by John Pinkney
The claims kept coming. A second pilot, also anonymous, emerged to say that Friedrich and friends had been involved in plans to overthrow Fiji’s revolutionary government- and had travelled on military assignments in a plane painted black to provide camouflage at night.
Entrepreneur Harry M. Miller felt it was time the fallen NSC chieftain wrote a book to put his side of the story. Friedrich, fearful that an autobiography might engulf him in even further troubles, hesitated. But his friends and admirers – of whom there were many – urged him to sign Miller’s proffered contract. They knew that John Friedrich was a person who was only happy in the midst of action and achievement. He needed more in his life than conferences with lawyers, the expectation of jail – and the black fear that harm might come to his wife and children.
Friedrich eventually took his wellwishers’ advice, signed the agreement and began to write. He completed the purported autobiography, Codename Iago, in just over a year: several days before his suicide. Or murder.
In the book (published by Heinemann) Friedrich seems at first to reveal much – but on closer study, discloses little – about what underlay the criminal case that shook Australia. He maintains that he told a great deal of truth on his original NSC job application form: he was indeed born to German migrant parents in outback South Australia in 1945 – and was educated at a South Australian boarding school before travelling to Munich with his mother in 1960.
He then claims that after graduating as an engineer in Germany he was recruited into intelligence work by an agency he does not name. He was assigned to the secret war in Laos – and from there went to Vietnam, Northern Ireland and Egypt. But the work was so terrifying and exhausting that it burned him out – and he returned to Australia to seek peace. Eight years later he was back in the spy business.
Long before he joined the National Safety Council he knew it was ‘haunted’ (influenced by spies). He was also aware that the Australian and foreign governments saw the NSC as a potentially useful intelligence tool. Friedrich claims that far from being a fraud or con man he ‘borrowed’ money from banks with the full knowledge of the government. These ‘loans’ were not loans at all, but payment for ‘certain services’ the banks had received.
In a passage which supports earlier media speculation, Friedrich says he travelled outside Australia without a passport on US military aircraft. He was in Fiji during the coup, ‘checking the possibility of getting armed forces in and getting civilians out, should either prove necessary’.
Of his employers he says: ‘The NSC was 95 per cent fact...and five per cent smokescreen. [It was] being developed as an organisation that knowingly allowed itself to be used by various government instrumentalities for jobs that were either too hard...or needed to be done quickly without bureaucratic restraint, or that the government didn’t want the public to know about.’
Anyone who read the book hoping to learn Friedrich’s true identity was disappointed. He raises the question ‘Who am I?’ – only to answer, ‘I do not exist. I can be whatever people want to make me. I am a blank page: write on me what you will.’ He reveals that he has had many names in his life, but only three meant much to him: his original name which he does not disclose; his undercover name, Iago; and the name he adopted after 1975, John Friedrich.
He dismisses the government statement that he was Johann Friedrich Hohenberger, who embezzled $244,000 from a German construction company before fleeing to Australia. Hohenberger, he says, had different fingerprints and was 12 centimetres taller. And besides, he committed suicide long before John Friedrich’s return to Melbourne in 1975.
TV journalist George Negus was also convinced that Friedrich and the German embezzler were different people. Assigned by the Seven Network to talk with Friedrich over six months (possibly the longest edited interview in Australia’s TV history) Negus emerged with the conviction that something extremely strange was going on. He mirrored the instinct of many who felt that the Friedrich saga was much more than the story of a con man, or of a Walter Mitty, or even of an error-prone intelligence agent. Days after the telecast – of Friedrich’s death – Negus wrote a heated opinion-piece for Victoria’s Sunday Age (3 August 1991). It read in part:
If authorities in Australia – governments and police – succeed in sweeping the Friedrich saga under the rug, that will be as big a scandal as the National Safety Council scam itself. The NSCA fiasco – whatever it is and whoever he was – should not be allowed to die with the man known as John Friedrich.
