Personal life
Kerry Packer was born Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer on 17 December 1937 in Sydney. His father was Sir Frank Packer, an Australian media proprietor who controlled Australian Consolidated Press and the Nine Network. His mother, Gretel Bullmore, was the daughter of Herbert Bullmore, the Scottish rugby union player. He had an older brother, Clyde Packer.
He took part in various sports at school, including boxing, cricket, and rugby; though he struggled academically, possibly due to undiagnosed dyslexia.
Packer's primary schooling suffered greatly when he was struck with a severe bout of poliomyelitis at age eight, and he was confined to an iron lung for nine months. His father apparently thought little of his son's abilities, once cruelly describing him as "the family idiot", although Kerry subsequently steered PBL to heights far beyond anything his father or brother achieved.
The nickname his father gave Kerry made him strive to new heights in schooling, trying to achieve "A" grades. His end of year report said he was one of the most notable students. In an interview, former employee Trevor Sykes stated that "He didn't read much on the printed page. If you didn't want Kerry to read something, you wrote more than a one-page memo."
The funny thing about packers father is that his father had quite a few funny moments himself.
Frank packer once fired an employee for wearing a red cardigan and saying that he had changed and become a communist and because of that reason he was fired. Simply for wearing something red.
He then reached new heights when he came into work one day and saw a male employee engaged in conversation with his female receptionist he asked him how much he got paid per week ad the guy replied $30. frank then pulled out a wad of cash shoved it in his hands goes “there’s 4 weeks pay your fired!”. Then before the guy could get the hell out of dodge he goes “which department are you from?”. The guy goes “I don’t work here I’m the delivery boy”.
Packer's grandfather Herbert Bullmore represented the Scotland national rugby union team in an international match against Ireland in Dublin in 1902 and worked as a doctor in Sydney for many years.
Kerry Packer and his wife of 42 years, Roslyn Packer AC (nee Weedon), had two children: a daughter, Gretel, and a son, James.
Packer conducted extra-marital affairs with a number of women including the model Carol Lopes, who reportedly committed suicide after being shunned by Packer; publisher and former ConPress employee Ita Buttrose and Julie Trethowan, his long-time mistress and manager (from 1983) of the Packer-owned Sydney city health and fitness club, the Hyde Park Club.
After his death, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that from about 1995, Packer transferred control of multimillion-dollar Sydney real estate holdings to Trethowan.
Packer, through his family company Consolidated Press Holdings, was the major shareholder with a 37% holding in Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL).
Until Packer's death PBL owned the Nine television network, and Australian Consolidated Press which produces many of Australia's top-selling magazines.
He was involved in a number of other gambling and tourism ventures, notably Crown Casino in Melbourne. The Nine Network and Australian Consolidated Press businesses have since been divested to PBL Media.
Packer was widely respected in business circles, courted by politicians on both sides, and was widely regarded as one of the most astute businessmen of his time, despite having been a poor student.
Although Packer's reputation as an astute businessman was legendary and he made some good investments, he was by no means a self-made man—his grandfather, Robert Clyde Packer, and his father, Sir Frank Packer, had built up the media empire and its related holdings over many decades.
The interesting thing though As pointed out by internet news outlet Crikey, if $100 million had been invested in the Australian sharemarket in September 1974 through a balanced portfolio of the top 200 companies, that portfolio would be worth a lot more than $6.9 billion in December 2005, possibly as much as $11 billion.
Packer controlled Nine Network and Nine's Wide World of Sports in the 1980s, and "famously sold the network to Alan Bond and then bought it back three years later for less than a quarter of the price."
the Sydney Morning Herald was quoted as saying that "Packer's decision to sell Nine to Bond in 1987 for $1.2 billion - before buying back the network in 1990 for $250 million - is legendary in Australian television."
Moreover, Packer was not the first choice to take over the running of the family's business empire—his father had intended that Kerry's elder brother, Clyde Packer, would take over the company, but Clyde fell out with his father in the early 1970s and left Australia permanently.
The fallout was the result of the fact that In 1970 Clyde Packer became joint managing director of Nine Network with his father, Frank. Clyde later recalled: “ it was a very equitable arrangement ... I had the responsibility and he had the authority".
Late in the next year Clyde Packer launched A Current Affair on the Nine network, with Mike Willesee hosting. In 1972, Willesee organised for A Current Affair to have an on-air interview with then-union leader, Bob Hawke, during an industrial dispute.When Frank heard of the arrangement he vetoed the decision to allow Hawke on his network the reason for which remains unknown, undermining Clyde's authority.
Willesee later declared: "You can't run a current affairs program, as you couldn't run a serious newspaper, and have people tell you you can't have the leader of the Trade Union movement”. Packer resigned his posts at the Nine Network and ACP, and later reflected on the split: "I suspect my father was as glad to get rid of me as I was to get rid of him".
Their public falling-out followed years of tight control by Frank.
According to Paul Barry, "Clyde Packer ... was also frequently dressed down and abused in public by his father, Sir Frank. Into his late thirties, Clyde was still treated like a stupid, disobedient little boy, until he could take no more and rebelled against such tyranny, splitting clearly and completely with his father".
On his father's death in May 1974, the family estate, valued at A$100 million passed directly to Kerry. In 1976, Clyde sold his quarter-share of the family business for A$4 million to Kerry, who went on to become Australia's richest man.
Further, his principal Australian investments in television and casinos were highly protected from competition by government regulation which Packer and his employees worked very hard to have maintained.
The Packer family's business reputation suffered a blow following the 2001 collapse of One.Tel, a telephone company in which his son, James, had invested.
Kerry Packer was also one of Australia's largest landholders. In 2003, a deposit of rubies was discovered on one of his properties.
The Packer media empire included magazines, television networks, telecommunications, petrochemicals, heavy engineering, a 75% stake in the Perisher Blue ski resort, diamond exploration, coal mines and property, a share in the Foxtel cable TV network, and investments in the lucrative casino business in Australia and overseas.
Gambling
Packer was a longtime heavy smoker and an avid gambler, fabled for his large wins and losses. Some of his gambling stories became the stuff of legend.
In 1999, a three-day losing streak at London casinos cost him almost A$28 million – the biggest reported gambling loss in British history.
Once he won A$33 million at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas and that he often won as much as A$7 million each year during his annual holidays in the UK.
Packer's visits were a risky affair for the casinos, as his wins and losses could make quite a difference to the finances of even bigger casinos.
Packer was also known for his sometimes volcanic temper, and for his perennial contempt for journalists who sought to question his activities.
Packer is quoted for an exchange in a poker tournament at the Stratosphere Casino, where a Texan oil investor was attempting to engage him in a game of poker. Upon the Texan saying "I'm worth $60,000,000!" Packer apparently pulled out a coin and asked nonchalantly, "heads or tails?", referring to an A$120 million wager (according to Bob Stupak's biography).
Some variations of the story put the sum at A$60 million to A$100 million and say the line was "I'll toss you for it”. To someone like Kerry $60 million was a drop in the bucket. At this point in time he could lose that much money in a week and still have enough cash to run his business interests.
In the late 1990s he walked into a major London casino and played £15 million on four roulette tables on his own and lost it all. This has been confirmed by casino owners in South East England.
The Ritz Hotel in London even had its own room for Kerry Packer. There he was able to play blackjack with a minimum bet of £10,000 per hand. He once lost more than £19 million in this room.
There are even stories about him playing $200,000 a hand of baccarat and paying off dealers mortgages.
Packer was an interesting businessman insofar as he was always involved in some type of controversy whether it be taxes or investigations organised crime which he somehow got swept up in at least one royal commission into the subject. Packers name was always linked or tacked on to something and a majority of the time he got away from the spotlight but there are some mysteries surrounding Kerry Packer that to this day have never been explained.
Packer faced a 1991 Australian government inquiry into the print media industry with some reluctance, but great humour. When asked to state his full name and the capacity in which he appeared, he replied: "Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer. I have appeared here reluctantly."
Packer fronted the inquiry over allegations that he had some secret control over the content of the Fairfax papers (an organisation that Packer had wished to purchase for some time, but was restricted from by cross-ownership laws). During the inquiry, he repeatedly berated the politicians conducting it, and the government.
When asked about his company's tax-minimisation schemes, he replied: "Of course I am minimising my tax. And if anybody in this country doesn't minimise their tax, they want their heads read, because as a government, I can tell you you're not spending it that well that we should be donating extra!”.
Packer was a fiery debater who never backed down from a challenge and was ruthless with those who challenged him. in a 1991 ACA debate about his Fairfax dealings packer was attacked from all sides but he held is own and was not one who withered away from accusations or from a fight.
Packer was often the centre of even bigger controversy. One of the earliest incidents occurred on 7 June 1960, when his father was trying to take over the Anglican Press, a small publisher run by Francis James. According to author Richard Neville, Frank Packer was angered by James' refusal to sell the Anglican Press, so he sent Kerry and some burly friends to pressure him into selling. They forced their way in and reportedly began vandalising the premises, but James was able to barricade himself in his office and call Rupert Murdoch, Packer's most powerful rival.
Willesee later declared: "You can't run a current affairs program, as you couldn't run a serious newspaper, and have people tell you you can't have the leader of the Trade Union movement”. Packer resigned his posts at the Nine Network and ACP, and later reflected on the split: "I suspect my father was as glad to get rid of me as I was to get rid of him".
Their public falling-out followed years of tight control by Frank.
According to Paul Barry, "Clyde Packer ... was also frequently dressed down and abused in public by his father, Sir Frank. Into his late thirties, Clyde was still treated like a stupid, disobedient little boy, until he could take no more and rebelled against such tyranny, splitting clearly and completely with his father".
