Wales after her mother famously blew the whistle
on the Sydney Underworld in a national television interview and
(00:56):
sent the family fleeing for their lives. The Brifmans returned
to Brisbane, where Shirley had worked as a prostitute at
the start of her notorious career, and Marianne rejoined them there.
In Brisbane, Shirley had relatives to lean on, and after
being shuffled through a series of safe houses, Shirley, her
(01:20):
husband and their four children finally settled in a flat
at fifty Bonnie Avenue, Clayfield in the Cities Inner Northwest
Shirley had been hunted by Stuart John Reagan after the
television fiasco. He warned her to keep her mouth shut.
(01:42):
He turned up the heat in Brisbane, arriving unexpectedly at
one of her police safe houses, and Shirley, with the
magician on her tail, was a nervous wreck. For months,
she'd given official police interview to both Queensland and New
Southwelles detectives about her public allegations of police corruption and
(02:07):
close ties to the underworld. Shirley didn't hold back, so
by early nineteen seventy two, she was convinced she was
going to be murdered. She was due to appear as
a witness in the trial of Detective Anthony Murphy, the
feared leader of Queensland's rat pack of corrupt police. He
(02:30):
had been charged with perjury on the evidence of Brifman
in the wake of her television expose a and stood
down from his official duties. Briffman and Murphy had been
one time lovers. Now she was due in court intent
on sending him to prison. On that Saturday morning in
early March, Marianne wandered through the spacious Bonnie Avenue apartment
(02:54):
her boyfriend Jim had stayed the night sleeping on a
bed in the foyer. He had left before dawn for
his job at a nearby service station. Meanwhile, mary Anne
went into the spare room and it was there that
she found her mother's body.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
You've got to remember, I'm fifteen. Well it is really
a murder. If that had happened, you think that they
protect the crime scene even back then. But none of
that happened. I can't remember who the police were that came,
or the detectives. I can't recall who they were, but
(03:38):
they were obviously instructed to leave everything very loose. They
allowed me to go back in the room and sit
next to my mother. I was in there for I
don't know, thirty or forty minutes, just sitting there by myself.
Nobody even came and looked.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
Were all out there.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
They had to wait for the fingerprints to be done right,
and maybe they were waiting to take the body. But
we were all walking in and out. The whole family,
like the weaver was round, was allowed to walk in
and out of the bedroom, just saying I died in
this room. You close it off to me, even the
family walking in, even though I remember asking can I
(04:24):
go in and sit with my mother? I remember doing that,
but not to who, some police person, And I was
surprised that I was allowed to stay now as long
as I wanted.
Speaker 6 (04:35):
I don't mean to upset you after all this year,
But what was your mother like?
Speaker 7 (04:38):
She was it just like.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
She's fall to sleep? No, she was like frozen. Well,
obviously the wigged mortison sent in, But no, what.
Speaker 8 (04:52):
Was her position? It wasn't just like she'd gone to sleep.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
No, No, she was laying back on pillows, half sitting up,
like the pillows were propped up, and her hand was
frozen like this up in the air. And yes, she
was like in that position.
Speaker 9 (05:11):
Yeah, I read that an empty bottle of presumably the
bottle that had been delivered to her, was found under
the mattress or something.
Speaker 8 (05:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Was there anything you remember seeing in the room that
was different or that would have stuck out to you?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I was too busy looking at my mother. My sisters
and brother didn't go back in, you know, like they
went in and had a look and didn't but they
didn't stay there. That was too scary for them because
of how she looked and being dead. Do you know
what I mean.
Speaker 10 (05:46):
So I'm journalist Matthew Condon and this is the Gangster's Ghost,
a podcast from The Australian.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
This podcast started out as a clinical look at one
of Australia's most reviled gangsters, but when the Reagan family
came on board, the project took on another dimension and
begged the question how does a family cope with the
generational stain of a murderer whose death was celebrated by
(06:25):
criminals and police alike. This is episode eight Collateral Damage.
Shirley Briffman's death was officially ruled a drug overdose. Police
(06:49):
recommended no autopsy. Her daughter Mary Anne, believed her mother
knew she had to die. For years, she'd paid grass
for protection, but for months leading up to her death,
she'd been exposed and vulnerable.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
She was very depressed and very sad, with very good reason.
And you know, you don't appreciate that as a child,
but as an adult you can see she was racked
with depression. Really, I saw her depressed for many, many years,
but this was different depression.
Speaker 11 (07:29):
I guess it was oppression in the sense she was
crying a lot. I think she felt quite helpless, and
I think That's why she was so mad with the
police commissioner at that time, because nobody.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Would help her, and the more she told, the less
they wanted to help her. And I think she was
conflicted actually over that, and that's why I don't think
that she was smart. My mother definitely wasn't intellectually in
any sense.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
She was bright, very bright, street smart to a degree,
but not enough, very trusting, and not enough to realize that.
I mean, it's black and white, but heck, would you
not realize you're going to lose your life when you
start telling on everyone.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
On the night Shirley died, Mary Anne and her boyfriend
Jim both said they saw a visitor come to the
apartment in Bonnie Avenue around midnight. The visitor handed Shirley
a small medicine vial. A few hours later, Shirley took
the contents of the vial and died. Her daughter still
(08:46):
believes Shirley was given an ultimatum, kill yourself or will
kill your children. Briffman's death was a war watershed in
the story of true crime in twentieth century Australia. She
was the intersection of several roads where corrupt police, politicians,
(09:10):
and the underworld collided. She embodied everything you needed to
know about organized crime in Australia at that time. Shirley
was made by corrupt police and she was destroyed by them.
Her suspected murder, too, was emblematic of how ruthlessly, violent
and reckless crime had become in the lucky country. Here
(09:33):
was a critical whistleblower with intricate knowledge of corrupt systems
in two states, and her extermination had been simply passed
off as just another prostitute who lost her life through
a drug overdose. Reagan was a critical part of this story.
