Kerry Packer's family pours scorn on Richard Desmond claims

A close relative of the late  Kerry Packer says claims by Britain's Daily Express newspaper owner Richard Desmond in his autobiography The Real Deal that the Aussie media mogul said to him "I will slit your throat from ear to ear" are complete hogwash.

The relative who wished to remain anonymous said "Kerry was tough in business, could be brusque but was also very fair and it was not his style to issue threats like that".
People who have worked for Packer or who have done business deals with him often confirm that although the media baron could drive a tough deal, he was also very honest in his dealings.
"Kerry always wanted the most advantageous deal" says the relative "but he was never one to threaten or do the dirty on anyone. It was his policy to pay good money or even more than required and he expected loyalty in return and he always received it. There was no need for him to ever talk like that as his reputation was - you do the wrong thing to me and I will never deal with you again".

And Britain's famous Private Eye magazine seems to agree and in a review of Desmond's book point out that he has put words into several mouths of people who are all conveniently dead, echoing the late Hollywood actress Shelley Winters who was once asked for advice by an actress friend on how she could beef up her book as she had had so few affairs : "include anyone who is gay or dead" said Winters, "neither will complain".

Whispers has experience with Richard Desmond when he was Britain's most successful, and much disliked porn merchant. Taking over management of a gay bookshop in Notting Hill while the owner was being detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure (for tax evasion) we were instructed that the local police would raid the shop once a month. Although the books and magazines on sale were perfectly legal the police did arrive and confiscate half the stock to "examine" it to see if it was legal. The magazine were so cheap to produce, costing around 30p for a magazine that might sell for £15-20, it wasn't worth the hassle getting back the material so several warehouses would need to be visited to obtain new stock.
 One of those warehouses was Desmond's in the East End and he was one of the most abusive, arrogant and mean people we have ever encountered. None of his heterosexual porn titles sold (they were just there for 'balance') and according to Private Eye that has  been his history along with many unsavoury dealings with dubious 'partners' in the UK and the Mafia type people in New York.

Former porn barons in the UK have now risen to such heights they support the ruling Conservative Party as this article demonstrates but Desmond's desperate desire to receive a Knighthood in Britain seems doomed to failure considering his background.

"A Theme Park For Every Human Desire"

 The title is a quote from broadcaster Philip Adams about Sydney's Kings Cross where he partied in the 60s and 70s with the late media mogul Kerry Packer. Bizarrely, the Coca Cola sign that signals the beginning of 'The Cross' is now  National Trust listed.

Playwright and author Louis Nowra who has lived there for yonks has written a superb history of Kings Cross, a place he says : "attracts the sane and the mad… but that at times it’s hard to tell the difference."
The Cross is a no-holds barred place -backpackers, prostitutes, strippers, chefs, mad men, poets, beggars, booksellers, doctors, gangsters, sailors, musicians, drug traffickers, movie stars, eccentrics, judges and artists and a former Prime Minster (Paul Keating) live side by side in elegant terrace houses and cheap flats. And slam bang in the middle are George Miller's studios were he filmed Babe and Happy Feet.

Part flaneur, part historian and part eyewitness, Louis Nowra is the best possible guide to a place both real, and a state of mind. The Cross attracts hordes of tourists from all over Australia and the world. It's history began as a sort of melting pot for European expats- there are still gracious old Art Deco buildings lining Macleay Street packed with little old Hungarian and Polish ladies who fled from WW2. During the 20s it became the night time entertainment area offering every conceivable sin man desired- from strip clubs to bordellos, gay bars and 24 hour drinking clubs, illegal gambling casinos and even a few opium dens. The legendary Razor Gangs fought duels in the back streets over the cocaine trade.
 The illegal casinos were frequented by visiting celebrities and  local politicians including premier Sir Robert Askin who like a character out of Casablanca would have his winnings thrust into his hand and be ushered out a side door just before his own cops would raid the joint (mainly to collect bribes).