On his father's death in May 1974, the family estate, valued at A$100 million passed directly to Kerry. In 1976, Clyde sold his quarter-share of the family business for A$4 million to Kerry, who went on to become Australia's richest man.
Further, his principal Australian investments in television and casinos were highly protected from competition by government regulation which Packer and his employees worked very hard to have maintained.
The Packer family's business reputation suffered a blow following the 2001 collapse of One.Tel, a telephone company in which his son, James, had invested.
Kerry Packer was also one of Australia's largest landholders. In 2003, a deposit of rubies was discovered on one of his properties.
The Packer media empire included magazines, television networks, telecommunications, petrochemicals, heavy engineering, a 75% stake in the Perisher Blue ski resort, diamond exploration, coal mines and property, a share in the Foxtel cable TV network, and investments in the lucrative casino business in Australia and overseas.
Gambling
Packer was a longtime heavy smoker and an avid gambler, fabled for his large wins and losses. Some of his gambling stories became the stuff of legend.
In 1999, a three-day losing streak at London casinos cost him almost A$28 million – the biggest reported gambling loss in British history.
Once he won A$33 million at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas and that he often won as much as A$7 million each year during his annual holidays in the UK.
Packer's visits were a risky affair for the casinos, as his wins and losses could make quite a difference to the finances of even bigger casinos.
Packer was also known for his sometimes volcanic temper, and for his perennial contempt for journalists who sought to question his activities.
Packer is quoted for an exchange in a poker tournament at the Stratosphere Casino, where a Texan oil investor was attempting to engage him in a game of poker. Upon the Texan saying "I'm worth $60,000,000!" Packer apparently pulled out a coin and asked nonchalantly, "heads or tails?", referring to an A$120 million wager (according to Bob Stupak's biography).
Some variations of the story put the sum at A$60 million to A$100 million and say the line was "I'll toss you for it”. To someone like Kerry $60 million was a drop in the bucket. At this point in time he could lose that much money in a week and still have enough cash to run his business interests.
In the late 1990s he walked into a major London casino and played £15 million on four roulette tables on his own and lost it all. This has been confirmed by casino owners in South East England.
The Ritz Hotel in London even had its own room for Kerry Packer. There he was able to play blackjack with a minimum bet of £10,000 per hand. He once lost more than £19 million in this room.
There are even stories about him playing $200,000 a hand of baccarat and paying off dealers mortgages.
Packer was an interesting businessman insofar as he was always involved in some type of controversy whether it be taxes or investigations organised crime which he somehow got swept up in at least one royal commission into the subject. Packers name was always linked or tacked on to something and a majority of the time he got away from the spotlight but there are some mysteries surrounding Kerry Packer that to this day have never been explained.
Packer faced a 1991 Australian government inquiry into the print media industry with some reluctance, but great humour. When asked to state his full name and the capacity in which he appeared, he replied: "Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer. I have appeared here reluctantly."
Packer fronted the inquiry over allegations that he had some secret control over the content of the Fairfax papers (an organisation that Packer had wished to purchase for some time, but was restricted from by cross-ownership laws). During the inquiry, he repeatedly berated the politicians conducting it, and the government.
When asked about his company's tax-minimisation schemes, he replied: "Of course I am minimising my tax. And if anybody in this country doesn't minimise their tax, they want their heads read, because as a government, I can tell you you're not spending it that well that we should be donating extra!”.
Packer was a fiery debater who never backed down from a challenge and was ruthless with those who challenged him. in a 1991 ACA debate about his Fairfax dealings packer was attacked from all sides but he held is own and was not one who withered away from accusations or from a fight.
Packer was often the centre of even bigger controversy. One of the earliest incidents occurred on 7 June 1960, when his father was trying to take over the Anglican Press, a small publisher run by Francis James. According to author Richard Neville, Frank Packer was angered by James' refusal to sell the Anglican Press, so he sent Kerry and some burly friends to pressure him into selling. They forced their way in and reportedly began vandalising the premises, but James was able to barricade himself in his office and call Rupert Murdoch, Packer's most powerful rival.
Murdoch quickly dispatched his own team of 'heavies', who threw Kerry and friends out. Not surprisingly, the Murdoch press had a field day with the news that the son of Australia's biggest media tycoon had been caught brawling in the street.
Like Murdoch, Packer's critics saw his ever-expanding cross-media holdings as a potential threat to media diversity and freedom of speech.
He also repeatedly came under fire for his companies' alleged involvement in tax evasion schemes and for the extremely low amounts of company tax that his corporations are reported to have paid over the years. He fought repeated battles with the Australian Taxation Office over his corporate taxes.
The Costigan Royal Commission
His most severe legal challenge came in 1984 with the Costigan Commission alleging (using the codename of "the squirrel", renamed "the Goanna" in media reports) that he was involved in tax evasion and organised crime, including drug trafficking. He successfully counter-attacked the commission with the assistance of his counsel Malcolm Turnbull. In 1987, the charges were formally dismissed by Attorney-General Lionel Bowen.
The Costigan Commission (officially titled the Royal Commission on the Activities of the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union) was an Australian royal commission held in the 1980s.
Headed by Frank Costigan QC, the Commission was established by the Australian government on 10 September 1980 to investigate criminal activities, including violence, associated with the Painters and Dockers Union after a series of investigative newspaper articles that detailed a high level of criminality. The union was represented by prominent Melbourne criminal lawyer Frank Galbally. The Commission was seen by many as politically motivated, in keeping with a long-running anti-union agenda pursued by the governing party of the day.
However the Painters and Dockers Union was notorious for its criminality and the Costigan Commission investigated numerous crimes, including a string of murders, vicious assaults, thuggery, tax-fraud networks, drug-trafficking syndicates, intimidation and more. Frank Costigan QC found the union since 1971 had "a positive policy of recruiting hardened criminals", who were essentially outsourced "to any dishonest person requiring criminals to carry out his project".
The Commission noted 15 murders in which Painters and Dockers members were either involved, or in which the murder was related to union activities.
In 1984, the Fairfax newspaper The National Times published leaked extracts of the Commission's draft report which implicated a prominent Australian businessman codenamed the "Goanna" in tax evasion and organised crime, including drug trafficking, pornography, and murder. Australia's richest man, media magnate Kerry Packer revealed himself to be the subject of these allegations, which he strenuously denied.
A theory that the late Australian billionaire Kerry Packer made money out of drug-trafficking was secretly investigated by the FBI and led to a grand jury being convened in the US.
But not even the powerful American law-enforcement agency could find any evidence to justify the Costigan royal commission's controversial pursuit of Australia's richest man, which sparked the "Goanna" story and left Packer depressed and, according to some, at risk of suicide.
What really kicked things off for the commission was The discovery of concealed drugs in a shipment addressed to Packer during the World Series Cricket era that sparked rumour and innuendo about packer. Packer emphatically denied being a criminal, suggesting the shipment may have been orchestrated by enemies he made over WSC.
The now-defunct National Times newspaper changed "Squirrel" to "Goanna" when it published the summaries, which accused the suspect of serious crimes ranging from pornography to drug-trafficking, and maybe even murder. "The Goanna's lifestyle is flamboyant and very expensive," the National Times reported.
"While he has considerable assets, it may be doubted whether they are sufficient to provide the cash resources to support his gambling habit and lavish living.
"The style of living suggests resources beyond those which are overt and legitimate. They may be met by provision of money from schemes adumbrated in other relevant activities noted with this, but even those would seem unlikely to generate the returns necessary."
Newly declassified documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed the extent of the royal commission's investigations and how Packer's California-based brother, Clyde, was also caught up in the drama.
They detailed how Clyde Packer, the former Nine head turned NSW politician then expat businessman, had come to the attention of the US Drug Enforcement Agency in 1977 when his phone number was loosely linked to a "major heroin distribution conspiracy" operating between Los Angeles and Detroit. How his number was linked or got caught up in a drug distribution ring remains unclear.
Clyde Packer, who had film and publishing interests in the US, died in California in 2001 and, like his brother, was never charged or convicted of any serious crime. It is unclear whether he even knew about the FBI's interest in him, which extended to claims one of his surfing magazines might have been a front for drug-trafficking.
The shipment, meanwhile, had been investigated by NSW police, who accepted it would have been highly irregular for Kerry Packer to arrange to have drugs sent to himself. The two cases, containing brass figures and some cricket books, with hashish oil hidden in the walls, were addressed to Packer as the chairman of WSC and originated in Nepal.
However, the royal commission - set up to probe corruption and organised crime in the Federated Painters and Dockers Union - took another look at the shipment and decided to pursue Packer, secretly engaging the FBI and US Drug Enforcement Agency.
The documents showed the FBI went so far as to hold a grand jury in the US to gather testimony from at least one person, whose identity and testimony remains protected.
The reason packer became such a magnet for the commission was the drug shipment; Packer's love of gambling and frequent transfers of large amounts of money; his association with a diverse range of people; the FBI's passing interest in his brother; and, finally, his investments in Noosa - where an illegal casino and major drug-trafficker operated all this combined to cause an air of suspicion at the royal commission.
Kerry became a big bullseye target for the Costigan royal commission in October 1983 over $225,000 he had secured from surfers paradise property developer tycoon Brian “rick” Ray some 3 years prior. Ray flew to Sydney and gave packer $50,000 in cash his business partner Ian beames dropped off payments one equally $100,000 the other $75,000.
