Sister’s plea to contract killer Neddy Smith for info on Lyn

Lyn Dawson’s sister wrote to contract killer “Neddy” Smith after police were told Chris Dawson tried to hire a hitman to kill her.

Arthur Neddy Smith guarded by correctional officers leaves Supreme Court, in 1999. Picture: Newspix

The sister of missing Sydney woman Lyn Dawson wrote to ­notorious contract killer Arthur “Neddy” Smith to plead for information on her sibling’s suspected murder, but prison officials refused to pass her letter on.

Pat Jenkins turned to Smith in desperation, after police were told Lyn’s husband and suspected killer, former star footballer Chris Dawson, had allegedly once tried to hire a hitman to kill his wife.

Ms Jenkins suspected Smith, one of the country’s most feared underworld figures, might have had information about, or even an involvement in, the suspected plot.

In her 2010 letter, Ms Jenkins asked Smith about his brother-in-law Paul Hayward, a convicted drug trafficker who once played for the Newtown Jets alongside Mr Dawson and his twin, Paul.

Ms Jenkins included a small photograph of Lyn — who vanished without a trace in 1982 — holding one of her daughters.

“Dear Mr Smith, I am writing to you in the hope that you can help me,” began the letter, obtained by The Australian.

“I would appreciate if you could take the time to read my letter.”

She added in the letter that she was aware Mr Smith was suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

“I am very sorry about that. As two of my aunts had Parkinson’s, I have seen what a hellish disease it is,” she wrote.

“What I hope you will find within yourself is to write to say you had family and social connections to Paul Hayward.

“That is all I need and I cannot tell you how much we would ­appreciate it if you could do that.”

The cover note by Pat Jenkins to the jail superintendent asking for her letter to be given to Arthur ‘Neddy’ Smith.

Ms Jenkins discusses the letter in a new episode of The Aus­tralian’s investigative podcast ­series The Teacher’s Pet, released tomorrow.

“That was quite a difficult thing to do because I’ve never written to anyone like that before,” she says.

She had posted it with a separate letter addressed to prison authorities, asking for permission for Smith to read it.

“I have written the enclosed letter to Mr Arthur ‘Neddy’ Smith, which I hope you will allow him to read/or have read to him and hopefully he will be permitted to reply, if possible,” she wrote.

“I greatly appreciate your ­assistance in this matter.”

Regional Superintendent Ross Edwards wrote back to say her request had been declined, but gave no reason for this decision.

“I apologise for the late response, however I advise that while we appreciate what you and your family are trying to achieve, a ­decision has been made not to allow inmate Smith to receive the letter.”

Mr Dawson’s former schoolgirl lover, Joanne Curtis, told an inquest that before Lyn went missing, Mr Dawson had driven her in a car to a pub in the city.

“He came back to me and said to me: ‘I went inside to get a hitman to kill Lyn but I decided I couldn’t do it because innocent people would be killed’, ” she said.

Smith, 73, who is serving two life sentences for two killings, did business with his brother-in-law, the talented footballer Hayward, including a botched importation of a suitcase of heroin from Thailand. Although he has reportedly been confined to a wheelchair and shakes uncontrollably from Parkinson’s, he was well enough to try to escape from Prince of Wales hospital in Randwick last year.

In his autobiography, Neddy: The Life and Crimes of Arthur Stanley Smith, he wrote about rampant police corruption in NSW 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.”

The Australian has previously revealed Mr Dawson’s close relationships with senior police on the northern beaches through football.