..And Dangerous to Know
Ned McCann
In 1917,’ the war to end all wars’, the war estimated in 1914 to be over by Christmas, had still its bloodiest year to run. Of the 59,330 Australians who died in the war 38,000 were slaughtered that year in Ypres and Passchendaele alone. That was the year America, China, and Cuba declared war on Germany.It was the year Degas, Rodin, Buffalo Bill, and Les Darcy died; the year Lenin returned from exile and led the Bolsheviks in revolution. 1.
Half a world away from the blood, the mud, and the bullets the big news in the New Zealand town of Otago on October 2 was that in the auction rooms of James Samson a brick residence and furniture, including a piano, were to be auctioned. Detective Sergeant Cameron suffered a cut to his trousers when he fell on a metalled road while chasing a boy who was alleged to have stolen 8 pounds from his employer, Wilkinson the chemist in Princes street.
The weather forecast was for northwesterly winds increasing to gale with squally conditions following.
The weather was exactly as forecast, with the addition that at 4.a.m. a violent thunderstorm broke over the neighbouring town of Dunedin as Rosaleen Miriam Norton was being born there. 2.
According to Roie she was born with a sinewy strip of flesh reaching from her armpit to waist. It must have been removed shortly after birth, as of all the people who saw her pose nude no one has ever mentioned it. And it certainly does not seem to appear in those photographs, which would later be so notorious. However Roie took this, her pointed ears, and the marks which had, so she claimed, appeared on her knee shortly after puberty as signs that she was destined to be a witch.
Reminiscing forty years later, she said,
Storms arouse in me a peculiarly elated, almost drunken sensation. Night, for me, is the time when all my perceptions are alert, when I feel most awake and function best; and this idiosyncrasy was a perpetual bone of contention with my mother, since persuading me to go to bed was no easy task- nor was waking me in the mornings.
3.
Roie’s mother, Bena, had already borne two other girls, Cecily, in 1905,and Phyllis, in 1907.The other two were no trouble at all. But Roie, was, according to a schoolmate,
A pain in the arse, a bugger of a kid. And I don’t think Bena liked her all that much either.
4.
It was obviously reciprocated, despite a letter Roie wrote while on holiday, which began,
Darlingest precios (sic) Mummy.
For, as Roie later confided to a psychiatrist,
Bena was so conventional, urged me to do things her way. She wouldn’t fight fair. Wept; cried I love you.
She was, as Roie herself would become,
highly emotional, very difficult, hysterical, possessive.
5
Roie, however, had a different relationship with her father. Born in England, first cousin to the composer, Vaughan Williams, who was by co-incidence a great mate of Eugene Goossens, Albert Thomas Norton had signed up before the mast as a deckhand at the age of sixteen. Apparently,’staunch Church of England not overly religious, although decidedly God fearing,’ Norton, now a mercantile sea captain, eventually moved his family from New Zealand, across the Tasman Sea, to Lindfield in the Australian state of New South Wales.
Lindfield is high above the Sydney Harbour basin. There, no matter how much you part and peer through the fronds of bangalow palms, monsterio deliciosa and hundreds of different species of eucalypti all that can be seen now, as then, are more bangalows, deliciosae and eucalypti. It was there, in the little house, just up from the station, Roie first noted the marks...
Around the age of seven, two little blue dots appeared on my knee. I couldn’t make head or tail of them. I wondered what they could be. They weren’t sore or anything. I forgot about them. And funnily enough they are one of the traditional witch marks-two or three red or blue dots on the skin.
6.
Roie’s father was hardly ever home. However, once there, he made his presence felt. Well used to handling the caprices of recalcritant seamen, the two-fisted sea captain, unlike Bena, wasn’t about to take any nonsense from a rebellious pre teen. As Roie admired later,
He, unlike Bena, fought fair and smacked me for being disobedient.
As for school...
I disliked school and the other children. Hated the way they crawled to teacher. Loved making the teacher mad by getting other children to do naughty things. They followed me but I don’t think they liked me. I always took the blame when anything went wrong.
7.
Roie left high school in the neighbouring suburb of Chatswood, aged 15 under a cloud. Her pagan orientation had been noted by the headmistress when she illustrated Saint Saens’ Danse Macabre with werewolves, ghouls and vampires. In a note to Bene, she said that Roie had,
A depraved nature which would corrupt the other girls.
8.
Roie now began to spend more time in a tree house than she did in the house proper. There she could spend her time in nocturnal pursuits, communing with possums and fruit bats, without disturbing the household. There also she began to write and send her stories to Smith’s Weekly while, according to Roie, a huge huntsman spider webbed across the door keeping out intruders.
One of her stories was about an artist possessed by demons. Another concerned ceremonial murder. Despite the triteness of plot and the predictable end, where the survivors waded thigh deep in gore, Smith’s editors were impressed.
Never have we discovered a juvenile author so gifted as is obviously Rosaleen Norton.
9.
However living in a tree house, writing deathless prose was all very well, but it was not considered by Bene or the captain as a fit occupation for a young girl. Soon Roie found herself in the work force proper. She did a stint waitressing, another designing for a toy manufacturer and, for a time, modelled for artists. One of the artists she modelled for was Norman Lindsay. Lindsay, when Roie shyly gave some of her sketches for his consideration, appraised them as, ‘rough’. Later, he described her as ‘a grubby little girl who lacked discipline.’
Nonewithstanding Lindsay’s appraisal and his description of her, she continued with her painting. With the money earned from waitressing and modelling, she was able to study for two years under Rayner Hoff, whose memorial of a slain warrior lying atop his shield is the contemplative focal point in Sydney’s Hyde Park Cenotaph.
At one stage she took chalk to pavement-perhaps the first Australian woman to adapt to this as an art form. She exhibited her work in Rowe street, close to Martin Place, running off Pitt, leading to Castlereagh, Rowe street then was a narrow, cobbled, Dickensian alleyway lined with book shops, dry salters, ironmongers and the like, each with a wooden sign hanging outside. Now, the cobbles and quaint little shops have long gone and it leads instead into the maw of the monolithic M.L.C. Centre with its perfumeries, furriers and jewellers.
The first day there, Roie made the not inconsiderable sum, then, of 17/1d(A casual labourer was paid 10/- a day.). However, she gave pavements away when someone dropped a penny on her from a high building and nearly brained her.
A short broom whisk from Rowe Street are the State and Mitchell libraries. Voracious in everything, she devoured there the writings of Jung, Freud and the grimoirs of occultists Levi, Blavatsky, Fortune and Crowley. With an innate ability to see beyond, that which was written, she adapted with facility to techniques of self-hypnosis in order to cross the barriers to those same inner planes of awareness and perception Huxley, half a world away in California, would reach for with mescaline.
As she later wrote,
These experiments produced a number of peculiar and unexpected results...culminated in a period of extra sensory perception together with a prolonged series of symbolic visions.
10.
Roie believed to the end of her life that the beings she encountered in her trance state-the archetypal gods-were real. Here she was at divergence with what she had read in Jung, who afferred that they were merely universal levels of ones own being; certainly not living entities. Nevertheless she was convinced that Hecate, Pan, Lilith, Lucifer and all the rest she had encountered were real, and that, during her encounters with them, their energies and qualities flowed from them to her; then to be manifest in her art.
Jim Russell the cartoonist, now well over ninety, still producing a daily strip for the Herald, as well as running a busy travel agency in Sylvania Waters, first met Roie when she was working as a dental nurse at the T&G building in Elizabeth street. He remembers her as being,
a very attractive, bright young thing, but I didn’t see her again until about 1935. I was working at Smith’s Weekly then as a senior artist, and one night one of the nude models we used in our sketch club said,"Remember me?"
I said, "No."
She said, "Rosalie Norton. I had white clothes on then."
We became quite friendly, and had coffee and things-as artists did with models-and one day she turns up at the office with artwork, which was quite out of this world... devils and things. Frank Marian, the editor, liked her work, put her on. And I thought, Well I’m buggered if I know what you’re gonna do, for there’s nothing funny about this. (One of Roie’s humorous drawings was of a group of women sitting in a circle on the grass biting the heads off their babies and laughing.)
11.
Anyway, Marian, an odd bloke, thought something may come of it. He sat her in a room next door to me with two other girls. One of them was a Bohemian type like a big horse and the other was a prim, little school ma’am type. Rosie, however, fitted in quite well.
There was one, funny, little touch. Rosie didn’t wear a blouse. She wore a big scarf with one end tied around her neck and the other around her waist. Now this was O.K. when she stood up, but when she sat down, and leant over, you could see all of her boobs. All the editorial staff would come in for a bit of a perve, and I told her one-day what was going on.
"If they want to look, that’s O.K.," she said. "I’ve posed for you in the nude. So what the hell?"
But then her drawings became so outlandish, and her behaviour so bohemian that she sort of drifted away from Smith’s. Whether she got the sack or not I don’t know. Then I started to hear of her being the witch of King’s cross, and thought, This is the demure, little dental nurse?
I used to see her around the Cross quite a lot. By this time she was the weirdo of all times. Phony as could be. Putting on this act of the witches and loving it. Because she was getting all the attention she wanted and was being written up.
Anyway, I would see her from time to time at parties with a young man in tow, Gavin Greenlees. A timid sort of bloke with glasses. But it got to the stage where you just dodged her, for she was so outrageous with her Satan and all those things.
One night I was at a party at Chips Rafferty’s place. Block of flats up the Cross, third floor.
During the party we heard screams from the flat below, and Chips said,"Aw Christ. What’s this?" And went down.
Well Rosie had this Gavin bloke by the balls. And he was screaming.
Chips said,"Let ‘im go. Let ‘im go."
But she wouldn’t. So Chips just went BIFF, and knocked her out. And saved him, for the poor fellow was crying, and sobbing.
Once he had escaped her, and I use this term advisedly, he told me she was rooting him to death. He pleaded with me to save him from her. She had him locked up in a room. She would be on to him night and day. And it was just sex, sex, sex, until the poor bloke could hardly raise a fat anymore.
12.
In 1949 Roie was invited to exhibit her work at Melbourne University. As usual she was broke and could only raise the freight charges for her paintings. She hitched to Melbourne, accompanied by her cat and the long suffering, great love of her life, some disparagingly said familiar, Gavin Greenlees. Gavin, like Roie, had been a precocious child. The A.B.C. could not believe that a 12-year-old had written the poems he had submitted to the Argonauts. Far too advanced for Jason and his rowers in Poetry Corner, they were read instead to an adult audience.
Roie’s work was hung in Bowden White library. On opening night, amidst her depictions of Bacchanalian orgies and sexual fantasies, the academics nibbled on cheese, drank red wine and enthused. A good time was being had by all until detectives Olsen and Tannahill appeared. The Vice squad men declined the cheese, shuddered at the offered wine and declared themselves to be offended by the paintings. Putting a damper on the party, they slapped a summons on Roie under the Police offences Act (1928) and forced the organisers to turn the paintings they deemed most offensive (Lucifer and the Witch’s Sabbat) to the wall.
The Vice squad’s pet art critics fulminated at works which were,"stark sensuality running riot; the result of a nightmare dipped brush; as gross a shock to the average spectator as a witch’s orgy.
Roie however was amused at their reactions."Obscenity," she remarked," like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. This fig leaf mentality expresses a very unhealthy mental attitude."
She appeared before Senior Magistrate Mr. Addison on August 19 1949 where the prosecution was based on a case when Queen Victoria ruled from her English throne in 1836.
"Explain the animal painting." The Crown Prosecutor pointed to Roie’s Sabbat, the one which would offend many more in the years to come; the one where a naked female, obviously Roie, appeared to be in sexual congress with a panther of indeterminate gender, presumably also naked underneath all the black fur.
"Witch’s Sabbath,"Roie said from the dock,"is symbolic. The subject is... demonology. The female figure represents a witch. The panther represents the power of darkness... the night. The embrace of these two is the symbol for the initiation of the witch into the infernal mysteries."
A.L. Abrahams for the defence added to this,
"The paintings are symbolic of ancient mythology. They are not sexually immoral. They were shown to a limited circle of intellectuals at University who were striving for an adult outlook in culture."
Here Abrahams looked pointedly at detectives Olsen and Tannahill.
"We have to cater to people with normal reactions to sex...not morons, subnormals, or neurotics."
S.M.Addison took it all aboard; made his notes, as Judges do, and at the end of the day pronounced the paintings not to be obscene, awarding costs against the Vice squad of 4 guineas.
13.
Jim Russell, remembering the incident well, had this to say,
Shortly after that I get a phone call from me mate, Walter Glover. He says, "I’m doing a book on Roie."
He’d got the rights to all her dreadful drawings-I think they were dreadful. She was competent, but if you got blind Freddie or a student to do outlandish things they would get attention. Whatever she did could be called creative, but not useful. I don’t know who would want them.
I said, Wallie, are you sure you’re doing the right thing?"
"Oh yeah,"he said. "They’ll be a big seller."
I said, Wal don’t deal with these perves. You’ll get yourself in trouble.
He was a nice little bloke, Wal.
12.
Walter Glover was a Sydney journalist and editor of such diverse publications as Pastry Cook’s Review and Mortician’s Monthly. Occasionally he would drop into the courtroom adjoining Central police Station and take note of the human flotsam that had fallen foul of the law. On one of his visits Roie and Gavin, described on the charge sheet as artists, were in the dock charged with being vagrants with no visible means of support. There was something about the pair appealed to Glover, who for sometime had been toying with the idea of publishing an art book of sorts. For no reason other than that, he approached the bench and offered to employ them.
They arrived at my office late in the afternoon, both freshly groomed and sparkling as if they were straight out of the tub but they were dressed like hippies two decades ahead of their time. Gavin displayed a propensity for copper. His spectacles, which rested on the end of his nose, were held together with copper wire, as were his well-worn shoes. They showed me their extraordinary work. It was so different from anything I had seen that I was impressed with its obvious potential.
14.
Glover, while advancing payments to the artists in advance of royalties, negotiated and secured rights to all of Roie’s works-past present and future. This done, he purchased stock of high quality deckle-edged Glastonbury Antique paper for the publication. Although some highly original suggestions relating to book production, (Someone suggested that 100 copies of the book could be bound with tanned bat skin following a plague of flying foxes which swept Sydney that year.) were all very well, Glover had problems. Before he could get himself together, he came in one morning to find notice that the lease was up in the cramped warren he called his office, and was paying a pound a week for would not be renewed.
Bugger! But it was just like magic. The building’s caretaker was a mate of Dad’s. When he heard of it, he offered Dad a whole floor in the same building. The floor of course was far too big for Dad’s purpose. However Dad knew a guy in the advertising game who was looking for bigger premises. They did a swap and the guy paid Dad 300 hundred quid for the swap. The caretaker got a cut, Dad took over the agency’s former premises and everyone was happy.
Dad now had an office but no furniture.
The next day he bumps into another old mate from his army days who was up on a fraud charge and knew he was going down for at least five years. He had furniture in a repository doing nothing. Dad got the furniture for just that. Roie painted a huge mural on the office wall of Baphomet, the God of Energy in celebration.
15.
Despite the several printers who declined the work, on the grounds it could offend their lady proofreaders, Glover was in business again. However...
It was 1952,or ‘3. Mum and Dad and me were living at the time in a flat at Bondi. It was a very hot night, and we were sitting down to dinner. Dad had opened the window and the front door to get a bit of a breeze going. Suddenly there was this man standing in the doorway. Big bloke, solid.
"Yes?" Dad said.
"Mr. Glover?" the bloke says.
"Yes." Dad says. Who are you, what can I do for you?"
"Never mind, who I am,"the guy says."You’re doing a book on Rosaleen Norton?"
"What if I am?" Dad says,"What business is it of yours?" And he goes to rise from the table.
But by this time the guy’s in the room, standing beside him. As I said he was big, and he puts his hand on Dad’s shoulder-makes him sit down again.
He reaches over the table to the fruit bowl and takes out an apple."I don’t want anything in the book about Eugene Goosens, Mr Glover," he says. And then he starts to crush the apple in his fist. "Understand?"
The bloke dropped the crushed pulp on the table, wagged his finger at Dad, nodded to Mum.
"Who’s Eugene Goossens?" Dad asked.
But the bloke had left.
15.
Eugene and his twin sister, Sidonie Anne, were born to two itinerant musicians, Eugene and Annie Goossens, in a theatrical boarding house at Rochester square in London’s Camden Town on the 26 May 1893. According to the Times there was no violent thunderstorm, instead the wind was light from the NorthWest, weather fair, temperature rather cool.
The girl lived only six months, dying before the onset of winter. The boy survived the winter, but suffered the rest of his life from a damaged heart valve (Mitral Stinosis.). His paternal grandmother, reputed to posses the second sight, sneered at the diagnosis, "His heart was broken at the loss of his twin," she said. It is interesting to note that Sir Eugene Goossens’ family originally came from Belgium. There, in 1603, a woman called Claire Goessen was charged with being a witch and riding to covens on a broomstick smeared with ointment. But more of that later.16.
Although born within the sound of Bow Bells, technically a Cockney, Eugene always spoke in the mellifluous drawling tone affected by those middle class English who aspire to a class above their station. Whereas the rulers of that class ridden country, in perverse affectation, tend to adopt the colloquialisms and dropped aitches of the Cockney.
Cockney or not, Eugene fitted in among those who mattered in London’s musical world. After he gave a recital at the Albert Hall in 1921 Noel Coward eulogised him in Russian Blues when he sang, "My heart just loosens when I listen to Mr. Goossens."
Goossens throughout his professional life enjoyed a brilliant career. Beginning with an H.M.V. recording of Haydn’s Creation in 1916 and ending with Still’s third symphony in 1962, he recorded over 240 works of popular classics as a conductor in addition to his role as violinist, notably in the London Philharmonic String Quartet.
In the late 30’s America beckoned and Eugene went. He made it big in New York; even bigger when he went to Cincinnati, where he conducted that city’s symphony orchestra to great acclaim. He spent the war years in America and married his third wife, Marjorie, there.
However, Cincinnati was cold and Eugene who had been daily consuming Nembutal and Digitalis for his heart condition felt the cold so much that he invariably wore a heavy overcoat complete with astrakhan collar, even during rehearsals.
Eugene first came to Australia in 1946 as guest conductor with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He so impressed the movers and shakers of classical music he was offered not only the post of permanent conductor of the S.S.O. but that of Director of the Conservatorium of Music.
Gene, as his intimates called him, was equally impressed with Sydney. He loved the climate. He loved the harbour views from the director’s office at the Conservatorium.The money offered was also appealing. After his appointment, with canny negotiating, he upped the ante to the extent that eventually his remuneration was more than that of Chifley, the Prime Minister.
Settling his affairs in Cincinnati was comparatively simple. However, the move to Australia led to a flurry of petulant and demanding letters to Australian Customs. Reaching ministerial level, it concerned levies due on a high finned Buick Goossens wanted to import from the ‘states. 17.
In his contest with the implacable bureaucracy of Customs, he lost the first round to them on points; the second by a knockout.
Sans Buick, although still wearing the coat with astrakhan collar, he returned to Australia in 1947. Accompanied by Marjorie and the two daughters from his previous marriages, a journalist saw him as,
a big, pink man with large ears. A long pointed nose, alert eyes, a bulging forehead and long sideburns turning Grey at the ends. He moves slowly, speaks softly with an accent that has a faint flavour of the English North Country about it. But you are conscious all the time of the tremendous latent force in the man, of controlled and latent power.