Norton & Goossens

The list of memorable characters is too long to chart: like the practising witch Rosaleen Norton who became entangled with the British conducter Sir Eugene Goossens (he attended her orgies) whose career crashed when he was stopped at customs retuning from the UK with a suitcase of porn for Ms Norton.

Mr Sin- Abe Saffron

 And Mr Sin Abe Saffron who came from humble beginnings to dominate The Cross for 40 years like an Antipodian Al Capone- just as powerful and deadly and finally like Capone, they could only get him for tax evasion. Owning a string of strip joints and the all male revue bar Les Girls and with a finger in every club and bar in the area, Abe made an art of bribing politicians and police including the Commissioner. And he saw off the US Mafia when they tried to muscle in on the action. When Saffron died he left around $30Million but it's rumoured there was another 30 or 40 hidden away.

Louis Nowra & wife Mandy Sayer

                                                                                                             
Things began to change in the 1960s with the mass influx of US  soldiers on 'R&R" leave from Vietnam and the appearance of Bernie Houghton reputedly the former boss of the infamous Air America who arrived with suitcases stuffed with cash and a new passport courtesy of his spook friends in ASIO. And with the opening of his Bourbon & Beefsteak 24 hour nightspot came hard drugs.

The unexpected can still happen in Kings Cross. Two years ago the Shuttle witnessed an impromptu one hour performance by comedian Robyn Williams at the Kit & Kaboodle when he arrived with actor Elijah Wood for dinner. The Beach Haus club became Leo Di Caprio and his entourage's favourite club of choice as he nightly commandeered 6 tables (leaving about 3 ).  And actor Russell Crowe could be often found popping in to the Portuguese Chicken bar around midnight after a munchies attack.
There's more, much much more in Nowra's book

More On The Versace "Mafia Hit"

 An intriguing new theory about the murder of famous designer Gianni Versace has surfaced, this time from Versace's long time lover, the designer Antonio D'Amico.

Antonio D'Amico

D'Amico & Versace

D'Amico was speaking a few nights ago on the popular Italian entertainment program Verissimo.
In an interview with the host Silvia Toffanin he was asked about the murder and replied -"someone sent him"- referring to the alleged killer Andrew Cunanan.
 D'Amico says he struggles to believe that Cunanan would just turn up and kill Versace for no reason.

"In my opinion someone sent him (Cunanan)". Asked to elaborate, Antonio gives an enigmatic reply:
"it's my belief someone who knew Gianni very well, someone who was extremely close to him, sent his assassin. There is no evidence but the truth will come out one day"

D'Amico was a former model who began working in Versace's office in 1982 where he began a relationship with the designer that lasted until his murder. There is little love lost between Antonio and Gianni's sister Donatella Versace and brother Santo.

In Gianni's will D'Amico was left a legacy of around $26,000 a month for life and the right to live in any of Versace's several homes around the world.

Silvia Toffanin

By the time Donatella, Santo and their lawyers were finished, D'Amico received a fraction of his pension and never saw the inside of a Versace house again. Donatella is on record as saying she never liked Gianni's boyfriend. D'Amico now runs his own successful fashion design business.

And where does this leave the claim by two Mafia informants that Gianni Versace was murdered over debts to the Mafia who they say had invested earlier on in his fashion design corporation ?

P.I. Frank Monte

Those claims were published by the respected Italian investigative reporter Gianluigi Nuzzi in his 2010 book Metastasi which has been a best seller in Europe with an English version in the works.
At the time a furious Santo Versace threatened to sue anyone who repeated the Mafia hit claim. Nonetheless it was printed in hundreds of newspapers around the world and not one, including author Nuzzi has received notice from solicitors.

It's far cry from 2003 when Santo and Donatella hauled Australian private eye Frank Monte into the Australian Federal Court for making the same claim in his best selling autobiography Spying Game.
Monte had worked for Gianni in New York investigating Versace's fears that an insider was cooking the books. The Versace's spent millions of dollars to silence Monte and Pan McMillan had to pulp 26,000 copies of his book which was later published without the Versace Mafia link.

