STORIES  Guidelines for STORIES 080524.pdf

In February 1971, the Police Emergency Squad was called to Boggo Road to assist in quelling a massive riot in G Wing. G Wing was a two level brick construction block divided into four sections, two on each floor.

Upon arrival the noise of 132 prisoners rioting was unbelievable. Every pane of glass had been shattered and fittings from the divisions were thrown into the exercise yard. The Comptroller General of Prisons and the Prison Superintendent agreed that tear gas was the only way to control the situation.

It was decided that the most powerful tear gas agent would be used and the triple chaser grenade was chosen as it split in to three separate gas generators on detonation, making it difficult for it to thrown back outside.

What was the most effective way for it to be launched into each division of the wing.

An extension ladder was placed against the wall from outside the perimeter fence. I drew the short straw, climbing up the ladder and lobbing in the four grenades in quick succession in the upper and lower floors. There were 12 separate grenades the prisoners had to deal with.

As the prisoners fought their way to get fresh air from the windows several of them were injured. The rioting was over in a matter of minutes, this being the first time tear gas had been used in a Queensland Prison.

The Prison Department then formed their own Riot Squad and we trained them in the use of tear gas.

On Monday 8 December 1969, we received an urgent phone call from the IOP at Mt Isa for the Emergency Squad to attend a siege in which Otto Kirner was holding two of his friends at gunpoint in a house since 3.00 am of that morning. Kirner was wanted for questioning re the murder of his girl friend.

To board a commercial aircraft in the early afternoon with the tools of our trade seemed an impossible ask. Luckily we had a very good relationship with TAA as they let the squad do anti hijack training on their aircrafts. The Qld manager gave us permission to transport firearms and tear equipment to the Isa. Would this be possible today?

We arrived in the Isa at 4pm and my boss Les Bardwell and I were quickly transported to the scene. Many friends spoke to Kirner but he refused to surrender. So it was our turn to get him out with the use of CS tear gas.

The house was surrounded  by armed police and we requested that the ambulance and fire brigade be on standby. My job was to lob Speedheat tear gas grenades using the launcher into the lounge room of the house through a window which I broke, this being where the hostages were being held.

After the first explosion the two hostages burst through adjoining sets of floor to ceiling glass louvres. It was something out of a Hollywood movie.  No sign of Kirner though and another grenade was lobbed in. These grenades generate heat and lounge chair was set alight. With a fire and no sign of Kirner the door was smashed down and on entering Kirner was laying on the floor with a .38cal revolver beside him. He was dragged out and the fire brigade entered to put out the fire.

Kirner had a bullet wound to his head in an apparent suicide attempt. No one heard the shot and it must have been fired as the first grenade exploded. He died an hour later in hospital.

Mission accomplished to the relief of all, although with a death and a fire perhaps it was not the ending we wanted. A round or two of cold drinks with the troops was welcome after we cleaned up.

In January 1968, Insp Les Bardwell and I attended the most bizarre and dangerous situation I had encountered in my career.

A Polish migrant Bruno Kotlinski was driven to Mt Cotton by a cab driver who was told to wait as he left the cab and went to the back door of a residence. The cab driver then heard several shots being fired.

The fare and a woman were forced into the cab and when he drove off he heard a gun shot in the cab. When the cab stopped the two people left the cab and the woman managed to escape as another car slowed down and picked her up.

The owners of the house said that the when Kotlinksi found the back door locked he fired shots through the glass door.

Later that day a farmer found the body of a male person beside a fence in a nearby property. He told the police he could see yellow wires leading from under a jumper.

We responded to the scene and deceased was Kotlinski, he had a sawn off .22cal semi automatic rifle in one hand and another sawn of . 22cal single shot rifle which had a 6cm barrel, no woodwork or trigger guard which was later found in his trouser pocket.

The yellow wires were detonator wires and he was lying on an airways bag which contained sticks of gelignite. 

On carefully cutting the clothing it could be seen two wires leading down his arm into the bag and two more wires leading into his top shirt pocket which contained a battery with  one wire connected to the positive terminal  of the battery.

Further examination of the bag showed four wires leading into it as well. Sticks of gelignite could also been seen in the bag.

I acquired a 100lb breaking strain fishing line with a large hook from a nearby neighbour and our next task was to endeavour to remove the detonator wires from the battery and bag remotely. 

