Arthur ‘Neddy’ Smith flew to Perth to kill brothel madam Shirley Finn in 1975, inquest hears
NOTORIOUS criminal Arthur ‘Neddy’ Smith was paid $5000 to fly to Perth to kill brothel madam Shirley Finn on behalf of her business partners, it emerged at her inquest.
NSW
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NOTORIOUS Sydney criminal Arthur “Neddy” Smith was paid $5000 to fly to Perth to murder a brothel madam on behalf of her business partners, it was revealed yesterday.
The extraordinary claims emerged at an inquest into the 1975 shooting murder of brothel worker Shirley Finn.
During the opening of the inquest in Perth yesterday, details of the alleged “hit’’ emerged from a former WA Police detective, who confirmed he had received information in 1975 about Smith’s possible involvement in Ms Finn’s death.
The former officer, James Boland, said the information had come from another career criminal and seemed “credible” to him at the time.
But Mr Boland said he did not know if the information was ever followed up because he was ordered by a superior officer to “let it go”.
Under questioning, Mr Boland said he had met with a man known as Keith Alan Lewis, who told him that Neddy Smith flew to Perth on June 23, 1975 — the day Ms Finn was killed — for a prearranged meeting with her and an unnamed police officer.
Ms Finn was found dead in her car the following morning with four gunshot wounds to the back of her head.
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Mr Boland’s testimony was supported by an official police document contained in the original case file which confirmed that Mr Lewis had been willing to provide information about Smith in exchange for fraud charges against his boyfriend being downgraded.
The police document, known as “serial 393”, was dated two months after Ms Finn’s murder and stated that Mr Boland had carried out preliminary inquiries into Mr Lewis’s claims. Those inquiries included checking flight records which confirmed a person with Smith’s name had travelled to Perth on the day of the murder.
The document also confirmed that another witness had seen Smith drinking at a Perth pub with Mr Lewis about a week after the murder.
The document stated that Mr Lewis had told police Smith had asked him during the pub meeting to go into business with him running Perth brothels, but Mr Lewis had told him he was not interested.
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Mr Lewis had also told police that Smith liked to always sit in the back seat of a car, which was the position Ms Finn’s killer is likely to have been sitting in when the murder was carried out.
His favoured weapon was a rifle which also matches the weapon type used in the murder.
THE ROGER ROGERSON LINK
It is understood WA police wanted to talk to disgraced former detective and killer cop Roger Rogerson about the murder of the Perth prostitute.
Detectives from WA’s cold case squad were keen to talk to him, believing he may have had information about her death, in relation to which he has never been charged.
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Police will not confirm whether the interview went ahead, let alone what may or may not have been said, the West Australian reported in 2016.
Exactly what sparked their sudden interest in Rogerson so many years after Ms Finn’s death remains unclear.
But what is known is that the once decorated detective was a regular visitor to Perth back in the mid 70s as part of a mentoring program where the once legendary Sydney-based crook catcher would share his knowledge and experience with WA’s finest.
NEDDY’S LIFE AND CRIMES
Arthur “Neddy” Smith rose to fame in the 1980s when he developed a close relationship with corrupt police detective Roger Rogerson.
Like Lenny McPherson and other successful criminals, Smith survived by being a regular police informer. In his autobiography, The Life and Crimes of Arthur Stanley Smith, he wrote: “There has always been crime and corruption within the NSW police force, but nothing like it was [in the 1980s]. …
“I could never have committed any of the major crimes I did, and got away with them, without the assistance of the NSW police force. They were the best police force that money could buy — believe me, because I bought them hundreds of times.”
Smith spent much of his life in prison due to his involvement in armed robbery, heroin trafficking and murder. He is serving two life sentences — one for the road-rage killing of Ronnie Flavell and another for the 1983 killing of Harvey Jones.
He tried to escape from a Sydney hospital earlier this year when he was left unsupervised. Nurses discovered Smith outside his room as one officer slept and another used his laptop, according to The Daily Telegraph
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