Who had ordered him to put pressure on Briffman? And
(09:57):
you have to ask the question, was he the mysterious
visitor who delivered the fatal drugs to Shirley on the
night she died. I needed to get to the eppy
center of Brifman's death. I had to stand in the
room where she died, in that upstairs flat in Clayfield
(10:17):
to try and understand what had happened and why. That's
how I met Gary. His family had owned the small
block of flats in Bonnie Avenue for decades. He was
a teenager when the Briffmans moved into their apartment back
in late nineteen seventy one. He's now an old man,
(10:39):
but he's never forgotten the time a criminal whistleblower and
her family came to live upstairs in apartment number two.
Speaker 8 (10:56):
And this has been empty for some time, been happy
for ten years.
Speaker 12 (11:01):
Okay, So this was coming in through the back door here, Garrett, Yeah,
into the kitchen.
Speaker 13 (11:05):
But it's at all that everybody used. So it's pretty
much the same layer, isn't it. As when so Marianne
said this, Sonny was asleeping here on that night. So
it was March three into March four, nine seventy two.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
So Sonny, she said, was here and that there was
a middle bedroom.
Speaker 14 (11:25):
Which was which was that this was actually my bedroom
for thirty years, and.
Speaker 9 (11:33):
In her bedroom, so Marianne said she was in here.
Speaker 13 (11:37):
Yeah, that's the other bathroom.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yeah, and big foyer, and of course this is the room.
Speaker 9 (11:47):
Where Shirley's body was found.
Speaker 13 (11:48):
Yes, let's go in over here. I understand up against
the wall there, so I've been told.
Speaker 15 (11:55):
She was on the bed.
Speaker 14 (11:58):
I didn't actually get to see her, but I'm told
that she was saying, leaning against the wall.
Speaker 13 (12:02):
But there was a stain about here running down.
Speaker 14 (12:06):
The wall, and I swear it was from draw or
something from her mouth after I said she was laying
against her Well, you said she was laying against the
wall or something.
Speaker 13 (12:16):
Yeah, And it had this stain running down the wall.
Speaker 16 (12:20):
How long was that there?
Speaker 17 (12:21):
For?
Speaker 7 (12:22):
Oh?
Speaker 13 (12:22):
Years? Years?
Speaker 14 (12:25):
In the thirty years I was living here, it must
have been here. And my mother had a time machine here.
Speaker 17 (12:34):
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Multiple theories emerged in the wake of Shirley's death. Was
it Reagan finally getting the job done after his attempt
to strangle her with a coat hanger had failed the
previous year in Sydney? Or was she killed by corrupt police?
A rumor assisted for decades that Fred Froggy Cray from
(13:03):
Sydney shoved the fatal drugs down Brifman's throat. Was he
the mysterious midnight visitor? Or had Tony Murphy arranged it
without Brifman His perjury trial collapsed and he went from
strength to strength as Queensland's most feared and corrupt copper.
(13:24):
You'll remember the infamous drug dealer John Edward Milligan from
our last episode. After his arrest in nineteen seventy nine
by Federal Bureau of niicotics agent John Shobrook. Milligan had
this to say in his record of interview. These are
his words read by a voice actor.
Speaker 18 (13:44):
Shirley Brefman was the mistress of several Sydney gangsters, and
she told the truth, and she was murdered by sleeping
tablets down her throat. I was told by Glenn Hallahan
four days before she was murdered that Shirley Breafman's problem
had finally been sold, that she'd be no more worries shortly.
That's the freaking truth.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
None of this made any difference to Reagan. By the
time Shirley's body was transported to the city Morgue and
then flown to her childhood town of Atherton in far
North Queensland, where she was buried in a gold coffin,
Reagan had several firm footholds in Queensland. His friendship with
the drug dealer Milligan might have been on the Wayne,
(14:28):
but he was building up a stable of criminal associates
he could rely on in Queensland, including a local psychopath
who may have been even more ruthless than Reagan himself.
As a criminal chemical mix, it would prove explosive. Meanwhile,
(14:50):
Kelly never relented in her search for documents about her
second cousin. She had miraculously secured Reagan's consorting cards, and
the next big fish was his actual criminal record. Kelly
was thrilled to hear early in her search that she
was entitled to see Reagan's records, but there was one catch.
(15:12):
They were missing. No surprise there. This is Kelly in
one of her audio diary entries.
Speaker 19 (15:19):
For transparency. My cousin has rightly or wrongly been portrayed
as a murdering psychopath for five decades, and to discover
that his criminal history is missing is if I'm being
kind a joke. To my knowledge, John has never been
convicted of murder, yet since his death he has been
labeled at will, including the death of a three year
old child. This tells me that his criminal record should
(15:40):
be in the files of up to twelve unsold murders,
not taking into account the fifteen people who died at
the Whiskey Go Go Fire. Further, don't get me started
on how a microfilm goes missing. And then I've just
given him my availability and my phone number. And if
I was a conspiracy theorist, I could have a right
little party. But let's just keep this adventure going because
(16:01):
it's an interesting journey and I knew it I would
face some hurdles, but this is not a hurdle. This
is a complete and utter attempt at a roadblock with
really flimsical material to hold the roadblock together.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Kelly was naturally suspicious. It was hard enough to get
the consorting cards. Now the criminal record of one of
the biggest gangsters and alleged killers of his era had vanished.
So Kelly wrote to then New South Wales Police Commissioner
Mick Fuller, he was police top dog from March twenty
seventeen to January twenty twenty two.
Speaker 19 (16:36):
I'm shocked at how this can be, and know that
John was involved with corrupt police in both New South
Wales and Queensland, but it was forty seven years ago,
so what harm would a criminal record create. I'm aware
that John is a person of interest in several killings.
