When I last asked you for an interview you declined on the basis that you were collaborating with author Matthew Condon. This is no longer the case.
This is an appeal to you to consider the many people who were adversely affected by your corruption and to reveal the roles played by you, Tony Murphy, Glen Hallahan and Don Lane.
Your charade that you were an honest police commissioner is patently at odds with volumes of evidence to the contrary. I suggest that rather than persuading people you are innocent it has made you the object of derision.
I also suggest that by setting the record straight and making a positive contribution to history you would possibly be better regarded.
A reminder of who I am: I was a senior reporter on the Sunday Sun from June 1982 until the end of 1989; I published The Most Dangerous Detective: The Outrageous Glen Patrick Hallahan in November 2012. I will be placing this document, along with your answers to my questions, on my website www.stevebishop.net.
Recapping the facts: I remind you that not only did 12 jurors find you guilty of 15 counts of corruption but there are scores of other pointers to your corruption and dishonesty.
Pitted against your attempt to portray yourself as an honest police officer who became commissioner and knew nothing of the massive corruption within the force are: Contemporaneous newspaper, radio and television accounts, along with Hansard records of parliamentary proceedings, court transcripts and police interviews from the late 1950s to 1989; Transcripts from 238 days of sittings of the Fitzgerald Inquiry into Queensland corruption; The report of that commission; Numerous university publications and well-researched books detailing your involvement in the corruption.
I outline over the next few pages just some of the pointers to your corruption and dishonesty and I then pose a number of questions to you.
YOUR TRIAL
You have complained that you did not receive a fair trial but: The trial judge ruled eight blocks of evidence as inadmissible; The judge directed jurors as a matter of law that there was no evidence capable of corroborating bagman Jack Herbert’s allegations of your corrupt behaviour; The judge told the jury it would be dangerous to convict you on the uncorroborated evidence of Herbert and his wife; The Court of Appeal found that at your trial you had been placed in a more favourable position than you should have been.
YOUR RECALL OF EVENTS
When asked questions which may have incriminated you at the Fitzgerald Inquiry you were criticised for repeatedly giving vague answers. When asked pointed questions you frequently responded: “I can’t recall”, “it could have been” and “from memory it might have been”.
These examples of the “Alan Bond” dementia syndrome were glaringly obvious when, having accepted $30,000 from The Courier-Mail in February 1989 to tell your side of the story, your memory “failed” when asked pointed questions.
At your trial you elected not to give evidence in your defence. You had every right to do so but as a police officer for many years you would have realised that many people would have drawn an adverse inference from this decision on the basis that if they were innocent of charges they would have been desperate to leap into the witness box to protest their innocence. Crucially, it meant you did not have to face cross-examination on incriminating evidence.
Author Matthew Condon says that when he interviewed you more than 20 years later you had tremendous recall – apart from questions dealing with contentious issues. Condon writes: “…he had a formidable memory when it suited him. I often sat across from Lewis and marvelled at his recall of the past, of various incidents, names and dates. He talked for hours…equally, I found it puzzling when he could recall little about more controversial milestones in his career.”
It is obvious that the “Alan Bond” syndrome only occurs when you are being asked to recall incidents which point to your guilt. . ROOKLYN
Your appointment book for January 3 1978 records the address and telephone number of Jack Rooklyn whose links with an American company part-owned by a mafia boss had been widely publicised. Your diary notes that on March 20 1978, a man “introduced” Rooklyn to you at your office, where you discussed prostitution.
On November 28 1978, according to your diaries, you again spoke to Rooklyn about prostitution. On February 4 1980 you gave sworn evidence to the Williams Royal Commission that: “I have heard the name Jack Rooklyns (sic), who I am told has been said to be the person behind the introduction of poker machines. I think he has been named for many, many years. I think I can remember that from a poker machine inquiry in New South Wales. I have never had anything to do with him in any way.”
Your own words and actions are sufficient to reveal dishonesty. In addition to the perjury you had secret meetings with this alleged associate of the mafia – not something an honest commissioner would even contemplate. Indeed, you were found guilty of receiving $25,000 from him.
STURGESS REPORT
As early as 1981 MP Kevin Hooper told Parliament: “…it is a fact of life that the lucrative drugs, prostitution and gambling rackets in Queensland have now become a multi-million-dolIar industry reaching into all sections of Queensland life and controlled by a Queensland mafia.” Men identified by Hooper in this speech as “the godfathers of the mafia” included Gerry Bellino and Vic Conde(sic) . Hooper repeated his allegations in 1982.
On November 28 1985 the Director of Prosecutions, Des Sturgess QC, presented a major report which identified brothels and their owners, including Bellino and Vic Conte, and explained: “It would take little in the way of investigative skill to put an end to such businesses in a very short time indeed. But that has not happened and the main offenders have, for years, enjoyed immunity from prosecution.”
In October 1988 at the Fitzgerald Inquiry into corruption your excuse for not having done anything to charge the five Mr Bigs identified by Sturgess was that you had not read the relevant section of the report.
But former Police Minister Bill Glasson swore he had handed it to you personally and had ordered you to make inquiries.
In addition you had actually read the draft report in April 1985. In June 1985 Sturgess briefed you about the five Mr Bigs. On June 20 you diarised: “saw D/S Parker re juvenile prostitutes and five criminals mentioned by Mr Sturgess”. In addition, two police inspectors seconded to assist Mr Sturgess had been required to report regularly to the police department. Attorney-General Neville Harper told Parliament the names of the five Mr Bigs “are known to our law enforcement agencies”. In 1986 you discussed the report with Minister Gunn in March, June and July (twice) and with the Premier once. In August Gunn raised the Bellino/Conte operation in Wickham Street with you.
Yet you ignored the crimes that had been drawn to your attention and allowed the criminal activity to continue.
Mr Sturgess described Inspector Burgess, who was in charge of the Licensing Branch, as “lazy, inefficient, and probably corrupt”. On April 19 1987, almost 18 months after Mr Sturgess had reported, you approved the transfer of Burgess to the Internal Investigations Section, the branch responsible for investigating police misconduct.
An honest and competent commissioner would not have done that.
On December 4 1986 (when I was a reporter on the Sunday Sun) I sent you a list of questions designed to elucidate what action you had taken in the 12 months since the Sturgess Report had been completed. The answers were sent to me under the name of Assistant Commissioner Ron Redmond. They were, for the most part, designed to obscure the facts.
