George David Freeman was a controversial figure in Australian horse racing history. He was a gambler and racing commissioner born to a builders assistant in Annandale, Sydney on 22 January 1935. His father, William David Freeman, left the family when George was young and his mother remarried a criminal. . However, it was brief as his stepfather died shortly after. A struggling childhood in a two-room slum forced George into a life of crime, with his first imprisonment at age 12 for shoplifting.
At the age of 14, he became a stable boy as his criminal ways continued with separate convictions for auto theft and a home invasion raid. For this, he was referred to Mount Penang Training School, Gosford, and then Tamworth Children’s Home due to his constant misbehavior. After his release in January 1953, Freeman returned to Parramatta jail for robbery once more in 1954, where he met his childhood hero, Darcy Dugan, a notorious prison escapee. Several jail terms for petty theft followed. The last time Freeman saw prison guards was in 1968, in Fremantle, Western Australia. In between, he married a divorcee, Marcia Bedford, in 1963 in Sydney. His criminal associations spread to the US, which he visited on a fake passport as a guest of Joe Testa, a member of a crime syndicate with interests in Australia. Their association continued during Testa’s visits to Sydney in 1969 and 1971.
Beginning in 1971, Freeman engaged in horse racing as a commissioner and illegal activities as an SP betting operator off the field. Organized crime was said to have thrived under his rule in the state, during a period when corruption was rampant among police and politicians. Among his major involvements in illegal gambling was his involvement in a syndicate that won the Canberra Totaling Agency Board’s top prize of $500,000. However, Freeman continued to deny any knowledge of the crime.
Freeman was also known for hatching a plot to bribe politicians in order to gain control of the Gaming Board in June 1976, which became known as the “Taiping conspiracy”. The scheme was allegedly created at the Taiping Restaurant, Elizabeth Street, Sydney, on June 22, 1976, where gaming operators were asked to bribe politicians and authorities.
Freeman’s wife divorced him in 1977.
His notoriety made him an ‘excludable person’ in the United States, where he was arrested in 1978. The same year, the New South Wales parliament also identified him as a member of organized crime gangs. That didn’t stop Freeman from flaunting his wealth, acquiring a massive waterfront mansion in Yowie Bay, Port Hacking, complete with security systems and guard dogs.
Police intelligence continued to follow Freeman, eventually filing a report of his illegal off-course gambling activities in parliament in 1979. Prime Minister Woodward’s royal commission on drug affairs recognized Freeman and he was made a kingpin. He survived gunshot wounds to the neck from an unknown assailant in April 1979. Freeman remarried 24-year-old orthoptist and former actress Georgina McLoughlin.
While running illegal gambling dens, accusations of murder and assault were common with Freeman. One of his most famous scandals in horse racing was the ‘Mr. Digby affair ‘in Canterbury in 1981, where he got a big break. Owned by Freeman, Mr. Digby produced a remarkable turnaround to win seven lengths despite having fallen back well just two days earlier. However, his only illegal gambling convictions came in 1983 with a $500 fine and a $5,000 fine in 1986. Britain placed an entry ban on Freeman and his wife in 1985 due to the notoriety of the.
For the most part, Freeman was a suave, dapper man who ruled the Sydney underworld. He published his autobiography of his life, George Freeman: An Autobiography, with candid accounts of his crime-related life. Freeman died due to ill health caused by asthma and kidney disease in Caringbah, and was buried in Waverly Cemetery on March 20, 1990.