1976 -1977 - Part IV – The Aftermath

Note 43: The Police Commissioner announced that 40 detectives and 60 uniformed officers would be allocated to the Victoria Club robbery investigation. (The Age, April 23, 1976).

Note 44: In a survey by Dr. Barry Richardson and Miss Dianne Wuillemin of Caulfield Institute of Technology, most of the 1,000 people surveyed hoped the Victoria Club villains would go free.

Note 45: Greedy Smith bragged he bought the Aussie Bar in Manila for $25,000 and was making $40,000 a month. For many years, it was a stopover for gangsters on the run, including Russell ''Mad Dog'' Cox during the 1980s. It also acted as a recruiting base for drug and gun dealers. He died in hospital in 2010, broke and broken.

Note 46: Roger Rogerson was a notoriously bent Sydney copper. He worked both sides of the law, regularly providing police information to crooks. Although credited with bringing the Toecutters to justice, it is widely believed he had previously worked with them. Implicated in two murders, extortion, and drug dealing, he was dismissed from the force in 1986. In 2016, he was sentenced to life for the murder of Jamie Gao. He died in gaol in 2024.

Note 47: Sydney’s Toecutter Gang: so named for the method of torture used on their victims. The gang was said to have been instigated by corrupt copper Roger Rogerson, in an attempt to extort a share of the March 4, 1970, robbery of a Mayne Nickless van of $587,890. The gang's members included Kevin Victor Gore, brothers William Andrew 'Billy' Maloney and John Patrick 'Jake' Maloney, and Linus Patrick 'The Pom' Driscoll.

Note 48: The $1 note was replaced by a $1 coin in 1984, while the $2 note was replaced by a smaller $2 coin in 1988. Although no longer printed, all previous notes of the Australian dollar are still considered legal tender.

Note 49: For context as to the $90,000 Ray gave his mother, the author paid $79,000 for a 3-bedroom house in Brighton Beach around the same time. It needed work, but was bayside. $90,000 would have bought a beautiful home in suburban Melbourne at the time. As a rule of thumb, multiply values by 10 for today’s equivalent.

Note 50: On April 6, 1977, Norman Lee was charged with armed robbery of the Victoria Club and receiving proceeds from the Bookie Robbery. He was later acquitted due to a lack of evidence.

Note 51: At the time of this story, the Flower Drum restaurant was located on Little Bourke Street, in the heart of Melbourne’s Chinatown. It relocated to Market Lane about a decade later. It is still considered a Melbourne institution.