I specifically asked: “How many of the five criminals identified on page 139 of the report have been charged with offences?” The response was: “I cannot comment on issues which are the subject of current investigation.” You said at the Fitzgerald Inquiry into corruption in 1987 that you were unaware of any such investigations. None of the five Mr Bigs was, in fact, prosecuted prior to the Fitzgerald Inquiry.
On December 6 1986, having failed to have my questions answered, I visited one of the brothels identified by Mr Sturgess and interviewed the woman running it. I rang Police Minister Gunn for his reaction. Your office briefed him with the same non-answers and misinformation I had received. He declined an interview and issued a statement. I had first received this sort of non-answer in 1982 when I formed the view that the obvious police corruption could not exist if there was an honest commissioner.
You were very familiar with the allegations against the Mr Bigs contained in the Sturgess Report and yet when you were asked on oath at the Fitzgerald Inquiry whether prostitution had been an important part of Sturgess’s inquiry you replied: “I assume so. I haven’t read the report.”
INDICATIONS OF YOUR GUILT OVER THE YEARS
Renowned former international cricket umpire Lou Rowan has told author Matthew Condon: “Lewis couldn’t get sworn in quick enough so he could get out into the country and get some money from those SP bookmakers. That was his aim. That’s what he told me.”
It has been alleged that you and Glen Hallahan were involved in trying to extort money from a prostitute in 1958. The incident led to Deputy Commissioner Jim Donovan, an officer noted for his honesty, demoting you to uniform duties before Commissioner Frank Bischof, notoriously corrupt, overturned that decision. Donovan was obviously convinced of your guilt
Former police commissioner Ray Whitrod told the Fitzgerald Inquiry that Greg Early, who went on to become your private secretary, had told him in 1970 you were one of the main corrupters in the force.
You were aware of the strong evidence against Tony Murphy in the Brifman perjury case yet not only did you remain friends with him, you promoted him to assistant commissioner, not something an honest commissioner would have done, bearing in mind the example it set.
Bagman Jack Herbert has confessed that he was guilty of corrupt behavior and perjury in the Southport betting case – a state of affairs which honest officers in the force would have been aware of at the time. Even if you admit to being naïve and incompetent, you must have realised that Herbert’s reputation had been severely tainted yet you attended a Herbert family wedding in the period between his arrest and acquittal and mixed socially with him for many years afterwards – hardly the behaviour of an honest commissioner.
On the very day that you were appointed an assistant commissioner, Queensland Cabinet Minister Bill Lickiss, who was visiting London, summoned Detective Chief Superintendent Terence O’Connell, the Scotland Yard detective who had investigated corruption in the Queensland force, to Queensland House in the Strand to ask him about his findings. These made it clear that you should not be appointed Commissioner.
In 1979 former commissioner Whitrod was interviewed by the head of the Federal Department of Business and Consumer Affairs {with oversight of the Narcotics Bureau} on the instructions of Minister Wal Fife. Whitrod told him he suspected you, Murphy and Hallahan “of being involved in some way in drug trafficking and other organised crime.”
On the night of December 18 1981you interfered in the arrest and charging of your friend Sir Edward Lyons who had been taken to a police station after being found to be driving his Rolls Royce while over the drink driving limit. Instead of being charged after being arrested (as the law required), Lyons was allowed to drive his Roller home while "pissed" (the opinion of one of the police) with a police escort.
On December 29 1981 officer Bob Campbell wrote an 11-page statement giving details of many examples of corruption and entrusted it to Liberal Minister Sam Doumany, who promptly passed it on to you. You did nothing about the corruption detailed in the statement.
On March 3 1982 Campbell talked about corruption in the force on ABC TV. You did nothing to deal with the corruption.
In 1982 Mr Justice Connolly found that two alleged armed robbers had been injected with heroin while in custody at a police station. In 1983 a magistrate found there was sufficient evidence to commit four officers for trial, charged with supplying heroin to the arrested men.
An honest commissioner intent on maintaining standards and setting an example would have suspended the men until the charges had been dealt with. Not only did you not suspend the officers you promoted three of them within days of them having been sent for trial.
The most senior of the officers, Detective Sergeant Ron Pickering, is one of 35 people who agreed to support you in a writ for defamation you had issued against the ABC when it broadcast allegations of your corrupt behavior.
Many honest police would have been very much aware of the strong case against Sergeant Pickering and the other police, a case so strong that even the puppet Police Complaints Tribunal recommended charges be laid. But when the Crown dropped the case as a result of advice from your friend Angelo Vasta, the chief crown prosecutor, you attended a celebration party with the charged officers – hardly the action of an honest commissioner.
You and Tony Murphy claimed in writs that honest police officers Bob Campbell and Kingsley Fancourt had defamed you on ABC television when they claimed that a group known as the Rat Pack was organising corruption. In defamation writs you and Murphy nominated 43 people, mostly police officers, who had seen the program. Presumably, you had approached these people to ask if they were prepared to testify that they believed you had been defamed.
What are the chances that any of these people being nominated by an upstanding, honest police commissioner would have their characters impugned?
The Fitzgerald Report noted: “There were at least nine against whom there was evidence of serious corruption in this Inquiry including past and then current Licensing Branch members, two others who confessed to corruption during this Inquiry, about four against whom allegations of perjury have been made, and five others against whom other serious allegations of misconduct have been made. Many of those named in the pleadings, including some who achieved high rank and others who had been appointed to sensitive positions were friends or acquaintances of [notorious bagman Jack] Herbert. The names and telephone numbers or addresses of seven were found in Herbert’s belongings when he was arrested in England in 1988 as was the name, or abbreviation for the name, of Murphy.”
So more than half of the people you selected to vouch for you were shown to be of dubious character - or, as Russell Hanson QC put to you at the Fitzgerald Inquiry, “a rogues’ gallery of people mentioned adversely at this inquiry”.
Which is the more likely scenario: that in any group of 43 people a large proportion will face allegations of corruption or be closely associated with a leading member of a corrupt system or; that the fact many of your friends and acquaintances were involved in corruption suggests you were part of that system?
Why would an honest commissioner have been mixing with such people?
