Whiskey Au Go Go: Queensland’s 48-year-old mass murder still a mystery
It’s the 48-year-old murder mystery that has never been fully solved, with enduring whispers of gangsters, long-retired crooked cops, revenge, cover-ups, extortion plots and greed. This is what an inquest into the tragedy has uncovered so far.
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It’s the 48-year-old murder mystery that has never been fully solved, with enduring whispers of gangsters, long-retired crooked cops, revenge, cover ups, extortion plots and greed.
For the 15 families who lost their loved ones in the Whiskey Au Go Go inferno, it’s the source of almost five decades worth of unanswered questions and heartache.
A long-awaited reopening of an inquest into the tragedy that became one of Australia’s worst mass murders began in the Brisbane Coroners Court this week but after five days of testimony, the hearing has raised more questions than answers.
Fifteen people were killed on March 8, 1973 when two barrels of fuel were rolled into the ground floor of the packed nightclub and set on fire shortly after 2am.
People who survived the inferno this week recounted the horror of that night, describing how thick smoke filled the first floor club in seconds, the lights going out and plunging the building into darkness, adding to the chaos as the dozens of staff and patrons tried to flee for their lives.
Two men James Finch and John Stuart were arrested days after the fire. Months later they were found guilty of murder in a Supreme Court trial.
But unlike other cases, their convictions were only the beginning of the story.
For decades, speculation has run rampant that Stuart and Finch did not act alone. Perhaps more people helped carry out the attack. Maybe they were hired. Was it an insurance job? Was it a plot by southern interests running a protection racket? Did police help cover it up?
Those are just a few of the questions the inquest could help answer.
And this is what the witnesses called to give evidence this week have revealed so far …
HUNTER NICOL:
Hunter Nicol and his friends Leslie Palethorpe, 20, and William ‘Bill’ Nolan, 21, went to the Whiskey for the first time on the night of the fire. Tragically Mr Nicol was the only one of the three to survive the inferno.
Mr Nicol told the inquest he had been sitting at a table with his friends when he heard a “whoosh sound” and felt a blast come from the entrance of the club.
He turned to see smoke billowing in through the entrance and the lights went out, plunging the club into darkness.
He and his friends were separated and Mr Nicol said he couldn’t breathe and was about to collapse when someone managed to smash a window in the band’s change room.
“I accepted the fact I was going to die and I was totally at peace with myself …,” he said.
DONNA PHILLIPS:
Whiskey Au Go Go waitress Donna Phillips still remembers watching the fire erupt through the front entrance of the club.
She tearfully described watching bartender Peter Marcus, 23, collapse as he tried to flee the fire and said she was frozen in place until two men helped her escape down the fire stairs.
She gave evidence of a conversation she had with a lawyer in 2018 in which he claimed the nightclub’s owners met with police, bankers and insurance staff the Tuesday before the fire.
LINETTE DAVIS:
The inquest heard multiple allegations that people knew in advance that the Whiskey was going to be attacked.
Linette Davis, who worked at the sister club Chequers, recalled a conversation with one of the owners of the two nightclubs Brian Little when he dropped her friend home one night and appeared upset.
“I said ‘what’s the matter’,” Ms Davis said.
“He said ‘oh the club’s going to be bombed’ and I said ‘what’ and he said ‘my club’s going to be bombed’ and I said ‘so what are you going to do’ and he said ‘there’s not much I can do’.”
“And I’m angry to this day because from my perspective if they thought it was a credible threat it was going to be bombed and he seemed determined that it was, why he didn’t close to the club or something.”
GREGORY CLARK:
Like many others, Gregory Clarke gone to the Whiskey Au Go Go to see the popular band The Delltones play.
He, his then girlfriend Jennifer and stepsister Marie had never been to the club before that night.
He said the trio arrived about 7.20pm and left just after 2am, only minutes before the firebombing.
Mr Clarke said he didn’t recall seeing anyone in the reception area when he left but said Jennifer and Marie later mentioned seeing a black or dark coloured car with no lights on in the vicinity of the Fortitude Valley nightclub.
