THE State Government will offer an extraordinary reward for information on the unsolved murder of a man linked to the “Angel of Death” - Queensland gangland figure Vincent O’Dempsey.
In the early 1960s O’Dempsey worked on the construction of the Leslie Dam near Warwick when he befriended a co-worker named Raymond Vincent “Tommy” Allen.
The State Government has today offered a $250,000 reward for information that leads to the conviction of the person or persons who killed Allen.
Allen was assisting police in relation to the robbery of two jewellery stores near Warwick.
Police questioned him in 1964 and he agreed to give evidence against O’Dempsey in court.
But he disappeared and the charges against O’Dempsey were dropped.
Allen, 22, was working as a railway labourer at Karara, near Warwick, when he vanished on April 18, 1964. He was last seen on Grafton St in Warwick, getting into a maroon Holden vehicle with a white roof.
He was employed by Queensland Railways and lived on a camp at the site.
Allen was due to play for Eastern Suburbs Rugby League team the next day.
Detective Inspector Damien Hansen today said police wanted to speak to a member of the public who spoke to a member of the football team in the dressing room that day.
“That conversation concerned what we believe is the murder of Mr Allen,” he said.
“And we ask that anyone who has any knowledge of that conversation or was present that day to make contact with us.”
Det Insp Hansen said police had a person of interest in the case but declined to say who it was today.
About 16 years after he disappeared a coroner found: “I am unable to find how or where he met his death. The cause of his disappearance would seem to be directly linked with the fact that he was required to give evidence against Vincent O’Dempsey in a criminal proceeding, and there is ample evidence of a motive for his death.’’
At the time of his disappearance Allen was described as being a flamboyant man who wore “loud shirts” and leopard skin pants.
He was described as a member of the bodgie cult who talked tough.
He was described as being 1.6m tall, with fair hair and blue eyes, large, protruding ears and a nose slightly bent to the left.
Allen had a scar between his eyes, above his nose.
He had a tattoo on his right arm of a girl’s head in a heart with an arrow.
O’Dempsey has been jailed for life for murdering Highgate Hill mother Barbara McCulkin, 34, and her daughters Vicki, 13, and Leanne, 11, in January, 1974.
During his trial the jury was told the mother might have been killed because she knew information about the Whiskey Au Go Go firebombing which killed 15 people in 1973.
An inquest into the firebombing is expected to be held later this year.
Police Minister Mark Ryan said cold case detectives would never give up.
“Today we ask for help from the community, from people who might know,” he said.
“We ask those people to come forward, we ask those people to do what is right, we ask those people to let justice be done for the victim and the victim’s family and friends.”
The reward announced today also offers an indemnity from prosecution for any accomplice who did not commit the crime.
Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000
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