At the Fitzgerald Inquiry you swore that Vasta, by now a judge, was one of only five “special friends” that you had. In 1985 Vasta had told you in a letter he would always treasure your friendship. But when the judge claimed at a defamation case in 1986 that you were merely an acquaintance of his, you supported him by giving sworn evidence that: “I have probably seen more of him, since he became a judge, at various functions in our community, but no more so than, I would say, most of the other members of the judiciary.”
There were numerous incidents over many years which demonstrated Glen Hallahan was corrupt. You have acknowledged that you, Hallahan and Tony Murphy had been known as the Rat Pack. Having been close to Hallahan, you would have known of his corruption but you vouched he was of good character in helping him obtain a position as Suncorp’s chief claims investigator. An honest commissioner would not have done that.
On the day after the ABC TV current affairs program Moonlight State made allegations about police corruption and named Jack Herbert, an honest commissioner would surely have immediately ordered detectives to contact him to question him about the allegations.
An honest commissioner would have been greatly disturbed by the allegations in the documentary. You told The Sunday Mail the program was disgraceful.
And, of course, there was the Fitzgerald Inquiry where, in addition to former detective Jack Herbert, Assistant Commissioner Parker and others gave evidence of your corruption.
Herbert said that he made corrupt payments to you at places nominated in a code. Lo and behold, a code that fitted Herbert’s description was found in your 1980 and 1981 pocket books.
Former Premier Mike Ahern is known as a man of integrity. He says he was told by a senior police officer that it was the role of a Sunshine Coast police sergeant to collect money from brothels on the Sunshine Coast and deliver it every Friday afternoon to your home.
There are two infamous explanations by crooks when nabbed: “I bought it from a man in a pub” and “I won the money at the races”.
You chose the latter to account for the unexplained income of $95,000 in cash you had received, saying that nearly nine out of every 10 horses of the 511 you backed, as recorded in your diary, were placed or winners. It appears you had your tongue firmly in your cheek when you decided Ima Cheeta would be recorded as the first winning horse and your 13th bet would be your first loser. You told the Fitzgerald Inquiry your mother often received tips from jockey Michael Pelling. Pelling said in a statutory declaration he did not provide tips.
MY APPEAL TO YOU
The information above should be sufficient to demonstrate the futility of maintaining your charade.
In the rest of this document I include detailed information under the headings of” The Plot To Install You As Commissioner Police Ministers The Perverting Of A Royal Commission Protecting Your Corrupt System From Prying Eyes Police And Drugs Bjelke-Petersen And Drugs Mr Bigs Escape Police Involvement An Unrelated Matter Some Deaths That May Be Related To The Illegal Drug Trade And Corruption
THESE ARE SOME OF THE MAIN QUESTIONS THAT ARISE:
Will you consider the hundreds of families who were, and are, affected by the corrupt regime which you superintended from 1976 to 1987 and reveal: How your ascent to the commissionership was engineered; Where the power lay between you and Premier Bjelke-Petersen; The control exercised by you, Don Lane, Tony Murphy and Glen Hallahan of the illegal drug market in Queensland; The structure and workings of the Rat Pack and its alleged regular meetings as a board of directors of organised crime in Queensland; Tony Murphy’s activities in North Queensland; Deaths in which Glen Hallahan and/or Tony Murphy may have been involved; The names and involvement of corrupt politicians and business people; Your knowledge of the death of Shirley Brifman; and How you, Tony Murphy and Glen Hallahan “persuaded” supreme court judge Ned Williams and leading QC Cedric Hampson at the Williams Royal Commission to: recommend the abolition of the Federal Narcotics Bureau; ridicule the evidence of John Milligan and senior Federal Narcotics Bureau officer John Shobbrook – evidence which should have resulted in Hallahan being tried for his involvement in a heroin importation; avoid examining your financial details which would have shown unexplained income of thousands of dollars.
THE PLOT TO INSTALL YOU AS COMMISSIONER
You denied that when you were appointed an assistant commissioner and then commissioner in 1976 you had been seeking promotion and had been lobbying the Premier.
This was shown at the Fitzgerald Inquiry to be untrue.
MP Don Lane, corrupt former detective, described himself as the chairman of the Get Rid of Whitrod Committee and admitted publicly that opposition to Commissioner Whitrod was generated from within the criminal investigation branch where the men comprised the most cohesive group, had the best contacts in the media and had been taught to be flexible, “even to the extent of bending rules when necessary”.
Former officer Arthur Pitts said that on the day you were transferred to Charleville in January 1976 you told him: “I will go. But don’t be surprised if I come back as commissioner.”
John Ryan, a former private investigator, told author Matthew Condon a similar story, with you telling Ryan: “It’s going to take a while John but I am going to be the next police commissioner.”
How and why were you confident of becoming commissioner nearly a year before the appointment was made?
If you deny the truth of these two comments, why would two men who do not appear to have known one another have similar stories to tell?
After your appointment Sir Thomas Hiley heard Don Lane MP, the corrupt former detective, saying of your appointment: “We got our man home.”
Compounding the mystery of how and why you were appointed commissioner is the fact that the Premier was told in advance that you were corrupt.
According to a highly-intelligent and well-educated criminal partner of Hallahan, John Milligan, a triumvirate of Hallahan, you and Murphy had compromised Bjelke-Petersen. Milligan, a long-time criminal associate of Hallahan, told an investigator in 1979 that this triumvirate had got rid of Whitrod and “they compromised Joh Bjelke-Petersen, and by ‘they’ I mean the triumvirate”.
Can credence be given to this statement? There are many instances of the police special branch gathering dirt files on people.
You wrote in your diary on May 11 1981: Saw D/I Flanagan re data kept on all MLAs [Queensland MPs], MHRs [Federal MPs] and Senators.”
On 29 March 1978, you noted in your diary: “Premier mentioned information from a few police re Supt. Murphy setting up Ministers.”
Your diary July 27 1980: “Hon Hinze phoned re any information on Messrs Bishop and White MLAs.”
Your diary July 18 1983: “Phoned Hon Glasson re K. Wright's special branch file.” Wright was leader of the Opposition in Parliament.
The Fitzgerald Report says: “Lane was a former Special Branch officer and seems to have been able to obtain access to its files himself. On one occasion, he was supplied with information which was used to disadvantage a member of the Australian Labor Party…Lewis provided a similar service on occasions for each of Bjelke-Petersen and Hinze, for whom opponents or critics were investigated.”
John Ryan told Matthew Condon that you had asked him to try to locate a dirt file on Whitrod.