In photos he looks unemotional, almost cold. But he is one of the proofs that the camera can lie. He is warm, friendly, direct and with immense personal charm and manners. 18.
Bambi Tuckwell, former model and lady about town, now Lady Harewood remembers that,
We all found him," very English with his cultured voice and seemingly aloof manner, mixed with his very un-english traits of walking around with his coat thrown over his shoulders like a terribly dashing cloak. He was much more fun than he looked. He looked very formidable, but he was enormously charming.
19.
An ex member of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra remembers him as,
A cold fish, but a wonderful musician. He had to contend with the lotus-eating attitude of some of the players... "It’s a nice day so let’s go down to the beach and have a Barbie." Which tends to get in the way of excellence. 20.
Goossens often told the orchestra how much better touring conditions were in the United States. There a special train provided for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra had a first class restaurant car, private drawing room and comfortable Pullman sleeping car for the personal use of the conductor. Consequently he found it difficult to accept the informality of the Australian tours where, according to another ex member,
Everybody drank like mad on those trips. We had been drinking quite heavy one morning waiting for a train at a country station. Me and Len Donnet who later became leader of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra were sat there on the platform on our suitcases. We were wearing straw hats and we took them off, sat them in front of us and started playing hillbilly music. An interstate train drew in and people were leaning out of the windows and throwing money into our hats. Suddenly Eugene appeared looking immaculate in his suit and elegant hat. He just looked. Didn’t say a word and walked on. I never felt so small in all my life. 21.
Between these tours Gene spent time rehearsing in a hall A.B.C. leased above premises in Darlinghurst Road, now occupied by Woolworth’s. Nearby were the Apollyon and Kashmir cafes where dressed in a long black cloak, Roie exhibited her paintings and held court.
When Eugene first met Roie is not known. However Eugene had a connection with magic long before coming to Sydney.Two of his intimates in London had been avowed practitioners. It is reasonable to assume that he saw Roie’s paintings during one of his strolls through the Cross- recognised the symbols contained in them and effected an introduction to the artist. The introduction led to an involvement; an involvement Eugene so desperately wanted to keep from public knowledge that he sent a heavy around to the Glover, the publisher,
He reaches over the table to the fruit bowl and takes out an apple."I don’t want anything in the book about Eugene Goosens, Mr. Glover," he says. And then he starts to crush the apple in his fist. "Understand? 15.
From the back door of the rehearsal rooms it was only a short stroll to the Mansions hotel in Bayswater road, where Eugene would pick up a bottle of the sweet almond liqueur Roie liked to sip on while sitting in the bath at the Brougham street basement flat. That flat where, according to the press,
PEOPLE OF CULTURE, WEALTH, EDUCATION AND SOCIAL STANDING HAVE UTTERLY DEBASED THEMSELVES IN ORGIASTIC RITUAL GATHERINGS. 22.
Glovers’ book, The Art of Rosaleen Norton, with poems by Gavin Greenlees, finally did emerge in September 1952 it was conventionally bound in handsome red and gold with a Tibetan blue cover featuring an impressive Norton line drawing. The volume was scheduled to retail for the sum of eight guineas, more than half the average weekly wage. But trauma was to follow. On the very day that advance copies were expected from bookbinder, Allen Cross, both Walter Glover’s and Rosaleen Norton’s fathers died, plunging the expected release of the book into chaos. Glover remembered that he,
hurried out to my parents’ suburban home to assist with the arrangements for the funeral. I left at midday, met Allan Cross, collected the books and rushed a copy to each newspaper. Copies of the book were sent off to New York, London and my representative in Paris. Then everything crashed. We had no books and no distribution. Publicity created demand but nobody knew where to buy the books. 23.
Matters became further complicated when the Post Master General threatened prosecution over registration of what was claimed to be an indecent publication (Certain female figures had been noted in the illustrations complete with pubic hair). The Four Hundred Club, run by a character called Phil the Jew, had intended donating a Norton oil painting in a forthcoming charity auction. They hastily removed the piece from view lest any untoward publicity should draw attention to Phil’s sly grog and cocaine dealing activities. Then the sponsor of the proposed book launch withdrew support.
However events took a strange, perhaps magical, twist. A big party had been organised at the Sky Ballroom in Elizabeth Street as a tribute to a Masonic Grand Master. Quite unexpectedly, and with what turned out to be fortuitous timing, the guest of honour suddenly died. Consequently the food, drink and splendid venue became available. With this opportunity presenting itself, the launch function was able to proceed. According to one account the night went off with ‘devilish abandon’ and received a full-page report in a national weekly magazine.
The book obviously made some impact because the American Consul requested a copy bound in bat skin and the Pakistani Consulate invited invited both artist and publisher to produce an erotic art book on the mythology of the Pakistani temples.
However the threat of government prosecution loomed even larger and refused to subside. Finally Walter Glover was summoned before a magistrate and fined five pounds plus costs for including two illustrations in the book that were, ’offensive to public chastity and human decency’. Later the book was allowed to proceed with the offending plates, The Adversary and Fohat, blacked out.
Roie wrote an epitaph to sum up the situation.
Odium Psychopathologicum
Behold my friends the empty space
That doth this volume thus disgrace
The drawing which should fill its space
Hath vanished:
Banned
And
Banished!
O Puritanic Harpies, rage!
Thy breed alone doth this disgrace,
That mirrored saw its own foul face;
With mind as empty as yon space,
Whose culture (O enlightened age!)
Is even as a missing page,
Enraged Caliban
(Whose knowledge is, to thy perdition,
Limited as this edition);
Snipping art, in art’s expression,
Secrets of thy own repression,
Howl thy malice! Ban-
Yet know, O Ape of little sense
‘Honi soit qui mal y pense!’
What was it like doing the halls in the 50’s, Dave? Was there much censorship on your material?
Bloody oath. Not like today when Chater can get away with saying Bum on Mavis Bramston. (The Mavis Bramston Show was a satirical T.V. show in the late 60’s Gordon Chater one of the cast. Chater’s use of that word, which modesty still forbids me to repeat, caused a minor scandal.) It was really tight. But you could get away with it if you were subtle.
Like what?
"Well, f’rinstance. Mo’s doing this sketch at the Tivoli. Mo’s the optician and Stiff’s the patient. Stiff’s got this giant pair of specs on with lenses like the bottom of a milk bottle. He’s wandering about the stage waggling his fingers in front of him, bumping into things, knocking things over.
Mo eventually gets him settled down in the chair... chart on the wall. Enormous letters could be seen right from the back of the Gods. Mo points and Stiff says "A."
"Good," says Mo and points again.
Stiff gets all the letters right except for when Mo gets to F, which Stiff reads as K.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Part 2
"No, no."Mo says. Then the glasses fall off and Stiff’s up and bumping into things again.
They do the routine three more times. Always do your gag three times.
Why?
It’s the Golden Mean.
What’s the Golden Mean got to do with it?
It’s like fairy tales. Three brothers, three sisters, three wishes. Mystic. Never fails. Anyway on they go. F, K, F, K, F, K. Glasses falling off... bump, bump, bump. Until in exasperation Mo spits out... Mo could really spit. Umbrellas and raincoats in the front row when Mo was on. "Why is it," he says. "Whenever I point to F you see K?"
Brought the house down.
That’s subtle? That’s funny?
Aw, you had to’ve been there. 24.
The Koran and Bible have many proscriptions against the practise of witchcraft and sorcery. In some ‘primitive’ societies it is still death for anyone even suspected. As late as 1945 at Lower Quinton in the English County of Warwickshire the ensaguinated body of Charles Walton, a seventy four-year-old hedger, so suspected, was found in a meadow, pinned to the ground with a pitchfork through his throat. Although the circumstances (The sign of the cross had been hacked on his face and chest with his slash hook, his blood allowed to drain into the earth.) were more consistent with a perverted fertility rite, witches have learned the hard way that it is best to carry out their experiments and activities discreetly and in isolation. 25.
Not so Roie.
The bishops were in a tizz about all the occult activities going on. Some charismatics were rumoured to be using an Ouija board in church as part of their service, giving sermons in tongues and exorcising demons. One poor chappie, suffering from lust, curvature of the spine and elephantiasis affecting his private parts was diagnosed as having 300 demons in him. And up the Cross some woman was supposedly having it off with a Black Panther.
I don’t know how the lust chappie was treated but shortly afterwards Sir Marcus Loane commissioned an inquiry into the occult-the second such inquiry no less since the middle ages.
Months later, the inquiries findings were that indeed some charismatics associated with the Anglican church were using an Ouija board as part of their service; giving sermons in tongues and allegedly exorcising demons. There was apparently some woman up the Cross doing something with a panther and the poor chappie suffering from lust had committed suicide since giving his evidence.
Archbishop Sir Marcus Loane put his foot down."It will simply have to stop," he said
26.
Roie had gone too far-too far up the nose of the establishment. Time and again she had been busted for her behaviour. Time and again she had made the Vice Squad look foolish.
Her last bust was in November 1956 when Detectives Trevener and Hayes crashed a party at 1.45.P.M. The party, subject to numerous complaints by neighbours had been going on since the night before. Roie and Gavin Greenlees, who was on temporary release from Callan Park, were charged with grave misconduct.
Grave Misconduct was an ambiguous charge, but it was enough to see them up before Judge Clegg at Darlinghurst sessions on November 14. 1956.
With the noisy support of assorted Wizards and Witches, Gavin admitted that his conduct had been grave, Roie said that if she said that Gavin’s admission to an act, which was never specified, was nonsense she was afraid that the police would think Gavin was having delusions and he would be sent back to Callan Park.
After other witnesses testified to Gavin’s split personality and his propensity to fantasise, Judge Clegg cleared his court of the assorted nutters. When decorum had been re established, he pronounced a verdict of not guilty.
After Gavin was placed in care of his parents, who made an undertaking that he would keep up with the pills, Roie skipped with joy and waved to the Vice Squad’s Detective Bert Trevener.
Once again she had beaten the cops-made them look like bumbling oafs; wowsers who didn’t like to see people having fun. Bad day if a person couldn’t have a bit of a party... mumble, mutter.
.
Detective Sergeant Trevener packed up his papers and watched Roie leave the court with her retinue. He claims not have known her before her bust, other than by vague repute as the witch of Kings Cross. But from that day she was marked.
In September 1955 a pair of petty criminals from Glebe, Frank Honer and his pal Ray Ager, were doing the rounds of the Sydney newspapers hawking some rolls of film they had lifted from Roie’s flat in Brougham street.
Despite their self-proclaimed reputations for fearless exposes etc, none of the editors would touch the film. The Sun’s editor had it processed but decided it was "too hot."
However... even although the ‘feelthy pictures, bargain at 200 quid.’ were too hot for publication, there could still be a story if they were handed over to the Vice squad and action was taken by them.
The pictures landed on Trevener’s desk and the detective immediately identified the couple engaged in what was described as, ‘ sado masochism’ and ‘the abominable act of buggery’ as Roie and Gavin. Even although the acts were obviously staged, (Roie claimed it was a charade performed for guests at her birthday party) they were still obscene.
The head of the Vice squad, Detective Inspector Ron Walden placed Trevener in charge of the case. The first thing Trev did was go to the Sun, find out where they had scored the original film. The next thing was a quick trip to Glebe where he busted Honer and Ager on a charge of offering obscene publications for sale, for which they were later sentenced to six months. Two days later Trev turned up at Brougham St. There, he arrested Gavin. Roie, who was visiting her sister in Kirribilli, he arrested later. They were both charged with making an obscene publication.
Two days before that bust, unaware that the undeveloped film she had stashed down the back of a sofa was gone, Roie had had another visitor.
Joe Morris, The Sun’s senior crime rounds man dropped in on Roie, ‘just to say hello’. While she was in the small kitchen making a pot of tea, Morris was ratting around in the sofa to see if there was anything Honer and Ager may have missed. Before the kettle was whistling he hit pay dirt...a swag of intimate and revealing letters from Sir Eugene Goosens. When Roie came back with the tea tray,Morris suddenly remembered an important engagement and was off to his mate, Trev at the Vice squad.As crime goes by. norm lipson.tony baraneo.92 ironbark press. Sydney.p.221.Salter G.W. july3 99. p.18. Certainly not by Trev. It was one of those questions where he ‘could not remember’.
In return for the letters Morris got a scoop. The Sun’s exclusive was headlined, ARTIST ARRESTED! Roie was shown being bundled into a police car. ARTIST FACES CHARGE OVER OBSCENE FILM! 27.
When Eugene read the evening papers he,
not surprisingly feared implication and hurriedly destroyed his private collection of pornography and black magic paraphernalia, probably by burning it in the backyard of his Wahroongah home. 28
That done, Eugene left for London to be invested at Buckingham Palace with the knighthood he had been awarded for services to Australian music.
One of the ‘perks’ associated with being a Vice squad detective is that you were allowed to look at material which could tend to corrupt and deprave ordinary mortals. Consequently there was much ribald comment and hilarity as the photos and accounts of sex magic (S.M.) between Sir Eugene, Gavin and Roie were passed around. Such as the following,
Roiewitch.
The monster package arrived obviously by daemonic angel carrier (such speed) in the aft. And contemplating your hermaphroditic organs in the pictures made me desert my evenings work and fly to you by first arial coven. But, as promised, you came to me early this morning (about 1.45) and when a suddenly flapping window blind announced your arrival, I realised by a delicious orificial tingling that you were about to make your presence felt in a very real sense. Seriously you were definately here, and you were doubtless aware of what took place. I was in the middle of a rite to A, and he had just asked for the "osculume infame" (which I was just about to administer) when you took advantage of my position and administered same to me. A strange hoofed creature was in the room with us-upper and middle parts female, lower centaur, and a pretty crustacean creature with large milky breasts also appeared. I will draw it for you when I see you. All night I was in sheer s.m. delight, and my offerings were by results most acceptable to the beings... more of that later.
Your description of the triple s.m. rite (you, G and me) was curious because I was aware of you both as female (G always comes to me as female) I was fully present, also in changing... 29.
The ‘osculume infame’, mentioned also in many middle age witch trials, is where the members of the coven kissed the hindquarters of the manifest devil. Another thing mentioned in the trials was an ointment, which when smeared on the witch’s body enabled her to fly. It was such an ointment that Claire Goessen, the Belgian witch, at her trial in 1603, was charged with using. Sir Eugene sent Roie a recipe for such an ointment. However it does not seem to contain the aconite, causing irregularities of the heart leading to feelings of falling or flying, or belladonna, causing delirium which were the main ingredients in Claire’s ointment. 30.
None withstanding, the instructions must have been the source of much amusement to the guys in vice. Signed ‘Djinn’, one of Sir Eugene’s nom de plumes, it read,
Use half level teaspoon. Massage cream into skin over wide area on inner face of the thigh (between crotch and knee) or on abdomen. Use on unwashed skin. Dont bathe anointed area one hour before or three hours after. Dont use during menstrual period. No man should use this, as it would be more than dangerous.
DJINN.
Base. Creme d’Egypte
prepared by Anna (Paris)
herb ointment-blood base.
Apply once a day for 3,4 or 5 days. 29.
Further making their day, no doubt, would have been the intimacies contained in a postcard...
No, I dont know the person (assistant c of the P) you mention who is collaborating with Gav. Extreme caution will be necessary lest a chance remark reveal aught!
I long to hear from beautiful Gav; tell him I have started sketches of H of U. (H of U. Obviously refers to the opera, Fall of the House of Usher, the three were collaborating in with Eugene composing, Roie designing and Gavin doing the libretto.) You don’t know what your long letters mean to me; understanding and eloquent they are. And happily satisfying to my nature, occult obscene and of other worlds and beings. I am mastering many things in all of which you figure and help. Even now my bat wings envelope and lift you as yours often enfold me into Arimanic spheres. Let me know when you get this fourth missive, more follows. Feed me constantly with yours; the milk and essences of yo emanations be always with me, and G too.
My black familiar takes this to you. 29.
Another note told Roie that, ’anonymity is still best.’ Another warned,’DESTROY ALL THIS!’ 29.
Yet, despite all the warnings, Roie stuffed the films and letters down the back of a couch to be found by the light fingers of the petty criminals, Honer and Ager, and the equally light fingered journalist, Morris.
Trev looked at all the photos, read all the letters again and wondered at what had attracted the suave, sophisticated Knight of the realm to that squalid basement in Brougham street. He imagined him going there with his velour hat at a rakish angle, his coat with the Astrakhan collar slung over his shoulders and shook his head. Well, Knight of the realm or not, Sir Eugene was a gonner.
Trev approached his boss, Ron Walden. Walden looked at what had been amassed and told him to go for it. However, Sir was in London having his shoulders tapped with the Queen’s sword...but he would be back and Trev would be waiting.
As the Vice squad did not have the resources to tail Sir in far off London, Trev went to Joe Morris, star crime reporter of the Sun, which did.
In return for another promised exclusive, the Sun’s London contacts trailed Sir as he went from one seedy book shop to another in Soho and Leicester Square, reestablishing his personal collection of pornography and alleged magical paraphernalia.
Thirty-six hours before Sir caught his flight back to Sydney, Morris had supplied Trev with the flight number, arrival time and the added information that a briefcase Sir was carrying could be interesting. There was only one problem and Trev was very much aware of it. The problem was one of jurisdiction.
Trev’s plan had been to confront Sir with the assembled evidence he had gathered for the intended charge of ‘scandalous conduct’. However the importation / possession of prohibited material was a Customs offence and, as it was a Federal matter, had precedence over anything Vice could come up with. Customs would have ‘first suck of the lolly’. Customs would go through Sir’s bags. Customs could even set off that ’orificial tingling’ by a body search of Sir, if they so wished.
Monday June 19 1999.
Interview with Albert (Trev) Trevener ex Vice squad detective sergeant.
Trev is now 82 and has been retired from the force 22 years. Holder of the Queen’s Medal, he has lived in the same house, 22 Eccles Ave Ashfield, all his married life. Methodist and Mason, citizens and colleagues presented him with a grandfather clock on his retirement. Throughout this interview it played variations of the Westminster chimes every 1/4-hour.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines vice as- evil, especially grossly immoral habit, or conduct. Particular form of depravity. Moral perversion. Morally evil. Dissolute. Would you agree with that definition?
Yes.
How did you get into the business?
I got in as a young constable. My job would be to accompany a divisional sergeant and collect evidence on S.P.Betting, sly grog that sort of thing.
S.P. and sly grog?
Vice covered a lot of territory.
Who was the boss of the Vice Squad in 1956?
Ron Walden.
Who was Colin Delaney?
He was Police Commissioner.
From his name I would say he was Catholic.
Catholic, and a Papal Knight.
There were two camps-Catholic and Mason. Was there any animosity?
Two camps yes, but no animosity. Ron Walden was also Catholic. The State Government under Premier Joe Cahill was predominately Catholic.
What was Ron Walden like?
Ron Walden was a good boss. A Rugby Union forward. Represented Australia in boxing. A good fella. A fella you could talk to. Not terribly well experienced as an operative policeman, but a good administrator.
When I applied for a warrant to arrest Goossens for scandalous conduct, the crime of scandalous conduct was a common law misdemeanour and for that you have to have a warrant to arrest unless you have them in custody then you can, but I didn’t have him in custody. Customs did, but not me. I invited Customs in because I had no jurisdiction at the airport. After customs had dealt with him then I took him to C.I.B and questioned him on stuff that I knew.
