Jockey Smith death, obituary, how he died, Wikipedia page: Jockey Smith died December 5 1992, a year before Ray Denning death.
Jockey was shot and killed by a policeman named Ian Harris outside Farmers Arms Hotel in Creswick, VIC who didn’t know Smith was one of Australia’s most wanted criminals at the time.
Harris was on patrol when he noticed a white panel van travelling 20km under the speed limit. He did a routine check on the registration number and found out it was a stolen vehicle.
When Harris confronted Smith, Smith aimed a five shot revolver at Harris’ stomach and demanded his gun.
It was the reaction of a passerby, Darren Neil that saved Harris’ life. Neil drove his car towards Smith which gave Harris time to grab his revolver and fire three shots at Smith, killing Jockey Smith.
Just before December 5, 1992 the day Smith died at age 50, what was seemingly a small crime led to a series of events that resulted in his death.
On 29 November 1992, Smith was apprehended by a store security for shop lifting at Erina Shopping Centre.
As Smith was escorted by security back to their office, he threatened them with a gun and ran off to the car park.
He hopped into the back seat of a car and threatened the couple in it with his gun.
When the couple escaped from the car, Smith hijacked another car and escaped with the stolen vehicle.
When he returned home, Smith found a listening device hidden in his house and used that as a sign to flee.
It was the stolen vehicle, a white panel van that Jockey Smith was travelling in when he caught officer Ian Harris attention that led to his dearth.
Jockey Smith death: Jockey Smith Wikipedia biography, how he died:
Jockey Smith was born James Edward Smith on 3 October 1942 in Colac, Victoria.
Before he became a dangerous, gun toting criminal with a short stature and an even shorter fuse, Smith was the second of eight children and had a passion for horses.
He became an apprentice jockey in Caulfield where he earned the nickname ‘Jockey’.
James Edward Smith had a promising future in horse racing but this was short-lived when at age 19, he was caught breaking into garages and shops. For the crime, in 1961, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
After his first stint in prison, Smith got caught up with the criminal circle and attracted trouble wherever he went.
Upon his release Smith did his criminal mentorship with Ronald Ryan, who was the last person to be legally executed in Australia for killing a prison officer in 1967.
From 1962 – 1967 Smith was in and out of jail for various offences such as stealing, break and entering, drug use, attempted escape and possession of a firearm and explosives.
In 1974 Smith headed north to Sydney and was quickly arrested for conspiring to commit armed robbery. He skipped bail and returned to Melbourne only to be arrested again after a tip-off. He was sent to Pentridge Prison but escaped two days later scaling a fence and walking out of the prison using a visitor’s pass.
Smith then went into hiding in Nowra NSW and lived under a pseudonym Tommy Cummings working as a horse trainer. He lived under the radar for few years but resurfaced in 1976 when he was charged for shooting and wounding Constable Jerry Ambrose after a car chase in Kensington NSW.
In 1977 Smith was involved in the robbery of Sydney bookmaker Lloyd Tidmarsh with two others which resulted in the death of Tidmarsh.
The convictions for the shooting of Ambrose and the murder of Tidmarsh were later rejected on appeal and Smith accused the police of verballing him.
Smith made many enemies in the police force largely due to his involvement to help expose police scandals in NSW and VIC. One notable incident which Smith appealed and argued was a complete fabrication by the police was when he was confronted by Detective Bob Godden at a phone booth in Nowra in 1977.
The officer claimed Smith attempted to shoot him when he tried to arrest him and managed to deflect the gun from firing by jamming his thumb behind the trigger.
There were arguments this was physically impossible but Smith was sentenced to life for the attempted murder of Godden. His sentence was later reduced to 14 years but it raised the question whether Smith was a victim of a police set-up.
In February 1992 Smith was release from Long Bay on parole. He had spent almost 25 years in prison and a day after his release he was shot five times by a gunman outside his Bondi flat.
He was lucky to survive the attack but refused to cooperate with police to find his would-be assassin. Many wondered whether his enemies in the force had put a hit on him. Smith left Bondi and kept a low profile in Terrigal.
He eventually died December 5 1992, a year before Ray Denning death.
Tough Nuts featured Jockey Smith’s story on its Season 2 which first aired October 2011.