Ron Camm, a Cabinet Minister, told honest detective Basil Hicks how he had been followed by special branch officers: “They’ve been following me, trying to get something on me, ah, trying to, ah, show that I had some affair with Vickie Kippin and they followed me to the airport when I gave her a lift to catch a plane home.” Hicks said in a statement: “I could see that Mr Camm appeared to be very frightened.”
Former special branch officer Barry Krosch has retained copies of official duty sheets which show that one of the regular tasks was to spy on members of parliament.
I asked Krosch if there had been a dirt file on Bjelke-Petersen. He told me: “I don’t know. I was in the branch in 1978 and he certainly had a special branch file.”
In October 1978 Premier Bjelke-Petersen revealed there was, indeed, a dirt file on him which he described as a “muck-raking gutter dossier”. He told Sunday Sun police reporter Brian Bolton he had discovered he was the subject of a police dossier. Bolton wrote: “The Premier told me the dossiers contained scandalous and blatantly dishonest accusations which, if ever made public could ruin the standing and private lives of decent law-abiding citizens.”
What was in that dossier?
Just how was your appointment engineered?
With the Premier beholden to you, you would have been able to veto the introduction of regulations and laws affecting your corrupt operations.
It would also explain why, according to former Treasurer Sir Llew Edwards and another former senior Minister, Bjelke-Petersen would sometimes interrupt Cabinet meetings when police issues were being discussed to contact you for your views on the decision that should be reached.
On this topic author Matthew Condon writes: “The Premier was tired of Lewis never allowing him to make any decisions when it came to the Police Department.”
Did the Premier ever make a decision about the police department with which you disagreed? If so, please give details.
Your diaries show that you also advised Bjelke-Petersen about the appointment of judges.
What other major decisions were you able to influence?
Your influence was such that despite two honest officers alleging on ABC TV on March 3 1982 that there was corruption at the top levels of the police force, the Premier categorically told Parliament the next morning there would be no inquiry into their allegations?
How was this possible?
POLICE MINISTERS
The scenario outlined above would also explain why the Premier removed two Ministers from the police portfolio.
The Fitzgerald Report says: “From late August 1982, Lewis’ discussion with Bjelke-Petersen included topics such as changing Ministers, Union discord, “outside investigations”, and suggestions that Hinze had been chatting to black activists. Hinze and the subject of new Ministers were also discussed with Lyons.
On 1 December, 1982, Lewis went to Parliament House where Bjelke-Petersen "...said he would transfer police to the Hon. Glasson if acceptable to me”. On 6 December, 1982, Hinze was replaced as the Minister for Police by the Hon. William Hamline Glasson MLA…Glasson retained the police portfolio for more than three years. However, he ceased to be the Police Minister in the aftermath of the Sturgess Report. On 6 February, 1986, Gunn, the Deputy Premier and Minister Assisting the Treasurer, was also appointed Minister for Police.”
It seems your power even extended to stripping the Attorney-General of his role on the Inter-Governmental Committee of the National Crime Authority.
Labor frontbencher Wayne Goss told Parliament on March 31 1987 that the “Attorney-General, on being asked to co-operate on a particular matter, declined the request but was subsequently persuaded that a need did exist for the National Crime Authority to come into Queensland on a particular matter. The quite proper decision to co-operate, made by the previous Attorney-General (Harper), upset certain senior sections of the Queensland police force and they are determined to see that it does not happen again.”
The Bjelke-Petersen Government pushed through a Bill to take the Attorney-General off the national committee and replace him with the Police Minister, presumably because you and the Premier would have had more influence on him. In fact, the Government gave no reason for the change.
And just in case the Police Minister felt it necessary to try to help the national bid to combat organised crime the Bill gave the Premier the right to nominate someone else.
What was your role in this decision?
THE PERVERTING OF A ROYAL COMMISSION
Then there was the way Judge Ned Williams and QC Cedric Hampson were persuaded to: recommend, in the report of the Williams Royal Commission, the abolition of the Federal Narcotics Bureau; ridicule the evidence of John Milligan and senior Federal Narcotics Bureau officer John Shobbrook at the commission – evidence which was expected to result in Hallahan being tried for his involvement in a heroin importation; avoid examining your financial details which would have shown unexplained income of thousands of dollars.
How did you (and, presumably, Murphy and Hallahan) arrange these results?
In September 1979 Federal Narcotics Bureau head Harvey Bates received information that the Williams Royal Commission would be recommending the disbandment of the Bureau. On September 17 he sent a secret minute to his Minister, Wal Fife, telling him the Queensland Police Force and Commonwealth police had “figured significantly” in “direct attacks” on the Bureau.
He said: “You have now had an opportunity of hearing tapes of some of the extensive debriefing of Milligan undertaken by Bureau officers. In summary, Milligan has alleged that a group in Brisbane comprising senior police officers and an ex-police officer who are involved in illegal activities have extensive contacts in most areas of law enforcement through which they can manipulate or control investigative activities.”
The people referred to were you, Tony Murphy and Glen Hallahan.
Minister Fife’s department head Tim Besley said he thought the report had been rigged. He said: “I have to say I am disturbed at the apparent connection between the Royal Commission and the Queensland Police. It is a fact that during sittings in Brisbane, Queensland police witnesses gave false evidence in respect of Tewantin [a drug investigation in which the Bureau had played a major role].”
This reference to false evidence is backed by former (and honest) Queensland detective Jim Slade who told author Matthew Condon: “The whole thing was bullshit…That whole thing was worked out by [inquiry commissioner] Williams and Murphy.”
Please enlarge on the way in which you and Murphy (and presumably Hallahan) hijacked the Williams Commission in order to have the Narcotics Bureau closed.
After the disbanding of the Federal Narcotics Bureau had been announced in November 1979 Bureau officer John Moller made allegations on a radio program of deep-seated corruption at senior police and Parliamentary levels in Queensland. The senior police included you and Tony Murphy. At first Premier Bjelke-Petersen completely ruled out any sort of inquiry.
But some behind-the-scenes manoeuvring persuaded him to refer the matter to the Williams Royal Commission which went on to whitewash the allegations and exonerate the three of you.
What role did you have in this process?
Williams went on to lead the National Crimes Commission and become a member of the International Narcotics Control Board. Having compromised him in some way what further use did you make of him while he was in these roles?
PROTECTING YOUR CORRUPT SYSTEM FROM PRYING EYES
A corrupt organisation needs to be protected from oversight.
