Russell 'Mad Dog' Cox ::: Modern Day Ned Kelly

Some Modern Day Crooks

Neddy Smith
By right means, if you can, but by any means make money.
Horace, 65-8 BC

Arthur Stanley Smith was born in Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital on the 27th November 1944.
At 11 years of age Neddy was sent to Mittagong Boy's home and he currently resides in Lithgow Corrections Centre in the Blue Mountains NSW where he is serving a life sentence for murder.
Neddy Smith was one hell of a street fighter, in his day's in Parramatta jail, he would spend hours in his cell each night throwing thousands of punches until they became second nature. Ned was made a medic in the jail's clinic and assisted an officer named Willy Faber who was cracked over the head with a hammer by Raymond Denning in an attempted jail break.

Neddy Smith eventually met up with corrupt NSW Detective Sgt Roger Rogerson, and was 'Green lighted' to do basically any crime he wanted in Sydney with one rule... No Police officers were to be hurt.
Heroin distribution, Armed Robberies, getting charges fixed for other criminals were all in a days work. Smith was thought to be one of very few 'paper' millionaires at the time.

'Twenty thousand dollars, or you both hit the nick.'
Policeman to Smith and an associate

Suggested reading for the full story on Neddy Smith:
'Neddy' by Tom Noble and 'Catch and Kill Your Own' by Neddy Smith.

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The Dodger - Detective Roger Caleb Rogerson

Roger Rogerson was the ol' school NSW detective who put the wind up Sydney Underworld crims with his old school policing.
He was an old fashioned style Policeman, the sort of bloke that would nail you in a second if you were a dickhead crim...
A highly decorated officer, The Dodger employed criminals such as Neddy Smith and Abo Henry and green lighted the men to commit armed robberies, receiving a 'drink' of the takings later on. Rogerson is probably best remembered for shooting Sydney criminal Warren Lanfranchi in a Sydney backstreet.
The dodger's luck finally ran out regarding a few suspect bank accounts, he was unceremoniously kicked out of the New South Wales Police Force and ended up serving many years in Sydney's Long Bay Jail.
He's currently touring with AFL legend Mark 'Jacko' Jackson on a speaking tour of Australia.

Warren Lanfranchi, boyfriend of Sally- Anne Huckstepp

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Christopher Dale Flannery
mr 'rentokill'

Chris Flannery was a supposed Melbourne and Sydney underworld hitman.
The only real mystery about 'Rentokill' is where the fuck did he end up?

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Russell 'Mad Dog' Cox

Russell 'Mad Dog' Cox was one of Victoria's most notoriously successful and vicious armed robbers and a murderer
Cox was sentenced to life imprisonment in July 1977 for shooting at police, armed robbery and kidnapping. The charges were the result of a dramatic escape attempt two years earlier from Long Bay jail, where he was serving a 14-year-jail sentence for armed robbery, in which Cox took warders hostage and shots were fired.
Taken to Katingal - which has been described over the past two decades by prisoners, prison officers and human rights groups as an "electronic zoo" - he claimed his life there was hell. The "cruelty" even extended to meal times when Cox, a vegetarian, was frequently given meat.

Housed in Malabar's Long Bay jail complex, Katingal was a tough, maximum security prison which was supposedly escape-proof. Conditions there were particularly harsh: the 35-odd prisoners incarcerated there slept on concrete beds with a foam mattress, sat and ate on concrete chairs and tables and drank water from a drinking fountain 20cm above the stainless steel toilet bowl.

Four months later, on November 3, 1977, Cox escaped. He climbed up a "steep wall", squeezed through an iron bar - which had been sawn through - leading onto the exercise yard roof and then climbed over two 4.5-metre barbed-wire fences. His life on the run had begun.
He hitched to Victoria where he lived the life of a "fugitive". He worked casually, usually as a labourer or a kitchen hand, and settled down in 1983 when he formed a relationship with a woman. But, thinking he would be captured, Cox moved to Queensland. He subsequently returned to Victoria, where he was arrested.

But in July 1988, his luck ran out. He was captured with the late Raymond John Denning in a wild shoot-out in a suburban Melbourne shopping centre.
(Denning later turned prison informer, and, upon his release in May 1993, swapped notoriety for anonymity with a new identity under the Witness Protection Scheme. He died one month later from a heroin overdose.)

Cox was subsequently charged and convicted of using and possessing firearms, and endangering life, and spent the next three years in Victorian jails. He was then extradited back to Sydney.

SINCE his re-arrest in 1988, Cox has spent the past few years in Goulburn jail - his jail of choice. During that time, he has undertaken a wide variety of external educational courses.

Russell Cox finally walks from Grafton Dungeons

The Life And Crimes Of Russell 'Mad Dog' Cox

1958: Placed on 18-months' probation, aged nine, for stealing

1974: Sentenced to 14 years' jail for armed robbery

1975: Took warders hostage while unsuccessfully trying to escape from Long Bay Jail

1977: Sentenced to life for shooting a police officer, armed robbery and kidnapping. Escaped four months later from the supposedly escape-proof Katingal Special Security Unit

1981: Sighted in New Zealand

1985: Sighted in Sydney's eastern suburbs but eluded police

1988: Captured with fellow escapee Raymond Denning during a shootout in a Melbourne shopping centre

1988-1995: Jailed for using and possessing firearms and endangering life. Extradited to Sydney

1995: Acquitted of escaping from Katingal

Extract from: A Mad Dog's life
Author: NICK PAPADOPOULOS
Date: 10/05/1995
Publication: Sydney Morning Herald

Congratulations on your release Russell!
And a thorough Welcome to Queensland mate!
If you ever read this, I'd love to tell your story properly
In my book, your a modern day Ned Kelly!
And know your a big fan of Bushrangers.
Coxy
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Here's a great story from Bernie Mathews on Coxy's escape from Katingal Inhuman Zoo
Bernie Matthews is a convicted bank robber and prison escapee who has served time for armed robbery and prison escapes in NSW (1969-1980) and Queensland (1996-2000). He is now a journalist.

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Raymond John Denning

Raymond Denning born in Port Kembla south of Sydney NSW in 1951 was an armed robber who was probably most famous for caving in Parramatta Jail warden Willy Faber's scull with a hammer during a prison breakout attempt in 1974 ( Ironically... Neddy Smith assisted the injured officer and received early parole for the favour!) Eventually classed as an 'Intractable', Ray was sent to the Infamous Grafton Jail in 1978. On April 2nd 1980 Ray escaped from Grafton ( The only inmate in the jails 80 year history to do so) and became a thorn in the Governments side with such tactics as appearing on the 60 Minutes Television program and Sydney Radio Station 2JJ to air his complaints at the injustices he had received.
On the 100th anniversary of The hanging of Ned Kelly in 1980 (and while still on the run) Ray celebrated the occasion by driving by Sydney's Parramatta Jail and taking some pot shots with a .22 rifle at a guard tower.
Denning kept a journal of case notes which was latter published as 'Ray Denning. My Life and Time' By Donald Catchlove.

After a meeting with Sydney Detective Arnee Tees, Ray became what he despised most of his life... A police informant, maybe his only way of escaping the hell of Pentridge Jail's Jika Jika Dention Unit.
He was finally released from jail on April 21, 1993 and placed on the witness protection scheme. He was removed from protection not long after and at 42 years of age, was found dead in an inner Sydney Paddington address from a heroin overdose

for more info on some of Australia's hardest criminals: Here