On the morning of Friday 4 July 1975, Juanita Nielsen walked into the Carousel Cabaret in Roslyn Street, Kings Cross, to talk about an advertising deal for her little local paper, NOW. She was 38, an heiress to the Mark Foy's department store fortune, and for the past few years she'd been one of the loudest voices against the plan to knock down the old terraces of Victoria Street and put up high-rise towers. She was never seen again. Her handbag turned up by a freeway out west, two men from the club later went to jail for plotting to kidnap her a few days earlier, and a coroner's jury in 1983 found she'd died on or shortly after that day. Nobody has ever been charged with her murder, and her body has never been found.
This is one of Sydney's great unsolved crimes, and it sits right in the middle of a fight over what kind of city we wanted to be: the green bans, the builders labourers, the squatters, the developers and the Kings Cross underworld. Below is the story as best the sources tell it, and where they don't agree, I've said so.
Who Was Juanita Nielsen?
A Foy by birth
She was born Juanita Joan Smith on 22 April 1937 at New Lambton, Newcastle. Her father, Neil Donovan Smith, was English-born and heir to the fortune of Kathleen Sophia Foy, and her mother was Vilma Grace, née Meares. The Australian Dictionary of Biography calls Juanita a great-granddaughter of Mark Foy and says her father was a major shareholder in Mark Foy's Ltd. Wikipedia fills in the family tree a bit more: Neil's parents were John Joseph Smith, chairman and managing director of Mark Foy's, and Kathleen Sophie Foy, a sister of the store's founders Mark and Francis Foy.
Her parents split up soon after she was born and she grew up at Killara on the North Shore. She went to several schools, including Ravenswood at Gordon, passed her Intermediate certificate in 1952, and then went to work at Mark Foy's as a glove model before heading overseas in 1959.
Abroad, then back to the store
While she was away she married Jorgen Fritz Nielsen, a Danish merchant seaman. The ADB says they had a Shinto ceremony at Kobe City in Japan in 1962. They divorced in 1967. After living in Morocco and Denmark she came back to Sydney alone in 1965 and opened the "Gear Box" fashion boutique in Mark Foy's city store.
In 1968 she fell out with her father for a while after leading an unsuccessful shareholders' revolt against a $4 million takeover offer for Mark Foy's by McDowell's Ltd. Once they'd patched things up, he bought her a terrace house in Victoria Street, Kings Cross, and a local newspaper called NOW, which she ran from home.
202 Victoria Street and the Newspaper NOW
Her house was 202 Victoria Street, one of a group of three terraces built in the 1850s on part of the old Telford Lodge estate, according to the heritage listing quoted on Wikipedia. The house is on the New South Wales State Heritage Register.
NOW came out fortnightly, put together at the house with the help of her business partner David Farrell. Juanita had style. The ADB says she wore distinctive clothes and a "beehive" wig and modelled the fashions and hairstyles for the paper's feature pages herself. She also used it to run what the ADB calls "a vigorous editorial campaign" for the green bans and against the Victoria Street redevelopment.
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The Fight for Victoria Street
Frank Theeman's plan
From the late 1960s, developers were quietly buying up most of Victoria Street, says the Dictionary of Sydney. The big one was Frank Theeman (born Franz Wilhelm Thiemann in 1913, died 1989), an Austrian-born developer whose company was Victoria Point Pty Ltd. According to Wikipedia, the plan was three 45-storey apartment towers and a 15-storey office block, which meant knocking down everything that was there. The ABC describes it the same way: the Victorian terraces would go and three high-rise apartment blocks would go up in their place.
For the people living there, many of them working people on low rents, it meant eviction. The Dictionary of Sydney notes that the National Trust had tried to get Sydney City Council to protect the houses and got nowhere.
The residents, the BLF and the green ban
The locals organised a residents' action group and went to the NSW branch of the Builders Labourers Federation, led by Jack Mundey, Joe Owens and Bob Pringle. The BLF's green bans were simple: union members wouldn't work on a job the community didn't want. They'd already been used to save Kelly's Bush, The Rocks and Centennial Park.
The union put a green ban on Victoria Street, which stopped the demolitions. The date of that ban depends on which source you read, as I explain further down. Nielsen joined the Victoria Street Ratepayers Association, lodged her own objection with the council, and threw NOW behind the campaign. With her neighbour, the seaman, jazz musician and union activist Jack "Mick" Fowler, she played what the ADB calls "a prominent role in mobilizing local residents" against the demolitions and evictions.