We find it pretty scary that a record of one
of Sydney's most notorious criminals has simply been lost. I
am not a crackpot, at least I don't think so,
(16:57):
and I am struggling to see how this could happen.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
After further letters to state and local politicians and anyone
else who might be able to help, and exhausted, Kelly
was told the elusive documents had in fact been found
and were on their way. On the cover sheet of
the records was the now iconic mugshot of Reagan, taken
(17:22):
when he was just sixteen years old. Someone has hand
written across the top left portion of the sheet, this
man very anti police, makes false allegations against police. Question
with due caution. What is astonishing about the old document
(17:43):
is that in the vast majority of cases, his charges,
ranging from assault and robbery to rape, are ultimately dismissed.
He could not escape jail time over a charge of
conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in early nine
sixty eight, You'll remember that was when he wrote to
the Colonel seeking books on yoga and psychokinetic powers. But
(18:10):
the sentence columns are filled with the words dismissed, acquitted,
or discharged, and not a single charge relates to a
scam he pulled off that was so audacious that you
have to hear it to believe it. Less than a
(18:31):
fortnight after Reagan's murder in Marrickville, in September nineteen seventy four,
Sydney newspapers hinted that the dead gangster may have been
involved in a real estate scam that had seen hundreds,
if not thousands, of ordinary mums and dads in search
of the great Australian dream, fleeced of their hard earned savings.
(18:54):
Two months later, Neville Ran, the working class Balmain boy
who went on to become a long serving Premier of
New South Wales, was an ambitious member of Parliament and
leader of the Labor Opposition, and he had a bombshell
to drop. He stood in the Parliamentary chamber and asked
a question without notice to Deputy Premier and Minister for
(19:17):
Local Government Sir Charles Cutler. The Premier of New South
Wales at the time was the corrupt Robert Askin. Ran
took the floor.
Speaker 20 (19:31):
Is the Minister aware of the growing number of people
in New South Wales who have been duped by questionable
companies which purchase at bargain prices land in country areas
sold at auction by local government authorities for non payment
of rates and then resell it for vast and extortionate profits. Further,
is the Minister aware that In recent months, a group
(19:52):
of interlock companies that were all associated with the recently
murdered Stuart John Reagan have been purchasing at auction from
council land at such places as Tamworth, Whereas Creek and Cessnock,
and at other country centers and reselling it at prices
of up to five thousand dollars a block.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Ran was alluding to what would prove to be just
the tip of the iceberg when it came to Reagan's
outrageous fraud across three states. The crux of the scam
was this. A team of salesmen in Queensland, New South
Wales and Victoria advertised desirable blocks of land in regional areas.
(20:32):
The ads flaunted attractive parcels more than suitable for building
a house upon the land, fully sewed and powered. In Queensland,
potential interstate buyers were plied with food and booze before
handing over cash deposits. All convancing could only be handled
(20:55):
by the seller's own lawyers. As it turned out, Reagan's
complex net of companies never possessed title deeds to any
of the blocks. They fraudulently sold and resold the cash
for land disappeared from the late nineteen sixties through to
(21:17):
the late nineteen seventies. Several years after Reagan's death, the
scam operated unhindered from law enforcement, despite the press reports
and parliamentary agitation. Reagan's lawyer, Michael Seymour told us that
Reagan's real estate venture into the regions was a perfectly
(21:38):
legitimate business venture.
Speaker 12 (21:42):
So you've introduced him to the real estate gameh Yeah.
Speaker 21 (21:48):
In the late sixties. Over the years, I made a
bit of money out out in real estate.
Speaker 22 (21:53):
Can you goodbye little semi shurs although fifteen thousand dollars
bag at those and through an accountant, I bought up
the street in maccaboy streetscu Will and then at one
stage John Yalway had these propertly Forgarten. The idea that
try and make money down real estate and cheap properties
(22:16):
in the inner city area.
Speaker 21 (22:17):
The city expands, goes.
Speaker 22 (22:20):
Up and expanse only didn't meet something wants to an
idea there you'll.
Speaker 7 (22:24):
Go after him.
Speaker 22 (22:25):
Yeah, twenty towns. The local councils. It rapes out paid
for a period of time. The council seizes the land
and sells a lot. So Reagan found out some add
in the paper whatever that there were hundreds and hundreds
of blocks of land.
Speaker 21 (22:42):
They said, So if my office had the lper gome
to where all the plank pluntcasts.
Speaker 22 (22:48):
So he had a little office in the regions, treat
himself in a little office, yeah, the real estate office.
Speaker 21 (22:57):
Well, he is trying to sell these lands. So he
Floyd a salesperson.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Okay, and regent Stream John was selling.
Speaker 22 (23:04):
Them for about seven fifty for one half thousand flood,
a huge profit.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
But those on the inside had a different story. I
spoke to a source who was intimate with the Reagan landscam.
We have disguised his voice to protect his identity. Believe
it or not, Even after all these years, there are
many people associated with Reagan who are still terrified of
(23:34):
repercussions for speaking out.
Speaker 17 (23:37):
It started in young and New South Wales, where he
coming from. But the first thing they'd do they find
his little out of town places and go there and
go to the local council chambers and say, is there
any subdivisions with separate deeds in this trickler town blocks
of land that had never been divided up and sold off,
(23:59):
And go through the council chambers and a pliant and
I'll say, well, there's one hundred blocks out of such
and such a road. The guy had an idea of
being a developer and he ran out of cash. But
they've all got separate deeds. All I can say is this,
if you pay the rates at something on it, because
no rates have been paid on it for ten or
fifteen years, we'll sign it over to you. So that's
what it is. Because those sort of people went broke.
(24:22):
So but say is you just pay the rates and
it's yours.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
With the cheap land secured, Reagan's scam artists went to work.
Speaker 17 (24:32):
They get it all done nicely, and if there was
a creek, they'd have it all painted in blue, you know,
to make out it was flashy. And then they would
advertise somewhere in Sydney or wherever it be, own your
own block of land. And then the wife or the
husband said, well, I have a look at this man,
I own Boca land. We are nothing.
Speaker 7 (24:51):
Wouldn't we buy it?
