Little Fish Are Sweet

by Matthew Condon

  In the cases of Howard-Osborne and Whitehouse, both were extremely intelligent men, polite, and brilliant at their chosen professions. Yet both, too, were utterly obsessed with their sexual predilections, to the point where they lived two full lives simultaneously – the one the public saw, and a shadow life.

  In the case of Whitehouse, his surface existence was abundantly full and robustly public. He was everywhere, the esteemed professor of geology, and the press duly reported almost every notable instance of his seemingly frantic existence. But as with Howard-Osborne, what happened inside Austral Street was completely at odds with the Freddy Whitehouse the world saw. And of course that private existence never came to the surface until his actions caught the attention of police.

  I had begun searching the criminal history of Whitehouse in the Queensland State Archives. I established there were some documents – criminal depositions made to the District Court in 1964 – but the material was restricted and its non-publication barrier wouldn’t come off until 2064. In the end I had to go all the way to Canberra, and the National Archives of Australia, to shine a light into Whitehouse’s other life.

  I flew down to the nation’s capital on a particularly chilly winter morning to the Archives reading room in Parkes, just a short walk from the old Parliament House building. Before my arrival, staff had assessed the High Court of Australia documents I was seeking, and had cleared them for public viewing. As it turned out, I would be the first person to ask for and see them in 56 years.

  The bound item was an application for special leave to appeal against a Queensland Supreme Court judgement dismissing Whitehouse’s initial appeal against a conviction against him. The documents featured the graphic details of Whitehouse’s trial for gross indecency against male persons. The chain of events that led to Whitehouse’s arrest, trial and conviction, began with that knock on the door late at night in Austral Street on Friday 15 April 1955.

  Earlier that day, Detective Constable First Class Anthony ‘Tony’ Murphy had interviewed several youths in Queen Street, the city, and taken them back to CIB headquarters at the corner of George and Elizabeth streets. One in particular was a drifter from Sydney who was on a good behaviour bond following his conviction for several break and enters. Later that same night at about

  11.15 p.m., Murphy, along with Detective Sergeant First Class Kunst, Detective Syd ‘Sippy’ Atkinson and Detective Price, all hopped into an unmarked black vehicle, drove along Coronation Drive towards Toowong, and pulled up a short distance away from the home of Professor Whitehouse at 26 Austral Street, St Lucia.

  The four men went up the front steps and Kunst knocked on the door. Whitehouse appeared in the doorway in his pyjamas and a dressing gown. ‘Are you Professor Whitehouse?’ Kunst asked.

  ‘Yes,’ he replied.

  ‘We are from the C.I.Branch. We have a matter we would like to discuss with you.’

  ‘Yes, gentlemen, come in,’ Whitehouse said and led the detectives into his lounge room. ‘Take a seat, gentlemen,’ he said, and they all sat.

  Kunst spoke first: ‘We are carrying out an investigation concerning certain information we have received which alleges you have been a party to certain indecent acts with a male person.’

  ‘Would you mind being more explicit, Sergeant?’

  ‘Detective Murphy is in possession of the full facts and he will tell you the story,’ Kunst said.

  ‘Certainly, Sergeant,’ Whitehouse said.

  Murphy asked, ‘Do you know a youth named Danny?’

  ‘Let me think,’ Freddy said. ‘There have been quite a few of these young fellows visiting my place lately. I think I remember him now. He was referred to me by a mutual friend, a young man named Johnny.’

  ‘Well,’ said Murphy, ‘Danny’s correct name is Henry and he has told us that he first met you about seven weeks ago when he accompanied his girlfriend and another youth named Johnny with you out to your place after you had picked them all up in town in your car.

  ‘He also told us that about two or three weeks after the first meeting he rang you at your place and as a result of that phone call you picked him up at the Grosvenor Hotel corner and you took him out to your place. He also told us that on the way to your home he sat next to you on the front seat and you handled his penis on a number of occasions on the outside of his trousers.’

