Notorious underworld enforcer Graham 'Abo' Henry | Straight Talk Podcast | Mark Bouris

I'm my Boris and this is Straight Talk my mother always said to me as a kid I used to have these nightmares about snakes and she said you're going to have a lot of enemy son Graham abohenry has seen parts of Sydney many of us only ever read about then I did my first armed robbery I was probably 15 or 16 years of age I actually did it before I even went to jail I can always remember I had this extremely big high as Nettie Smith's right hand man you know him and I had Clash all the time let us sort of love hate relationship he always liked someone that he could control and he realized he could never confront the notorious underworld enforcer was at the Forefront of the city's underbelly during the 80s when I moved up the coast in about 84 is where I'm bringing my kids up you know I'll be up there for three days and then four days we'll be down there as far as they were concerned growing up I was a bookmaker that is Vince change me Graham Henry well let's try to talk mate thank you very much mate but pleasure to be here mate your nickname's overall Henry yes you got Aboriginal yeah yeah I didn't find it until I was 65. joking me I always thought I was Spanish I know I got that nickname when I was 14. well I started to call me [ __ ] at first and I went oh [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] well what do I polish issues or something you know what I might say I got dirty on it and uh so I'd end up ever you know I had the skinny legs of flat Falcon knives and and very dark skin and not very dark when I was young and uh but I never really knew and then when I was 49 I got diabetes and then and then every time one of my daughters had a child I used to say they were are you Aboriginal and they'd say no I'd say well you've got a black line that run from your navel down to your crutch only indigenous people get really uh that was a bit of a bit of a hint but you did know remember even though my first daughter from another married like knocks around with all the others now works for him uh looks a curry the moment she was born you know and still does but how did you find out like so did you go back I went my sister was dying she had cancer and I went up to uh Ballina and I went to the hospital and uh saw her and um and she said listen I've got something to tell you I said you're going to tell me I was adopted right and I said I said I don't care and she said no she said mum's your mum but the bloke Who Rose is not your father well I went why didn't this [ __ ] tell me that hundred years ago I said I don't really give a [ __ ] you know that's what I said you know I said I don't really give a [ __ ] I said but that explains a lot of stuff there and so do you know what tribe no I've got no idea so it's like a Lost Generation because I don't know any family history so I went to the aubrical Mob up in um Newcastle and I told them my history told them everything about it uh introduce them to my other daughter from me first girl who died she was a diabetic type one went into a camera and never come out of it and I try to get custody of the child but I was about 19 at the time and they wouldn't cop it you know and uh plus I had a violence record so that was the end of me I was no way I prefer doing that but um so anyway I didn't ever catch up until until run into an Aboriginal girl in uh Tamworth child who was liaison for adopted kids and uh and I knew her as a kid I grew up in the same area as a and I said listen I said uh can you have a look in I said I don't know if she'd be registered with the ammo kid but her name was racial Rachel smitter or she could be under whatever name or I said so anyway she checked and she said there I found out so when I got out I went and met her at darling Harbor and soon as he turned up I said to me wife I said she's a lesbian and she said here they [ __ ] died there I said you're 100 anyway she brought a girlfriend with her and uh anyway she was a professional singer like my older daughter is except she she had that real Curry look about her when meow the kids haven't got it you know you got a good town on you yeah yeah and I I always thought you must have known that you were yeah no didn't have a [ __ ] club I thought it was perfect so when is when was it when you found out what age you reckon properly 65. serious 65 that's only for years just after I thought for the Australian that's not that long ago that's bad so you just mentioned um you know when you're nine and you had a history of violence or a record of art yes let's just talk about violence for a second yeah a lot of people get pretty confronted with that violence yeah does violence worry just gear no no worried me as a kid or take me back there you know watching the boilers with me mother and all that to get the hell out of me who was committing the violence uh my my original father uh says Henry returning Soldier full of drugs from the war painkillers and and mix of the alcohol phenobarb alcohol and mix with them just send him in he was a metal case might tried to kill me when I was 15 with a garden Maddie through the bed unlucky and I I had a something I wanted an amateur boxing tournament and I put it up on the door and it fell onto this plate that I won and that used to wake me up that's how paranoid of him away so that that's one of them things that's probably kept me so aware all my life and saved me ask how many times you know what I mean because I was always always aware or only life you know as a kid growing up during that period you always sort of let's call it paranoid but or completely aware of what might happen to you as a result of oh you see this bloke in the house oh yeah I I had a real good awareness you know testing incredible one I've had all my life I mean you know to the point of I'll uh or sometimes I even know before things happen you know I'll have a dream like my mother was very psychic my younger daughters extremely psychic like chicken just got past like yesterday she just passed a her uh all these balloons and she got all this bad chipper over which you had to pull up and go over because the night before she dreamed about this kid dying when she went over to this pole and there was a sign up on the sign about the this accident had been there and she said why are you trying to contact with him seriously so she probably already got an answer I'd say so oh she's unbelievable at it but I was the same except I could call on things I could call on spirit it might take me a week might take me Fortnight but I've made I've had enemies sit on the end of my bed and tell me things and then I'll go that's not what I want you mean in a dream no no not in a Dream well I saw it like there I God strike me dead like like a vision sort of thing yeah yeah exactly a spirit you know not a ghost and that's the thing as ghosts they're Spirits you know and um but I've always had that and my mother always said to me as a kid I used to have these nightmares about snakes and she used to say what are you dreaming about I said snakes and she said well what happened and I said I fell into a big pit and all those snakes were going at me and she said you're going to have a lot of enemy son this is when you're a kid yeah and now [ __ ] right she was but but I can honestly say by the time I was 14 or 15. I already knew where I was going you consciously here consciously knew I just knew no that I don't know why I was like I used to say to myself my life my life's like a movie um I know I just knew what I was going to do and I don't I don't know really why I couldn't I can't blame The Untouchables but I used to watch it a lot with me