Jim McNeil

James Thomas "Jim" McNeil (23 January 1935 – 16 May 1982) was an Australian award-winning playwright. While serving a 17-year sentence in Parramatta Correctional Centre for armed robbery and shooting a police officer, McNeill began writing plays. Within a few years he was being hailed as one of Australia's three most significant playwrights of the 20th century. He was released on parole 10 years early, won an Australian Writers' Guild Award and married actress and director Robyn Nevin. At the time of his release, McNeil's plays were being produced simultaneously in every state and territory in Australia.

James McNeill was born on 23 January 1935 and raised in St Kilda, Victoria. As a teenager, he worked on the waterfront and became associated with the infamous Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union. In 1957, aged 22, he married his pregnant girlfriend Valerie and they went on to have six children.

McNeil became a criminal, specialising in armed robberies. He was dubbed by the media as "The Laughing Bandit" because of his amusement at how easy it was to take money from people at gunpoint. In 1967, after failing to appear in court in Victoria, McNeil robbed a hotel at Wentworth Falls, west of Sydney. He forced the hotel manager at gunpoint to empty the safe and in the ensuing escape, shot and wounded a police officer.

McNeill was arrested, tried, and convicted and sentenced to 17 years in prison. In Parramatta Correctional Centre, he joined "The Resurgents Debating Society", a small group of prisoners who would meet in the prison chapel to debate prison visitors, write and paint. In 1970, McNeil wrote his first play, The Chocolate Frog. It was performed by prisoners for Saturday morning visitors and was reviewed by theatre critic Katharine Brisbane.

While imprisoned at Parramatta and later, the Bathurst Correctional Complex, McNeil also wrote The Old Familiar Juice, How Does Your Garden Grow and Jack, his last play.

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