Don Mackay
DON Mackay was assassinated on the orders of an ex-banker – not the mafia – and a move to double the murder reward was the “last act of desperate men”, a controversial author has claimed.
Queensland academic John Jiggens has long-maintained corrupt former cops Fred Krahe and Keith Kelly were hired to kill Mr Mackay by Griffith man Frank Nugan of Nugan Hand Bank, who feared Mr Mackay would expose drug money laundering operations at the bank.
Mr Jiggens, author of The Killer Cop and the Murder of Donald Mackay, has just released a two-part documentary on YouTube titled Who Killed Don Mackay, challenging the popular theory that Mr Mackay was murdered by hitman James Bazley on behalf of local organised crime figures.
At the heart of his argument is testimony by former Griffith solicitor Ian Salmon, who was first on the murder scene in 1977 and has been a staunch advocate of the “two assassin theory”.
Mr Jiggens blasted the state government for last month doubling the reward to $200,000 into the Mackay murder – and softening the conditions for it to be collected – calling instead for a parliamentary inquiry.
“The doubling of the reward looks very much like the last act of desperate men,” he said.
“After 35 years, they offer more of the same?
“The money would be better spent by actually looking at the evidence that I and other critics have presented.
“The best way to proceed would be through a parliamentary inquiry.”
Mr Jiggens also dismissed the evidence of “supergrass” Gianfranco Tizzoni, who fingered Bazley as the lone assassin.
“For the past 30 years, the AFP have been selling this snitch’s tale to Australian journalists and the Australian public,” Mr Jiggens said.
“Tizzoni was facing 10-15 years for drug trafficking so he began playing the game of snitch with the Victorians and the AFP, hoping to reduce his own sentence by giving up others. Instead of doing 10 years, he got 14 months.
“All along they (police) have known the evidence for his story is so slim it has never been tested in court.
“Mackay was killed by the Mr Bigs of the Australian drug trade. Krahe was a known assassin, in Griffith the day of the murder, and working for Frank Nugan, who was bigger in the drug trade than any Australian has ever been.
“The Mackay murder was Australia’s first political assassination. Surely the NSW Parliament owe it to Don to investigate his murder?”