After many attempts this was accomplished. Before we were certain the situation was safe much of his clothing was cut and remotely removed moved from his upper body.

During the two hour task of safely separating the detonators and the  gelignite we were in constant communication with one another with Les Bardwell cutting away at the clothing and me using the hook and line to separate components of the bomb.

In the bag there was a plastic bag containing three sticks of gelignite in which two electric detonators were inserted and there were another six sticks in the bag, 9 sticks in total.

Once the explosive  components were safely dismantled an examination of the deceased disclosed that there was a bullet wound to his femoral artery. This would have been caused by the accidental discharge of the sawn off rifle which had no trigger guard in his trousers pocket as he was getting through the fence. 

The other semi automatic sawn off rifle had jammed through a misfeed .

The gelignite and the detonators were wired to allow the deceased set off the explosives if he was apprehended. Another lucky day for all.

There were some hairy moments during the exercise and we were short on equipment needed to make our job easier.

It was not until both of us attended the first Police EOD Course at Bandiana some 15 years later that we become more aware of ways to better handle situations such as this.

During my career I would rate this the most dangerous crime scene I was to attend, after every step there was an unknown result. Careful planning and execution enabled a successful conclusion.

 Kotslinski lying beside fence

 Hook and line in use

 Sawn off rifle found in trouser pocket 

Having spent most of my years in the Scientific Section and also a career as a ballistic expert I was involved with overseeing the issue of firearms and firearms training of police especially in the 60s. 

Before 1960 only plain clothes police were issued with firearms. These being from a stock of confiscated weapons, .32 cal Browning and Colt pistols being the most common. No holsters proved and I used to give a brief training session on Police HQ range. There does not appear to be any firearms training given to probationaries in the 50s. 

In 1960 QPF bought surplus .38 cal Smith and Wesson 6 chamber 6" barrel M & P revolvers from the Australian Army. They were know as the "10 bob canons". These were distributed to police stations throughout the state with 20 rounds of ammunition and no holsters. The larger the stations received the most firearms. Uniform officer could draw these and take them on patrol. 

Firearms training for recruits was conducted at Ashgrove pistol range with these weapons in 60s. The academy took over this training in 1972.

In the 70s the members received  individual issue of .38 Spl cal Model 36 5 chamber Smith and Wesson revolvers. 3" barrel to uniform police and 2" barrel to plain clothes with hip holsters made by Qld Prisons. 

There was also an issue of .38spl 6 chamber Ruger revolvers after the Smith and Wesson were withdrawn from issue.

Fast forward to 1996 when Project Lighthouse was formed by D C Bill Aldrich in which I was appointed project manager to review all aspects of police accoutrements and training. A team of many expert police from different fields met regularly with the final report being approved and multi million dollars  being allocated to purchase Glock pistols, extendable batons and restraint handcuffs and training packages.

In mid 1995 then Deputy Commissioner Bill Aldrich wanted a review of the firearms, accoutrements  and training which was presently available to police. He also wanted recommendations about the future of this neglected area in policing. He also wanted a review in the use of force options and this led to the acronym COPS being  adopted "Consider all Options and Practice Safety"

The then Commissioner's Inspectorate was asked to conduct this review. As I had just transferred to the Inspectorate and with my knowledge of firearms I was tasked with managing this project. 

Victoria police had recently undertaken such a review under Project Beacon. I knew that we could out shine them so I called our review Project Lighthouse. 

Next was the selection of people to assist me. Luckily, Snr Sgt Steve Grant had just been transferred to the Inspectorate, he was to be my right man together with research officer Peter Kolesnik. In October 1995 the first committee meeting was held.

One the aims was to standardise firearms, batons and handcuffs. It also proposed to commence "Train the Trainer" courses in early 1996 and to commence training operational police later in that year.

The success of any project is the selection of a committee of expert police in the various specialist areas we had to canvas. Some of the committee members included Snr Sgt Bill Turner,  Operational Skills instructor and Sgt Steve Streenstrup, SERT. Members of the committee traveled to Victoria to review the success of Project Beacon.

Project Lighthouse committee met on a regular basis and weekly up dates were forwarded to command.

As the committee progressed Glock firearms, extendable batons and Chubb Lipp restraint handcuffs were recommended for issue to all police and "Use of Force" policy was formulated together with a total budget for the project was submitted in early 1997.

