Lenny McPherson
Encyclopedia
Leonard Arthur McPherson (born Balmain, New South Wales
19 May 1921; died Cessnock, New South Wales
, 28 August 1996) was one of the most notorious and powerful Australian career criminals of the late 20th century. McPherson is believed to have controlled most of Sydney's organised crime activity for several decades, alongside his contemporary Abe Saffron
(who was dubbed "Mr Sin") and associate George Freeman.
s" (illegal alcohol outlets), prostitution and drug dealing
, and his influence is also believed to have extended to South East Asia
and the United States
McPherson's well-earned reputation for extreme brutality is exemplified by an incident recounted in Tony Reeves' 2005 biography. McPherson had been estranged from his mother for many years, but on her 70th birthday, he unexpectedly turned up at her flat, carrying a live rabbit. He demanded to know why he had not been invited to her birthday party, and when she admitted that it was because of his criminal activities, the furious McPherson tore the rabbit's head off, threw the still-twitching body at her feet and stormed off. Reeves also states that McPherson savagely brutalised his first wife on numerous occasions—on one occasion, when he accused her of having an affair, he tied one of her legs to a tree and the other to the back of his car, started the car, took up the slack on the ropes and threatened to tear her in half.
McPherson was featured as a character in the Australian crime drama series Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities
, in which he was played by actor John McNeill
.
in 1921, the tenth child of metalworker William McPherson and his wife Nellie . He had some schooling at Birchgrove
Primary School, but did not go on to secondary school.
McPherson's first brush with the law came at the age of 11 when he was convicted of stealing and placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond. Eighteen months later, on 13 June 1934, he faced court on another stealing offence and his bond was extended for a further year. On 18 June he was convicted on two charges of stealing and committed to the Mount Penang juvenile detention
centre on the NSW Central Coast. According to Reeves, McPherson was frequently bashed and sexually assaulted during this first term of incarceration, a common experience for juvenile detainees at this time.
During World War II McPherson's father found him a position as a driller at the dockyard where he worked, enabling Lenny to avoid conscription, because dock workers were a protected occupation. During this period he racked up a string of traffic fines for minor infringements including speeding, illegal parking and driving an unlicenced vehicle.
In 1940 McPherson married 16-old Dawn Joy Allan at Rozelle, New South Wales
.
McPherson's first criminal convictions as an adult were in 1946. In January he was convicted and fined for possession of stolen goods
-- a conviction that was upheld on appeal—and a month later, on 15 February, he was found guilty of receiving stolen goods and sentenced to 12 months' hard labour at Long Bay Jail
. Soon after, he was convicted on another similar charge and sentenced to 18 months, to be served concurrently.
In June 1946 McPherson was briefly transferred to a low-security prison farm
at Glen Innes
in northern NSW, but six weeks later he was transferred to the maximum security Grafton Gaol
because of his "unsatisfactory" behaviour. His wife appealed for him to be transferred back to Sydney to serve out his term at Long Bay. Notably, Tom (Thomas) Sheehan, ALP State Member for Cook, also wrote to the Corrective Services Minister on McPherson's behalf, even though McPherson's current home at Gladesville was not in Sheehan's electorate.
Both requests were initially denied, but a few months later McPherson was transferred back to Long Bay to serve out the rest of his sentence. He was paroled on 24 December 1946, having served only 10 months of his 18-month sentence. McPherson had difficulty re-adjusting to life outside prison. He began drinking heavily and soon fell into a pattern of alcohol-fuelled verbal and physical abuse against his long-suffering wife Joy. His marriage quickly deteriorated, and McPherson took up with other women.
During the 1940s he had associated with the Surry Hills based underworld figure, William 'Joey' Hollebone, but they later fell out. William 'Joey' Hollebone committed many underworld murders in Sydney and was a close associate of the notorious hitman, John Frederick (Chow) Hayes. After Hollebone was arrested for a robbery, he accused McPherson of tipping off the police to his whereabouts and in revenge Hollebone's gang brutally pack-raped McPherson's mistress, who was pregnant to him. Hollebone died in 1960.
According to Tony Reeves, McPherson had frequently "fizzed" (informed) on fellow inmates while in prison to gain small privileges and ingratiate himself with prison officers. This habit continued after his release, as McPherson began cultivating selected police officers by informing against rivals or those who offended or annoyed him. One contemporary recalled that the young McPherson was widely known at the time as "Lenny The Pig" and "Lenny the Squealer".
On 24 June 1947 McPherson faced a minor charge of using indecent language and was fined £2.
, reading everything he could find about Capone and trying to emulate him—although, clearly, he had no interest in adopting the Mafia code of silence, omerta
and soon developed a close relationship with police, selectively acting as an informant in cases where this suited his purposes.
He made a trip to the USA in August 1951, using a forged passport and travelling under his brother's name; Tony Reeves states that it was on this visit that McPherson made his first contacts with members of the Chicago mob. However, his faked passport was detected and he and an accomplice, Martin Goode, were charged with forging and uttering. Although the maximum penalty was 10 years' jail, McPherson and Goode were fined only £100 and placed on a three-year good behaviour bond.
Just five months later McPherson was again before the courts, charged with consorting with known criminals, but he again escaped imprisonment -- his conviction was recorded but no sentence was imposed. McPherson was less fortunate with his next offence: in late 1953 he and an accomplice were arrested while trying to break into an office in central Sydney; in November he was found guilty of breaking and entering
with intent to steal and being in possession of housebreaking implements (including explosives) and sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
His term was marked by a number of notable incidents: he was disciplined for attempting to pass a clandestine letter out of the gaol, he was charged with having contraband in his possession, and in mid-1955, while still serving his burglary sentence, he was found guilty on three charges of possessing an unlicenced pistol and sentenced to 12 months on each charge, to be served concurrently with his other term.
McPherson was paroled in October 1955. He needed legitimate employment to satisfy his parole conditions, and it was at this time that he established his infamous "motel". Built by McPherson with his brother, it was in fact a group of tiny rooms built on the roof of a private car park
in Balmain, which McPherson had created as a safe house
for criminal associates who needed to lie low. McPherson placed himself on the payroll at a salary of £20 per week, and for the next 20 years he was able to cover his criminal activities by claiming that the motel was his only source of income.
