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Nephew of convicted Whiskey Au Go Go killer says thugs threatened grandma to 'back off'

The nephew of one of the men convicted of Brisbane's Whiskey Au Go Go firebombing wants to give evidence at the new inquest into the deaths of the 15 people killed on March 8, 1973.

Queensland's Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath announced a new inquest into the Whiskey Au Go Go murders on Friday morning.

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Whiskey Au Go-Go blaze was 'horrendous'

Fire fighters relive the "overwhelming" scene that confronted them at Brisbane's infamous nightclub fire in 1973 which claimed 15 lives.

"The time has come at last," Danny Stuart said. "This is a day I have been waiting for almost 40 years."

James Richard Finch, 29, and Danny's uncle, John Andrew Stuart, 33, were arrested and charged by police on the weekend after the fire and were found guilty on October 23, 1973, despite both protesting their innocence.

Danny Stuart, from central Queensland, said he would give evidence at a new inquiry of menacing, threatening phone calls his grandmother Edna Watts – John Stuart's mother – received from thugs warning her to "back off from trying to get John Stuart out of jail".

One call he described in detail to Fairfax Media was particularly menacing, he said.

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"I was in the house when she received the phone call," Mr Stuart says.

"It was 1978, late '78 it was," he said.

"She was just sobbing.

"She also got phone calls from the Clockwork Orange mob.

"She was terrified of them."

The Clockwork Orange gang was a loose group of Brisbane criminals named after the A Clockwork Orange novel, which was made into a cult film in 1971.

Mr Stuart said the calls came to his grandmother's home at Zillmere, where he lived in the late 1970s.

He has long believed his uncle John was framed for being involved in the firebombing of the Fortitude Valley nightclub, which was at the time Australia's worst mass murder.

His uncle and James Finch were both hard, tough men with extensive serious criminal histories and established links to thugs and criminals.

In 1973 Danny Stuart was 14 and living at Jindalee with his parents, who both gave evidence against his uncle.

Mr Stuart believes police in 1973 framed his father at their home to force him to give evidence against John.

He said he was sitting on the lounge in Jindalee when a police officer planted drugs in the house.

He said police told his father he would be sent to jail as a drug trafficker if he did not give evidence against his brother.

"He just took it out of his pocket," Mr Stuart said.

Fairfax Media has no independent corroboration of this account.

He maintains that his witnessing of his grandmother's comments after receiving the phone calls in 1978 and what he saw in March 1973 at Jindalee should be tested as evidence at a new coroner's inquiry into the 15 deaths.

"Now that an inquest has been called, I think I should get involved now."

Mr Stuart has unsuccessfully tried to publish a book telling his account.

There had been calls to reopen the probe following the convictions of Vincent O'Dempsey and Garry Dubois for the murders of Barbara McCulkin and her two daughters 43 years ago.

O'Dempsey's recent trial heard he may have been motivated to kill Mrs McCulkin over fears she would implicate him in the firebombing and Ms D'Ath said the 78-year-old's jailing may encourage some witnesses to come forward.

"There is no doubt there is significant public interest in getting answers," Ms D'Ath said in a statement on Friday morning.

"Given recent events, witnesses who have previously not been willing to come forward, might now be willing to provide new information that will give us those answers."

A plaque to remember the people who were killed in the nightclub fire was placed at the Amelia Street site in 2014, 41 years after the tragedy.

The first-ever gathering of family members of the 15 Whiskey Au Go Go victims was held on the site in 2013.

One woman, Helen Palethorpe, on that day remembered her brother Leslie, who died in the horrific fire, as "my hero".

"He was just my beautiful big brother."