Speaker 17 (24:52):
And the next thing they reply to the ad by telephone.
There's no emails in those days and no mobiles, and
that'd go out there and there it is there and
at which block. Do you want the corner block? This
is grab whatever he can and deposit because there was
no credit card details and that he just grab it
in cash. But before he'd leave, he'd say, now, I
(25:13):
make sure you got the money, because when you see this,
you'll buy it. Okay, I don't want to waste my time.
You're living out of para matter.
Speaker 7 (25:20):
You know.
Speaker 17 (25:20):
It was an hour's run. But if you don't like it,
that's fine, but just make sure you have the money
with you. So this is the way it grunts him
on the phone. You go out there, and the way
the maps and everything. We're done, and the creeks are
all nice and blue. Yeah, okay, we'll take this one.
So they'd buy that one. And he said I'd just leave,
and he said part it would I pull up in
(25:41):
Matuda or jag I'd love that. I thought, shit, look
at this car.
Speaker 7 (25:45):
This guy is a property developer.
Speaker 17 (25:46):
You know.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
One Queensland salesman I tracked down believed he was carrying
out legitimate business. If he knew Reagan was behind the scam,
he didn't say, but as a justice of the piece
at the time, his signature became a handy asset for
Reagan's operations. We have also altered this source's voice.
Speaker 15 (26:09):
I threw the under Sydney and brought back people and
threw them up to harvey By and go and go
and meet them up there.
Speaker 7 (26:15):
And we're selling thousands of dollars a weekend.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
It was a good business.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
What good business here?
Speaker 1 (26:24):
And did you ever do some land sales with Stuart
John Reagan at all?
Speaker 7 (26:29):
He was a criminal.
Speaker 15 (26:30):
I knew as he was tied up with the other
black in uh Reagan and the other black criminals and
selling and acquisition.
Speaker 7 (26:41):
I knew him through that.
Speaker 15 (26:43):
Why should that not dubs in the valley in Brisbane
at the times, or forgive their names. They had a
lot of money's champering them, but they didn't know how
to handler, not made a sewer for him. So I
fly there in the Sydney and bring back a flock
of people, and I knew how to handle a bars.
Speaker 7 (27:01):
And I picked people with money that was not bullshitting here,
you know.
Speaker 15 (27:04):
And I played the air fear back up here and
I made at Brisbane Airport and so they came out
and I sold properties and you get the commission.
Speaker 7 (27:15):
It was good days for me.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
And did you do that on behalf of your mates
in the valley who owned those clubs.
Speaker 15 (27:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there were several of the victim White
sold out to other fellows. And when they did that,
I went along with the sale.
Speaker 23 (27:31):
You know.
Speaker 15 (27:32):
So that paper, oh my re spreens is not far
end Sidney and put an and in the like of
paper in Sydney Morning Held or something like that, and
stay in a big part.
Speaker 7 (27:42):
Of bullshit, you know.
Speaker 15 (27:43):
And so I just worked just as salesman for the
people and they said, oh Easter Hamles.
Speaker 7 (27:48):
I kept it like that, and I didn't talk just
the taps.
Speaker 21 (27:52):
At the time.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Did it occur to you these guys might be sort
of laundering their money through the land deals, do you
know what I mean?
Speaker 15 (28:00):
Oh, Bapore, Now they had money where I get their money?
And I talk about business. I just said, oh, just
would you leardle it for me? I'll had in mind
selling it, so let me look at it. In the
Marston has a lot of shit, and I'm going to cheerful.
You're to be cheerful and you get the lot of
aid a bullet in you if you're not careful in
(28:22):
that bob in the valley at the time, there's a
lot of gluity. You hungry your basards, you know. I
just to let him know, doesn't don't bullshit for the way.
I don't want to know. I don't want to know
who that was with it. If you want to know,
I'd mentioned strong names. I said, Oh, you might just
need to do things for him, are you know? You know? Yeah,
(28:45):
Just leave it at that, and they think shit through
the camp, play with that basket. I'll finish up with
the bullet in me.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
One of Reagan's early business partners in real estate said
in Queensland was a man called Vincent Odempsey. Odempsey had
been born and raised in Warwick, a farming community southwest
of Brisbane. His family had worked the land there for generations.
In his mid teens, o'dempsey had been incarcerated in a
(29:19):
mental institution and medically diagnosed as a psychopath. By his
early twenties, the word around town was that he had
murdered a local man who was set to testify against
him in court over a robbery. By the time Vince
hooked up with Reagan in the early nineteen seventies, he'd
been jailed for bashing a police officer. Then in the
(29:41):
mid nineteen sixties, o'dempsey paid several visits to Sydney looking
for criminal jobs. He soon gained employment with Frederick Paddles Anderson,
the boss of bosses. You'll remember Anderson was present at
Reagan's twenty first birthday at Chequers Nightclub. At precisely this time, o'dempsey,
(30:04):
known as a ruthless gun for hire, was doing odd
jobs for Paddles. It's almost certain this is when Reagan
and odempsey first crossed paths. Incredibly, o'dempsey and Reagan invested
in land in Odempsey's hometown of Warwick. Here's my source again.
Speaker 17 (30:24):
A Dempsey's father was selling real estate up in Warwick
because A Dempsey knew Reagan pretty well. Next thing he
says to he's dead. Is there anything any subdivisions that's
never been done?
Speaker 3 (30:36):
It would soon prove to be a deadly business partnership.
In October nineteen seventy six, the New South Wales Labour
MP for la kember Vincent Durick offered a detailed examination
of Reagan's scam in Parliament. He was concerned about hundreds
of his constituents who had been duped into buying useless
(30:57):
land in the regions of Gulgong and Munchie through a
company called Dabamu based at Bondi Junction in Sydney. Durwick
had discovered that not only were parcels of land sold
without title deeds, but some blocks had been sold several
times to different people. He told Parliament that the company
(31:19):
had firstly represented to buyers.
