Juanita Nielsen
Encyclopedia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n publisher and heiress.
She was born Juanita Joan Smith in New Lambton, NSW to parents: Neil Donovan Smith and Vilma Grace Smith nee Meares (1905-1978). Her parents separated soon after her birth and she was raised by her mother at Killara, Sydney. Her father, Neil Donovan Smith was an English born heir to the Mark Foys
Mark Foys
Mark Foys was a department store in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, founded by Francis Foy and his brother Mark Foy and named after their father Mark Foy ....
retail fortune via his parents: John Joseph Smith (1862-1921) who was a Chairman & Managing Director of Mark Foy's Ltd, and his wife, Kathleen Sophie Foy. (1870-1919). Mrs. Kathleen Sophie Smith was a sister of Mark Foy & Francis Foy.
Juanita was educated at Ravenswood School for Girls
Ravenswood School for Girls
Ravenswood School for Girls is an independent, Uniting Church, day and boarding school for girls, situated in Gordon, an Upper North Shore suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
, in the upper north shore of Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. She worked at Mark Foy's from 1953 until she travelled abroard in 1959. In 1962, she married a Dutch seaman named Jorgen Fritz Nielsen at Kobe, Japan although the marriage only lasted for a few years. Juanita returned to Sydney in 1965 and returned to work at Mark Foys' for about 5 years.
In the early 1970's, Nielsen was the publisher of NOW, an alternative newspaper in the Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
suburb of Kings Cross, New South Wales
Kings Cross, New South Wales
Kings Cross is an inner-city locality of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately 2 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney...
. She lived in a terrace house at 202 Victoria Street, and she became involved in a campaign against a proposed development project in her street and across the suburb.
Nielsen disappeared on 4 July 1975 and it is generally believed that she was kidnapped and murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ed because of her anti-development and anti-corruption stance. A coronial inquest
Inquest
Inquests in England and Wales are held into sudden and unexplained deaths and also into the circumstances of discovery of a certain class of valuable artefacts known as "treasure trove"...
determined that Nielsen had been murdered, and although the case has never been officially solved, it is widely believed that Nielsen was killed by agents of the developers. The circumstances of her disappearance were fictionalised in the films Heatwave
Heatwave (film)
Heatwave is a 1982 Australian film directed by Phillip Noyce. Around Christmas time a heatwave hits Sydney and an architect undertakes a controversial project.-Cast:*Judy Davis as Kate Dean*Richard Moir as Stephen West*Chris Haywood as Peter Houseman...
and The Killing of Angel Street
The Killing of Angel Street
The Killing of Angel Street is a 1981 Australian thriller film based on the real life disappearance of Juanita Nielson, an activist against mass development in Sydney in the late 1970s....
.
Victoria Point development
In the early 1970s, property developer Frank Theeman (? - 1989) planned to construct a A$40 million apartment complex in Kings Cross. Theeman, who had initially made his fortune in lingerie, moved into property development in 1972 after he sold his Osti company to Dunlop for A$3.5 million.The plan involved evicting dozens of people from their houses in Victoria Street, an area which the National Trust
National Trust of Australia
The Australian Council of National Trusts is the peak body for community-based, non-government organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's indigenous, natural and historic heritage....
compared to Montmartre
Montmartre
Montmartre is a hill which is 130 metres high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, a part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Built along a steep sandstone escarpment east of the city centre and lined with rows of large 19th-century terrace houses, Victoria St had commanding views of the city, the harbour and The Domain.
The houses were to be demolished and replaced with three high-rise apartment towers. The local community campaigned against the development, and successfully lobbied the Builders Labourers' Federation (BLF) to impose a green ban
Green ban
A green ban is a form of strike action, usually taken by a trade union or other organised labour group, which is conducted for environmentalist or conservationist purposes.-Background:...
on the site in 1972. Supported by the BLF, the residents of Victoria Street, including Nielsen, refused to leave their houses. Nielsen used her newspaper, NOW, to publicise the issue.
In July 1973, resident Arthur King was kidnapped by two unidentified men, who put him in the boot
Trunk (automobile)
The trunk or boot of an automobile or car is the vehicle's main storage, luggage, or cargo compartment. Trunk is used in North American English and Jamaican English; boot is used elsewhere in the English speaking world. Trunk is also primarily used in many non-English speaking regions, such as...
of their car. King was then driven to a motel
Motel
A motor hotel, or motel for short, is a hotel designed for motorists, and usually has a parking area for motor vehicles...
on the South Coast
South Coast, New South Wales
The South Coast refers to the narrow coastal belt from Sydney in the north to the border with Victoria in the south in the south-eastern part of the State of New South Wales, Australia. It is bordered to the west by the coastal escarpment of the Southern Tablelands, which is largely covered by a...
and held for three days before being released under threat of death. King quit as the head of the residents' action group, and immediately moved out of Kings Cross. It was suspected, though never proved, that the men had been hired by Theeman.