Ray "Gunner" Kelly and the notorious Det. Sgt. Fred Krahe
. These relationships quickly developed into a mutually beneficial arrangements—corrupt police exploited McPherson as an informant and 'enforcer', while they in turn were used by him to neutralise enemies and to protect his organisation.
Tony Reeves cites the 1959 killing of criminal Joseph Hackett as a pivotal event in McPherson's criminal career. He argues that the case was "fixed" by corrupt police and prison guards, who conspired with McPherson and enabled him to avoid prosecution. From this point on, McPherson's influence over police, prison guards, lawyers, magistrates and politicians allowed him to literally get away with murder on numerous occasions.
suburb of Leichhardt
late at night on 27 July 1959. McPherson and his longtime bodyguard, Snowy Rayner (alias Lewis William Hunt) were charged with the murder, but before they could face a trial the case was dropped on the orders of the then Attorney-General of NSW.
Hackett was led into an ambush by Hilton Mervyn Clayton, another of McPherson's criminal associates. Clayton was arrested only hours after the shooting—although police never revealed how he was picked up so quickly—and after a 14-hour interrogation he allegedly made a "verbal" admission identifying McPherson and Rayner as the killers. Police also located at least two other material witnesses whose evidence could have incriminated McPherson and Rayner. ("Verballing" was a technique resorted to by the New South Wales Police Force in the late 1960s and '70s. A policeman or detective would write a "confession" out and produce it in court unsigned by the defendant.)
Acting on Clayton's admission, detectives Fred Krahe and Les Chowne picked up McPherson and Rayner the next day and questioned them both at length. Significantly, during this first interview, Det. Krahe reportedly revealed to McPherson that it was Clayton who had informed on them. McPherson at first claimed that he had been visiting his mother in hospital when the murder took place, but neither man's alibi stood up, and they were both charged with murder and remanded to Long Bay Gaol.
McPherson had good reason to fear that he would not be allowed out on bail, so during the hours he spent on remand at Long Bay, he allegedly dictated a letter, and then used his influence with a corrupt prison officer known as "The Major" to have it smuggled out of prison and delivered to a trusted associate, Christopher George Campbell. Although not written in McPherson's own hand—Reeves suggests it was transcribed by Rayner—the letter was signed "Lenny" and the contents were highly incriminating. Campbell in fact kept the letter—in 1968 he sold it to journalists from The Australian
who were researching a (never-completed) investigation into organised crime. News Limited
executives then took possession of it and kept its existence secret for many years, until a copy was leaked to Tony Reeves by an anonymous contact.
The letter bluntly states that Hackett had been killed "because he had a big mouth" and that McPherson and Rayner had "surrendered" to a person referred to as "Verbal" -- which, Reeves argues, meant that McPherson had made a deal with Det. Ray Kelly (whose nickname was "Verbal"). It outlines their scheme to avoid prosecution, states that Clayton had already been "seen" by some of Lenny's men and that he would never testify against them, describes the plan to fabricate alibis, details the bribing of two other witnesses by offering them £1500 to leave the country, and gives instructions for Campbell to deposit £400 in the account of solicitor Phil Roach—a well-known criminal lawyer who, Reeves claims, regularly acted as an intermediary between criminals like McPherson and corrupt police such as Krahe and Kelly.
When the pair faced court later that day, Rayner was remanded in custody. Remarkably though, in spite of the seriousness of the charge against McPherson, and his extensive criminal record, magistrate Roy Harvey released him on £1000 bail and ordered him to report to police three times a week until the Coroner's case began.
The hearing opened on 21 September 1959, but by this time the two "gigs" (witnesses) referred to in Lenny's letter had left the country. Clayton—who had not been seen since the day after the murder—could not be found, so the case was adjourned and McPherson and Rayner were released on bail. Overnight, Clayton was located by DS Fred Krahe, but when the hearing reopened, Clayton recanted on his earlier statement, flatly denying that McPherson and Rayner were the men he had seen on the night Hackett was killed.
Nevertheless, the coroner found that there was a case to answer and McPherson and Rayner were committed to stand trial in November 1959. Bail was refused at this stage, but at a hearing two days later Justice Brereton released both men on £1000 bail. Before the trial could go ahead, however, the matter was "no-billed" by the State Attorney-General.
of SP bookmaker John Joseph Unwin. The vehicular ambush took place on a busy central Sydney street at mid-evening, and several shots were fired between the two cars as they repeatedly rammed each other, but Unwin managed to return fire, wounding Rayner in the arm, and he escaped without injury. The charges against McPherson were quietly dropped some time later, in part because Unwin refused to cooperate with police.
Joy was rescued from the house by her father, and she initially agreed with his advice that she should charge her husband with attempted murder. However, at a "conciliation" meeting—arranged and attended by Det. Ray Kelly—she was coerced into dropping the idea. Joy never returned to live with Lenny after the incident, and she subsequently divorced him, signed over her share of their Gladesville home to him, remarried and left Sydney.
In May 1962 McPherson was arrested by two junior detectives for consorting with known criminals, a charge which carried a potential sentence of six months in prison. However, the detectives received a radio order to release McPherson before their car had even arrived at the station, and the two officers involved subsequently stated that the order had come from corrupt detective Ray "Gunner" Kelly.
Walker had bashed Smith for assaulting a prostitute at a Woolloomooloo hotel; some days later, Smith and several confederates went to Walker's house in Paddington to 'sort him out', but Walker drove them off by firing a salvo of rifle shots through his front door, and one shot wounded Smith in the chest. Walker was charged and he went to ground after the shooting, but he made the mistake of hiding out at the Randwick house of the prostitute Smith had assaulted.
