AN EXCELLENT MURDER
Don Mackay was a local politician and furniture salesman who tried to stand up to Griffith’s Calabrian Mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta. From a small town in country NSW, this secretive group grew into a far-reaching drug cultivation and distribution network with direct ties back to Italy. We speak to one of the detectives who busted the biggest drug plantation ever discovered in Australia – and reveal how the mafia bosses discovered Don Mackay had informed them.
At the war table, Australia’s top former police intelligence specialist examines the evidence of a mafia death warrant issued for Mackay in early 1977 … a so-called “excellent murder”, reserved for those who endangered the deadly business of the ‘Ndrangheta – and reveal a mystery witness who implicates police in the killing.
And for the first time we’ll investigate the shadowy role of Al Grassby – Minister for Immigration in Gough Whitlam’s government – and establish he was almost certainly on the mafia’s payroll.
JOINING LIZ HAYES ON THE WAR TABLE:
● Terry Jones – former editor of the Griffith Area News
● Former Detective Mick Drury – one of the out-of-town undercover detectives Donald Mackay appealed to for help
● Kate McClymont – Chief Investigative Reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald
● And Jim Slade – former detective with the Bureau of Criminal Intelligence who will help us analyse the evidence tonight.3
Under Investigation with Liz Hayes – Wednesday 8 March, 2023 at 9pm on 9 and 9Now
