Donald Leslie Hancock (known as Don Hancock) (5 January 1937 – 1 September 2001) was a

Western Australian Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

policeman. He is principally known for his involvement in the investigation of the

Perth Mint Swindle The Perth Mint Swindle is the popular name for the robbery of 49 gold bars weighing from the Perth Mint in Western Australia on 22 June 1982. The bullion was valued at A$653,000 at that time (2011:$2.02 million). , the value of the of gold woul ...

, and his death in a car bombing in 2001.

Early life

Hancock was born in

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

, Western Australia on 5 January 1937, to Leslie John Hancock and Melba May (nee Bourke). He worked in the family's gold mine at Grant's Patch near

Ora Banda Ora Banda is a townsite and locality in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia located north-west of Kalgoorlie. The town name is Spanish meaning "band of gold". It includes several operational mines and at the 2016 Australian census ...

Police

Hancock joined the

Western Australian Police The Western Australia Police Force, colloquially WAPOL, provides police services throughout the state of Western Australia, an area of 2.5 million square kilometres, the world's largest non-federated area of jurisdiction, with a population ...

in 1959. Initially part of the Gold Stealing Detection Squad, he transferred to the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) in 1966. He worked in various detective branches before becoming officer-in-charge of the CIB in 1989, and retired on 28 January 1994. Tony Lewandowski, a police colleague, identified himself and Hancock as being corrupt dually responsible for fabricating evidence against the three Mickelberg brothers in the Perth Mint Swindle investigation, prior to Lewandowski's 2004 suicide. In the book ''Mickelberg Stitch'', author

Avon Lovell Avon Lovell is a Western Australian investigative journalist and writer who wrote books about the Perth Mint Swindle, including '' The Mickelberg Stitch''. He was born in 1945 and is a graduate in History from the University of Tasmania. His wor ...

captioned a photograph of him with the name ''The Grey Fox''. A 2010 coronial investigation into the murder of

Shirley Finn Shirley June Finn, née Shewring (2 November 1941 – 22 or 23 June 1975), was an Australian brothel keeper, nightclub operator and socialite who was shot dead at about midnight on 22–23 June 1975 in Perth, Western Australia. Her body, dress ...

listed Don Hancock as a potential suspect.

Retirement and death

Following his retirement from the police, Hancock moved back to Ora Banda to run the historic inn. Hancock was killed on 1 September 2001 in Lathlain by a bomb placed under his car.Australian Police Journal - https://apjl.com.au/articles/the_murder_of_don_hancock Hancock was murdered by Gypsy Joker Sid Reid in revenge for the murder of Billy Grierson, allegedly by Hancock after Grierson "made obscene comments in front of his daughter." A 2003 prosecution of an alleged accomplice was unsuccessful. At the 2006 inquest into the October 2000 shooting death of Billy Grierson, the coroner stated: "There is a significant body of evidence which suggests Mr Hancock may have been the shooter," but the Gypsy Jokers "could have a large number of enemies." He was unable to determine who Grierson's killer was because Hancock was now dead, police had failed to conduct routine forensic science tests and had failed to search Hancock's home. The relevant senior investigating officer was Kim Gage, head of Kalgoorlie detectives, who had reportedly spent the day drinking with Hancock and others. Reid was convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in jail which was reduced to 15 years for helping police in the failed second prosecution.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hancock, Don People from Boulder, Western Australia Perth Mint Swindle 1937 births 2001 deaths People murdered in Western Australia