Other residents of the street were regularly harassed by men employed by Theeman, as he attempted to have them evicted from their houses. The men were led by Fred Krahe
Fred Krahe
Frederick Claude "Fred" Krahe was a New South Wales police officer and detective.Krahe is often referred to as having been one of the most feared NSW police officers of his day. He made many successful arrests for which he received commendations and awards for bravery and outstanding detective...
, a former detective with the New South Wales Police
New South Wales Police
The New South Wales Police Force is the primary law enforcement agency in the State of New South Wales, Australia. It is an agency of the Government of New South Wales within the New South Wales Ministry for Police...
. Krahe had been sacked amidst allegations of organising bank robberies and he was suspected of murdering whistleblower and prostitute Shirley Brifman. and other Sydney crime figures.
Police officers did not intervene as Krahe's men worked. Residents would move in to each others houses so that no house was left unattended. On one occasion, when merchant seaman and jazz musician Mick Fowler returned from a period working at sea, he found that his house had been broken into, and all of his belongings taken. Fowler fought a protracted court battle to stay in his home but the strain of the struggle reputedly led to his early death in 1979, aged 50.
Eventually the green ban was broken in 1974 when the conservative federal leadership of the BLF, under pressure from New South Wales politicians, dismissed the leaders of the New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
branch, and replaced them with more conservative people. Nielsen and the residents were left as the only significant opposition to Theeman. Nielsen then convinced the Water Board Union to impose their own green ban. By early 1975, Theeman's company had spent about A$6 million (about A$36 million ) purchasing property in Kings Cross, and interest
Interest
Interest is a fee paid by a borrower of assets to the owner as a form of compensation for the use of the assets. It is most commonly the price paid for the use of borrowed money, or money earned by deposited funds....
payments on loans were costing about A$3,000 a day.
Disappearance
On 4 July 1975, Nielsen went to the Carousel Club in Kings Cross in order to discuss advertising for the club in Nielsen's newspaper, Now. She had been invited there by Edward Trigg, an employee of the club. The club was one of a number of bars and strip clubs owned by Abe SaffronAbe Saffron
Abraham Gilbert "Abe" Saffron was an Australian nightclub owner and property developer who was reputed to have been one of the major figures in Australian organised crime in the latter half of the 20th century....
, who was a major figure in Sydney organised crime, and it was managed by James Anderson, who, as a later investigation revealed, owed A$260,000 (about A$1.5 million ) to Frank Theeman, and according to the 2008 book Saffron's son Alan, Abe Saffron lent large sums of money to several prominent Sydney businessmen including Theeman.
Before June 1975 the Carousel had no connection with Nielsen or NOW, but that month Anderson initiated contact by sending Nielsen an invitation to attend a press night at the club on 13 June. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, she would not normally have been invited because NOW did not give free publicity to commercial ventures. In the event, Nielsen did not attend and both Crawford and Trigg have claimed that Anderson was "furious" about her non-appearance.
A few days later Trigg instructed the Carousel's PR man Lloyd Marshall to invite Nielsen to a meeting at the Camperdown Travelodge, supposedly to discuss advertising related to landscaping, but Nielsen's boyfriend later recounted that Nielsen became suspicious and refused to attend.
On 30 June, four days before the Carousel appointment, Trigg and another man, Carousel barman Shayne Martin-Simmonds, called at Nielsen's house on the pretext of inquiring about advertising the Carousel's businessmen's lunches in NOW. It was later claimed that Trigg and Martin-Simmonds intended to seize Nielsen when she opened the door, but their plan was foiled when her friend David Farrell answered the door instead. The two men played out their cover story, but Nielsen was listening in an adjoining room and after they left she complimented Farrell on his handling of the query, teasing him by saying she might send him out on the road to sell advertising in NOW.
When interviewed by police on 6 November 1977, Martin-Simmonds confirmed that the advertising story was a ruse and that their actual intention was to kidnap Nielsen if she was alone and take her to see "people who wanted to talk to her". He said that he and Trigg intended to:
- "... Just grab her arms and stop her calling out, no real rough stuff, no gangster stuff. We thought that just two guys telling her to come would be enough to make her think if she didn't come she might get hurt ... we talked about when she came into the room, one of us would be standing there and the other one would come up behind her and just quietly grab her by the arms and maybe put a hand over her mouth or a pillowslip over the head."
According to her friend David Farrell, Nielsen was by then seriously concerned that her activism was putting her in danger. She mentioned her fears to Farrell about two weeks before her disappearance and she arranged to keep him regularly informed of her whereabouts.