Having followed the recent Rolfe trial the use force options today certainly outweigh the simplistic approach we took 25 years ago.

After the first draft was presented to command in February 1997, a request was made to also review the use of shotguns, protective body armour, neck restraints and training facilities. Other issues including the use of OC spray were also considered

In June 1997 the 120 page all  encompassing report was presented to command and accepted for implementation if funds became available. Command then considered how the multi million dollar project would be approved by government. In early 1998, the government approved the availability of funds and the report became a reality. 

With the appointment of then Supt Ian Stewart to implement all recommendations allowing the QPS to progress and become a well equipped and trained professional entity.

On his retirement Deputy  Commissioner Bill Aldrich said his greatest achievement in the QPS was the implementation of Project Lighthouse. I felt justifiably proud of the efforts of all committee members and their contribution.

On 1 September 1968, the historic Queensland Supreme Court building was set alight by arsonist David Brooks, leaving much of the building in ruins, and seriously damaging library books and portraits hanging in the building.

In the early hours of a cold Brisbane morning in 1968, David Bertram Brooks—a man ‘sour on the world’—entered the unlocked front door of Queensland’s historic Supreme Court.

Resentful of the police and the justice system for his frequent arrests, Brooks made his way to the judges’ chambers and set the building alight. 

On his way out, he drove a knibbed pen into an associate’s blotting paper pad after writing the note 'judge not lest you be judged sinner'..

By the time the fire was brought under control, much of the building was in ruins. 

Many of the Supreme Court library’s books were seriously damaged by fire, smoke and water as were the prized law libraries of the judges.

In the days following the fire, judges, their associates, members of the legal profession, and law students from the University of Queensland diligently searched through the charred rooms to salvage books, court records, artworks and personal effects. 

I met with many of the judges as I continued my examination the next day . They were all very distraught about loosing there lifetime collection of law, some could never be replaced.

Only the registry could operate from the burnt building, which it did through a side window. 

The few judges’ chambers still safe were used to hear civil matters, and other Commonwealth courts in the city were co-opted for use.

After lighting the fire he also burnt down the historic O'Connor Boat House which was behind the building on the banks of the river.

Brooks was a vagrant and an alcoholic and he had dozens of convictions for these offences. He was arrested once again three days after the fire and he told watchhouse staff that he burnt down the Supreme Court. Staff did not take him seriously as he kept on repeating the claim. Finally, the C I Branch  was called and he provided a signed record of interview in relation to this fire and also O'Connor Boat House fire.

The building's fate took longer to resolve. It was not until 1978 that the old courts were finally demolished, and a new Supreme Court was opened in 1981.

I attended the crime scene and ascertained where the fire started adjacent to wooden cabinets which contained stationary. Brookes also claimed that it was cold and he lit the fire to keep warm.

Detectives obtained names of suspects who had threatened revenge on the court system as a result of dissatisfaction over legal judgements. One such person lived in Rockhampton and on the day of the arrest I was travelling to Rockhampton  with two detectives and a hand writing expert for him to be interviewed. On arriving there we were advised of the arrest.

The historic building was opened in 1979 on the corner of George and Ann streets. The colonial designed building was built from sandstone and the wooden paneling of the court room etc was something to behold. The destruction of this magnificent building was a tragic loss for the people of Qld.

 Neil Raward

Jimna is a small town with a population of 100, 40 kms north of Kilcoy in rugged mountain country. The population is involved with the timber industry. There is a small general store and post office owned by an eccentric elderly man who has lived there all his life.

One morning in the early 70s he was found dead with head injuries and an attempt had been made to burn down his shop. Homicide Squad headed by Det Sgt Bill Osbourne responded to assist with the investigation.

The shop and residence had been ransacked as local residence believed he was a wealthy person who never went to a bank.

Early in the investigation it was noted that one resident Ronald Russell had left town. I cannot recall when and where Russell was located, but he as eventually charged with the murder.

My involvement was very interesting as it was a complicated crime scene. During the fire a lot of fruit cans exploded around the body and investigators wanted to negate that these exploding cans could have caused injuries to the deceased's head. Subsequent testing disclosed that the cans could not have injured the deceased.

A thorough search of the premises failed to find any stashed money. Did Russell find it, who knows as he denied his involvement.

The victims wallet was missing and a search of the premises and surrounding property failed to locate it.