KATH POTTER:
In a shocking testimony, Kath Potter told the inquest she saw three men manoeuvre a barrel into the doorway of the doomed nightclub and set it on fire.
She also claimed police at the time tried to pressure her to instead say she only saw two men but she refused, telling them she was confident of what she witnessed.
Now 71, Ms Potter was calling a friend from a payphone outside the club when she says three men got out of a dark car, manoeuvred the barrel into the club and set fire to it with a makeshift wick made of white material.
She gave a statement to police the next day but was then visited by officers at her home the next week who accused her of lying and told her to alter her statement, prompting her father to throw them out.
Mysteriously she was never called to evidence at the murder trial and her police statement cannot be found.
JEANETTE LITTLE:
Jeanette Little had only been working at the Whiskey Au Go Go for about a week before the attack.
At the time she was dating the club’s owner Brian Little, who she has since married, and worked as a receptionist greeting customers and taking their cover charge.
She was at work the night of the fire but according to her police statement, she gave evidence she felt tired about 12.30am and Mr Little suggested someone else take over her job.
When asked whether the time she left was earlier than she usually would when working at the club, Ms Little said: “I could go home whenever I wanted.”
Under questioning from barrister Chris Minnery, Ms Little said the couple did not discuss the fire.
“Is the fire a topic of conversations between you and your husband over the years?,” Mr Minnery asked.
“No,” she said.
ABRAHAM YASSE:
Abraham Yasse was the owner of The Flamingo nightclub in 1973 and said John Stuart, who was a regular customer at the time, had been at his club just 10 minutes after the Whiskey fire was said to have been lit.
The court heard in a statement filed with police, Mr Yasse said Stuart arrived at the club about 12.30am on the morning of the fire and that he remembered talking to him at 2.15am because Stuart asked him the time.
When asked whether Stuart was at club for the entire period from 12.30am until 2.15am as his police statement suggested, he said Stuart could have left and returned to the club.
“You can go out anywhere and come back exactly the same,” he said.
Mr Yasse told police that a few nights before the Whiskey fire, Stuart has told him a club was going to be damaged in some way.
He said 48 years later he “definitely” remembered that conversation.
“He looked a bit sneaky about it,” Mr Yasse said.
VIRGINIA GRAY:
The modern day investigator of the Whiskey Au Go Go firebombing revealed there were holes in the original investigation with police of the time failing to ask the suspects crucial questions and follow up significant lines of inquiry.
Detective Sergeant Virginia Gray told the court the investigation was also hampered by missing evidence including Kath Potter’s original statement and more than three quarters of the original murder trial transcript had disappeared.
“ … there were lots of questions I thought would be asked that weren’t asked,” she said of the police interview with Finch at the time.
Det Sgt Gray said it seemed once Finch and Stuart were arrested, it did not appear any further investigations were conducted.
SYLVIA HARPER:
Sylvia Harper was one of three witnesses to give evidence of seeing a dark car outside the Whiskey club around the time of the fire.
She had visited the club with her friend Gordon to watch The Delltones play and said while she now struggled to remember many of the details of that night, she clearly recalled seeing a black or dark blue Chrysler Valiant parked across the road from the club when they left at about 1.45am.
She said the car was parked in the service station but in the opposite direction to the cars surrounding it which she thought was “quite odd”.
“ … all the other cars were parked looking in the opposite way and I thought it was quite funny,” she said.
BERNADETTE ALLEN:
Bridesmaid Bernadette Allen was out celebrating her friend Sandra’s hen’s party on the night of the arson attack.
They had been to other nightclubs throughout the evening but Sandra, a previous employee of the Whiskey, wanted to visit the club to farewell her former colleagues.
Ms Allen, now aged 70, said she remembered seeing Sandra point to the smoke coming in through the entrance.
“I do remember we got to the fire escape and that was because Sandra had worked there so she knew where to go,” she said.
“It was very frightening.”
Ms Allen recalled having to climb over an iron gate after fleeing down the stairs.
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