Carousel receptionist Loretta Crawford claims that Trigg instructed her to call Nielsen on the night of Thursday 3 July to set up a meeting at the club for the following morning. Crawford now claims that she knew that the advertising story was "bullshit", since the club did not advertise in "local rags", that she was doubtful that Nielsen would attend, and that she was surprised that Nielsen kept the appointment.
At 10:30am on Friday 4 July, Nielsen telephoned David Farrell to tell him that she was running late for the meeting. According to Crawford, when Nielsen arrived she proceeded to the landing on the first floor where Crawford's reception desk was located. Crawford offered her a seat and a cup of coffee, after Nielsen remarked that she had had a "hard night" (i.e. she was hung over), but that Nielsen didn't get to drink the coffee because Trigg arrived. Crawford said that she noted that he was on time, which she thought unusual since he was often late. He and Nielsen exchanged greetings on the landing and went upstairs to Trigg's office.
At this point in her account, given to the Sydney Morning Herald in 2001, Crawford made a new claim—that she then made a phone call to Jim Anderson at his home in Vaucluse
Vaucluse, New South Wales
Vaucluse is an eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Vaucluse is located north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of Waverley Council and the Municipality of Woollahra....
, told him that Nielsen had arrived and that he was "quite pleased" by the news. Crawford was adamant that she was, in no doubt whatsoever, certain that Anderson was at his home in Vaucluse—not in Surfer's Paradise, as he has always claimed.
In statements given to police, Trigg and Crawford said that Nielsen had left the club alone, although in 1976 Crawford changed her story to say that Nielsen and Trigg left together. Nielsen was not seen again. Her handbag and other effects were discovered on 12 July, abandoned near a freeway in Sydney's western suburbs.
New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
born transvestite Monet King (who was then called Marilyn King), the former boyfriend of Trigg, told one journalist that Trigg had returned home on 4 July with blood on his clothes. A piece of paper in his pocket, which was later used by police as evidence before the coronial inquest, also had blood on it. This was supposedly a receipt signed by Nielsen for advertising money paid by Trigg. King said that Trigg threw out the shirt, and the portion of the paper with blood on it. King never gave testimony to the police or the coronial inquiry.
In late 1977, Trigg and two other employees at the Carousel Club were arrested and charged with conspiring
Conspiracy (crime)
In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement...
to kidnap Nielsen. Trigg was imprisoned
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
for three years, one other man was imprisoned for two years and the third was acquitted
Acquittal
In the common law tradition, an acquittal formally certifies the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as the criminal law is concerned. This is so even where the prosecution is abandoned nolle prosequi...
. However, it was still unclear what had actually happened to Nielsen. After the death of James Anderson in 2003, Crawford changed her story again. She claimed that she had seen Nielsen's body in the storeroom below the club, with Trigg and two other men standing over her. She saw that one of the men was holding a gun, and Nielsen's body had a small bullet wound.
Nielsen's body has never been found.
The obvious motive for Nielsen's presumed murder was her opposition to the Victoria St development. However, there have also been claims that she was working on an exposé about vice, corruption and illegal gambling in the Cross. Her then boyfriend John Glebe gave evidence that Nielsen had told him about receiving telephone threats and he also testified that she carried cassette tapes in her handbag. According to Glebe, Nielsen had told him that the tapes could "blow the top off" an issue she was working on. An article in The Bulletin
The Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
in 2005 ran claims by journalist Barry Ward that Nielsen had been given dossiers on "prominent Sydney identities" by private detective Allan Honeysett, and speculated that these documents would—reputedly—have exposed the principals involved in Sydney's illegal gaming industry.
Coroners Inquest
A coronial inquiry with a juryJury
A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
was held in 1983, which determined that Nielsen had probably been killed, although there was not enough evidence to show how she died or who killed her. The inquest did note that police corruption
Police corruption
Police corruption is a specific form of police misconduct designed to obtain financial benefits, other personal gain, or career advancement for a police officer or officers in exchange for not pursuing, or selectively pursuing, an investigation or arrest....
may have crippled the investigation into her death at the time.
A Joint Committee of the Commonwealth Parliament of Australia
Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, largely modelled in the Westminster tradition, but with some influences from the United States Congress...
was formed in 1994 to further investigate her disappearance. It also concluded that corruption impeded the police investigation.
Suspects
Although it has never been established who killed Nielsen, there are several major suspects in the conspiracy to silence her.- Frank Theeman, the 'Victoria Point' developer, was considered by a number of journalists to be the prime suspect in the conspiracy to silence Nielsen. The costly delays to his development offer a highly plausible motive for Theeman wanting to get Nielsen 'out of the way', although no direct evidence has been uncovered conclusively linking Theeman to the presumed murder.