On the evening of the McPherson's wedding reception, at around 6pm, Smith received a call from the prostitute. Smith alerted McPherson, who told his new bride that he had urgent business, and the two men left the reception. They drove to the suburb of Kingsford, changed clothes, picked up a stolen car and drove it to the house where Walker was hiding. They waited until Walker left the woman's house at about 6:15pm, then followed him as he walked down Randwick's main street, Alison Road, on his way to a local pub. Drawing up alongside, McPherson opened fire on Walker at close range with an Owen submachine gun, hitting him six times and killing him instantly; several shots also struck a parked car and a nearby fence.
Although police were on the scene almost immediately, McPherson and Smith made a clean getaway. They dumped the stolen vehicle, and retrieved their own car. After hiding the machine-gun at an associate's welding business, Smith and McPherson changed back into their own clothes, dumped the clothes they had worn during the shooting into the Parramatta River
and returned to the wedding reception in Balmain. According to Tony Reeves, the entire operation took just over half an hour.
The case caused a sensation because of the brazen nature of the killing and the fact that it was the first underworld murder in Sydney involving the use of a machine-gun. However the investigation was led by Ray Kelly, who (according to Reeves) pointed the finger of suspicion away from McPherson and directed it at Raymond 'Ducky' O'Connor, another prominent Sydney criminal and a longstanding enemy of McPherson's. The inquest opened in December 1963, and when it resumed in February 1964 O'Connor was called to give evidence. The inquest ended with the coroner finding that he was unable to recommend any prosecution.
Some months later, in 1965, journalists Ron Saw and Frank Brown wrote an article about the case, published in the new satirical magazine Oz
in which they alleged that a loose association of prominent Sydney criminals had clubbed together to have Walker killed because of his attempts to establish himself as a standover
man.
club in the city, and Bourke had also begun to encroach on the protection rackets McPherson was running on illegal gaming houses in the Newtown
area.
McPherson's reprisal was brutal. Bourke was gunned down on the front lawn of his Randwick home in the early hours of the morning of 10 February 1964. Forensic investigations determined that the killer had hidden in nearby bushes and had fired 10 rifle shots into Bourke from a distance, reloaded, then approached the dying man and fired a further 10 shots into him at close range. No-one was ever charged over the killing, but Tony Reeves asserts that sources who had been close to Det. Ray Kelly assured him that there was no doubt that McPherson was the killer, and that Kelly had ensured that McPherson would not fall under suspicion.
He received multiple gunshot wounds—including a shotgun blast that ripped a five-inch hole in his abdomen—but he survived the initial attack and he was able to stagger 200 metres back to his home and drag himself up three flights of stairs to his flat before collapsing. Steele was still conscious when he arrived at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney
, where surgeons removed more than 40 shotgun pellets and bullet fragments from his body.
The wounded Steele survived in hospital for almost a month before finally dying from complications arising from his injuries. In that time he briefly became a media star, and reporters interviewed him in his hospital bed, although one newspaper photographer discovered that Steele, wary of another attempt on his life, was keeping a loaded shotgun at the ready under the sheets.
Steele told a Sunday Mirror reporter that his assailants were able to surprise him by driving up to him in a car that resembled an official police vehicle, and that they were all wearing hats of a style then much favoured by detectives. Tony Reeves speculates Steele may have been falsely told to expect a visit from police with whom he was connected, that McPherson may have used his corrupt police connections to gain the use of a real police vehicle and that the gunmen made eight rehearsal runs for the attack before carrying it out.
Like Charlie Bourke, Steele had incurred Lenny's wrath because he was trying to challenge McPherson's control over inner-city standover rackets, but McPherson's considerable ego also played a part. By Steele's own account, his fate was sealed by a feature in the satirical magazine Oz
, entitled "The Oz Guide to Sydney's Underworld", and which was published shortly before the shooting.
Based on information supplied by two Sydney journalists, Oz editor Richard Neville
compiled a "Top 20" list of Sydney gangsters. The #1 spot was left empty but—in a reference to McPherson—the name "Len" was placed at #2, and "Len" was also described as a "fence" and a "fizz-gig" (police informant). The edition sold out in three days and a delighted Steele reportedly bought 20 copies, making great play of the fact that McPherson was not at #1 on the list of top criminals.
It may seem unlikely that a man of McPherson's reputation could be disturbed by an article in a satirical student magazine, but Neville has since revealed that, soon after the "Underworld Guide" was published, he received a visit at his Paddington home from McPherson himself. Lenny explained that had obtained Neville's address from a friend's son, who was at university with Neville. He claimed that he had come to assure himself that the Oz team were not part of a rival gang, and to insist that he was not a "fizz".
In a subsequent edition, Oz delved further into the case when it published the confidential minutes of a monthly meeting of Sydney detectives, held on 1 December. The leaked document revealed that Steele (then still alive in hospital) had named those he believed had carried out the shooting, and that Steele had privately told police that he was sure that McPherson was behind the shooting, and that it had been ordered because of Lenny's fury over the Oz article. The fact that the secret report had been obtained from an underworld source was described by Oz as a "devastating indictment of police".
owner Joe Borg and his old enemy Ducky O'Connor and Stewart John Regan, Lenny became one of the most powerful criminals in Australia. With corrupt police, prison officers, lawyers and politicians on his payroll, McPherson was able to conduct his criminal activities with almost total impunity.
According to biographer Tony Reeves, when it suited him, McPherson acted as an informant to NSW police
. In this role, he figured in one of Australia's biggest manhunts, the 1966 search for prison escapees Ronald Ryan
and Peter John Walker, who had fled to NSW after a daring escape from Melbourne's Pentridge Prison, during which prison guard George Hodson was killed. Ryan and Walker were eventually captured in the grounds of Concord Hospital in Sydney in a major operation led by Det. Ray "Machine Gun" Kelly. According to Reeves, McPherson was approached by Ryan and Walker, who sought his help to leave the country, but McPherson then arranged a bogus meeting with them at Concord and tipped off the police to their whereabouts. Ryan was subsequently convicted and hanged for the murder of Hodson, becoming the last man in Australia to be executed.