Speaker 24 (31:23):
The land that they were purchasing was fertile and of
good quality for the purposes of grazing and market gardening opportunities,
and that was a good investment. Second, that there was
adequate permanent supply of water for the purposes of irrigation. Third,
that there was an adequate general availability of services and
amenities for farming activities contemplated by these people. Fourth, that
(31:47):
there were opportunities for a quick capital gain. Fifth that
the nearby town of Golgong was represented on the face
of the ten dollar note, and that the railway would
be coming through shortly. Sixth that the main highway would
soon be constructed, and last, and this is the daddy
of them all, that an opera house was to be
(32:08):
built for them, and that other general facilities would be
made available.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Jurich asked the Attorney General, Frank Walker, to investigate and
explained Stuart John Reagan's links to the scam and asked
the pertinent question how could loans be arranged with finance
companies for the purchase of properties from vendors who had
no title to the land. The Sydney Morning Herald reported
(32:36):
that CIB detectives believed the scam, active in Queensland, New
South Wales and Victoria, may have been the biggest land
fraud in Australian history. Somehow, the network of salesmen involved
in the racket managed to sell blocks for ten times
their value to unsuspecting punters.
Speaker 25 (32:57):
Senior police say the multimillion dollar swindle is likely to
rival the scale of recent huge company frauds. They have
established that hundreds of people paid millions of dollars to
land companies whose principles have now vanished. At this stage,
police believe John Stuart Reagan set up the criminal network.
When he was murdered, his accomplices went their own ways,
(33:18):
taking shares of his real estate activities. It is believed
Reagan had a quarrel with one of his colleagues shortly
before his death over how the spoils would be divided.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
As if we didn't already have enough of them. Here
was yet another possible motive behind Reagan's murder. But back
in Brisbane, Reagan's frequent visits to the Queensland capital before
and after Shirley Briffman's death had put the local underworld
as well as corrupt police, on permanent alert. Rumors circulated
(33:53):
that Reagan was planning a full blown takeover of the
tropical city's prostitution, illegal ga gambling and extortion rackets, and
that some of his Sydney contemporaries were about to follow suit.
The gossip drums were beating loudly through the city's pub network.
One prominent hotel manager, who asked to remain anonymous let's
(34:14):
call him Jack, had a front row seat to much
of the drama fermenting in Brisbane in the early nineteen seventies.
He managed pubs, some with questionable reputations, in the inner
city suburb of spring Hill as well as down in
the CBD. He was acquainted with many of Brisbane's principal criminals.
(34:35):
Jack recalled talk about Reagan was getting louder and louder.
It was as if a fox had suddenly entered the
Chicken coop. I spoke to Jack at a table outside
an Asian dumpling restaurant in Inner Brisbane.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
So when did you first lay eyes on Reagan?
Speaker 9 (34:54):
So Smoby Septchamber August September of nineteen about seventy two,
might have been a little bit later, but not much later.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
And how did you come across him?
Speaker 8 (35:09):
The real estate for us across the road ranketing like that.
He came across as a customer of theirs. We talked
on different things. Did you know who he was? I
found out a little bit who he was, and he
was always very sillable with me.
Speaker 21 (35:31):
How did he strike him physically?
Speaker 8 (35:34):
Just easy going?
Speaker 23 (35:35):
I wasn't in a suit, always dressed and smartish, casual
and just a quiet, easy going like never be bet.
Speaker 8 (35:46):
He was with keV quite a lot. Who's keV?
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (35:51):
This is where we were, yep, run, I'm going to
just call him keV now.
Speaker 23 (35:55):
And I explained that he was in real estate and
they would definitely had partnerships or joint business dealings.
Speaker 12 (36:05):
Right, And do you know what sort of real estate
he was interested in? Was it I heard the bought
or built a block of flats in New Farm he
could have done.
Speaker 23 (36:15):
They were, They dabbled in bits and that mostly land
vacant land, but there were you know, if there's a
property or something that those guys were the other side
of the other fellow that Kev's partnerships. Those guys sold
land on Russell and Lamb Island. That's got a island
(36:37):
real estate, and keV sold land over there as well.
Speaker 12 (36:43):
These are the famous land scams, Harvey Bay cresting his
up whales before.
Speaker 23 (36:49):
Have we got plenty of people in Melbourne, Sydney, the
other places of the World warf land.
Speaker 8 (36:55):
That's a whole saga.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Yeah, were there any other It's just as where he
came across him.
Speaker 8 (37:03):
You might have seen him for a month. Then you
could see him for two or three days.
Speaker 23 (37:07):
He once came up with a fellow that I didn't
like too much, and the manager from there was definitely
with him at least once inside the bar with him,
and I saw them at least one other time.
Speaker 8 (37:22):
You know, Willie's bizarre.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
It was poor, yes, yeah, yeah, so Willi's bizarre.
Speaker 12 (37:27):
One of Reagan's associates before they had a falling out
was John Edwards Milligan that's the knife, yeah, Jack said.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Everyone knew Milligan was a drug dealer. He thought he
was nothing more than a grub and apart from Reagan,
other big time criminals were starting to pop up in Brisbane.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Do you observe other criminals coming in out of town?
Speaker 8 (37:50):
I heard a couple.
Speaker 23 (37:52):
My best man is to let me know what was
happening in town. There were a couple of others at
the ring. First definitely on tour coach. I never saw him,
but I believe he had been in the whiskey. You
could talk you on possibly with you had definitely been
(38:12):
there at cost One.
Speaker 8 (38:13):
He had been to a couple of other night clumps.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Jack was also pested by criminal and psychopath John Andrews
Stewart and.
Speaker 8 (38:22):
Stuart phone Maya from Balls down In made it. He
got on the phone and I said, yeah, he's this.
He said one as John Stewart.
Speaker 23 (38:32):
I'm up here representing the big fellows from Sydney and
where he had telex squeeze and I said, well, good
talking to me. I said, I don't under place. I said,
I'll have to talk to him. My own called me
back to my so I called Estole. The next morning,
I said, Listen had this play off on the phone,
(38:55):
and I said, where do you think I should go?