Police have acted with indecent haste in trying to close the case after Friedrich ‘s death.
Forget the conspiracy theories for the moment. Forget the stuff about spies, intelligence connections, paramilitary activity and counterterrorism potential, do we close a massive fraud case simply because the perpetrator of the fraud is dead?
Come on, now.
Don’t we want to hear from the bank officials...? Don’t we want them to explain why they didn’t even bother to check that the containers Friedrich was using as collateral had nothing in them other than fetid air? Don’t we want them to tell us how they didn’t even want to know who the hell he really was before throwing money at him?
If you combine the conspiracy theories and the gigantic holes left in the $300 million fraud itself, there are more loose ends left in the Friedrich caper than a frayed Persian carpet!
For instance, the media have been running hard all week on ‘confirmed’ information from the Immigration Department that Friedrich was an alleged con man called Johann Friedrich Hohenberger.
But the day before, a document came into my possession, via Friedrich’s lawyer, Mr Zig Zayler, from the same Immigration Department, showing that back in February this year they had issued, not Hohenberger but John Friedrich, with an unrestricted six-month work permit – even though he was officially classified as an illegal entrant to this country.
... Curious, to say the least.
The last word in the strange saga of John Friedrich must go to Zig Zayler, his lawyer. At the end of the posthumously published Codename Iago he writes that only two days before dying, Friedrich had said that ‘strange and serious things’ were happening:
John told me that he had no intention of committing suicide, and that if he were found in circumstances suggesting suicide, I should not let the authorities hush the matter up, but should fight to establish that he had been executed.
Perhaps he was silenced in the way he described to me...
The Monster that Shocked a Senator
The Strangest Australians
It was the most frightening moment of the 16-year-old schoolboy’s life. As he and 20 classmates watched, awed, a gigantic humanoid figure covered in flowing black fur burst from the undergrowth surrounding their school camp and loped close to where they stood, thickening the air with its foul stench. The perilously close encounter engraved itself upon the boy’s memory. In adulthood, elected to the Senate, he did not hesitate, whenever asked, to confirm what he had seen. By that time he knew that he and his friends had stood in the towering presence of a creature that was neither animal nor man...
IN 1977 YOUNG BILL O’CHEE attended a school camp on the edge of Lamington National Park, inland from the Gold Coast. During the excursion an event occurred that would change his life and his way of thinking.
The drama began when Bill and a large noisy group of fellow-students were strolling along a path skirting the dense bush. Abruptly, as if at a command, everyone fell silent. A pattern of strange sounds, like small explosions, was emerging from amidst the tangled trees. The schoolboys stared, to see what might be creating the commotion. They did not have to wait long.
From the undergrowth an immense semi-human creature appeared. Bill O’Chee and his 20 co-witnesses later estimated its height at between seven and eight feet. Grotesque and menacing, the life-form had a flat face and no visible neck. Its long arms swayed past its knees. Covered from head to feet with thick black hair it sometimes loped, sometimes w
alked like a crab, using its palpably enormous strength to snap the saplings in its path.
Neither the boys nor their conservative school sought publicity for the encounter. It was not until years later, when Bill O’Chee won a seat in the Senate, that the story reached the ears of journalists Tony Healy and Paul Cropper. They interviewed Senator O’Chee for their definitive book Out of the Shadows: Australia’s Mystery Animals:
At least 20 of us watched the creature walk past... We passed binoculars around for a clearer view. There was no doubt about it – the thing was huge.
The startled schoolboys’ story was supported by the caretaker, who said the monster had been seen at the camp several times. Further confirmation came from a farmer at nearby Springbrook, who recalled that a humanoid beast had peered through his open front door – retreating only when he threw a chair at it. The farmer said, ‘The thing had an egg-shaped head, deep-set eyes and a small nose. But to me its most striking feature was an awful smell.’