Packers answer to this was that he’d had a bad day at the track and Brian who was going through bankruptcy proceedings with his creditors at the time offered to lend him the money. He was then quizzed about why he wanted the money in cash. Packer than made the famous quote: "I wanted it in cash because I like cash - I have a squirrel-like mentality," Packer said of the loan from his occasional business partner. “It's not the most amount of cash I have ever had in my life”.
Interestingly enough ray and his business partner Ian beames were later charged along with others of conspiring to defraud the commonwealth of $16 million in a so called “bottom of the harbour” tax schemes. It became known as the biggest tax evasion scheme in Australian history. Beames pleaded guilty and ray was acquitted in march 1987 however sadly died in a plane crash in 2005.
The FBI documents show the royal commission was also interested in a much larger transaction - involving more than $800,000 - seemingly sent from Hong Kong to the Central National Bank in Cleveland, Ohio.
The commission believed the money was originally carried to Hong Kong "by PACKER or an associate and that the foregoing transactions constituted a money-laundering operation".
It is unknown whether Packer was given an opportunity to respond to those allegations in the royal commission.
The National Times article prompted Packer to issue an 8000-word public denial - written by his lawyer, current opposition frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull - in which he outed himself as the Goanna and declared that the "grotesque, ludicrous and malicious" allegations had caused him "immense suffering".
Packer said the allegations had been fuelled by his rivals at Fairfax and "each and every one of the allegations made against me in the National Times article are false and demonstrably so".
"It is so extraordinary that this disgusting publication should place me in a position where I effectively have to prove my innocence," he said. "However, so ludicrous and misconceived are the allegations that my innocence is easily established."
Packer went on to say that Costigan had told him in a private hearing of the royal commission that he was not suspected over the drug shipment, but that members of the Painters and Dockers working as cleaners in his building may have been responsible.
As to the allegations of unexplained wealth needed to fund his lifestyle, Packer said: "As anyone knows me would attest, both my lifestyle and my gambling are well within my means."
The ease with which Packer quashed the claims inevitably tarnished the work of the royal commission, not to mention Fairfax, which found itself facing a hefty damages claim. The company later resurrected the National Times for a website, boldly including a column titled Goanna.
The publicly available volumes of the commission's 1984 report did not include the same level of detail as in the case summaries, but Costigan took the opportunity to criticise Packer and various leaks.
"There were a number of people subject to (the royal commission's) investigations who I feared, if they knew the extent, would seek to frustrate them," he reported.
"Mr Packer is one such person. In the course of my investigations, I am satisfied he caused documents to be removed from the jurisdiction so as to deny them to me."
The three confidential volumes of the report, which remain sealed, were transferred to the new National Crime Authority, the Australian Federal Police, and the NSW and Queensland police, to investigate various matters, including some involving Packer.
A coronial inquest into the supposed murder of Queensland bank manager Ian Percival Coote, an associate of Ray, supported the original police finding of suicide.
Charges were laid against various other people investigated by the royal commission, although some matters meant to be handled by Queensland police came to the attention of the state's Fitzgerald inquiry, which uncovered widespread corruption.
The only other matter to emerge from investigations into Packer related to allegations of tax evasion. A brief of evidence went to the then Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, Ian Temby QC, who sought the advice of two independent barristers before dropping the case.
The attorney-general sought to comprehensively respond to the allegations in an effort to end the Goanna drama once and for all.
"First, an incalculable damage has been done to Mr Packer," said Bowen, who died earlier this year.
"Second, there is no basis to justify any charges being brought against him. Third, he is entitled to be regarded by his fellow citizens as unsullied by the allegations and insinuations which have been made against him."
Packer, in turn, reiterated his long-standing position on the "trumped-up charges" and said "a very unhappy chapter in my life and my family's life is now closed".
Yet the newly released documents show that, almost a decade after the royal commission wrapped up, the FBI relayed its conspiracy theory about Packer to the NSW Casino Control Authority as it conducted probity checks on the consortia bidding for what is now Sydney's Star casino.
"Inquiries conducted by the royal commission, at that time, had determined definite involvement by Kerry and the others in financial transactions which were fraudulently represented to the Australian government, were the basis for tax evasion in Australia and had the appearance to the royal commission investigators as being laundered money resulting from drug transactions," the FBI reported back to Australia in March 1994.
"Kerry Packer, a prominent business figure, was chairman of directors of Consolidated Press Pty. (CPP), a media conglomerate which includes the Nine Network, considered the most successful commercial TV network in Australia. CPP also owns the Noosa International hotel in the state of Queensland. The hotel is considered by the royal commission to be a major cocaine distribution point for the country."
The FBI's disclosure to the Casino Control Authority - not supported by any evidence - came despite the royal commission having asked for the matter to be dealt with discreetly as "Kerry Packer is a very well-known business figure in Australia”.
Packer's consortium failed to win the casino licence - that went to the Sydney Harbour Casino consortium of Leightons and Showboat - but he later went on to establish the successful Crown gaming empire.
The FBI documents shed new light on a drama that involved and engaged the nation's business, law-enforcement, media and political elite.
The documents at the time could only be declassified and provided to The Weekend Australian, following a Freedom of Information application submitted a year before, because Kerry and Clyde Packer had died.
The Weekend Australian also put forward the names of a dozen other prominent deceased Australians but the FBI either never had, or no longer kept, information pertaining to them on file.
Phillip Adams, a columnist with The Weekend Australian Magazine and also an ABC Radio presenter, said he was friends with Packer through the Goanna scandal and, like others, feared Packer might contemplate suicide.
Adams said he privately put the allegations to Packer, who tearfully rejected them, devastated by the impact on the family name and "desolated by the fact he had been deserted by his political mates at the time".
Adams had been trying to convince Packer to establish Australia's largest charitable foundation, which he seemed inclined to do, but the royal commission put paid to that.
"He became so anti-social because of the way society had treated him," Adams said.
"That was another consequence of Costigan, that we never got the Packer foundation."
The counsel assisting the royal commission, Doug Meagher QC, told The Weekend Australian he regretted that the royal commission had been required to produce case summaries that could be leaked or misused by others.
"Notwithstanding, I had codified everything, saying that I had let the incoming people know who the codes referred to - once you described the offences you were investigating, it was pretty obvious," he said.
Now While I do think that packer was involved in some behind the scenes shenanigans such as figuring out easy how to pay as little tax as possible I don’t see packer a someone who would be involved so publicly in organised crime. For someone like him who is so high profile the risk would be to great if it was found he had any connections to crime in any way the fallout would be the total collapse of his empire because the police, finance companies and auditors would run through everything to try and bring him down to find something they could use. They would also use the proceeds of crime act to seize anything that they thought were bought using money, that was made committing crimes. such as drug dealing. Having a stoplight placed on you is never a good thing especially if you have things to hide which I’m sure packer did.
The Stolen Gold.
The Costigan Commission (officially titled the Royal Commission on the Activities of the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union) was an Australian royal commission held in the 1980s.
Headed by Frank Costigan QC, the Commission was established by the Australian government on 10 September 1980 to investigate criminal activities, including violence, associated with the Painters and Dockers Union after a series of investigative newspaper articles that detailed a high level of criminality. The union was represented by prominent Melbourne criminal lawyer Frank Galbally. The Commission was seen by many as politically motivated, in keeping with a long-running anti-union agenda pursued by the governing party of the day.
However the Painters and Dockers Union was notorious for its criminality and the Costigan Commission investigated numerous crimes, including a string of murders, vicious assaults, thuggery, tax-fraud networks, drug-trafficking syndicates, intimidation and more. Frank Costigan QC found the union since 1971 had "a positive policy of recruiting hardened criminals", who were essentially outsourced "to any dishonest person requiring criminals to carry out his project".
The Commission noted 15 murders in which Painters and Dockers members were either involved, or in which the murder was related to union activities.
In 1984, the Fairfax newspaper The National Times published leaked extracts of the Commission's draft report which implicated a prominent Australian businessman codenamed the "Goanna" in tax evasion and organised crime, including drug trafficking, pornography, and murder. Australia's richest man, media magnate Kerry Packer revealed himself to be the subject of these allegations, which he strenuously denied.
A theory that the late Australian billionaire Kerry Packer made money out of drug-trafficking was secretly investigated by the FBI and led to a grand jury being convened in the US.
But not even the powerful American law-enforcement agency could find any evidence to justify the Costigan royal commission's controversial pursuit of Australia's richest man, which sparked the "Goanna" story and left Packer depressed and, according to some, at risk of suicide.
What really kicked things off for the commission was The discovery of concealed drugs in a shipment addressed to Packer during the World Series Cricket era that sparked rumour and innuendo about packer. Packer emphatically denied being a criminal, suggesting the shipment may have been orchestrated by enemies he made over WSC.
The now-defunct National Times newspaper changed "Squirrel" to "Goanna" when it published the summaries, which accused the suspect of serious crimes ranging from pornography to drug-trafficking, and maybe even murder. "The Goanna's lifestyle is flamboyant and very expensive," the National Times reported.
"While he has considerable assets, it may be doubted whether they are sufficient to provide the cash resources to support his gambling habit and lavish living.
"The style of living suggests resources beyond those which are overt and legitimate. They may be met by provision of money from schemes adumbrated in other relevant activities noted with this, but even those would seem unlikely to generate the returns necessary."
Newly declassified documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed the extent of the royal commission's investigations and how Packer's California-based brother, Clyde, was also caught up in the drama.
They detailed how Clyde Packer, the former Nine head turned NSW politician then expat businessman, had come to the attention of the US Drug Enforcement Agency in 1977 when his phone number was loosely linked to a "major heroin distribution conspiracy" operating between Los Angeles and Detroit. How his number was linked or got caught up in a drug distribution ring remains unclear.
