Post by Power Ranger on Sept 23, 2020 13:55:10 GMT
I just saw a documentary about this criminal. He doesn’t seem to have a Wikipedia article. He succeeded in his ransom plot against a major airline. Then he was caught and did time. After release he was deported. But he was later suspected of other crimes. A film was made about him in the late 80s but Qantas paid for the film not to be released, citing airline security reasons.
~continued~ 7news.com.au/original-fyi/crime-story-investigator/planes-bombs-and-murder-the-curious-case-of-the-peter-macari-qantas-hoax-c-365924
British tourist Billy Day was 22 years old when he disappeared in Australia in 1970.
Likely murdered, his body has never been found. But it's thought that his remains could be among the 500 or so unidentified human remains in Australia.
His family hopes that DNA recently obtained from Billy's relatives might be compared to those unidentified remains, finally bringing closure.
Billy’s fate is woven into an unrelated crime that made global headlines in the early '70s - a Qantas bomb hoax that played out over seven tense hours.
The hoaxer was Peter Macari - using the alias Mr Brown.
As the drama unfolded, Qantas and police were unaware that Macari was also probably an opportunistic killer with two murders under his belt.
One of those victims was his own brother; the other was Billy Day.
Peter Macari, who was born in the UK, was 37 years old at the time of the hoax.
With a long criminal record, his chance of coming to Australia as a "ten pound Pom" – assisted migration – was low.
Instead, he arrived in Sydney in October 1969 on a fake passport.
Fast forward to May 26, 1971, and Macari, using the alias Mr Brown, called Qantas headquarters in Chifley Square, Sydney, at 2.10pm.
Qantas boss Bert Ritchie was out at the time, so his deputy Phillip Howson took the call and pretended to be Ritchie.
"Call me Mr Brown," said the English-accented voice at the other end.
'Mr Brown' claimed there was a bomb on board the Hong Kong-bound QF755 that had just left Sydney with 133 people on board.
The bomb, said to be made from 24 sticks of gelignite, would detonate when the plane descended below 6,500 metres, he threatened.
It was the first of hourly calls made by Brown throughout the afternoon.
For $500,000, Brown said he would tell Qantas where it was hidden.
He said he’d also left a bomb in locker 84 at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport to prove his intentions.
At 3pm, Army experts confirmed Mr Brown was deadly serious – or so it seemed.
Macari’s inspiration was the 1966 Hollywood movie Doomsday Flight.
Many of the Qantas executives were World War II pilots with extensive combat experience.
They’d survived by making the right decisions quickly and frequently.
Getting this plane on the ground safely was paramount.
Against police advice, they decided to pay the ransom.
“Our job was to do as the criminals asked,” Ritchie later said.
The pilot at the helm of QF755 was William Selwyn.
He found out about the bomb around 1.30pm over Dalby, Queensland.
He turned the plane towards Brisbane and, later, Sydney.
On the ground in Sydney, an identical plane was thoroughly searched for possible hiding places for a bomb.
Their findings were radioed to Selwyn and his crew, who calmly pulled the plane's interior apart - but no bomb was found.
By sunset, QF755 was circling high above the sea just off Sydney.
By 7pm, it would be out of fuel.
Mr Brown gets his cash
At 4.30pm, $500,000 in new $20 bills from the Commonwealth Bank in Martin Place arrived at Qantas HQ in two plain suitcases.
The serial numbers were recorded and the cash packed into two suitcases.
At 5.45pm, Qantas chief Bert Ritchie took the suitcases down to the Chifley Square entrance of Qantas House, as per the bomber’s instructions...
Likely murdered, his body has never been found. But it's thought that his remains could be among the 500 or so unidentified human remains in Australia.
His family hopes that DNA recently obtained from Billy's relatives might be compared to those unidentified remains, finally bringing closure.
Billy’s fate is woven into an unrelated crime that made global headlines in the early '70s - a Qantas bomb hoax that played out over seven tense hours.
The hoaxer was Peter Macari - using the alias Mr Brown.
As the drama unfolded, Qantas and police were unaware that Macari was also probably an opportunistic killer with two murders under his belt.
One of those victims was his own brother; the other was Billy Day.
Peter Macari, who was born in the UK, was 37 years old at the time of the hoax.
With a long criminal record, his chance of coming to Australia as a "ten pound Pom" – assisted migration – was low.
Instead, he arrived in Sydney in October 1969 on a fake passport.
Fast forward to May 26, 1971, and Macari, using the alias Mr Brown, called Qantas headquarters in Chifley Square, Sydney, at 2.10pm.
Qantas boss Bert Ritchie was out at the time, so his deputy Phillip Howson took the call and pretended to be Ritchie.
"Call me Mr Brown," said the English-accented voice at the other end.
'Mr Brown' claimed there was a bomb on board the Hong Kong-bound QF755 that had just left Sydney with 133 people on board.
The bomb, said to be made from 24 sticks of gelignite, would detonate when the plane descended below 6,500 metres, he threatened.
It was the first of hourly calls made by Brown throughout the afternoon.
For $500,000, Brown said he would tell Qantas where it was hidden.
He said he’d also left a bomb in locker 84 at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport to prove his intentions.
At 3pm, Army experts confirmed Mr Brown was deadly serious – or so it seemed.
Macari’s inspiration was the 1966 Hollywood movie Doomsday Flight.
Many of the Qantas executives were World War II pilots with extensive combat experience.
They’d survived by making the right decisions quickly and frequently.
Getting this plane on the ground safely was paramount.
Against police advice, they decided to pay the ransom.
“Our job was to do as the criminals asked,” Ritchie later said.
The pilot at the helm of QF755 was William Selwyn.
He found out about the bomb around 1.30pm over Dalby, Queensland.
He turned the plane towards Brisbane and, later, Sydney.
On the ground in Sydney, an identical plane was thoroughly searched for possible hiding places for a bomb.
Their findings were radioed to Selwyn and his crew, who calmly pulled the plane's interior apart - but no bomb was found.
By sunset, QF755 was circling high above the sea just off Sydney.
By 7pm, it would be out of fuel.
Mr Brown gets his cash
At 4.30pm, $500,000 in new $20 bills from the Commonwealth Bank in Martin Place arrived at Qantas HQ in two plain suitcases.
The serial numbers were recorded and the cash packed into two suitcases.
At 5.45pm, Qantas chief Bert Ritchie took the suitcases down to the Chifley Square entrance of Qantas House, as per the bomber’s instructions...
~continued~ 7news.com.au/original-fyi/crime-story-investigator/planes-bombs-and-murder-the-curious-case-of-the-peter-macari-qantas-hoax-c-365924
