The Gangster’s Ghost: Regan’s daughter vows to return dad to hometown

Helen Regan, the oldest daughter of Stewart John Regan, says her father deserves to be laid to rest in a ‘peaceful place’.

Helen Regan. Picture: Ryan Osland.

The oldest daughter of slain gangster Stewart John Regan plans to retrieve his ashes from Sydney’s Rookwood Cemetery and rebury him in his rural hometown, more than half a century after his murder.

Regan was gunned down by as many as four people in Sydney’s inner west in 1974, purportedly as retribution for the murder of toddler Karlos Scott-Huie. The crime is the subject of The Australian’s podcast The Gangster’s Ghost.

“The urn that held my father’s ashes sat in the living room for years and years,” Helen Regan told senior reporter and Gangster’s Ghost host Matthew Condon. “I’d like to bury it once and for all, but in a peaceful place, where he has roots, where we’re supposed to have had a good life.”

Helen Regan as a child.

Regan is interred with his mother, Clare Regan – a fearsome woman known as The Colonel – who outlived her only son by more than a decade. The Gangster’s Ghost revealed The Colonel was horribly abusive of a young Johnny Regan and dominated and controlled him well into adulthood.

“As far as I’m concerned, she can rot in hell,” Helen Regan said of her late grandmother.

“[I’ll be] taking him back to his hometown to be close to his father and the rest of the Regan clan, because at the end of the day, he’s a Regan and that’s where he grew up,” Helen said, referring to Regan’s hometown of Young, NSW. “That was probably some of his happiest days too.”

Helen Regan with her mother Margaret Yates. Picture: Ryan Osland.

Regan’s other surviving family members say they have a better understanding of their criminal relative after collaborating with The Australian on The Gangster’s Ghost.

“This is the final thing that I can do – whatever comes of it, comes of it,” Margaret Yates, Regan’s de facto wife, told Condon. The podcast series marks the first time she’s spoken publicly – and even to members of her extended family – about her relationship with the gangster businessman.

“I’m here to try and finalise this so we can all get on with our lives.”

Margaret Yates with The Gangster’s Ghost host Matthew Condon. Picture: Ryan Osland.

The pair had three children ­together, but others fathered by Regan have spoken out since the podcast series was released.

“I don’t blame the children, but I won’t be involved in any of that,” Margaret said.

Former NSW police officer and Regan’s second cousin Kelly ­Slater Regan has collaborated with Condon on the investigation over several years, unearthing crucial evidence about Regan’s burgeoning criminal empire and his brutal death.

“I’m seeing things in a different light,” she said in a new episode of The Gangster’s Ghost.

Kelly Slater Regan in the lane in Marrickville where John Regan was shot dead. Picture: Lachlan Clear.

Kelly doesn’t believe Regan murdered Karlos Scott-Huie, but she says she’s relieved his involvement in the deadly firebombing of Brisbane’s Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub is now public knowledge. “Our family always knew that John [Regan] was involved in the Whiskey Au Go Go, and I thought everybody else did, but clearly nobody else did, other than a few,” Kelly said. “To me, that was astounding.”

Officers from the NSW ­Unsolved Homicide Unit – which has carriage of Regan’s case – told his extended family there were currently no plans to reinvestigate the case due to a lack of evidence.

“The case remains open under State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad Unsolved Homicide Team, where it continues to be ­actively monitored for any new information or evidence that could assist in advancing the investigation,” a NSW police representative told The Australian in May.

“Police remain committed to providing regular updates to the victim’s family, whilst also ensuring the integrity of the investigation is preserved and that no potential future investigative avenues are compromised.”

Subscribers can hear all episodes of The Gangster’s Ghost right now at gangstersghost.com.au. Or hear Episode 7 of The Gangster’s Ghost on Apple and Spotify now.