John Victor Bobak: Surfers Paradise murders, Ronald Henry Thomas and Arnott’s extortion

Two muffled gunshots and the sight of two men running towards a car in Surfers Paradise. The violent and bloody killings led to one of Queensland’s greatest manhunts and the biggest product recall in Australian history.

TWO muffled gunshots and the sight of two men running towards a car in Surfers Paradise.

Peter George Wade and Maureen Ambrose lay dead on the floor of their unit and blood, teeth and bullet holes litter the scene.

It is December 1991 and John Victor Bobak is seen for the last time.

On the run from the law today, there has never been another sighting of the heavily tattooed crook, who remains Queensland’s most wanted man.

John Victor Bobak

His friend Ronald Henry Thomas was not so lucky.

A fingerprint found at the scene of Wade and Ambrose’s slayings was determined to belong to the career criminal, who had previously been convicted of the murder of a nightwatchman during an armed robbery in 1967 and had spent much of his life behind bars.

Police arrested Thomas who refused to reveal his accomplice, though he did confirm he was in the room at the time and had been shot.

“I believe that, if I tell you his name, something similar would happen to me or my family. He told me that I could never tell anyone what happened or give his name, even to my own mother,” Thomas said at the time.

Clara and Dudley Sperry Downton dancing. Dudley was killed in 1968 by Ronald Henry Thomas.

But detectives were well aware that he and Bobak knew each other, having met in the 1970s while serving prison sentences.

Police charged Thomas with two counts of murder and the prosecution’s case was that he and Bobak had each been paid $50,000 for the contract killings of Wade over illegal bookmaking.

In 1993, following a four-week trial in front of Justice Kevin Ryan, a jury took about eight hours to find the then-43-year-old guilty of the callous shooting. “This is not a bad sentence for something I didn’t do,” he told the court at the time.

Convicted murderer Ronald Henry Thomas.

With Thomas in prison and the trail for Bobak cold, the case disappeared from the headlines.

It came roaring back to life nearly 25 years ago on February 3, 1997 when a mysterious letter was sent, along with a packet of poisoned Arnott’s Monte Carlo biscuits, carrying a claim that Thomas was innocent of the crime and had been framed by a cabal of four corrupt NSW detectives.

The letter and biscuits were sent to Queensland Attorney-General Denver Beanland, NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan, a prominent Brisbane lawyer, The Courier-Mail newspaper and the offices of the parliamentary committee of the Queensland Criminal Justice Commission.

Staff at the Arnott's biscuit factory production line during the crisis in early 1997.

“This is not a one-off event, it will be a campaign of attacks until this is resolved,” the letter read. “You have received one packet of biscuits. Do not open them. They are poisoned.

“Meet the demands and requirements of this letter in full by Monday the seventeenth, February, ninety-seven, or the (food items) will go to the stores.”

Deemed an “act of food terrorism”, the still-missing Bobak was immediately named as the target and a team of 30 detectives were put on the case.

The announcement of the threat led to Arnott’s launching one of the biggest food product recalls in Australian history, removing all biscuits from sale across 3000 supermarkets.

Then-Arnott’s managing director, Chris Roberts, described the situation as “every food manufacturer’s worst nightmare”.

He said an extensive product recall was essential to consumer safety.

Thomas, speaking to the media from prison in a signed letter given by his lawyer Chris Nyst, said he knew nothing of the letters and did not believe Bobak was involved.

“I want everyone to know I had no part in these threats,’’ Thomas said.

Joy Ellen Thomas in 2002.

“I don’t know who made the threats and I have never asked anybody to make them. But I do understand how people feel about what was done to me and I want to thank those people for trying to do something.’’

The investigation lasted two years and, in May 1999, police charged then-66-year-old, Northern Rivers resident Joy Ellen Thomas, the mother of Ronald Henry Thomas.

Extradited to Queensland, she was committed to stand trial, but in April 2002 the case began to fall apart.

Concerns were raised about DNA taken from a stamp on one of the extortion packages in a pre-trial hearing in the Brisbane District Court. Mrs Thomas’ defence lawyers said the DNA analysis could have shown the presence of the DNA of a second person or another contaminant.

The charges were dropped two days later and Mrs Thomas walked free.

However, the then-72-year-old found herself in financial distress and wrote a letter to Queensland Attorney-General Rod Welford seeking compensation.

Nobody else has ever been charged with the case and it remains unsolved.

The hunt for Bobak continues today.

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Originally published as John Victor Bobak: Surfers Paradise murders, Ronald Henry Thomas and Arnott’s extortion