  Murphy went on to say it was alleged that when they arrived at Austral Street and after a meal and a few drinks Whitehouse had invited Henry into his bedroom ‘where you both undressed and lay on the bed and that you then handled his penis and finally placed his penis into your mouth and sucked it until he ejaculated into your mouth’.

  ‘I remember the lad now,’ Whitehouse supposedly replied. He said Johnny had brought Henry and his girlfriend out to the house earlier in the year and he had driven them around town helping them to look for accommodation.

  ‘Professor,’ Murphy said, ‘you have made no reply to the allegations of Henry that you were a party to these indecent acts, and at this stage I would like to warn you that you are not obliged to make any statement or answer any question as anything you may say or any statement you may make may be later used as evidence. Do you understand that?’

  ‘Yes, I realise that,’ Whitehouse responded, ‘but I would like to tell you just what my association with these lads has consisted of.’ Whitehouse explained to the detectives that he had met Johnny through mutual friends and this lad had in turn introduced him to others. Whitehouse had sometimes helped solve their little problems by giving them food, booze and money.

  There was no explanation as to why the Austral Street home of a 54-year-old university-educated man had become some sort of drop-in house for troubled youths in their late teens.

  ‘Professor, I have put to you Henry’s allegations accusing you of committing an act of gross indecency with him,’ Murphy persisted. ‘Are you denying those allegations?’

  ‘I admit I brought Henry out here to my home and that I gave him money and that we talked on homosexual topics,’ Whitehouse said. ‘There was no physical contact between us. The reason why we talked on homosexual topics was that I wished to ascertain how perverts could attempt to enter the scout or other youth movements,’ Whitehouse insisted. (At the time of his questioning by police, Fred Whitehouse was the Deputy Chief Commissioner of the Boy Scouts Association.)

  ‘We have also interviewed three other youths who all claim that they were all brought out here by you and two of them also further claim that you committed acts of gross indecency with them.’

  Whitehouse denied any physical contact with the boys.

  Murphy continued: ‘We also have information that you have in your possession here certain lewd photos of male persons committing acts of gross indecency and also that you have in your possession here certain letters which according to your own alleged statements were written to you by camp mates or queers at Mt Isa, and also that you have in your bathroom here a tube of ointment which you have on occasions used as lubricant prior to committing acts of gross indecency with male persons.’

  Whitehouse denied he had any such photos but he did receive an anonymous letter from Mt Isa written by ‘a person who was quite obviously a homosexual’. He told detectives he had mislaid the letter. He said he may have showed it to some of the lads.

  ‘What do the terms “camp mates” and “queers” mean to you, Professor?’ Murphy asked.

  ‘I think most people know that those are terms applied to male persons with homosexual tendencies.’

  The detectives asked Whitehouse if he was prepared to come down to the CIB and he agreed. They asked if they could search the house while he was getting changed, and Whitehouse had no objection.

  They all went into the city and Whitehouse was asked to sit in the meal room of the CIB. Murphy said he was going to bring in Henry.

  Henry, in front of Whitehouse and the detec
tives, then told the story of meeting Whitehouse through Johnny. ‘… he [Johnny] told me that if I was ever short of a quid to ring the professor as he was a camp or a queer,’ Henry allegedly said. Whitehouse’s co-accused went on to relay what happened in the bedroom. He said Johnny had also had a sexual encounter with Whitehouse in exchange for money. Henry was then taken out of the room.

  Murphy asked Whitehouse why he didn’t deny the allegations Henry made about their sexual contact.

  ‘I would like to reach an understanding with you people,’ Whitehouse said. ‘Never in my life have I ever tried to evade the possible consequences which could arise out of my actions with these youths.’

  ‘If what Henry and these other youths have alleged is correct, it would appear that you are a homosexual. Is that actually the case, Professor?’ Murphy asked.