mother it was the only place we ever had in the house pretty sad really it is well it's sort of sad but I mean you've made the best of it like yeah I mean and you're still sitting there yeah but there's a lot of bikes who you did hang out with oh no the room Sydney that's right I was out of the locked up yeah that's right you can become used to violence oh okay you can you saw it did it yeah and it can be a little bit addicted to it you know what I mean yeah and things can get out of hand and you and and you gotta have that control I was lucky I had a lot of common sense about me you know uh not on the drink you know if I was full of drink I didn't have any commenting but uh I don't think anyone does but I always knew when to pull myself up you know even if I had to put one in someone which I've done um as in shoot someone as in shoot someone you know over the years uh 35 years in organized crime so came around a few times and uh but it was always the last resort you know after it I can always remember especially the first time I had this extremely big high you know like I'd been on cocaine or something I've never touched it right never touched a drug in my life so and I thought to myself you need to pull yourself back here buddy because it's not a that's not a proper feeling no that's right it's not it's not full it's all false okay I mean where did that sense of what is right and wrong so to speak you know they're weird words but where did you get that from I just seem to be conscience you know who's that your mother I think it's me mum you know I think it was me mother I just had this conscious separation in there that I could you know I could separate the you know things I would do and things I wouldn't especially when I was running around with the old partner and he'd want to do certain thing and I just pull up on it and I'll go now oh why in the world so the difference so this is pretty interesting because to me at least is that um you know growing up I've known sort of people like that and um there are some who do don't give a [ __ ] yeah that's right and they do they will [ __ ] do match it yeah and they've got no conscience and to some extent they're Psychopaths yeah they truly 100 I've met a few of me life yeah and uh but then there's others who have done this stuff that might have been on the drink there might have been things of drugs or might have been desperately but they pull back the other [ __ ] that wasn't that cool yeah it sounds like you're in that category because it's just sitting here now yeah you could be just some grandfather Yeah you know Grace respect to your age you could be some grandfather is talking quite a lot of common sense yeah you don't come across as a bloke who was a career criminal yeah hanging out with probably one of the worst reputation dudes in the country in Ed Smith yeah there was a group of it wasn't just him but yeah that's right there was a king and uh did all sorts of Nefarious things yeah whatever yep but just sitting here now you're talking like to me like a normal rational Family Man member of society I said well I am and and I've always tried to separate that life from not life like when I when I moved up the coast in about 84. I moved up there and I fell in love with the place Lake Macquarie and I just said that's where I'm bringing my kids up and I need to separate I don't need to become an iron while I'm in Sydney and then going through this getting calls and going out in the middle of the night and upsetting the you know or walking around with wigs on and cannons on me all the time so um learning guns I I took them up there and when I did it was the best thing I did and and so then I'd you know I'd be up there for three days and then four days would be down there as far as they were concerned growing up I was a bookmaker you know I just didn't take the beds yeah that was it you know Sydney in the 80s 70s and 80s yep pretty well if I can join well we'll say come wild and not only that leaving the Copper's wild oh because that's you know how well without him we didn't survive on a lot of the you know I don't mean that's how organized crime operate here those in their interest the police their interest to sort of do deals so to speak with powerful groups yeah to make sure things don't get out of hand because they would not get you to make sure you and your group to make sure a certain another group or a individual that's right wasn't out of hand that's right exactly right and it sort of sounds sensible yeah well it was it kept the lid on a lot of stuff and uh that erupted in Sydney you know when there was other people trying to buy for control and you know what we did just pulled them into gear and you know and they knew we had the power but in return for that you have to get a bit of a green light oh well the green light was given to Ned of course and uh and of course uh everyone run under that umbrella now when I say about the green light and I often get into arguments with bikes about this because I say oh well you know you must have been telling and must have been given information I said well I can tell as God as I'm sitting here you know that I've never been a narc in my life and you want to give up no no no never I mean the police knew that I mean they'd throw me out windows when I was a kid you know they learned very early uh that's not my go but uh and they'd never ask me anything and if they did I would have snotted them you know um but Ned uh you know I said to Ned you know I questioned it early in the piece in 76. I said how come your other mate just got 13 years and you walked away see because I paid them I said well why didn't you pay for Bob you know Bobby Chapman he's mine and he said uh he just wanted to forward himself you know so I mean when someone's been your friend I mean you take him on face value and uh you know and then you just let things roll and try and susser that yourself for like you know as the years went on I started to see a few little sneaky things but I can never say that I saw him telling on anybody I mean I've heard him talking at a school London while having lunch you know and they might have been the detective sitting there and he'll say or someone said Dave Keller robs are selling plenty of drugs and uh so and so you know and I'd you know the [ __ ] are you saying that for he said this wait he said they're on titles they're gonna [ __ ] put someone on to him hmm you know said step ahead of it don't [ __ ] go dropping names like that that's a [ __ ] dog act you know so oh I you know him and I I'd Clash all the time we always sort of love-hate relationship and uh he always likes someone that he could control and he realized after a certain event in Sydney that he could never confront me and uh he should actually [ __ ] himself and uh and left me posted and I had to go in and do something on my own and when I looked around he was gone he took off on me and uh I I thought to myself that night now we're talking about 1980 485 not long you know about six or seven years into the relationship I thought this place got the forces reputation I've ever heard and then all the years I run with him that was 10 years I ran with him 76 to 86 and I walked away and run my own gang and then then I run with Stan Smith for 13 News Stan the Man in some respects Stan Smith was a bit of a legend oh he was a legend and and against it was against powders all powders uh no he's continues yeah yeah and that was it yeah and then Stan said you know he didn't like anyone that was involved in that and he said that to me a few times you know I said so you're going to blame the bloke who you know I said you know what happened to his son you know we got