The tenet for the PCEC’s guest speaker at their June 4 meeting was: “Organized crime cannot exist without corruption”. John Wayne Ryan provided a provocative talk about his six decades long adventure in police training, body-guard, martial arts, acting/movie-stunt and detective/security careers. He also authored a book about his life, titled: “I Survived”, which is currently sold-out in paperback, but is available as an eBook on Amazon’s Kindle.
John, born to a Brisbane, Australia, mom and pop grocery store family, lived his early years atop the stores before moving into US Army huts, converted to accommodations by the State Housing Commission. His interests soon evolved into a lifelong association with martial arts, sparked by a Japanese store worker.
He is the product of the 1950’s, Gold Coast, Rock-n-Roll environment which he used to combine his martial arts skills with his entertainment interests as an events security officer. He found himself in Tokyo and advanced his martial arts skills with the help of his sensei (teacher), Grand Master Narasaki. John quickly advanced to become a karate sensei, in the styles of Kempokan, Karate and Kung Fu. In 1962, he moved back to Australia and became one of the first-ever private bodyguards in Australia. He competed in martial art fighting throughout Australia and Asia and in the years from 1962 until 1974, he became a Master and Open World Champion, retiring undefeated. He has worked as an Elvis impersonator and acted in a cult film titled: “Elvis Killed My Brother”, in which he plays Elvis.
John joined the Australian Army in 1966 as a military policeman and then became a “private military contractor” (aka mercenary) and served with the American Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, Studies and Observations (MAC-V SOG), special operations unit, 1968. He saw action in Vietnam and Laos, was badly wounded and returned to Australia.
After a move to Melbourne, John became involved with a popular long-running TV series called “Homicide” as a fight scene choreographer, stunt-man and actor. John continued his entertainment adventures by touring the east coast of Australia in a car/motorcycle/explosives stunt show known as “John Ryan’s Death Dodgers”.
John’s real interest, martial arts, brought him back to Brisbane. Getting reacquainted with former martial arts friends, one of whom was then a policeman, suggested that a professional security and investigation agency would do very well in the Brisbane area. After a few weeks of looking at the martial arts scene and security possibility he decided to go with security as a part-time gig while teaching martial arts.
He started providing night patrols of a few shops, a car yard and some after-hours night banking protection. After a few months, the security contracts started to grow and he dropped the daytime teaching to focus on his new security service and investigative agency.
During the 1970s, he had to deal with some of the most deadly and corrupt police forces ever seen in Australia. The corruption included murder, kidnappings and firebombing. He stated that police management controlled extortion, prostitution, and drug running operations throughout Australia. He states that he refused a bribe by a top policeman, which led to several attempts on his life and well-being. Many false criminal charges were made against him to destroy his credibility but he overcame the roadblocks.
One of his most famous cases involved the firebombing of a Brisbane nightclub, Whiskey au Go Go, in 1973. John had been hired by a company that was overseeing the liquidation of the club. He provided protection of club funds and the liquidator staff. There had been a number of fires and bombings of other nightclubs and John had warned the police and others that he felt sure that the Whiskey au Go Go would be a target.
The original owners re-gained control of the club and John was told that his services were no longer needed. Just a few days later, during the early morning hours of 8 March 1973, the Whiskey Au Go Go was firebombed, resulting in the deaths of 15 patrons and staff. James Richard Finch and John Andrew Stuart were arrested 12 hours apart, the weekend after the firebombing. They were tried and convicted of the crime. John knew that others were involved, including high-level police officers.
A few months later, John received a call from a lady named Barbara McCulkin. She asked if he could get her and her girls out of Brisbane, where no one could find her. She said that she would give him the whole story of the Whisky au Go Go fire and some of the other things around the nightclubs. She would name the cops and how Tony Murphy was involved with some other things with her husband, and others. She asked John to wait until after her daughter’s birthday, to move them away. When John went to pick them up, a few days later, they were nowhere to be found.
It wasn’t until 14 years later that an informant provided information that led to the conviction of two individuals, in late 2016. John provided testimony as a prosecution witness during the trials. Further, John mentioned that on 2 June 2017, the Queensland Attorney-General announced that, because of the McCulkin case, the government would re-open an inquest into the Whiskey au Go Go firebombing; a fitting adjunct to John’s presentation to the PCEC.
After the presentation, MC Roy Albiston brought everyone up to date on upcoming events. This was followed by the “Open Forum” portion of the meeting, where questions are asked and answered and comments made about expat living in Thailand. For more information on the Club and their activities, visit www.pcec.club. To view this week’s video, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4RtZvWWh DM&feature=youtu.be
