The jewellery clue that identified a murdered drug lord- Mr Asia: A Forgotten History

An undated photograph of Marty Johnstone and a woman thought to be his girlfriend Julie Hue.

The six-part podcast series Mr Asia: A Forgotten History tells the inside story of New Zealand’s most infamous drug syndicate. In episode 6, hosts John Daniell and Noelle McCarthy explore the gang’s downfall and its enduring legacy.

Could this be the woman who helped to bring down the killers of Mr Asia?

Retired detective Brears Basham shared this photo of a smiling Marty Johnstone with his arm around a young woman when we interviewed him at his home in Kerikeri. Basham told us the woman in the above photo was most likely Johnstone’s girlfriend, an English woman called Julie Hue.

We couldn’t confirm that and it’s hard to find anyone who would be able to identify her now: Julie Hue disappeared into a witness protection program more than forty years ago, after playing a key role in bringing down the Mr Asia syndicate when she testified against the men who murdered Johnstone.

Hue had been with Johnstone on the night he was murdered, the 9th of October, 1979. She kissed him goodbye as he got into the car with his best friend Andy Maher for a meeting in Glasgow, supposedly to discuss importing marijuana to the UK.

But there was no meeting. Maher, under instructions from Terry Clark, had invented the rendezvous to lure Johnstone to England in order to kill him.

Hue, who was staying at the house of Maher and his partner Barbara Pilkington, had no reason to suspect anything. Pilkington and Maher had named their baby daughter Marti as a token of their affection for Johnstone.

Hue stayed up late that night, waiting for Johnstone to call once he’d got to Glasgow. The call never came. Instead, Maher instructed Pilkington to tell Julie that Marty was in a meeting.

Marty Johnstone's grave and headstone in Chorley Cemetery, Lancashire, England.

In fact, Johnstone was already dead. After Pilkington signalled to Maher that Johnstone’s girlfriend had gone to sleep, he brought Johnstone’s body into the garage underneath the house and began to dismember it.

In the main photograph, Johnstone is wearing the medallion that was still around his neck when his body was found after being dumped in a flooded Lancashire quarry. Maher, who had gone to extreme lengths to try to ensure the corpse of his friend would have no identifying features, had neglected to remove it.

The medallion has a Chinese symbol inscribed; it means “long life”.

At the time of his death, Johnstone – Mr Asia - was just 27 years old.

In the sixth and final episode of Mr Asia - A Forgotten History we investigate what happened after Johnstone’s death, from the outcome of the murder trial in Lancaster Castle to the long-term consequences of the collapse of the Mr Asia drug syndicate.

It includes a personal link to a woman with first-hand experience of Terry Clark’s ruthlessness. Janet, seen in the photo below with her friend Izzie (right), was the picture of late 70s glamour. She was also a heroin addict and her friend Izzie was better known as Isobel Wilson, a drug courier murdered along with her husband Doug on Clark’s orders.

Mr Asia forgotten history Janet (centre) with Doug Wilson (background) and Isabel Wilson shortly before the couple were murdered in 1979 on the orders of Terry Clark picture supplied

We also went to Greg Williams, head of the police’s National Organised Crime Group, who explained how the Mr Asia gang started a chain of events that led to an explosion of methamphetamine production from the turn of the century onwards.

“How many Mr Asias do we see (today)?” he asks rhetorically.

“We probably deal with one about every three months... at that level.”

You can watch an extended interview with Williams here.

Mr Asia - A Forgotten History is a six-episode true crime series. Follow the series on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released on Wednesdays.

The series is hosted and produced by John Daniell and Noelle McCarthy of Bird of Paradise Productions in co-production with the New Zealand Herald.

The series is supported by New Zealand on Air.