He started his criminal career before puberty,convicted of stealing at the age of 11,he went to a boys’ home at Mittagong. He last saw the inside of a school classroom at 13 and at 14 was arrested for attempted break and enter and possession of housebreaking implements. He was further brutalised at a tough juvenile institution in Tamworth. At age 16,he was living with a prostitute and pimping for her.
His idea,which he shared with numerous other toughs he associated with through life,was that he could get by by simply taking what he wanted. But he was never cunning enough to avoid the law. By age 18 he had chalked up seven convictions. Smith was sentenced to four years’ jail for armed robbery. At 22,he participated in a vicious pack rape,for which he was convicted and sentenced to 12 years’ jail.
Smith served seven years before being released in 1975. Arriving by train back in Sydney with £4 in his pocket,he faced a daunting challenge to reestablish himself. In his book,Neddy,written in conjunction with journalist Tom Noble,he said that in jail,“they[fellow inmates] were frightened of me. They looked up to me and even came to me for advice ... but in the big bad world of real people,I was just a nobody like everyone else.” But Smith was not one to accept such adversity.
Among other things,he formed a relationship with 19-year-old Debra Bell,whom he was later to marry and who was to bear him two children. He also realised that at least some police were not the hard-faced upholders of the law,but could be compromising in their attitude,along with others such as law clerk Brian Alexander. The amenability of some police to bribery was so widespread that it soon became a case of buying oneself out of trouble.
When Smith or one of his mates was guilty of an offence,to Smith it became a “blue” which had to be fixed up. One of his more notorious associations was with the then Detective Sergeant Roger Rogerson. Smith would not have been nearly so successful had police – specifically detectives making up the ranks of the old Criminal Investigation Branch – been prepared to do their job. In fact,he said in his book:“Thank Christ for corruption! I couldn’t have survived without it,nor could the majority of crims who earned their living the hard way!”
Smith got round town with notorious toughs like Graham “Abo” Henry,Glen Flack and Warren Lanfranchi,the latter being the man he escorted to a meeting with Roger Rogerson. Lanfranchi ended up dead,at Rogerson’s hand,though a coroner’s jury was to say Rogerson shot him while attempting an arrest. There was much suspicion about the incident,not just of Rogerson but of other police involved.