Beloved perfect husband to Jan,and wonderful step father to Jaynie and Richie, loved by all especially his many friends.
Murray Stewart Riley (5 October 1925 – 2020) was an Australian Olympic rowing athlete, who, after leaving a career as a police officer, gained notoriety as a criminal. Riley represented Australia at the 1952 and 1956 Summer Olympics in double scull rowing, winning a bronze medal in 1956. He served as a police officer in Sydney from 1943 until 1962, when he resigned after disciplinary charges were leveled against him. After his resignation from the police, Riley embarked on a criminal career that included convictions for drug trafficking and fraud. He was implicated in the Nugan Hand Bank scandal and associated with leading figures in the American Mafia, including Jimmy Fratianno of the Los Angeles crime family and corrupt Teamsters official Michael Rudy Tham. He died in 2020 at the age of 94.
Australian rowing champion
Riley participated in the double scull (rowing) events at the Empire Games with Merv Wood, who later became NSW police commissioner, in 1950 and 1954, winning gold for Australia. He also competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics and in the 1956 Summer Olympics, winning bronze in 1956. In 1952, he and his partner John Rogers were eliminated in the semi-final repechage of the 1952 Summer Olympics men's double sculls.
Life as a NSW police officer
Riley and Wood, his Olympic double sculls rowing partner, met in the NSW Police Force, where Riley had been a member since 1943. As a young policeman, Riley met, and was mentored by, unscrupulous senior officers such as Ray "Gunner" Kelly and Fred Krahe. By the early 1950s, Riley was associating with members of criminal networks, including poker machine distributor Ray Smith and Sydney gangster Lennie McPherson.
Riley was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct and rose to the rank of Detective Sergeant, but he was subject to disciplinary charges when he took "a communication to a person in gaol". He subsequently resigned from the force in 1962.
Life of crime
It is probable that Riley's criminality began long before his resignation from the police force and his eventual conviction for drug smuggling. At trial, barrister Donald Stewart challenged Riley over a fabricated confession in a murder trial and also Riley's offer to destroy the statement if he was paid a bribe. Later, the clearly angry Riley verbally threatened Stewart and then attempted to run him down with his car.
In 1962, Riley entered the poker machine and club industry as a manager for Ray Smith, later moving to work for, and then partnering with, Wally Dean. Together Dean and Riley began "defrauding licensed clubs by obtaining payment for services not provided". Riley's first arrest occurred in New Zealand in 1966, when he attempted to bribe a policeman. He was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment and later deported.
In 1966, NSW policeman John Wesley Egan initiated the "corset gang", the first organised heroin trafficking operation from South-East Asia into Australia and the United States. It is suggested that Riley and Henry Brian (Harry) Ikin were among the former or serving police officers who participated in the operation, often using fraudulently obtained passports. Egan was eventually arrested and jailed in the USA. Upon his return to Sydney in 1975, he declared: "Organised crime and highly placed policemen are often the same people".
In 1973, the Moffitt Royal Commission into organised crime dealt extensively with Riley and his alleged associates, including Leonard McPherson. Riley was widely reported to be in Sydney; however, police could not find him. Consequently, he avoided giving evidence before Justice Athol Moffitt who recorded that Riley "had been treated with undue favour by [the police]". Upon recommendation of Moffitt the NSW Police Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) was established in 1974–75 and Riley became one of its priority targets.
Mafia connections and drug running
During the mid-1970s, Riley and Bela Csidei made regular trips to San Francisco to meet with known American Mafia figures and to gain entrée to the American underworld. Riley was photographed with Sal Amarena of the Santos Trafficante mafia family. Riley also formed links with the Teamsters and Mafia through associations with Rudy Tham.