run over I mean Stan's dead now I'm going to talk about so the the bloke got run over he gave him the gear down at Mona bar and he run over him about ten times and killed him and um and I said to him one night I said well tell me something I said if I went I am and flogged me wife when I was full of piss right I said which I've never done would I would I blame the public and for serving me the beer or would I blame myself he said well you blame yourself I said well it's the same for the supplier isn't it I said you know he's got a commodity he wants to unload it you know what I mean your son's the one who's addicted on it the bloke who was selling it wasn't he wasn't very happy about it everyone heard of Ned Smith that stands well Stan Smith was a complete kettle of fish altogether he was a very intelligent bloke uh most on a shaming bloke you'd ever meet uh small in stature tough as Niles good fight uh as a young man you know owning Ford professional uh I only had a few fights I think about eight or something like that but we're talking a lot the stadium days but um but he was a real enforcerer and well when he put him down and when he killed him most out of I know 16 that he really did I'd say 25 I say 16 that he really did uh two or three of those were with a couple other people where they sprayed someone up you know um most of the time it was just on his own and he just do it on his own sometimes he'd use underwater equipment to get to a certain place get out wait in the driveway wait for him to come on put it back in up in the water and end up somewhere else I mean he was a pretty smart operator and everybody sort of was not scared of him so much but with total respect like every I've never ever heard anyone give him a bad rap you know ever you know I've never even I think I'm the only bloke who's ever argued with him we used to have some big ones really Barney's yeah yeah right but just over topics you know I would say to Stan Smith what your opinion was and you would argue with Ned Smith who was different sort of character standards are much more irrational yeah and likely to do anything you don't know what he's likely to do at any point in time exactly so have you always been the sort of guy who would uh voice his opinion in terms of fairness well what's fair oh yeah I'll just always have always as a kid yeah all the way through you know if I saw someone too out and someone in the yard at school or whatever I'd always go over and stick my head into it and intervene and you know what I mean yeah yeah um so where'd you get that sense of fairness again I don't know I I think I got it because I hated bullies I hated I disliked my father so much uh through what he did to me mother and then he punched her up like a prize fighter she only had one leg my mum and uh he punched her up like a prize fighter badly was he a drunk oh well he was on the desk he was on the drugs he was you know the fan of Barb and um you know those massive painkillers which they barred off the market in 1974 but he was still getting them early 80s they used to have the Redcoats there was a group of blokes used to go around and protect all these bookmakers at the Mark Madigan I remember Mark I remember Mark as a young buck you know when I was about 18. Mark had a group of blokes Ned was one of them right and he's going around and protect the SP bookmakers at the pubs yeah so yes people may be at the pub uh some bloke it up a bed wouldn't pay or he'd be drunk and put on a stink and somebody then you'd ring the red coats and yeah two blokes or there's a group of them but there was a blade called I won't say so no McKinney yeah I know him yeah I know who you're talking about yeah and uh Ned yeah and they'd turn up that's right both big bucks for Giants and uh and they used to turn up do you remember that period where this is what organized crime is about it's not it's not criminal but being an SP bookmak was a crime yeah because you didn't you didn't pay the tax basic it was a [ __ ] crime but that's right it's a fiction right but it don't matter at the time you would have got into trouble having SB bookmaker an SB Booker Mark Mark had all SP bookmakers all around the pubs around Sydney yep and uh had a look after them that's right now these places to turn on a red cape to the pub one one I remember because you you grew up in paddo Epping area I remember I was in a pub in Pato and I was only in my 20s yeah and uh these guys turned up man there was a bookmaker in the corner yeah and uh by who I became good friends with um a guy called Gary stanmore who's a good mate of mine and uh and he explained to me how these guys operated and uh and that's sort of we're talking about organized crime but it's not really crime it's just not an organization that's right you've got a somebody has a benefit before they so he sort of got into the end of the big league yeah he went up another level quite a few actually over time um but when people talk about organized crime they make it sound like it's something worse than it is yeah um the crime could be something that is fictionally regarded as we the government don't want to do unless you pay us a license for your tax that's right so SP bookmaking was like it was nothing yeah it was just taking bets yes that's right and the guys made living out of it that's right and they supported the family and sent the kids to school with this particular guy I'm talking about it was part of it was actually an accountant um and but just did this on weekends and nights yeah one night a week and on Saturdays to make extra dollars yeah so he sent his kids to school that's right exactly and uh yeah and then and you had to have support yeah in case someone didn't pay you because you're in a party full of drunks and blokes and want to you know back themselves and all this [ __ ] so you need someone to come and sort it out that's right and in those days sometimes you had to be sort out up around the corner around the back of the lanes there's nothing really wrong with that is there no I don't know I can remember you know look I was only talking to a bloke the other day about it and uh first time I ever really met George Freeman and I was over at marrickville and there was a lot of gambling places up the road there you know and uh he used to come there and he'd he'd give a handful of money to a certain bloke and he'd gone lay them off in all the places but whatever Betty wanted to put on you know so while he was there he was talking to him about a bloke that owed a lot of money that they hadn't been able to find they'd been able to locate this boat and uh anyway I stuck me out in and I said uh olivan around he said I might be a bit out of your league son you know and I said well give me a try the bloke said oh he can look after himself the lad you know and uh and he said and he'll collect if he can find him he said I'll give you a chance he said well that's the last place he used to get so I sniffed around there I quizzed a few blokes anyway I reckon it took me about two months and in back into the same puppy comes at the back of Concord it's called Uh that's where the old punt is what they call it more like yeah more like more like Hotel he walks into there and he's still betting and he's betting with the SP boat there and he he's got a wads on him right so I tagged him when he left the place and uh he did live far from the place so I wouldn't notice where he lived or checked out the place here we lived with he lived on his own so the follow-on said he I waited up there he didn't turn up so I went so anyway why did they come back the next week there he is I went straight down to his house in through the side through the bathroom