Was Roger Rogerson’s first kill this terrifying gangster?
Listen now: The Australian’s new podcast investigation reveals new theories about the gangland slaying of terrifying gangster ‘Shotgun Johnny’ Regan, as his family demands to know why NSW Police have never properly investigated the crime.
One of Australia’s most notorious gangsters, the psychopathic pimp and murderer Stewart John Regan, was assassinated in a Sydney laneway in 1974, at the age of 29.
Now his family wants answers: how bad was Regan, and who murdered him?
Today The Australian launches The Gangster’s Ghost, a 10-part podcast investigation into Regan’s life and death, which reveals new evidence and theories, including examining the underworld rumour Regan could have been corrupt detective Roger Rogerson’s first kill.
In 1981, Rogerson shot dead drug dealer Warren Lanfranchi in a lane in Chippendale, not far from where Regan was shot in 1974.
Rogerson was interviewed for the podcast before his death in jail, and described Regan as one of the most unpredictable crims from Sydney’s gangland heyday.
“(Criminal) Lennie McPherson once told me … you can control a bad man, but you can’t control a madman,” Rogerson says in episode one of The Gangster’s Ghost.
Regan secretly recorded many of his own phone calls on old reel to reel tapes before his death. Those tapes, lost for years, have recently resurfaced and have been enhanced by The Australian’s audio team with the help of AI technology, and his voice can be heard for the first time.
Regan was just 29 when he was gunned down by three, possibly four, shooters in Marrickville in Sydney’s inner-south-west on Sunday, September 22, 1974.
His manic crime spree and attempt to become boss of bosses lasted for about eight pyrotechnic years.
It was said he murdered between eight and 12 people, although he was never charged.
Regan was also widely blamed for killing a girlfriend’s three-year-old son, Karlos Scott-Huie, and vanishing the body.
The podcast reveals a new theory that Regan’s assassination was possibly retribution for the murder of the toddler, and that Regan tried to kill a whistleblowing madam Shirley Brifman, who died in mysterious circumstances shortly after their encounter.
The podcast reveals Regan was incarcerated in his youth at Mount Penang, a NSW boys’ home that was an academy for Australia’s leading criminals, including Chow Hayes, Neddy Smith, Lenny McPherson and George Freeman
The podcast contains unprecedented interviews with Regan’s family, including his de facto wife Marg, now 78, about his life and brutal death. Until now, Marg has never spoken about her notorious partner, their domestic life, his role as a father to three small children, his criminal activities and associates and her thoughts on his assassination.
The Gangster’s Ghost also exposes horrific details about Regan’s own family life in the country town of Young in southwest NSW where he was raised as a child under the thumb of his mother Clare, nicknamed ‘The Colonel’.
The podcast also links Regan, for the first time, to the 1973 Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub firebombing in Brisbane that saw 15 innocent people lose their lives, and to a notorious serial killer currently serving a life sentence in prison in Queensland.
It additionally outlines a real estate scam Regan devised that was so vast and lucrative that it was still being operated by criminal associates years after his death.
Importantly, it also offers new theories about Karlos’ disappearance and how that tragedy directly foreshadowed Regan’s murder.
It’s the secret tapes, however, that will bring listeners up close and personal with Regan.
Regan stored his reel-to-reel tapes in a suitcase at his mother Clare’s home in Kensington in inner-southern Sydney where he conducted a lot of his most sensitive business.
The tapes were forgotten after he was murdered and, along with a slew of letters, documents and photographs, secure in a suitcase and stored in a cupboard. Only when Clare died in 1988 did the family discover Regan’s personal trove.
For the podcast The Australian’s audio experts cleaned and sharpened the ancient recordings, with the assistance of AI, to the point that Regan’s voice is so clear he could be sitting opposite you having a conversation. You can hear Regan wheeling and dealing, advising fellow crooks on legal tactics, and threatening to strongarm police.
The Gangster’s Ghost, with the co-operation of the Regan family, challenges the myths that have surrounded this famous gunslinger for decades, and exhaustively examines the last day of Regan’s life and his death.
The investigation, which features interviews with some of Regan’s childhood friends, police who knew him and even tried to arrest him in Sydney the 1960s, criminal associates, sex workers who fraternised with him, one of the land scam insiders and even a former Brisbane journalist who said no to a Regan business proposition and lived to tell the tale.
The podcast is further bolstered by the Regan family, especially his second cousin Kelly Slater Regan, a former NSW police officer and now sheep farmer outside Young, who has come on board as co-host and researcher in the quest to finally give the family some answers to long-held questions.
Margaret said it was time to lay the ghost of Johnny Regan to rest. She said she wanted the unvarnished truth about him and was prepared for whatever picture the podcast exposed.
“It’s ridiculous, it’s impacted people for far too long,” she said. “It never seems to end.
So this podcast … this is what we’re doing now hopefully as a final thing. Whatever comes of it comes of it.
“I’m here try and finalise this so we can all get on with our lives.”
Daughter Helen said she hoped the podcast would honestly examine the myths around her father and answer some critical questions that continue to spook the family. Who killed him and why? And did an innocent child perish at the hands of Regan?
“This whole thing about my father … has had an adverse effect on generations of people in my family and our lives have been tough, you know?” Helen said. “Our lives could have been easier.
“I want answers for my Mum. Mum’s got great-grandkids now. I think it’s only fair that we get some answers after all this time.”
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