Jack Mundey later wrote, in his book Green Bans and Beyond (1981, as cited by Wikipedia), that Nielsen was an "upper class" person who'd started out disapproving of unionism, communism and squatting, but who came round to being more sympathetic.
Intimidation, and the kidnapping of Arthur King
Things turned nasty. In July 1973 Arthur King, who headed the residents' action group, was grabbed by two men and thrown in the boot of a car. Wikipedia, drawing on the 1994 parliamentary report, says he was held at a motel outside the city for three days and let go near the Venus Room in Kings Cross. He quit the action group and moved out of the area straight away, and because he didn't trust the police he didn't tell the real story until 1977. Peter Rees, in his 2021 book Killing Juanita (cited by Wikipedia), points to evidence that Kings Cross nightclub manager Jim Anderson was involved. The Dictionary of Sydney mentions King without naming him: "one green ban activist disappeared and returned too frightened to say what had happened to him."
Other residents were harassed by men working for Theeman to get them out. Wikipedia says these men were led by Fred Krahe, a former NSW detective sergeant reputed to be mixed up in organised crime. The Dictionary of Sydney says armed thugs vandalised Theeman-owned buildings marked for demolition and terrorised the residents. Neighbours took turns staying in each other's houses so no house was ever left empty.
The squatters and the January 1974 evictions
As tenants were forced out, squatters moved into the empty houses to stop the demolitions going ahead with non-union labour. Mick Fowler came home from a stint at sea in 1973 to find his rented house boarded up. He moved back in and fought to stay. He lost the court case in 1976, and Wikipedia says the strain was reputed to have contributed to his early death in August 1979, aged 51.
On 3 January 1974 police moved in and evicted the squatters. Both the Dictionary of Sydney and Wikipedia give that date.
The ban breaks, and Juanita keeps going
Late in 1974 the BLF's federal leadership took over the NSW branch and pushed out Mundey's team. The Dictionary of Sydney calls this the "Intervention," and the Victoria Street ban was lifted after it. Wikipedia goes further and says the federal leadership had been bribed by developers. That's a claim I'd treat as Wikipedia's, not proven. But Nielsen didn't give up. Wikipedia says the Federated Engine Drivers and Firemen's Association kept a ban going, and Nielsen talked the Water Board union into putting on its own ban. In 1974 she stepped up the attacks in NOW.
The pressure on Theeman was real. Rees's book, as cited by Wikipedia, has Theeman meeting Nielsen in February 1975 and failing to change her mind. By June 1975 his company's interest bill was said to be running at $16,800 a week. The ABC puts it simply: by 1975 the developer had spent millions buying up property and its debts were mounting.
At the same time a second fight was starting at Woolloomooloo, down the hill. Wikipedia says Nielsen was a member of the Woolloomooloo Residents Action Group, which began getting death threats around then.
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The Carousel Cabaret
The Carousel, which went by the name Les Girls at other times, was a drag cabaret in Roslyn Street. The ADB calls it "a transvestite nightclub and underworld haunt." Wikipedia says it was one of the clubs controlled by Abe Saffron and that it was managed by Jim Anderson. According to the 1994 parliamentary inquiry, as cited by Wikipedia, Anderson owed Theeman $260,000. Saffron's son Alan wrote in his 2008 book Gentle Satan that his father had lent big money to a number of Sydney businessmen, Theeman among them.
The approaches in June 1975
The sequence that follows comes mostly from the 1994 parliamentary report and Peter Rees's book, both as summarised on Wikipedia.
- 13 June 1975. Anderson sent Nielsen an invitation to a press night at the club. NOW didn't give free plugs to businesses, so she wouldn't normally have been asked. She didn't go, and Anderson was said to be furious.
- 29 June. The Carousel's PR manager, Lloyd Marshall, asked her to a meeting at the Camperdown Travelodge, supposedly about advertising. David Farrell later said she got suspicious and didn't go.
- 30 June. Two Carousel employees, Edward "Eddie" Trigg and Shayne Martin-Simmonds, came to her front door saying they wanted to talk about advertising. Farrell answered instead. It later came out that they'd planned to grab her when she opened the door. Juanita listened from the next room. Farrell said she was by then seriously worried that her campaigning was putting her in danger, and she'd arranged to keep him told of where she was.
- 3 July, 5.30pm. Trigg rang to set up a meeting about the club advertising in NOW. They agreed on about 10.15am the next day at the club.