window and I waited in his bedroom and what I had was a water pistol the water pistol was full of petrol right and I said Neil pay me tonight this bar so I had a big Bunsen burner lighter and uh I hid there until he came in he hopped into bed I'll let him get into bed in the nude [ __ ] sort of silly big lump of a lady wants to and uh but before he did he opened up the cupboard and put the money in under the floorboard right in in the cupboards myself so I knew where the stash was straight away so as soon as he went in he started having a little snore within about five minutes I just squirt him all over the face all over his bed sheets and I woke him well as soon as he woke up I've got a lot of room here standing there with a balaclavron well he just [ __ ] [ __ ] himself you know oh my what the [ __ ] mine was gone the first thing was the smell of the few I said might all [ __ ] light you I want all the [ __ ] money you owe [ __ ] George now he said there there so I don't know where a [ __ ] is but I better be [ __ ] there or I'm coming back I'm gonna [ __ ] burn to the person so I go out there [ __ ] went right through it anywhere that was 20 over so I took the [ __ ] lot and I went back and uh I gave it to him he couldn't [ __ ] believe that I'd found him and collected it so he gave me a bonus on top of it and I said well I already got a Bonus mate I've got 20 he said doesn't matter you take that he said unbelievable he said good on you anyway call me once more after that and uh over I liked in the dogs and um to protect the bookmaker and I went down there and just stood off the book bank and made sure he was sweet all night because there was Blake's ripping him and I knew who they were so there was no problem there so I just had to go up and pull them up and and that that after that I just said listen mate I'm running another another crew and uh doing my own thing so well don't call on me again do you think graemon a lot of crime back in those days at least was to some extent fueled by the fact that there was a lot of cash around which is not the case today oh big time Big Time you know but uh you know that that fold and still comes but they've got to find that way now to to deal with it to deal with it and get rid of it if you pay cash now yeah that's right I mean I look at people sometimes they pay cash I went to the bank just a couple of weeks ago and just to draw out five grand and they give me the biggest quiz of all time you know what I mean yeah so what are you going to use it for instead of listen under your [ __ ] business well I said you know it's got nothing to do with you well we just want to make sure we're not getting scammed I said no matter the taxation tell the taxation yeah because they have to fill forms out now yeah that's right this crime hasn't stopped this is different do you think we're going too far I mean the coppers don't consort anymore with the girls no they're not allowed to they're unless unless someone's a gig well yeah yeah well that's right that's a formal gig you know a couple of blocks around the ground yeah but you know what I'm saying but basically um but as but they're getting less arrests there's more crazy [ __ ] going on out there now than ever before they don't have the balls while they haven't they look anyone was carrying on how things carry on today on the street how you know families are feuding with each other and people have fallen all over the place they would just run straight into your door kick your [ __ ] door in blow your head off and put a gun under your pillar yeah and I want to mine straight in your hand that but that's how they operated and and they had the control and it would work yeah and it worked it [ __ ] worked up the normal the normal creams yeah and that's why if you didn't have the working in the in the organized crime well then you're you're in the mug game because otherwise you were just going to spend your life sitting in and out of that joint you know what I mean all of those sort of inquiries really brought that in the old days they didn't they just brushed them under the carpet and they were gone but the last one sort of brought it to a bit of a head and the corruption and Ned Rome you know he rolled on 92 policeman he wouldn't have known 19 yeah so as far as I'm concerned the the icac helped him you know point out people you know what I might even if by the way you know even if they weren't a criminal he was rolling on them oh 100 he didn't like him he didn't like him that's what he was doing yeah yeah yeah he didn't know 92 police when I read that report uh I I know he died of fried I mean I had to get involved in in all that [ __ ] myself and they pulled me down there but I lasted a minute now in the witness box and they they booted me you know I said there's a bodying up statements here I said I made a tape recorder interview play the tape get out get out that was in Tempe that was headlines the next day Henry ejected you know so I was glad but I spent two and a half years in solitary confinement over it I know what was the first time you went to jail like yeah 1969 I got three months I think for blocking your thoroughfare what's that mean that means I was standing in the way of everyone on their way to work on Epping railway station why um what is it so that was just what they wonder they just want to be smarter they had to be guts and um you know and I wasn't at Birth to not not built them on the tin you know I was always hitting them on the chin so it would have been like 20 or 89. no no I was younger than that yeah it was just 18 yeah yeah yeah it was 1969 so well I think it was me 18th birthday they arrested me and they knew it they pulled up me well they've charged me blocking the therapy I was sitting on the fence right little fence a little picket fancy all just sit along like crows you know we're all Sharpies you know yeah and um and uh next one I was just waiting for the public right and we're going to get in there I'd already been there for a year probably drinking but we're going down there legally this time but um you know but next month so they hit me with that vagrancy something else anyway I've got three months jail where'd you spend it uh Parramatta jail and uh but I was in with all the old heads you know like because all of them were all training centers before that Long Bay Training complex uh goulburn Training Center Bathurst trainers in Palmetto jail well that was the end of the road that's where you went if you're a real-hearted so I ended up there and I I just started working in the uh tinsmiths I think it was and um started you know like when choas and blokes like that were there and and I got on fantastic with them I didn't have any problems with the blokes trying to [ __ ] get about me or had a few whistle at me a few times when I [ __ ] do you think boxing helped you have that confidence because you're a decent amidified like yeah I just think maybe more the more the street and I knew I was willing enough to use anything because I knew you willing enough too that's probably pretty important too yeah that's right exactly and then what happened like so you get out of three months yep what's your do you remember what your first sort of actual criminal business because I started uh you know I was running prostitute uh at the back of the van at the back of the hotel I used to pick up all the punters and take them for a drive around the block till the egg timer turned to I think we you know three minutes six minutes that's how much they were in the down in the uh Burke Street here and all that that's all you'd get three minutes you'd have to go like a rattlesnake you know because you may not have a Liverpool