You had a problem getting an offsider to accompany you. No one wanted to know.
I tried to get police from the Vice squad to accompany me because I had a heavy matter at Mascot airport involving a Knight of the Realm. When I mentioned a Knight of the Realm, whether that had any effect on my fellow officers I don’t know. But all of a sudden they had matters of court or come up with some reason that they couldn’t be at Mascot airport tomorrow, the next morning, to find this fellow-the Knight of the Realm.
So I went back to Balmain, where I was stationed, and saw the divisional sergeant, Milton Small, and told him the problem.
He said,"Alright. Who would you like to come with you?
I said," Jim Kilpatrick, if he’s available".
He said,"Well he’s on the night shift but don’t worry about that. If he’s prepared to go with you I’ll replace him".
So I saw Jim; told him exactly as I told the others- a Knight of the Realm.
"Don’t worry", he said,"I’ll be in that".
Now, Nat Craig, Customs. What did you say to him?
Well I rang Nat and told him I’d something on at the airport and the subject had prohibited imports... and I’d like somebody from customs to be there.
And he said, "I’ll get someone to come out."
I said,"No, Nat.I want you there. Because I’ll need a decision made on the spot. Not someone who has to ring you to find out what to do".
"Oh," he says.
"I don’t want an underling," I says,"Who doesn’t know what to do. I want the boss. It’s a Knight of the Realm".
After a while, he said,"I’ll be there".
What was the weather like that morning?
Aw it’d been raining heavily, but it had eased off just before his plane landed.
When he came off the plane he was wearing a velour hat at a rakish angle, his coat draped over his shoulders and carrying the briefcase. I was standing just beside the gangway and as he walked past he said "Good morning". I said "Good morning," back and followed him into reception keeping my eye on the briefcase. As soon as we were in I nodded to Jimmy Kirkpatrick and he gave the nod for an announcement to be made over the Tannoy. "Would Sir Eugene Goossens please go to the doctor’s office?"
HEADLINES ETC’
I typed out his statement, and being a smart arse I made all sorts of errors-spelling errors on every third or fourth line and, when I’d finished, got him to correct it.
Did you do this deliberately?
Yes.
Why?
So he couldn’t say he hadn’t read it.
Good one.
I’d been a detective for many years.
Now I submitted the statement in a file through Ron Walden to the Commissioner to go to the Attorney General asking for approval for a warrant... I’m still waiting for the Attorney General to tell me you can’t have one.
Now somebody from the Parliament I knew quite well, and I knew a few of them. He said,"Gee that’s some ripper photos of Eugene Goossens you got."
I said "How’n the hell did you know?"
"He said,"Aw I saw them in Parliament.
Who was this?
Aw I don’t remember now.
It wasn’t Eddie Ward?
Ah no Eddie Ward had no time for coppers. In fact he’d no time for law and order.
So anyway I was summoned with Ron Waldren to the Attorney General’s office. We were waiting in the anteroom, waiting about an hour and Ron Waldren was spitting chips. And he’s saying, not sotto voco (sic), but very loud about being kept there. And after a while Delaney storms along the corridor and I thought ‘ello, ‘ello, ‘ello.
As Cops do.
As Cops do. Any road he was in there about quarter an hour and he came out with a look of thunder on his face. He walked past the anteroom, stopped, came back, looked in and beckoned me. So I followed him out to the footpath
"No, no."Mo says. Then the glasses fall off and Stiff’s up and bumping into things again.
They do the routine three more times. Always do your gag three times.
Why?
It’s the Golden Mean.
What’s the Golden Mean got to do with it?
It’s like fairy tales. Three brothers, three sisters, three wishes. Mystic. Never fails. Anyway on they go. F, K, F, K, F, K. Glasses falling off... bump, bump, bump. Until in exasperation Mo spits out... Mo could really spit. Umbrellas and raincoats in the front row when Mo was on. "Why is it," he says. "Whenever I point to F you see K?"
Brought the house down.
That’s subtle? That’s funny?
Aw, you had to’ve been there. 24.
The Koran and Bible have many proscriptions against the practise of witchcraft and sorcery. In some ‘primitive’ societies it is still death for anyone even suspected. As late as 1945 at Lower Quinton in the English County of Warwickshire the ensaguinated body of Charles Walton, a seventy four-year-old hedger, so suspected, was found in a meadow, pinned to the ground with a pitchfork through his throat. Although the circumstances (The sign of the cross had been hacked on his face and chest with his slash hook, his blood allowed to drain into the earth.) were more consistent with a perverted fertility rite, witches have learned the hard way that it is best to carry out their experiments and activities discreetly and in isolation. 25.
Not so Roie.
The bishops were in a tizz about all the occult activities going on. Some charismatics were rumoured to be using an Ouija board in church as part of their service, giving sermons in tongues and exorcising demons. One poor chappie, suffering from lust, curvature of the spine and elephantiasis affecting his private parts was diagnosed as having 300 demons in him. And up the Cross some woman was supposedly having it off with a Black Panther.
I don’t know how the lust chappie was treated but shortly afterwards Sir Marcus Loane commissioned an inquiry into the occult-the second such inquiry no less since the middle ages.
Months later, the inquiries findings were that indeed some charismatics associated with the Anglican church were using an Ouija board as part of their service; giving sermons in tongues and allegedly exorcising demons. There was apparently some woman up the Cross doing something with a panther and the poor chappie suffering from lust had committed suicide since giving his evidence.
Archbishop Sir Marcus Loane put his foot down."It will simply have to stop," he said
26.
Roie had gone too far-too far up the nose of the establishment. Time and again she had been busted for her behaviour. Time and again she had made the Vice Squad look foolish.
Her last bust was in November 1956 when Detectives Trevener and Hayes crashed a party at 1.45.P.M. The party, subject to numerous complaints by neighbours had been going on since the night before. Roie and Gavin Greenlees, who was on temporary release from Callan Park, were charged with grave misconduct.
Grave Misconduct was an ambiguous charge, but it was enough to see them up before Judge Clegg at Darlinghurst sessions on November 14. 1956.
With the noisy support of assorted Wizards and Witches, Gavin admitted that his conduct had been grave, Roie said that if she said that Gavin’s admission to an act, which was never specified, was nonsense she was afraid that the police would think Gavin was having delusions and he would be sent back to Callan Park.
After other witnesses testified to Gavin’s split personality and his propensity to fantasise, Judge Clegg cleared his court of the assorted nutters. When decorum had been re established, he pronounced a verdict of not guilty.
After Gavin was placed in care of his parents, who made an undertaking that he would keep up with the pills, Roie skipped with joy and waved to the Vice Squad’s Detective Bert Trevener.
Once again she had beaten the cops-made them look like bumbling oafs; wowsers who didn’t like to see people having fun. Bad day if a person couldn’t have a bit of a party... mumble, mutter.
.
Detective Sergeant Trevener packed up his papers and watched Roie leave the court with her retinue. He claims not have known her before her bust, other than by vague repute as the witch of Kings Cross. But from that day she was marked.
In September 1955 a pair of petty criminals from Glebe, Frank Honer and his pal Ray Ager, were doing the rounds of the Sydney newspapers hawking some rolls of film they had lifted from Roie’s flat in Brougham street.
Despite their self-proclaimed reputations for fearless exposes etc, none of the editors would touch the film. The Sun’s editor had it processed but decided it was "too hot."
However... even although the ‘feelthy pictures, bargain at 200 quid.’ were too hot for publication, there could still be a story if they were handed over to the Vice squad and action was taken by them.
The pictures landed on Trevener’s desk and the detective immediately identified the couple engaged in what was described as, ‘ sado masochism’ and ‘the abominable act of buggery’ as Roie and Gavin. Even although the acts were obviously staged, (Roie claimed it was a charade performed for guests at her birthday party) they were still obscene.
The head of the Vice squad, Detective Inspector Ron Walden placed Trevener in charge of the case. The first thing Trev did was go to the Sun, find out where they had scored the original film. The next thing was a quick trip to Glebe where he busted Honer and Ager on a charge of offering obscene publications for sale, for which they were later sentenced to six months. Two days later Trev turned up at Brougham St. There, he arrested Gavin. Roie, who was visiting her sister in Kirribilli, he arrested later. They were both charged with making an obscene publication.
Two days before that bust, unaware that the undeveloped film she had stashed down the back of a sofa was gone, Roie had had another visitor.
Joe Morris, The Sun’s senior crime rounds man dropped in on Roie, ‘just to say hello’. While she was in the small kitchen making a pot of tea, Morris was ratting around in the sofa to see if there was anything Honer and Ager may have missed. Before the kettle was whistling he hit pay dirt...a swag of intimate and revealing letters from Sir Eugene Goosens. When Roie came back with the tea tray,Morris suddenly remembered an important engagement and was off to his mate, Trev at the Vice squad.As crime goes by. norm lipson.tony baraneo.92 ironbark press. Sydney.p.221.Salter G.W. july3 99. p.18. Certainly not by Trev. It was one of those questions where he ‘could not remember’.
In return for the letters Morris got a scoop. The Sun’s exclusive was headlined, ARTIST ARRESTED! Roie was shown being bundled into a police car. ARTIST FACES CHARGE OVER OBSCENE FILM! 27.
When Eugene read the evening papers he,
not surprisingly feared implication and hurriedly destroyed his private collection of pornography and black magic paraphernalia, probably by burning it in the backyard of his Wahroongah home. 28
That done, Eugene left for London to be invested at Buckingham Palace with the knighthood he had been awarded for services to Australian music.
One of the ‘perks’ associated with being a Vice squad detective is that you were allowed to look at material which could tend to corrupt and deprave ordinary mortals. Consequently there was much ribald comment and hilarity as the photos and accounts of sex magic (S.M.) between Sir Eugene, Gavin and Roie were passed around. Such as the following,
Roiewitch.
The monster package arrived obviously by daemonic angel carrier (such speed) in the aft. And contemplating your hermaphroditic organs in the pictures made me desert my evenings work and fly to you by first arial coven. But, as promised, you came to me early this morning (about 1.45) and when a suddenly flapping window blind announced your arrival, I realised by a delicious orificial tingling that you were about to make your presence felt in a very real sense. Seriously you were definately here, and you were doubtless aware of what took place. I was in the middle of a rite to A, and he had just asked for the "osculume infame" (which I was just about to administer) when you took advantage of my position and administered same to me. A strange hoofed creature was in the room with us-upper and middle parts female, lower centaur, and a pretty crustacean creature with large milky breasts also appeared. I will draw it for you when I see you. All night I was in sheer s.m. delight, and my offerings were by results most acceptable to the beings... more of that later.
Your description of the triple s.m. rite (you, G and me) was curious because I was aware of you both as female (G always comes to me as female) I was fully present, also in changing... 29.
The ‘osculume infame’, mentioned also in many middle age witch trials, is where the members of the coven kissed the hindquarters of the manifest devil. Another thing mentioned in the trials was an ointment, which when smeared on the witch’s body enabled her to fly. It was such an ointment that Claire Goessen, the Belgian witch, at her trial in 1603, was charged with using. Sir Eugene sent Roie a recipe for such an ointment. However it does not seem to contain the aconite, causing irregularities of the heart leading to feelings of falling or flying, or belladonna, causing delirium which were the main ingredients in Claire’s ointment. 30.
None withstanding, the instructions must have been the source of much amusement to the guys in vice. Signed ‘Djinn’, one of Sir Eugene’s nom de plumes, it read,
Use half level teaspoon. Massage cream into skin over wide area on inner face of the thigh (between crotch and knee) or on abdomen. Use on unwashed skin. Dont bathe anointed area one hour before or three hours after. Dont use during menstrual period. No man should use this, as it would be more than dangerous.
DJINN.
Base. Creme d’Egypte
prepared by Anna (Paris)
herb ointment-blood base.
Apply once a day for 3,4 or 5 days. 29.
Further making their day, no doubt, would have been the intimacies contained in a postcard...
No, I dont know the person (assistant c of the P) you mention who is collaborating with Gav. Extreme caution will be necessary lest a chance remark reveal aught!
I long to hear from beautiful Gav; tell him I have started sketches of H of U. (H of U. Obviously refers to the opera, Fall of the House of Usher, the three were collaborating in with Eugene composing, Roie designing and Gavin doing the libretto.) You don’t know what your long letters mean to me; understanding and eloquent they are. And happily satisfying to my nature, occult obscene and of other worlds and beings. I am mastering many things in all of which you figure and help. Even now my bat wings envelope and lift you as yours often enfold me into Arimanic spheres. Let me know when you get this fourth missive, more follows. Feed me constantly with yours; the milk and essences of yo emanations be always with me, and G too.
My black familiar takes this to you. 29.
Another note told Roie that, ’anonymity is still best.’ Another warned,’DESTROY ALL THIS!’ 29.
Yet, despite all the warnings, Roie stuffed the films and letters down the back of a couch to be found by the light fingers of the petty criminals, Honer and Ager, and the equally light fingered journalist, Morris.
Trev looked at all the photos, read all the letters again and wondered at what had attracted the suave, sophisticated Knight of the realm to that squalid basement in Brougham street. He imagined him going there with his velour hat at a rakish angle, his coat with the Astrakhan collar slung over his shoulders and shook his head. Well, Knight of the realm or not, Sir Eugene was a gonner.
Trev approached his boss, Ron Walden. Walden looked at what had been amassed and told him to go for it. However, Sir was in London having his shoulders tapped with the Queen’s sword...but he would be back and Trev would be waiting.
As the Vice squad did not have the resources to tail Sir in far off London, Trev went to Joe Morris, star crime reporter of the Sun, which did.
In return for another promised exclusive, the Sun’s London contacts trailed Sir as he went from one seedy book shop to another in Soho and Leicester Square, reestablishing his personal collection of pornography and alleged magical paraphernalia.
Thirty-six hours before Sir caught his flight back to Sydney, Morris had supplied Trev with the flight number, arrival time and the added information that a briefcase Sir was carrying could be interesting. There was only one problem and Trev was very much aware of it. The problem was one of jurisdiction.
Trev’s plan had been to confront Sir with the assembled evidence he had gathered for the intended charge of ‘scandalous conduct’. However the importation / possession of prohibited material was a Customs offence and, as it was a Federal matter, had precedence over anything Vice could come up with. Customs would have ‘first suck of the lolly’. Customs would go through Sir’s bags. Customs could even set off that ’orificial tingling’ by a body search of Sir, if they so wished.
Monday June 19 1999.
Interview with Albert (Trev) Trevener ex Vice squad detective sergeant.
Trev is now 82 and has been retired from the force 22 years. Holder of the Queen’s Medal, he has lived in the same house, 22 Eccles Ave Ashfield, all his married life. Methodist and Mason, citizens and colleagues presented him with a grandfather clock on his retirement. Throughout this interview it played variations of the Westminster chimes every 1/4-hour.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines vice as- evil, especially grossly immoral habit, or conduct. Particular form of depravity. Moral perversion. Morally evil. Dissolute. Would you agree with that definition?
Yes.
How did you get into the business?
I got in as a young constable. My job would be to accompany a divisional sergeant and collect evidence on S.P.Betting, sly grog that sort of thing.
S.P. and sly grog?
Vice covered a lot of territory.
Who was the boss of the Vice Squad in 1956?
Ron Walden.
Who was Colin Delaney?
He was Police Commissioner.
From his name I would say he was Catholic.
Catholic, and a Papal Knight.
There were two camps-Catholic and Mason. Was there any animosity?
Two camps yes, but no animosity. Ron Walden was also Catholic. The State Government under Premier Joe Cahill was predominately Catholic.
What was Ron Walden like?
Ron Walden was a good boss. A Rugby Union forward. Represented Australia in boxing. A good fella. A fella you could talk to. Not terribly well experienced as an operative policeman, but a good administrator.
When I applied for a warrant to arrest Goossens for scandalous conduct, the crime of scandalous conduct was a common law misdemeanour and for that you have to have a warrant to arrest unless you have them in custody then you can, but I didn’t have him in custody. Customs did, but not me. I invited Customs in because I had no jurisdiction at the airport. After customs had dealt with him then I took him to C.I.B and questioned him on stuff that I knew.
You had a problem getting an offsider to accompany you. No one wanted to know.
I tried to get police from the Vice squad to accompany me because I had a heavy matter at Mascot airport involving a Knight of the Realm. When I mentioned a Knight of the Realm, whether that had any effect on my fellow officers I don’t know. But all of a sudden they had matters of court or come up with some reason that they couldn’t be at Mascot airport tomorrow, the next morning, to find this fellow-the Knight of the Realm.
So I went back to Balmain, where I was stationed, and saw the divisional sergeant, Milton Small, and told him the problem.
He said,"Alright. Who would you like to come with you?
I said," Jim Kilpatrick, if he’s available".
He said,"Well he’s on the night shift but don’t worry about that. If he’s prepared to go with you I’ll replace him".
So I saw Jim; told him exactly as I told the others- a Knight of the Realm.
"Don’t worry", he said,"I’ll be in that".
Now, Nat Craig, Customs. What did you say to him?
Well I rang Nat and told him I’d something on at the airport and the subject had prohibited imports... and I’d like somebody from customs to be there.
And he said, "I’ll get someone to come out."
I said,"No, Nat.I want you there. Because I’ll need a decision made on the spot. Not someone who has to ring you to find out what to do".
"Oh," he says.
"I don’t want an underling," I says,"Who doesn’t know what to do. I want the boss. It’s a Knight of the Realm".
After a while, he said,"I’ll be there".
What was the weather like that morning?
Aw it’d been raining heavily, but it had eased off just before his plane landed.
When he came off the plane he was wearing a velour hat at a rakish angle, his coat draped over his shoulders and carrying the briefcase. I was standing just beside the gangway and as he walked past he said "Good morning". I said "Good morning," back and followed him into reception keeping my eye on the briefcase. As soon as we were in I nodded to Jimmy Kirkpatrick and he gave the nod for an announcement to be made over the Tannoy. "Would Sir Eugene Goossens please go to the doctor’s office?"
HEADLINES ETC’
I typed out his statement, and being a smart arse I made all sorts of errors-spelling errors on every third or fourth line and, when I’d finished, got him to correct it.
Did you do this deliberately?
Yes.
Why?
So he couldn’t say he hadn’t read it.
Good one.
I’d been a detective for many years.
Now I submitted the statement in a file through Ron Walden to the Commissioner to go to the Attorney General asking for approval for a warrant... I’m still waiting for the Attorney General to tell me you can’t have one.
Now somebody from the Parliament I knew quite well, and I knew a few of them. He said,"Gee that’s some ripper photos of Eugene Goossens you got."
I said "How’n the hell did you know?"
"He said,"Aw I saw them in Parliament.
Who was this?
Aw I don’t remember now.
It wasn’t Eddie Ward?
Ah no Eddie Ward had no time for coppers. In fact he’d no time for law and order.
So anyway I was summoned with Ron Waldren to the Attorney General’s office. We were waiting in the anteroom, waiting about an hour and Ron Waldren was spitting chips. And he’s saying, not sotto voco (sic), but very loud about being kept there. And after a while Delaney storms along the corridor and I thought ‘ello, ‘ello, ‘ello.
As Cops do.
As Cops do. Any road he was in there about quarter an hour and he came out with a look of thunder on his face. He walked past the anteroom, stopped, came back, looked in and beckoned me. So I followed him out to the footpath
and he says "Sergeant, you’ve been dudded. You’ve done a fantastic job and I want to congratulate you on a job well done, but you’re not getting a warrant. So you can just get back to your station.