Clyde Packer, who had film and publishing interests in the US, died in California in 2001 and, like his brother, was never charged or convicted of any serious crime. It is unclear whether he even knew about the FBI's interest in him, which extended to claims one of his surfing magazines might have been a front for drug-trafficking.
The shipment, meanwhile, had been investigated by NSW police, who accepted it would have been highly irregular for Kerry Packer to arrange to have drugs sent to himself. The two cases, containing brass figures and some cricket books, with hashish oil hidden in the walls, were addressed to Packer as the chairman of WSC and originated in Nepal.
However, the royal commission - set up to probe corruption and organised crime in the Federated Painters and Dockers Union - took another look at the shipment and decided to pursue Packer, secretly engaging the FBI and US Drug Enforcement Agency.
The documents showed the FBI went so far as to hold a grand jury in the US to gather testimony from at least one person, whose identity and testimony remains protected.
The reason packer became such a magnet for the commission was the drug shipment; Packer's love of gambling and frequent transfers of large amounts of money; his association with a diverse range of people; the FBI's passing interest in his brother; and, finally, his investments in Noosa - where an illegal casino and major drug-trafficker operated all this combined to cause an air of suspicion at the royal commission.
Kerry became a big bullseye target for the Costigan royal commission in October 1983 over $225,000 he had secured from surfers paradise property developer tycoon Brian “rick” Ray some 3 years prior. Ray flew to Sydney and gave packer $50,000 in cash his business partner Ian beames dropped off payments one equally $100,000 the other $75,000.
Packers answer to this was that he’d had a bad day at the track and Brian who was going through bankruptcy proceedings with his creditors at the time offered to lend him the money. He was then quizzed about why he wanted the money in cash. Packer than made the famous quote: "I wanted it in cash because I like cash - I have a squirrel-like mentality," Packer said of the loan from his occasional business partner. “It's not the most amount of cash I have ever had in my life”.
Interestingly enough ray and his business partner Ian beames were later charged along with others of conspiring to defraud the commonwealth of $16 million in a so called “bottom of the harbour” tax schemes. It became known as the biggest tax evasion scheme in Australian history. Beames pleaded guilty and ray was acquitted in march 1987 however sadly died in a plane crash in 2005.
The FBI documents show the royal commission was also interested in a much larger transaction - involving more than $800,000 - seemingly sent from Hong Kong to the Central National Bank in Cleveland, Ohio.
The commission believed the money was originally carried to Hong Kong "by PACKER or an associate and that the foregoing transactions constituted a money-laundering operation".
It is unknown whether Packer was given an opportunity to respond to those allegations in the royal commission.
The National Times article prompted Packer to issue an 8000-word public denial - written by his lawyer, current opposition frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull - in which he outed himself as the Goanna and declared that the "grotesque, ludicrous and malicious" allegations had caused him "immense suffering".
Packer said the allegations had been fuelled by his rivals at Fairfax and "each and every one of the allegations made against me in the National Times article are false and demonstrably so".
"It is so extraordinary that this disgusting publication should place me in a position where I effectively have to prove my innocence," he said. "However, so ludicrous and misconceived are the allegations that my innocence is easily established."
Packer went on to say that Costigan had told him in a private hearing of the royal commission that he was not suspected over the drug shipment, but that members of the Painters and Dockers working as cleaners in his building may have been responsible.
As to the allegations of unexplained wealth needed to fund his lifestyle, Packer said: "As anyone knows me would attest, both my lifestyle and my gambling are well within my means."
The ease with which Packer quashed the claims inevitably tarnished the work of the royal commission, not to mention Fairfax, which found itself facing a hefty damages claim. The company later resurrected the National Times for a website, boldly including a column titled Goanna.
The publicly available volumes of the commission's 1984 report did not include the same level of detail as in the case summaries, but Costigan took the opportunity to criticise Packer and various leaks.
"There were a number of people subject to (the royal commission's) investigations who I feared, if they knew the extent, would seek to frustrate them," he reported.
"Mr Packer is one such person. In the course of my investigations, I am satisfied he caused documents to be removed from the jurisdiction so as to deny them to me."
The three confidential volumes of the report, which remain sealed, were transferred to the new National Crime Authority, the Australian Federal Police, and the NSW and Queensland police, to investigate various matters, including some involving Packer.
A coronial inquest into the supposed murder of Queensland bank manager Ian Percival Coote, an associate of Ray, supported the original police finding of suicide.
Charges were laid against various other people investigated by the royal commission, although some matters meant to be handled by Queensland police came to the attention of the state's Fitzgerald inquiry, which uncovered widespread corruption.
The only other matter to emerge from investigations into Packer related to allegations of tax evasion. A brief of evidence went to the then Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, Ian Temby QC, who sought the advice of two independent barristers before dropping the case.
The attorney-general sought to comprehensively respond to the allegations in an effort to end the Goanna drama once and for all.
"First, an incalculable damage has been done to Mr Packer," said Bowen, who died earlier this year.
"Second, there is no basis to justify any charges being brought against him. Third, he is entitled to be regarded by his fellow citizens as unsullied by the allegations and insinuations which have been made against him."
Packer, in turn, reiterated his long-standing position on the "trumped-up charges" and said "a very unhappy chapter in my life and my family's life is now closed".
Yet the newly released documents show that, almost a decade after the royal commission wrapped up, the FBI relayed its conspiracy theory about Packer to the NSW Casino Control Authority as it conducted probity checks on the consortia bidding for what is now Sydney's Star casino.
"Inquiries conducted by the royal commission, at that time, had determined definite involvement by Kerry and the others in financial transactions which were fraudulently represented to the Australian government, were the basis for tax evasion in Australia and had the appearance to the royal commission investigators as being laundered money resulting from drug transactions," the FBI reported back to Australia in March 1994.
"Kerry Packer, a prominent business figure, was chairman of directors of Consolidated Press Pty. (CPP), a media conglomerate which includes the Nine Network, considered the most successful commercial TV network in Australia. CPP also owns the Noosa International hotel in the state of Queensland. The hotel is considered by the royal commission to be a major cocaine distribution point for the country."
The FBI's disclosure to the Casino Control Authority - not supported by any evidence - came despite the royal commission having asked for the matter to be dealt with discreetly as "Kerry Packer is a very well-known business figure in Australia”.
Packer's consortium failed to win the casino licence - that went to the Sydney Harbour Casino consortium of Leightons and Showboat - but he later went on to establish the successful Crown gaming empire.
The FBI documents shed new light on a drama that involved and engaged the nation's business, law-enforcement, media and political elite.
The documents at the time could only be declassified and provided to The Weekend Australian, following a Freedom of Information application submitted a year before, because Kerry and Clyde Packer had died.
The Weekend Australian also put forward the names of a dozen other prominent deceased Australians but the FBI either never had, or no longer kept, information pertaining to them on file.
Phillip Adams, a columnist with The Weekend Australian Magazine and also an ABC Radio presenter, said he was friends with Packer through the Goanna scandal and, like others, feared Packer might contemplate suicide.
Adams said he privately put the allegations to Packer, who tearfully rejected them, devastated by the impact on the family name and "desolated by the fact he had been deserted by his political mates at the time".
Adams had been trying to convince Packer to establish Australia's largest charitable foundation, which he seemed inclined to do, but the royal commission put paid to that.
"He became so anti-social because of the way society had treated him," Adams said.
"That was another consequence of Costigan, that we never got the Packer foundation."
The counsel assisting the royal commission, Doug Meagher QC, told The Weekend Australian he regretted that the royal commission had been required to produce case summaries that could be leaked or misused by others.
"Notwithstanding, I had codified everything, saying that I had let the incoming people know who the codes referred to - once you described the offences you were investigating, it was pretty obvious," he said.
Now While I do think that packer was involved in some behind the scenes shenanigans such as figuring out easy how to pay as little tax as possible I don’t see packer a someone who would be involved so publicly in organised crime. For someone like him who is so high profile the risk would be to great if it was found he had any connections to crime in any way the fallout would be the total collapse of his empire because the police, finance companies and auditors would run through everything to try and bring him down to find something they could use. They would also use the proceeds of crime act to seize anything that they thought were bought using money, that was made committing crimes. such as drug dealing. Having a stoplight placed on you is never a good thing especially if you have things to hide which I’m sure packer did.
The Stolen Gold.
Notwithstanding the significant efforts made to preserve his security and privacy, Packer suffered two mysterious break-ins at his companies' headquarters in Park Street, Sydney:
In 1995, 25 gold bars, weighing a total of 285 kilograms (628 lb), and a Vegemite jar full of gold nuggets were stolen from Packer's personal safe Adam Shand did a podcast series titled packers gold which I will link in the show notes of this episode.
When clerical staff arrived at the third-floor executive suite at the heart of billionaire Mr Packer's business empire on the morning of May 1, 1995, they discovered the two doors leading to his personal secretary's office opened at the push of a hand.
Indentations showed the doors had been prised open with either a crowbar or a screwdriver - and carefully closed again afterwards.
Inside Mr Packer's private office was a scorch mark in the carpet about 10cm from the large drinks cabinet which held the thieves' target - his old 1940’s Chubb safe that was hidden behind a drinks cabinet.
It had belonged to his late father Sir Frank and had held $5.4 million in gold bullion weighing 285kg, a jar containing "scrap gold" such as nuggets and gold wire, and a gold and silver necklace. The gold today is worth around $12.5 million
Police knew the thief had to have inside information because the safe was a secret.