She said, leave it with me and I'll give back
to you, and Stuart ran the second time.
Speaker 7 (39:02):
Well, I'll tell you.
Speaker 8 (39:04):
If you've just the fuck that were you giving back?
If you've both your knows here a fucking wild hors
I know. I never heard another word or for him.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
John Andrew Stewart, the Weekend Gangster. He'd returned to Brisbane
after his adventures in Sydney, including trying to murder Reagan
in broad daylight in Oxford Street, Paddington back in nineteen
sixty five. Back home, he was trying to earn a
quick quid through extorting nightclubs, pubs and restaurants. He hinted
at big Southern criminals like Reagan and Lenny McPherson wanted
(39:39):
to get a cut of Brisbane vice. Most people, like Jack,
thought it was a joke, but others were more cautious.
Tony Bellino always viewed himself as a successful entrepreneur, a
visionary businessman, and as a proud Italian a bit of
a crooner, but along with his brother Jerry, the belief
(40:00):
heos became synonymous in Brisbane with nightclubs, bars and gambling
joints in ceed Fortitude Valley. From the nineteen sixties, they
ran spaghetti bars and licensed clubs. Jerry had a handful
of illegal casinos and even a funeral parlor. Only later,
courtesy of the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption, was Jerry
(40:22):
Bellino identified as a leading criminal figure and jailed for
paying off police. It was said that at its peak,
Jerry's crime syndicate, which included brothels and escort agencies, was
kicking back up to twenty thousand dollars a month to
police in the mid nineteen eighties. His brother Tony denied
(40:43):
any criminal involvement. He said he was the proprietor of
Pinocchio's nightclub.
Speaker 7 (40:49):
And ran a spaghetti bar.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
I had the pleasure of speaking to Tony shortly before
he died in September twenty twenty two, and he told
me a curious story in his heavy italianate English about
a visit from Sydney crime boss Abe Saffron in the
early nineteen seventies, just as the word was out that
Brisbane vice was about to be hijacked by Southerners. Do
(41:14):
you remember where you met Abe Saffron.
Speaker 21 (41:18):
When he was at Brisbane. I remember him, Yeah, a
little hat.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
Do you remember where you had a meeting.
Speaker 21 (41:26):
Upstairs?
Speaker 7 (41:27):
Then?
Speaker 20 (41:29):
So he came to your club?
Speaker 21 (41:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 16 (41:32):
Wow?
Speaker 7 (41:33):
And you didn't know who he was then?
Speaker 8 (41:36):
How do you know who he was?
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Now?
Speaker 7 (41:39):
How will I find out? Did you talk that and
never came back?
Speaker 21 (41:43):
Might have been a good thing you didn't know who
he was.
Speaker 7 (41:46):
No, I would just make him ride in the fight
and picked them how to pick them off?
Speaker 16 (41:49):
Who he was?
Speaker 26 (41:50):
I do you know he will have talked to me?
I said, yes, were your name? I didn't even know
his name was saved Severn? I said what can I
do for you? What he said to me?
Speaker 21 (42:00):
It was, well, I ran Sydney.
Speaker 7 (42:02):
I said, so you run Sidney? He said, oh yeah.
Speaker 26 (42:06):
He said yes, you'll actually join us and we give
the protection and you run Brisbane. And I said, wait
a minute, you mean to say, then I'm gonna run Brisbane.
What do you do stand over Texas? They're gonna find money?
He said yes. I said, not here. I am very sorry,
(42:26):
but not even Brisbane. And I was really cranky. And
I get cranky, I really get cranky? Can I get angry?
And I said, I am tradition.
Speaker 21 (42:36):
I do well here.
Speaker 7 (42:37):
I will never do that.
Speaker 26 (42:38):
My father would have shot me so away. He said, Okay,
if you ever come to see me, come to see me.
I said, I don't come to see you. I could
talk to fancy Sydney. I don't want to get mixed
up with anything like that. Then he told some of
the boys there that they bring me up and said,
you're bad from Sydney. Wow, I said, bigger pardon.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Tony Bellino never heard from Saffron again. With Reagan cooking
up deals left, right and center, and John Andrew Stewart
warning of a Sydney criminal takeover, with Lenny McPherson and
Abe Saffron appearing out of nowhere, Brisbane was suddenly a
pressure cooker. Reagan had established a relationship with psychopath Vinco Dempsey,
(43:23):
the man, as they said, who owned his own private
graveyard to dispose of his murder victims, and through Oh Dempsey,
Reagan hooked up with a rag bag group of petty
crooks ominously called the Clockwork Orange Gang. They were named
after the violent Stanley Kubrick film based on the novel
by Anthony Burgess. The story centered on psychopath teenager Alex,
(43:47):
who along with his gang members or druids, wore bowler hats.
Speaker 27 (43:52):
There was any that is Alex and my three drus
that is Pete, Georgy and Dim, and we sat in
the Corova Milk Bar trying to make up our razoo
docs what to do with the evening. The Corova Milk
Bar sold milk plus, which is what we were drinking.
(44:13):
This would sharpen you up and thank you ready for
a bit of the old ultra violence.
Speaker 7 (44:25):
Hi Hi, Hi, there my little druggies.
Speaker 3 (44:31):
The Brisbane Clockworkers were petty criminals Gary Shorty Dubois, Peter Hall,
Tommy Hamilton and Keith Meredith known as Jimmy O. Dempsey.
A thug called Billy mcculkin and a grifter called Billy
Stokes came in and out of the group. They prowled
the streets of Brisbane at night, committing burglaries. They lifted
(44:51):
goods off the backs of delivery vans. They drank and
took drugs and got into fights and caused mayhem.
Speaker 7 (44:59):
Years ago, I.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
Interviewed one of the former Clockwork gang members, Peter Hall,
who moved away from crime, had a family and now
leads a perfectly respectable suburban life outside Sydney back in
the day. Though he and his mates were dangerous tearaways.