And no explanation as to why?
No. I can only think it was Goossens being a Papal Knight.
Goossens a papal Knight? I didn’t know he was a Papal Knight.
Yeah, he was a Papal Knight.
I knew he was Catholic, but I didn’t think he was a Papal Knight.
Well he may not have been a Papal Knight, but he was Catholic.Delaney was a Papal Knight, but. Anyway that was Colin Delaney, and he shook my hand and congratulated me on a job well done. And I’m still waiting officially... for when you submit a file in the police department, and I assume it is still the same, you get an answer back on paper. I’m eighty-two now, still waiting.
Anything unofficial?
Only what Delaney told me.
How did this whole thing start? How did he first come to your attention, Sir Eugene?
There was two fellows, members of the coven, they were in there one day and they found down the back of a sofa-there were only a sofa and a coupla chairs in the whole room-found some negatives and they took them and hawked them around the various newspapers. And the Sun, I think it was, developed them, but they were too hot, so they rang Ron Waldren, and Waldren sent me down. So I got the photos, and they were indeed hot.
When I started on the case I was told to mind my back, which I did. The first thing was to make copies of my file and evidence. I put the original in the hubcap of the spare wheel in the boot, a copy under a pile of rubbish in the garage, and another in my locker at work. I took a copy to Ron Waldren for a warrant who recommended a warrant should be issued. It was forwarded to Col Delaney, who directed a warrant be issued and forwarded it to the Government; only to be told no warrant would be issued.
Who in Government would it have been forwarded to?
Minister of Justice.
Who was that?
Don’t remember, but he was catholic. You must remember the big players in government those days was catholic. And the Premier, Joe Cahill, was catholic, and Eugene was catholic and a mate of Joe’s. It was them that got the Opera House going.
I say unreservedly it was a conspiracy to deny me a warrant. However a few years later there was some talk that they were gonna invite Goossens back to the opening of the Opera House. I was hoping that they would. Because I wouldn’t need a warrant then.
You wouldn’t?
Nah.
How?
I paid five pounds to get a photograph of him committing buggery...
On a man or a woman?
On Norton. And he didn’t come back. But I didn’t need a warrant if he had’ve.
Why?
Well on the first occasion a warrant was necessary because it was a common law misdemeanour and there’s no power of arrest under a common law misdemeanour without a warrant-unless you have him in custody. And the second matter it is an offence under the Crimes Act and under the Crimes Act a warrant is not required.
There was a suggestion made in Truth around the middle of March 1957 that the coven had members in high places -even in the government.
I don’t know about that. All I can say is that when I was denied a warrant for Goossens, Greenlees and Norton, I discontinued my inquiries. I thought what’s good enough for the goose....
Bit of a pun there...
Yeah?
Good enough for the Goosens...?
Aw, yeah... Good.
You were involved in a previous case with Norton and Greenlees while Sir Eugene was abroad. Would you tell me about that?
They were charged with making an indecent publication, and Roie was charged with buggery. They were found not guilty and when I spoke with the jurors afterwards-you’re not supposed to, but I did-they said we found it hard to believe that a man would commit buggery with a woman.
Indeed?
Yeah... Aw well... Shortly afterwards I got a transfer from the Vice Squad.
Were you glad to get out?
Oh yeah.
Why?
Aw it was a sordid sort of thing and there was danger there all the time.
Like what?
Well, like one of the prostitutes, working the Cross, she was a very attractive girl about nineteen, and she wanted me to be her bludger, look after her, and any time I wanted a winkie she would be there for me and pay me half of what she took.
Good offer.
Very good, and frightened the life outa me. But once you do that with them you’re theirs for the rest of your life. So I said thanks very much but no thank you. I know some detectives who have fallen for the three-card trick, but not this one. I had a wife and three kids, and a house, a name that was highly respected. I could have been bought, but you’re thinking along the lines of about ten million. So what If I got landed? I could pack up and go to any part of the world and spend the money.
Ten million?
Ten million. I’m looking here at lost wages and superannuation if I’m landed, plus a large amount for pain and suffering.
You don’t come cheap.
I don’t come cheap.
Before we began this recording you told me about a violinist...
Yes... A young fella he was in Goossens’ orchestra and he was told, asked, to come to the coven, but he decided he couldn’t be in that and Goossens told him he would not go anywhere as a violinist. He was finished.
In Australia?
His career as a violinist was finished...Full stop. Period. But nevertheless, years later he became a number one violinist in one of the international orchestras.
Did he tell you his name?
He wouldn’t tell me his name.
Was there any suggestion of homosexuality? For that sounds funny to me, that.
Well that’s what it was all about... homosexuality.
No, I mean about the young violinist.
No, no. Goossens just wanted him to come to the coven. There couldn’t have been that, otherwise the kid wouldn’t have come to me and blown the whistle. Because he would have been involving himself. He told me you can use it the best you can, but don’t mention my name for I’ll deny I ever know you.
Was Eugene buggering Greenlees as well as Roie?
Yeah.
What did you see in the photographs?
Well the photographs I have are mainly between Roie and Greenlees.
He was buggering Roie?
Yeah.Flagellation and all of that sort...there was one there where he’s sticking a soft drink bottle in the old girl and that sort of stuff. In the coven there had to be one woman and at least two men before they could have their circle for sex magic. And they would sit there on the floor naked and each man would activate the woman sexually... and bring her on until she reached the what you call it...?
Orgasm? Climax?
Climax. And I said to Goossens how did you get her to reach climax? And this he didn’t put in his statement except to say I did it as I explained to Detective Trevener. And on occasions he stimulated Roie Norton with his tongue.
Cunnulingus?
Mmm. So that was what used to go on...some of the things that used to go on at the coven. And there were two girls at the Conservatorium Goossens tried to get into the coven and they also said, don’t use us for we’ll say we don’t even know you. And they refused to join. There was those who said what he did for music was marvelous. Well so much for marvelous for there were three people I know he tried to get into the coven and one he said would never work again.
Now there was something about masks. Did you see the masks?
No… Norton… It was Pantheism they practised, and that was a perversion on the story of Pan, the mythological Pan. And I said," How do you run that, Roie?" And she said if you promise to come as a civilian, not as a copper, I’ll let you watch one.
I said,"Aww, I don’t think so." I wasn’t stupid about asking but I wasn’t that thick.
She was a dirty bitch.
Was she?
Oh yeah. I couldn’t imagine me sticking my tongue in her. Ooo, Gawd.
No?
Definitely not.
What we see today must drive you a bit insane; what we see on the open market.
Yeah.
Things have changed.
Yeah.
Morals have changed.
Yeah. That could be put down to Mr. Walker.He was the Minister of Justice. Lost his seat and went Federal.He was the bloke who disbanded the Vice Squad and threw out the street offences act and the vagrancy act. He ruined... in my opinion - the streets of Sydney. And now the criminals or the hoodlums can come along to your wife and tell her where to go and what to do when she got there. And you couldn’t do a damn thing about it other than give him a smack in the mouth and you’d be arrested for assault. So now the streets of Sydney are a dangerous place to roam. If I’m out on my own-I’ve did a bit of boxing, wrestling, and Rugby Union. I think I can look after me self as a street fighter. When I’m out, particularly on my own, I walk down adjacent to the fence and watch the lights until I get to shadow, and then the next light. If you saw me out don’t speak to me close for I’m gonna smack you in the mouth straight off. For this is the streets of Sydney today. In my opinion it’s 90% Walkers fault. He threw out these offences. They’re no longer offences. The Current State Government say they’ve done a marvelous thing-they’re trying to stamp it out. They’ve brought in this law about the carrying knives. That’s been in since the 1940’s to my knowledge.
What were your impressions of Gavin?
Greenlees? Country boy originally. Family owned a country newspaper. Bit o’ money there. But Roie wouldn’t have let him see much of it.
He was disgusting. When we went to arrest him-she wasn’t there- when we went into the coven the door was there-and on this wall there was a hand basin. There, was a lounge and a table beside. On the wall, above an altar type of thing, was a painting of Pan. Now Greenlees is sitting there and his fingernails are long and curving over. I guarantee there was about a pound of dirt under them. His toenails were the same with maybe two pounds of dirt under them. He had a couple days of growth of beard on him, and he wanted to have a shave before we took him down to the station. So he went to the hand basin and turned on the cold water, splashed his face and started to shave with a safety razor.
No soap?
Soap? They didn’t know what soap was. If it wasn’t something to eat, they didn’t want to know anything about it. Anyway I watched him and he would sometimes dig too deep with the razor until eventually the blood was running down his face. Didn’t seem to worry him. He’d just splash some more cold water and carry on. Now that’s the type of people they were.
There was one photograph of Roie lying on a bench type of thing, no clothes on, knees apart and he’s standing over her. From memory he’s got a coin in his hand and he’s trying to put that in the slot. He was flagellating her with an electric cord, making out he was kicking her, and you could see the marks on her body.
I noticed on the customs manifest there was mention of incense sticks.
That’s right.
I wondered what was so important about incense sticks.
I think they used them in the conduct of the coven. When we were talking to him he wanted to know how Miss Norton had got on. I said,"How did you know about her?" Playing the real Dill.
"Oh," he said, "I saw that she’d been arrested."
So I said,"Why did you bring all this stuff in if you read she’d been arrested?"
He said, "I watched the papers and didn’t see that she’d been charged so I didn’t think she had mentioned me."
Had she said anything involving him?
Oh yeah. I got a bundle of letters from out of the same settee the photos were found from him to her.
So she gave you certain information?
No.She didn’t give me information at all. The letters were signed. That’s what tied him up. We didn’t ask her about him. I didn’t want to blow the whistle until he came home.
I read somewhere there was a sort of deal struck -plea bargain number. That if she put him in you guys would be lenient.
No there was nothing like that at all, as far as I know of, and I was in charge of the case.
How many times did you meet Roie?
Aw, numerous. Prior to the case I’d never met her at all. I’d heard about her-the witch of Kings Cross.
So when did you first start the case?
When the photographs turned up from the Sun.We arrested those two fellows and charged them... they got six months from memory.
What for?
Flogging indecent photographs.
Did Eugene have any of those photographs in his possession?
No. When he was arrested at the airport he had 760 odd indecent photographs in his possession he’d bought overseas. There was one set I thought was rather insulting of a policewoman getting on a pushbike. There’s one where she’s standing beside the pushbike. The next one she’s getting the leg up, the next one she’s got the leg over the bike and you can see everything. Then she gets on the bike. There was about five in that set from memory. Then there’s a bunch of Bucks and Does all in the raw, all thrown in together and who was up who you couldn’t tell. He bought some in Europe, some in London. I think there was a kiosk in Trafalgar square.
Leicester Square.
No, Trafalgar.
It’s just that I was reading that one of your informants told you he had watched him buy certain items of that nature from a kiosk in Leicester square. I know it’s only a detail, but I’ve gotta be precise.
Leicester, then. There’s kiosks like that all over the place.
A funny thing was, when Nat Craig was questioning him he had a briefcase. Nat asked would he mind opening it. He’d forgotten the key. Oh yeah? Well Nat pulled out the most wicked knife I’d ever seen and flicked it open. It had a blade on it about that long with a curve, and Nat said,"I’m sorry if I damage this briefcase, but I’ve gotta see what’s in there."
And no explanation as to why?
No. I can only think it was Goossens being a Papal Knight.
Goossens a papal Knight? I didn’t know he was a Papal Knight.
Yeah, he was a Papal Knight.
I knew he was Catholic, but I didn’t think he was a Papal Knight.
Well he may not have been a Papal Knight, but he was Catholic.Delaney was a Papal Knight, but. Anyway that was Colin Delaney, and he shook my hand and congratulated me on a job well done. And I’m still waiting officially... for when you submit a file in the police department, and I assume it is still the same, you get an answer back on paper. I’m eighty-two now, still waiting.
Anything unofficial?
Only what Delaney told me.
How did this whole thing start? How did he first come to your attention, Sir Eugene?
There was two fellows, members of the coven, they were in there one day and they found down the back of a sofa-there were only a sofa and a coupla chairs in the whole room-found some negatives and they took them and hawked them around the various newspapers. And the Sun, I think it was, developed them, but they were too hot, so they rang Ron Waldren, and Waldren sent me down. So I got the photos, and they were indeed hot.
When I started on the case I was told to mind my back, which I did. The first thing was to make copies of my file and evidence. I put the original in the hubcap of the spare wheel in the boot, a copy under a pile of rubbish in the garage, and another in my locker at work. I took a copy to Ron Waldren for a warrant who recommended a warrant should be issued. It was forwarded to Col Delaney, who directed a warrant be issued and forwarded it to the Government; only to be told no warrant would be issued.
Who in Government would it have been forwarded to?
Minister of Justice.
Who was that?
Don’t remember, but he was catholic. You must remember the big players in government those days was catholic. And the Premier, Joe Cahill, was catholic, and Eugene was catholic and a mate of Joe’s. It was them that got the Opera House going.
I say unreservedly it was a conspiracy to deny me a warrant. However a few years later there was some talk that they were gonna invite Goossens back to the opening of the Opera House. I was hoping that they would. Because I wouldn’t need a warrant then.
You wouldn’t?
Nah.
How?
I paid five pounds to get a photograph of him committing buggery...
On a man or a woman?
On Norton. And he didn’t come back. But I didn’t need a warrant if he had’ve.
Why?
Well on the first occasion a warrant was necessary because it was a common law misdemeanour and there’s no power of arrest under a common law misdemeanour without a warrant-unless you have him in custody. And the second matter it is an offence under the Crimes Act and under the Crimes Act a warrant is not required.
There was a suggestion made in Truth around the middle of March 1957 that the coven had members in high places -even in the government.
I don’t know about that. All I can say is that when I was denied a warrant for Goossens, Greenlees and Norton, I discontinued my inquiries. I thought what’s good enough for the goose....
Bit of a pun there...
Yeah?
Good enough for the Goosens...?
Aw, yeah... Good.
You were involved in a previous case with Norton and Greenlees while Sir Eugene was abroad. Would you tell me about that?
They were charged with making an indecent publication, and Roie was charged with buggery. They were found not guilty and when I spoke with the jurors afterwards-you’re not supposed to, but I did-they said we found it hard to believe that a man would commit buggery with a woman.
Indeed?
Yeah... Aw well... Shortly afterwards I got a transfer from the Vice Squad.
Were you glad to get out?
Oh yeah.
Why?
Aw it was a sordid sort of thing and there was danger there all the time.
Like what?
Well, like one of the prostitutes, working the Cross, she was a very attractive girl about nineteen, and she wanted me to be her bludger, look after her, and any time I wanted a winkie she would be there for me and pay me half of what she took.
Good offer.
Very good, and frightened the life outa me. But once you do that with them you’re theirs for the rest of your life. So I said thanks very much but no thank you. I know some detectives who have fallen for the three-card trick, but not this one. I had a wife and three kids, and a house, a name that was highly respected. I could have been bought, but you’re thinking along the lines of about ten million. So what If I got landed? I could pack up and go to any part of the world and spend the money.
Ten million?
Ten million. I’m looking here at lost wages and superannuation if I’m landed, plus a large amount for pain and suffering.
You don’t come cheap.
I don’t come cheap.
Before we began this recording you told me about a violinist...
Yes... A young fella he was in Goossens’ orchestra and he was told, asked, to come to the coven, but he decided he couldn’t be in that and Goossens told him he would not go anywhere as a violinist. He was finished.
In Australia?
His career as a violinist was finished...Full stop. Period. But nevertheless, years later he became a number one violinist in one of the international orchestras.
Did he tell you his name?
He wouldn’t tell me his name.
Was there any suggestion of homosexuality? For that sounds funny to me, that.
Well that’s what it was all about... homosexuality.
No, I mean about the young violinist.
No, no. Goossens just wanted him to come to the coven. There couldn’t have been that, otherwise the kid wouldn’t have come to me and blown the whistle. Because he would have been involving himself. He told me you can use it the best you can, but don’t mention my name for I’ll deny I ever know you.
Was Eugene buggering Greenlees as well as Roie?
Yeah.
What did you see in the photographs?
Well the photographs I have are mainly between Roie and Greenlees.
He was buggering Roie?
Yeah.Flagellation and all of that sort...there was one there where he’s sticking a soft drink bottle in the old girl and that sort of stuff. In the coven there had to be one woman and at least two men before they could have their circle for sex magic. And they would sit there on the floor naked and each man would activate the woman sexually... and bring her on until she reached the what you call it...?
Orgasm? Climax?
Climax. And I said to Goossens how did you get her to reach climax? And this he didn’t put in his statement except to say I did it as I explained to Detective Trevener. And on occasions he stimulated Roie Norton with his tongue.
Cunnulingus?
Mmm. So that was what used to go on...some of the things that used to go on at the coven. And there were two girls at the Conservatorium Goossens tried to get into the coven and they also said, don’t use us for we’ll say we don’t even know you. And they refused to join. There was those who said what he did for music was marvelous. Well so much for marvelous for there were three people I know he tried to get into the coven and one he said would never work again.
Now there was something about masks. Did you see the masks?
No… Norton… It was Pantheism they practised, and that was a perversion on the story of Pan, the mythological Pan. And I said," How do you run that, Roie?" And she said if you promise to come as a civilian, not as a copper, I’ll let you watch one.
I said,"Aww, I don’t think so." I wasn’t stupid about asking but I wasn’t that thick.
She was a dirty bitch.
Was she?
Oh yeah. I couldn’t imagine me sticking my tongue in her. Ooo, Gawd.
No?
Definitely not.
What we see today must drive you a bit insane; what we see on the open market.
Yeah.
Things have changed.
Yeah.
Morals have changed.
Yeah. That could be put down to Mr. Walker.He was the Minister of Justice. Lost his seat and went Federal.He was the bloke who disbanded the Vice Squad and threw out the street offences act and the vagrancy act. He ruined... in my opinion - the streets of Sydney. And now the criminals or the hoodlums can come along to your wife and tell her where to go and what to do when she got there. And you couldn’t do a damn thing about it other than give him a smack in the mouth and you’d be arrested for assault. So now the streets of Sydney are a dangerous place to roam. If I’m out on my own-I’ve did a bit of boxing, wrestling, and Rugby Union. I think I can look after me self as a street fighter. When I’m out, particularly on my own, I walk down adjacent to the fence and watch the lights until I get to shadow, and then the next light. If you saw me out don’t speak to me close for I’m gonna smack you in the mouth straight off. For this is the streets of Sydney today. In my opinion it’s 90% Walkers fault. He threw out these offences. They’re no longer offences. The Current State Government say they’ve done a marvelous thing-they’re trying to stamp it out. They’ve brought in this law about the carrying knives. That’s been in since the 1940’s to my knowledge.
What were your impressions of Gavin?
Greenlees? Country boy originally. Family owned a country newspaper. Bit o’ money there. But Roie wouldn’t have let him see much of it.
He was disgusting. When we went to arrest him-she wasn’t there- when we went into the coven the door was there-and on this wall there was a hand basin. There, was a lounge and a table beside. On the wall, above an altar type of thing, was a painting of Pan. Now Greenlees is sitting there and his fingernails are long and curving over. I guarantee there was about a pound of dirt under them. His toenails were the same with maybe two pounds of dirt under them. He had a couple days of growth of beard on him, and he wanted to have a shave before we took him down to the station. So he went to the hand basin and turned on the cold water, splashed his face and started to shave with a safety razor.
