Great Bookie Robbery

The Great Bookie Robbery
Written by	Phillip Cornford
Directed by	Mark Joffe Marcus Cole
Starring	John Bach Catherine Wilkin Gary Day Bruno Lawrence
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	3 x 2 hours
Production
Producer(s)	Ian Bradley
Budget	A$4.2 million
Release
Original network	Nine Network
Original release	15 November – 17 November 1986

The Great Bookie robbery was a crime committed in Melbourne, Australia on 21 April 1976.

A well-organized gang of six stole what is widely believed to be from $14 to $16 million (2011:$88 million) from bookmakers in the Victoria Club, home of the Australian Jockey Club (AJC), which was located on the second floor of a building in Queen Street, Melbourne. The true figure for the amount stolen has never been confirmed, as the AJC quoted the missing figure to police as only $1 million to avoid the attention of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). The men, who included Raymond "Chuck" Bennett who is believed to be the mastermind, Ian Carroll, Laurence Prendergast and Norman Lee, rented an office several floors above and hid the money in that room's safe before coolly walking out of the building and onto the street.

The identity of the robbers was widely known in the underworld and Bennett became the target of standover men (who included Brian and Leslie Kane) and corrupt police demanding part of the proceeds. The Kane brothers were particularly violent psychopaths who wanted 'their cut' and were willing to torture, mutilate and kill to get their own way. After being told that the Kanes intended to kill him, Bennett, Prendergast and Vincent Mikkleson murdered Leslie Kane on 19 October 1978 and went into hiding. The three were later arrested for Leslie Kane's murder but as the body was never found the charges were dismissed. With Brian Kane threatening to kill him, Bennett was arrested on a minor charge in 1979. While being escorted by police from the courthouse holding cells to the courtroom he was taken up a flight of stairs into the path of a man disguised as a barrister. This man shot Bennett several times in the chest, he tried to flee but collapsed on the courthouse steps and died a short time later. Although Brian Kane was suspected, circumstantial evidence suggested a conspiracy to kill Bennett which included senior members of the Victorian Police, most notably Brian Murphy, with whom Bennett had a long-standing feud. No one has ever been arrested for Bennett’s murder which was in effect, an execution.

The money was never recovered and although Norman Lee was charged he was later acquitted. None of the other members of the gang were ever convicted. Prendergast had disappeared in 1985 and apart from Lee, the rest of the gang had all been murdered by the end of 1987. In 1992 Lee was killed by police during a heist at Melbourne Airport. Lee's lawyer Phillip Dunn, QC, later revealed the details of the crime, including the identities of all those involved.

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