![]() The plays became a hit among young Sydney intellectuals, many who had been campaigning for prisoners' rights. McNeil kept writing on his smuggled typewriter, and Karlson kept acting. They put it on in prison, and Karlson played a leading role.īoth had discovered talents they didn't know they had. (Supplied)Īfter encouragement from Karlson, McNeil wrote a play about cellmates who brewed grog. Jim McNeil's The Old Familiar Juice, starring Jack Karlson, was performed while they were both in prison. And they'd both stolen and scammed a few shillings for their families when they saw the chance. Adults had abused them physically and sexually. They had both grown up poor, even by the standards of their rough-and-tumble neighbourhoods. The two men bonded over making foul-tasting alcohol in the cell's washbasin from raisins and yeast, and shared histories. McNeil had heard about Karlson impersonating a detective, and he thought it was hilarious. This chance encounter would become destiny manifest. Sentenced to eight years in Parramatta Gaol, Karlson was put in an unusually large cell with an inmate named Jim McNeil. That's when his life took a dramatic left turn. ![]() Finally, he was captured in an apartment on Sydney's North Shore. Just before his trial, he impersonated a detective and walked out of his court cell. Three months after that, he was picked up in a stolen car carrying safe-breaking tools in Parramatta. Karlson had been a criminal and a serial prison escapee. Two years later, after he had been locked up in McLeod Prison Farm on Victoria's French Island for another theft, he convinced a local fisherman to give him a lift to the mainland. He got out of his handcuffs and jumped off. He was on a train going from Boggo Road Gaol to face a breaking, entering and stealing charge at Maryborough Magistrates Court. He was also a part-time actor.īy the time he was 34, Karlson had spent most of his life in homes and prisons. The Brisbane police who arrested him that day didn't know that Karlson had been a criminal and a serial prison escapee. It was all put on for the cameras." The drama behind the rant "There was no fight getting him out of the car. "As soon as we drove away, he stopped and he said, 'That was fun,'" Firman says. The video of the rant has become so popular that a Google search for the phrase "succulent Chinese meal" now yields 10,000 more results than "delicious Chinese meal". Why did you do this to me? For what reason? What is the charge? Eating a meal? A succulent Chinese meal?" See that chap over there? He… GET YOUR HAND OFF MY PENIS! This is the bloke who got me on the penis before. "Gentlemen, this is democracy manifest!" Karlson declares to the cameras as he's wrestled into the police car. The lines Karlson delivered have since become classic quotes in internet culture. Well, as happy as you can be, to be arrested. "He was as calm as anything," former police detective Adam Firman says of the moment he arrested Karlson in the restaurant. Police surrounded the restaurant, corralled the waiting media (who had somehow gotten wind), and interrupted Karlson's lunch. Then, perhaps pushing for a quick capture, he reported Karlson as one of Queensland's most wanted. But Karlson enjoyed the meals and his frequent returns had aroused the attention of a fraud investigator working for American Express: someone had been paying the restaurant using stolen credit cards.Īccording to a police detective, the investigator asked a restaurant worker about one of the names on the stolen cards, and the worker pointed at Karlson. Had the food been plain, history could have played out very differently. He'd been there so many times that he'd often get a complimentary drink. ![]() On 11 October 1991, Karlson was treating a friend to lunch at one of his favourite local restaurants. He even cameoed in a popular music video.īut the video's millions of viewers don't know the history of its star. There are t-shirts, stubbie holders, wine, pins, magnets and mugs quoting his rant. Online, the one-minute video of his dramatic public defence has become legendary. To this day, Jack Karlson refuses to admit to using a stolen credit card at a Brisbane Chinese restaurant.
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