In this episode Regan is already public enemy number one with both the underworld and police after the disappearance and presumed murder of his girlfriend’s toddler son, Karlos Scott-Huie. For some, Regan had signed his own death warrant despite his denials that he ever harmed the child.

Then in August 1974, one of Regan’s close associates and his alleged partner in organising the Whiskey Au Go nightclub mass murder in Brisbane the previous year, the criminal John “Ratty” Clarke, is shot dead in a pub in Sydney’s inner-west. Regan is immediately blamed for that murder, too.

Then, after a pleasant September afternoon picnic with his young daughter Helen, Regan heads off to a prearranged mystery meeting in Marrickville. He arrives in Chapel Street relaxed and unarmed. Soon after at least three shooters appear out of nowhere and gun down Regan. In just a matter of moments Sydney’s most feared gangster is dead, bleeding out in front of a local primary school. Who killed Regan and why? The answers to those questions have remained unanswered for half a century. Until now.

Read more about this case and see photographs, videos, timelines and more at gangstersghost.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.