McPherson is also believed to have facilitated the establishment of close contact between himself and other leading Australian criminals and members of the American Mafia
in the late 1960s—most notably through his infamous meeting in 1969 with Mafia hit-man
, Joseph Dan Testa and McPherson is also thought to have been a significant figure in the development of the illegal heroin trade in South-East Asia in the early 1970s.
In 1984 the Gang Wars had started. There were three major gangs: McPherson's Team, Neddy Smith
's gang which was backed by Roger Rogerson
and there was Barry McCann backed by other police. With a pile of dead bodies, it was back to business.
on 28 August 1996, aged 75. He was buried on 3 September 1996 at the Field Of Mars Cemetery, Ryde, New South Wales
.
Royal Commission witness
McPherson was one of the witnesses called before the Moffitt Royal Commission
into organised crime, which ran from 1973-74.
Balmain, New South Wales
Balmain is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Balmain is located slightly west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Leichhardt....
19 May 1921; died Cessnock, New South Wales
Cessnock, New South Wales
Cessnock is a city in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, about by road west of Newcastle. It is the administrative centre of the Cessnock City Council LGA and was named after an 1826 grant of land called Cessnock Estate, which was owned by John Campbell...
, 28 August 1996) was one of the most notorious and powerful Australian career criminals of the late 20th century. McPherson is believed to have controlled most of Sydney's organised crime activity for several decades, alongside his contemporary Abe Saffron
Abe Saffron
Abraham Gilbert "Abe" Saffron was an Australian nightclub owner and property developer who was reputed to have been one of the major figures in Australian organised crime in the latter half of the 20th century....
(who was dubbed "Mr Sin") and associate George Freeman.
Reputation
Universally feared by adversaries and often referred to as Sydney's "Mr Big" of organised crime, McPherson built up an extensive network of criminal activities that included robbery, theft and extortion rackets, illegal gambling, "sly-grog shopSly-grog shop
A sly grog shop is an Australian term for an unlicensed hotel or liquor-store, often with the added suggestion of selling poor-quality liquor; a place where alcoholic beverages are sold by an unlicensed vendor....
s" (illegal alcohol outlets), prostitution and drug dealing
Illegal drug trade
The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...
, and his influence is also believed to have extended to South East Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
and the United States
McPherson's well-earned reputation for extreme brutality is exemplified by an incident recounted in Tony Reeves' 2005 biography. McPherson had been estranged from his mother for many years, but on her 70th birthday, he unexpectedly turned up at her flat, carrying a live rabbit. He demanded to know why he had not been invited to her birthday party, and when she admitted that it was because of his criminal activities, the furious McPherson tore the rabbit's head off, threw the still-twitching body at her feet and stormed off. Reeves also states that McPherson savagely brutalised his first wife on numerous occasions—on one occasion, when he accused her of having an affair, he tied one of her legs to a tree and the other to the back of his car, started the car, took up the slack on the ropes and threatened to tear her in half.
McPherson was featured as a character in the Australian crime drama series Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities
Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities
Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities is a 13-part Australian television mini-series loosely based on real events that stemmed from the marijuana trade centred around the New South Wales town of Griffith. The timeline of the series is the years between 1976 and 1987. Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities...
, in which he was played by actor John McNeill
John McNeill
John James McNeill was a 20th century Australian politician.-Early life:McNeill was born in Tantanoola, South Australia. After achieving a primary school education, McNeill worked as a shearer and then became a selector at Woosang...
.
Youth and early criminal career, 1930s-1940s
Lenny McPherson was born in the inner-Sydney suburb of BalmainBalmain, New South Wales
Balmain is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Balmain is located slightly west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Leichhardt....
in 1921, the tenth child of metalworker William McPherson and his wife Nellie . He had some schooling at Birchgrove
Birchgrove, New South Wales
Birchgrove is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Birchgrove is located 5 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Leichhardt....
Primary School, but did not go on to secondary school.
McPherson's first brush with the law came at the age of 11 when he was convicted of stealing and placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond. Eighteen months later, on 13 June 1934, he faced court on another stealing offence and his bond was extended for a further year. On 18 June he was convicted on two charges of stealing and committed to the Mount Penang juvenile detention
Youth detention center
A youth detention center, also known as a juvenile detention center , juvenile hall or, more colloquially as juvie, is a secure residential facility for young people, often termed juvenile delinquents, awaiting court hearings and/or placement in long-term care facilities and programs...
centre on the NSW Central Coast. According to Reeves, McPherson was frequently bashed and sexually assaulted during this first term of incarceration, a common experience for juvenile detainees at this time.
During World War II McPherson's father found him a position as a driller at the dockyard where he worked, enabling Lenny to avoid conscription, because dock workers were a protected occupation. During this period he racked up a string of traffic fines for minor infringements including speeding, illegal parking and driving an unlicenced vehicle.
In 1940 McPherson married 16-old Dawn Joy Allan at Rozelle, New South Wales
Rozelle, New South Wales
Rozelle is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 4 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Leichhardt....
.
McPherson's first criminal convictions as an adult were in 1946. In January he was convicted and fined for possession of stolen goods
Possession of stolen goods
Possession of stolen goods is a crime in which an individual has bought, been given, or acquired stolen goods some other way.In many countries, if an individual has accepted possession of goods or property and knew they were stolen, then the individual is typically charged with a misdemeanor or...
-- a conviction that was upheld on appeal—and a month later, on 15 February, he was found guilty of receiving stolen goods and sentenced to 12 months' hard labour at Long Bay Jail
Long Bay Correctional Centre
Long Bay Correctional Complex is located in the suburb of Malabar in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Long Bay comprises six institutions, four maximum security and two minimum security.-History:...
. Soon after, he was convicted on another similar charge and sentenced to 18 months, to be served concurrently.
