Pinky's 'Gangsters and Molls' Party for Corrupt Police

Katherine James, also known as Pinky, ran massage parlors called Top of the Valley and Kon-Tiki as a teenager. She eventually became addicted to heroin when it swept through Brisbane in the mid-70s and began selling drugs.

In 1975, she was charged with possessing heroin with the intent to sell and, knowing she was going to prison, absconded to be with her new daughter. She and her husband eventually decided she had to confront the charges, so in 1978 she returned to Brisbane, hoping she wouldn't go to jail. She was sentenced to five years in prison.

While she was in prison, corrupt police officers used Katherine to take down Detective Basil Hicks, who was set to replace the corrupt Tony Murphy as head of the Criminal Intelligence Unit. Officers took Katherine from her Boggo Road cell to police headquarters, where she was told to give a statement detailing an affair with Hicks. Police had heard a rumor that Katherine paid a photographer to secretly capture her having sex with Hicks so she would have blackmail material to stop him from "harassing" her. She says she was told that if she wanted to get parole, she had to cooperate. She signed a statement, though she denies it was her signature on it.

The statement was given to Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen by Murphy's close associate, Police Commissioner Terry Lewis. Hicks was not promoted to head of the police integrity squad and was transferred to a regional position. At the Fitzgerald Inquiry, Hicks insisted he had never been intimate with Katherine, and she gave inconsistent evidence under cross-examination. Katherine maintains the photos were real and says the inquiry "discredited her a bit."