Jacks and Jokers (9 page)

On Monday 22 November, just six months after Lewis and Bjelke-Petersen had chinwagged at that lonely airstrip out in Cunnamulla, state Cabinet took ten minutes to crown Lewis the new Queensland Police Commissioner. Lewis was the only name submitted to and discussed by Cabinet.

Bjelke-Petersen said: ‘He’s a straight-shooter.’

Minister Newbery added: ‘I am confident he is the right person to take over a very difficult and demanding job.’

Needless to say, the Premier wanted him to step into his new role immediately. The congratulations poured in. Ray ‘Gunner’ Kelly wrote a note, asking if Terry could help out an old friend who had fallen on hard times. New South Wales Police Commissioner Fred Hanson rang to offer his fullest cooperation. Jack Roberts of the National Hotel wrote in a telegram: ‘Best wishes many true words said in jest.’ Bob Sparkes also telegrammed: ‘Hearty congratulations on your well merited elevation.’ Judge Eddie Broad wrote a note out of his District Court chambers: ‘… best wishes for a successful career as Commissioner.’

And Wally Wright, the former policeman who urged Lewis to move from the Fuel Board and join the ranks in the late 1940s, sent a one-page typed letter. ‘Congratulations of the most sincere feelings,’ said Wally. ‘No one was more enthused than I was of learning of your appointment which can be understood when I claim some involvement in your entering the police and your later appointment to the CIB. Best of luck, but you have no worries.’

Wright’s touching letter was an example that some saw Lewis’s meteoric elevation to the top position as some sort of Horatio Alger rags-to-riches fable. The poor boy from Ipswich climbs to the top of the mountain. While that was technically a part of the story, what was not understood at the time was the relentless, well-organised and vicious campaign that had been waged to unseat Whitrod since his first weeks as Commissioner.

This was an assault by stealth on several fronts over many years, involving senior police, the powerful Police Union and a network of anonymous informants from within and outside the government. It involved personal harassment, public slanging and the ceaseless shovelling of private harmful chatter. (Drug dealer and Hallahan informant John Edward Milligan would later, in a police interview, describe the campaign against Whitrod as ‘a coup’ and a ‘political overthrow’.)

The eloquent and educated member for South Brisbane, Colin Lamont, had befriended Whitrod and admired his honesty and integrity. Lamont had his own theories about the resignation of Whitrod and the meteoric rise of Lewis.

‘He [Whitrod] … believes he was treated very badly,’ Lamont reflected later in an interview. ‘He believes that he stood in the way of Joh’s ambitions. And he was allowed to go. I mean … Joh … out of the blue somebody came up with the name of Terry Lewis. He was an Inspector in Charleville. I mean, that’s nearly as nondescript as being … a chemist in Thargomindah. And I mean, suddenly this inspector is to jump all these ranks and become Deputy Commissioner. Why?’

Lamont initially suspected the member for Merthyr, Don Lane, being a former police officer and ‘part of what we think was the Rat Pack’, had a hand in Lewis’s elevation. ‘[But] Lane didn’t have any influence with Joh at all at the time,’ Lamont later said. ‘In fact, Lane didn’t get on with Joh at the time.

‘Lane was [Bill] Knox’s man. He … Lane kicked heads to get support for Knox, as Knox had tried to do for Lane. And I … therefore have to conclude that it was Knox who pulled the name Terry Lewis out of the hat and said to Joh, “This bloke will do what you want him to do. This bloke will take instructions.” ’

When Whitrod did resign, Lamont spoke out in his defence. ‘I went on television that night … and suggested that the people of Queensland should demand that they withdraw his resignation,’ Lamont reflected years later. ‘I said if … Whitrod won’t accept this man as his deputy, then you can be sure he’s got very, very good reasons, which he’s not at liberty to tell us without the privilege of parliament. And I had hoped Whitrod might ring me and tell me, but he never did, because I’d have said it in parliament.’

Lewis had a number of farewells in Charleville before heading home to Brisbane. Lewis says: ‘He [Whitrod] left on the Friday or whatever and I got … Hazel, I and [son] John got one of the sergeants there to drive me to Brisbane. I don’t know if it was the Saturday or the Sunday and of course I had to go into the office the next day.’