In June 1946 McPherson was briefly transferred to a low-security prison farm
Prison farm
A prison farm is a large correctional facility where penal labor convicts are put to economical use in a 'farm' , usually for manual labour, largely in open air, such as in agriculture, logging, quarrying, etc...
at Glen Innes
Glen Innes, New South Wales
Glen Innes is a parish and town on the Northern Tablelands, in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the centre of the Glen Innes Severn Shire Council. The town is located at the intersection of the New England Highway and the Gwydir Highway...
in northern NSW, but six weeks later he was transferred to the maximum security Grafton Gaol
Grafton Correctional Centre
Grafton Correctional Centre is a medium security prison for both men and women in Grafton, New South Wales, Australia. As well as housing sentenced offenders, the Centre serves as a reception prison for northern NSW....
because of his "unsatisfactory" behaviour. His wife appealed for him to be transferred back to Sydney to serve out his term at Long Bay. Notably, Tom (Thomas) Sheehan, ALP State Member for Cook, also wrote to the Corrective Services Minister on McPherson's behalf, even though McPherson's current home at Gladesville was not in Sheehan's electorate.
Both requests were initially denied, but a few months later McPherson was transferred back to Long Bay to serve out the rest of his sentence. He was paroled on 24 December 1946, having served only 10 months of his 18-month sentence. McPherson had difficulty re-adjusting to life outside prison. He began drinking heavily and soon fell into a pattern of alcohol-fuelled verbal and physical abuse against his long-suffering wife Joy. His marriage quickly deteriorated, and McPherson took up with other women.
During the 1940s he had associated with the Surry Hills based underworld figure, William 'Joey' Hollebone, but they later fell out. William 'Joey' Hollebone committed many underworld murders in Sydney and was a close associate of the notorious hitman, John Frederick (Chow) Hayes. After Hollebone was arrested for a robbery, he accused McPherson of tipping off the police to his whereabouts and in revenge Hollebone's gang brutally pack-raped McPherson's mistress, who was pregnant to him. Hollebone died in 1960.
According to Tony Reeves, McPherson had frequently "fizzed" (informed) on fellow inmates while in prison to gain small privileges and ingratiate himself with prison officers. This habit continued after his release, as McPherson began cultivating selected police officers by informing against rivals or those who offended or annoyed him. One contemporary recalled that the young McPherson was widely known at the time as "Lenny The Pig" and "Lenny the Squealer".
On 24 June 1947 McPherson faced a minor charge of using indecent language and was fined £2.
1950s
By the time of his 30th birthday in 1951, McPherson had developed a fascination with the notorious American gangster Al CaponeAl Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...
, reading everything he could find about Capone and trying to emulate him—although, clearly, he had no interest in adopting the Mafia code of silence, omerta
Omertà
Omertà is a popular attitude and code of honour and a common definition is the "code of silence". It is common in areas of southern Italy, such as Sicily, Apulia, Calabria, and Campania, where criminal organizations defined as Mafia such as the Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Sacra Corona Unita, and...
and soon developed a close relationship with police, selectively acting as an informant in cases where this suited his purposes.
He made a trip to the USA in August 1951, using a forged passport and travelling under his brother's name; Tony Reeves states that it was on this visit that McPherson made his first contacts with members of the Chicago mob. However, his faked passport was detected and he and an accomplice, Martin Goode, were charged with forging and uttering. Although the maximum penalty was 10 years' jail, McPherson and Goode were fined only £100 and placed on a three-year good behaviour bond.
Just five months later McPherson was again before the courts, charged with consorting with known criminals, but he again escaped imprisonment -- his conviction was recorded but no sentence was imposed. McPherson was less fortunate with his next offence: in late 1953 he and an accomplice were arrested while trying to break into an office in central Sydney; in November he was found guilty of breaking and entering
Burglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
with intent to steal and being in possession of housebreaking implements (including explosives) and sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
His term was marked by a number of notable incidents: he was disciplined for attempting to pass a clandestine letter out of the gaol, he was charged with having contraband in his possession, and in mid-1955, while still serving his burglary sentence, he was found guilty on three charges of possessing an unlicenced pistol and sentenced to 12 months on each charge, to be served concurrently with his other term.
McPherson was paroled in October 1955. He needed legitimate employment to satisfy his parole conditions, and it was at this time that he established his infamous "motel". Built by McPherson with his brother, it was in fact a group of tiny rooms built on the roof of a private car park
Parking lot
A parking lot , also known as car lot, is a cleared area that is intended for parking vehicles. Usually, the term refers to a dedicated area that has been provided with a durable or semi-durable surface....
in Balmain, which McPherson had created as a safe house
Safe house
In the jargon of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, a safe house is a secure location, suitable for hiding witnesses, agents or other persons perceived as being in danger...
for criminal associates who needed to lie low. McPherson placed himself on the payroll at a salary of £20 per week, and for the next 20 years he was able to cover his criminal activities by claiming that the motel was his only source of income.
Rise to power in the 1960s
From the end of the 1950s, McPherson worked assiduously to secure and increase his power and influence and by the late 1960s he had established an extensive network of organised crime operations which were allegedly supported and protected by corrupt police and public officials. He gained pre-eminence in the tough Sydney underworld through the systematic intimidation and assassination of criminal rivals, and by cultivating relationships with corrupt police officers such as Detective InspectorInspector
Inspector is both a police rank and an administrative position, both used in a number of contexts. However, it is not an equivalent rank in each police force.- Australia :...
Ray "Gunner" Kelly and the notorious Det. Sgt. Fred Krahe
Fred Krahe
Frederick Claude "Fred" Krahe was a New South Wales police officer and detective.Krahe is often referred to as having been one of the most feared NSW police officers of his day. He made many successful arrests for which he received commendations and awards for bravery and outstanding detective...
. These relationships quickly developed into a mutually beneficial arrangements—corrupt police exploited McPherson as an informant and 'enforcer', while they in turn were used by him to neutralise enemies and to protect his organisation.
Tony Reeves cites the 1959 killing of criminal Joseph Hackett as a pivotal event in McPherson's criminal career. He argues that the case was "fixed" by corrupt police and prison guards, who conspired with McPherson and enabled him to avoid prosecution. From this point on, McPherson's influence over police, prison guards, lawyers, magistrates and politicians allowed him to literally get away with murder on numerous occasions.