You couldn't miss them on their turf on Brisbane's North side,
cruising the streets in their American Studebakers Hall's was a
(45:23):
British Racing Green nineteen sixty two.
Speaker 20 (45:26):
GT.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
Dubois had a violet Daytona and Hamilton a candy Apple
red GT. They also had another distinctive vehicle. How the
so called Clockwork Orange Gang began, or how it was
even named Philly Stakes, so he named it.
Speaker 7 (45:47):
He named it.
Speaker 28 (45:48):
He's nicknamed for Tom Wood Clockwork because Tom had a
bola hat that he used to wear and only had
a top hat.
Speaker 7 (45:56):
And Shorty and Jimmy never rode with us.
Speaker 28 (46:00):
It was just me and him in the buick hearse
we purchased, and we should drive around of a Sunday
morning just being a pair of idiots in the hearse,
you know, pulling up beside people on the side of
the road. It's want to earn a couple of dollars.
We got one in the back here that needs to
be buried. And they used to give us a look
(46:21):
or a couple of times we managed to run into
a real hearse we're going to a funeral and pulled
up alongside them.
Speaker 3 (46:31):
That were you or Tommy? Actually influenced by the film
of The Clockwork Orange.
Speaker 21 (46:37):
No, we've seen it, liked it.
Speaker 28 (46:38):
I thought it was funny that you never called urself
clockwork garage king or anything like that.
Speaker 7 (46:45):
That was Stokes.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
In early nineteen seventy three, when Adempse offered the gang
a substantial sum to torch a restaurant called to Reno's
in Fortitude Valley, they jumped at the chance. They broke
into the restaurant, lashed patrol around and set it alight,
not accounting for the fumes erupting into a fireball. They
nearly killed themselves, but they got away with it, and
(47:10):
the crime remained unsolved for over forty years until Hall
finally confessed during Odempsey's trial for a triple murder in
twenty seventeen.
Speaker 28 (47:21):
A Dempsey told Shorty to tell us that it was
an insurance job that the owners of the nightclub were
going belly up and they wanted want it out, and
it seemed pretty feasible at the time that that's what
it was, because they said the person that lived on
the premises won't be there on this night, and that
(47:46):
was the night we were to go in and set
fire to the joint.
Speaker 3 (47:51):
It later dawned on Peter Hall that there appeared to
be a pattern in a string of fires around Brisbane
before and after the Torino's job.
Speaker 7 (48:00):
We never got offered another job.
Speaker 28 (48:02):
That there was a few other burnings too that I
think were all mixed into the Saints and that's for
people behind it.
Speaker 3 (48:10):
One source would later tell police that he offered his
services to Odempsey and Mculkin in several of the arson jobs,
hoping to win his way into the gang. The gang
would often steal from the premises before they were torched.
The keen but hapless newcomer was seriously burned during one job.
He was told that the arsons were ordered by Stuart
(48:30):
John Reagan. One of those jobs, the fire bombing of
the Whiskey, a Go Go nightclub on Saint Paul's Terrace
in Fortitude Valley, got completely out of hand? Did Reagan
order the burning of the whiskey?
Speaker 29 (48:50):
The Whiskey of Go Go was bombed at ten past
two on the morning of March the eighth, nineteen seventy three.
It was a mass murder which sent a wave of
outraids through a country which is often apathetic about crime, and.
Speaker 3 (49:03):
The Whiskey of Gogo saga is murky, complicated and riddled
with lies. Critical documents associated with the case of disappeared
chief witness statements were unsigned. Corrupt police worked overtime to
control the Whisky narrative, and the biggest crooks of the
day did the same. It was and remains one of
(49:23):
the country's biggest criminal cover ups. Fifty years after the event,
the public is still awaiting a coronial inquest report into
the mass murder. Worse still, the Whisky case has a
long and seemingly unending tale. A domino of murders followed
the firebombing to silence potential witnesses. People with information are
(49:45):
still in fear for their lives, and the families of
the victims have waited more than half a lifetime for
some sort of explanation as to who set fire to
those two drums of petrol in the downstairs foyer of
the club in the early hours of March eighth, nineteen
seventy three, flicked a match and started a blaze that
would see fifteen innocent men and women perish within minutes.
(50:10):
Remember John Andrew Stewart and James Finch, the two wannabee
gangsters who tried to murder Reagan in that daytime gunfight
in Sydney. Both were charged with and convicted of the
Whisky murders in twenty seventeen. After Odempsey and Dubois were
found guilty of murdering Barbara mcculken, wife of clockworker Billy,
(50:32):
and her two daughters in nineteen seventy four, possibly in
an attempt to silence Barbara given her knowledge of the
whiskey attack, the Queensland Attorney General ordered a new inquest.
Speaker 30 (50:44):
The state's worst mass killings will be the subject of
another coronial inquest more than forty years after the Whiskey
Go Go fire. The Attorney General believes a fresh investigation
may entice witnesses to reveal what really happened.
Speaker 3 (51:00):
Stewart had already died in prison in nineteen seventy nine.
Du Bois would be found dead in his prison cell
a month before the new in quest, and just prior
to the second set of hearings for the refreshed inquest.
James Finch, who had been deported back to the UK
in nineteen eighty eight, also turned up dead.
Speaker 31 (51:23):
James Finch also was meant to testify from overseas, but
it was revealed in court he died in the past
few months.
Speaker 21 (51:29):
That will leave some questions unanswered.
Speaker 3 (51:33):
But how did shotgun Johnny Reagan fit into all of this?
The story repeated for half a century was that Reagan
was in Sydney when the whiskey went up in Brisbane. Then,
out of the goodness of his heart and as a
strange sort of public service, Reagan flew north to assist
police in bringing the primary suspects, Stuart and Finch to justice.