  An ever-confident Whitehouse said: ‘Actually dormant in all men there are homosexual tendencies. Some people are able to sublimate those tendencies by association with females and of course with other activities and interests. That, however, has not been the case with me, since a certain experience when I was a lad of 14 attending an Ipswich school.’

  Freddy Whitehouse of course meant Ipswich Grammar. The school where he would become close friends with that core unit of scholars including Inky Stephensen. And also where, if this record of interview is to be believed, his homosexual tendencies were stirred.

  ‘Well, do you admit that you are a homosexual?’ Murphy prodded.

  ‘That is a big question,’ Whitehouse said. ‘Let us put it this way: my sexual tendencies are probably more inclined that way than would be the case with the majority of men.’

  ‘Well,’ said Murphy, ‘are Henry’s allegations concerning your handling and sucking of his penis true?’

  ‘Yes, I am afraid that is what happened, but it was not my original intention, although I must admit that I have frequently been intrigued by the size and possible size of the sex members of Henry and those other lads who are patently homosexual, ever since a certain experience of mine before the war.’

  Would Whitehouse so readily admit to a fascination with the size of male penises to senior detectives in the confines of the CIB? Or was Whitehouse being verballed?

  There is no doubt that the investigation into Whitehouse would have been at Bischof’s direction, and that he knew Whitehouse well. The geologist had assisted homicide detectives in a number of high-profile cases, specifically the Southport Tax Murder Case of 1952, where Whitehouse was required to analyse soil found in the murder vehicle. As head of the CIB, Bischof would later prove to be a master of the verbal and was also a specialist at scouting for incidents that involved any form of moral compromise. He knew from experience that cases like this were also ideal for blackmail purposes. And Murphy was, after all, one of Bischof’s ‘chosen boys’ who would go all the way to the top if he had anything to do with it.

  At the CIB in the early hours of that morning, Whitehouse attempted to explain his fascination with these boys, and relayed details of an ‘experience’ before the war. ‘… my express purpose of indulging in this association with Henry was to endeavour to ascertain how perverts and other suchlike persons might attempt to enter the scouts or other youth organisations with which I am or have been connected,’ he said.

  Murphy wanted to move on to another question.

  ‘Just a minute, please,’ Whitehouse said. ‘Before we continue I would like to relate to you the experience which I have just mentioned as I think it might assist you in gaining some conception in what inspired me in these matters. Before the war, when Premier Forgan Smith was in office, I was more or less seconded to the Coordinator-General’s Department to conduct a survey of the artesian sources of the state. It actually took some time and naturally I was forced to spend the greater portion of the time camped in the wilderness. I had with me an assistant. I prefer not to mention his name as he is now happily married, living a respectable existence and has not and never did have any homosexual tendencies. However, this person had an abnormally large penis and although I never saw it erected, the size or the possible size of the thing used to positively intrigue me; in fact I have never been able to quite forget it. I think it was this experience which commenced in me an insatiable curiosity as to the size and possible size of the sex members of some of the persons I have since become acquainted with.’

  Even for detectives like Murphy and Atkinson this confession from Whitehouse would have had to have been one of the more frank and remarkable they had heard in the old stone confines of the CIB.

  Back at headquarters, Whitehouse continued to analyse his obsession with the size of male sexual organs, and his desire to understand the mind of perverts, so he could keep institutions like the scouts safe places for boys.

  Murphy was nonplussed. ‘Professor,’ he asked, ‘how can you possibly reconcile your actions – your indecent actions with Henry – with your desire to prevent perverts from entering the scout movement?’

  ‘By paying particular attention to the methods used by these scummy types, and that is all they are, I have acquired a vast knowledge of the behaviour and approach of homosexuals and I have, in fact, used this knowledge on more than one occasion in the past to prevent undesirables entering the scout movement.’

  Murphy asked Whitehouse if he was prepared to write a statement, and he agreed. Whitehouse said he was concerned about how any publicity around his case might affect the scout movement and ‘other youth organisations’.