Murder of Joseph Hackett, 1959
The bullet-riddled body of Joseph George Hackett was found in a laneway in the inner-cityInner city
The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term is often applied to the lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas...
suburb of Leichhardt
Leichhardt
Leichhardt may refer to:* Division of Leichhardt, electoral District for the Australian House of Representatives* Leichhardt Highway, a highway of Queensland, Australia* Leichhardt, New South Wales, inner-western suburb of Sydney, Australia...
late at night on 27 July 1959. McPherson and his longtime bodyguard, Snowy Rayner (alias Lewis William Hunt) were charged with the murder, but before they could face a trial the case was dropped on the orders of the then Attorney-General of NSW.
Hackett was led into an ambush by Hilton Mervyn Clayton, another of McPherson's criminal associates. Clayton was arrested only hours after the shooting—although police never revealed how he was picked up so quickly—and after a 14-hour interrogation he allegedly made a "verbal" admission identifying McPherson and Rayner as the killers. Police also located at least two other material witnesses whose evidence could have incriminated McPherson and Rayner. ("Verballing" was a technique resorted to by the New South Wales Police Force in the late 1960s and '70s. A policeman or detective would write a "confession" out and produce it in court unsigned by the defendant.)
Acting on Clayton's admission, detectives Fred Krahe and Les Chowne picked up McPherson and Rayner the next day and questioned them both at length. Significantly, during this first interview, Det. Krahe reportedly revealed to McPherson that it was Clayton who had informed on them. McPherson at first claimed that he had been visiting his mother in hospital when the murder took place, but neither man's alibi stood up, and they were both charged with murder and remanded to Long Bay Gaol.
McPherson had good reason to fear that he would not be allowed out on bail, so during the hours he spent on remand at Long Bay, he allegedly dictated a letter, and then used his influence with a corrupt prison officer known as "The Major" to have it smuggled out of prison and delivered to a trusted associate, Christopher George Campbell. Although not written in McPherson's own hand—Reeves suggests it was transcribed by Rayner—the letter was signed "Lenny" and the contents were highly incriminating. Campbell in fact kept the letter—in 1968 he sold it to journalists from The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
who were researching a (never-completed) investigation into organised crime. News Limited
News Limited
News Limited is one of Australia's largest diversified media companies. The publicly listed company's interests span newspaper and magazine publishing, Internet, Pay TV, National Rugby League, market research, DVD and film distribution, and film and television production trading assets.News Limited...
executives then took possession of it and kept its existence secret for many years, until a copy was leaked to Tony Reeves by an anonymous contact.
The letter bluntly states that Hackett had been killed "because he had a big mouth" and that McPherson and Rayner had "surrendered" to a person referred to as "Verbal" -- which, Reeves argues, meant that McPherson had made a deal with Det. Ray Kelly (whose nickname was "Verbal"). It outlines their scheme to avoid prosecution, states that Clayton had already been "seen" by some of Lenny's men and that he would never testify against them, describes the plan to fabricate alibis, details the bribing of two other witnesses by offering them £1500 to leave the country, and gives instructions for Campbell to deposit £400 in the account of solicitor Phil Roach—a well-known criminal lawyer who, Reeves claims, regularly acted as an intermediary between criminals like McPherson and corrupt police such as Krahe and Kelly.
When the pair faced court later that day, Rayner was remanded in custody. Remarkably though, in spite of the seriousness of the charge against McPherson, and his extensive criminal record, magistrate Roy Harvey released him on £1000 bail and ordered him to report to police three times a week until the Coroner's case began.
The hearing opened on 21 September 1959, but by this time the two "gigs" (witnesses) referred to in Lenny's letter had left the country. Clayton—who had not been seen since the day after the murder—could not be found, so the case was adjourned and McPherson and Rayner were released on bail. Overnight, Clayton was located by DS Fred Krahe, but when the hearing reopened, Clayton recanted on his earlier statement, flatly denying that McPherson and Rayner were the men he had seen on the night Hackett was killed.
Nevertheless, the coroner found that there was a case to answer and McPherson and Rayner were committed to stand trial in November 1959. Bail was refused at this stage, but at a hearing two days later Justice Brereton released both men on £1000 bail. Before the trial could go ahead, however, the matter was "no-billed" by the State Attorney-General.
Attempted murder of John Unwin, 1960
In 1960 McPherson and Rayner were charged with the attempted murderAttempted murder
Attempted murder is a crime in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.-Today:In English criminal law, attempted murder is the crime of more than merely preparing to commit unlawful killing and at the same time having a specific intention to cause the death of human being under the Queen's Peace...
of SP bookmaker John Joseph Unwin. The vehicular ambush took place on a busy central Sydney street at mid-evening, and several shots were fired between the two cars as they repeatedly rammed each other, but Unwin managed to return fire, wounding Rayner in the arm, and he escaped without injury. The charges against McPherson were quietly dropped some time later, in part because Unwin refused to cooperate with police.
End of first marriage
By the early 1960s McPherson's marriage to Dawn Joy had become a sham, and he is known to have had numerous lovers and several children by other women. The end of the marriage was precipitated by a particularly violent attack on his wife in October 1960. After coming home from a drinking binge and discovering that his dinner was not ready, a drunken McPherson savagely pistol-whipped his wife, repeatedly threatened to kill her, and fired shots into the food still cooking on the stove.Joy was rescued from the house by her father, and she initially agreed with his advice that she should charge her husband with attempted murder. However, at a "conciliation" meeting—arranged and attended by Det. Ray Kelly—she was coerced into dropping the idea. Joy never returned to live with Lenny after the incident, and she subsequently divorced him, signed over her share of their Gladesville home to him, remarried and left Sydney.
In May 1962 McPherson was arrested by two junior detectives for consorting with known criminals, a charge which carried a potential sentence of six months in prison. However, the detectives received a radio order to release McPherson before their car had even arrived at the station, and the two officers involved subsequently stated that the order had come from corrupt detective Ray "Gunner" Kelly.