Frank Monte is restrained by the Federal Court from discussing the Nuzzi claims that mirror his own and the Australian media had a field day during the highly publicized Monte court case but oddly, have been largely silent over Nuzzi's book. Only weeks before Nuzzi published his book the Shuttle spoke to several tabloid writers who scoffed at Monte's original claim and were equally vocal when it was revealed he was investigating the David Jones sexual harassment claim. That turned out to be true.

Monte will not return calls about D'Amico's claim and our legal eagle expert says :
"Monte would still be restrained by the original court orders so probably steers clear of any discussion over the Versaces" " Mind you" he continued " I can't see Donatella or Santo taking him on again if he did speak to the media. Donatello could be called to explain the inconsistent evidence she gave to the Sydney court under oath where she claimed, surrounded by lawyers during a satellite link-up,that she had never ever taken drugs and then 2 years later gave an interview to Vogue magazine where she said she had been addicted to drugs before and after Versace's death. Courts don't take kindly to being treated like mugs"

A "When Did You Stop Beating Your Wife ?" Moment

The verdict is in and Labor has been removed from the NSW political landscape having captured a probable 21 seats while the Coalition have at least 64 seats. There are oddities as usual in this state election. Although the Greens picked up over 10% of the vote they won no seats while the Nationals with just over 12% win 17 seats.

For all the doomsday predictions in the media this isn't too different to the '96 John Howard election when he crushed Federal Labor in a 'landslide' which reversed itself within 3 years with Labor winning over 50% of votes in '99 but still failing to take office. It does mean however that it will be a probable 8 years before Labor has a hope of winning although the voters belief that the Coalition is going to deliver them Paradise has the power to backfire badly.

 Common wisdom is that huge landslides really mean little in the way of a party's power to govern but do mean the electorate expects much and heaven help those who don't deliver. The claims of a mandate complicate matters when no-one actually knows what the Coalition intends to do apart from widen one highway as they announced. Labor had 11 new young MPs elected which gives them a chance to quickly re-invent itself.

As usual the local media-particularly the giant News Corp tabloids have performed woefully and spoken in soundbites that resemble Liberal Party press releases and have let new premier Barry O' Farrell slide into office without revealing one single policy.

The Fairfax Media, publishers of The Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne's Age newspapers seem desperate to descend to the same levels.

One report we noticed in the last days before polling was this piece about a well known personality who features on the Shuttle often-private investigator Frank Monte who stood unsuccessfully for the NSW upper house.

The Shuttle spoke to Monte yesterday and he was still annoyed. The previous week he had mentioned to us a tale of how the Herald had phoned him and asked why he was standing for politics.



Frank Monte







He gave them a quick run down of his policies and revealed that in the past he had worked for two state premiers and believed he could do a better job himself

The journalist's reply was "oh everyone around the office says it's only so you can get your hands on the electoral rolls."

Monte scoffed at the idea and responded that the majority of his work is now corporate investigation where local rolls are of little use and indeed, he spends more time working in the USA than Australia. And the very idea of spending $30,000 on a political campaign to get a copy of the electoral rolls was pretty silly.

Having set up the scenario (as our headline explains) -the Herald duly printed the outrageous slur without one scintilla of proof apart from some hacks in the Herald office deciding that must be the case. Office gossip became news.



Solomon Lew

 When the DJ's harassment case broke last year Monte announced (and it's presumed that it was a deliberate strategy by the client) that he was investigating the girl who made the claims which were eventually settled with no admissions made by the ex-DJs boss Mark McInnes who was recently described as the "disgraced" former DJ's CEO. Disgraced ?. Who says so ?. Certainly not Solomon Lew who just hired McInnes for a salary of $5.5M to oversee his fashion empire.

As we reported last year- during the infamous Versace court case, Donatella Versace said in an Australian High Court witness box in 2001 while being questioned by Monte's barrister, that she had never, ever taken drugs but just 18 months later revealed in Vogue that she had been addicted to drugs before and after Gianni Versace's murder.

Learned legal minds say that had Donatella told the truth about her drug use the trial's outcome may have been entirely different and in Monte's favour. The Herald amongst other newspapers got stuck into Monte at the time and have used every opportunity to bash him in print ever since.