No soap?
Soap? They didn’t know what soap was. If it wasn’t something to eat, they didn’t want to know anything about it. Anyway I watched him and he would sometimes dig too deep with the razor until eventually the blood was running down his face. Didn’t seem to worry him. He’d just splash some more cold water and carry on. Now that’s the type of people they were.
There was one photograph of Roie lying on a bench type of thing, no clothes on, knees apart and he’s standing over her. From memory he’s got a coin in his hand and he’s trying to put that in the slot. He was flagellating her with an electric cord, making out he was kicking her, and you could see the marks on her body.
I noticed on the customs manifest there was mention of incense sticks.
That’s right.
I wondered what was so important about incense sticks.
I think they used them in the conduct of the coven. When we were talking to him he wanted to know how Miss Norton had got on. I said,"How did you know about her?" Playing the real Dill.
"Oh," he said, "I saw that she’d been arrested."
So I said,"Why did you bring all this stuff in if you read she’d been arrested?"
He said, "I watched the papers and didn’t see that she’d been charged so I didn’t think she had mentioned me."
Had she said anything involving him?
Oh yeah. I got a bundle of letters from out of the same settee the photos were found from him to her.
So she gave you certain information?
No.She didn’t give me information at all. The letters were signed. That’s what tied him up. We didn’t ask her about him. I didn’t want to blow the whistle until he came home.
I read somewhere there was a sort of deal struck -plea bargain number. That if she put him in you guys would be lenient.
No there was nothing like that at all, as far as I know of, and I was in charge of the case.
How many times did you meet Roie?
Aw, numerous. Prior to the case I’d never met her at all. I’d heard about her-the witch of Kings Cross.
So when did you first start the case?
When the photographs turned up from the Sun.We arrested those two fellows and charged them... they got six months from memory.
What for?
Flogging indecent photographs.
Did Eugene have any of those photographs in his possession?
No. When he was arrested at the airport he had 760 odd indecent photographs in his possession he’d bought overseas. There was one set I thought was rather insulting of a policewoman getting on a pushbike. There’s one where she’s standing beside the pushbike. The next one she’s getting the leg up, the next one she’s got the leg over the bike and you can see everything. Then she gets on the bike. There was about five in that set from memory. Then there’s a bunch of Bucks and Does all in the raw, all thrown in together and who was up who you couldn’t tell. He bought some in Europe, some in London. I think there was a kiosk in Trafalgar square.
Leicester Square.
No, Trafalgar.
It’s just that I was reading that one of your informants told you he had watched him buy certain items of that nature from a kiosk in Leicester square. I know it’s only a detail, but I’ve gotta be precise.
Leicester, then. There’s kiosks like that all over the place.
A funny thing was, when Nat Craig was questioning him he had a briefcase. Nat asked would he mind opening it. He’d forgotten the key. Oh yeah? Well Nat pulled out the most wicked knife I’d ever seen and flicked it open. It had a blade on it about that long with a curve, and Nat said,"I’m sorry if I damage this briefcase, but I’ve gotta see what’s in there."
there."
So Eugene went into his pocket again, and he was pulling out bits of string. You’d be surprised at what he kept in his waistcoat pockets. And all of a sudden he found it. Put the key in. He didn’t even turn it. Pressed the button. It wasn’t even locked. So that’s where we found the photographs.
I pointed to another bag and said, What’s in there?"
He said, "Aw that’s my musical scores."
"Do you mind if I open it?
There was other stuff among his musical scores all taped together.
Well I’m standing behind him and he’d on a blue shirt. The collar of the shirt turned from pale blue to dark with the perspiration running down out of his hair. He knew he was gone. For in the past he’d never had to show his goods at all. Just say Sir Eugene Goossens and that would be right. He said that to me.
Did he say what these would be used for?
Private collection.
There have been suggestions made to me that Roie got him to bring the stuff in.
No I don't think that he and she had been in touch while he’d been away. If she had been in touch, I imagine that she had been knocked off. When she was arrested before he went away he destroyed all his photographs and this was him replenishing them-incense, masks-all the things that were used in the coven.
There was a handwritten book found in his pocket on S.M. sex magic. Did you sight it?
No... I didn’t see no book. But there was a letter that Goossens wrote to Roie... from Melbourne, I think...Dear Rowitch... some of the times he would address her as Ro, Roie, or Rowitch...Dear Rowitch, I was quite excited in my bedroom when the blinds-curtains rattled and I looked up and your ethereal being was coming through the windows...any way he got excited about it... can’t think of the exact words. Any rate, he got so excited he knocked over the candle and set fire to the curtains. I made inquires from the hotel, and the curtains had caught on fire.
How did you start up of a morning when you fronted up for work?
First thing I’d would be look at the current sheets in the crime book, then write my diary up. From then on what crime had happened overnight, anything I had to look into. Then I’d wander around the district Vice squad wise where there could have been homosexuals, that sort of thing.
How did that come to your attention? Did people make complaints?
Well I knew that the fountain there in Hyde Park...
The Archibald?
Yeah, the Archibald. I knew that if you put your foot on the surround and leant on your knee and look at the naked one...if you get the right gloss it looks like he’s havin’ a pee. If you stand there and look at that, a bloke would sidle up beside you and he drops acid on you.
And you asks him if he’s goin’ and he says"La, la."
And you say, "Well we’d better go for a walk."
And he says, "Oh good."
And me mate, who’s standing there watching, comes over and says,"What you got there, sergeant?" And that was the beginning and end of that.
Poor loves.
Yeah well. It was against the law. Even although society today accepts it, It’s still an offence if you do some of these things in public.
Well public or private... so far society hasn’t collapsed.
It’s still an offence to do some of these things in public. Society now accepts that if it happens in private it’s no business of anybody else. I don’t subscribe to that even now. As a decent law abiding Christian...I’m not a bible basher... but I believe in right and wrong. I think I know the difference between right and wrong. That’s the way I was brought up.
And these activities were wrong?
To me, these activities were morally...ehh.
Repugnant?
Morally repugnant, yeah. And I think generally to the majority of people... that jury I mentioned... didn’t know these things were going on. As a vice squad officer I knew these things were going on. And that was my duty...
To stamp these things out?
Yeah...There’s a different approach to morality today than there was was thirty or forty years ago and that’s where I’m coming from. I was carrying out a duty... a desire... to stamp this sort of conduct out. 31.
*
Nat Craig went through Sir Eugene Goossens’ luggage and found 1,100 items secreted among musical scores of Brahms and Beethoven which, according to their obscene nature, were deemed to be prohibited imports. The search took 45 minutes.
When it was over, Sir Eugene emerged from the Doctor’s office."I’m sorry I couldn’t see you earlier," he told waiting reporters. " I was taken dizzy with air sickness and have been lying down inside."
The Knight of the Realm was taken on a 20-minute drive to C.IB. headquarters by detectives Trevener and Kirkpatrick. There, after questioning, he signed a statement. The only excuse he could give in defence was that his valet, Billings must have placed the items there, before he left London.
It was 3 P.M. when Sir Eugene left the C.I.B. before a popping of flash bulbs.
Velour hat still at rakish angle, coat still draped over shoulders, he made his way through the thronged reporters.
"I must go home now," He said. "They’ll be waiting for me."
"Taxi, Sir Eugene?"
"No.No. I’m enjoying my little walk".
Made his way to the station.
"Daily Mirror, Sir Eugene. Do you have any plans to carry out your schedule of concerts?"
"Of course. Of course. There is no charge against me".
Caught a train to Wahroongah, where more reporters were waiting.
" What could I possibly be charged with?"
Strolled from the station to 28 Burns road.
Eugene’s daughter opened the door, frowned at the pack of reporters clamouring behind her father. "It’s alright, dear," he said. "The whole thing’s a complete misunderstanding."
He turned to the press. "Please, gentlemen, please. A statement will be forthcoming." And closed the door. 32.
*
On March 13 two customs officers served a personal summons under section 233-(1) (D) of the Customs Act 1901 on Sir Eugene Goossens, returnable at 10.A.M Martin Place Court of Petty Sessions the next morning. Holed up at Burns road with its tennis court and the mural, he had himself painted, depicting mediterrania on the reception room wall, he took advice from his solicitor, Mervyn Finley and his brother, A.N. (Huck) Finlay Assistant to Sir Charles Moses, General Manager of the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
Mervyn Finlay requested the court for an adjournment to allow Sir Eugene time to prepare his case with senior counsel, Jack Shand Q.C. who said,
My client has naturally been distressed by these proceedings and is anxious that they be heard as soon as possible.
After consulting with Huck Finlay, Sir Eugene issued a press statement,
Owing to ill health I have requested to be relieved temporarily of my duties with the State Conservatorium of Music and as conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The New South Wales government, the Council of the City of Sydney and the Australian Broadcasting Commission have agreed to release me as requested. 34.
Huck wrote Sir Charles,
It has been a tough few days. This morning Gene signed attached statement which has been approved by Heffron (Minister of Education) and Wirth (Chairman of Public Service Board) I feel it is the only possible course for him to have taken. And on our behalf we are protected. 34.
*Note.
So Eugene went into his pocket again, and he was pulling out bits of string. You’d be surprised at what he kept in his waistcoat pockets. And all of a sudden he found it. Put the key in. He didn’t even turn it. Pressed the button. It wasn’t even locked. So that’s where we found the photographs.
I pointed to another bag and said, What’s in there?"
He said, "Aw that’s my musical scores."
"Do you mind if I open it?
There was other stuff among his musical scores all taped together.
Well I’m standing behind him and he’d on a blue shirt. The collar of the shirt turned from pale blue to dark with the perspiration running down out of his hair. He knew he was gone. For in the past he’d never had to show his goods at all. Just say Sir Eugene Goossens and that would be right. He said that to me.
Did he say what these would be used for?
Private collection.
There have been suggestions made to me that Roie got him to bring the stuff in.
No I don't think that he and she had been in touch while he’d been away. If she had been in touch, I imagine that she had been knocked off. When she was arrested before he went away he destroyed all his photographs and this was him replenishing them-incense, masks-all the things that were used in the coven.
There was a handwritten book found in his pocket on S.M. sex magic. Did you sight it?
No... I didn’t see no book. But there was a letter that Goossens wrote to Roie... from Melbourne, I think...Dear Rowitch... some of the times he would address her as Ro, Roie, or Rowitch...Dear Rowitch, I was quite excited in my bedroom when the blinds-curtains rattled and I looked up and your ethereal being was coming through the windows...any way he got excited about it... can’t think of the exact words. Any rate, he got so excited he knocked over the candle and set fire to the curtains. I made inquires from the hotel, and the curtains had caught on fire.
How did you start up of a morning when you fronted up for work?
First thing I’d would be look at the current sheets in the crime book, then write my diary up. From then on what crime had happened overnight, anything I had to look into. Then I’d wander around the district Vice squad wise where there could have been homosexuals, that sort of thing.
How did that come to your attention? Did people make complaints?
Well I knew that the fountain there in Hyde Park...
The Archibald?
Yeah, the Archibald. I knew that if you put your foot on the surround and leant on your knee and look at the naked one...if you get the right gloss it looks like he’s havin’ a pee. If you stand there and look at that, a bloke would sidle up beside you and he drops acid on you.
And you asks him if he’s goin’ and he says"La, la."
And you say, "Well we’d better go for a walk."
And he says, "Oh good."
And me mate, who’s standing there watching, comes over and says,"What you got there, sergeant?" And that was the beginning and end of that.
Poor loves.
Yeah well. It was against the law. Even although society today accepts it, It’s still an offence if you do some of these things in public.
Well public or private... so far society hasn’t collapsed.
It’s still an offence to do some of these things in public. Society now accepts that if it happens in private it’s no business of anybody else. I don’t subscribe to that even now. As a decent law abiding Christian...I’m not a bible basher... but I believe in right and wrong. I think I know the difference between right and wrong. That’s the way I was brought up.
And these activities were wrong?
To me, these activities were morally...ehh.
Repugnant?
Morally repugnant, yeah. And I think generally to the majority of people... that jury I mentioned... didn’t know these things were going on. As a vice squad officer I knew these things were going on. And that was my duty...
To stamp these things out?
Yeah...There’s a different approach to morality today than there was was thirty or forty years ago and that’s where I’m coming from. I was carrying out a duty... a desire... to stamp this sort of conduct out. 31.
*
Nat Craig went through Sir Eugene Goossens’ luggage and found 1,100 items secreted among musical scores of Brahms and Beethoven which, according to their obscene nature, were deemed to be prohibited imports. The search took 45 minutes.
When it was over, Sir Eugene emerged from the Doctor’s office."I’m sorry I couldn’t see you earlier," he told waiting reporters. " I was taken dizzy with air sickness and have been lying down inside."
The Knight of the Realm was taken on a 20-minute drive to C.IB. headquarters by detectives Trevener and Kirkpatrick. There, after questioning, he signed a statement. The only excuse he could give in defence was that his valet, Billings must have placed the items there, before he left London.
It was 3 P.M. when Sir Eugene left the C.I.B. before a popping of flash bulbs.
Velour hat still at rakish angle, coat still draped over shoulders, he made his way through the thronged reporters.
"I must go home now," He said. "They’ll be waiting for me."
"Taxi, Sir Eugene?"
"No.No. I’m enjoying my little walk".
Made his way to the station.
"Daily Mirror, Sir Eugene. Do you have any plans to carry out your schedule of concerts?"
"Of course. Of course. There is no charge against me".
Caught a train to Wahroongah, where more reporters were waiting.
" What could I possibly be charged with?"
Strolled from the station to 28 Burns road.
Eugene’s daughter opened the door, frowned at the pack of reporters clamouring behind her father. "It’s alright, dear," he said. "The whole thing’s a complete misunderstanding."
He turned to the press. "Please, gentlemen, please. A statement will be forthcoming." And closed the door. 32.
*
On March 13 two customs officers served a personal summons under section 233-(1) (D) of the Customs Act 1901 on Sir Eugene Goossens, returnable at 10.A.M Martin Place Court of Petty Sessions the next morning. Holed up at Burns road with its tennis court and the mural, he had himself painted, depicting mediterrania on the reception room wall, he took advice from his solicitor, Mervyn Finley and his brother, A.N. (Huck) Finlay Assistant to Sir Charles Moses, General Manager of the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
Mervyn Finlay requested the court for an adjournment to allow Sir Eugene time to prepare his case with senior counsel, Jack Shand Q.C. who said,
My client has naturally been distressed by these proceedings and is anxious that they be heard as soon as possible.
After consulting with Huck Finlay, Sir Eugene issued a press statement,
Owing to ill health I have requested to be relieved temporarily of my duties with the State Conservatorium of Music and as conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The New South Wales government, the Council of the City of Sydney and the Australian Broadcasting Commission have agreed to release me as requested. 34.
Huck wrote Sir Charles,
It has been a tough few days. This morning Gene signed attached statement which has been approved by Heffron (Minister of Education) and Wirth (Chairman of Public Service Board) I feel it is the only possible course for him to have taken. And on our behalf we are protected. 34.
*Note.
The last sentence, ‘And on our behalf we are protected.’ seems odd. Who were the ‘we’ Huck was referring to? If it were himself and Sir Charles, how could Goosens’ resignation protect them and from what? Could it be that ‘scurrilous gossip’ and ‘malicious rumours’ about Sir Charles and his assistant being members of Roie’s coven contained more than ‘a scintilla of truth’? 35.
The press was hysterical, making claims which caused flutters among others not so protected...PEOPLE OF CULTURE, WEALTH, EDUCATION AND SOCIAL STANDING HAVE UTTERLY DEBASED THEMSELVES IN ORGIASTIC RITUAL GATHERINGS. MUCH OF THEIR BEHAVIOUR IS DESCRIBED AS ’PLAIN FILTH’. POLICE HAVE BEEN MAKING LONG TERM INQUIRIES IN UTMOST SECRECY. INFORMATION WHICH COMMISSIONER DELANEY RECEIVED ON MONDAY IS BELIEVED TO INVOLVE PERSONS OTHER THAN SIR EUGENE. THE REPORT WHICH IS THE RESULT OF SIX MONTHS INVESTIGATION BY VICE SQUAD DETECTIVES IS UNDERSTOOD TO CONTAIN STATEMENTS, LETTERS AND REFERENCES TO SEVERAL PEOPLE WELL KNOWN IN SYDNEY INCLUDING ARTISTS. 28.
Sir Eugene Goossens was tried in absentia at 5 Martin Place, the Court of Petty Sessions, on March 22 1956.
A medical certificate from his MacQuarie street specialist testified him to be in complete mental and physical collapse.
Marjorie, Lady Goosens, interviewed from behind a grill at the enclosed French convent where she had been spending a retreat for some months, told a reporter that,
I fully support my husband... look forward to being with him again...continually in my prayers." 36.
Martin Place Court of Petty Sessions, now demolished, had high, narrow windows peering down at a Tasmanian oak dado surrounding a raised dais where sat Senior Magistrate S.J. McCauley. Before him at opposite tables were Jack Shand Q.C. for the defense and the Crown prosecutor J.D. Holmes, who opened.
"Mr. Craig found a number of large envelopes in the accused’s cases. Inside the envelopes were smaller envelopes stuck to the insides of the larger envelopes. The smaller envelopes contained obscene pictures. Sir Eugene told Mr. Craig that the photos had been bought at the same shop in Leicester Square. Some of the large envelopes had markings on them, which indicated that they contained sheets of music, or material relating to well known composers.
The defendant said he knew the photos were there and a personal servant had fixed them up in this way. He also said they were for a private collection. The Crown has selected some of the photos to show the types of pornography involved. Also in the baggage there was a collection of prints mentioned in the summons. These prints demonstrate a particular type of aberration.
The photos total 1,166. Of these at least 844 are obviously covered by the charge. We do not think any useful purpose would be served in siting degrees of obscenity, or making distinctions. The photos were carried in a manner likely to deceive a customs officer.
Despite what no doubt will be said for the defendant there are, we submit, no mitigating circumstances. Throughout his interview with Mr. Craig the defendant made it clear he realised the significance of his actions.
He was fully conscious of the character of the exhibits and, apart from his assertion that they were for a private collection, he made no claim that they were not obscene."
All Shand could offer in mitigation was that the defendant was, a timid man, acting under duress.’ He called only one witness to testify as to Goosens’ character -Sir Charles Moses, Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
Moses had immigrated to Australia from England in 1922. Florid and very well built, he attempted to keep his weight down by chopping wood. He had failed as a grazier and used car salesman, but found his forte in A.B.C. where he had begun as a radio announcer in the days when announcers wore evening dress when reading news after 5.P.M. A great friend of Goosens, he once said of him,
he was British, thoroughly so; why despite his years in the U.S.A. he still pronounces schedule the way British people do.
Prompted by Shand to bear witness as to the accused’s character he said,
The engagement of Sir Eugene Goosens, from a musical point of view, was one of the most fortunate things that could have happened for this country. When he came he said he would make the Sydney Symphony Orchestra one of the best six. Well it’s certainly among the world’s best ten, and possibly the best six".
"Would you call him a worldly man?"
No. I would say he is just the opposite. In the field of music I would say he has positive opinions and not afraid to express them. But in other matters I would say he is not a practical man. He is a very timid man, a very nervous man. I would say he is one of the most timid among the artists we bring to this country every year. I meet them all and get to know them. He is very diffident about matters affecting himself. He has never approached me since 1951 about altering the terms of his contract, although the cost of living has gone up considerably".
