Time, for Donald Mackay’s killer, has almost run out.
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The 89-year-old they once called “Mr Cool” is likely the last person alive who may know what happened to Mackay after he was shot in the carpark of the Griffith Hotel on July 15, 1977.
If Bazley made a deathbed confession, it could give Mackay’s family and friends still in Griffith a chance to finally lay the martyred hero to rest.
According to crime writer John Silvester, Bazley was now “very ill”.
“He's always told his wife he didn’t do it,” Mr Silvester said. “However, this is sufficient corroboration of evidence (that Bazley did it). That a married man would accept a contract to kill a decent, honourable, family man is reprehensible.”
Bazley was found guilty of conspiracy to murder Mackay in 1986 and was reportedly paid just $10,000 to kill the anti-drugs campaigner. The body has never been found.
Ten years after the murder the contract killer denied he pulled the trigger, but he stayed silent on the matter since. Police and reporters have repeatedly visited Bazley and every time he has refused to break his silence. Even a media group’s offer of cash for a tell-all interview fell on deaf ears.
Reg Fallon, a Griffith man who was friends with Mackay through the Rotary Club, said getting the final piece of the puzzle would be important to people in Griffith.
“There'd be a good few around Griffith who'd like to know,” Mr Fallon said.
“I hold Don Mackay in very high regard, he was an ordinary bloke but he was a champion.”
Nearly 40 years after Mackay was killed, leads on what happened are few and far between. In the past few years, rumours of an eye-witness who saw several people at the scene emerged, but police haven't charged anyone new over the case.
Peter Halloran, former Victorian Police homicide chief, said while there was no evidence of anybody except Mr Bazely being present at the killing, it was “possible” more people were involved.
In the Woodward Royal Commission, six men – including mafia kingpin Bob Trimbole – were named, who may have ordered Mackay’s assassination, but no one was ever charged with the murder.
The last real activity on the case was a police operation at Hay in 2013 where a property was dug up in search of Mackay's remains, but nothing was found.
Bazley expected to die in jail for a double murder, conspiracy to murder Mr Mackay and an armed robbery, but was released after a quarter of a century in 2001. The former Painters and Dockers gunman was reportedly a model inmate and maintained a fitness regime once he realised he could survive long enough to be released.
Now in his 90’s, Bazley has been in and out of hospital and his failing health is sure to be tempting him to spill his secrets. But whether he will before he finally meets the reaper remains to be seen.