Bloodstains and three spent .22 cartridges were found near MacKay's car at the Griffith Hotel.

Mackay had been a secret informant for police action against illicit marijuana growing in the Riverina. 

In November 1975, he had received information about a multi-million dollar crop at Coleamby near Griffith.

Distrustful of local police, Mackay passed on his information to police in Sydney, who raided the plantation.

During the trial of those arrested, a notebook was produced which named MacKay as an informant and it was perused by counsel.

During the Woodward Commission on drugs it was stated that, 'It is probable that, inadvertently, Mackay's name may be have been disclosed, and he became identified as the police informant whose information led to the raid.'

The crown alleged there was a conspiracy to murder Mackay by Mafia identity and drug trafficker Giofranco Tizzone, with George Joseph, patron of the Victoria Police Gun Club, and painter and docker, James Bazely as the hired executioner.

Bazely had also been accused of the murders of drug couriers, Douglas and Isabel Wilson.

It was Robert Trimbole (below) who ordered the hit.

Police involvement in covering up the Griffith drug trade and murders related to it has since been proven.

In an interview between Tom Prior of the Sun and Bazely in 1987, Bazely said, "I didn't kill Mackay and I didn't kill the Wilsons".

He had said that in the Supreme Court and the seven women and five men of the jury had not believed him.

Bazely made repeated claims since his imprisonment that corrupt Sydney policeman Fred Krahe, was responsible for the killing of Mackay.

The theory was given credence by a number of investigators and there remains widespread belief that Bazely was targeted in order to cover up a wider corruption.

Gianfranco Tizzone, code-named "Songbird" by elated police, was the man who, police say, led them to the "hit man", the contract killer, who murdered Mackay and the Wilsons for a total of $30,000.

"I only met Tizzone twice, but I disliked and distrusted him on sight," Bazely said.

"George Joseph introduced us and Tizzone said he was looking for a man to look after the Melbourne end of the Griffith drug trade.

Tizzone had been desperate to find someone to blame for the disasters which eventually befell the Griffith Mafia after Mackay's disappearance.

Tizzone became a police informer in 1982, after being arrested in a car carrying marijuana.

After his arrest Bazely released a veritable torrent of confessions.

"As far as identification is concerned, I'll plead guilty if (NSW) Superintendent Joe Parrington says he thinks I murdered Donald Mackay," Bazely said.

Parrington (left) was charged departmentally over his handling of the inquiry.

"And, unlike most of the other police in the area, there is no way that he was 'bent' (corrupt)."

And the evidence of George Joseph that he had sold Bazely the .22 calibre, French-made Unique pistol used in a Greensborough robbery and to kill Donald Mackay and the Wilsons?

"I was an armed robber," Bazely said scornfully. "A professional. I doubt I can remember all the times I have carried a gun over the years.

"Picking up a new pistol was as easy as walking down the street.

"And I am supposed to have used the same one for more than two years, the one used in one of the hottest murders in recent Australian history!"

"It would be farcical if it wasn't so serious for me."

"Even the greenest rookie policemen would know that the professional criminal uses 'clean' guns.

"They get rid of the 'dirty' one as soon as they have used it, in case they are caught the next time and it implicates them in previous crimes.

"Whoever killed Donald Mackay would have got rid of the gun immediately. Like the body, it will never be found.

"I wish it would be."

If then, as Bazely claims, he was set up, why him?

"I was available," he said.

"I was a criminal, a wanted man on the run; I stayed out of public places and stuck to my family and few friends."

"I wouldn't have any independent alibis, Tizzone didn't like me, and vice-versa, and George Joseph was desperate to stay out of Jika."

"Also possibly George and Tizzone, maybe even other members of 'the Family', were afraid of me. I have done some desperate things in my time."

"But I didn't murder those three people. I'll stake my soul on that." Who did then?

"Detective-Sergeant Fred Krahe of the Sydney police killed Donald Mackay," Bazely said, without hesitation."

"Next to Ray Kelly, Krahe was the most dangerous policeman in NSW - and that's saying something."

"He was in Griffith the night Donald Mackay disappeared and he was the one who first started the rumours about Mackay running off with a woman."

"He was tied up with the Griffith drug people, and others, and he was well known to be available for killings if you could afford the price."

"Allison Dine, (drug dealer) Terence Clark's girlfriend, gave evidence on oath that he was prepared to pay $250,000 to have Douglas and Isabel Wilson killed."

"Who do you think 'the Family' would have employed, Krahe or me?"

"Who do you think would have been safer from arrest by the NSW police and resulting embarrassment to his employers?"

"Why do you think Superintendent Parrington was so confident I wasn't involved?"

"Why do you think that there was such a high-level police and political cover-up of what had happened in Griffith?"

"The dogs have been barking for years that a NSW policeman killed Donald Mackay."

"That policeman was Fred Krahe."

And the Wilsons?

"I don't know," Bazely said.

"But Robert Trimbole made a couple of visits to Melbourne in connection with them and he had some heavy company."

"And they knew the area in Rye where the bodies were found at least as well as I do."

Fred Krahe had been one of many who openly pushed the opinion that Donald MacKay's disappearance had nothing to do with drugs and that he'd taken off with another woman.

It was later discovered that at the time, the Sun was paying Krahe a regular retainer.

When it was subsequently discovered that Krahe had been making regular visits to Griffith, it was also found that he had been allowed to leave the police force on health grounds after being investigated for corruption.

Mention the name of Krahe in relation to Griffith caused considerable alarm, for he had been nominated as a suspect in the April 1975 disappearance of another 'crusader', Juanita Neilson of King's Cross.

It was found that Krahe had been hired by the Nugan brothers, Frank and Ken, of the Nugan Group in Griffith, to go there for undercover work associated with complaints from shareholders over the financial affairs of the Griffith-based family's fruit-and-vegetable company.

Questions were raised in parliament and the conduct of Krahe and the Nugan brothers was queried.

This was also the time the Nugan Hand Bank was first mentioned.

An investigation into the bank was called which led to both Frank and Ken Nugan, along with Krahe and another ex-policeman being charged with fraudulent behaviour in connection with the Griffith company. Krahe and the other policeman were acquitted.

Frank Nugan was found dead, with a rifle beside him in January 1980. Ken Nugan was convicted and served a jail term.

In October, 1984, Gianfranco Tizzone, then 50, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to murder Donald Mackay and Douglas and Isabel Wilson.

Sentenced to a total of eight years' jail, he was released in February 1986, presented with a tax bill for more than $900,000 and forbidden to leave the country.

Joseph pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to murder Mackay and the Wilsons and for his part in "setting up" the Greensborough security van robbery.

Sentenced to seven years, he was released in June 1986.

Both Tizzone and Joseph, who were said to be in extreme danger from the Griffith Mafia, were given police protection and offered new identities.

Officially at least, Tizzone has not been seen in Victoria since then, but in 2004 Joseph was said to be involved in a second hand electrical goods business in an inner south-eastern suburb.

Carlton Crew boss, Mario Condello's intelligence files also link him to a Griffith-based businessman recognised as one of Australia's most powerful Calabrian Mafia bosses.

This Godfather was one of the men who ordered the death of Mackay.