"What has been his reputation up until the time of this incident"?
Of the very highest. There has never been a whisper about his discredit from anywhere. It doesn’t take long for rumours about artists who come out here to come to my ears.
(It certainly did not. While Sir Eugene was on a sea cruise in March 1949 after a bout of pleurisy, Sir Charles signed Otto Klempler up as his replacement. Eugene was furious when he heard about it, as he believed there was an agreement that he would be consulted before any such appointments were made. Within hours of Klemperer’s appointment, he dashed off a letter, which read in part,
K’ is a notorious mental case. He has been shut up in mental homes for long periods on at least three occasions. I have met at least three women who have had to barricade themselves in their rooms to avoid his violent and insane attentions. He was picked up in the gutter in downtown L.A. after being beaten up by some toughs who resented his attentions to one of their women. His ungovernable temper is made worse by his lunatic ravings at rehearsal.
I have never written or spoken ill of a colleague in my life, but feel it my duty to tell you all of this. Musical circles abroad when they read of this 6’4" imbecile let loose on the Australian Community will eye us with apprehension and some considerable pity. I shall, of course, breathe no word of this to anyone else. 37.
Klemperer was indeed a bit strange. While negotiating with the members of the S.S.O. to work overtime he pulled out a gun and slapped it on the table before the startled leader, William James. Saying, "Do you think this will help to persuade them?") 38.
Shand watched through the court’s high windows as the sun climbed towards the yardarm and Sir Charles finished his eulogy with,
No artist who has come out here has a higher reputation. I find it impossible to associate him with this extremely pornographic literature.
Shand now rose and thanked Sir Charles for his testimony. Rolling his fountain pen between his fingers, he began,
One finds it almost impossible to reconcile the life of the defendant, which has been lived for a long time on a high, ascetic plane, with those very bad types of pornography and salacious pictures which are exhibited in this case. Now, there are two factors my learned friend called attention to; that they were in double envelopes and double sealed. The other factor is the tremendous number- 1000. It may be considered whether there is not an indication that these photos and literature were brought out as part of a trade between England and Australia... a trade which no one in this country would associate the defendant as being a willing accessory.
Before Shand could continue, the yardarm had been reached and the magistrate called a recess for lunch.
After lunch, which must have been libatious, as Shand appeared to lose his train of thought, he continued,
It will be revealed that these photos were brought out as a result of a conspiracy; the result of which will become apparent in later days very soon I hope. The matter I can say is now under investigation and whether the aim of those whom I suggest are responsible for the most pornographic exhibits coming to Australia are persons in the...er. I hope to have them brought out here... feeling that the name of the person in the position of the defendant would not receive the keenest scrutiny or whether this was constituent as an attempt to destroy a world figure, it is hoped these investigations will reveal.
In the circumstances, which existed, the defendant could not reveal to the authorities matters which, as soon as his legal advisors tell him he can and should reveal, and he will at that time seek police aid.
Nothing of what I said will obviate the fact that a very serious offence has taken place in breach of the customs act, and we do not suggest that your worship should impose anything less than than the maximum penalty".
Having said all of that- Sir Eugene’s ‘defence ‘ rested its’ case.
His worship cast an eye to the clock. 3.P.M. It had been a long day. He slammed his gavel and fined the Knight of the Realm one hundred pounds- with court costs of one pound. Professional costs for Jack Shand Q.C. were 12 guineas.
In Melbourne an old pal of Sir Eugene’s, Percy Grainger, freaked when he heard the news. Grainger, by his own account daily masturbator and flagellator, by others’ account incestuous with his mother, Rose, culled his books of anything which deviated from the heterosexual missionary position and donated them, in plain brown wrappers, to Melbourne City Library. Among them was a volume entitled The Lure of the Rod. The head librarian was perhaps disappointed on opening it to find a treatise on the art of fly-fishing. 39.
Meanwhile letters poured in to Sir Charles Moses at A.B.C. Among them, written in green ink...
Marika
45 Dight ST
East Richmond.
11 April 1956.
Dear Sir,
We have just heard the verdict final and merciless on Sir Eugene Goossens on the 7.P.M. news.2F.C. Have you someone very good to step in his shoes? I never will know because never again will I listen to a concert broadcast so help me God.
I do not envy the man who will step into the music master’s shoes. British law has been quite merciless with Sir Eugene. I pray that God will send his answer upon every musician in the land; already another conductor has been injured in a car accident since the vicious and obscene press took upon itself the task of destroying all hope for Sir Eugene.
Do not be surprised if more and more famous ones crash to death in aeroplanes as they fly to their musical appointments. God and justice will indeed descend upon them all-and may the first place to suffer be the Sydney Conservatorium.
I pray, indeed I do, and that all music will be silenced. That every musician who has sinned and not been caught in the sin will be laid low and silenced by God.
There are few saints among them and many were jealous of Sir Eugene.
Thanks for the plays’Random Harvest’ and ‘Revolution.’
Sincerely
Eileen MacKinley. 40.
*
For Roie it was business as usual.
Colin le Tet, once a mild mannered accountancy student, now retired and living in a leafy North Shore suburb.
In those days there wasn’t much in the way of entertainment. Aw there were movies and theatre, but the pubs closed at six. If you wanted a drink after that the only thing was a restaurant where you could have wine with a meal. Some of us would go to Lorenzini’s in Martin Place.There you could have a blow out on spaghetti and red wine for about five bob, I think it was.
Anyway I had a late class that night and went after it to Lorenzini’s. Ray Price? The jazz musician was there and we had a good night. Afterwards we went to Ray’s place-a flat down the Rocks-to listen to some new jazz records he’d got.
Ray went through his letters sitting on the hall table and among them was an invitation from a woman Called Roie Norton.
The invitation was to a nude party and Ray said, "Do you fancy it?"
Well it was something to do, so we went. I’m still carrying my briefcase and books by the way.
The address was this big old house up the Cross. I think it had been a stable at one time. We knocked and the door was opened by this naked man. He was enormous and ushered us into room lit with candles where some other people- all naked- were sitting around drinking wine from those big, glass flagons you got in those days. I remember there was a painting on the wall of a woman doing it with a Black Panther.
"Is there anyplace I can leave my books?" I asked someone, so they would be safe.
"Yes", they said. "Up the stairs."
So I went up the stairs, and it was dark at the top. I heard voices and said,"Can I leave my books here, where they’ll be safe?"
And a voice-it was a woman’s voice- said Leave them there in the corner. They’ll be safe." And, "Do you have a match?"
Well I lit a match and there was Roie and she had a man on top of her and they’d obviously just finished what they had been doing. My hand was trembling, but I managed to light her cigarette. She thanked me and I went back downstairs.
"Ray," I said."You’ll never guess what I just saw."
"What?" Ray said, as he gave me a glass of wine.
Before I could answer, Roie came down the stairs...still naked. "This is a nude party," she said. And she began to unbutton my coat.
I buttoned it up again. "Don’t you dare," I said. And went back upstairs, got my books and left...Ray stayed." 41.
Shortly before Sir Eugene Goossens left Sydney for the last time he remarked to a friend that what had happened to him was part of a plot,’ weirder than anything thought up by Edgar Wallace’. Others received by way of explanation a bizarre Roneo...
As you can well imagine, only threats of a really dangerous nature were responsible for compelling my action. Unfortunately I am still unable to identify those people who telephonically over a period of months menacingly forced me to comply with their demands. They remained anonymous throughout, merely stating that I would be ‘contacted’ on return to Sydney. My reception there by press and officials on landing might indicate that I had been deliberately victimised, or that my mysterious callers had themselves been exposed.
In addition to this, a matter mischievously distorted by a section of the press into sheer sensationalism was my operatic collaboration with two members of a local group and some carnival masks I had brought from Vienna for my daughter were given a sinister significance.
I realise what a strain has been imposed on your friendship by my enforced silence. Sound health and resilience of spirit have enabled me to endure my ordeal. Fortunately, too, my artistic enthusiasm remains always unimpaired. 42.
Sir Eugene packed up his belongings and sent them by sea to London. Furniture, books and paintings were sold for a few hundred pounds. As his contract had now been cancelled, he had to haggle with A.B.C. for his airfare. It was a far cry from the days when he broke his favourite baton during rehearsals at Melbourne Town Hall and the Sydney Melbourne plane was held up while an A.B.C. courier raced to the airport with two replacements. Another courier, escorted by police, raced from Esssendon, arriving two minutes before the start of the concert. As he explained, "Other batons are too short for me. I can’t work properly without them." 43.
On May 25 he had lunch with Sir Robert Menzies who assured him he had answered Eddie Ward’s query in N.S.W. State Parliament on April 11 and would not be recommending the cancellation of his Knighthood.
Before catching a K.LM. flight to Rome on May 26 under the assumed name of E.Gray, he wrote,
The press was hysterical, making claims which caused flutters among others not so protected...PEOPLE OF CULTURE, WEALTH, EDUCATION AND SOCIAL STANDING HAVE UTTERLY DEBASED THEMSELVES IN ORGIASTIC RITUAL GATHERINGS. MUCH OF THEIR BEHAVIOUR IS DESCRIBED AS ’PLAIN FILTH’. POLICE HAVE BEEN MAKING LONG TERM INQUIRIES IN UTMOST SECRECY. INFORMATION WHICH COMMISSIONER DELANEY RECEIVED ON MONDAY IS BELIEVED TO INVOLVE PERSONS OTHER THAN SIR EUGENE. THE REPORT WHICH IS THE RESULT OF SIX MONTHS INVESTIGATION BY VICE SQUAD DETECTIVES IS UNDERSTOOD TO CONTAIN STATEMENTS, LETTERS AND REFERENCES TO SEVERAL PEOPLE WELL KNOWN IN SYDNEY INCLUDING ARTISTS. 28.
Sir Eugene Goossens was tried in absentia at 5 Martin Place, the Court of Petty Sessions, on March 22 1956.
A medical certificate from his MacQuarie street specialist testified him to be in complete mental and physical collapse.
Marjorie, Lady Goosens, interviewed from behind a grill at the enclosed French convent where she had been spending a retreat for some months, told a reporter that,
I fully support my husband... look forward to being with him again...continually in my prayers." 36.
Martin Place Court of Petty Sessions, now demolished, had high, narrow windows peering down at a Tasmanian oak dado surrounding a raised dais where sat Senior Magistrate S.J. McCauley. Before him at opposite tables were Jack Shand Q.C. for the defense and the Crown prosecutor J.D. Holmes, who opened.
"Mr. Craig found a number of large envelopes in the accused’s cases. Inside the envelopes were smaller envelopes stuck to the insides of the larger envelopes. The smaller envelopes contained obscene pictures. Sir Eugene told Mr. Craig that the photos had been bought at the same shop in Leicester Square. Some of the large envelopes had markings on them, which indicated that they contained sheets of music, or material relating to well known composers.
The defendant said he knew the photos were there and a personal servant had fixed them up in this way. He also said they were for a private collection. The Crown has selected some of the photos to show the types of pornography involved. Also in the baggage there was a collection of prints mentioned in the summons. These prints demonstrate a particular type of aberration.
The photos total 1,166. Of these at least 844 are obviously covered by the charge. We do not think any useful purpose would be served in siting degrees of obscenity, or making distinctions. The photos were carried in a manner likely to deceive a customs officer.
Despite what no doubt will be said for the defendant there are, we submit, no mitigating circumstances. Throughout his interview with Mr. Craig the defendant made it clear he realised the significance of his actions.
He was fully conscious of the character of the exhibits and, apart from his assertion that they were for a private collection, he made no claim that they were not obscene."
All Shand could offer in mitigation was that the defendant was, a timid man, acting under duress.’ He called only one witness to testify as to Goosens’ character -Sir Charles Moses, Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
Moses had immigrated to Australia from England in 1922. Florid and very well built, he attempted to keep his weight down by chopping wood. He had failed as a grazier and used car salesman, but found his forte in A.B.C. where he had begun as a radio announcer in the days when announcers wore evening dress when reading news after 5.P.M. A great friend of Goosens, he once said of him,
he was British, thoroughly so; why despite his years in the U.S.A. he still pronounces schedule the way British people do.
Prompted by Shand to bear witness as to the accused’s character he said,
The engagement of Sir Eugene Goosens, from a musical point of view, was one of the most fortunate things that could have happened for this country. When he came he said he would make the Sydney Symphony Orchestra one of the best six. Well it’s certainly among the world’s best ten, and possibly the best six".
"Would you call him a worldly man?"
No. I would say he is just the opposite. In the field of music I would say he has positive opinions and not afraid to express them. But in other matters I would say he is not a practical man. He is a very timid man, a very nervous man. I would say he is one of the most timid among the artists we bring to this country every year. I meet them all and get to know them. He is very diffident about matters affecting himself. He has never approached me since 1951 about altering the terms of his contract, although the cost of living has gone up considerably".
"What has been his reputation up until the time of this incident"?
Of the very highest. There has never been a whisper about his discredit from anywhere. It doesn’t take long for rumours about artists who come out here to come to my ears.
(It certainly did not. While Sir Eugene was on a sea cruise in March 1949 after a bout of pleurisy, Sir Charles signed Otto Klempler up as his replacement. Eugene was furious when he heard about it, as he believed there was an agreement that he would be consulted before any such appointments were made. Within hours of Klemperer’s appointment, he dashed off a letter, which read in part,
K’ is a notorious mental case. He has been shut up in mental homes for long periods on at least three occasions. I have met at least three women who have had to barricade themselves in their rooms to avoid his violent and insane attentions. He was picked up in the gutter in downtown L.A. after being beaten up by some toughs who resented his attentions to one of their women. His ungovernable temper is made worse by his lunatic ravings at rehearsal.
I have never written or spoken ill of a colleague in my life, but feel it my duty to tell you all of this. Musical circles abroad when they read of this 6’4" imbecile let loose on the Australian Community will eye us with apprehension and some considerable pity. I shall, of course, breathe no word of this to anyone else. 37.
Klemperer was indeed a bit strange. While negotiating with the members of the S.S.O. to work overtime he pulled out a gun and slapped it on the table before the startled leader, William James. Saying, "Do you think this will help to persuade them?") 38.
Shand watched through the court’s high windows as the sun climbed towards the yardarm and Sir Charles finished his eulogy with,
No artist who has come out here has a higher reputation. I find it impossible to associate him with this extremely pornographic literature.
Shand now rose and thanked Sir Charles for his testimony. Rolling his fountain pen between his fingers, he began,
One finds it almost impossible to reconcile the life of the defendant, which has been lived for a long time on a high, ascetic plane, with those very bad types of pornography and salacious pictures which are exhibited in this case. Now, there are two factors my learned friend called attention to; that they were in double envelopes and double sealed. The other factor is the tremendous number- 1000. It may be considered whether there is not an indication that these photos and literature were brought out as part of a trade between England and Australia... a trade which no one in this country would associate the defendant as being a willing accessory.
Before Shand could continue, the yardarm had been reached and the magistrate called a recess for lunch.
After lunch, which must have been libatious, as Shand appeared to lose his train of thought, he continued,
It will be revealed that these photos were brought out as a result of a conspiracy; the result of which will become apparent in later days very soon I hope. The matter I can say is now under investigation and whether the aim of those whom I suggest are responsible for the most pornographic exhibits coming to Australia are persons in the...er. I hope to have them brought out here... feeling that the name of the person in the position of the defendant would not receive the keenest scrutiny or whether this was constituent as an attempt to destroy a world figure, it is hoped these investigations will reveal.
In the circumstances, which existed, the defendant could not reveal to the authorities matters which, as soon as his legal advisors tell him he can and should reveal, and he will at that time seek police aid.
Nothing of what I said will obviate the fact that a very serious offence has taken place in breach of the customs act, and we do not suggest that your worship should impose anything less than than the maximum penalty".
Having said all of that- Sir Eugene’s ‘defence ‘ rested its’ case.
His worship cast an eye to the clock. 3.P.M. It had been a long day. He slammed his gavel and fined the Knight of the Realm one hundred pounds- with court costs of one pound. Professional costs for Jack Shand Q.C. were 12 guineas.
In Melbourne an old pal of Sir Eugene’s, Percy Grainger, freaked when he heard the news. Grainger, by his own account daily masturbator and flagellator, by others’ account incestuous with his mother, Rose, culled his books of anything which deviated from the heterosexual missionary position and donated them, in plain brown wrappers, to Melbourne City Library. Among them was a volume entitled The Lure of the Rod. The head librarian was perhaps disappointed on opening it to find a treatise on the art of fly-fishing. 39.
Meanwhile letters poured in to Sir Charles Moses at A.B.C. Among them, written in green ink...
Marika
45 Dight ST
East Richmond.
11 April 1956.
Dear Sir,
We have just heard the verdict final and merciless on Sir Eugene Goossens on the 7.P.M. news.2F.C. Have you someone very good to step in his shoes? I never will know because never again will I listen to a concert broadcast so help me God.
I do not envy the man who will step into the music master’s shoes. British law has been quite merciless with Sir Eugene. I pray that God will send his answer upon every musician in the land; already another conductor has been injured in a car accident since the vicious and obscene press took upon itself the task of destroying all hope for Sir Eugene.
Do not be surprised if more and more famous ones crash to death in aeroplanes as they fly to their musical appointments. God and justice will indeed descend upon them all-and may the first place to suffer be the Sydney Conservatorium.
I pray, indeed I do, and that all music will be silenced. That every musician who has sinned and not been caught in the sin will be laid low and silenced by God.
There are few saints among them and many were jealous of Sir Eugene.
Thanks for the plays’Random Harvest’ and ‘Revolution.’
Sincerely
Eileen MacKinley. 40.
*
For Roie it was business as usual.
Colin le Tet, once a mild mannered accountancy student, now retired and living in a leafy North Shore suburb.
In those days there wasn’t much in the way of entertainment. Aw there were movies and theatre, but the pubs closed at six. If you wanted a drink after that the only thing was a restaurant where you could have wine with a meal. Some of us would go to Lorenzini’s in Martin Place.There you could have a blow out on spaghetti and red wine for about five bob, I think it was.
Anyway I had a late class that night and went after it to Lorenzini’s. Ray Price? The jazz musician was there and we had a good night. Afterwards we went to Ray’s place-a flat down the Rocks-to listen to some new jazz records he’d got.
Ray went through his letters sitting on the hall table and among them was an invitation from a woman Called Roie Norton.
The invitation was to a nude party and Ray said, "Do you fancy it?"
Well it was something to do, so we went. I’m still carrying my briefcase and books by the way.
The address was this big old house up the Cross. I think it had been a stable at one time. We knocked and the door was opened by this naked man. He was enormous and ushered us into room lit with candles where some other people- all naked- were sitting around drinking wine from those big, glass flagons you got in those days. I remember there was a painting on the wall of a woman doing it with a Black Panther.
"Is there anyplace I can leave my books?" I asked someone, so they would be safe.
"Yes", they said. "Up the stairs."
So I went up the stairs, and it was dark at the top. I heard voices and said,"Can I leave my books here, where they’ll be safe?"
And a voice-it was a woman’s voice- said Leave them there in the corner. They’ll be safe." And, "Do you have a match?"
Well I lit a match and there was Roie and she had a man on top of her and they’d obviously just finished what they had been doing. My hand was trembling, but I managed to light her cigarette. She thanked me and I went back downstairs.
"Ray," I said."You’ll never guess what I just saw."
"What?" Ray said, as he gave me a glass of wine.