"We interviewed all the accountants and no one knew about this gold except for his current personal secretary," a former detective said.
The safe was locked on the inside by a steel bar about one inch wide. If the bar was cut, the safe would open. The thief had cut only one hole, right in the middle and exactly where the bar could be opened.
None of the security alarms had gone off overnight but the safe had been emptied.
In 1995, 25 gold bars, weighing a total of 285 kilograms (628 lb), and a Vegemite jar full of gold nuggets were stolen from Packer's personal safe Adam Shand did a podcast series titled packers gold which I will link in the show notes of this episode.
When clerical staff arrived at the third-floor executive suite at the heart of billionaire Mr Packer's business empire on the morning of May 1, 1995, they discovered the two doors leading to his personal secretary's office opened at the push of a hand.
Indentations showed the doors had been prised open with either a crowbar or a screwdriver - and carefully closed again afterwards.
Inside Mr Packer's private office was a scorch mark in the carpet about 10cm from the large drinks cabinet which held the thieves' target - his old 1940’s Chubb safe that was hidden behind a drinks cabinet.
It had belonged to his late father Sir Frank and had held $5.4 million in gold bullion weighing 285kg, a jar containing "scrap gold" such as nuggets and gold wire, and a gold and silver necklace. The gold today is worth around $12.5 million
Police knew the thief had to have inside information because the safe was a secret.
"We interviewed all the accountants and no one knew about this gold except for his current personal secretary," a former detective said.
The safe was locked on the inside by a steel bar about one inch wide. If the bar was cut, the safe would open. The thief had cut only one hole, right in the middle and exactly where the bar could be opened.
None of the security alarms had gone off overnight but the safe had been emptied.
On closer examination policy discovered a lone fingerprint found inside.
this gave police what they thought was their first major breakthrough as they hunted what they believed was a gang behind the break-in at the Australian Consolidated Press building in Sydney's Park St.
The fingerprint was traced on the police database to a relatively minor crook from South Australia.
After putting the South Australia man under surveillance, they pulled him in and discovered he had worked as a safe mechanic on Packer's safe some years before. The other thing in his favour was his mother being religious and as part of her faith kept a detailed diary of every day events so because of this she recorded his whereabouts and thus the safe mechanic had an iron clad alibi He was then ruled out.
The master criminal known as 'Mr X' was the next suspect police took a look at. Mr X was so good that, though police knew it had to be him, he never gave them an inch despite hundreds of hours of surveillance. He was never even arrested.
The security system at Park St was old and outdated and police believed it would have been easy for an experienced hand like their suspect to shut it down. But the big question was how did he get past the private security guards on duty?
Some time later a security guard who had by then left the company went to police and claimed that it was common for the guards to spend much of their shifts in the gym and pool or playing squash at the Hyde Park Club, which was part of the Packer complex and part of the area they were charged with keeping secure.
"Everything led to a dead end and it wasn't until we found out from the ex-security guard who came in and told us what went on there that we realised (the suspect) wouldn't have needed to have a security guard on the inside if he knew that they would not be there at the time," a former detective sergeant said.
Police pulled mr X over at one point to rattle his cage as they had no way to prove had had stolen the gold except for the good old police gut feeling which in my experience is rarely ever wrong. Sergeant Jungblut stopped the suspect by the side of the road and tried to get him to give something away.
Quote: 'I had a conversation with him. He was very guarded. Didn't say anything. I just happened to say to him, "well, Mr X, have a happy Christmas. We might be talking to you later”,' 'And he looked at me and said "that's up to you whether I have a happy Christmas or not". And sort of looked at me, and straight away I knew he was letting me know that I knew that it was him.'That's as close as I got, because he just suddenly went quiet.
The phone conversations stopped. Everything stopped. 'I suppose he got even more paranoid. And he just ceased all activity.'
Mr X, police believe, strolled into Mr Packer's Australian Consolidated Press building at 54 Park Street and jimmied open two doors with a crowbar or screwdriver.
With exemplary skill he burned straight through the 1940s Chubb safe in what experts suspect was no more than 10 minutes.
The only sign that the safe had been robbed was a small burn mark from when a charred piece of metal burned away and hit the blood-red carpet.
Mr X was originally thought to have used a thermal lance, but expert Mark Irvine, who examined the safe in 1995, believes it had to be a small torch powered by burning oxyacetylene gas.
He then had to empty 283kg of gold bars out of the safe and make off with them single-handedly.
this gave police what they thought was their first major breakthrough as they hunted what they believed was a gang behind the break-in at the Australian Consolidated Press building in Sydney's Park St.
The fingerprint was traced on the police database to a relatively minor crook from South Australia.
After putting the South Australia man under surveillance, they pulled him in and discovered he had worked as a safe mechanic on Packer's safe some years before. The other thing in his favour was his mother being religious and as part of her faith kept a detailed diary of every day events so because of this she recorded his whereabouts and thus the safe mechanic had an iron clad alibi He was then ruled out.
The master criminal known as 'Mr X' was the next suspect police took a look at. Mr X was so good that, though police knew it had to be him, he never gave them an inch despite hundreds of hours of surveillance. He was never even arrested.
The security system at Park St was old and outdated and police believed it would have been easy for an experienced hand like their suspect to shut it down. But the big question was how did he get past the private security guards on duty?
Some time later a security guard who had by then left the company went to police and claimed that it was common for the guards to spend much of their shifts in the gym and pool or playing squash at the Hyde Park Club, which was part of the Packer complex and part of the area they were charged with keeping secure.
"Everything led to a dead end and it wasn't until we found out from the ex-security guard who came in and told us what went on there that we realised (the suspect) wouldn't have needed to have a security guard on the inside if he knew that they would not be there at the time," a former detective sergeant said.
Police pulled mr X over at one point to rattle his cage as they had no way to prove had had stolen the gold except for the good old police gut feeling which in my experience is rarely ever wrong. Sergeant Jungblut stopped the suspect by the side of the road and tried to get him to give something away.
Quote: 'I had a conversation with him. He was very guarded. Didn't say anything. I just happened to say to him, "well, Mr X, have a happy Christmas. We might be talking to you later”,' 'And he looked at me and said "that's up to you whether I have a happy Christmas or not". And sort of looked at me, and straight away I knew he was letting me know that I knew that it was him.'That's as close as I got, because he just suddenly went quiet.
The phone conversations stopped. Everything stopped. 'I suppose he got even more paranoid. And he just ceased all activity.'
Mr X, police believe, strolled into Mr Packer's Australian Consolidated Press building at 54 Park Street and jimmied open two doors with a crowbar or screwdriver.
With exemplary skill he burned straight through the 1940s Chubb safe in what experts suspect was no more than 10 minutes.
The only sign that the safe had been robbed was a small burn mark from when a charred piece of metal burned away and hit the blood-red carpet.
Mr X was originally thought to have used a thermal lance, but expert Mark Irvine, who examined the safe in 1995, believes it had to be a small torch powered by burning oxyacetylene gas.
He then had to empty 283kg of gold bars out of the safe and make off with them single-handedly.
Police believe he did this by wheeling them on a hand cart to a nearby service lift that led to a loading dock where only Mr Packer parked and was empty on weekends.
He then loaded them in to the back of his trusty white ute and simply drove away.
Detectives initially thought it must have been an inside job as there was too much he would have needed to know without an inside man.
Police had evidence that their suspect regularly visited Ms Wheatley, who had been the media mogul's private secretary for 18 years and was known affectionately as "the perfumed bulldozer''.
They believe he was sleeping with Mr Packer's longtime former secretary Pat Wheatley, who lived near his $1million flat in Woollahra, in Sydney's east.
Ms Wheatley either let slip the details of the gold safe in pillow talk, or deliberately told him to get revenge for being sacked after 18 years when her drinking problem was discovered.
The former political staffer was so good at keeping her boss' secrets she gave nothing away when questioned by police.
She always talked to them alongside her lawyer Malcolm Turnbull, who would two decades later become Australia's 29th prime minister.
Mr X's skill was the reason police gravitated towards him in the first place - he was 'one of the top three in the country' and one of few who could pull off the heist.
Mr X had not been arrested since the 1970s, when he was unknowingly in the background of an incriminating photo.
He had two other convictions from the previous decade, when he would have been in his 20s.
In 1964 he stole 14,000lbs of cultured pearls from the Japanese Trading Centre in Pitt Street, Sydney, and did two years jail for stealing $41,000 from an ES and A Bank in 1967.
Mr X sold his flat in 2013 while aged in his 70s and has since disappeared from public and police view. It is unknown if he is dead or alive.
There was never any suggestion she had anything to do with the theft but police believed that the crook had ingratiated himself with her.
He was known as a real loner - except for women - and had been having an affair with the female owner of a prominent Sydney restaurant around the same time.
Police put him under watch but he was a master at counter-surveillance.
He worked out on a bench press at home - perhaps one of the ways he was able to move the 285kg of gold by himself on to the trolley which he is believed to have used to roll it into a van at the loading dock and simply drive away.
His usual vehicle was a Ford Falcon ute.
The robbery is still officially unsolved, but Mr Packer got back $5 million from his insurance company.
The other alluring fact and mystery about this case was the fact that Kerry Packer may well have known Mr x the master criminal who it has been alleged robbed him of his gold.
they even dined at the same restaurants, at the same time, at different tables. But the two men never acknowledged each other.
A detective who worked on the case admitted and I quote: "Mr Packer was well aware of our inquiries and our major suspect.''
The case gets more intriguing the deeper you dig
Legendary restaurateur Giovanna Toppi knew both of the men who frequented her restaurants La Strada at Potts Point and Machiavelli in the city.