Street around that Terrace yeah and um lined up the road there yeah yeah that's right and uh so we'd just take them around turned over a couple times give probably give them six minutes or something pull up and just say mate roll up the roller door do you want to go again mate the bed was bolted to the thing yeah mate I'll go again bang I'll say gallery and we go again pick up another panel or off we go anyway then next minute I got headlines in the Rival magazine arrival well magazine was a black and white newspaper type thing which by the way the only way you could get it when I was younger is you had to pinch it from the news agent that's right um it was Rivals it was a sort of a pornographic thing yeah yeah and but they used to write about all sorts of stuff right yeah so what was headlines and that and it was uh I can still remember the headlines that said teenage Vice ring and it said there's a thug known as Henry didn't give me full loan uh who runs prostitution and a standover protection racket around the area and anyway they're talking to one bloke and he said and how do you know so much about he said oh because he broke my son's arm I own all the took farms around this area because that's all they were around their ride and all the areas they had big farms Vegetable Farms took Farms so so he said uh you know there's no tell them what this young thug will do that was that by the way if I could just just step back into that for a second yeah okay prostitution was illegal got it it's an ethical decision made by governments and maybe society makes a decision whatever the case may be it still exists it's always existed no one continue to exist okay so let's take the morality out of it for a second okay you were sort of like sort of quite enterprising you used to think ahead of myself so you've got a bad Boulder to the back of the van yeah and I've got an egg timer I've got a timer at least there was no mobile phones in those days so you couldn't do using mobile phone but you had an exam and you charge by the by the period like three minutes six minutes whatever the case might be and you knew well enough just you knew where it was was down here Liverpool Street wherever it is and in terms of the standover thing you had to protect the girls yeah I did so protecting anyone ever touch them they were in plenty of trouble so you know I know a willing participant to girls they weren't talking when we stood over or anything no no the other way the stand-up was against people giving them our time 100 we're not paying or whatever all bashing them up being drunk and being an idiot or whatever yeah and I mean people can say well you know this Blake's immoral whatever the case maybe I'm gonna get all the judgments but yeah but at the same time uh you're making decisions based on your standards yeah that's right and the stands are useful and by the way it's at a different period yeah so we should make judgments about what happened in 19 there was plenty of people sort of doing then then but like older blokes you know yeah yeah and uh you know all the organized climb all the chapel Lanes up here we used to go up and terrorize all the prostitutes working in the door and get escorted out of there with a gun you know stuck in the back of our red but that was his area yeah that was all around here yeah yeah and um you know but uh you know then I then I did my first armed robbery uh when I was actually did it before I even went to jail I was probably 15 or 16 years of age give me first time robbery then was it a bank uh it was something like that yeah and um and I came away with it I sort of got off on those things and I think I got off on them because of John Dillinger I used to watch Dylan yeah they're married and I had a picture of him up on me wall when my mother used to always rip it down you know and I'd just stick it back up almost bloke that had pictures of you know racing car drivers or Raquel Welsh or you know and I'd have John Dillinger with a big submachine gun under his arm and uh so you know I think my life was already mapped out for me really and I mean look I tried so many things I tried I could sing you know so I went into every Talent Quest known to mean kind I always got into the grand finals I and I always got rewarded because they're always that agents in in that business you know and they they'd be set ups so I worked up the cross up in the Old Texas Cavern uh Thursday night for a half hour spot doing a few numbers and then one day I turned up there and the bloke said uh oh you're not on tonight but he said but there's a new start for you over at naraboon at the spinning wheel I thought the spinner will anyway so I'll drive out of this place at narrowbone and get there in this pommy bloke said to me and what are you doing here mate I said apparently I'm singing there tonight he said he got a band I said no I've got a band this I'm going to be only a band there well I knew I'd been bent over you know what I mean someone would have jeed me up so anyway he wanted to put me on the he said can he said give us a voice give us a hero Voice without music I said well what's the point he said well I'll get you on new faces I know someone on channel 9. so I built it out two songs for him and and I could bang him out you know and he said uh he said I'm going to get you a new face he said what's your name I said Graham Henry said oh we can't have that for a name he said that's a [ __ ] ridiculous [ __ ] statement so he gave me a name like dick Carr or something like I would like me dead crime memory was better man so at least like a minute he Rings up channel nine he's got this black on there he books me in there and I just went [ __ ] let's stick it up your ass you didn't do it no so then I would try to be a male model I went into these model line agencies all through they're all down in central you know from town all down down uh in the main road there George Street so uh I'd try all these agencies I got a couple of callbacks to come in see someone anyway never got off the ground so I just went back to what I knew best and uh you know I worked hard like as a young bloke I worked a carded meat or I carded bricks you know I was a Ricky library at the time you went it seems to me that you weren't born as a bad hardened bastard like I'm going to be a criminal [ __ ] Society you just tried a lot of things I just had a big chip on my shoulder road do you think he had a German shot oh and a [ __ ] bad tip on my shoulder yeah there's roseola your father yeah I think so you know and uh I feel like you're a bad hard dumbbell he's not fair it wasn't a fantasy yeah and but not only that I think the biggest thing that gave me what brought out the violent chimney uh the worst was uh when I went to Albion Street boy shoulder and I was 16. and I was raped eight days straight wow and uh I've never um I talked about it about two years ago never talked to anyone about it in my life not over my wife she knew something had happened to me uh it still hurts now I can see it but the uh the thing about it was when I got out and I got I ended up getting a bond I was on remand and uh there was a screw and I used to bring in pedophiles into the place because I never knew the other blokes didn't know who they were didn't know even now if they even changed blokes I've got no idea so and I slept in the bowl and they locked me in a cell not everyone else was in the dorm I was in a cell and he kept calling me a little black bastard first day I was there and he was in trouble you know stay in the chair a little black bastard everyone else would be chair on soap on soap off step out next four in that's how they operate right so you do it quick be