Police officer reveals Whiskey Au Go Go firebomber’s ‘touch up’ inside interrogation room

A police officer has revealed Whiskey Au Go Go firebomber James Finch was “given a touch up” by detectives in the days after the arson attack.

A police officer believed Whiskey Au Go Go firebomber James Finch was being “given a touch up” by detectives when he heard yelling and banging coming from an interrogation room days after the arson attack.

John Kolence was a Constable with the Brisbane Criminal Investigations Branch in 1973 when the popular Fortitude Valley nightclub was firebombed, killing 15 staff and patrons.

Mr Kolence on Wednesday told the Brisbane Coroners Court that days after the fire on Sunday, March 11, he had been talking to a witness when he heard a commotion begin in the police interview room next door where officers were holding James Finch, one of the two men eventually convicted of the deadly fire.

“All of a sudden there were some voices raised,” he told the court.

“I heard Finch yelling out … and he said f*** you c***s, yelling at the top of his voice.

“He said ‘go on kill me c***s, kill me’, and I heard (police officer) Syd Atkinson calling out

Whiskey Au Go Go arsonist James Finch.

‘calm down, calm down Jim, take it easy, calm down, sit down, be quiet’.

“Then there were more obscenities thrown and he called them f****** c***s about 15 or 20 times. He kept saying it. It sounded like he was trying to bait them really.”

Mr Kolence said he could not recall who he had been interviewing at the time of the incident but the yelling from next door was very loud.

“Then all of a sudden there was a movement of furniture I’d say, and all of a sudden the wall that separated that interview room from mine was hit,” he said.

Mr Kolence said he believed the heavy typing table in the room had hit the wall.

“And it clunked into the wall something fierce and actually moved me on my chair, I got a hell of a fright from the wall moving,” he said.

“And then Syd Atkinson was calling out for him to quiet, shut up, behave yourself.”

Mr Kolence said he became concerned when it went quiet next door so he went to investigate and Mr Atkinson told him everything was fine and that Finch was “just putting it on”.

He said the outburst had attracted the attention of every police officer on the floor, with many “popping their heads out” to see what was happening.

Inside the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub after the firebombing.

Mr Kolence said a short time later, he saw Mr Atkinson washing his hands in the station’s kitchen and thought it was unusual.

He said while he at first thought the officer may have been washing blood off his hands, he no longer thought that after he spent time guarding Finch who he said had no visible injuries or blood on him.

Mr Kolence said later on, he walked into the office where Mr Atkinson was reading what he believed was Finch’s record of the interview to other police officers.

He told the court he did not believe many of the words used in the statement sounded like things Finch would have said.

“I heard him say some words, ‘gentleman’ and something about ‘I told you of all the events that occurred’ and something about not wanting to sign it, and there might have been another word or two in there that was pretty refined for his English,” Mr Kolence said.

The Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub.

“And I thought to myself … that doesn’t sound like Finch to me, he’s just been calling them f***ing c***s for an hour and now he’s calling them gentlemen. And the word events, I couldn’t see him saying that.

“He was pretty illiterate. I’ve heard him interviewed in recent years and he’s improved, that must have happened while he was doing his 15 years I’d say. He was really uneducated and illiterate and I just had a feeling that that’s not his phraseology.”

The inquest continues.