McCulkin murders hearing continues in Qld

A committal hearing at Brisbane Magistrates Court has shed new light over a possible connection between the 1974 murders of 36 year old Barbara McCulkin and her daughters Vikki, 13, and Leanne, 11, and the infamous Whiskey A Go Go Night Club fire bombing that claimed 15 lives.

Hall told the Brisbane Magistrates Court that he fled Queensland because of that offer.

The men brought them to Warwick, and separated the mother from the girls before Mr O’Dempsey strangled Barbara, a committal hearing has heard.

Mr Hall told the court Mr McCulkin said to him that if he found out Mr Hall had played a part that he would kill him.

Barbara and her daughters disappeared from their Highgate Hill, Brisbane, home on the night of January 16, 1974.

O’Dempsey, 76, and Dubois, 68, deny police allegations against them.

A former associate of Torbanlea man Garry Reginald Dubois and Warwick man Vincent O’Dempsey has told a Brisbane court that Mr Dubois had revealed details to him about what had happened to the McCulkins.

“We made a decision between ourselves never to discuss it again”, he said.

During his testimony, Hall told the court that he, Dubois, and other associates were ordered by O’Dempsey to burn down former Brisbane nightclub Torino’s “for an insurance job” because “the nightclub wasn’t doing too well”.

The court heard O’Dempsey then suggested his total was actually 33 – to which Ms Scully replied, “that’s a lot”. “Vince took the mother away and strangled her”, Mr Hall told the court.

Hall previously claimed Dubois had approached his gang, the so-called “Clockwork Orange Group”, and told them O’Dempsey had commissioned them to stage an arson attack on the Torino’s nightclub venue.

“He wasn’t all that keen on what had gone down”, said Mr Hall, who has admitted to lying by not revealing the information in prior evidence.

He told the court his brother had been told by Mr O’Dempsey that “the kids weren’t meant to be there” and that Mr O’Dempsey wanted to kill Barbara because she had evidence on him that “would have got him around 20 years (in jail)”.

When asked why he only come forward with this information previous year, Mr Hall said there was misguided loyalty “back in the old days” and referred to a code of not to inform.

The committal hearing continues.