His official diary stated that Lewis and family left Charleville on Saturday 27 November at 6 a.m. ‘Petrol at Roma and Toowoomba. Brisbane at 4.30 pm.’ The Lewis family was back together in Garfield Drive.

Meanwhile, Whitrod and his wife Mavis were busy packing up their neat, one-level house over at St Lucia, a suburb visible from Lewis’s perch on Garfield Drive in Bardon. On his final day in the job he wrote one last Commissioner’s newsletter. The press said there were no farewell functions organised for him. ‘Not even his fellow officers had anything planned,’ it was reported.

However, he did have some choice words for the press during his final moments in the chair, and prior to his big press conference on the Monday. Whitrod told reporters the force had an ‘unsavoury Rat Pack’ which he said contained eight police officers. He said ‘Rat Pack’ had become a common expression around headquarters, and that they were characterised by ‘dishonesty’. He refused to go into detail.

Whitrod also had one last clerical job to perform following a meeting with his trusted officer Basil Hicks. Hicks was worried that information gathered from outside informants about the Rat Pack would place them in danger if exposed. The informants on file had believed their identities would never be revealed to the Rat Pack. With Whitrod soon to be replaced by Lewis, Hicks was concerned he would no longer be able to shield his sources. Whitrod gave Hicks written instructions to burn any material that Lewis could view as hostile.

Hicks later recalled the order to destroy any paperwork that might identify informants: ‘He particularly mentioned Hallahan, Murphy and Lewis, anything in relation to them, more particularly against Murphy. He wanted anything destroyed that could be used to sue anybody or be used to the detriment of anybody at all. At the time he suggested that the first thing that would happen would be Mr Murphy would try to come into the section to look at the files.’

Hicks took the sackfuls of documents to his home and put a match to them in his backyard incinerator.

Whitrod’s much-anticipated and packed final press conference was held at a Brisbane TV station on Mount Coot-tha, one of several hills fringed with gum trees that backdrop the state capital. Whitrod wore a dark grey suit, white shirt and a maroon tie. On seeing the size of the waiting media contingent, he exclaimed: ‘I should have charged for admission.’

Brisbane journalist and writer Hugh Lunn was present. He said the press conference was one of the biggest of its type ever held in Queensland.

‘It was the first time I had attended a press conference where some reporters had been sent a list of key questions to ask,’ Lunn later wrote. ‘Many of these questions were met with hesitation and pauses followed by the pointed “I can’t answer that” or “my lawyers tell me I can’t answer that”.’

Whitrod blamed political interference in major policing decisions, including transfers, promotions and politicians demanding favours of police, as the reason for him no longer being able to perform his job effectively. He didn’t think Terry Lewis was the most suitable man to fill the vacancy. He thought there were signs that Queensland was developing into a police state.

He believed there was a ‘Rat Pack’ alive and well in the force, taking bribes from SP bookmakers and prostitutes. He was asked if any members of the Rat Pack were on the last promotion list.

Whitrod refused to answer.

Just prior to Lewis starting the top job, rumours were flying around about who would or wouldn’t be demoted depending on their loyalty to Whitrod during his administration. Greg Early – friends to both Lewis and Whitrod – was certain a coup had been mounted against Whitrod.

‘Much consternation took place as to what was going to happen, particularly to the pro-Whitrod personnel like John Dautel, Ken Hoggett, myself, Basil Hicks and Jim Voigt,’ Early records in his unpublished memoir. ‘Ken Hoggett said to me once that Basil Hicks had said that we should form our own little power group like [what] obviously had been done by members of the Union Executive and others. My response to Ken Hoggett was that I was not going to join any group and that I was going to look after myself.

‘There is no doubt in my mind that Ron Redmond, as President of the Queensland Police Union of Employees; other members of the Union Executive; Don Lane, former police officer and then a Member of Parliament; Inspector Terry Lewis, District Officer Charleville; Inspector Tony Murphy, District Officer Longreach; and Inspector Les Hogan, officer in charge of the Special Branch, at least were involved in overthrowing Mr Whitrod and replacing him with Terry Lewis.’

