Sinclair’s wife and son on pension in Aust.

Press, 15 December 1983, Page 4

Sinclair’s wife and son on pension in Aust.

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney Maria Muhary, the former de facto wife of the drugs baron and convicted murderer, Alexander Sinclair, is living in hiding in Australia and bringing up their son on an unmarried mother’s pension, according to the Sydney “Sun” newspaper. In a series of articles it described as a “world exclusive,” the “Sun” says Miss Muhary scoffs at suggestions that Sinclair has left sAust4o million for her son, Jarrod. She said she was angered by recent reports of the bequest, and was afraid that “cranks” would try to track them down thinking she was “rolling in money.” The “Sun” said Miss Muhary, a former Wellington woman, aged 29, is now living quietly in Australia under an alias, receiving an unmarried mother’s pension and had sold her car and any valuable gifts Sinclair had given her, so that she could live and educate her son. She also told the “Sun”' that Sinclair had missed his

son badly when the pair separated’ and wrote to them frequently from jail. Sinclair died’ of a heart atttack earlier this year in Parkhurst Prison in England, prompting speculation about vast amounts of money he was believed to have ’ salted away, and speculation about the true cause of death after his offer shortly before he died to discuss alleged links with the Irish Republican Army. Miss Muhary told the “Sun” that she and Sinclair’s younger brother, Paddy Clark, were the trustees of Sinclair’s will. She said the house at Russell, in the Bay of Islands, she was to have lifetime use of was in the hands of the New Zealand Inland Revenue Department, and while she was to receive an indexed yearly income, she knew nothing of Sinclair’s assets. She regarded the stillincomplete house more as a hotel than a home for a family, in spite of the fact that she had had a large hand in designing it with an architect. Rumour had it that Sinclair had ordered a tunnel to be built under the house

so that he could escape from police, but Miss Muhary said that all that had been built was a shelter, and she would not speculate on whether it was eventually to be the beginnings of a tunnel. On the suggestion that Sinclair had been killed to stop him talking about links with the 1.R.A., some of whose members shared a cell with him, Miss Muhary said she was now convinced Sinclair died of a heart attack caused by a blood clot. She said that Sinclair’s brother had told her that his father had died the same way, without any history of heart trouble. She also dismissed the idea he was associated with the I.R.A. Miss Muhary revealed that Sinclair was becoming increasingly depressed before his death, largely because he could do nothing to support his son, Jarrod. She also said Sinclair had asked her to marry him several times, but that they “never got round to it.” The more powerful he became as head of his drug syndicate, she said, the harder he became to live with.