under the shower for a minute you know what I mean you stay in the little black bastard that was the first day I never [ __ ] forget it I thought oh I'm in [ __ ] trouble don't know what's wrong with this [ __ ] block you know and I thought hey probably things on my phone you know Korea or something you know what a man could say but then there was other group kids here well I wasn't a bad style of a kid you know I'd you know and I had that nice short hair and the you know because we were Sharpies we'd wrestled smart and short on the side you know no no we ours were always short or crew cuts you know what I mean a bit later on your era if they had the longer head at the back and the you know and different styles but and we had all the buckles and the high waist yeah about the double yeah we used to get them made he flare down the bottom Gloom in uh sits in uh by city I remember him yeah by the way I had him so yeah and I'm [ __ ] embarrassed and uh so anyway so after that incident when I got out so there's eight days in a row I yeah at least a week a full week and then there was a big argument outside the cell one night it was a massive big argument that's odd to sell so someone sprang them someone who was either on the night shift or whatever it was always with the night and uh there was never happened again week or two weeks later I walk out of the place and I'm [ __ ] filthy you know I mean I'm already pretty angry kid but um other time first thing I wanted to do is [ __ ] get down the brain you're parked at Epping we're all the homosexuals used to get and square off and [ __ ] square off and I [ __ ] stabbed them I [ __ ] did everything to him yeah I've jumped off bird baths onto them under their bodies you know what I mean I've kicked their guts in and then one day the penny just sort of drop because there was a big old homosexual it used to drive around Epping and and everyone knew him as JB he was the gentleman of a bloke and uh he just like you know [ __ ] having sex with [ __ ] younger blacks but I'm not talking 14 15 year olds or you know a little bit older than that and they'd get around the pub and try and get them you know and I thought to myself one day why am I [ __ ] giving it these black children he's not a [ __ ] Petty he's not a pedophile you know it was the same with that Justice Sheldon down there like in there he was having sex with blokes in the toilet blocks that wanted to have sex I thought well you know he's not getting 10 year old kids Beyond a school and fiddling them like they're very funny with that word pedophile they're all consenting is what you're saying yeah yeah you know but anyway so I just I dropped off it you know and then but but those events just change me I [ __ ] change me dramatically and if I went off you know I [ __ ] went off you know what I mean and you know he uh the drink wouldn't help that yeah well Rodrigo the drink would uh top it off yeah you know what I mean but I was always strong of mine I've always been that way I've been I've always had a good strong will in me that I'd block it out like it's not until I talked about it a few years ago that I started to recall [ __ ] you know dreams about it smell of his coat you know [ __ ] like that and uh I'd have bad days you know but um they uh but I was of you know and since then I blocked it out again you know it's blocked out it's only when I've got to talk to someone in regards to it a lawyer or a uh someone then you know then those things come up again my family know to stay away but they would have known the things that have happened because they were I'm sure they've seen the emails that have come from um you know psychologists and uh things like that but I'd say that it really turned me and had a massive impact on me life as far as my violence one I had Russell Manza sit here recently I don't know if you know Russell uh in the prison system and uh and he's he's runs a program now but yeah his thing is about to say his thing is about saying that a lot of people who become career criminals yeah have had something along the lines that you're talking about um where they've been sexually abused in a institution and and that's something that he rails against now like oh yeah 100 and it can equally can even even continue on in prison for that matter yeah that making continue on later on and that seems to be like a bit of a common theme around the place some people are long ago you know they'll turn to the drugs or you know I don't think I really turn to the alcohol because of it I I just actually I didn't hardly drink until I was about 20 really um and then I just started to get into it but you know I was really um and Spirits would seem to affect me like I'm more than anything and I'd get a bit I mean I was pretty bad tempered anyway but but uh but I but I had a pretty good fuse until but if I was on that the shoes was that short instead of that long and and uh you know and I'd just snap you know and I'd always go overboard could not be [ __ ] tough where do you see yourself now you've got out of the whole system you know like you've got nothing to do with anything lots of stories to tell you've been trying to recreate your own life yeah yeah that's right you managing it you sell your book what's the name of the book again it's called last man standing at a treacherouslife.com a treacherouslife.com and you can get the last man standing that's the name of your book correct you were doing um tours a little while ago with uh what's his name um no I never did one with chopper Roy actually put him on in a club I had at Newcastle and um that was a funny evening and um and that's when he was with Rogerson but you know I actually had a blue with Roger coming back from Brisbane and I kept him while he was up in the thing I said open up a bit mate they're all falling asleep here I said tell them some facts you know you're not going to get arrested for him anyway on the way back he he that night he said to me in the room or you know you shouldn't have done you know I said mate they're nodding off in the audience I was watching them you know what I mean you didn't perform you were boring them so you know and I said I had them eating out of my palm so so next minute on the way back then I I said something to him I said now when Michael Drury was shot during all that gang stuff well I got the they were going to use me as a scapegoat right that's a pretty long story just so to get into that but on the way back on the plane I brought that up and I said well while we're having such a good mood today I swallow and I'll just bring this up to you we're sitting side by side on the wing coming back from prison and I said during all of the crap I said with that Brewery you just tried to make me the [ __ ] bunny oh yeah yeah he said you're [ __ ] paranoid I said no no I've never been paranoid paranoids for you man right I'm not paranoid I I have this awareness I've had an army life and I got out and got through the break you know I had Christopher Dale Flannery trying to knock me Lori Prendergast another bloke out of my own gang right and they come down through well up the cross was from here just across here and the pub I went there to meet a bloke followed me back out and I said I'm not going out of the Cross if I go out of the Cross I'm never going to find out what's going on and I was always one to go into the lines then in a lot of money so I had a gun here that belong the shot drewery and I had another gun there and I put them both between me legs like that I drove up to the street here for the top crossed over the bridge went back down the ramp and they were parked on the side the detective car went out first they followed in