NSW Police describe it the same way: during the first investigation they found information about a conspiracy to kidnap her on Monday 30 June 1975, four days before she was last seen.
Friday 4 July 1975
She went to the Carousel that morning. At 10.30am she rang Farrell to say she was running late. The NSW Police reward notice says she was last seen at the Carousel Cabaret on Roslyn Street on the morning of Friday 4 July 1975.
Farrell reported her missing to police on the Saturday. When police spoke to Trigg he confirmed the meeting, showed them a receipt she'd given him for an advance on advertising, and said she'd left for a lunch appointment. In their first statements, Trigg and the club's receptionist Loretta Crawford both said Nielsen left alone. In 1976 Crawford changed her story and said Nielsen and Trigg had left together. A local real estate agent told police he'd seen her get into a yellow car outside the club with two men in it.
Her handbag and some belongings turned up beside a freeway in western Sydney. Wikipedia says this was near Penrith on Monday 7 July, and the police didn't release the news of her disappearance to the media until 8 July. The Canberra Times reported in July 1975 that police were searching for her body, then that her cheque book had been found near the Nepean River, then that the search had spread to empty buildings around the Cross. By October 1975 a $10,000 reward was on offer.
The Kidnapping Conspiracy Trials
In November 1977 Trigg and Shayne Simmonds (as the Canberra Times named him) were charged with conspiring to abduct Nielsen between 1 June and 4 July, and Lloyd Marshall was charged a week later. In an interview with police on 6 November 1977, as quoted on Wikipedia, Martin-Simmonds admitted the advertising story was a cover. He said the plan was to take her to see "people who wanted to talk to her," and that he didn't know who those people were.
At the 1980 trial the judge directed the jury to acquit Marshall because there was no evidence tying him to any plan to use force. The jury couldn't agree on the other two. Martin-Simmonds was retried in 1981, convicted and given two years. Trigg had skipped to the United States on a false passport. He was arrested in San Francisco in 1982, brought back, pleaded guilty and got three years in 1983.
It's worth being clear about what those convictions meant. The ADB notes that both men were convicted of conspiring to abduct her "on an earlier occasion," and "the trials did not directly involve events on the day she vanished."
The 1983 Inquest
The coronial inquest, held with a jury in 1983, was the longest in NSW history up to then, running 13 weeks and hearing 69 witnesses (figures from Peter Rees, cited by Wikipedia). Theeman denied Nielsen had been a threat to his plans. Saffron said he'd read about the disappearance in the papers and hadn't asked any further. Anderson agreed he was an obvious suspect but denied any involvement, and counsel assisting called him a "stranger to the truth." Anderson pointed the finger at Fred Krahe, who was dead by then. Counsel for the Nielsen estate argued that it would be a "very, very, unbelievable coincidence" for two separate groups to be plotting against her at the same time.
On 10 November 1983 the coroner and a jury of six found that she had died "on or shortly after 4 July 1975." They couldn't say where, how, or by whose hand. They added a line that's often quoted: there was "evidence to show that the police inquiries were inhibited by an atmosphere of corruption, real or imagined, that existed at the time."
The 1994 Parliamentary Inquiry
In 1994 the Commonwealth Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Crime Authority reported on the NCA and Jim Anderson. The ADB says the committee "further castigated investigative ineptitude in the case and emphasized links between her presumed murder, property developers and the criminal milieu at Kings Cross." Wikipedia adds that the committee questioned the NCA's use of Anderson as a protected informer when he was a suspect in the disappearance and in other crimes.
The ABC's summary goes further. It says the committee concluded corruption had hampered the police investigation, and that corrupt Kings Cross police were alleged to have been paid by developers to look the other way. Those are the ABC's words about allegations. They aren't findings against any named officer. The ABC also points to the Wood Royal Commission of the 1990s, which uncovered widespread corruption at Kings Cross police station.
Later Claims
The story kept turning up new claims long after the inquest. None of them has been tested in court, so I've listed them as claims and named who made them.
- Marilyn King, Trigg's former girlfriend, told a journalist that Trigg came home on 4 July 1975 with blood on his clothes and on the receipt in his pocket. She never gave evidence to the police or the inquest (reported by Peter Rees in the Good Weekend, 2015, as cited by Wikipedia).