She knew Mr Packer as one of her best customers - and the stocky career safecracker as a good friend of her late husband Walter.
But Ms Toppi, 78, said she had no idea how her husband's friend made a living.
For at least some of the time that the two men circled each other, police believe the master crook was having a secret affair with Mr Packer's former secretary, Pat Wheatley.
When Ms Wheatley died in 2008, aged 64, she left property worth around $2.5 million, including an art deco Bellevue Hill apartment with harbour views and her Bowral home which had three bedrooms, three ensuites and a tennis court.
She had sold her other eastern suburbs unit before moving to Bowral.
The criminal suspect, now 74, lived nearby and police conducting surveillance saw them visiting each other around the time of the theft.
However, he was well known to police not only as the country's top safebreaker but also as a ladies' man.
Although he was short in stature, he told detectives during his one and only arrest in the 1970s for breaking into the Chubb safe factory in Waterloo that he had a distinctive tattoo on his penis - the initials B and E, or possibly the entire phrase "Breaking and Entering".
Detectives revealed the identity of their suspect to Mr Packer during an expletive-filled meeting in the months after the theft. They were summonsed to Mr Packer's office after he heard that one section of the media was planning to write a totally ridiculous account of the gold theft with a scenario police had totally discounted. The story had come from a prisoner serving a sentence for drug dealing.
It was then that detectives told him the identity of their major suspect.
He then loaded them in to the back of his trusty white ute and simply drove away.
Detectives initially thought it must have been an inside job as there was too much he would have needed to know without an inside man.
Police had evidence that their suspect regularly visited Ms Wheatley, who had been the media mogul's private secretary for 18 years and was known affectionately as "the perfumed bulldozer''.
They believe he was sleeping with Mr Packer's longtime former secretary Pat Wheatley, who lived near his $1million flat in Woollahra, in Sydney's east.
Ms Wheatley either let slip the details of the gold safe in pillow talk, or deliberately told him to get revenge for being sacked after 18 years when her drinking problem was discovered.
The former political staffer was so good at keeping her boss' secrets she gave nothing away when questioned by police.
She always talked to them alongside her lawyer Malcolm Turnbull, who would two decades later become Australia's 29th prime minister.
Mr X's skill was the reason police gravitated towards him in the first place - he was 'one of the top three in the country' and one of few who could pull off the heist.
Mr X had not been arrested since the 1970s, when he was unknowingly in the background of an incriminating photo.
He had two other convictions from the previous decade, when he would have been in his 20s.
In 1964 he stole 14,000lbs of cultured pearls from the Japanese Trading Centre in Pitt Street, Sydney, and did two years jail for stealing $41,000 from an ES and A Bank in 1967.
Mr X sold his flat in 2013 while aged in his 70s and has since disappeared from public and police view. It is unknown if he is dead or alive.
There was never any suggestion she had anything to do with the theft but police believed that the crook had ingratiated himself with her.
He was known as a real loner - except for women - and had been having an affair with the female owner of a prominent Sydney restaurant around the same time.
Police put him under watch but he was a master at counter-surveillance.
He worked out on a bench press at home - perhaps one of the ways he was able to move the 285kg of gold by himself on to the trolley which he is believed to have used to roll it into a van at the loading dock and simply drive away.
His usual vehicle was a Ford Falcon ute.
The robbery is still officially unsolved, but Mr Packer got back $5 million from his insurance company.
The other alluring fact and mystery about this case was the fact that Kerry Packer may well have known Mr x the master criminal who it has been alleged robbed him of his gold.
they even dined at the same restaurants, at the same time, at different tables. But the two men never acknowledged each other.
A detective who worked on the case admitted and I quote: "Mr Packer was well aware of our inquiries and our major suspect.''
The case gets more intriguing the deeper you dig
Legendary restaurateur Giovanna Toppi knew both of the men who frequented her restaurants La Strada at Potts Point and Machiavelli in the city.
She knew Mr Packer as one of her best customers - and the stocky career safecracker as a good friend of her late husband Walter.
But Ms Toppi, 78, said she had no idea how her husband's friend made a living.
For at least some of the time that the two men circled each other, police believe the master crook was having a secret affair with Mr Packer's former secretary, Pat Wheatley.
When Ms Wheatley died in 2008, aged 64, she left property worth around $2.5 million, including an art deco Bellevue Hill apartment with harbour views and her Bowral home which had three bedrooms, three ensuites and a tennis court.
She had sold her other eastern suburbs unit before moving to Bowral.
The criminal suspect, now 74, lived nearby and police conducting surveillance saw them visiting each other around the time of the theft.
However, he was well known to police not only as the country's top safebreaker but also as a ladies' man.
Although he was short in stature, he told detectives during his one and only arrest in the 1970s for breaking into the Chubb safe factory in Waterloo that he had a distinctive tattoo on his penis - the initials B and E, or possibly the entire phrase "Breaking and Entering".
Detectives revealed the identity of their suspect to Mr Packer during an expletive-filled meeting in the months after the theft. They were summonsed to Mr Packer's office after he heard that one section of the media was planning to write a totally ridiculous account of the gold theft with a scenario police had totally discounted. The story had come from a prisoner serving a sentence for drug dealing.
It was then that detectives told him the identity of their major suspect.
Someone who used to dine with Mr Packer at La Strada has confirmed that the media tycoon knew that the fellow diner was a top safecracker, but said Mr Packer had never confided that the man was behind the theft of his gold.
Detectives had information that the bullion was taken to Melbourne where it was melted down and that the doctor-turned-crime figure, the late Nick Paltos, was involved through contacts he had in Melbourne.
Dr Paltos, who did time in jail for smuggling $45 million worth of cannabis into Australia and for perverting the course of justice, had spent 12 years as superintendent of the casualty department at Sydney Hospital.
When he took up private practice in Woolloomooloo, Kerry Packer was one of his patients.
Mr Packer died in 2005. La Strada has since closed its doors in Macleay St, Potts Point.
For some time while he was still under surveillance, police followed the safecracker to Machiavelli most days.
He now appears to have slipped back under the radar, which is how he has lived most of his life.
No-one has been charged over the theft and the gold has never been found.
I am convinced based on all the evidence I have seen and read that this was not only an inside job but that packer somehow was mixed up in it if for no other reason the safe that he was using had only been guaranteed up to $20,000 meaning that the contents in the safe was only insured for that amount packer had $5 million of gold in that safe and he somehow was able to convince the insurance company to pay him out the full $5 million which shouldn’t have happened as the safe wasn’t insured for that much. How packer was able to do this remains a perplexing mystery and unanswered question.
The Stolen Glock
In 2003, a licensed Glock 9-millimetre (0.35 in) semi-automatic pistol was stolen from a desk drawer on the executive level.
What was interesting about this Glock pistol going missing from packers office was that This office of Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd office in Park Street was the same office in which 5 million in gold was taken from his office safe. Security in this building was at best lax and at worst totally non-existent and laughable.
A very odd aspect about this case was that a male cleaner who had entered the building about 9pm was confronted by a man and a woman, who were both carrying firearms. The cleaner was tied up and the premises were ransacked. It remains unclear if police ever followed up this line of enquiry and to my knowledge these people were never found or identified. To this day their whereabouts remains unknown. Police would also not comment on reports that the security cameras and sensor lights had been disabled or whether there were any suspects.The pistol in question was the same type police were issued with at the time. To this day my understanding is that It has never been located.
The other interesting fact is that NSW is one of the most strict States in Australia when it comes to gun laws for example: you can’t even own a replica firearm. Under NSW law, licences for Glocks are granted only to people who can demonstrate a specific need, such as those working in security. Sporting shooters can also obtain one once they are a member of a gun club. Why Kerry had the gun in his desk drawer the way it was and if he was the only one to use it in the first place remains and interesting question one that again as never really been answered.
Police confirmed that Mr Packer had handed in his B-class handgun owner's licence packer decided against renewing the licence because the licensing detectives were waiting for advice from the police legal services branch on whether he should be prosecuted for failing to properly secure the weapon By law, the gun should have been in a safe. This was during the time that John Howard a well known gun control advocate was the prime minister whose well known for the controversial and draconian national firearms agreement signed into law at his behest and suggestion after the port Arthur massacre in 1996 committed allegedly by Martin Bryant.
In another interesting twist of fate packer was not charged with failing to keep the gun in a gun safe or storage. Whereas others would have been packer was able to slip out of the clutches of the law yet again.
There was also the story of how someone whose identity remains unknown to this day made a phone call stating that mr packer wanted a Lamborghini for the day and so the company drove one over a guy jumped into the car said thanks took off and neither him or the car was ever seen again. To this day that incident also remains unsolved.
Packer and Cricket
Detectives had information that the bullion was taken to Melbourne where it was melted down and that the doctor-turned-crime figure, the late Nick Paltos, was involved through contacts he had in Melbourne.
Dr Paltos, who did time in jail for smuggling $45 million worth of cannabis into Australia and for perverting the course of justice, had spent 12 years as superintendent of the casualty department at Sydney Hospital.
When he took up private practice in Woolloomooloo, Kerry Packer was one of his patients.
Mr Packer died in 2005. La Strada has since closed its doors in Macleay St, Potts Point.
For some time while he was still under surveillance, police followed the safecracker to Machiavelli most days.
He now appears to have slipped back under the radar, which is how he has lived most of his life.
No-one has been charged over the theft and the gold has never been found.