(51:56):
He offered his expertise as a gangster free of charge
and would bring the fugitives in There was no love
lost between these three criminals. When Stewart and Finch were
captured by police a few days after the blaze, Reagan
returned to Sydney. That story, it now appears, was a
total lie. I'd been told that as part of Reagan's
(52:18):
power play in Brisbane, he'd started his own nightclub in
the city. Arrival to the Whiskey Checkers and the Jet Club,
as well as other venues. His club I was told
was called Blinkers in Albert Street, right in the heart
of the CBD. Could this be true? The rumor was
that Reagan owned a half share in the horse racing
(52:39):
themed club with Sydney mob boss Lenny McPherson. It sounded
far fetched, really an entire nightclub. Then I learned that
not only did Blinkers exist, but it had an opening
night party and wait for it, that celebration was held
just hours before the Whisky a Goo Goo was firebombed
(53:01):
on the evening of Thursday, March seventh, nineteen seventy three.
Present at Blinkers was Brisbane lawyer Noel Barbie. You met
Noel in our last episode, who done some real estate
work for Reagan.
Speaker 6 (53:18):
The partner sticks out with me more than anything else
was that it was either the night after or the
night itself of the Whiskey a Go Go bombing, and
there was a little nightclub in Albert Street called Blinkers
like the horse Blinkers and the Pungarians that ran it
called Nemathy later bought the Saint Bernard's Hotel up at Tambourine.
(53:41):
But coming back, I remember in Blinkers Reagan was there
and I'm sure that when I was sitting with him
like that he was either wounded or cupped or something
had happened to him, because he's had a slight cut
or bleeding or something not.
Speaker 32 (53:57):
So what happened to he said, I either a bit
of a staple or something like that, because he was
a solid boy, you know, mean like like you wouldn't
want to pick anything with him because his solid, thick,
muscular Oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (54:09):
Yeah, and you know he wouldn't have any problem getting
into a fight. But remember this night, and I don't
know it was that close to that whiskey at Go
Go time. I think either Blinkers opened on the same
night and it was a disaster of it, or the
night after. It was very close in time. You'd probably
be able to find that somewhere Blinkers not there anymore,
of course, but.
Speaker 21 (54:29):
Reagan was in town when the whiskey went. Oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (54:33):
The choint I'm getting at is that he was at
the nightclub and it was just it just I just
remember that part with him. The trouble with a lot
of this stuff is your memory tends to add scenes
that are not factual. But that time there that I
know that there be no doubt in my mind that
he was in Brisbane at the time of that a
(54:54):
go go business.
Speaker 3 (54:56):
According to police records, the Blinkers grand opening was indeed
on March seventh, nineteen seventy three, just before the Whisky
went up at two ten a m. On March eight,
whiskey owner Brian Little and his manager John Bell attended
the Blinkers party before returning to the Whiskey close to midnight,
just a couple of hours before the fire bombing. According
(55:19):
to the late investigative journalist Tony Reeves, Reagan had dropped
into the Whisky nightclub on several occasions in the days
before the fire. McPherson and Paddles Anderson had also been
seen there. Reeves was also told that the notorious Roger Rogerson,
then a hot shot young detective who had been assigned
(55:40):
to help investigate the Whisky firebombing, had also been seen
in Brisbane before the Whisky went up.
Speaker 7 (55:47):
The official story.
Speaker 3 (55:48):
Always was that Rogerson had flown up from Sydney on
the day of the fire with his mentor, Detective Noel Moury.
Before his death last year, Rogerson, in jail for life
for murder, appeared as a witness at the New Whiskey inquest.
Speaker 31 (56:05):
Appearing by video length from Long Bay Correctional Center, Rogerson
looked frail, dressed in prison greens and making jokes before
being called compelled by the coroner to answer questions, The
eighty one year old denied Finch was verbaled. I know
I was present when the record of interview was being conducted.
It was factual and it took place. He couldn't remember
details or recall how Finch was given his statement, but
(56:28):
doubted it was put in his pocket. He went on
to describe whiskey killer John Stewart as a rat bag
whose Sydney criminals wanted nothing to do it, saying Stuart
was an idiot. Rogerson was asked whether he was associated
with Sydney criminals who was said to be jealous of
a heroine operation being run out of the Whiskey and
who had threatened to burn the club, declaring I had
(56:49):
nothing to do with the Whiskey Go go.
Speaker 3 (56:53):
So did Johnny Reagan shotgun Johnny Nano the Magician have
a hand in the Whiskey mass murder. Was Reagan sipping
his orange juice or tonic water and nursing some sort
of mysterious wound at the opening of his new nightclub, Blinkers,
as innocent clubgoers at the Whiskey were screaming and suffocating
(57:16):
on carbon monoxide just two kilometers or a casual thirty
minute walk away in Fortitude Valley. In the next episode
of The Gangster's Ghost.
Speaker 16 (57:29):
I saw a white light. Sounds stupid mind taking over.
I was on point of clap, but I honestly, totally,
utterly believe I was on the point of dying.
Speaker 2 (57:50):
The Gangster's Ghost is a production of The Australian. It's
written and presented by senior writer Matthew Condon and produced
and edited by multimedia editor le at Sama Group. Our
executive producer is me editorial director Claire Harvey. Special thanks
to Lara Kamenos, Erica Rutlidge, Kristin Amiot, Jasper Leek, Stephanie Coombs,
Sean Callanan, Lachlan Clear, Ryan Osland, Amanda Willian Williams, Christine Kellet,
(58:14):
Taron Blackhurst, Magdalena Zadjak, Giselle Boetti, Genevieve Rammel, Lauren Bruce,
sus Rolf and Jachina Carlson. We can only do journalism
like this with the support of US subscribers, who hear
episodes first and get full access to photos, video, news
stories and features, plus all Australia's best journalism twenty four
to seven. Join us at Gangstersghost dot com dot au, SCN, CAR, S.
Speaker 17 (59:05):
S, S
Speaker 4 (59:12):
S
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.