Rochelle Jackson - Partners and Crime. The True Stories of Eight Women and Their Lives with Notorious Men

PARTNERS AND
CRIME

ROCHELLE JACKSON was born in Melbourne and grew up in a police family. She is an author and a journalist. Rochelle published her first book, In Your Face: The Lifeand Times of Billy The TexanLongley (ABC Books), in 2005. This book was shortlisted in the 2006 Ned Kelly Awards for Australian Crime Writing and the 2006 Davitt Awards in the true crime category.

Her second book, Inside theirMinds: Australian Criminals (Allen & Unwin), was published in 2008. The book continues to be reprinted, was made into an audio book and was shortlisted in the 2009 Davitt Awards.

Rochelle is an experienced investigative journalist. She began her career in country Victoria and Sydney, working in television and radio. She has worked as a TV producer and investigative journalist for Today Tonight, Australian Story, New Dimensions with George Negus, Watchdog, TVNZs 60 Minutes and SBS TV and Radio services. She specialises in crime and police stories and produced a four-part series about bushfire arson for the ABCs Radio National. Rochelle has also worked for the New South Wales Police Service producing internal TV bulletins and promotional videos.

Currently Rochelle is based in Melbourne, where she works as a freelance journalist. She co-hosts the Crime Couch radio spot every fortnight on the ABCs 774 Evening program.

Visit Rochelles website at www.rochellejackson.com.au

PARTNERS AND CRIME

Rochelle Jackson

First published in 2012

Copyright Rochelle Jackson 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

Allen & Unwin
Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, London

83 Alexander Street
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Australia

Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100
Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218
Email: info@allenandunwin.com
Web: www.allenandunwin.com

Cataloguing-in-Publication details are available
from the National Library of Australia
www.trove.nla.gov.au

ISBN 978 1 74237 255 6

Set in 12/15 pt Sabon by Midland Typesetters, Australia
Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Dedicated to my brothers, Garrick and Travis Jackson.
Thanks for always being there and supporting me no
matter what. You have always made a difference.

CONTENTS

Sylvia Bruno: ex-wife of Nikolai the Bulgarian Radev
My Contract with the Devil

Georgina Freeman: ex-wife of George Freeman
The Most Unlikely Gangsters Moll

Ann-Marie Presland: former partner of Bob Trimbole
Stand by Your Man

Tania Herman: former girlfriend of Joe Korp
What I Did for Love

Frances Stratford: carer of Billy the Texan Longley
Better the Devil You Know

Jeannie Cako: wife of Fred Cako
Love is the Drug

Coral Watson: ex-wife of Scott Watson
Im Not Ready to Make Nice

Mary-Ann Read: ex-wife of Mark Brandon
Chopper Read
I Will Survive

A woman has got to love a bad man once or twice in her life,
to be thankful for a good one.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

When I pitched this book to my publishers in mid-2009, I wanted to write about criminals wives, partners and girlfriends. I thought I already knew everything about these sorts of women. I mean, how difficult could it be to work them out? These women were clearly attracted to bad boys, they mistook adrenalin and risk-taking for love, had got a taste for the other side of the law and were possibly involved in crimes themselves. They were females with fast morals and faster mouths; and if they werent then they were victims.

When I started to get to know my subjects, I realised how wrong I was. The women Ive written about in this book are nothing like the stories or my assumptions about them. My opinionslike everybody elseswere created by stories and images we are fed by the media about these types of women, which are often inaccurate and misleading. They are stereotyped and catalogued; their lives are photographed and filmed for all to see, often without their permission. They dont have a say in how theyre portrayed and are usually defined by their notorious male partners. In the male-dominated media, the criminal rules the roost and female takes second place. Unless these women have strong personalities, they dont have an identity or a voice. Some, like Roberta Williams, try to cash in on their infamy, but this usually backfires. Although were fascinated by these types of women and their lives, we dont want to be like them and often revel in their downfall.

Partners in Crime was a difficult book to write. I spent months liaising with dozens of women from around Australia and New Zealand, using every contact and person I knew to find them. I spoke with ex-detectives, cops, barristers, solicitors, crooks, prisoner welfare groups, magazine editors, crime biographers, fellow journalists, friends of friends and former prisoners. During 2010, I didnt write for three months because every woman I approached turned me down. I wrote letters, rang people and despaired; it seemed the more women I approached, the tougher my task became. My success rate wasnt good: I received five knockbacks for every woman who agreed to speak to me. The women I approached had valid reasons for not wanting to be involved. After expressing astonishment that Id found them, some declined, saying they didnt think their children would approve, or that theyd re-married and were living new lives. Some women didnt want to recall the past or, as some said, the biggest mistake of [their] life. And others maintained they were still too scared to speak.

Then I realised the problem I was facing: most of these women had chosen to become invisible. By asking to interview them I was asking them to speak out, and for most of them that was asking too much.

I didnt think Id be able to finish the book, but the universe shifted and a woman Id earlier approached changed her mind. I could continue writing.

It was a complex and time-consuming journey. For every chapter I had to work out if a particular woman was still alive, establish the relationship with her infamous partner and then, find her. The hardest part was the negotiating. I was asking people I barely knew to confide in me their most personal experience and give their approval for their story to be published. They would get no money and had to trust Id get the story right, though I showed every woman the chapter after finishing it.

Ive discovered you cant profile or sum up the partners of criminals. They dont come from the same cultural backgrounds or have similar educations, jobs, or even reasons why they became involved with the men they did. To generalise would be wrong, unfair and inaccurate; theres not one type of woman who is attracted to male criminals. Some of my subjects fell in love with a man who represented the opposite of their upbringing, others enjoyed the excitement, wealth and privileges that came with being associated with someone infamous. Some gave their partners alibiswhile others still insist their partners are good men and that they know a different side of them. Some admitted it was an escape from a tough situation they found themselves in, others had no idea why theyd become involved with a criminal.