You issued a directive that “No investigation shall be carried out directly on police.” You have studied the administration of other police forces. Are you aware of any reputable force which has a similar policy?
An honest commissioner intent on preventing corruption within his force or intent on weeding out corruption would not have initiated such a ruling.
The Courier-Mail reported on February 4 1982: "Queensland police yesterday won Government support for their campaign to stop the further intrusion of federal police into state responsibilities.”
On May 10 1982 you diarised: “Phoned hon Lane re Federal Gov't moves on crime commission... Hon Hinze phoned re submission to be prepared for Cabinet opposing crime commission.”
The federal Government created legislation that year to establish a National Crimes Commission. The National Crime Authority was created in 1984 and with the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence acted as central intelligence gathering agencies.
The Daily Sun reported on June 3 1983: “The Premier ruled out the possibility of Queensland participating in a national crimes commission.”
Bob Gibbs pointed out in Parliament on November 29: “Before the recent State election, the National Party referred to the hard, tough line that it would take with drug peddlers in Queensland. Yet, when the Government has the opportunity to join with the other State Governments and with the other Attorneys-General to discuss the guide-lines for the national crimes authority, it rejects the proposal out of hand, I wonder why. Is it, as some of my colleagues have implied in this Assembly previously, that there is some sort of a link between the National Party and organised crime in this State?
The Queensland Cabinet considered National Crime Authority operations in October 1984 and decided to order all departments not to co-operate with the Commonwealth.
By August 1985 the Bjelke-Petersen Government was, at last, introducing the National Crime Authority (State Provisions) Bill. You had nominated officers to be seconded to the authority.
But Queensland was not fully co-operating. On November 27 1986 Alan Griffiths, the chairman of the Committee of the National Crime Authority, told federal parliament: “…the Committee was disappointed that it was unable to receive a briefing from the Queensland Commissioner of Police. As mentioned in the Committee's first report, all States except Queensland agreed to the Committee's request for a briefing by their Commissioner of Police on organised criminal activities within their jurisdiction. A subsequent request this year to the Queensland Premier to reconsider this matter was also rejected by the [Queensland] Government."
Labor frontbencher Wayne Goss said on August 31 1987: “I believe that the attitude of the Government is exposed by its refusal to allow the Commissioner of Police to co-operate with, or to brief, a joint committee of the National Crime Authority. The recently published second report of the committee, dated November 1986, reveals that when the Queensland Premier was approached personally over the decision made by the Government, he rejected a request that was agreed to by all other States, that is, for each State's commissioner of Police to address the joint committee on organised crime. Does it tend to suggest the ability of certain senior sections of the police force to overcome or to frustrate particular inquiries that are being conducted by the NCA and that they might not be happy with? The position relating to the Premier is a serious one. The joint committee of the NCA makes specific reference in its second report on page 18 to "all States" in Australia "except Queensland" co-operating in having each Commissioner of Police address the committee on organised criminal activity in their jurisdictions. As I said before, the Queensland Government refused. A subsequent request was made by the committee that the Queensland Premier give further consideration to this matter, and that was also rejected. Why won't the Queensland Government allow the Commissioner of Police to talk to the committee about organised criminal activity in this State? What harm could there be in that, unless the concern was that certain people would be embarrassed?
Mike Ahern, said that when he became Premier after Bjelke-Petersen had been toppled, National Crime Authority chairman Donald Stewart put a case to him that you had protected drug barons from NCA investigations.
Mr Ahern also revealed that Mr Stewart had told him that Bjelke-Petersen had refused to grant him the power to serve warrants on Queensland’s Gold Coast to close a drug ring. Stewart said he had been subjected to a 40-minute diatribe by Bjelke-Petersen. He had explained that this involved serious drug crime and the diatribe had only got worse. The result was that the crime authority had been forced to work with you and a detective sergeant you had assigned to the case. When they arrived on the Gold Coast every one of the targets was missing from home and could not be contacted. Never mind, said the sergeant, come home for a cup of tea. He lived in a mansion. A large boat in the yard was named Corruption.
Question: This last scenario suggests that your corrupt hold over the Premier was absolute. Please explain how you maintained this hold and how the Premier reacted. The only other explanation seems to be that the supposed God-fearing Premier was also receiving money from the illegal drug trade.
You constantly prevaricated when it came to introducing a modern and efficient police computer – which would have made the corrupt system more susceptible to discovery. In this regard the Fitzgerald Report said: “The Bureau of Criminal Intelligence is the other major information unit established in the Force to gather intelligence from other special squads and the regions, and liaise with interstate and Federal bodies…The Bureau is expected to assist all sections of the Force with their intelligence requests, however, it relies on a card system and has limited capacity to generate or disseminate intelligence.”
By August 1985 there were only 20 officers in Queensland’s Bureau of Criminal Intelligence. Wayne Goss said in August 1985: “As I understand it, in Sydney, the Bureau of Criminal Intelligence is five times the size of that in Queensland. In Victoria, the Bureau is four times the size of that in Brisbane. No unit of the Bureau of Criminal Intelligence is stationed in north Queensland, which is undoubtedly an area in which much organised criminal activity occurs, especially in relation to drugs.”
The Fitzgerald Report said: “Information held by the Bureau is insecure because of poor controls over individual access to the system, and a lack of voice protection facility on radio communication. The Bureau was designed to collate and integrate information from all special squads, but in practice this has not been achieved. In summary, the two major units responsible for information and intelligence ineffective, and require review and significant improvement.”
POLICE AND DRUGS
There is every indication that the corrupt system in which you were involved extended to the lucrative illegal drugs market, a scenario supported by the concerted campaign run by you to have the Federal Narcotics Bureau disbanded by the Williams Royal Commission.
Brothel owner Hector Hapeta was heard in a secretly-recorded conversation talking about whether or not bagman Jack Herbert was telling the truth when he told the Fitzgerald Inquiry he knew nothing of any drug network in Queensland. Hapeta was recorded saying: “He’s telling lies. They had a drug network all right. I know. I wasn’t allowed involved in drugs. He told me that they had a network.”
Fitzgerald reported that the laws concerning the sale of illicit drugs “are not effectively enforced.”
Your Rat Pack colleague Tony Murphy came under adverse notice in Operation Buckshot, a highly sensitive Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence probe into the importation and distribution of heroin in Australia, with the involvement of organised crime figures and the links between those figures and other criminals engaged in motor vehicle theft, gaming, prostitution, money laundering, and violent crime, including murder.
