Donald Mackay (anti-drugs Campaigner) - Aftermath of Mackay's Murder

Aftermath of Mackay's Murder

In 1980, Al Grassby was charged with criminal defamation when it was alleged that he had asked New South Wales state politician Michael Maher to read in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly a document that imputed Mackay's wife Barbara and her family solicitor were responsible for Mackay's disappearance. An inquiry by John Nagle Q.C. found that "no decent man" could have spread the "scurrilous lies" that Grassby had. Grassby maintained his innocence and fought a 12-year battle in the courts before he was eventually acquitted on appeal in August 1992 and was awarded A$180,000 in costs. Grassby had already lost a civil suit filed by Barbara Mackay, forcing him to unconditionally apologise.

In 1984, the coroner ruled Mackay had died of "wilfully inflicted gunshot wounds".

In 1986 hitman James Frederick Bazley was charged over the death. Bazley claimed he was innocent, blaming allegedly corrupt former Sydney detective Fred Krahe as the killer, but was convicted of conspiring with Gianfranco Tizzone, Robert Timbole, George Joseph and unknown other persons to murder Mackay, as well as the murders of Douglas and Isabel Wilson. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Gianfranco Tizzoni, who turned informer in 1983, admitted to his 'complicity' in Mackay's murder. Specifically, Tizzoni admitted that he arranged for a hitman he knew as 'Fred' to undertake the contract. When shown photographs of possible suspects, Tizzone fingered James Frederick Bazley as the trigger man.

In July 2012, 35-years after his disappearance, the New South Wales police offer a $200,000 reward for information on the whereabouts of Mackay. The reward was considered a last-ditch attempt to loosen tight and ageing lips. In particular those of James Frederick Bazley, who is 86 and unwell. However, in the rare moments he has broken his silence, Bazley denied he was the killer.