Model Investigator Had His Ups And Downs

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday December 14, 2006

Malcolm Brown

JOHN WHELAN

1932-2006

JOHN WHELAN, who has died aged 74, was considered a brilliant investigator, rising in the ranks of the NSW Police Force's criminal investigation branch and heading the motor and homicide squads.

Whelan followed the practice of the day in mixing and drinking with criminals to glean intelligence. He once said: "You don't find criminals in milk bars."

But it was somewhat embarrassing to have been present, with fellow detective Maurice Wild, in the Latin Quarter nightclub in 1967 when the gangster Lennie McPherson allegedly shot dead Raymond "Ducky" O'Connor.

It was not the first controversy Whelan was involved in, and he was to fiercely maintain that his retirement in 1987, at the age of 55, was voluntary.

Born in Griffith, Bernard John Whelan began his working life with the NSW Forestry Commission, but at 17 became a police cadet. In time he joined the detective ranks.

He was one of the principal investigators in the inquiry into the Bathurst Gaol riots of 1974. He also headed an inquiry into corruption in the NSW harness racing industry; it was held up as a model for future investigators.

Whelan was second-in-charge of investigators at the Woodward royal commission, which was ordered after the disappearance of the anti-drugs campaigner Donald McKay in Griffith in 1977, and then took over as chief investigator.

At the time of his retirement Whelan had been giving confidential government information to his friend, the former leading detective Nelson Chad, prompting an investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

He then worked for a time for Chad in his private inquiry agency, Satinvale Pty Ltd, but left after a disagreement and set up his own inquiry business.

Controversy dogged him. In 1994 he was named in NSW Parliament by the corruption fighter John Hatton, who said a known criminal had been seen giving him cash. His name came up again in the Lee royal commission into the arrest of Harry Blackburn, a senior NSW police officer, when it was claimed in 1989 Whelan belonged to the "Black Knights" faction bent on destroying the career of the then police commissioner, John Avery.

It was alleged that Whelan belonged to the "barbecue set", a group of senior police and others who met regularly over a barbecue, and whose deliberations were supposedly "suss". Cross-examination in the royal commission by senior counsel assisting, Chester Porter, QC, left open the question of what Whelan had actually "done".

Clive Small, a former assistant commissioner, came under fire at one stage of his career for his association with Whelan but stuck with him. Now head of investigations with the ICAC, he said: "I regarded Jack as a mentor and a very good friend."

Warren Mallard, a former president of the Institute of Mercantile Agents, for whom Whelan did occasional investigative jobs, said: "My opinion of him was he was a reasonable bloke and I think most people who met him and dealt with him would say the same."

Whelan is survived by his wife, Beverley, two sons, a daughter and four grandchildren.

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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