The son of my next door neighbours in Ormond was a very notable police officer in the 80s. As a uniformed officer based on Fitzroy St, he was sent out to visit the fish’n’chips shop and bring them back to the station in Chapel St. when there, he encountered a roughish sort of lady, who gave him crap.
Years later, he was assigned to an undercover job to bust the Pettingill family (Walsh St murderers) who ran a major drug gang and ran into Kath for the second time. Thankfully she didn’t recognise him and the takedown took place.
He wrote about his exploits in a book Packing Death, and two books The Street and The Street 2 about his time on Fitzroy St.
Had to be moved out of the Drug Squad after he busted a dealer and another cop for stealing his notes. Other cops at the station turned against him because Hicksy was the life of the party, first to the pub on Friday. Lived way beyond his police pay and changed his plea to guilty at trial. Copped 7 years and my mate ended leaving the police force and joining the Ombudsman’s office. More than 20 years since I’ve seen him, and his parents moved out round the time I did. His dad had Alzheimers and went out to the old Kingston Centre in Heatherton.
I’ve read his books, they are good but disturbing reading. The corruption in the VicPol drug squad at the time was horrendous. The real tragedy of the VicPol drug squad corruption is that good people got very damaged, and they really didn’t ever recover.
I was actually on the Australian version of Bozo the clown. Got to meet him- and pretty sure I won a Yo-Yo or something similar playing a game. You’d have been gutted to have not met the big Bruin Dingus
And I’m pretty sure Ian Fairweather was more the Curiosity Show for my generation.
Longtime Milwaukee Bucks coach. Had some great teams in the 80s but they could never get past the Celtics and Sixers of that era. Used to wear fish ties and smoke joints after wins.