Now the investigating detectives wanted it located and in their desperation they suggested that the night soil pit be searched. Sounded like a crappy idea to me. They persisted and the search was to be made on a Sunday morning. 

I gathered a few of my staff and we travelled to Kilcoy to meet them armed with overalls, gum boots, shovels and rakes. The convey of cars headed off to Jimna to commence the search. The detectives were all neatly dressed and as usual jobs like these are left to the workers to perform, all though we had plenty of supervisors. We led the way and after arriving at the pit we prepared to commence to turn over the motions.

I was about to receive the best news ever as the car load of supervisors proceeded on their journey one of the crew wanted a toilet break and as he walked into the bush low and behold he stumbled across the empty wallet.

When they arrived and told us of the find our mood changed from doom and gloom to one of jubilation. 

Det Clive Dewey (dec'd) became our pin up boy for a day. We changed and all proceeded to celebrate with an early start at one of the local Kilcoy pubs for a debrief.

In the pre Fitzgerald days police were awarded Favourable Records or Commendations for outstanding police work. I was very proud to receive a Favourable Record for the role I played in this investigation.

And there is more, some years later Russell escaped from prison and it was thought that he would travel to the Kilcoy area to hide. Sure enough one afternoon he was spotted by a local farmer. 

The next day I travelled to this location with a contingent of Emergency Squad members and a helicopter assisted. Russell was spotted and we quickly surrounded the prisoner who was armed with an axe, he gave up without a fight.

The whole episode was one of the highlights of my police career.

Interesting story appears in the Logan Beenleigh Jan-Mar 2022 newsletter.pdf

Doreen Lambert went missing from Bald Hills on 17 October 1964. The 12 year old school girl from Margate had organised to meet up with friends at Bald Hills to go swimming. She caught a bus at 8.30am and arrived at Bald Hill at 10.10am. She was late and her friends left without her, thinking she was not coming.

Doreen was seen near the Bald Hills Hotel at 12.00md where she asked staff at a garage if they knew the time the next bus would be leaving for Margate. That was the last sighting of her. 

Her mother was not worried when she did not arrive home, thinking that she had stayed with one of her friends over night. When she did not arrive home the next day, her mother contacted the police and reported her missing. Despite an intensive search and police investigation, no leads were forthcoming as to her fate.

Almost two years later, her body was discovered in a shallow grave by a timber cutter in a forest just off Anthill Road, just north of Petrie, about 15 kms from where she was abducted. Doreen was identified by jewellery and clothing she was wearing. She was shot in the back of the head with an exit wound below he right eye, by a .22 cal firearm. Together with other police, an extensive search was conducted of the area. Nothing was located of evidentiary value. Investigating police were left facing an uphill battle to bring the offender to justice.

Following the discovery of Doreen's body, police put in renewed efforts to catch the killer. A further check was made of known child sex offenders who lived in the corridor between Bald Hills and Petrie. These people were interviewed, with very little success, although one person created interest, Melvin Mott. He had escaped from prison 15 October 1964 just before the abduction, serving time for child sex offences. He was captured after two days on the run. 

Mott could be placed in the Bald Hills area on 17 October 1964, the day Doreen  disappeared by someone who loaned him a car. When questioned in 1964, he denied all knowledge of the crime.

Mott was always a suspect and was again questioned about the murder after discovery of the body.

The government had posted a $3000 reward for information leading to a conviction after the location of the body.

Investigators realised that the only way to solve the murder was through prisoner informants. 

After approval was given by the Prison Department, police approached a prisoner who was very friendly with Mott to assist, which he did, together with a couple of other prisoners. Mott had admitted to them details of the crime. That he did own a .22 cal rifle and where he had buried the body, showing the site with a hand drawn map. The rifle was never recovered.

When he was again questioned by police regarding his confessions, he dismissed them as jail house talk. Following submission of all the evidence to the DPP, Mott was charged in December 1967 with murder which was a vigorously defended trial with the prison witnesses standing up to the vigours of the cross examinations.

Mott was convicted of abduction, rape and wilful murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. The judge recommended that he never be released. The reward money was distributed amongst four prisoners. There was no physical or eyewitness evidence to link him to the murder. He was solely convicted on his jail house confessions to other prisoners 

Mott died in prison in 2014 aged 71. (He spent over 45 years in prison)

Photos below were published in Courier Mail (3).