- Loretta Crawford said in 2000 that she'd rung Anderson at his Vaucluse home to tell him Nielsen had arrived and that he was "quite pleased." She insisted he was in Vaucluse, not at Surfers Paradise as he always said. In 2004 she told the ABC's 7.30 Report that her earlier evidence had been false to protect Anderson, who had since died. She said she'd seen Nielsen's body in the club's basement with a small gunshot wound, Trigg and Martin-Simmonds present, and a third, unnamed man holding a pistol.
- John Glebe, her boyfriend at the time, told the inquest she'd been getting threatening phone calls and carried cassette tapes in her handbag that she said could "blow the top off" something she was working on. The ABC reports him telling the inquest she was writing an article that would have exposed the leading players in Sydney's illegal gaming industry.
- Eddie Trigg died alone in a rented room at the Abbotts Hotel in Waterloo on 25 February 2013. The Australian reported that he'd left a written account that "named names" and said where her remains were. Police searched his room but wouldn't say what, if anything, they found.
The Rewards
The money on offer has grown over the years:
- October 1975: a $10,000 reward for information leading to finding her (Canberra Times, 1 October 1975, listed by the ADB).
- July 1976: her father offered $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible (Canberra Times, 3 July 1976, listed by the ADB).
- 1982: the NSW Government announced a $50,000 reward (NSW Police).
- 21 June 2021: the NSW Government and NSW Police announced a $1 million reward. Police Minister David Elliott said Juanita "disappeared at the prime of her life and had a lot to live for." The case has stayed open under Strike Force Euclid and has been reviewed by the Homicide Squad's Unsolved Homicide team. Homicide commander Det Supt Danny Doherty said the aim was to find her "so her family may put her to rest." Her cousin Francis Foy told the ABC that "Juanita was very much loved by her family and very much missed."
What Became of Victoria Street
The first stage of Theeman's development was finished in 1978, according to Wikipedia. The Dictionary of Sydney gives a fair summing-up. The green ban stopped the "hideous high-rise development" and saved much of the streetscape, even though a lot of the low-cost housing was lost. Wikipedia says the design was changed and some houses got heritage protection. Kings Cross railway station, which opened in 1979, was part of the same burst of building around the Cross.
Her Legacy
In July 1983 the Sydney City Council opened a recreation centre in the Juanita Nielsen Building at Woolloomooloo, near where she'd lived. It's still known today as the Juanita Nielsen Community Centre. There's also a white cross for her at South Head Cemetery in Vaucluse, in front of her family's monument.
Her story has been told on screen and in print:
- The Killing of Angel Street (1981), directed by Donald Crombie, a fictional version. Crombie later said the makers were "peculiarly warned off" while making it.
- Heatwave (1982), directed by Phillip Noyce.
- The Beehive (2018), an art documentary by Zanny Begg, named after her famous hairdo.
- Killing Juanita (2021), a book by journalist Peter Rees.
- "Hey Juanita" (2016), a song by Urthboy.
Walk down Victoria Street today past the terraces and the backpackers and it's easy to forget how close it all came to being bulldozed. A lot of what's left is there because people like Juanita Nielsen, Mick Fowler, Arthur King and the builders labourers stood in the way.
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Timeline
- 22 April 1937 – Juanita Joan Smith born at New Lambton, Newcastle.
- 1952 – Intermediate certificate. She goes to work at Mark Foy's as a glove model.
- 1959 – Leaves Australia.
- 1962 – Marries Jorgen Fritz Nielsen at Kobe, Japan.
- 1965 – Returns to Sydney and opens the Gear Box boutique at Mark Foy's.
- 1967 – Divorce.
- 1968 – Leads the failed shareholders' revolt against McDowell's takeover offer for Mark Foy's.
- Late 1960s–early 1970s – Moves into 202 Victoria Street and takes over NOW. Developers buy up Victoria Street.
- 1971, 1972 or April 1973 – BLF green ban on Victoria Street (sources differ).
- July 1973 – Arthur King kidnapped and held for three days.
- 3 January 1974 – Police evict the Victoria Street squatters.
- Late 1974 – Federal BLF "Intervention". The green ban is lifted.
- February 1975 – Theeman meets Nielsen and fails to change her mind.
- 13, 29 and 30 June 1975 – Approaches from Carousel staff, including the 30 June plan to grab her at her door.
- 4 July 1975 – Last seen at the Carousel Cabaret, Roslyn Street.
- 5 July 1975 – David Farrell reports her missing.
- 7 July 1975 – Handbag found near Penrith (per Wikipedia).
- October 1975 – $10,000 reward offered.
- July 1976 – Her father offers $50,000.
