Dorothy Edith Knight's Wiretap Sting at New Farm Park

Dorothy Edith Knight, an 80-year-old pensioner, came back to New Farm Park for the first time in 50 years. This bench right here was part of a police sting where she wore a wire, making her the first person in Queensland to do that. She was a young sex worker then, at the center of an operation to catch a corrupt police detective known for extreme violence.

Undercover cops were all around, some dressed as gardeners, others hiding in vans, watching her every move. The city had a lot of crooked cops back then, and she put her life at risk in this park to help bring down one of the worst. The stress of it all was so intense that she fainted when the undercover police took him away.

She told the *Dig: Sirens Are Coming* podcast that the fallout from that day changed the rest of her life. She mentioned feeling nervous in the days leading up to returning here. Her story, and the stories of other sex workers who tried to fight police corruption in Queensland, had been lost until recently.

This was during a time when Frank Bischof was Queensland Police Commissioner, starting in 1958. Corruption was widespread, and Bischof had a group of young officers, including Glendon Patrick Hallahan, Tony Murphy, and Terry Lewis, who were known as the Rat Pack. They collected kickbacks, kept dossiers on politicians, and rigged court cases.

One of their easiest sources of income was weekly bribes from sex workers in exchange for protection, since sex work was illegal. Dorothy worked at the National Hotel, a place favored by the police, sometimes getting up to five clients a night. She'd drink scotch and take half a Purple Heart before charming clients at the bar and going upstairs to the hotel's guest rooms. She said the word got around that if you wanted a girl, you went to the National. She was very particular about her appearance, wearing high heels and styling her long hair.

Shirley Brifman, another sex worker, became a favorite of the Rat Pack, paying large sums to Detective Tony Murphy and Detective Hallahan. Shirley later recalled that Hallahan would have received a significant amount, even staying at her place and receiving an allowance for it from the department.