Murder of Robert Walker, 1963
On 9 July 1963 McPherson (then 42) married for the second time to Marlene Carrol Gilligan, 22. That evening, McPherson allegedly slipped away from his own wedding reception at Balmain and carried out the brutal murder of a rival criminal, Robert James "Pretty Boy" Walker, at Randwick, in Sydney's east. Walker had already earned McPherson's displeasure by bragging of being "the toughest man in Sydney" but he was marked for death after he attacked one of McPherson's trusted minders, the notorious Sydney criminal Stan "The Man" Smith (aka Raymond Arthur Owens) -- described by Reeves as "a psychotic gunman and drug addict".Walker had bashed Smith for assaulting a prostitute at a Woolloomooloo hotel; some days later, Smith and several confederates went to Walker's house in Paddington to 'sort him out', but Walker drove them off by firing a salvo of rifle shots through his front door, and one shot wounded Smith in the chest. Walker was charged and he went to ground after the shooting, but he made the mistake of hiding out at the Randwick house of the prostitute Smith had assaulted.
On the evening of the McPherson's wedding reception, at around 6pm, Smith received a call from the prostitute. Smith alerted McPherson, who told his new bride that he had urgent business, and the two men left the reception. They drove to the suburb of Kingsford, changed clothes, picked up a stolen car and drove it to the house where Walker was hiding. They waited until Walker left the woman's house at about 6:15pm, then followed him as he walked down Randwick's main street, Alison Road, on his way to a local pub. Drawing up alongside, McPherson opened fire on Walker at close range with an Owen submachine gun, hitting him six times and killing him instantly; several shots also struck a parked car and a nearby fence.
Although police were on the scene almost immediately, McPherson and Smith made a clean getaway. They dumped the stolen vehicle, and retrieved their own car. After hiding the machine-gun at an associate's welding business, Smith and McPherson changed back into their own clothes, dumped the clothes they had worn during the shooting into the Parramatta River
Parramatta River
The Parramatta River is a waterway in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Parramatta River is the main tributary of Sydney Harbour, a branch of Port Jackson, along with the smaller Lane Cove and Duck Rivers....
and returned to the wedding reception in Balmain. According to Tony Reeves, the entire operation took just over half an hour.
The case caused a sensation because of the brazen nature of the killing and the fact that it was the first underworld murder in Sydney involving the use of a machine-gun. However the investigation was led by Ray Kelly, who (according to Reeves) pointed the finger of suspicion away from McPherson and directed it at Raymond 'Ducky' O'Connor, another prominent Sydney criminal and a longstanding enemy of McPherson's. The inquest opened in December 1963, and when it resumed in February 1964 O'Connor was called to give evidence. The inquest ended with the coroner finding that he was unable to recommend any prosecution.
Some months later, in 1965, journalists Ron Saw and Frank Brown wrote an article about the case, published in the new satirical magazine Oz
Oz (magazine)
Oz was first published as a satirical humour magazine between 1963 and 1969 in Sydney, Australia and, in its second and better known incarnation, became a "psychedelic hippy" magazine from 1967 to 1973 in London...
in which they alleged that a loose association of prominent Sydney criminals had clubbed together to have Walker killed because of his attempts to establish himself as a standover
Extortion
Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
man.
Murder of 'Greyhound' Charlie Bourke, 1964
Only days after the conclusion of the inquest into Walker's murder, McPherson allegedly executed another rival. McPherson had reportedly clashed with standover man and greyhound trainer Charles Bourke over the provision of 'protection' for a new illegal baccaratBaccarat
Baccarat is a card game, played at casinos and by gamblers. It is believed to have been introduced into France from Italy during the reign of King Charles VIII , and it is similar to Faro and Basset...
club in the city, and Bourke had also begun to encroach on the protection rackets McPherson was running on illegal gaming houses in the Newtown
Newtown, New South Wales
Newtown, a suburb of Sydney's inner west is located approximately four kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, straddling the local government areas of the City of Sydney and Marrickville Council in the state of New South Wales, Australia....
area.
McPherson's reprisal was brutal. Bourke was gunned down on the front lawn of his Randwick home in the early hours of the morning of 10 February 1964. Forensic investigations determined that the killer had hidden in nearby bushes and had fired 10 rifle shots into Bourke from a distance, reloaded, then approached the dying man and fired a further 10 shots into him at close range. No-one was ever charged over the killing, but Tony Reeves asserts that sources who had been close to Det. Ray Kelly assured him that there was no doubt that McPherson was the killer, and that Kelly had ensured that McPherson would not fall under suspicion.
Murder of Jacky Steele, 1965
The next rival eliminated by McPherson was murderer, safecracker and standover man Robert Lawrence 'Jacky' Steele, whose shooting and subsequent death became one of the most celebrated criminal cases of the period. On the evening of 26 November 1965 Steele was fired upon by four men who approached him in a car, while he was walking down a quiet street in the affluent suburb of Woollahra in Sydney's inner east.He received multiple gunshot wounds—including a shotgun blast that ripped a five-inch hole in his abdomen—but he survived the initial attack and he was able to stagger 200 metres back to his home and drag himself up three flights of stairs to his flat before collapsing. Steele was still conscious when he arrived at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney
St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney
St Vincent's Public Hospital, Sydney is located in the inner city suburb of Darlinghurst. Though part of the New South Wales state public health system it remains under the auspices of the Sisters of Charity.-History:...
, where surgeons removed more than 40 shotgun pellets and bullet fragments from his body.
The wounded Steele survived in hospital for almost a month before finally dying from complications arising from his injuries. In that time he briefly became a media star, and reporters interviewed him in his hospital bed, although one newspaper photographer discovered that Steele, wary of another attempt on his life, was keeping a loaded shotgun at the ready under the sheets.
Steele told a Sunday Mirror reporter that his assailants were able to surprise him by driving up to him in a car that resembled an official police vehicle, and that they were all wearing hats of a style then much favoured by detectives. Tony Reeves speculates Steele may have been falsely told to expect a visit from police with whom he was connected, that McPherson may have used his corrupt police connections to gain the use of a real police vehicle and that the gunmen made eight rehearsal runs for the attack before carrying it out.