- November 1977 – Trigg, Martin-Simmonds and Marshall charged with conspiracy to abduct.
- 1978 – First stage of the Victoria Street development finished.
- 1979 – Kings Cross station opens. Mick Fowler dies in August.
- 1980 – Marshall acquitted. Hung jury on the other two.
- 1981 – Martin-Simmonds convicted and jailed for two years. The Killing of Angel Street released.
- 1982 – Trigg arrested in San Francisco. NSW Government offers $50,000.
- 1983 – Trigg jailed for three years. Juanita Nielsen centre opens in July. Inquest finding on 10 November.
- 1994 – Parliamentary Joint Committee on the NCA reports.
- 2000 and 2004 – Loretta Crawford's new accounts.
- 25 February 2013 – Eddie Trigg dies at Waterloo.
- 21 June 2021 – $1 million reward announced.
Where the Sources Disagree
- When the green ban went on. The Dictionary of Sydney says the NSW BLF placed the ban in April 1973. Wikipedia's Juanita Nielsen article says 1972. Wikipedia's Victoria Street article says 1971.
- Who raised her. The ADB says her mother raised her at Killara. Wikipedia says her maternal grandmother did.
- Her school. The ADB biography and Wikipedia name Ravenswood at Gordon. The ADB's own life summary lists Pymble Ladies' College.
- When she got the house. The heritage listing quoted on Wikipedia's Victoria Street page says she bought 202 Victoria Street in 1968. Wikipedia's Nielsen article says her father bought it for her in the early 1970s. The ADB says her father bought it after they reconciled following the 1968 takeover fight.
- Finding the handbag. Wikipedia says her handbag was found near Penrith on Monday 7 July. The ABC says "a week later." The Canberra Times reported her cheque book found near the Nepean River on 14 July 1975.
- Who left the club with her. Trigg and Crawford first said she left alone. Crawford later said she left with Trigg, and in 2004 said she never left the club alive. A real estate agent said he saw her get into a yellow car with two men.
- The motive. The usual view is that she was killed over her Victoria Street and Woolloomooloo campaigns. John Glebe and journalist Barry Ward (in The Bulletin, 2005) suggested she was about to expose illegal gambling and corruption.
- Her name. NSW Police spell it Roslyn Street in one place and quote the minister as saying "Nielson." The usual spelling is Nielsen.
My Earlier Posts
- The Battle of Blood Alley – Eaton Avenue – Kings Cross – 7 May 1929
- Kate Leigh & Tilly Devine – Sydney's Razor Gang Queens
- Bea Miles – Sydney's Shakespeare-Reciting, Taxi-Fighting Bohemian
- Arthur Stace – Mr Eternity
- St Vincent's Hospital – Victoria Street – Darlinghurst
- Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras – From the 1978 March to Today
- The Windmills of Darlinghurst Road and Roslyn Street – Kings Cross
- Kings Cross Theatre – Junction of Darlinghurst Road & Victoria Street
- Woolloomooloo Wharf
- The Widening Of William Street – East Sydney & Kings Cross
Sources
- Richard Morris, "Nielsen, Juanita Joan (1937–1975)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, adb.anu.edu.au/biography/nielsen-juanita-joan-11241, including its list of Trove newspaper reports (Canberra Times, Tharunka, Tribune, 1975–78). Life summary: adb.anu.edu.au/lifesummary/nielsen-juanita-joan-11241
- Meredith Burgmann and Verity Burgmann, "Green Bans Movement", Dictionary of Sydney, 2011, dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/green_bans_movement
- NSW Police Force, "Disappearance of Juanita Nielsen – $1,000,000 reward", police.nsw.gov.au
- ABC News, "NSW Police announce $1 million reward for information about Juanita Nielsen's suspected murder", 21 June 2021, abc.net.au
- Wikipedia, "Juanita Nielsen", en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juanita_Nielsen, which draws on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Crime Authority report National Crime Authority and James McCartney Anderson (Commonwealth of Australia, 1994), Peter Rees, Killing Juanita (ABC Books, 2021), Jack Mundey, Green Bans and Beyond (1981), Alan Saffron, Gentle Satan (2008), and press reports in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and the ABC 7.30 Report (16 February 2004).
- Wikipedia, "Victoria Street, Sydney", en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Street,_Sydney, quoting the NSW State Heritage Register listing "Juanita Nielsen's House" (H01929).
- Wikipedia, "Mark Foy's", en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Foy's
- Images: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each picture.
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