When you're, when, when, when, you're, when,

when, you're, when, when,

last week I brought you the Whiskey of Gogo Fire Case in which 15 people were killed in 1973. This week we go through the aftermath and whether all is as it seems. When you're, when,

When, you're, when.

Hi, I'm your host, Cambo, grab Pull Up a Deckchair. This is True Crime Island, another

true crime podcast. When you're, when. Hi Islanders well last week I left off the whiskey a go gogo-fire story with John Stewart and James Finch being convicted of murder and sentenced to life.

Open and shut case, but was it?

If you haven't listened to last week's episode, please pause and have a listen,

so you're up to speed. References used here are from Jeff Plunkett's book, The Whiskey of Gogo Massacre, Murder, Arson and the Crime of the Century.

I got mine on Amazon and use the Kindle to read it.

The Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, the ABC.net. A.U and the Brisbane Times.

Additional references are from court records. So let's have a bit of a recap anyway. John Stewart was a career

criminal and his story in regards to the whiskey fire was that he had been bailed out

by an underworld figure or figures in Sydney in 1972.

They wanted him to go up to Brisbane and front a protection racket they planned to run involving bars, restaurants and nightclubs.

Stuart then flew to Queensland and started hanging out at various places, making himself seen, and he also hooked up with not only a reporter

he'd known for years, Brian Bolton, but also a copper called Basil Hicks. He told both Bolton and Hicks that a criminal

syndicate from Sydney were coming to run a protection racket in Queensland and

to show they were serious they would fire bomb one nightclub

that was closed at the time and then fire bomb another during opening times.

Stuart actually told Bolton that the club to be targeted during opening hours

would be the Whiskier Gogo Night Club. Stuart told both of them, that's Bolton and Hicks, that he didn't want to be any part of it.

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