They have gone strangely silent since the new verification that Gianni was indeed murdered as Monte had originally said-by the Mafia and which concurred with local confidential Miami police reports at the time that voiced the same suspicion .

Versace Mafia Murder Claim Heats Up

News comes that there may be some startling revelations about the mighty Versace fashion empire soon.

Earlier we reported on the new book "Metastasi" by respected Italian investigative reporter Gianluigi Nuzzi in which he said that the feared and  notorious Italian Calabrian mafia N'Drangheta had murdered the fashion house creator and designer Gianni Versace. The book has become a huge best-seller in Europe and the Anti-Mafia office in Rome immediately announced an investigation. Nuzzi's source was a good one- a former mafia godfather turned whistle-blower who a Rome mafia investigator said had always provided true and solid evidence which had helped convict dozens of mafia criminals.

Nuzzi's claims were similar to those made many years before by the Australian private eye Frank Monte who worked for Gianni in New York investigating employees who Versace thought was on the fiddle. Monte published an auto-biography The Spying Game which included the mafia murder tale and all hell broke loose.

He soon found himself in the Australian Federal Court being sued by Santo and Donatella Versace in a bizarre case where they spent millions of dollars to have Monte's book pulped. Ironically when Monte re-published his book without the mafia murder claims the publicity from the trial helped it become a best seller in Europe.

As we exclusively reported- Donatella while replying under oath via satelite and surrounded by lawyers- to questions from Monte's barrister Clive Evatt QC said she had "never used drugs" yet just a few years later she said in an interview in Italian Vogue which was reprinted throughout the world that she had been addicted to illicit drugs long before and after her brother's murder and that friends like Sir Elton John had helped her go to a clinic to recover.

At home Monte had been pilloried by the local media who hung off every word from the two Versaces seemingly bedazzled by their celebrity status.

 Not one of those who then wrote so forcefully of how Monte had allegedly defamed the good Versace name bothered to follow up on how Donatella appears to have thumbed her nose at Australia's highest court. Either she lied in court or she lied to Vogue. Santo Versace said he would sue anyone who repeated Gianluigi Nuzzi's claims. A spokesperson for Nuzzi's office says no lawsuit has been forthcoming.

The Shuttle can now exclusively report that an associate of the Versace company has been arrested in Italy and another high profile one is under investigation.

To be continued....

A Demure Shazza Heads Home

On Wednesday she was sunning herself on the beach at Acapulco.

Marketing manager Sharon Sargeant, the girlfriend of private eye Frank Monte is now on a plane after a four hour taxi  trip from Acapulco to Mexico City and a flight from there to Los Angeles where she was finally able to get a seat on a Qantas jet  back to Sydney.

Sharon has been watching in alarm as flood waters surged through Queensland and in Northern NSW and in particular Tenterfield where members of her family live. On Wednesday she reckoned she could wait no longer and decided to head home and  see if she could help out in the devastated flood areas.

Sharon may be pleased with a newspaper article that will greet her upon arrival. The Eastern Suburb's social bible, Latte Life has commented on her appearance at the Black & White charity luncheon for Christian the Lion's John Rendall in November last year.

Demure !

According to the tabloid : "thumbs up to a demure "Shazza" at BW  Women's  Luncheon , if she hadn't been with Mr Monte we may not have recognised her."

Demure ?. We present a couple of snaps of Sharon from the lunch. 

Meanwhile Frank Monte is spending a few more days in Acapulco before he heads to Italy. Monte has an appointment with the powerful AntiMafia Commission in Rome which investigates "organised crime of the Mafia type" and the dreaded Camorra and Ndrhangeta clans.

 

When the Shuttle managed to get Monte on the telephone today we asked him if his Rome visit was in connection with new claims by Italian  investigative reporter Gianluigi Nuzzi that Gianni Versace was murdered by the mafia.

"I can't discuss anything with you " said Monte. "excuse me, I have to take another call " he said before hanging up !