Heroin importer John Milligan provided corroborated evidence that your Rat Pack colleague Glen Hallahan had financed a heroin importation.
Milligan went further, saying that the three of you met regularly “to protect your interests of an illicit kind” and “showed considerable interest in the narcotics trade in Queensland…”
In 1981 Senior Constable Bob Campbell wrote to Labor MP Kev Hooper, telling him: “I have attempted to expose the corrupt practices, such as drug running, bribery, grafting from massage parlours and gambling dens, that are being perpetrated by the Lewis administration.”
The head of Mareeba CID, Detective Sergeant Ross Dickson, says he was directed on April 5 1984 to cease all drug inquiries. He says he was investigating “big groups with big money”. He further alleged “two senior state politicians and several top police” were involved in organised crime.
In 1985 a former director of Teen Challenge in Brisbane, the Reverend Charles Ringmer, said that anybody working with addicts knew corruption existed. “Drugs are taken in raids but in court the quantities are halved,” he said.
You deliberately kept the drug squad massively understaffed at a time when the scale of illegal drug distribution was soaring
“The Drug Squad had very limited resources until recent small additions, and has inadequate covert surveillance capacity,” Fitzgerald reported in 1989. “Although the squad assists local and interstate police, the impact on major trafficking and organized crime has been limited.”
By 1989 the drug squad comprised 32 officers – an average increase of one officer a year since 1979.
There were 200 drug offences recorded in 1969/70, the year after Bjelke-Petersen became Premier. By 1988 the figure was 9450. In that period many youngsters died, corrupt police became part of the drug trafficking network and drug barons became rich.
You appointed Assistant Commissioner Parker, who was part of your corrupt organisation, to be responsible for the Bureau of Criminal Intelligence. He was the liaison officer with the Australian Federal Police and the National Crime Authority. You and he were responsible for appointing officers to the National Crime Authority and to the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence. He attended and received minutes of National Crime Authority meetings. He attended briefings by the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence and received its information bulletins. He was aware of the weekly meetings between the Australian Federal Police and the Queensland Police Force’s Bureau of Criminal Intelligence and between that Bureau and the Drug Squad. He received minutes of monthly meetings between the Bureau of Criminal Intelligence, the Drug Squad and the Licensing Branch, and daily occurrence sheets and monthly reports from each of those units. In late 1986, the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence chose not to provide Parker with information with respect to taped telephone conversations which contained information on vice and police corruption, including Herbert’s role.
Presumably you shared all this secret information with the leaders of organised crime with whom you were working.
Who were the Mr Bigs you worked with or, as was hinted by former Police Minister Bill Gunn, was there just one Mr Very Big?
Did you in turn report back to Rooklyn or to a mafia supremo?
What was the extent of this organised crime?
How many killings are you aware of as a result of these activities?
BJELKE-PETERSEN AND DRUGS
A Premier beholden to you would help explain why he failed for many years to enact legislation to crack down on the drug problem. He exploited law and order issues such as street marches and the sacking of Electrical Trades Union workers as a proven vote winner. Being tough on drug dealers and increasing the size of the drug squad would have been vote winners yet the Premier only talked tough and failed to act apart from a largely ineffective Act in 1986.
In 1979 Bjelke-Petersen reacted to growing anger in the community about the extent of illegal drug availability by signalling his Government would consider introducing a mandatory prison sentence for hard-drug traffickers.
In the 1980 State election Premier Bjelke-Petersen said: "Within the term of the new Government the Queensland Police Drug Squad strength will be expanded greatly, so that we will be able to hit the traders in drugs wherever they are."
He also pledged that draft legislation included a non-parole term of 20 years for people convicted of drug trafficking.
Twelve months later, on 8 October 1981, Cabinet considered a proposal that first offence drug-growers and traffickers be imprisoned for at least five years. Cabinet agreed to increase funding for police drug-detection work. It didn’t happen.
One of the Government’s own Ministers, Lin Powell, said in 1983 he was concerned by “very serious escalation in drug trafficking”.
Terry White, the Minister for Welfare Services said on March 10 1982: “Last year approximately 20 000 young people came into contact with my department to a large degree as a direct consequence of the abuse, misuse and over-use of drugs, including alcohol, legalised, prescription and over-the-counter drugs.”
Government member Angelo Bertoni complained on November 24 1982: “The drug trade is increasing. In 1978-79, 3 598 drug offences were detected in Queensland, whereas I understand that in the current financial year the figure has climbed to over 750O—an increase of more than 100 per cent in only four years.”
On September 27 1983 the Premier pledged to introduce legislation imposing mandatory life imprisonment, without parole, for convicted heroin-dealers.
On April 9 1985, a spokesman for the Minister for Police stated that it was not known when the proposed drug-trafficking Bill would be introduced into Parliament.
Labor frontbencher Terry Mackenroth said at the end of 1986: “Seven years ago, the Premier admitted there was a problem and promised action. Four years later. Cabinet discussed the problem and decided to introduce a Bill. Three years later, the legislation was before the Parliament. Imagine if it had been a property developer wanting a special rezoning; it would have been completed in a week. However, when dealing with this issue which concerns and affects the lives of so many Queenslanders, it has taken this National Party Government seven years to respond. That response has come only as a deceitful political ploy designed to create an impression of a concerned Government. That deceit can be seen in the promise of the legislation just prior to the 1983 election and the introduction of the legislation just prior to this year's election. Even in doing that, this National Party Government could not do it right. As all honourable members know, the legislation introduced in December last year was so bad not only in its ramifications but structurally that it had to be withdrawn. One would have expected better when the State Government has had over two years to draft the Bill.”
At the beginning of the year Mr Mackenroth had asked the Minister for Justice and Attorney-General: In each of the years 1983, 1984 and 1985, how many people were convicted in Queensland of possession of trafficking in heroin or cocaine where the amount of the drug involved exceeded 2 grams?” He was told “The statistics are not readily available.”
Even former Police Minister Bill Gunn admitted in 1996 in a Weekend Independent interview that the Government had failed to confront the issue of drugs. “It is seven years lost,” he said.
What exactly was the Premier’s role?
How many politicians were involved in the illegal drug trade? Who are/were they?
