Inside the Law. Vikki Petraitis
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Wednesday 19 April, Jimmy Pinakos and his brother William, with whom he shared a house, went to the bank and received a cheque for $60,000 made out to Lucas’ wife. Understandably, William questioned his brother about it and Jimmy told him that he was going to swap it for $80,000 cash that very night.
Later that evening, William phoned Jimmy to ask how the deal had gone. Jimmy told him that it had fallen through because the ‘bloke had turned up dressed in a Rambo suit and armed with a crossbow’. The next morning Jimmy Pinakos took the cheque to work. It was the last time William Pinakos would ever see his brother.
That same morning Ron Lucas was visiting a friend boasting that he was about to collect money owing to him from years earlier. Lucas even promised the friend $13,000 from the windfall.
Jimmy’s hours were numbered.
Lucas met Jimmy in his office in the early afternoon. Harry Triferis’ brother, Peter, saw Lucas leave and expressed his concerns about Ron Lucas to Jimmy.
Peter Triferis would later tell police that at first Jimmy refused to tell him about the deal he was planning with Ron Lucas, but further prompting led him to reveal that Lucas had offered him ‘$80,000 black money for a $60,000 bank cheque’.
Peter Triferis said Pinakos told him how Lucas had turned up the night before armed with a crossbow and claiming his strange Rambo attire was because he had to be careful carrying that much money around.
Pinakos had shown Peter Triferis the cheque and told him that another meeting had been arranged at Lucas’ home at 3 o’clock that afternoon. Although Triferis planned to meet Pinakos back in the office afterwards, he would never see his colleague again.
Jimmy Pinakos instructed his secretary to telephone his mobile phone at exactly 3.15pm and, for reasons he didn’t explain, told her not to worry if he replied with the code word ‘sweet’.
His secretary duly phoned him at 3.15pm, Pinakos answered, told her he had yet to arrive at his destination and instructed her to telephone again at 3.40pm.
At the appointed time, she telephoned again and heard Jimmy say, ‘It was all sweet’. A third telephone call about another matter at 4.30pm, was answered by Jimmy. He said that he was in Springvale. The secretary later told police that he sounded as if he was in fact in his car.
This phone call was the last reported contact anyone admitted to having with Jimmy Pinakos – and he was obviously nervous. He knew what he was doing was illegal, and perhaps the thought of earning $20,000 in one afternoon made him act as if he were in a gangster movie, using code words and disguising his location.
Ronald Lucas was an hour late for a 7.30 meeting that evening, even though his business diary listed no prior arrangements. Lucas had excused his lateness by saying he was held up at another appointment.
It is likely that in those unaccounted-for hours, Ronald Lucas killed Jimmy Pinakos with a cross-bow and dismembered him.
The following day, Lucas didn’t arrive at the office until after midday, and left two hours later for an unspecified appointment.
Concerned about his brother’s uncharacteristic absence, William Pinakos phoned around. One of the first people he contacted was Ron Lucas who admitted that Jimmy had been at his home the day before, but had received an urgent phone call and left abruptly.
After telephoning his wife in Perth to cancel his imminent trip to visit her, Ron Lucas telephoned Harry Triferis and confessed that he was in ‘a lot of shit at the moment’. Concerned, Harry Triferis immediately contacted his brother Peter and related the strange conversation.
Without delay, Peter Triferis went to visit Lucas who, as he would later tell police, appeared to have been crying. Peter Triferis asked about the cause of his worries, Lucas told him he was having money problems and that the bank in Perth was pressing his wife for money.
Triferis raised the subject of the financial deal that Pinakos had mentioned, but Lucas denied knowing anything about it; although he did admit inviting Jimmy over to his house to discuss a loan. Apparently the terms didn’t suit Jimmy and he had left.
When Peter Triferis left Lucas at 7.30pm he bluntly told him there was talk he had killed Jimmy. On his guard, Lucas said that it was impossible because neighbours had seen Jimmy leave his house the previous afternoon. Neighbours later denied this.
That evening, relatives of Ron Lucas arrived at his home to stay. They later told police that Lucas wasn’t home when they arrived at 10pm. It is likely that in the time between Peter Triferis’ departure and the arrival of the relatives, Lucas drove the body to the Rye back beach and buried it in several locations.
If this was indeed the case, then Jimmy’s dismembered body was in the garage when Peter Triferis visited.
Ron Lucas responded to the rumours that he had become a suspect by leaving home and staying with friends in Melbourne for two days. Using a false name, he then bought a bus ticket to Adelaide where he stayed with friends for three weeks.
Two days after Jimmy disappeared, William Pinakos found his brother’s silver Porsche near a house in Prahran that he and his brother jointly owned; the same house where Jimmy had met Lucas dressed as Rambo. The Porsche contained Jimmy’s briefcase which in turn contained the $60,000 cheque.
If Jimmy had been killed for the money, the murderer’s plans had been thwarted. Perhaps he hadn’t completely trusted Lucas and wasn’t willing to hand over the cheque until he saw the cash.
Jimmy Pinakos had been killed for nothing.
A neighbour later told detectives he noticed the Porsche the previous evening around midnight.
Lucas had also abandoned his Holden ute which was found soon after the Porsche. Both vehicles were photographed and examined for fingerprints, blood and any trace evidence that might link Pinakos and Lucas. Nothing of incriminating value was found.
Detectives also searched Lucas’ home in Reservoir and found no evidence that anything untoward had occurred there. The home was full of furniture and the garage was cluttered with tools.
Lucas next travelled to Queensland where he stayed with another friend for over a week before returning to Adelaide, where he began working as a builder. He asked a friend where he could get some jewellery valued, and produced a gold chain and a single diamond. He claimed he had received the jewellery as payment for mercenary work in Malaysia. Both items together were valued at $19,945, but the jeweller informed Lucas that he could only expect to receive $5,000 if he sold them. Lucas decided to keep the jewellery.
The friend became increasingly concerned about Lucas and his strange stories and expensive jewellery, and eventually contacted local police, who in turn contacted officers from the Adelaide Major Crime Squad. Melbourne detectives were notified and flew directly to Adelaide.
On 7 June 1989, Lucas arrived home from work to find detectives waiting for him. They had a search warrant and had already searched Lucas’ room finding the gold chain and the diamond, which fitted the description of jewellery belonging to Jimmy Pinakos, who at that stage was still the missing; as well as the bus ticket that Lucas used to leave Melbourne.
Ronald Lucas was taken to the Adelaide Major Crime Squad office and questioned by detectives. Lucas had no satisfactory explanation for having the jewellery in his possession. This gave detectives a reason to extradite him back to Victoria to be charged with theft. Finally, back in his own state, Lucas was charged and bailed to report to the local police station every Monday and Friday.
Five weeks later, John Miller and his dogs discovered the remains of Jimmy Pinakos behind the Rye back beach car park.
The day following the discovery of the two burial sites, Ron Lucas telephoned the Melbourne police officer who had arrested him in Adelaide. He reported seeing a ‘bloke hanging around’