When I published a magazine article describing the Healy-Cropper interview the response was immediate. Numerous readers contacted me to say they had endured similarly unnerving encounters.
The Abominable Potato-Man
Particularly intriguing was the testimony of Queenslanders Lloyd Madison, 26, and Michael Barron, 24. They told me that their campsite, in deep NSW bush, had twice been invaded by a creature of colossal size: a biped which seemed possessed of ‘uncanny intelligence’.
Michael, of Inala, said: ‘We’d set up our base camp at Henry Creek. It’s three days’ walk from Glen Innes. The rainforest-type jungle is so thick you can’t get a horse in...you just have to leap from log to log.
‘Our two-man tent was in a clearing with an uninterrupted view across the water. We sat down at around 5.30 for a few drinks. Then something happened that put the fear of God into us.
‘We heard what I can only call a grumbling roar. It was so loud it almost shattered our eardrums. Then we saw an immense furry brown creature – it looked half like a man and half like an ape and was well over seven feet tall – come out of bush on the other side of the creek. It stared as if it hated us. Next, in what looked to us like a fit of rage, it snapped off a massive tree branch and hurled it to the ground. That gave us all the information we needed on how strong the thing was.
‘We grabbed our rifles and I ricocheted a bullet off a rock, to scare it.
‘That made it run off, looking back at us over its shoulder. All that night we sat around a blazing fire, too nervous to sleep. But next morning we plucked up a bit more courage and waded across the creek to the place the creature had appeared.
‘On the clay bank there was a pair of huge footprints. We could see where it had twisted its left foot around to run, after I’d fired. I put my foot, in size seven boots, into the other print. There were inches of space around me on all sides. It was a giant’s footprint.
‘We stayed on another night – half-hoping we’d see the creature again and half-praying we wouldn’t. Happily it didn’t appear.
‘Next morning I shot a rabbit for breakfast – and when Lloyd refused his spicily cooked serve I wrapped the remains in Alfoil. Maybe I’d eat it later. I placed the package in shade beside the tent and forgot all about it. That night Lloyd shook me awake. The Alfoil was rustling. We grabbed torches and our guns and bolted out of the tent. But the thing was gone.
‘All that remained was the Alfoil, neatly unwrapped, with the rabbit removed. To my knowledge no animal in the world would unwrap cooking foil in that way. Ordinary animals would carry off the entire parcel.
‘But we found the most fascinating clue to our visitor’s behaviour just before we left. Behind our camp was an old farm that had been swallowed up by the bush. Within it was a paddock where domestic potatoes were growing wild.
‘We could see, from the craters everywhere, that someone – or something – had been regularly digging up those spuds. And that, we decided, might explain why the creature had been so furious. Our base camp had blocked its path to the potato patch.’
The Colossus that Came Too Close
Another camping incident with sinister overtones was described to me by Douglas Evans of Dubbo, NSW
‘My wife Pamela and I were travelling by campervan in the Northern Territory,’ he recalled. ‘We stopped for a rest late in the afternoon, about 20 kilometres southwest of Alice Springs. There was still quite a bit of light in the western sky, so there was no mistake about what we saw that day.
‘While walking not far from the van we became aware of what seemed to a very large person, standing 30 or 40 metres away. In the way people tend to do in sparsely populated areas, I shouted a greeting – but the “person” – offered no reply. We found it hard to work out if he had seen us, or whether he was merely standing watching the setting sun.
‘Feeling slightly uneasy we went quietly back to the van and climbed in – only to see the large figure stepping effortlessly over a fence and approaching at quite an alarming pace. He had certainly noticed us now. And as the figure bore down we could see that it wasn’t human at all. In fact its physical proportions were extraordinary. It was easily more than three metres tall...and as it approached, we became aware of a sickening odour.
‘I wound up the window and fumbled to get the key into the ignition. When the engine roared, the creature, or whatever it might be, crouched low – and we feared for a moment that it might launch itself on us. But instead it seemed to have been frightened by the noise – and sprang sideways. Then, to our relief, it ran rapidly off into the trees.