MR BIGS ESCAPE
You confessed in December 1984 to the Daily Sun that the drug problem “continued to tear at the fabric of society” and that “most of our success has been at the lower and middle levels of the criminal network”.
MP Bill Prest said in Parliament on October 12 1982: “The police always seem to be able to apprehend the little fellow, the man who has a small quantity of marijuana in his possession or who grows a plant or two, and have him fined $200 or $300. However, they do not seem to be able to catch the supplier.”
Former constable Bob Campbell told ABC TV in March 1982: “We don't ever seem to come up with the Mr Bigs and the only reason we don't come up with the Mr Bigs is that Mr Bigs are entrepreneur businessmen in this State working completely in conjunction with senior police officers."
I have collected three examples of Mr Bigs escaping in one year.
January 4 1984: A Mackay man was sentenced to nine months’ jail yesterday following a police raid on a large marijuana plantation near Shute Harbour….The police prosecutor said the man was not the main culprit.
October 4 1984: “A man who escaped during a $400 million drug raid in the Blackbutt Ranges was being hunted by police last night.”
October 21 1984: Police raided a marijuana plantation in far north Queensland, seized more than 7,000 plants worth up to $10 million and arrested a man. Police said investigations were continuing in trying to ‘track down the big men behind the plantation”.
Presumably, this was part of the corrupt arrangement whereby you were seen to make arrests but the Mr Bigs escaped?
POLICE INVOLVEMENT
During your commissionership there were allegations that: Police controlled much of the drug business in Queensland; Some dealers caught with drugs were only charged with possession of 10 per cent of what they actually had, the rest being sold by the police; Police were involved in marijuana plantations; There was an organised supply of drugs into prisons via crooked police and warders.
Fitzgerald reported: “In a letter during the course of the Inquiry, long after major corruption had been exposed, a senior officer of the Bureau of Criminal Intelligence informed his superiors that covert surveillance had been carried out on a suspected cocaine dealer. The suspected cocaine dealer had been seen in the company of a detective. That incident was not immediately referred to the Deputy Commissioner or Internal Investigations and the observation was not recorded. The letter said why (this had happened):“These instances had not been logged. (By agreement BCIQ do not work on police).” The detective in question had no legitimate reason for associating with that suspected cocaine dealer, but had telephoned the BCIQ to ascertain what information any of the BCIQ, the Australian Federal Police or the National Crime Authority held on that suspected cocaine dealer. The BCIQ was aware that the Australian Federal Police had similar information on the suspected cocaine dealer to that held by them. There were other clear signs that the detective had tipped off the suspected cocaine dealer that he was under surveillance. BCIQ personnel had not made a record of the detective’s telephoning the Bureau without any apparent legitimate reason to enquire what the Bureau knew of the suspected cocaine dealer. Finally a report was received by Internal Investigations, but the man reporting those observations also understood that by agreement the BCIQ did not work on other police. It becomes worse. The letter went on to say that no inquiries had been conducted about the relationship of the police officer with the suspected cocaine dealer but ..“although it is a matter of concern if [the officer] is associated unnecessarily with the BCIQ targets . . . no evidence of any criminal activity by [the officer] has been uncovered by this Bureau.”
October 15 1978: Senior Constable John Connor was killed by a shot from his own gun. He was one of three police officers who were to be transferred after being named as having been involved in the illegal drugs trade in far north Queensland.
November 21 1978: In Parliament Tommy Burns named seven officers alleged to have been involved in drugs in North Queensland. The Police Minister replied allegations had been made against five of the officers but investigations had failed to substantiate them. Two officers had been transferred following the investigations
Two days later the Police Minister was asked if he was aware that a 6lb pack of marijuana seized during a raid in the Millaa Millaa area had been lost, stolen or misplaced from the security of the storeroom at the Millaa Millaa Police Station? Did a similar incident occur with a bale of marijuana held at the Atherton Police Station? Answer” The Minister did not know.
July 3 1983: The Sunday Mail reported the police internal affairs branch was investigating the disappearance of a large quantity of heroin which had been seized by police in a drug raid in north Queensland. The value was said to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The heroin had been sent to Brisbane for examination and found to be almost pure. It had been sent back to Cairns for a court case, after which it was despatched back to Brisbane to be destroyed under supervision. It was then found that much of the heroin had been substituted with worthless powder. No charges were laid. A whistleblower later complained that inquiries had been more focused on who had leaked the story rather than on catching the thief.
October 18 1983: The Daily Sun reported that marijuana with a street value of $80,000 had been stolen in a raid on Woodridge CIB.
In August 1985 Dr Greg Woods QC said corrupt Queensland and NSW police officers had silenced drug addicts by forcing them to take fatal overdoses or simply by having them shot. Dr Woods was a senior legal advisor to both NSW Attorney-General Frank Walker and South Australian Attorney-General Peter Duncan and went on to become a judge.
November 1986: A Supreme Court judge ruled that Detective Sergeant George Sharry and Detective Constable Christopher Sang had promised heroin to a man arrested for robbery if he confessed. The judge found that syringes had been placed in a coat given to the man with promises of heroin if confessions were forthcoming.
Des Sturgess QC has revealed that while he was director of prosecutions an undercover drug trafficking operation that was producing astonishing results was cut short with no explanation. The head of the drug squad had approached him and told him it was the best opportunity ever presented to him to clear up major crime. It involved giving a heroin dealer an indemnity against prosecution if he was successful in trapping Mr Bigs in a major drug deal involving $25,000 from the public purse. The dealer had already proved himself and “the results he started to achieve astonished us,” said Mr Sturgess. People at “the top of the drugs scene in Australia” were being set up but Lewis told him that while accepting the virtue of his application his hands were tied. He later failed to show up for a crucial meeting with the Attorney-General and police Minister, delegating Assistant Commissioner Parker (who later admitted his corruption) who stonewalled the plan. Mr Sturgess asked that the matter be taken to Cabinet. He later received word that the necessary funds would not be forthcoming.
Question: It was established at the Fitzgerald Inquiry that owners of brothels paying for protection were never prosecuted. Is this the system you had for illegal drugs?
SOME DEATHS THAT MAY BE RELATED TO THE ILLEGAL DRUG TRADE AND CORRUPTION
Fitzgerald reported: “There is no evidence to suggest Murphy was involved in any way in [Shirley] Brifman’s death, which was caused by a drug overdose, a fatal occurrence which has since been associated with a number of other informers who have been drug users.