Before I could answer, Roie came down the stairs...still naked. "This is a nude party," she said. And she began to unbutton my coat.
I buttoned it up again. "Don’t you dare," I said. And went back upstairs, got my books and left...Ray stayed." 41.
Shortly before Sir Eugene Goossens left Sydney for the last time he remarked to a friend that what had happened to him was part of a plot,’ weirder than anything thought up by Edgar Wallace’. Others received by way of explanation a bizarre Roneo...
As you can well imagine, only threats of a really dangerous nature were responsible for compelling my action. Unfortunately I am still unable to identify those people who telephonically over a period of months menacingly forced me to comply with their demands. They remained anonymous throughout, merely stating that I would be ‘contacted’ on return to Sydney. My reception there by press and officials on landing might indicate that I had been deliberately victimised, or that my mysterious callers had themselves been exposed.
In addition to this, a matter mischievously distorted by a section of the press into sheer sensationalism was my operatic collaboration with two members of a local group and some carnival masks I had brought from Vienna for my daughter were given a sinister significance.
I realise what a strain has been imposed on your friendship by my enforced silence. Sound health and resilience of spirit have enabled me to endure my ordeal. Fortunately, too, my artistic enthusiasm remains always unimpaired. 42.
Sir Eugene packed up his belongings and sent them by sea to London. Furniture, books and paintings were sold for a few hundred pounds. As his contract had now been cancelled, he had to haggle with A.B.C. for his airfare. It was a far cry from the days when he broke his favourite baton during rehearsals at Melbourne Town Hall and the Sydney Melbourne plane was held up while an A.B.C. courier raced to the airport with two replacements. Another courier, escorted by police, raced from Esssendon, arriving two minutes before the start of the concert. As he explained, "Other batons are too short for me. I can’t work properly without them." 43.
On May 25 he had lunch with Sir Robert Menzies who assured him he had answered Eddie Ward’s query in N.S.W. State Parliament on April 11 and would not be recommending the cancellation of his Knighthood.
Before catching a K.LM. flight to Rome on May 26 under the assumed name of E.Gray, he wrote,
last section including references
I regretfully bid farewell to a city where I have spent so many happy years in making my modest contribution to its musical development. I shall always look back with pride to my association with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, and hope that both will continue to grow in artistic achievement.
It is my misfortune that I allowed myself to be used to bring prohibited materials into this country as a result of persistent menaces involving others. 44.
Under the heading of ‘Exit Sir Eugene with a change of tune’, The Daily Telegraph noted he...
looked thinner than he did at anytime during his musical career in Sydney during the last nine years. When he reached the top of the stairs at the aircraft door he half turned quickly and raised his right arm shoulder high in a farewell wave . 45.
Sir Eugene flew from Rome to the convent outside Paris where Lady Goossens still remained in closed retreat. After that meeting, they never met again.
After a short time at his club ‘Savage.’ he took up residence in a small flat at 76 Hamilton terrace N.W.8.
"It was a very small flat," Joan Sutherland, the former suburban secretary whose musical career he had kick started when he gave her the lead role in his one act opera, Judith, remembered. "Scored manuscripts tumbled from the book cases... and he seemed to be so much smaller...shrunken."
A view at variance with that of the Daily Telegraph correspondent when the maestro arrived in Sydney in 1947...
He is a big, pink man with large ears. A long pointed nose, alert eyes, a bulging forehead and long sideburns turning Grey at the ends. He moves slowly, speaks softly with an accent that has a faint flavour of the English North Country about it. But you are conscious all the time of the tremendous latent force in the man, of controlled and latent power.
In photos he looks unemotional, almost cold. But he is one of the proofs that the camera can lie. He is warm, friendly, direct and with immense personal charm and manners. 46..
When Sutherland saw him it was shortly after his last recital in London’s Festival Hall on March 31 1962. The years had not been kind to him and he was in continuing ill health. In June of that year he flew to Switzerland to visit one of his daughters. On the return flight to London he was taken ill. Rushed to hospital he died on June 13 1962. Not from the heart condition which had plagued his life; an ulcer perforated his stomach and he died from peritonitis.
The 60’s and early 70’s were the age of phsycadaelia. Everybody seemed to be out of it on either acid or grass. The credo was tune in, turn on, drop out. Roie, who had been living that way, years before Professor Leary had dropped his first tab, now found herself just another mystic artist among the beads, bells, bangles and flowing caftans worn by the Pagans and Pantheists who now proliferated in the Cross. Kids were being born and named Sky, Rain, and Free. Legitimate stage shows such as Hair, Oh Calcutta, and Lady of the Flowers featured full frontal nudity. According to one disgruntled ex J.C.Williamson ‘boy’,
Forget talent, Ned. It’s all big hair and big dick today. 47..
In various venues in the Cross and outer suburbs real and simulated sex acts were being performed which made the wicked witch’s activities look like amateur theatricals.
Roie, who had always enjoyed robust health, now began to feel aches and pains ‘down there,’ as she put it. In 1979 she was diagnosed as having cancer of the colon. She spent her last days in the Sacred Heart Hospice, just a short stroll from her old flat in Brougham Street.
Richard Moir who privately published a memoir about her in 1994 paints a vivid picture of the last time he saw her.
When I arrived at the hospital I was ushered into the visitor’s lounge room, strange I thought, as Roie couldn’t walk.
I waited in the lounge for some time patiently; suddenly Rosaleen Norton appeared physically standing on both legs, welcoming me, escorted by two sisters. The vision I beheld was mind blowing.
Rosaleen Norton (not Roie) standing there in full garb, her hair flaming back, carefully arranged in her look. Her make up had been very carefully applied, the face powder, the Rosaleen Norton full eye make up and eyebrows, the red lipstick. It was the Rosaleen Norton as I had always remembered her-but even more so.
She stood there for only a moment...The last words Rosaleen Norton said to me were,"Darling; I can’t stay too long. I just came to say hello. Ah! I must go, Darling."" and with her head in a proud position Rosaleen Norton was escorted away out of my sight forever.
48.
Sister Jacinta, well over seventy and still supervising a busy ward remembers her well. "If she was a witch, she was a very nice one,"she said. 49.
Surrounded by nuns, a dedicated Pagan to the end, Rosaleen Norton died on December 5 1979.
Gavin Greenlees’ schizophrenia and paranoid delusions saw him in and out of mental institutions. After an extensive course of E.C.T. he was pronounced cured, took a small flat in Woollhara and began writing poetry again. The landlord found him slumped over the kitchen table on December 5 1983. He had died of a heart attack, four years to the day after Roie’s passing.
Attorney General Frank Walker disbanded the Vice Squad, the bane of Roie’s life, in 1987.
Bert Trevener, long retired from the Vice Squad, still holds firmly to his convictions.
Fuelling the fears of the old guard that it could be made compulsory, the ‘abominable practise of Buggery’ is now celebrated annually at Sydney’s Mardi Gras.
Throughout the suburbs, Pagans, Pantheists and Wiccans now mix, mingle and, with children and dogs underfoot, exchange spells and web sites; for witches do like to party. Roie, even although she once described children as,
Horrible little pink things. All arms and legs who suck the life out of you. 50.
Would love it.
The Rite of Pan
Came the voice of destiny,
Calling o’er the Ionian Sea,
The Great God Pan is dead, is dead.
Humbled is the horned head;
Shut the door that hath no key-
Waste the vales of Arcady.
Shackled by the Iron Age,
Lost the woodland heritage,
Heavy goes the heart of man,
Parted from the light-foot Pan;
Wearily he wears the chain
Till the Goat-god comes again.
Half a man and half a beast,
Pan is greatest,Pan is least.
Pan is all, and all is Pan;
Look for him in every-man;
Goat-hoof swift and shaggy thigh-
Follow him to Arcady.
He shall wake the living dead-
Cloven hoof and horned head,
Human heart and human brain,
Pan the goat- god comes again!
Half a beast and half a man-
Pan is all and all is Pan.
Come,O Goat -god,come again! 52.
BIBLIOGRAPHY & SOURCES.
1. ALL OUR YESTERDAYS.
2. OTAGO DAILY TIMES. OCTOBER 2 1917.
3. PAN’S DAUGHTER. DRURY. N.
4. MARJORY LEWIS. FORMER NEIGHBOUR AND SCHOOLMATE OF ROIE’S.INTERVIEWED BY AUTHOR AUGUST 3.1998.
5. MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PHSYCOLOGIST.1949.*
6. ROSALEEN NORTON IN AN INTERVIEW WITH SUZANNE BAKER ON GLITTERING MILE 1964. CHANNEL 9 ARCHIVES.
7. NEVILLE DRURY. IN AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR JULY 1998.
8. REMEMBER SMITH’S WEEKLY GEORGE BLAIKIE.*
9. NEVILLE DRURY. ART OF ROSALEEN NORTON. P.7.
10. NEVILLE DRURY. PAN’S DAUGHTER. P.15.
11. JIM RUSSEL. INTERVIEWED BY AUTHOR JUNE 1998.
12. SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. AUGUST 15. 1954.
13. ART OF ROSALEEN NORTON. P.8.
14. WALTER GLOVER Jr. INTERVIEWED BY AUTHOR. AUGUST 1998.
15. *.
16. MURRAY. GOD OF THE WICHES.P.65.
17. *SYDNEY DAILY TELEGRAPH. AUGUST 2. 1947.
18. BAMBI TUCKWELL. INTERVIEWED BY CAROL ROSIN. 1991.
19. JOCK. EX SAXOPHONIST,S.S.O.. INTERVIEWED BY AUTHOR.1998.
20. BRENTON LANGBIN. EX VIOLINIST.S.S.O. INTERVIEWED BY AUTHOR. 1998.
21. QUOTED BY NEVILLE DRURY TO AUTHOR FROM AN INTERVIEW BY HIM WITH WALTER GLOVER sr.
22. DAVE STERLE. PERRENIAL J.C. WILLIAMSON’S HANDSOME PRINCE. FROM AN INTERVIEW BY AUTHOR FOR ANOTHER PROJECT IN 1969.
23. p.242.Perfect Murder. B. Taylor. Grafton Books London.ISBN 0-246-12192-6. 1987. *
24. INTERVIEW WITH Rev’MICHAEL SANTRYSEPTEMBER 1998, FORMER SECRETARY TO BISHOP REID, WHO HEADED THE ANGLICAN CHURCH’S INQUIRY INTO OCCULTISM?
25. BILL JENKINGS. AS CRIME GOES BY. IRONBARK PRESS SYDNEY. 1992. P221.*
26. DAVID SALTER. GOOD WEEKEND. P.18. AUGUST.1999.
27. ALBERT (TREV) TREVENER. EX VICE SQUAD DETECTIVE. INTERVIEWED BY AUTHOR. JULY 1999.
28. MELBOURNE TRUTH. 17 MARCH?
29. C. ROSIN. THE GOOSSENS A MUSICAL CENTURY.P.300.
30. C. ROSIN. THE GOOSSENS A MUSICAL CENTURY.P303.
31. NATIONAL ARCHIVES. CHESTER HILL. BOX?
32. COLIN Le TET. INTERVIEWED BY AUTHOR JUNE 1998.
33. TERESA RADIC. Bernard Heinze.MACMILLAN LONDON.P.174. *
34. SYDNEY DAILY TELEGRAPH. AUGUST 2. 1947.
35. STERLE. D. IBID 22.
36. RICHARD MOIR.*
37. SISTER JACINTA. CAPO DE CAPO AT SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL HOSPICE DARLINGHURST. INTERVIEWED JULY 1998.
38. Quoted by Don Anderson, who once gave Roie a ride in his taxi.
39. Fortune. D.
I regretfully bid farewell to a city where I have spent so many happy years in making my modest contribution to its musical development. I shall always look back with pride to my association with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, and hope that both will continue to grow in artistic achievement.
It is my misfortune that I allowed myself to be used to bring prohibited materials into this country as a result of persistent menaces involving others. 44.
Under the heading of ‘Exit Sir Eugene with a change of tune’, The Daily Telegraph noted he...
looked thinner than he did at anytime during his musical career in Sydney during the last nine years. When he reached the top of the stairs at the aircraft door he half turned quickly and raised his right arm shoulder high in a farewell wave . 45.
Sir Eugene flew from Rome to the convent outside Paris where Lady Goossens still remained in closed retreat. After that meeting, they never met again.
After a short time at his club ‘Savage.’ he took up residence in a small flat at 76 Hamilton terrace N.W.8.
"It was a very small flat," Joan Sutherland, the former suburban secretary whose musical career he had kick started when he gave her the lead role in his one act opera, Judith, remembered. "Scored manuscripts tumbled from the book cases... and he seemed to be so much smaller...shrunken."
A view at variance with that of the Daily Telegraph correspondent when the maestro arrived in Sydney in 1947...
He is a big, pink man with large ears. A long pointed nose, alert eyes, a bulging forehead and long sideburns turning Grey at the ends. He moves slowly, speaks softly with an accent that has a faint flavour of the English North Country about it. But you are conscious all the time of the tremendous latent force in the man, of controlled and latent power.
In photos he looks unemotional, almost cold. But he is one of the proofs that the camera can lie. He is warm, friendly, direct and with immense personal charm and manners. 46..
When Sutherland saw him it was shortly after his last recital in London’s Festival Hall on March 31 1962. The years had not been kind to him and he was in continuing ill health. In June of that year he flew to Switzerland to visit one of his daughters. On the return flight to London he was taken ill. Rushed to hospital he died on June 13 1962. Not from the heart condition which had plagued his life; an ulcer perforated his stomach and he died from peritonitis.
The 60’s and early 70’s were the age of phsycadaelia. Everybody seemed to be out of it on either acid or grass. The credo was tune in, turn on, drop out. Roie, who had been living that way, years before Professor Leary had dropped his first tab, now found herself just another mystic artist among the beads, bells, bangles and flowing caftans worn by the Pagans and Pantheists who now proliferated in the Cross. Kids were being born and named Sky, Rain, and Free. Legitimate stage shows such as Hair, Oh Calcutta, and Lady of the Flowers featured full frontal nudity. According to one disgruntled ex J.C.Williamson ‘boy’,
Forget talent, Ned. It’s all big hair and big dick today. 47..
In various venues in the Cross and outer suburbs real and simulated sex acts were being performed which made the wicked witch’s activities look like amateur theatricals.
Roie, who had always enjoyed robust health, now began to feel aches and pains ‘down there,’ as she put it. In 1979 she was diagnosed as having cancer of the colon. She spent her last days in the Sacred Heart Hospice, just a short stroll from her old flat in Brougham Street.
Richard Moir who privately published a memoir about her in 1994 paints a vivid picture of the last time he saw her.
When I arrived at the hospital I was ushered into the visitor’s lounge room, strange I thought, as Roie couldn’t walk.
I waited in the lounge for some time patiently; suddenly Rosaleen Norton appeared physically standing on both legs, welcoming me, escorted by two sisters. The vision I beheld was mind blowing.
Rosaleen Norton (not Roie) standing there in full garb, her hair flaming back, carefully arranged in her look. Her make up had been very carefully applied, the face powder, the Rosaleen Norton full eye make up and eyebrows, the red lipstick. It was the Rosaleen Norton as I had always remembered her-but even more so.
She stood there for only a moment...The last words Rosaleen Norton said to me were,"Darling; I can’t stay too long. I just came to say hello. Ah! I must go, Darling."" and with her head in a proud position Rosaleen Norton was escorted away out of my sight forever.
48.
Sister Jacinta, well over seventy and still supervising a busy ward remembers her well. "If she was a witch, she was a very nice one,"she said. 49.
Surrounded by nuns, a dedicated Pagan to the end, Rosaleen Norton died on December 5 1979.
Gavin Greenlees’ schizophrenia and paranoid delusions saw him in and out of mental institutions. After an extensive course of E.C.T. he was pronounced cured, took a small flat in Woollhara and began writing poetry again. The landlord found him slumped over the kitchen table on December 5 1983. He had died of a heart attack, four years to the day after Roie’s passing.
Attorney General Frank Walker disbanded the Vice Squad, the bane of Roie’s life, in 1987.
Bert Trevener, long retired from the Vice Squad, still holds firmly to his convictions.
Fuelling the fears of the old guard that it could be made compulsory, the ‘abominable practise of Buggery’ is now celebrated annually at Sydney’s Mardi Gras.
Throughout the suburbs, Pagans, Pantheists and Wiccans now mix, mingle and, with children and dogs underfoot, exchange spells and web sites; for witches do like to party. Roie, even although she once described children as,
Horrible little pink things. All arms and legs who suck the life out of you. 50.
Would love it.
The Rite of Pan
Came the voice of destiny,
Calling o’er the Ionian Sea,
The Great God Pan is dead, is dead.
Humbled is the horned head;
Shut the door that hath no key-
Waste the vales of Arcady.
Shackled by the Iron Age,
Lost the woodland heritage,
Heavy goes the heart of man,
Parted from the light-foot Pan;
Wearily he wears the chain
Till the Goat-god comes again.
Half a man and half a beast,
Pan is greatest,Pan is least.
Pan is all, and all is Pan;
Look for him in every-man;
Goat-hoof swift and shaggy thigh-
Follow him to Arcady.
He shall wake the living dead-
Cloven hoof and horned head,
Human heart and human brain,
Pan the goat- god comes again!
Half a beast and half a man-
Pan is all and all is Pan.
Come,O Goat -god,come again! 52.
BIBLIOGRAPHY & SOURCES.
1. ALL OUR YESTERDAYS.
2. OTAGO DAILY TIMES. OCTOBER 2 1917.
3. PAN’S DAUGHTER. DRURY. N.
4. MARJORY LEWIS. FORMER NEIGHBOUR AND SCHOOLMATE OF ROIE’S.INTERVIEWED BY AUTHOR AUGUST 3.1998.
5. MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PHSYCOLOGIST.1949.*
6. ROSALEEN NORTON IN AN INTERVIEW WITH SUZANNE BAKER ON GLITTERING MILE 1964. CHANNEL 9 ARCHIVES.
7. NEVILLE DRURY. IN AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR JULY 1998.
8. REMEMBER SMITH’S WEEKLY GEORGE BLAIKIE.*
9. NEVILLE DRURY. ART OF ROSALEEN NORTON. P.7.
10. NEVILLE DRURY. PAN’S DAUGHTER. P.15.
11. JIM RUSSEL. INTERVIEWED BY AUTHOR JUNE 1998.
12. SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. AUGUST 15. 1954.
13. ART OF ROSALEEN NORTON. P.8.
14. WALTER GLOVER Jr. INTERVIEWED BY AUTHOR. AUGUST 1998.
15. *.
16. MURRAY. GOD OF THE WICHES.P.65.
17. *SYDNEY DAILY TELEGRAPH. AUGUST 2. 1947.
18. BAMBI TUCKWELL. INTERVIEWED BY CAROL ROSIN. 1991.
19. JOCK. EX SAXOPHONIST,S.S.O.. INTERVIEWED BY AUTHOR.1998.
20. BRENTON LANGBIN. EX VIOLINIST.S.S.O. INTERVIEWED BY AUTHOR. 1998.
21. QUOTED BY NEVILLE DRURY TO AUTHOR FROM AN INTERVIEW BY HIM WITH WALTER GLOVER sr.
22. DAVE STERLE. PERRENIAL J.C. WILLIAMSON’S HANDSOME PRINCE. FROM AN INTERVIEW BY AUTHOR FOR ANOTHER PROJECT IN 1969.
23. p.242.Perfect Murder. B. Taylor. Grafton Books London.ISBN 0-246-12192-6. 1987. *
24. INTERVIEW WITH Rev’MICHAEL SANTRYSEPTEMBER 1998, FORMER SECRETARY TO BISHOP REID, WHO HEADED THE ANGLICAN CHURCH’S INQUIRY INTO OCCULTISM?