I am convinced based on all the evidence I have seen and read that this was not only an inside job but that packer somehow was mixed up in it if for no other reason the safe that he was using had only been guaranteed up to $20,000 meaning that the contents in the safe was only insured for that amount packer had $5 million of gold in that safe and he somehow was able to convince the insurance company to pay him out the full $5 million which shouldn’t have happened as the safe wasn’t insured for that much. How packer was able to do this remains a perplexing mystery and unanswered question.
The Stolen Glock
In 2003, a licensed Glock 9-millimetre (0.35 in) semi-automatic pistol was stolen from a desk drawer on the executive level.
What was interesting about this Glock pistol going missing from packers office was that This office of Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd office in Park Street was the same office in which 5 million in gold was taken from his office safe. Security in this building was at best lax and at worst totally non-existent and laughable.
A very odd aspect about this case was that a male cleaner who had entered the building about 9pm was confronted by a man and a woman, who were both carrying firearms. The cleaner was tied up and the premises were ransacked. It remains unclear if police ever followed up this line of enquiry and to my knowledge these people were never found or identified. To this day their whereabouts remains unknown. Police would also not comment on reports that the security cameras and sensor lights had been disabled or whether there were any suspects.The pistol in question was the same type police were issued with at the time. To this day my understanding is that It has never been located.
The other interesting fact is that NSW is one of the most strict States in Australia when it comes to gun laws for example: you can’t even own a replica firearm. Under NSW law, licences for Glocks are granted only to people who can demonstrate a specific need, such as those working in security. Sporting shooters can also obtain one once they are a member of a gun club. Why Kerry had the gun in his desk drawer the way it was and if he was the only one to use it in the first place remains and interesting question one that again as never really been answered.
Police confirmed that Mr Packer had handed in his B-class handgun owner's licence packer decided against renewing the licence because the licensing detectives were waiting for advice from the police legal services branch on whether he should be prosecuted for failing to properly secure the weapon By law, the gun should have been in a safe. This was during the time that John Howard a well known gun control advocate was the prime minister whose well known for the controversial and draconian national firearms agreement signed into law at his behest and suggestion after the port Arthur massacre in 1996 committed allegedly by Martin Bryant.
In another interesting twist of fate packer was not charged with failing to keep the gun in a gun safe or storage. Whereas others would have been packer was able to slip out of the clutches of the law yet again.
There was also the story of how someone whose identity remains unknown to this day made a phone call stating that mr packer wanted a Lamborghini for the day and so the company drove one over a guy jumped into the car said thanks took off and neither him or the car was ever seen again. To this day that incident also remains unsolved.
Packer and Cricket
Packer also broke the sports boycott of apartheid South Africa which prevented South African sportsmen from representing their country when he recruited a number of South African cricketers to play on his World Series Cricket Team. His timing was criticised, coming just months after the Soweto riots and the death of Steve Biko, murdered by the members of the South African security forces.
Packer also got into a lot of hot water over his handling of the world series of cricket debacle that it eventually turned into.
Packer also got into a lot of hot water over his handling of the world series of cricket debacle that it eventually turned into.
Packer was famously quoted from a 1976 meeting with the Australian Cricket Board, with whom he met to negotiate the rights to televise cricket. According to witnesses, he said: "There is a little bit of the whore in all of us, gentlemen. What is your price?"
Determined to get some cricket on Channel Nine, Packer put an offer to the Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB) to telecast the Australian tour of England scheduled for 1977. His interest was further stimulated by a proposal to play some televised exhibition matches, an idea presented to him by Western Australian businessmen John Cornell and Austin Robertson.
Robertson managed several high-profile Australian cricketers such as Dennis Lillee, while Cornell was Paul Hogan's business manager and on-screen sidekick.
Packer took this idea, then fleshed it out into a full series between the best Australian players and a team from the rest of the world. His mistrust of cricket's administrators deepened when the ACB recommended the TCCB accept an offer for their broadcasts rights from the ABC, even though ABC's $210,000 offer was only 14% of the offer from Packer.
Secret signings
Packer's planning of the proposed "exhibition" series was audacious. In early 1977, he began contracting a list of Australian players provided by recently retired Australian Test captain Ian Chappell. A bigger coup was achieved when Packer convinced the England captain Tony Greig to not only sign on, but to act as an agent in signing many players around the world. By the time the season climaxed with the Centenary Test match between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 1977, about two dozen players had committed to Packer's enterprise, which as yet had no grounds to play on, no administration and was secret to all in the cricket world.
It was a measure of the players' dissatisfaction with official cricket that they were prepared to sign up for what was still a vague concept and yet keep everything covert.
By the time the Australian team arrived to tour England in May 1977, thirteen of the seventeen members of the squad had committed to Packer. News of the WSC plans were inadvertently leaked to Australian journalists, who broke the story on 9 May. Immediately, all hell broke loose in the hitherto conservative world of cricket.
Determined to get some cricket on Channel Nine, Packer put an offer to the Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB) to telecast the Australian tour of England scheduled for 1977. His interest was further stimulated by a proposal to play some televised exhibition matches, an idea presented to him by Western Australian businessmen John Cornell and Austin Robertson.
Robertson managed several high-profile Australian cricketers such as Dennis Lillee, while Cornell was Paul Hogan's business manager and on-screen sidekick.
Packer took this idea, then fleshed it out into a full series between the best Australian players and a team from the rest of the world. His mistrust of cricket's administrators deepened when the ACB recommended the TCCB accept an offer for their broadcasts rights from the ABC, even though ABC's $210,000 offer was only 14% of the offer from Packer.
Secret signings
Packer's planning of the proposed "exhibition" series was audacious. In early 1977, he began contracting a list of Australian players provided by recently retired Australian Test captain Ian Chappell. A bigger coup was achieved when Packer convinced the England captain Tony Greig to not only sign on, but to act as an agent in signing many players around the world. By the time the season climaxed with the Centenary Test match between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 1977, about two dozen players had committed to Packer's enterprise, which as yet had no grounds to play on, no administration and was secret to all in the cricket world.
It was a measure of the players' dissatisfaction with official cricket that they were prepared to sign up for what was still a vague concept and yet keep everything covert.
By the time the Australian team arrived to tour England in May 1977, thirteen of the seventeen members of the squad had committed to Packer. News of the WSC plans were inadvertently leaked to Australian journalists, who broke the story on 9 May. Immediately, all hell broke loose in the hitherto conservative world of cricket.
Not unexpectedly, the English were critical of what they quickly dubbed the "Packer Circus" and reserved particular vitriol for the English captain Tony Greig, for his central role in organising the break-away. Greig retained his position in the team, but was stripped of the captaincy and ostracised by everyone in the cricket establishment, most of whom had been singing his praises just weeks before.
It seemed certain that all Packer players would be banned from Test and first-class cricket. The Australian players were a divided group and the management made their displeasure clear to the Packer signees. Dispirited by this turn of events and hampered by poor form and indifferent weather, Australia crashed to a 3–0 defeat, surrendering the Ashes won two years before. In light of the controversies the Sydney Gazette article clearly showed West Indian captain Clive Lloyd interviewed after leaving the Caribbean team to join Packer, Lloyd stated it was nothing personal it was clearly earning a more comfortable source of income. That interview created waves across the Caribbean and even in world cricket. It was then realised that the sport had been transformed into one's livelihood.
Court case
A largely unknown Kerry Packer arrived in London in late May 1977. He appeared on David Frost's The Frost Programme to debate his concept with commentators Jim Laker and Robin Marlar. Marlar's aggressive, indignant interrogation of Packer came unstuck when Packer proved to be articulate, witty, and confident that his vision was the way of the future. The show significantly raised Packer's profile and converted some to his way of thinking.
The main goal of his trip was to meet the game's authorities and reach some type of compromise. He made a canny move by securing Richie Benaud as a consultant. Benaud's standing in the game and his journalistic background helped steer Packer through the politics of the game.
Things went to hell very quickly after this when packer made a very incendiary speech after meeting with the ICC (International cricket conference).
Cricket's world governing body, the International Cricket Conference (ICC), now entered a controversy initially perceived as an Australian domestic problem. They met with Packer, Benaud and two assistants at Lord's on 23 June to discuss the WSC plans.
After ninety minutes of compromise from both sides had almost created common ground, Packer demanded that the ICC award him the exclusive Australian television rights after the 1978–79 season ended.
Court case
A largely unknown Kerry Packer arrived in London in late May 1977. He appeared on David Frost's The Frost Programme to debate his concept with commentators Jim Laker and Robin Marlar. Marlar's aggressive, indignant interrogation of Packer came unstuck when Packer proved to be articulate, witty, and confident that his vision was the way of the future. The show significantly raised Packer's profile and converted some to his way of thinking.
The main goal of his trip was to meet the game's authorities and reach some type of compromise. He made a canny move by securing Richie Benaud as a consultant. Benaud's standing in the game and his journalistic background helped steer Packer through the politics of the game.
Things went to hell very quickly after this when packer made a very incendiary speech after meeting with the ICC (International cricket conference).
Cricket's world governing body, the International Cricket Conference (ICC), now entered a controversy initially perceived as an Australian domestic problem. They met with Packer, Benaud and two assistants at Lord's on 23 June to discuss the WSC plans.
After ninety minutes of compromise from both sides had almost created common ground, Packer demanded that the ICC award him the exclusive Australian television rights after the 1978–79 season ended.
It wasn't in the power of the ICC to do so and Packer stormed from the meeting to deliver the following unadulterated declaration of war: “Had I got those TV rights I was prepared to withdraw from the scene and leave the running of cricket to the board. I will take no steps now to help anyone. It's every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.”
Packer made a big mistake going down this road and it nearly cost him dearly.
