Within 11 minutes it was all over, but the effects of The Great Book Theft he would rock Melbourne for years.
April 21, 1976. six men invaded the Victoria Club where Melbourne’s biggest brokers were settling their accounts with cash. No one knows the exact figure, but it was estimated to be around $15 million.
The gang carried 118 bags of money upstairs to the office and dumped their weapons at the scene. Without weapons and money, they were able to disperse immediately – a useful trick for establishing alibis.
Shortly after the armed robbery, and a few kilometers away at a bar in the suburb of Windsor, Greg Carroll she was dating her brother, Ian Revell Carroll.
Greg remembers the smile on his brother’s face when news of the robbery broke as they walked into lunch. What he didn’t know was that his brother was one of the six people behind the violent robbery.
In the latest episode of crime writer John Silvester’s podcast, City NakedGreg explains the logic of being stuck, the escape strategy, and the so-called curse that befell all involved.
Greg says: “I don’t think I ever mentioned Ian’s bad qualities. Ian was Ian. Ian was larger than life.
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“I was a bit in awe of him. He stood up to the size. So he was never a caricature, he was never, you know, a ‘thug’. He was a very focused and controlled guy, and he knew what he was doing. I think I had a feeling that he was invincible, really.”
Ian, who Greg says was funny, charismatic and a master organiser, as a gang boss and later as a key member of the Great Bookie Gang, was killed in 1983 during a shootout with Russell Cox.
Cox was a master criminal who masterminded some of Australia’s biggest wage thefts. Ian and Cox had carried out several armed robberies together.
“The first thing I remember was, I guess I couldn’t believe it. He had a tendency to disappear. My first thought was it wasn’t him, it was someone else, and he was gone,” Greg said.
“It didn’t hit me until I had to go identify his body.”
In 1977, Norman Leung “Chops” Lee was the only person to face trial over the Great Bookie Robbery. He was released due to lack of sufficient evidence. A record (at the time) $170,000 reward did nothing to clear up the news about the robbery. In 1992 Lee was killed by police in a botched robbery at Melbourne Airport.
John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.