25. BILL JENKINGS. AS CRIME GOES BY. IRONBARK PRESS SYDNEY. 1992. P221.*
26. DAVID SALTER. GOOD WEEKEND. P.18. AUGUST.1999.
27. ALBERT (TREV) TREVENER. EX VICE SQUAD DETECTIVE. INTERVIEWED BY AUTHOR. JULY 1999.
28. MELBOURNE TRUTH. 17 MARCH?
29. C. ROSIN. THE GOOSSENS A MUSICAL CENTURY.P.300.
30. C. ROSIN. THE GOOSSENS A MUSICAL CENTURY.P303.
31. NATIONAL ARCHIVES. CHESTER HILL. BOX?
32. COLIN Le TET. INTERVIEWED BY AUTHOR JUNE 1998.
33. TERESA RADIC. Bernard Heinze.MACMILLAN LONDON.P.174. *
34. SYDNEY DAILY TELEGRAPH. AUGUST 2. 1947.
35. STERLE. D. IBID 22.
36. RICHARD MOIR.*
37. SISTER JACINTA. CAPO DE CAPO AT SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL HOSPICE DARLINGHURST. INTERVIEWED JULY 1998.
38. Quoted by Don Anderson, who once gave Roie a ride in his taxi.
39. Fortune. D.
Interview with Albert (Trev) Trevener ex Vice squad detective sergeant.
Trev is now 82 and has been retired from the force 22 years. Holder of the Queen’s Medal, he has lived in the same house, 22 Eccles Ave Ashfield, all his married life. Methodist and Mason, citizens and colleagues presented him with a grandfather clock on his retirement. Throughout this interview it played variations of the Westminster chimes every 1/4-hour.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines vice as- evil, especially grossly immoral habit, or conduct. Particular form of depravity. Moral perversion. Morally evil. Dissolute. Would you agree with that definition?
Yes.
How did you get into the business?
I got in as a young constable. My job would be to accompany a divisional sergeant and collect evidence on S.P.Betting, sly grog that sort of thing.
S.P. and sly grog?
Vice covered a lot of territory.
Who was the boss of the Vice Squad in 1956?
Ron Walden.
Who was Colin Delaney?
He was Police Commissioner.
From his name I would say he was Catholic.
Catholic, and a Papal Knight.
There were two camps-Catholic and Mason. Was there any animosity?
Two camps yes, but no animosity. Ron Walden was also Catholic. The State Government under Premier Joe Cahill was predominately Catholic.
What was Ron Walden like?
Ron Walden was a good boss. A Rugby Union forward. Represented Australia in boxing. A good fella. A fella you could talk to. Not terribly well experienced as an operative policeman, but a good administrator.
When I applied for a warrant to arrest Goossens for scandalous conduct, the crime of scandalous conduct was a common law misdemeanour and for that you have to have a warrant to arrest unless you have them in custody then you can, but I didn’t have him in custody. Customs did, but not me. I invited Customs in because I had no jurisdiction at the airport. After customs had dealt with him then I took him to C.I.B and questioned him on stuff that I knew.
You had a problem getting an offsider to accompany you. No one wanted to know.
I tried to get police from the Vice squad to accompany me because I had a heavy matter at Mascot airport involving a Knight of the Realm. When I mentioned a Knight of the Realm, whether that had any effect on my fellow officers I don’t know. But all of a sudden they had matters of court or come up with some reason that they couldn’t be at Mascot airport tomorrow, the next morning, to find this fellow-the Knight of the Realm.
So I went back to Balmain, where I was stationed, and saw the divisional sergeant, Milton Small, and told him the problem.
He said,"Alright. Who would you like to come with you?
I said," Jim Kilpatrick, if he’s available".
He said,"Well he’s on the night shift but don’t worry about that. If he’s prepared to go with you I’ll replace him".
So I saw Jim; told him exactly as I told the others- a Knight of the Realm.
"Don’t worry", he said,"I’ll be in that".
Now, Nat Craig, Customs. What did you say to him?
Well I rang Nat and told him I’d something on at the airport and the subject had prohibited imports... and I’d like somebody from customs to be there.
And he said, "I’ll get someone to come out."
I said,"No, Nat.I want you there. Because I’ll need a decision made on the spot. Not someone who has to ring you to find out what to do".
"Oh," he says.
"I don’t want an underling," I says,"Who doesn’t know what to do. I want the boss. It’s a Knight of the Realm".
After a while, he said,"I’ll be there".
What was the weather like that morning?
Aw it’d been raining heavily, but it had eased off just before his plane landed.
When he came off the plane he was wearing a velour hat at a rakish angle, his coat draped over his shoulders and carrying the briefcase. I was standing just beside the gangway and as he walked past he said "Good morning". I said "Good morning," back and followed him into reception keeping my eye on the briefcase. As soon as we were in I nodded to Jimmy Kirkpatrick and he gave the nod for an announcement to be made over the Tannoy. "Would Sir Eugene Goossens please go to the doctor’s office?"
HEADLINES ETC’
I typed out his statement, and being a smart arse I made all sorts of errors-spelling errors on every third or fourth line and, when I’d finished, got him to correct it.
Did you do this deliberately?
Yes.
Why?
So he couldn’t say he hadn’t read it.
Good one.
I’d been a detective for many years.
Now I submitted the statement in a file through Ron Walden to the Commissioner to go to the Attorney General asking for approval for a warrant... I’m still waiting for the Attorney General to tell me you can’t have one.
Now somebody from the Parliament I knew quite well, and I knew a few of them. He said,"Gee that’s some ripper photos of Eugene Goossens you got."
I said "How’n the hell did you know?"
"He said,"Aw I saw them in Parliament.
Who was this?
Aw I don’t remember now.
It wasn’t Eddie Ward?
Ah no Eddie Ward had no time for coppers. In fact he’d no time for law and order.
So anyway I was summoned with Ron Waldren to the Attorney General’s office. We were waiting in the anteroom, waiting about an hour and Ron Waldren was spitting chips. And he’s saying, not sotto voco (sic), but very loud about being kept there. And after a while Delaney storms along the corridor and I thought ‘ello, ‘ello, ‘ello.
As Cops do.
As Cops do. Any road he was in there about quarter an hour and he came out with a look of thunder on his face. He walked past the anteroom, stopped, came back, looked in and beckoned me. So I followed him out to the footpath and he says "Sergeant, you’ve been dudded. You’ve done a fantastic job and I want to congratulate you on a job well done, but you’re not getting a warrant. So you can just get back to your station.
And no explanation as to why?
No. I can only think it was Goossens being a Papal Knight.
Goossens a papal Knight? I didn’t know he was a Papal Knight.
Yeah, he was a Papal Knight.
I knew he was Catholic, but I didn’t think he was a Papal Knight.
Well he may not have been a Papal Knight, but he was Catholic.Delaney was a Papal Knight, but. Anyway that was Colin Delaney, and he shook my hand and congratulated me on a job well done. And I’m still waiting officially... for when you submit a file in the police department, and I assume it is still the same, you get an answer back on paper. I’m eighty-two now, still waiting.
Anything unofficial?
Only what Delaney told me.
How did this whole thing start? How did he first come to your attention, Sir Eugene?
There was two fellows, members of the coven, they were in there one day and they found down the back of a sofa-there were only a sofa and a coupla chairs in the whole room-found some negatives and they took them and hawked them around the various newspapers. And the Sun, I think it was, developed them, but they were too hot, so they rang Ron Waldren, and Waldren sent me down. So I got the photos, and they were indeed hot.
When I started on the case I was told to mind my back, which I did. The first thing was to make copies of my file and evidence. I put the original in the hubcap of the spare wheel in the boot, a copy under a pile of rubbish in the garage, and another in my locker at work. I took a copy to Ron Waldren for a warrant who recommended a warrant should be issued. It was forwarded to Col Delaney, who directed a warrant be issued and forwarded it to the Government; only to be told no warrant would be issued.
Who in Government would it have been forwarded to?
Minister of Justice.
Who was that?
Don’t remember, but he was catholic. You must remember the big players in government those days was catholic. And the Premier, Joe Cahill, was catholic, and Eugene was catholic and a mate of Joe’s. It was them that got the Opera House going.
I say unreservedly it was a conspiracy to deny me a warrant. However a few years later there was some talk that they were gonna invite Goossens back to the opening of the Opera House. I was hoping that they would. Because I wouldn’t need a warrant then.
You wouldn’t?
Nah.
How?
I paid five pounds to get a photograph of him committing buggery...
On a man or a woman?
On Norton. And he didn’t come back. But I didn’t need a warrant if he had’ve.
Why?
Well on the first occasion a warrant was necessary because it was a common law misdemeanour and there’s no power of arrest under a common law misdemeanour without a warrant-unless you have him in custody. And the second matter it is an offence under the Crimes Act and under the Crimes Act a warrant is not required.
There was a suggestion made in Truth around the middle of March 1957 that the coven had members in high places -even in the government.
I don’t know about that. All I can say is that when I was denied a warrant for Goossens, Greenlees and Norton, I discontinued my inquiries. I thought what’s good enough for the goose....
Bit of a pun there...
Yeah?
Good enough for the Goosens...?
Aw, yeah... Good.
You were involved in a previous case with Norton and Greenlees while Sir Eugene was abroad. Would you tell me about that?
They were charged with making an indecent publication, and Roie was charged with buggery. They were found not guilty and when I spoke with the jurors afterwards-you’re not supposed to, but I did-they said we found it hard to believe that a man would commit buggery with a woman.
Indeed?
Yeah... Aw well... Shortly afterwards I got a transfer from the Vice Squad.
Were you glad to get out?
Oh yeah.
Why?
Aw it was a sordid sort of thing and there was danger there all the time.
Like what?
Well, like one of the prostitutes, working the Cross, she was a very attractive girl about nineteen, and she wanted me to be her bludger, look after her, and any time I wanted a winkie she would be there for me and pay me half of what she took.
Good offer.
Very good, and frightened the life outa me. But once you do that with them you’re theirs for the rest of your life. So I said thanks very much but no thank you. I know some detectives who have fallen for the three-card trick, but not this one. I had a wife and three kids, and a house, a name that was highly respected. I could have been bought, but you’re thinking along the lines of about ten million. So what If I got landed? I could pack up and go to any part of the world and spend the money.
Trev is now 82 and has been retired from the force 22 years. Holder of the Queen’s Medal, he has lived in the same house, 22 Eccles Ave Ashfield, all his married life. Methodist and Mason, citizens and colleagues presented him with a grandfather clock on his retirement. Throughout this interview it played variations of the Westminster chimes every 1/4-hour.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines vice as- evil, especially grossly immoral habit, or conduct. Particular form of depravity. Moral perversion. Morally evil. Dissolute. Would you agree with that definition?
Yes.
How did you get into the business?
I got in as a young constable. My job would be to accompany a divisional sergeant and collect evidence on S.P.Betting, sly grog that sort of thing.
S.P. and sly grog?
Vice covered a lot of territory.
Who was the boss of the Vice Squad in 1956?
Ron Walden.
Who was Colin Delaney?
He was Police Commissioner.
From his name I would say he was Catholic.
Catholic, and a Papal Knight.
There were two camps-Catholic and Mason. Was there any animosity?
Two camps yes, but no animosity. Ron Walden was also Catholic. The State Government under Premier Joe Cahill was predominately Catholic.
What was Ron Walden like?
Ron Walden was a good boss. A Rugby Union forward. Represented Australia in boxing. A good fella. A fella you could talk to. Not terribly well experienced as an operative policeman, but a good administrator.
When I applied for a warrant to arrest Goossens for scandalous conduct, the crime of scandalous conduct was a common law misdemeanour and for that you have to have a warrant to arrest unless you have them in custody then you can, but I didn’t have him in custody. Customs did, but not me. I invited Customs in because I had no jurisdiction at the airport. After customs had dealt with him then I took him to C.I.B and questioned him on stuff that I knew.
You had a problem getting an offsider to accompany you. No one wanted to know.
I tried to get police from the Vice squad to accompany me because I had a heavy matter at Mascot airport involving a Knight of the Realm. When I mentioned a Knight of the Realm, whether that had any effect on my fellow officers I don’t know. But all of a sudden they had matters of court or come up with some reason that they couldn’t be at Mascot airport tomorrow, the next morning, to find this fellow-the Knight of the Realm.
So I went back to Balmain, where I was stationed, and saw the divisional sergeant, Milton Small, and told him the problem.
He said,"Alright. Who would you like to come with you?
I said," Jim Kilpatrick, if he’s available".
He said,"Well he’s on the night shift but don’t worry about that. If he’s prepared to go with you I’ll replace him".
So I saw Jim; told him exactly as I told the others- a Knight of the Realm.
"Don’t worry", he said,"I’ll be in that".
Now, Nat Craig, Customs. What did you say to him?
Well I rang Nat and told him I’d something on at the airport and the subject had prohibited imports... and I’d like somebody from customs to be there.
And he said, "I’ll get someone to come out."
I said,"No, Nat.I want you there. Because I’ll need a decision made on the spot. Not someone who has to ring you to find out what to do".
"Oh," he says.
"I don’t want an underling," I says,"Who doesn’t know what to do. I want the boss. It’s a Knight of the Realm".
After a while, he said,"I’ll be there".
What was the weather like that morning?
Aw it’d been raining heavily, but it had eased off just before his plane landed.
When he came off the plane he was wearing a velour hat at a rakish angle, his coat draped over his shoulders and carrying the briefcase. I was standing just beside the gangway and as he walked past he said "Good morning". I said "Good morning," back and followed him into reception keeping my eye on the briefcase. As soon as we were in I nodded to Jimmy Kirkpatrick and he gave the nod for an announcement to be made over the Tannoy. "Would Sir Eugene Goossens please go to the doctor’s office?"
HEADLINES ETC’
I typed out his statement, and being a smart arse I made all sorts of errors-spelling errors on every third or fourth line and, when I’d finished, got him to correct it.
Did you do this deliberately?
Yes.
Why?
So he couldn’t say he hadn’t read it.
Good one.
I’d been a detective for many years.
Now I submitted the statement in a file through Ron Walden to the Commissioner to go to the Attorney General asking for approval for a warrant... I’m still waiting for the Attorney General to tell me you can’t have one.
Now somebody from the Parliament I knew quite well, and I knew a few of them. He said,"Gee that’s some ripper photos of Eugene Goossens you got."
I said "How’n the hell did you know?"
"He said,"Aw I saw them in Parliament.
Who was this?
Aw I don’t remember now.
It wasn’t Eddie Ward?
Ah no Eddie Ward had no time for coppers. In fact he’d no time for law and order.
So anyway I was summoned with Ron Waldren to the Attorney General’s office. We were waiting in the anteroom, waiting about an hour and Ron Waldren was spitting chips. And he’s saying, not sotto voco (sic), but very loud about being kept there. And after a while Delaney storms along the corridor and I thought ‘ello, ‘ello, ‘ello.
As Cops do.
As Cops do. Any road he was in there about quarter an hour and he came out with a look of thunder on his face. He walked past the anteroom, stopped, came back, looked in and beckoned me. So I followed him out to the footpath and he says "Sergeant, you’ve been dudded. You’ve done a fantastic job and I want to congratulate you on a job well done, but you’re not getting a warrant. So you can just get back to your station.
And no explanation as to why?
No. I can only think it was Goossens being a Papal Knight.
Goossens a papal Knight? I didn’t know he was a Papal Knight.
Yeah, he was a Papal Knight.
I knew he was Catholic, but I didn’t think he was a Papal Knight.
Well he may not have been a Papal Knight, but he was Catholic.Delaney was a Papal Knight, but. Anyway that was Colin Delaney, and he shook my hand and congratulated me on a job well done. And I’m still waiting officially... for when you submit a file in the police department, and I assume it is still the same, you get an answer back on paper. I’m eighty-two now, still waiting.
Anything unofficial?
Only what Delaney told me.
How did this whole thing start? How did he first come to your attention, Sir Eugene?
There was two fellows, members of the coven, they were in there one day and they found down the back of a sofa-there were only a sofa and a coupla chairs in the whole room-found some negatives and they took them and hawked them around the various newspapers. And the Sun, I think it was, developed them, but they were too hot, so they rang Ron Waldren, and Waldren sent me down. So I got the photos, and they were indeed hot.
When I started on the case I was told to mind my back, which I did. The first thing was to make copies of my file and evidence. I put the original in the hubcap of the spare wheel in the boot, a copy under a pile of rubbish in the garage, and another in my locker at work. I took a copy to Ron Waldren for a warrant who recommended a warrant should be issued. It was forwarded to Col Delaney, who directed a warrant be issued and forwarded it to the Government; only to be told no warrant would be issued.
Who in Government would it have been forwarded to?
Minister of Justice.
Who was that?
Don’t remember, but he was catholic. You must remember the big players in government those days was catholic. And the Premier, Joe Cahill, was catholic, and Eugene was catholic and a mate of Joe’s. It was them that got the Opera House going.
I say unreservedly it was a conspiracy to deny me a warrant. However a few years later there was some talk that they were gonna invite Goossens back to the opening of the Opera House. I was hoping that they would. Because I wouldn’t need a warrant then.
You wouldn’t?
Nah.
How?
I paid five pounds to get a photograph of him committing buggery...
On a man or a woman?
On Norton. And he didn’t come back. But I didn’t need a warrant if he had’ve.
Why?
Well on the first occasion a warrant was necessary because it was a common law misdemeanour and there’s no power of arrest under a common law misdemeanour without a warrant-unless you have him in custody. And the second matter it is an offence under the Crimes Act and under the Crimes Act a warrant is not required.
There was a suggestion made in Truth around the middle of March 1957 that the coven had members in high places -even in the government.
I don’t know about that. All I can say is that when I was denied a warrant for Goossens, Greenlees and Norton, I discontinued my inquiries. I thought what’s good enough for the goose....
Bit of a pun there...
Yeah?
Good enough for the Goosens...?
Aw, yeah... Good.
You were involved in a previous case with Norton and Greenlees while Sir Eugene was abroad. Would you tell me about that?
They were charged with making an indecent publication, and Roie was charged with buggery. They were found not guilty and when I spoke with the jurors afterwards-you’re not supposed to, but I did-they said we found it hard to believe that a man would commit buggery with a woman.
Indeed?
Yeah... Aw well... Shortly afterwards I got a transfer from the Vice Squad.
Were you glad to get out?
Oh yeah.
Why?
Aw it was a sordid sort of thing and there was danger there all the time.
Like what?
Well, like one of the prostitutes, working the Cross, she was a very attractive girl about nineteen, and she wanted me to be her bludger, look after her, and any time I wanted a winkie she would be there for me and pay me half of what she took.
Good offer.
Very good, and frightened the life outa me. But once you do that with them you’re theirs for the rest of your life. So I said thanks very much but no thank you. I know some detectives who have fallen for the three-card trick, but not this one. I had a wife and three kids, and a house, a name that was highly respected. I could have been bought, but you’re thinking along the lines of about ten million. So what If I got landed? I could pack up and go to any part of the world and spend the money.
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