This outburst undid any goodwill that Packer had created during his earlier television appearance, and alarmed his contracted players, who had viewed his scheme as being as much philanthropic as commercial. The ICC decided to treat Packer's scheme with contempt when a month later they decided Packer's matches would not be given first-class status and the players involved would be banned from Test match and first-class cricket.
A number of the signed players now considered withdrawing. Jeff Thomson and Alvin Kallicharan had their contracts torn up when it was discovered that they had binding agreements with a radio station requiring them to play for Queensland.
Packer moved quickly to shore up support, meeting with the players and taking legal action to prevent third parties from inducing players to break their contracts.
To clarify the legal implications (including the proposed bans), Packer backed a challenge to the TCCB in the High Court by three of his players: Tony Greig, Mike Procter and John Snow.
The case began on 26 September 1977 and lasted seven weeks. The cricket authority's counsel said that if the top players deserted traditional cricket then gate receipts would decline. Mr. Packer's lawyers stated that the ICC had tried to force the Packer players to break their contracts and to prevent others from joining them.
Justice Slade in his judgment said that professional cricketers need to make a living and the ICC should not stand in their way just because its own interests might be damaged. He said the ICC might have stretched the concept of loyalty too far. Players could not be criticized for entering the contracts in secrecy as the main authorities would deny the players the opportunity to enjoy the advantages offered by WSC.
The decision was a blow to the cricket authorities and, adding insult to injury, they had to pay court costs. English County cricket teams were pleased as their players who had signed to play for Packer were still eligible to play for them.
At one point Packer demonstrated his political clout by getting New South Wales premier Neville Wran to overturn the ban on WSC and allow matches to be played at the traditional home of the game, the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). To boot, Wran had his government foot the bill to install lights good enough for Packer to use.
In June 2009, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that former federal opposition leader, and subsequently an Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, a former legal adviser and business associate of Packer, revealed to journalist Annabel Crabb that Packer had threatened to have him killed when they fell out over their 1991 attempt to take over the Fairfax newspaper group through their Tourang consortium. Packer reportedly made the threat after Turnbull told Packer he was going to have him thrown out of the consortium by revealing Packer's intention to play an interventionist role in the newspaper group.
"He told me he'd kill me, yeah. I didn't think he was completely serious, but I didn't think he was entirely joking either. Look, he could be pretty scary. He did threaten to kill me and I said to him: 'Well, you'd better make sure that your assassin gets me first because, if he misses, you better know I won't miss you.' He could be a complete pig, you know. He could charm the birds out of the trees, but he could be a brute."
— Malcolm Turnbull, 4 June 2009, as reported in The Sydney Morning Herald
Death
This outburst undid any goodwill that Packer had created during his earlier television appearance, and alarmed his contracted players, who had viewed his scheme as being as much philanthropic as commercial. The ICC decided to treat Packer's scheme with contempt when a month later they decided Packer's matches would not be given first-class status and the players involved would be banned from Test match and first-class cricket.
A number of the signed players now considered withdrawing. Jeff Thomson and Alvin Kallicharan had their contracts torn up when it was discovered that they had binding agreements with a radio station requiring them to play for Queensland.
Packer moved quickly to shore up support, meeting with the players and taking legal action to prevent third parties from inducing players to break their contracts.
To clarify the legal implications (including the proposed bans), Packer backed a challenge to the TCCB in the High Court by three of his players: Tony Greig, Mike Procter and John Snow.
The case began on 26 September 1977 and lasted seven weeks. The cricket authority's counsel said that if the top players deserted traditional cricket then gate receipts would decline. Mr. Packer's lawyers stated that the ICC had tried to force the Packer players to break their contracts and to prevent others from joining them.
Justice Slade in his judgment said that professional cricketers need to make a living and the ICC should not stand in their way just because its own interests might be damaged. He said the ICC might have stretched the concept of loyalty too far. Players could not be criticized for entering the contracts in secrecy as the main authorities would deny the players the opportunity to enjoy the advantages offered by WSC.
The decision was a blow to the cricket authorities and, adding insult to injury, they had to pay court costs. English County cricket teams were pleased as their players who had signed to play for Packer were still eligible to play for them.
At one point Packer demonstrated his political clout by getting New South Wales premier Neville Wran to overturn the ban on WSC and allow matches to be played at the traditional home of the game, the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). To boot, Wran had his government foot the bill to install lights good enough for Packer to use.
In June 2009, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that former federal opposition leader, and subsequently an Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, a former legal adviser and business associate of Packer, revealed to journalist Annabel Crabb that Packer had threatened to have him killed when they fell out over their 1991 attempt to take over the Fairfax newspaper group through their Tourang consortium. Packer reportedly made the threat after Turnbull told Packer he was going to have him thrown out of the consortium by revealing Packer's intention to play an interventionist role in the newspaper group.
"He told me he'd kill me, yeah. I didn't think he was completely serious, but I didn't think he was entirely joking either. Look, he could be pretty scary. He did threaten to kill me and I said to him: 'Well, you'd better make sure that your assassin gets me first because, if he misses, you better know I won't miss you.' He could be a complete pig, you know. He could charm the birds out of the trees, but he could be a brute."
— Malcolm Turnbull, 4 June 2009, as reported in The Sydney Morning Herald
Death
Kerry Packer died of kidney failure on 26 December 2005, nine days after his 68th birthday, at home in Sydney, Australia, with his family by his bedside. Knowing that his health was failing, he instructed his doctors not to treat him with curative intent or by artificially prolonging his life with dialysis. He told his cardiologist earlier in the week that he was "running out of petrol" and wanted to "die with dignity".[50] His private funeral service was held on 30 December 2005, at the family's country retreat, Ellerston, near Scone in the Hunter Region.[28] Having obtained council permission, he was buried on the Ellerston property near the polo field.[51]
State memorial service
The Packer family accepted an offer of a state memorial service, which was held on 17 February 2006 at the Sydney Opera House. The granting of this taxpayer-funded honour was criticised by some members of the community as Packer was famous for his alleged tax minimisation.
Which I find quite ironic that a guy who paid minimal taxes and was suspected of evading having to pay his own operate taxes for his business empire had his state funeral paid for from taxpayers money and its no wonder people were in an uproar over that. Its like someone robbing a bank and then the judge acquitting you and saying here’s all the money back that you took.
At Packer's televised state memorial service in 2006, his son James told mourners his father had never forgiven Costigan for the slurs and "nor could we".
An unrepentant Costigan responded by saying he had an obligation to "investigate without fear or favour, no matter how wealthy a person may be, or how influential he is" and report his findings to government.
Costigan died in 2009.
So what happened to the major players in this case?
Mr x the man police believe is responsible for the unsolved robbery disappeared from the public eye and has kept a low profile ever since. To this day police don’t know his current location and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Kerry packer died from kidney failure in 2005
Clyde packer died in 2001 of lung failure
Pat Wheatley packer’s personal secretary died of cancer
Ron Brian died in a plane crash in 2005
Frank Costigan died in 2009
Ian beames Ron’s busisess partner’s whereabouts remain unknown
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerry_Packer#Government_inquiry_and_legal_challenges
State memorial service
The Packer family accepted an offer of a state memorial service, which was held on 17 February 2006 at the Sydney Opera House. The granting of this taxpayer-funded honour was criticised by some members of the community as Packer was famous for his alleged tax minimisation.
Which I find quite ironic that a guy who paid minimal taxes and was suspected of evading having to pay his own operate taxes for his business empire had his state funeral paid for from taxpayers money and its no wonder people were in an uproar over that. Its like someone robbing a bank and then the judge acquitting you and saying here’s all the money back that you took.
At Packer's televised state memorial service in 2006, his son James told mourners his father had never forgiven Costigan for the slurs and "nor could we".
An unrepentant Costigan responded by saying he had an obligation to "investigate without fear or favour, no matter how wealthy a person may be, or how influential he is" and report his findings to government.
Costigan died in 2009.
So what happened to the major players in this case?
Mr x the man police believe is responsible for the unsolved robbery disappeared from the public eye and has kept a low profile ever since. To this day police don’t know his current location and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Kerry packer died from kidney failure in 2005
Clyde packer died in 2001 of lung failure
Pat Wheatley packer’s personal secretary died of cancer
Ron Brian died in a plane crash in 2005
Frank Costigan died in 2009
Ian beames Ron’s busisess partner’s whereabouts remain unknown
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerry_Packer#Government_inquiry_and_legal_challenges
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Packer
https://www.smh.com.au/national/first-the-gold-now-the-gun-gets-stolen-from-packers-office-20030124-gdg5rt.html
https://www.theage.com.au/national/police-investigating-theft-of-pistol-from-packers-office-20030124-gdv494.html
https://www.smh.com.au/national/pistol-stolen-from-packer-head-office-20030125-gdg5xt.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costigan_Commission
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/foi/even-fbi-doubted-goanna-story-about-kerry-packer/news-story/d89d133ba409c457b7e104015c1e769f
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6756067/How-expert-safe-breaker-got-away-robbing-Kerry-Packer-5-4-million-gold.html
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/kerry-packer-knew-who-stole-54-million-in-gold-from-his-safe/news-story/cf7ba8a95b69e586e0afc26430ec0ba9
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Series_Cricket
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/kerry-packer-knew-who-stole-54-million-in-gold-from-his-safe/news-story/cf7ba8a95b69e586e0afc26430ec0ba9
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6756067/How-expert-safe-breaker-got-away-robbing-Kerry-Packer-5-4-million-gold.html
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/how-a-criminal-genius-stole-kerry-packers-gold-bullion-worth-5m-ng-001e54794943c90792d6f56d2b3a2dea
