One of Australia’s most infamous gangland cold cases may finally have a killer, after a former rugby league player put a notorious Sydney gangster at the scene of the murder.
Greyhound trainer Charlie Bourke was ‘ruthlessly’ gunned down outside his Randwick home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on February 10, 1964.
The killer pumped 10 bullets from a semi-automatic .22 rifle into Bourke before stopping to reload and firing 10 more.
Lennie ‘Mr Big’ McPherson, one of Australia’s most powerful bosses who ruled Sydney’s streets with an iron fist for decades, was always considered to be the most likely suspect, although he was never named as a person of interest by police.
But now, a friend of late Balmain Tigers rugby league player Billy Tulloch claims McPherson was at the scene the night of the gruesome murder.
Lennie ‘Mr Big’ McPherson (pictured), one of Australia’s most powerful crime bosses who ruled Sydney’s streets with an iron fist for decades, was always considered to be the most likely suspect in the Bourke murder although he was never named as a person of interest by police
Paul Gumbley, a former resident of Eurimbla Avenue, Randwick, told the authors of a self-published historical retrospective, , that Tulloch knew McPherson well and saw him idling in a ‘flash car’ on that street the night of the gangland execution.
Mr Gumbley said Tulloch was adamant he would never tell the police.
‘Billy said: ‘I’m never saying anything about that’,’ he said.
‘The reason I would say that Lennie McPherson parked in Eurimbla was because you could walk to the bottom of the street and there was a little lane that connected Eurimbla Avenue with Botany Street.’
Mr Bourke was gunned down at 26 Norton Street in Randwick, just a few doors down from Botany Street and a short walk from Eurimbla Avenue.
Tulloch and McPherson were well known to each other having grown up on the mean streets of Balmain together.
Greyhound trainer Charlie Bourke (pictured) was ‘ruthlessly’ gunned down outside his Randwick home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on February 10, 1964
McPherson even provided the kegs for Tulloch’s wife’s 21st birthday party at the Balmain Town Hall.
He was also very familiar with the type of car the underworld figure drove.
McPherson developed a hideous reputation as he rose to power by systematically murdering his competition without mercy, even ducking out of his own wedding reception to gun down a hated rival.
At the same time, Charlie Bourke was also well entrenched in Sydney’s gangster scene.
Bourke worked as a standover thug and ran a backroom baccarat club in Kings Cross.
He fled to the Harbour City after escaping a Brisbane jail where he was locked up for a shooting and connected to two other fatal gun crimes.
At the young age of just 20, he was also shot and retained an intimidating scar across his face.
Some speculated his killers could have been bookies who paid him for inside greyhound racing information that didn’t deliver – or a host of other Sydney criminals he’d made enemies with.
But most always believed McPherson was behind the killing.
Bourke was moving in on McPherson’s standover territory in Newtown, according to the Lennie McPherson biography Mr Big.
He was also seen arguing with McPherson on the night he was killed about protection money for a new gambling operator who had lobbed in from Queensland.
But due to McPherson’s cosy relationship with NSW police and the corrupt detective Inspector Ray ‘Gunner’ Kelly, he was never fully investigated.
Lennie McPherson (left) takes Chicago mafia-linked Americans Nick Giordano and Joseph Testa on a shooting trip on their visit to Australia
Former Eurimbla Avenue resident told the authors of a self-published historical retrospective, Remembering Eurimbla, that Tulloch knew McPherson well and had seen him idling in a ‘flash car’ but never went to police.Pictured: Eurimbla Avenue in Sydney’s Randwick with the laneway leading to Botany Street, near the murder scene
‘It was a significant murder,’ author David Hickie wrote in his 1985 book The Prince and the Premier said.
‘But in the generation of the Ray Kelly police, if you weren’t prepared to turn a blind eye you didn’t go very far.’
McPherson was finally brought down in the 1990s after ordering a simple beating of businessman Darron Burt over a liquor business contract.
Mr Burt was viciously beaten at his home in April 1991 and the young detectives who investigated and charged McPherson cared little for his history.
McPherson had been caught on a tapped phone planning the beating and later saying: ‘The boys just done a job for me, a f**king good job…they got this f**king bloke and broke his f**king arm and bashed his head. If you beloved this article and also you would like to receive more info relating to บาคาร่า generously visit the website. ‘
He was jailed for four years after delaying the trial until December 1994 and died aged 75 behind bars a broken man in August 1996.
Mr Tulloch died in 2012.
McPherson was jailed for four years after delaying the trial until December 1994 and died aged 75 behind bars a broken man in August 1996.Pictured: McPherson’s funeral service
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox news" data-version="2" id="mol-ba6fc470-c219-11eb-adbc-5bc7645220fc" website star puts notorious gangster at the scene of cold case murder