the panel van Laurie Prendergast was driving it I didn't realize that at the time right not until later on in that day it clicked I got in with New Zealand I tell his turn right went up near the cathedral round dance and James station down to David Jones in the Market Street pull up the first set of Lights it just not far behind me but I can see daylight come out of the back of this old Sandman panel van y'all send me here I can see daylight and I can as I look through now that part of the city Saturday afternoon's dead you know what I mean here's this detective parked on the other side of the road of Castle Ray with these wheels turned out like that so the Block's going to be on this panel event going to pull up so I don't know if they're cops or or what they are but I thought well I'm gonna beat the charges anyway if I've got the gun here I'm I'll be sweet you know what I can get through the break I'll Pace on Monday anyway next one he swooped out and I'm [ __ ] that I mounted the gutter I nearly killed one of them blokes shouldn't I you know them old PMG things yeah you know sitting around the cage [ __ ] nearly run him over I reverse back up the street in the castle Ravel it's one way the buses are coming this way I'll leave come out of the back of the van they're all ballad up and I went the [ __ ] this so I just drove the car turned the car through and went straight up the one way street the wrong way down to the Rocks go down the Rocks bought myself a midi I sat down there and I thought what just [ __ ] happened then right so I bought this up with Roger on the way down but when I get back to the pub Ned was supposed to come with me and never come and he said I've got to meet Roger mate he said can you go up and give this bloke that gun I said yeah well the gun was the gun that shot Drury right so it was a setup so when I got back there when I walked around the corner in bullworld he was standing out the front of the pub I nearly died a [ __ ] fright when he saw me because he thought I'm not coming back you know what I mean these are professional Hit Men they're going to [ __ ] get in and he knew how well and I was like I'd go on whether they started foreign I would have just let go in the street so as we get to the thing I said I don't know what just happened I either was going to get kidnapped but they were coppers or they were Crooks one or the other I said but he's the gun back I'll give it to him in a plastic bag right I hand it to him in a single right I'd already wiped it down gave it back to him and I said and you and I are [ __ ] finished right and I walked away now I went around the corner went down the road I walked around into bullwora road and I sat there for a bit over an hour about an hour and a half I pulled uh Flannery Lori Prendergast I walked down the street I pulled the detective I pulled Roger they're all having a MAG gotchas that's when I said well [ __ ] you then I started to hunt Ned and [ __ ] a lot of them and tried to get him at the three weeds Hotel police saved him of lying in the bed ready to in the garden bed opposite the three weeds I tell it Rosel and uh I thought they he could hear me heartbeat and I was pumping that out you know but he was going down that night and then the bullwagon pulled up on the corner with detectives in it and there was a new club that had opened up in Belmont and he said here you um I ned he was just about up in the driver so I knew he'd open the driver side that's why I was laying in the garden right I've got the gun against me so I'm rolled over against the wall like that and uh try and smother the shoulder because it was a big Chrome bastard right big three five seven so I rolled over and they said you're going down to that club he said there he said we'll follow you down I went oh [ __ ] [ __ ] sake so he got through the break and then Flannery and Prendergast disappeared after that uh that was in 86 May 86 9th of May and then I started running man crew and uh you know doing what I did best that was rubberies but Roger uh said to me on the plane that day he said oh you know that's just paranoia you know I said I'm [ __ ] paranoia at all I said you and I are bad for now I said I went to the meetings mate I was sitting at the back of Flannery's house with printing with uh can Flannery Ned while they were talking about and I said you're gonna take a copper out are you bloke's [ __ ] serious well I said what are you going to get involved in this net or tired you're [ __ ] not to get involved and he said I'm just [ __ ] listening that's all I'm being driven because Ned's guy was he was always going to be in the background there yeah that had nothing to do with it you know what I mean and he was never going to have nothing to do with it there wasn't his guy we knew it would win the end of him you know um and as it turned out it was the end for Flannery and uh and Prendergast because of what they did but uh anyway he he didn't talk to me much after that Roger he was um and uh you know I still seen him every now and then I just but I I I what I did say to him was I said listen all I can say to you was it was very clever business it was smart yeah yeah and you got me in snooking him yeah you know and I said but I got through the break I said so good business plan but you failed a good business plan yeah because for them is business yeah because it's all protecting Revenue protecting money I don't understand why they did it even that Mark Stan and Mark standard was involved with the copper another criminal tried to get me tried to kill me while I was on Works release uh fired about you know 12 shots at me they missed me uh probably the best [ __ ] bit of excitement I'd had in [ __ ] six years to tell you the honest trip you know I might have adrenaline was pumping you know even the copper said it they said [ __ ] you and I mate I said that's the best fun on [ __ ] ads do you feel as though you just like to live a life okay leave me alone I just want to be left alone you know what I mean you know it's easy to get a point to prove though is is it people trying to yeah you know where he missed me that many times yeah yeah uh it's just to be become an ego thing so you don't carry grudges no I I don't God I don't really care about him yeah yeah you know I don't hate the black for it um you know and people find that strange you know I mean I'd still put him down tomorrow if he'd come at me you know and uh and he knows it um but um you know and I I fronted like the whole team in the America's Cup bar uh as soon as I got out of jail and about uh 20 of them turned up the Hilton Hotel there I walked in on my own they were hiding me on the bar they were everywhere right so I just walked straight into the table and they came in and virtually surrounded the table and I told them straight their face I sit down insult me intelligence I'm well aware it was you and you your mate you know and uh you did it for the wrong reason you know I mean for what reason could you possibly want to do it the only reason you do is to cover up yourself because you you were taken out on a section 44 from wrong Bay during the icic investigation and you were given the police information and that's how you got your green light and he's still got it to this day does Graham Henry sort of hold on to those stories as as identifying yourself with all those stories or do you Park that and say but there's another Graham Henry over here oh [ __ ] I know for this you're still good now physically yeah yeah I'm yeah I'm fitbull you get around good yeah yeah yeah I'm good you know I still do me squats every morning do me push-ups and you know but you're looking pretty good health to me like you're not