  More than an hour later Murphy and Kunst read Whitehouse’s statement and returned to question him. They wanted to know why he had left out the details of the sex with Henry and others as he had explained to police.

  Whitehouse said: ‘… what I have written is my statement’.

  ‘As a result of certain instructions I have received,’ Murphy supposedly said, ‘I am now arresting you on the charge of committing an act of gross indecency with a male person.’

  ‘Oh dear,’ Whitehouse said. ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘We will be taking you to the watchhouse and you will be appearing before the Police Court at 10.a.m. this morning.’ It was 3.25 a.m.

  Whitehouse’s defence counsel would later argue that when Murphy returned to the room prior to formally charging Whitehouse, having received ‘certain instructions’ from a commissioned officer, he told Whitehouse: ‘I have just phoned Inspector Bischof and he has told me that he admires you as a man and appreciates what you have done to help the police in several cases in the past but the law is the law and since these other youths have been charged it is necessary to charge you too.’

  Murphy denied he ever said that.

  In his defence, Whitehouse later said that he had been around boys of a vulnerable age many times over many years, through his work for the scout movement but more specifically in relation to his work as a rowing coach at Brisbane schools and rowing clubs. Whitehouse alleged that he told the detectives when they were at his house: ‘Here are the names of all those lads and you can enquire from any one of them … or the lot to find out if anything improper has happened.’ He said if anything untoward had occurred on his part, the boys would ‘be aware if I was prying and if I was a Peeping Tom, or anything like that’.

  Whitehouse appeared before the Brisbane Police Courts on that Saturday as Murphy had assured him. A newspaper report stated: ‘A 54-year-old Queensland University professor, four bodgies and a 16-year-old widgie appeared in [courts] today on vice charges.’ (The male bodgies and female widgies were teenage ‘louts’ that formed gangs in post-war Australia and into the 1950s. They were predominantly from working-class suburbs and expressed their defiance of authority in their dress and mannerism – the bodgies wearing pegged trousers and their hair long, and the widgies sporting short haircuts and dressing in denim jeans.)

  In the court on that Saturday, Murphy said that Whitehouse made no reply
when arrested on the charges. The police prosecutor, Sub-Inspector Nesbitt, told the court that Whitehouse had written a statement admitting offences. He was remanded on bail until 22 April.

  The arrest shocked Whitehouse’s colleagues, friends and acquaintances. How was it possible that their Doc Whitehouse, this man who had done so much for the University of Queensland, for the field of geology, for education in general, for the rowing fraternity, the scouting movement, and who hobnobbed with governors and senior public servants and theatrical types and the academic elite, was connected with this gang of rough teenagers?

  It was unthinkable.

  I receive several voice messages from Lewis on my telephone, he notating precisely the last time we spoke and my promise of calling him soon. He wonders if I can phone him back, his voice sounds stern and frustrated. I call him and we arrange to meet at around 10 a.m.

  I arrive in a light rain at his townhouse at Keperra. Lewis comes slowly to the door. He looks a little weary, dressed in shorts and a shirt with a singlet underneath. He gives me four pages of lists he has typed. ‘For Matthew To Do Now.’ ‘For Terry To Do.’ ‘Must – Matthew To Do.’ And ‘General’.

  They detail a number of people Lewis wants me to interview, like Lewis’s former assistant commissioner Graeme Parker. Another is one of the men who stood and abused me when I did the function at Queensland police headquarters. I tell Lewis I will not be contacting that man after his performance at the book event.

  Lewis laughs meekly as if to wave it off. He is surprised at my level of vehemence. ‘That was a good experience for you to do that,’ he says of the function, to which he sent men along to harass me. ‘It was a good experience for them, too.’

  He then talks about money. In his ‘General’ list he demands that the number of copies the first book has sold be retrieved from the publisher. ‘How much money left when all have got their expenses,’ he writes in one point. Then another: ‘Should be some for energy expended.’