 Doreen Lambert.

Me at grave site.

Talking with Det Insp Vince McCarthy.

Also roadster driven by Mott on the day of the abduction, which was recognised as being in vicinity of abduction.

I recently spoke about unsolved murders involving female victims and research disclosed there were eight such murders in the 1970s. All of these murders resulted from the victims hitchhiking. 

The Riley/Jahnke and Rosewarne murders particularly stand out as they all happened on the Gold Coast and certainly put a damper on girls hitchhiking. I attended each of these crime scenes.

A decision to save money for partying proved fatal for Gabriele Ingrid Jahnke and her best friend, Michelle Anne Riley, who, on 5 October 1973, decided to hitchhike from Brisbane to check-out the night life in Surfers Paradise and Coolangatta.

While the pair had known each other for only two months, they’d become inseparable and were often seen together in pubs in the Brisbane area.  Ms Jahnke and Ms Riley were last seen alive at Michelle’s home in Emperor Street, Annerley, about 5pm on 5 October 1973.

Eight days later, two children made the gruesome discovery of 19-year-old Gabriele’s decomposed body on the side of the Pacific Highway at Ormeau. Her body lay at the bottom of an embankment, and it looked as if she had been thrown. She was dressed in a black caftan-style dress with white flowers and a black bra, but no other underwear. Her dress had been pulled up, suggesting she may have been raped.

Eleven days after the discovery of Gabriele, her best friend’s body — 16-year-old Michelle Riley — was found in bushland off the Camp Cale Road at Loganholme. She too had massive head injuries and her clothes were pulled up. The killer had hurriedly tried to conceal her body by pulling some branches over it. Police at the time said one person — “a frenzied maniac” — was responsible for both murders.

The finding of the body Gabriele Jahnke 

Is still vivid in my mind as it was dumped metres from the highway at Ormeau in long grass with no attempt to conceal it. Certainly, a chilling experience for me. 

The bodies were badly decayed and prevented any evidence of rape to be established. Whilst some appear to be linked, police were unable to establish that a serial killer was responsible. Homicide detectives followed up several leads in the double murder case, but no arrests were made.

Just days after the double murder, police were given a third case — an 18-year-old Ipswich girl who was raped, stabbed and left for dead near Nerang. Police initially linked all three murders and focused their attention on the description of a man and his car wanted in relation to the stabbing attack. He was eventually caught, but to the disappointment of the investigators at the time, was found not to be connected to the Jahnke-Riley murders.

The pair weren’t the only ones to meet a violent death in the southeast corner of Queensland during the 1970s. They were in fact the third and fourth to endure such a gruelling end.

The murders began in July 1972, with the deaths of 18-year-old Robin Hoinville-Bartram and Anita Cunningham 19. The pair were hitchhiking from Melbourne to Bowen in northern Queensland to visit Ms Hoinville-Bartram’s parents when they disappeared near Coolangatta. Ms Hoinville-Bartram’s body was found four months later under a bridge at Sensible Creek, west of Charters Towers. She had been shot in the head with a .22 rifle. Ms Cunningham’s body has never been found, but there is not much doubt about her fate.

Ms Jahnke and Michelle were the next to be murdered, and then on 5 October 1973 — one year after Ms Jahnke and Ms Riley vanished — two Sydney trainee nurses, Lorraine Wilson and Wendy Evans, both 20, disappeared while hitchhiking from Brisbane to Goondiwindi after their car broke down. Their bodies have never been found.

Then there was Surfers Paradise teenager Margaret Rosewarne, 19, who was last seen alive trying to hitch a ride near her home to Burleigh Heads on 5 May 1976. Sixteen (16) days later, her battered body was found in grass in a West Burleigh cul-de-sac. She had been so savagely beaten that her forehead was pulped, both upper and lower jaws were broken and the top row of her teeth shattered.

Police were never able to pin anyone to the “hitchhiker” killings and avoided suggesting the evil acts had been committed by one serial killer. However, there was no denying the chilling common denominators. All eight women were under 21, all were hitchhiking in the Gold Coast-Brisbane area, they all suffered serious head injuries, it appears they were all sexually assaulted, and in most cases, there was little effort to hide the bodies.

Photo. Det Sgt Lou Rowan directing the Margaret Rosewarne crime scene search, as usual we are left with hard work (me in background)