Whiskey Au Go Go fire

:"For the similarly named nightclub in West Hollywood, California, see Whisky a Go Go"

The Whisky Au Go Go Fire was a fire in the Whisky Au Go Go nightclub located in a building on the corner of Amelia Street and St Pauls Terrace in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, Australia.

On 8 March, 1973, the Whisky Au Go Go was firebombed, resulting in the deaths of 15 patrons [ [http://www.ema.gov.au/ema/emadisasters.nsf/0/65cf521d5a5d170dca256d33000583c0?OpenDocument Emergency Management Australia, Disasters Database] ] making it the worst mass murder in Australia until the Port Arthur massacre in 1996. The fire was started with the ignition of two nine-litre cans of petrol in the building's foyer.

After the Fire

James Richard Finch, 29, and John Andrew Stuart, 33, were arrested soon after the fire. Finch was on parole, having served seven years of a 14-year sentence for the attempted murder of a police officer.

During their court appearances they both loudly protested their innocence against evidence from Stuart's brother Daniel and another witness that the two men had tried to enlist them in a campaign to become the "Mr Bigs" of the Brisbane nightclub protection racket. Both were convicted and sentenced, in October 1973, to life in prison. While in prison they continued to protest their innocence, fighting a protracted legal battle for release and also mutilating themselves to draw attention to their protest, including swallowing wire and Finch allowing Stuart to hack off one of his fingers. [ [http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/extras/oq/book10finch.html "Nightclub terror" by Russell Grenning as quoted in the Brisbane Courier Mail] ]

Stuart was found dead in his cell of Boggo Road Gaol after a six-day hunger strike [ [http://www.abc.net.au/gnt/history/Transcripts/s1197811.htm GNT on ABC Television, Broadcast 6.30pm on 13th Sept 2004] ] in 1979.

In 1986, Finch married terminally ill and wheelchair-bound Cheryl Cole. Finch won his battle for release in 1988, after almost 15 years in prison. As part of his parole conditions he was deported back to his birth country, England, from where he subsequently claimed in an interview that he and Stuart were guilty of deliberately starting the fire. He stated they were dressed in black like the Black September terrorists and the fire just went "whoosh" as it started.

Cole immediately returned to Australia, and divorced in 1991; she died in 2001.

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