RUSS HINZE, THE PIMP & THE SECRET MEETING
A SECRET bushland meeting was held at Upper Coomera between a local pimp and Queensland cabinet minister Russell Hinze in the 1980s in an effort to catch the balaclava rapist and killer.
Former Gold Coast Bulletin newsman Frank Hampson, who arranged the meeting, for the first time recounted the story of a local brothel owner, who approached him with information about a client who had been frightening his call girls.
The pimp believed the man was the balaclava rapist and murderer, who terrorised the Gold Coast and Tweed in a series of attacks in 1979-80. It included the abduction and rape of women, and the murder of Jeffrey Parkinson, 33.
“He thought one of his girls was going to be murdered and he wanted me to arrange the meeting with Russ Hinze because the police were so corrupt at the time,” Mr Hampson said.
“One night, at Upper Coomera, I took the pimp down a bush track and Russ took him into a car where the deputy commissioner of police was. They wouldn’t tell me anything of the conversation but said they were satisfied with what they’d been told and said once they made an arrest we would know.”
Mr Hampson said the same man police investigated was later found dead in the brothel owner’s premises.
“We later found out the man had been found dead in a brothel after taking an overdose,” he said.
It is understood the man had been questioned by police before his death.
Russ Hinze was dubbed “the Minister for Everything” after holding the portfolios of both main roads and racing. He was police minister between July 1980 and December 1982.
The identity of the balaclava has remained a mystery for nearly 40 years.
On Saturday, a retired builder, Frank De Michiel, told the Bulletin he knew the killer. “He was in my house,” he said, reliving the week in December 1980 when a man shared Christmas drinks at his home and then broke into his house, stalking his wife beside.
Queensland and NSW police declined to comment when the name of the man Mr De Michiel believed visited his home was put to them by the Bulletin.
A retired assistant police commissioner and former detective, Eric Strong, also revealed vital DNA evidence that could have identified the rapist was disposed of at Lismore Police Station.
Over the years there have been countless theories as to who the notorious rapist and murderer could be.
Adventurer Ashley Coulston has previously been identified as a suspect in the case. Coulston is serving three life sentences for the 1992 murders of three people in Victoria. He was convicted of their shooting deaths after answering an advertisement for a flat share.
Coulston was living in northern NSW when the balaclava rapist began terrorising women at gunpoint in the summer of 1979-80.
He also lived in Sydney in the early 1990s when several women were attacked by a balaclava-clad, gun wielding man who was dubbed the Sutherland rapist. Police say Coulston shared the same blood type as the Gold Coast balaclava rapist and killer.
Others say a man linked to a local leagues club was responsible for the crimes.
The fact the person responsible has never been caught has lead senior police who worked on the case to opine the person responsible is now either dead or in jail.
No one has ever been charged and the investigation remains a cold case.