Jack Marx’s Australian Tragic might sound like the stuff of yellow journalism, but it’s far from it. Instead, Marx relates with compassion and empathy the stories “from Australia’s dark heart”, with an especial ear for the survivors and victims.
One of the most tragic is the story of Jennie Godson, whose husband and two sons died in Sydney’s horrifying 1979 Luna Park ghost train fire. As Marx relates, “Jenny remains convinced that there was human evil at work that night. That fire, she believes, was lit by hand”.
Jenny is not alone. From the very first, there were suspicions about the fire and the official investigation. While the fire was ruled an accident with dubious alacrity, a group of witnesses, police officers and lawyers remain convinced that there was a conspiracy to cover up the truth.
For decades, dozens of witnesses at Luna Park that night, and the families that lost their loved ones, have suspected something – specifically the way police explained away the deadly inferno – was amiss.
But Col Wedderburn, the police prosecutor assisting the coroner at the Luna Park inquest, told Exposed something wasn’t just amiss, there was a cover-up going on. One that was deep, far-reaching and criminal[…]
Former Luna Park ride attendant Frank Boitano, who now has his own legal firm, said evidence from that night made it clear: “Somebody got away with murder”.
Late on a winter night in 1979, a small fire was spotted in Luna Park’s ageing ghost train. Within minutes, it became an inferno that claimed seven lives: Waverley College school boys Seamus Rahilly, Richard Carroll, Jonathan Billings and Michael Johnson. Jenny Godson’s husband John also died, along with their two sons, as he tried in vain to shield them from the flames.
Yet, within 24 hours, police laid the blame on an electrical fault. Within two days, the site was cleared. Nothing was left behind but the floor.
Two months later, a coronial inquest blamed the fire on a discarded cigarette, not an electrical fault.
But there are many who believe neither official explanation.
Witness Gregory Chard, who saw fire on the ghost train, told police he smelt kerosene burning in the ride[…]
“Nothing came out of it.”
Mr Chard spent three days at the Coroner’s Court during the inquest, but was never called.
“I can 100 per cent guarantee it was kerosene burning,” he said. “I can’t forget it.”
Luna Park ride attendant Frank Boitano also smelt kerosene.
So, where did the kerosene come from? Then 17 year-old Les Dowd was at Luna Park that night and overheard one of a group of “biker blokes” saying he’d spread kerosene in the ghost train and lit it.
Another of the group said “you’re a fool for doing that”, before he saw the group run towards the exit.
Mr Dowd told police everything he knew, and everything he’d heard the group of bikies say, in an interview at North Sydney Police Station after 2am, a few hours after the fire.
A radio message was sent out to police immediately, to look for the bikie suspects.
Then, police suddenly changed their minds.
At 12pm on June 10, eight hours after Mr Dowd finished his first interview with detectives, the teen was hauled back to the police station.
Mr Dowd told Exposed he’s spent the past 40 years “scared sh*tless”, alleging police intimidated him into changing his statement.
“I was bullied into it, ‘if you don‘t change your statement something will happen’,” he said, recounting his conversation with the second group of police.
“I just felt so scared, I was scared of the coppers and scared those people would come and get me.
“I fear for my life everyday. I still live with it today in my head.”
Mr Dowd eventually caved and told police he made the entire story up.
He was fined and charged with public nuisance that day.
But Les Dowd was not the only person who noticed the “biker blokes” that fateful night.
Seven witnesses[…]all spoke about the bikies near the ghost train that night.
Multiple said the group made them feel at the very least worried.
“I was a little worried about the bikies that went in just shortly before the fire but I couldn’t get in to check on them,” Albert Bessell, who was operating the ghost train the night of the fire, told the inquest.
Mr Bessell, who has passed away, said the bikies went on the ride about 10 minutes before the first patron left the ride screaming “fire”.
Two witnesses also spoke about hearing one of the bikies claim he’d set a fire in the ride.
Herald-Sun
So, who were these mysterious “biker blokes”? Why would police cover up for them?
Col Wedderburn has described the officer overseeing the investigation, Detective Inspector Doug Knight’s, conduct as “so extreme it amounted to a ‘criminal conspiracy’ to affect the findings of the inquest”. It has been claimed by some that the fire was linked to Sydney crime boss Abe Saffron. The Moffitt Royal Commission into organised crime accused DI Knight of lying about his relationship with Saffron’s associate Jack Rooklyn.
Whatever the truth, it remains obvious that there was a high-level conspiracy to cover it up. Even today, some witnesses say they are “just waiting to get shot or stabbed because then that’s one less witness that they have to worry about”.
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