More than 39 years after the disappearance of Donald Mackay, documents about the case are still being kept secret.
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Author John Jiggens, who had written three books about the Mackay case and drug-related crime in Australia, called for witness statements from the Woodward Royal Commission to be released.
“I’ve spent close to two decades researching the case,” Mr Jiggens said. “I believe there could be something in those statements that challenges the official version of events.”
Justice Philip Woodward’s Royal Commission into Drug Trafficking, which looked in part at the murder of Griffith businessman Donald Mackay, ran from 1977 to 1979.
Mr Jiggens said that when he asked the state archive for the documents, he got a letter back from the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet saying they were part of an ongoing investigation.
Rumours have long surrounded the events of July 15, 1977, when Mr Mackay was shot in the car park of the Griffith Hotel.
Five years after the disappearance mafia insider, Gianfranco Tizzoni, gave evidence that he paid Melbourne hit man James Frederick Bazley $10,000 to carry out the murder and Bazley was jailed in 1986.
However, Bazley has always maintained he was not involved in the Mackay murder.
Mr Jiggens said he had spoken to a man who was at the scene when Mr Mackay was murdered who said there was a car with five men in it involved in the hit.
Terry Jones, editor of Griffith’s The Area News at the time of the disappearance, said he supported Mr Jiggen’s call for the documents to be released.
“Those statements should be looked at again,” Mr Jones said.
“They could clear up who the last person to see Donald Mackay was. They need fresh eyes on them.”
Investigations into Mr Mackay’s murder are continuing under Strike Force Fitr, which is comprised of detectives from the Homicide Squad and Griffith Local Area Command.