Cirrus@Austlit

'At an outback campfire at Ora Banda, a hidden gunman shoots down Gypsy Joker, Billy Grierson.

'The isolated gold mining town was owned by a former ranking cop, Don Hancock. He had the pub, the race track, the general store, caravan park and a gold ore crusher. Hancock earned millions in illicit gold when he was Western Australia's most senior detective. He owned a gold mine, race horses, properties and a large share portfolio in gold ventures. He also received regular cash from prostitutes for his protection.

'He was the State's foremost cop, and foremost corrupt cop. His reputation was based on an infamous sting on the Royal Mint, Perth. Bullion worth (in today's money) about $2.9m was extracted by a cunning thief using only a telephone. No witnesses, no violence, no victim. An extraordinary crime that was solved by Don Hancock, delivering up three brothers, Brian, Peter and Ray Mickelberg, who copped lengthy sentences.

'And it was all based on falsified evidence.

'Lovell's first book, The Mickelberg Stitch, detailed a forged fingerprint, false confessions and a sham sketch of a suspect. The book was swiftly banned on police applications. His second book, Split Image, did not even hit the streets because of police and Crown threats to booksellers.

'A few weeks after the murder of Billy Grierson, Ora Banda was blown to pieces. A year later, Don Hancock was executed by a car bomb. Was it the bikies? . . . Or was it crooked fellow cops afraid he would reveal his dark secrets?

'The entire bizarre history of a twisted judicial and police system is exposed in: Litany of Lies'

Source : publisher's blurb

'The Royal Mint is swindled of over 2000 Oz of gold bullion in the Australian west coast city of Perth in 1982.
'Three brothers, Raymond, Peter and Brian Mickelberg are convicted of fraudulently conspiring to steal the golden fortune. There was precious little direct evidence, except a curious fingerprint - a print that matched that of Raymond Mickelberg, a former Vietnam commando, now a pilot and abalone diver.
'But evidence had been tampered with by Crown officers...
'Witnesses began dying…
'Crown evidence shuffled back and forth in a pragmatic dance of deceit.
'International power-games ensued in Britain, Canada, the United States and Australia to protect the tattered sacred cow, "Forensic Science".
'Seven years later, in 1989, $1,000,000 of gold bullion was secretly delivered by a mysterious Mr. X to a television news reporter, with a note claiming the Mickelbergs were innocent!

'Investigative author Avon Lovell continues his exposition of a complex web of deceit that follows the conviction and imprisonment of three brothers over the 1982 Great Mint Swindle, and the State conspiracy to maintain the status quo. The New Scotland Yard, the O.P.P., U.S. Secret Service, the F.B.I. and the Royal Canadian Mounties all contributed to and learnt from the scrutiny of forensic evidence in the appeals that followed. 'Police Science' will never be the same…
'The brothers always claimed that they were framed… Now all echelons of the judicial process are forced to review their procedures in the light of this exposé of corruption, collusion and fabrication in the interests of maintaining a conviction.
Police, prosecution and the separation of government and legal fraternity are on the stand, and the charge is conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Everybody should know why the authorities reacted when this clear-cut case of police malpractice, judicial compliance and international governmental power games was exposed.
'Where 'The Mickelberg Stitch' reveals how a major fraud was executed, the corrupted proceedings in the collation of the hand-up brief, Split Image offers an insight into the depths that individuals, organisations and governments will go in order to protect the integrity of a flawed science at the root of every modern justice system.'

Source : author's website

'$653,000 in gold bullion stolen from the Perth Mint in West Australia. No violence, no victim and precious little evidence, yet three brothers were convicted and given sentences of 12, 16 and 20 years. The brothers maintained that they were framed.

'This book demonstrates shortcomings in the 'security' of installations and services dealing with gold bullion, subsequent police investigation, and the judicial process in Australia's wild west.

'Relevant to everybody in that the authors' observations published in 1985 are being proven factual in 2002 - Evidence was manufactured and destroyed so that jury members were not given the opportunity to dispense justice…and this in a western, first world democratic society.

'The book was then effectively banned through legal actions brought by police officers.
'Burglary, theft, arson and fraud led to the crime. Unsigned confessions, illegal surveillance, assault and destruction of evidence led to the accused fighting to prove that they were framed.

'The right to 'Freedom of Speech' and the presumption of innocence are put into question as a result of this chilling expose.'

Source : publisher's blurb