As Hall would later say, however, “it was never the same” after the McCulkins.

Then on the night of Friday, January 10, 1975, almost a year to the day that Barbara and the girls disappeared, gang member and boxer, Tommy “Clockwork Orange” Hamilton, was abducted from a house near Breakfast Creek by a masked gunman and vanished.

CHAPTER 1: The gangsters wife

CHAPTER 2: Mass murder at Whiskey Au Go Go

CHAPTER 3: The night a family vanished

CHAPTER 5: Return to Dorchester Street

Were the two cases related? Like Barbara, was Hamilton taken out because of what he knew about the fires at Torinos and the Whiskey Au Go Go?

Just a month later, an associate of the Chermside crew, William “Billy” Stokes, was editing a small publication called The Port News, the official journal of the Storeman and Packers Union (Queensland Branch). It was published once every two months.

The magazine did feature stories about ports around the world and shipping-related material but suddenly Stokes started publishing sensational allegations about the Clockwork Orange Gang, Vince O’Dempsey, Billy McCulkin and the whole Whiskey Au Go Go saga.

“Port News…lifts the lid on who really burnt the Whiskey – An exclusive account of the fire bombing of the Whiskey Au Go Go in which 15 people lost their lives!” said the cover of an edition in early 1975.

Stokes wrote in an editorial: “The following report is very real in all details, but because of the many legal consequences involved, it has been necessary to use only nick-names…and aliases….”

The primary suspect, Stokes revealed, was someone he called “The Loner”.

“The Loner is well known to police,” he wrote. “He is considered a very violent man capable of violent acts…at present The Loner is hiding out in Sydney, wanted by police for questioning for five murders. Two of these suspected murders are other criminal identities, the remaining three are ‘Mrs X’ and her two children.”

Then there was “Mr X” who Stokes said in the articles was a lead player in arranging both the Torino and Whiskey fire bombings.

“Because of an association that his estranged wife, ‘Mrs X’, had formed with ‘The Loner’… she and her two children were eventually to suffer cold blooded, premeditated murder.”

Another character mentioned by Stokes was “Shorty”. The Port News characterised “Shorty” and his gang as sadists.

“For initial kicks with violence they trained a bull terrier that they had stolen from a well-known Brisbane boxing referee,” Stokes wrote.

“The bull terrier, which they named ‘Evil Eye’, was actually trained to kill female dogs and to rape male dogs. A macabre feat….

“At present ‘Shorty’ is also wanted by police for the abduction and attempted murder of Mrs X and her two children. He is hiding out in some quite remote area somewhere north of Brisbane.”

The Whiskey article, which occupied much of the February 1975 issue, went into specifics about the disappearance and murder of “Mrs X” and her children.

“‘Mrs X’ had known all along that her estranged husband and ‘The Loner’ were the ones who organised the Clockwork Orange Gang to burn the Whiskey,” Stokes contended.

“The knowledge became a threat to them when 15 innocent people suffered a horrifying death in the blaze.

“But because of ‘The Loner’ maintaining a close relationship with her (Mrs X), they felt that she may eventually be able to accept the deaths of the patrons from the club.

“However time and attention didn’t heal this tragedy in ‘Mrs X’s’ mind and some 8 months after the Whiskey explosion, ‘Mrs X’ was on their list for a cold-blooded kill.”

Stokes claimed to have inside information on what happened the day “Mrs X” and her two daughters vanished.

“The day came when ‘Mrs X’ was visited by ‘The Loner’ and ‘Shorty’,” he wrote.

“On the surface it was just a typical social visit amongst friends. When (they) suggested a drive to break the monotony indoors, she accepted, and suspecting nothing, took her children with her.”

In The Port News’ April edition, an entire page was dedicated to the “killing of Mrs X” and illustrated with a photograph of Barbara McCulkin.

“Whatever happened to Mrs X and children?” the article said. “I believe that she and the family have been sexually assaulted, cut open with knives, raped and degradedly abused when dead.

“I believe this because the Clockwork Orange Gang told me that that is what they did. The gory details came to me across the phone, and I taped all the calls. I wouldn’t print the details because of the depraved butchery that they contained.”

In the June edition, Stokes finally identified “The Loner” as Vincent O’Dempsey and “Shorty” as Garry Reginald Dubois.

Stokes would later be charged and convicted of Hamilton’s murder, though he has always maintained his innocence.

Then around 1977, interest in not only the McCulkin disappearance but the presumed murders of Margaret Ward and Tommy Allen was ignited once again when Queensland police decided to reinvestigate the cold cases.

It was in fact Inspector Tony Murphy, back in Brisbane as the head of the Consorting Squad after having been exiled to Longreach by former police commissioner Ray Whitrod, who ordered that the cases be looked at again.

Murphy was back in his element in the city after his old friend, Terry Lewis, was elevated to commissioner in late 1976 following Whitrod’s resignation. And the wily detective loved nothing more than getting his teeth into a gritty murder.

He chose two young guns – Alan Marshall and Trevor Menary – to look into the five deaths and see what they came up with.

“Billy McCulkin was known to Tony Murphy,” Marshall said years later. “All those characters – Brian Ahearne, Estelle Long. He knew all of them. And he liked to do unsolved murder investigations.”

Both Marshall and Menary did meticulous work for about two years. They gathered statements from many of the leading players and joined some dots.

They paid Billy McCulkin a visit. He was then married to Estelle Long.

“We went out to their place,” Marshall said. “He was ranting and raving. F---ing coppers, he said. He’d reported his kids missing and the coppers didn’t do the right thing, he said.

“They were stupid comments. Billy was a s---. He’s not the sort of person you’d have as a friend. But he really missed the girls.”

They had enough material to see the instigation of a coronial inquest into the five deaths.

“I did think we had enough,” Marshall said of the case they’d put together.

In the end, Coroner Boujoure recommended that both O’Dempsey and Dubois be arrested and charged with murder in relation to the McCulkins.

But the trial never proceeded. The then Crown Prosecutor, Angelo Vasta, deemed that there was not sufficient evidence to proceed.

“Looking back in hindsight,” Marshall reflected, “we did the best job we possibly could at the time. It was a big disappointment. But I suppose you’ve got to respect the referee’s decision.”

And with that, the McCulkin case went stone cold for another 34 years.

CHAPTER 1: The gangsters wife

CHAPTER 2: Mass murder at Whiskey Au Go Go

CHAPTER 3: The night a family vanished

CHAPTER 5: Return to Dorchester Street