The Murder Of Don Hancock

Murder of rumoured corrupt police officer Don Hancock. 

Donald Leslie Hancock (known as Don Hancock) was a Western Australian policeman. He is principally known for his involvement in the investigation of the Perth Mint Swindle, and his death in a car bombing in 2001.

Hancock was born in Boulder, Western Australia on 5 January 1937, to Leslie John Hancock and Melba May (nee Bourke). He worked in the family's gold mine at Grant's Patch near Ora Banda.

Hancock joined the Western Australian Police in 1959. Initially part of the Gold Stealing Detection Squad, he transferred to the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) in 1966. He worked in various detective branches before becoming officer-in-charge of the CIB in 1989, and retired on 28 January 1994.

However it would appear that don Hancock was not as squeaky clean as he was made out to be and was involved in various, infamous, and at times controversial incidents and there were rumours that he was corrupt and had murdered at least two people before he died in 2001.

Tony Lewandowski, a police colleague, identified himself and Hancock as being corrupt and dually responsible for fabricating evidence against the three Mickelberg brothers in the Perth Mint Swindle investigation, prior to Lewandowski's 2004 suicide.

In the book Mickelberg Stitch, author Avon Lovell captioned a photograph of him with the name The Grey Fox.

Now to give a brief overview as I have another episode dedicated to this case:

The Perth Mint Swindle is the popular name for the robbery of 49 gold bars weighing 68 kilograms (150 pounds; 2,200 troy ounces) from the Perth Mint in Western Australia on 22 June 1982. The bullion was valued at A$653,000 at that time (2011:$2.02 million). As of 8 January 2018, the value of the 68 kilograms (150 lb) of gold would approach AUD $3.7 million.

According to police at the time, three brothers, Ray, Peter and Brian Mickelberg, orchestrated the robbery. The three went to trial and were found guilty of the conspiracy and sentenced in 1983 to twenty, sixteen and twelve years in jail respectively.

All three convictions were overturned in 2004. To date the case remains unsolved and continues to be fought by the Mickelbergs who maintain their innocence and allege a conspiracy by the Western Australia Police to frame them.

Don Hancock was also connected to the death of brothel owner Shirley fin in 1975.

A 2010 coronial investigation into the murder of Shirley Finn listed Don Hancock as a potential suspect.

It was stated that CIB chief Don Hancock shot and killed brothel madam Shirley Finn, whose body was found riddled with bullets at the Royal Perth Golf Course in 1975.

The claims came from Leigh Varis-Beswick, a former madam who went on to become a Kalgoorlie city councillor, who was told of the link between Mr Hancock and Ms Finn's murder by her ex-partner — former detective Tony Lewandowski — following Mr Hancock's death in a car bomb blast in 2001.

However don Hancock died before the inquest took place thus he was never charged with her murder and to this day it remains unsolved.

Following his retirement from the police, Hancock moved back to Ora Banda to run the historic inn.

Hancock was killed on 1 September 2001 in Lathlain by a bomb placed under his car. Hancock was murdered by Gypsy Joker Sid Reid in revenge for the murder of Billy Grierson, allegedly by Hancock after Grierson "made obscene comments in front of his daughter."

How that all came about was that On October 1 2000, the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics was in full swing. the Kalgoorlie chapter of the Gypsy Joker bikie gang were perched on the racetrack at the small settlement of Ora Banda, about 70km north of Kalgoorlie and made up largely of prospectors and sandalwood cutters.The bikies, including William Joseph “Billy” Grierson, Graeme “Slim” Slater and Sidney John Reid, had been drinking at the historic Ora Banda Inn. Witnesses to that night said they used crude language, some of which was directed towards barmaid Alison Hancock, whose father Don Hancock owned the pub and was a retired police commander who used to run the Perth CIB.

Mr Hancock ejected the bikies and shut the pub and, about 7.45pm, a sniper’s bullet rang out across the Ora Banda racetrack, striking the campfire where the bikies were sitting. Minutes later, a second bullet thudded into Mr Grierson’s back, killing the 39-year-old within seconds.

The sniper’s shot to me was an incredible feat. the shooter used a high-powered rifle from a range of up to 300m in dark and in difficult conditions. It was never established whether the sniper meant to hit Mr Grierson or if the shots were a warning to get the bikies to leave the small settlement.

Nobody has been charged over Mr Grierson’s murder and technically the case, dubbed Operation Sandalwood, remains with the police cold case unit. But Mr Hancock was long regarded as the prime suspect. And to me I believe that he was the actual shooter.

There had been tension between Mr Hancock and Mr Grierson inside the pub. At a coronial inquest into the death, the head cook at the inn testified that she saw Mr Hancock rev his car and leave the premises shortly after closing the doors and ejecting the bikies. She also testified that Mr Hancock’s wife Elizabeth told her that he had gone to get his gun from Grant’s Patch, Mr Hancock’s mining lease.