drinking much yeah I might I go down and have a couple of beers uh I'm not a I'm not I'm not a massive Drinker anymore and I only drink mid strength yeah you know the massive drinking days were in the 80s and yeah they were you know when you know we'd go out and do a knock off an armored truck or something and then go and celebrate and have a big lunch and that'll go through it till three o'clock in the morning so do you think you're richer for having lived in that period yeah oh yeah it's certainly part of Australia totally sure I mean we ran away from it but the bottom line is it all it did happen that's right and uh you know prostitution you know all these things are drugs it's all been made illegal by governments yep because they're trying to control Society yeah and I'm saying it's right or wrong I'm just saying that's just the process okay that's how we work that's how governments work that's why they call governments there to govern us that's right but they're governance in the way they want us to do it and then they're always going to give it people going to say well [ __ ] that um there's still people who still want beer or booze or drugs or whatever prostitution so we're going to supply it that's what I always say demand and Supply it's not supply and demand yeah yeah no I don't know you're not trying to force it onto anybody no that's right they they want to buy it they can buy it they would do it if you're not going to give them that or whatever they want the Coke or the heroin or the or whatever it is so today the right I think if I was it running around in the world today after watching them young kids today on the ice uh an experience in that first hand seeing them there's no way in the world anyone in my team would be online that yeah and if they did I'd [ __ ] put one in them it's pretty heck Anonymous yeah it's like an herbal [ __ ] yeah yeah horrible [ __ ] nasty [ __ ] crap book is said but if you look at all the laws we've got all these laws now and all you know they sort of pretty much closed down your your gangs yeah what you guys are doing and the cops are disassociated with you now so they don't know what's going on unless they've got a giggle there that's right listening um but guess what the drugs are worse that's much worse much worse and there's more murders going on and the innocent people getting hit that's right as well I mean the difference I guess you know those was you know someone went missing they usually went missing you know they didn't get left all over the street or get shot to death in their car all the time here and there but but most times are part of what was going on too no no they weren't innocent bystanders yeah we didn't you know drive past your house and unload into your house yeah I mean your home was your Castle you know that was a No-No here you'd never do that you know what I mean so and um and that's a [ __ ] guard it's the same with home invasions you know what I mean totally you know it's just that she'd go um but uh you know uh unfortunately that's what it is today do you reflect on what's going on today and think [ __ ] oh yeah I just go [ __ ] give me back the [ __ ] green light you know what I might just take tickets you know as I said me boo I said it's hapless you know it's erratic you know it's just uh all over the [ __ ] place it's irrational you can't really see anything around it I mean it's just it's like a little bit and most most time people go down there's you know out of [ __ ] ego out of [ __ ] you know jealousy [ __ ] you know it's the old way you know what I mean really I haven't changed since my day I guess but you know a lot of the things that you know they were things that I'd pull up on like if my other partner in crime would say well [ __ ] him he's gonna go well I used to ring him up I mean I got blokes these blokes are now like part of this other crew that you know and they're getting on in their lives you know themselves but the you know I used to save their asses I'd ring them up and say when you're coming into town today mate bring your family you understand yeah you know what I mean so they I was already giving them a warning so you know another bloke so I've taken wraps for this bloke especially this one bloke one one bloke I mentioned him in the book but I don't mention him my name I'll give him a nickname wasn't going to give him up you know I used to visit him in the key I took wraps for him for armed robberies of [ __ ] done um done [ __ ] plenty of things you know and and God I was a pretty good made of his and then but it was an ego thing you know he he saw a night run for a smart lad while Ned was locked up and I was locked up and I was serving eight years and Ned was doing life and they saw an opening for a smart aladd and taken uh went straight to the [ __ ] place God had a bit of territory yeah that's right you know but he went to the place and became you know the top [ __ ] boy because he helped them I mean I guess that's sort of what happens in business generally I mean I mean they don't go the cops but it's sort of the same sort of deal like in we live our lives look I have people have to say you know it's really important to be wealthy and also stuff I think the greatest wealth that we can have is the the the aggregation of experiences we've had in their life to be able to say yes I experienced that oh yeah you know and and for me sitting here today listening to your stories I mean you're lucky you're a good Storyteller but you have led a pretty rich life oh yeah bloody Earth you know a really good time and you're here to tell the stories yeah that's right you're not sort of some guy sort of sort of hiding away you feel comfortable they're going out and talking about it yeah it doesn't worry me at all right you know um uh you know and yeah I'm glad I did experience it you know there's look you know when I I try to get into the world a bit you know the good business and the dead commodity broken I did I've tried everything going I mean that was more stressful than I can [ __ ] doing any crime being a crook you know what I mean yeah you know what I mean putting up the [ __ ] in that game yeah well there's a lot of [ __ ] oh wow you know and uh you know you've just gotta you know and unfortunately from the world I come now I probably would have knocked a few out of the business meeting you know what I mean you know I wouldn't have been able to cop them great before I wrap it up I just wanted to give the Book You'll book a plug again so just tell me about the website again it's called Uh a treacherouslife.com and the book is called The Last Man Standing I always sign them anyway yep uh and if you know if it's a happy birthday dad or yeah happy Mother's Day or Father's Day or whatever it is I I write that in you know what I mean well I mean if anybody's really interested in more more stories I mean more more War Stories going back in a period of Australia's history that was pretty [ __ ] mental relatively speaking um I think they should go to that website and uh and buy their book and I'm going to get the website by the book it's actually a good book to give as a present I think yeah I should have brought one in with me yeah the website I'll just because I know who I want to get and uh and it's been a real pleasure mate and uh hopefully I'll see you have some reason for the fights and um and uh take care and I'll see you soon bro [Music]

Channel: Mark Bouris

Views: 151,444

Keywords: graham abo henry boxing, graham abo henry vice, graham abo henry a treacherous life, mark bouris, straight talk, business podcast

Id: W38CGx83mXw

Length: 64min 39sec (3879 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 20 2022