Name Shirley Finn | ||
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Died 1975, South Perth, Perth, Australia | ||
The state sanctioned murder of brothel madam shirley finn australian story
Shirley June Finn, née Shewring (2 November 1941 – 22 or 23 June 1975) was a prostitute and, at the time of her Murder, a brothel keeper of Perth, Western Australia. A well-connected businesswoman and socialite, she operated a nightclub at Northbridge and, in 1974, had hosted a "Hollywood-style" party for Elton John at her South Perth home. She was shot dead with four bullets in the head at about midnight on 22–23 June 1975. Her body, dressed in an elaborate ball gown and expensive jewellery, was found at dawn in her car which was parked on a golf course next to a busy freeway. The murder is notable because of Finn's close relationship with WA police detectives who, in that era, controlled and regulated Perth's prostitution and gambling activities. As of September 2017, the crime remained unsolved despite the fact that a former police officer swore to having seen Finn drinking with detectives on the night of her murder. On 29 August 2017, after 42 years, a coronial inquest was commenced.
Contents
- The state sanctioned murder of brothel madam shirley finn australian story
- Coronial inquiry into murder of shirley finn
- Early life and career
- Sex business
- Regulated prostitution
- Murder
- Purported investigations
- Coronial inquest
- Rumour of contract killing
- References
Coronial inquiry into murder of shirley finn
Early life and career
A wartime baby, Finn was the eldest child of a bomber pilot, and of necessity was brought up by her mother during her early years. After the war, the family lived in comfortable surroundings in the affluent riverside suburb of Mt Pleasant, where she became a teenager before the birth of her three younger siblings. Though successful at her schoolwork, she was sexually active by age 14, which caused her to be committed for eight months to a notoriously cruel Catholic Church welfare home.
Her biographer Juliet Wills recounts that Finn left school at 15 and found work at a city frock shop, where she met her husband-to-be Des Finn, a 22-year-old air-force mechanic. They married in Perth and went to live in Melbourne, where he continued with the RAAF and she worked as a sales assistant at Buckley & Nunn. Her sons Steven and Shane were born in 1959 and 1960 respectively. They transferred back to Perth, where daughter Bridget was born in 1961. (Bridget later adopted her mother's maiden name of Shewring).
Sex business
When the husband suffered a serious injury and subsequent mental instability, Shirley Finn was aged 21 and chose sex-oriented activities as a means of supporting her three children, including strip-dancing and body-painting. She also joined a witchcraft coven which conducted "black magic and sex" activities in Kings Park. From this she advanced to a career of topless dancing and body painting in association with a travelling fairground boxing troupe. In 1969 Finn was conducting a "body paintingand escort business" which was raided by police, and she was charged and convicted with "keeping premises for the purpose of prostitution." As a result, the family was socially ostracised and the children had to leave the Catholic primary school
Regulated prostitution
Finn became associated with King's Cross, Sydney, brothel operator Dorothea Flatman who transferred to Perth in 1968 and set up a number of brothels under the symbiotic protection of Australian vice overlord Abe Saffron and a policy of "containment" upheld by the W.A. Police. It seems that she, Stella Strong (also from Sydney) and Shirley Finn were among a privileged few allowed to operate in the prostitution business under the rigorous line management of Vice Squad chief Bernard Johnson.
Murder
Finn's body was found by a motorcycle traffic officer at about 8.30 a.m. on Monday 23 June 1975, in her parked Dodge DG Phoenix car near the 9th fairway of the Royal Perth Golf Club, South Perth. The location is clearly visible from the adjacent Kwinana Freeway, from which it was then separated only by a waist-high fence and an access road (Melville Parade). Inside the car, Finn's body was slumped behind the wheel with four bullet holes in her head. She wore valuable diamond jewellery which had not been touched.
At the time, various rumours regarding the murder attributed it to specific issues relating to prostitution and the way it was being handled by police and government in Perth, but no evidence of this was made public.
The murder, and the implied connections with issues relating to policing of the sex industry, resulted in a Royal Commission being held.
Purported investigations
Continued interest in Finn's murder, and the lack of evidence, led to periodic speculation as to the murderer's identity and has been the subject of numerous articles and television pieces and two books—Juliet Wills's 'Dirty Girl' and David Whish-Wilson's crime novel 'Line of Sight'. There is evidence that major Sydney underworld figures were in Perth at the time, including vice king Abe Saffron and corrupt police officer Roger Rogerson, yet no significant line of investigation was pursued by the police.
In 1985, according to former state premier Brian Burke, a "very senior police officer" was under investigation for murder, resulting in that officer's retirement and the matter then being deemed to have been "resolved". The West Australian newspaper reported Burke's belief that the subject killing was that of Shirley Finn.
On the thirtieth anniversary of the murder—23 June 2005—a cold-case review of the case was announced. An opinion was canvassed that no solution of the case was likely.
Over time, a range of interpretations as to who the murderer was have been speculated upon.
In 2014, another cold-case review was launched by WA Police. The following year, the Corruption and Crime Commission confirmed it had received new information about the murder. News reports said a former policeman had spoken about seeing Shirley Finn with detectives in the bar of the old central police station, in East Perth, on the night she was killed. As of 7 September 2017, no further information had been released by police about their cold-case review.
On 6 March 2017, the ABC Television documentary series Australian Story aired a story titled "Getting Away With Murder" which revealed that a coronial inquest would be conducted in 2017. The story also presented testimony from Shirley Finn's former driver, Leigh Beswick, that Finn had an extended relationship with then police minister Ray O'Connor.
Coronial inquest
The inquest scheduled to open on 11 September 2017 was in fact commenced on Tuesday 29 August to take evidence from former WA detective James Archibald Boland about an officially documented 1975 rumour that Sydney criminal Neddy Smith had flown to Perth "for an arranged meeting with [Shirley Finn] and an unnamed police officer."
Rumour of contract killing
Witness Boland said he had met a man known as Keith Alan Lewis who told him that Smith flew to Perth on June 23 and was "paid $5000 to kill her on behalf of her business partners." An official police document, known as “serial 393”, was produced to support the witness's claim that "Mr Lewis had been willing to provide information about Smith in exchange for fraud charges against his boyfriend being downgraded." Following suggestions that Smith was aiming to take control of Perth brothels, Boland said he was ordered by former CIB boss Don Hancock not to have any further involvement in the inquiry.