See and this is where the case takes an interesting turn the gun that don had was never test fired to see whether it had been used recently or whether it matched evidence from the scene. don was never tested for gunshot residue. and its never been ascertained as to how good of a shot don Hancock was because to make a shot like the one made on the night of the killing from 300m away in the dark into the woods is a hell of a shot to make.

Also don must have surely known that if he killed a bikie and it was traced back to him they wouldn’t stop until they either killed him or he disappeared either from the country or into the witness protection program.

Mr Hancock was also described as being uncooperative with officers investigating the murder and there were suggestions he might have tried to neutralise any gunshot residue from his hands by eating an orange as citrus juice is widely believed to affect gunshot residue.

The sniper’s gun was never found and Mr Hancock had an alibi — Mrs Hancock told detectives her husband was home watching the Sydney Olympics closing ceremony. Mr Hancock, who was known as the Silver Fox, was never charged and he and his family consistently denied he had any involvement.

“The evidence against Don was completely hearsay,” Mrs Hancock told The West Australian. “There was no real evidence against Don. The man didn’t do it for a start. If he was guilty I would not have been there defending him as I always have.”

However I find this denial to be a bit contradictory because in an interview for the gangs of oz, she claimed that on the day of the shooting when don returned home she told him about the bikie being shot and don just looked at her in disbelief and he said that wasn’t possible and she said yes the bikie has been shot and killed and don apparently just laughed said he knew nothing about it and walked away.

Mrs Hancock said her husband was treated unfairly over Mr Grierson’s murder. A string of agencies had investigated and cleared her husband of any wrongdoing during his 35-year police career.

Within days of Mr Grierson’s murder, the Hancocks left Ora Banda amid safety concerns. In the days and weeks that followed, their Ora Banda properties were firebombed.

Assistant Commissioner Stephen Brown, who was a detective senior sergeant with the major crime squad when Mr Grierson was killed claimed that the police had tried to urgently get the case heard in the Coroner’s Court because a number of witnesses, including the bikies and Mr Hancock, were uncooperative and the coroner had the power to compel witnesses to testify.

Sadly this never happened. There were rumours that the bikies had a 12-month deadline to avenge Mr Grierson’s death, and on September 1, 2001, 11 months after the murder, Mr Hancock and his mate Lou Lewis were killed in a car bombing that shocked Perth.

Mr Brown Was quoted as saying that “The explosion was such that the materials, debris and other items were strewn over dozens of houses, to neighbouring streets.”

The forensic examination of the scene itself took six days to complete.

Sidney Reid eventually rolled over on his bikie comrades, confessing to his role in the bombing and providing testimony that led investigators attached to Operation Zircon to charge Mr Slater over the double murder. Mr Slater was acquitted by a Supreme Court jury in 2003.

There was one other little wrinkle to this case that no one has gotten to the bottom to although various people have tried.

Reid’s testimony also led police to charge a Gypsy Joker associate over the previously unknown homicide of a man who was regarded as a long-term missing person. Zircon also led police to charge then-president of the Gypsy Jokers, Len Kirby, over a multi-million dollar drug haul.

Reid accused another Joker associate, Gary White, of murdering drug dealer Anthony Tapley the previous August in a completely unrelated crime unknown to police.

White was subsequently charged and convicted of murder, primarily on Reid’s testimony, and is still in jail serving a 22-year-minimum life sentence. While bones believed to be Tapley’s were later found at a Northam Farm, they were never conclusively proved to be his.

The downside to having killed a former police officer was that Within days of the car bombing, the State government flagged the possibility of introducing Australia’s toughest anti-bikie laws — including legislation to tear down fortifications from bikie gang strongholds. To date, the Gypsy Jokers remain the only WA bikie gang to be hit with a fortification removal notice.

At the 2006 inquest into the October 2000 shooting death of Billy Grierson, the coroner stated: "There is a significant body of evidence which suggests Mr Hancock may have been the shooter," but the Gypsy Jokers "could have a large number of enemies."

He was unable to determine who Grierson's killer was because Hancock was now dead, police had failed to conduct routine forensic science tests and had failed to search Hancock's home.

See and this is what blows me away is Hancocks home was near searched which means there is no possible way to say that don Hancock wasn’t the shooter and doubt will always hang over the case because not searching his home was a huge mistake and oversight and it also makes you wonder if the police didn’t believe he’d done it and just thought “nah don wouldn’t have done a thing like that” which would also explain the laxity in the investigation of don hancock or lack thereof.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Hancock

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth_Mint_Swindle

https://thewest.com.au/news/crime/gypsy-jokers-don-hancock-murder-mayhem-and-a-suburban-car-bombing-what-happened-at-the-ora-banda-inn-ng-b881203595z

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/crime/don-hancock-car-bomb-supergrass-sidney-john-snot-reid-freed-ng-b88812614z

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-22/shirley-finn-inquest-told-don-hancock-murdered-brothel-madam/9180496

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WA_Inc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_O%27Connor

https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/she-was-going-to-bring-him-down-kalgoorlie-brothel-madam-names-slain-cop-don-hancock-as-shirley-finns-killer-20171122-gzqyo3.html