Francis Bischof

Francis (Frank) Erich Bischof LVO QPM (12 October 1904 – 28 August 1979) was the Queensland Police Commissioner in Australia from January 1958 until his resignation, on 13 February 1969, amidst allegations of corruption.

Frank Bischof was born near Toowoomba, Queensland on 12 October 1904, the fourth child in a family of nine, and grew up on a dairy farm. He attended Toowoomba Grammar School, and worked in a cheese factory before joining the Queensland Police Force in 1925. He married Dorothy Gledhill on 22 February 1930 at St Mary's Anglican Church in Alderley, Brisbane.

Stationed with the Criminal Investigation Branch in the Brisbane, he was promoted to sergeant in 1939 and inspector in 1949. He studied in Britain (including Scotland Yard) and Europe, returning to Australia in 1950 and investigating the Bulimba elections fraud. Described as 'the Big Fella' – Bischof was 6 ft 2 in (188 cm) tall and weighed 16 stone (100 kg) – he gained thirty-two convictions in thirty-three murder investigations. In 1955 he became head of the C.I.B.

In January 1958 he was appointed Commissioner of Police by Premier of Queensland, Frank Nicklin. The appointment was criticised as a political one by the opposition Labor Party, which felt that at least two other senior officers were more suitable.G.E. "Tony" Fitzgerald QC, who between 1987 and 1989 headed a commission of inquiry into corruption in Queensland, commented on page 31 of his report that the appointment of Bischof, who was a Mason, marked a deliberate transition away from the previously dominant Irish-Catholic "Green Mafia" influence in the Queensland Police, particularly since Bischof was appointed over the head of the more senior James Edward Donovan, a Catholic.

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