A man who saw a car parked next to Shirley Finn’s the morning her body was found was warned police would ‘get him’ because of what he saw.
John Mearns told the WA Coroners Court on Wednesday he had feared for his life ever since the 1975 execution-style murder of the brothel madam.
Mr Mearns saw a small green car parked next to Ms Finn’s distinctive American vehicle as he was driving past the Royal Perth Golf Club with his family about 6am on June 23, 1975.
He said Ms Finn’s Dodge, with its front doors hanging wide open in the pouring rain, caught his eye.
John Means said he had feared for his life ever since he drove past Shirley Finn’s car on the day her body was found, and seen a second car parked next to it
Ms Finn was found inside her car on June 23, 1975, wearing a $3000 ballgown with four bullets in her head
The car enthusiast said a green car was parked beside the Dodge and he could not see anyone inside either vehicle. He said he thought, ‘This doesn’t add up.’
His wife jotted down the registration of both cars and put the note in his glove box, which was thrown out six months later when he sold his vehicle.
Mr Mearns said he called police the day after news of the murder broke but the officer ‘didn’t want to particularly know’.
‘I offered him the numbers and he said… ‘we’ve already got all that information’.
‘He just said, ‘Thanks very much’, and hung up.’
In 1982, after Mr Mearns spoke with the media, police flew up to speak with him in Carnarvon but they again dismissed what he said.
The brothel madam was being investigated by the tax office and had threatened to bring down high powered men with her
Mr Mearns said he had been warned by a policeman friend that cops would ‘get him’ over what he had seen
Mr Mearns said he played football with police officer friends in the town and one warned him: ‘Watch your back. They’ll get you.’
When he asked who, the officer allegedly replied, ‘Cops’.
Mr Mearns said he gave the warning a lot of weight because it came from a policeman.
He said he checked his car each day, fearing he would be blown up – a fear that intensified in 2001 when Don Hancock, who became the chief of the Criminal Investigation Bureau, was murdered in a car bombing.
‘When Hancock got taken out, I was even more worried,’ Mr Mearns said.
Last week, Philip Robert Hooper told the inquest he saw a police panel van parked next to the Dodge then heard gunshots before two men in a station wagon threatened him and his now-wife not to tell police because they would ‘come after us’.
Mr Mearns checked his car each day, fearing there would be an explosive device fitted to it
Mr Hooper said he drove around the corner minutes later and saw the two men, along with another man, standing by a green car.
Earlier on Wednesday, former cab driver Ray Gardner said he saw two policemen shoot Ms Finn twice in the head while she slept in her Dodge, then fire at his taxi but miss.
Mr Gardner said it was a ‘beautiful fine day’ when it was, in fact, raining heavily.
He also claimed the man who pulled the trigger in the execution-style murder was then-police minister Ray O’Connor, who became premier.
Former brothel madame Shirley Finn was found dead in her car near the Royal Perth Golf Club, dressed in a $3000 ballgown and with four bullets in her head in June 1975.
Ms Finn was found in her car (pictured) which was parked near the Royal Perth Golf Club
She was being investigated by the tax office over a $100,000 bill and had threatened to name people she had been involved with, or paid kickbacks to.
There have long been wide-spread rumours of a police involvement or a cover-up, with an investigator at the time linked to notorious NSW corrupt cop and convicted killer Roger Rogerson.
The West Australian claims WA cold case detectives spoke to Rogerson about Ms Finn’s murder in June this year, as the former police officer and convicted killer was in WA on a mentoring trip the same week the madame was killed.
However, Rogerson did not admit anything, nor did he provide any information to detectives.
Finn’s daughter Bridget Shewring has long campaigned for an inquest into her mother’s unsolved murder.
She has spoken widely about the need for the inquest to occur soon, as there is an ageing list of potential people of interest.
The inquest continues.
Finn’s daughter Bridget Shewring has long campaigned for an inquest into her mother’s unsolved murder