‘When we were moving again we exchanged notes. We agreed that the creature had been covered with long hair or fur, very dark. Neither of us had seen any facial features. We described this frightening event to several people around Alice Springs – but no one seemed to have heard of any such animal in the area.’
Douglas Evans spoke to the wrong people. There has never been a lack of witnesses to monsters in the NT. Brushes with mysterious giants – seemingly neither animal nor human – have long been described across the Territory. On 21 August 1997 the Litchfield Times reported a veritable ‘Yowie flap’ – quoting several witnesses and photographing footprints.
First to see one of the titans was an Acacia Hills farmer who rose at 3 am to investigate noises emanating from her plant nursery. She surprised a dark dominating figure, swathed in black fur, which seemed to be engaged in forcing the door. Happily the intruder was more frightened than the farmer – and she last saw it, long arms swinging, running off down the road. Next morning the farmer found immense footprints along her fence line. Neither NT Museum taxidermist Jenny Risler nor wildlife expert Ian Morris could identify the animal that had made them.
Giant Caught in Car’s High Beam
Richard Kingsley, a Berry Hills businessman, kept quiet about his two encounters. But the Litchfield Times ‘flap’ coverage prompted him finally to go public. In the newspaper’s 28 August 1997 edition he wrote, in part:
I have only told a few people about what I saw, [but] the lead article in your paper has prompted me to contact you.
I am prepared to sign a statutory declaration that...about two years ago (Friday, 11 pm) I was driving south. There was no moon, there was heavy cloud cover...and the road surface was dry. I was driving between 80 and 90 kph with the radio tuned to 8DDD, the airconditioner on, the windows wound up and the high beam on.
Midway between the Crocodile Farm and the Elizabeth River Bridge I observed a black, shimmering figure move straight out from the bush, and without hesitation cross the highway in an east-west direction. [It went] directly into the bush opposite and disappeared from sight.
The figure was about 1.5 times the height of a tall man – say 8 to 9 feet (2.5 to 3 m) tall. It loped briskly across the road, had no distinct face or hands and was totally black. The sighting took...3 to 4 seconds, in the high beam.
About 12 months later, at roughly 6.10 am, I was driving my station wagon (at around the same
spot). My headlights had been switching from high to low beam as there had been a fair amount of oncoming traffic.
After switching to high beam...I observed a black stick-like figure at the west side of the road. It remained motionless until I drew past, when it literally bent into two like a hinge, and dropped its head as if to touch the ground. Its arms remained firmly beside its body.
This figure was again about 1.5 times the height of a tall man. It had no distinct face, hands or feet and was totally black. I had no desire to stop – and have no idea whether anyone else had seen the same figure.
Richard Kingsley’s report of a shape-shifting entity raises a host of questions about the true nature of ‘Yowies’ – suggesting that they might be part of a phenomenon odder than most observers have yet imagined.
Mystery of the Three ‘Yowie Bowers’
In 1987 retail manager Tim Masser sent me photographs of what he surmised might be nests built by a family of the elusive giants. Tim discovered the puzzling constructions in deep bush outside Kalamunda, WA, shortly after one of the creatures had followed and confronted him.
He told me: The whole business began when I was walking at night along a country road in the area. Suddenly I was hit by a sickly smell, of a kind I’d never experienced before. The stench was so terrible my stomach began to heave – but it soon turned out there wasn’t time for that. I became aware that something was shuffling along near me, keeping pace. It was concealing itself in the bush flanking the road.
‘Then, just as a car swept past, a creature stepped out of the tree-shadows. It was huge and covered with thick fur. Its posture was manlike – and the only hairless part was its pink face. The most alarming thing was its eyes, which glowed red* in the car headlights – and for that reason alone I didn’t wait around to say hello.