Early was also convinced that Detective Sergeant John Herse, who for several years was a member of the Special Branch and a bodyguard to Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, was a messenger between the group and Joh. Herse would swiftly be appointed one of Lewis’s personal assistants on becoming commissioner.

Early remembers: ‘Somehow, during the last few days of Mr Whitrod’s time as Commissioner, I was speaking with Les Hogan, probably about an official matter, and he sounded me out about working for Terry Lewis as a personal assistant.

‘I said I would be happy to do that because I had always had a good relationship with and regard for him. I told no one of this approach and towards the last week of Mr Whitrod’s term as Commissioner I got a message from Les to ring Terry Lewis at his home on the Sunday evening [28 November] on a number he gave me.

‘I rang Terry at his home and he asked me if I would like to come and work for him. I said I would and he then asked me how I got on with John Herse and I said fine because I had worked with him in the Legal Section. He said he would be coming in to work with me.’

As for Lewis, he took his place behind the Commissioner’s desk at 7.30 a.m. on Monday 29 November. There were no more trams into the city for Lewis. He travelled in the Commissioner’s car down from Garfield Drive.

‘Commenced duty as Commissioner’, his diary noted efficiently. His large desk had a small side table that carried the telephone. His chair was black leather. In the office across the desk were two white leather and wooden armed visitors’ seats, and a large pot plant.

Lewis remembers: ‘Contrary to what they do at other places and that, I wasn’t sworn in. I was sworn in as a Constable in 1949 – that was it. All I got was a little card signed by Mr Newbery saying – this is to identify T.M. Lewis as Commissioner of Police. Boom – that was it.’

The promotion had been so swift he did not even have a proper commissioner’s uniform. He had to order a new visor for his old cap. ‘When I got the job it was a surprise, I mean there’s no two ways about that,’ he says. ‘But I was very pleased about some aspects. One that I was coming back to Brisbane with the family and secondly that so many of my men, both in the job and people outside of the job, welcomed the appointment if you like, for want of a better way of putting it. But it was a funny feeling to go in there that Monday.’

That morning Lewis questioned Assistant Commissioner Bill Taylor about allegedly slandering Lewis. Taylor said he acted on incorrect information. Lewis suggested Taylor, who was to retire just two months later, leave the office of the Commissioner.

Next was Ken Hoggett: ‘Informed Sgt 2/c Hoggett he was to move from personal assistant position immediately.’ (Lewis continued to keep a meticulous diary despite the fact that the Commissioner was not required to do so.)

Lewis called in Hicks: ‘Insp. Hicks admitted having burnt six sackfuls of files on Mr Whitrod’s approval; he said they related to Police, Politicians, Solicitors and Informants.’

Commissioner Lewis retained the services of Greg Early. ‘I had a number of people say to me to get rid of everybody who was loyal, if you like, to Whitrod,’ says Lewis. ‘I said, everybody deserves a second chance. Well, nearly everybody.’

That night, Whitrod was interviewed by Mike Willesee on national television. His cryptic answers just raised more questions about Premier Bjelke-Petersen and corruption in the force.

Allen Callaghan, Joh’s press secretary, says Lewis was installed to ‘fix up the administrative side’ of the police force.

‘They weren’t close,’ Callaghan says of the relationship between the Premier and Lewis. ‘Joh did not have a lot of close friends. He was a very private man. He lived for his family. He’d learned very early to be careful who you call your friends. Lewis set out to do what he was sent to do.’

Did Bjelke-Petersen, however, have a special interest in the police force and its use as a political weapon?

‘It was the same interest as he would have given to any department with a problem,’ recalls Callaghan. ‘He had enough to do himself. He would have been keen to see it work. He had an interest in it. In any revolution, you always grab [the] police, Treasury and the television station.’

A revolution or not, state parliament was sitting the next day, and a major storm was gathering.

A House on Fire

If former police commissioner Ray Whitrod thought he could resign, make some parting shots at the government and his successor, then quietly leave Brisbane Town, he was to be sorely mistaken.