- Abe Saffron, who owned and operated several 'businesses' in Kings Cross, had numerous circumstantial connections with the case. Throughout his life Saffron (often dubbed "the Boss of the Cross" or "Mr Sin") was accused of having masterminded a wide range of criminal activities including gambling, prostitution, drug dealing and "sly grog" sales, and to have coordinated a network of bribery and official corruption that (according to his son Alan) included former NSW Premier Robert AskinRobert AskinSir Robert William Askin GCMG, was an Australian politician and the 32nd Premier of New South Wales from 1965 to 1975, the first representing the Liberal Party of Australia. He was born in 1907 as Robin William Askin, but always disliked his first name and changed it by deed poll in 1971...
and Police Commissioner Norman AllanNorman AllanNorman Thomas William Allan was the Commissioner of the New South Wales Police, from 1962 to 1972...
. Although no evidence has yet surfaced to reliably link Saffron to Nielsen's disappearance, there are significant circumstantial connections—Saffron owned the Carousel club, where Nielsen was last seen, Saffron associate (and Carousel manager) Jim Anderson reportedly borrowed large sums from Frank Theeman, and Alan Saffron's 2008 book about his father claims that Theeman was one of several prominent Sydney business identities to whom Saffron lent money through a loan sharking operation, a claim which links to earlier reports that Theeman had tried to borrow money from Saffron to cover his 'loans' to Jim Anderson. Also, as well as her campaign against Theeman's development, Nielsen was also investigating vice and corruption in Kings Cross; her boyfriend John Glebe later testified that Juanita had told him about receiving telephone death threats, and that she carried cassette tapes in her handbag which, she said, could "blow the top off" her ongoing investigation into the Sydney underworld and its links to corrupt police and politicians.
- James Anderson has long been considered a prime suspect, although he protested his innocence right up until his death in 2003, and the recent book by Alan Saffron supports the allegations that Anderson organised Nielsen's abduction. Like his boss Abe Saffron, Anderson's circumstantial connections to the Nielsen case are numerous—he reportedly borrowed a considerable sum of money from Theeman; he had business links to both Theeman and Theeman's "drug troubled" son, and he was a known associate of the three men charged with conspiring to kidnap Nielsen. Anderson always insisted that he was in Surfer's Paradise with another person on the day of Nielsen's disappearance, and that he flew to there with another man on 4 July and stayed for about three days in a room booked in his wife's name at the Chevron Hotel. However, Loretta Crawford later claimed that Anderson was at his home in the eastern Sydney suburb of VaucluseVaucluse, New South WalesVaucluse is an eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Vaucluse is located north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of Waverley Council and the Municipality of Woollahra....
that day and that she spoke to him by 'phone. Police did not fully investigate Anderson's alibiAlibiAlibi is a 1929 American crime film directed by Roland West. The screenplay was written by West and C. Gardner Sullivan, who adapted the 1927 Broadway stage play, Nightstick, written by Elaine Sterne Carrington, J.C...
, and they only determined that his car, which was left at Sydney AirportSydney AirportSydney Airport may refer to:* Sydney Airport, also known as Kingsford Smith International Airport, in Sydney, Australia* Sydney/J.A. Douglas McCurdy Airport, in Nova Scotia, Canada...
, had received two parking tickets. Police reportedly failed to contact the man that Anderson claimed had accompanied him to Surfers, nor did they verify whether Anderson actually flew there on that day or checked into the hotel.
- Det. Sgt Fred KraheFred KraheFrederick Claude "Fred" Krahe was a New South Wales police officer and detective.Krahe is often referred to as having been one of the most feared NSW police officers of his day. He made many successful arrests for which he received commendations and awards for bravery and outstanding detective...
, the former detective, has been named on several occasions by investigative journalists and experts on the case as Juanita's killer. He was a regular customer at the Venus Room, a nightclub owned by Abe SaffronAbe SaffronAbraham Gilbert "Abe" Saffron was an Australian nightclub owner and property developer who was reputed to have been one of the major figures in Australian organised crime in the latter half of the 20th century....
, who also owned the Carousel Club, and it has been repeatedly alleged that Krahe organised the "heavies" hired by the developers to intimidate stubborn residents and force them out. The 1994 parliamentary Joint Committee identified Anderson and Krahe as significant suspects in Nielsen's disappearance. Alleged hit-man James Bazely named Krahe as the killer of GriffithGriffith, New South WalesGriffith is a city in south-western New South Wales, Australia. It is also the seat of the City of Griffith local government area. Like the Australian capital, Canberra and the nearby town of Leeton, Griffith was designed by Walter Burley Griffin. Griffith was named after Sir Arthur Griffith the...
anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay, and it has also been claimed that another allegedly corrupt detective, Supt. Don Fergusson, who was reported to have killed himself with his service pistol in the toilets at police headquarters, had in fact been executed by Krahe.