Like Charlie Bourke, Steele had incurred Lenny's wrath because he was trying to challenge McPherson's control over inner-city standover rackets, but McPherson's considerable ego also played a part. By Steele's own account, his fate was sealed by a feature in the satirical magazine Oz
Oz (magazine)
Oz was first published as a satirical humour magazine between 1963 and 1969 in Sydney, Australia and, in its second and better known incarnation, became a "psychedelic hippy" magazine from 1967 to 1973 in London...
, entitled "The Oz Guide to Sydney's Underworld", and which was published shortly before the shooting.
Based on information supplied by two Sydney journalists, Oz editor Richard Neville
Richard Neville (writer)
Richard Neville is an Australian author and self-described "futurist", who came to fame as a co-editor of the counterculture magazine Oz in Australia and the United Kingdom in the 1960s and early 1970s...
compiled a "Top 20" list of Sydney gangsters. The #1 spot was left empty but—in a reference to McPherson—the name "Len" was placed at #2, and "Len" was also described as a "fence" and a "fizz-gig" (police informant). The edition sold out in three days and a delighted Steele reportedly bought 20 copies, making great play of the fact that McPherson was not at #1 on the list of top criminals.
It may seem unlikely that a man of McPherson's reputation could be disturbed by an article in a satirical student magazine, but Neville has since revealed that, soon after the "Underworld Guide" was published, he received a visit at his Paddington home from McPherson himself. Lenny explained that had obtained Neville's address from a friend's son, who was at university with Neville. He claimed that he had come to assure himself that the Oz team were not part of a rival gang, and to insist that he was not a "fizz".
In a subsequent edition, Oz delved further into the case when it published the confidential minutes of a monthly meeting of Sydney detectives, held on 1 December. The leaked document revealed that Steele (then still alive in hospital) had named those he believed had carried out the shooting, and that Steele had privately told police that he was sure that McPherson was behind the shooting, and that it had been ordered because of Lenny's fury over the Oz article. The fact that the secret report had been obtained from an underworld source was described by Oz as a "devastating indictment of police".
The late 1960s and beyond
After a bloody "gang war" in the late 1960s, during which McPherson allegedly coordinated (and occasionally took part in) the murder of several rivals including infamous brothelBrothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
owner Joe Borg and his old enemy Ducky O'Connor and Stewart John Regan, Lenny became one of the most powerful criminals in Australia. With corrupt police, prison officers, lawyers and politicians on his payroll, McPherson was able to conduct his criminal activities with almost total impunity.
According to biographer Tony Reeves, when it suited him, McPherson acted as an informant to NSW police
New South Wales Police
The New South Wales Police Force is the primary law enforcement agency in the State of New South Wales, Australia. It is an agency of the Government of New South Wales within the New South Wales Ministry for Police...
. In this role, he figured in one of Australia's biggest manhunts, the 1966 search for prison escapees Ronald Ryan
Ronald Ryan
Ronald Joseph Ryan was the last person to be legally executed in Australia. Ryan was found guilty of shooting and killing prison officer George Hodson during a prison escape from Pentridge Prison, Victoria in 1965...
and Peter John Walker, who had fled to NSW after a daring escape from Melbourne's Pentridge Prison, during which prison guard George Hodson was killed. Ryan and Walker were eventually captured in the grounds of Concord Hospital in Sydney in a major operation led by Det. Ray "Machine Gun" Kelly. According to Reeves, McPherson was approached by Ryan and Walker, who sought his help to leave the country, but McPherson then arranged a bogus meeting with them at Concord and tipped off the police to their whereabouts. Ryan was subsequently convicted and hanged for the murder of Hodson, becoming the last man in Australia to be executed.
McPherson is also believed to have facilitated the establishment of close contact between himself and other leading Australian criminals and members of the American Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
in the late 1960s—most notably through his infamous meeting in 1969 with Mafia hit-man
Contract killing
Contract killing is a form of murder, in which one party hires another party to kill a target individual or group of people. It involves an illegal agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to kill the target in exchange for consideration, monetary, or otherwise. The hiring party may...
, Joseph Dan Testa and McPherson is also thought to have been a significant figure in the development of the illegal heroin trade in South-East Asia in the early 1970s.
In 1984 the Gang Wars had started. There were three major gangs: McPherson's Team, Neddy Smith
Neddy Smith
Arthur Stanley "Neddy" Smith is an Australian criminal who has been convicted of rape, armed robbery and murder.Smith has been serving a life sentence since 1989 and is presently imprisoned in Long Bay Correctional Centre after being moved from Lithgow Correctional Centre in New South Wales,...
's gang which was backed by Roger Rogerson
Roger Rogerson
Roger Caleb Rogerson is a controversial former detective-sergeant of the New South Wales Police Force. Rogerson was convicted of perverting the course of justice and lying to the 1999 Police Integrity Commission...
and there was Barry McCann backed by other police. With a pile of dead bodies, it was back to business.
Death
He was eventually arrested, tried and jailed in the 1990s after ordering the bashing of a business rival. He died of a heart attack in Cessnock GaolCessnock Correctional Centre
Cessnock Correctional Centre is a minimum and maximum security Australian prison for males, located in Cessnock, New South Wales, Australia. It is the reception prison for the Newcastle and Hunter Region.-Notable prisoners:*William MacDonald...
on 28 August 1996, aged 75. He was buried on 3 September 1996 at the Field Of Mars Cemetery, Ryde, New South Wales
Ryde, New South Wales
Ryde is a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Ryde is located 13 km north-west of the Sydney central business district and 8 km east of Parramatta. Ryde is the administrative centre of the local government area of the City of Ryde and part of the Northern Suburbs area...
.
Royal Commission witness
McPherson was one of the witnesses called before the Moffitt Royal Commission
Moffitt Royal Commission
The Moffitt Royal Commission was one of the first Australian royal commissions to specifically investigate the extent and activities of organised crime in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Its common title was taken from the name of its chairperson, NSW Supreme Court judge Athol Moffitt...
into organised crime, which ran from 1973-74.