Do you feel remorse or responsibility for any of these deaths which occurred while corruption was rampant in Queensland?
1961 October - Leigh Hamilton was a 30-year-old prostitute who, some reports said, was approached by you and Glen Hallahan in 1959 for increased protection payments – a demand which led to the closure of the tolerated brothels in 1959. Sunday Truth reported she was said to hate police and regularly accused them of wrongdoing. She was found in a locked room having died from an overdose of sleeping tablets. 1965 October - Leo Walsh Myers, 37-year-old gambler, shot dead when he opened his front door 1967 March - Mima McKim-Hill, a 22-year-old cooking instructor, disappeared. It was alleged police cleaned her car, obliterating any fingerprints. 1967 March – Illegal bookie, alleged stand-over man, Bischof bagman and Queen Street store owner Mel Reid disappeared after taking his ocean-going yacht out on Moreton Bay. There were rumours a time bomb had been placed on his boat. 1967 May – Ducky O'Connor shot dead. . 1967 June - Dick Reilly shot dead 1967 November - Kev Williams shot dead 1968 November - Gary Venamore beaten and drowned. 1971 June - Donald Hector (Donny) Smith shot dead after running a shady nightclub for bent cops in Brisbane. 1971 September - Robin Corrie, lover and confidant of Shirley Brifman, died from an overdose of drugs 1971 September – National Hotel manager Jack Cooper shot dead. 1971 November – Cheryl Mitchell, prostitute, found dead from an overdose of painkillers in a Gold Coast flat. An inquest into her death was told of links to Johnny ‘Shotgun’ Regan and Glen Patrick Hallahan. 1972 March – Brothel madam and whistle-blower Shirley Brifman dies from an overdose. 1972 July - Gaye Christine Baker (aka Barclay) was working for an escort agency and was due to meet a client. She has not been seen since. 1973 November - Prostitute Margaret Grace Ward disappeared after leaving her solicitor's office. 1974 January - Barbara McCulkin and her daughters Vicki, 13, and Leanne 11, disappeared from their Brisbane home after Barbara had said she had information on the firebombing of the Whiskey-Au-Go-Go night club which killed 15 people. 1974 September - Johnny Regan died in a fusillade of bullets after naming a number of former police officers as being associated with illegal clubs and criminal activities. There is a belief among some honest police that when Regan became too difficult to control, three of the corrupt cops who had used him pointed guns at him and fired simultaneously so that all were equally guilty. 1974 December - Gary Taylor dead in cell. 1974 December - Eric ‘The Gorilla’ Williams dead 1975 January - Boxer and criminal Tommy Hamilton abducted from his home and never seen again. 1977 September - Simone Vogel, aka Norma Pavich, owner of six brothels and a Mercedes was last seen with - allegedly – diamonds worth $100,000 and four police officers. Her body was never found. 1978 January – Reinder Djakaria Jacobi found wedged between trays in the back of a bread van on a farm near Mareeba in what appeared to be a drug-trafficking-related death. 1978 June – Aboriginal tracker Neville Brian Burns drowns near Mossman in the upper Daintree area after a blow to the back of his head while on an official police investigation of allegations that a former police officer was involved in drug cultivation. The drowning occurred next to the former officer’s property. 1978 June - car dealer Brian Andrews disappears. 1978 July - call girl Sharon Smith aka Stevens murdered, says mum. 1978 October - Senior Constable John Connor was alleged to be involved with other police in marijuana growing in Far North Queensland. He was found shot dead in his car. Evidence given to a secret inquest was never released. 1978 November - Janette Trickey found dead in a Gold Coast beach shower cubicle with a tourniquet round her arm and a syringe in her hand a fortnight before she was due to give evidence at an inquest into a vicious murder. Police said it was a drug death but an autopsy discovered no drug of any kind in her body. 1979 February – Raymond Kenneth “Norman the Doorman” Ford missing – possibly in debt to SP bookies. 1979 May – the bodies of Douglas and Isabel Wilson, Mr Asia syndicate members, were found. The fact that they had given police information was betrayed by Tony Murphy. 1980 June - Philippe Haynes shot dead at Kuranda escaping from police 1980 November - Francis P. O'Neill shot dead at Coorparoo. Owed SPs. 1981 February - Prostitute Julie Ann Lee murdered. Cairns. 1981 May – Marijuana growers Paul and Veda Clarke blasted to death by a shotgun as they slept. Their farmhouse near Julatten in Far North Queensland was then gutted by fire. 1981 - Peter Matt Kelly of Innisfail died. Regional superintendent at the time, Tony Murphy, referred to it as a sudden death. Some police believed he was shot and that the death was associated with 'police misconduct'. 1982 May - Mr Asia man Jean Clause Ledard dead from bullet wound. Mareeba. 1982 August - Terry and Sue Basham, allegedly involved in the heroin trade in Queensland, were shot dead at their farm near Murwillumbah. 1983 April - Barry and Monica Burns say their drug-addict son was murdered. 1984 June - Public Trustee Maurice Nolan tells you of tapes in possession of call girl dead on Gold Coast. 1984 August – Horse trainers George Brown and Cyril Lavel murdered 1984 - Anti-drug crusader Peter Hohermuth, 45, of Mareeba was found dead in his car with a tube from the exhaust. 1985 February - 19-year-old prostitute Lisa Jane Buchanan was due to give evidence against two men and a woman who had sexually degraded her and beaten her so badly she was hospitalised. She was said by a friend not to be a drug user. Ten days before the committal was due she was found dead with a needle in her arm and morphine in her bloodstream. 1985 May - SP bookie Harry Cook, 72, found dead in River Tweed. Owed SPs $130,000. 1986 April - Lola Gartner 1986 September - The body of Brisbane prostitute Lillian Lorenz, aged 27, was found floating in the Brisbane river. There was a large bump on her head. A convicted drug addict, she was not affected by drugs or drink at the time of her death.
January 19 2017 author’s note: Early this month I went to Lewis’s home in Glengarry Road, Keperra, armed with the document published here. He was not at home so I left a copy in his letterbox. On January 17 I was told he was now living with a daughter. I went to her home and asked to speak to her father. She told me she doubted if he would speak to me but accepted the document and my business card. As I was explaining my mission she ordered me from her property. I have not heard from Lewis. If he does consent to an interview I will post the results on this site.
