Author(s): Ray Whitrod

True Crime

In the early 1970s, Queensland was a haven for crooks from both sides of the law. It was into this hothouse that Ray Whitrod was controversially appointed as police commissioner in 1970. Just six years later he resigned from the head role of the Queensland Police Force, no longer willing to tolerate the interference of the Bjelke-Petersen government. It was a decision that the Fitzgerald Inquiry would later vindicate. Ray Whitrod rose through the ranks from police cadets in Adelaide to command not only the Queensland police but the Commonwealth and Papua New Guinea forces as well. In wartime, he had trained and flown as a navigator with the RAF in Europe and the Middle East. After the war, he helped to found ASIO, operating both in the field and from behind a desk. At once a personal memoir and a rare insider's view of The Force, Before I Sleep, first released in 2001, is now re-issued with an introduction by Matthew Condon, author of Three Crooked Kings and Jacks and Jokers.