BRUCE Johnstone could not be law abiding but he could be an illegal SP bookmaker with flair and imagination.
Former Olympic basketball coach, Lindsay Gaze, with sports journalist Grantley Bernard, have written a biography of a man Melbourne's underworld called Bruce the Bookie.
- Bruce the Bookie, by Lindsay Gaze and Grantley Bernard. Wilkinson Publishing, rrp $29.95
Gaze got to know Bruce through their mutual love of basketball.
Bruce, originally from Colac, is now in fragile health in NSW, but as a young man he had a competitive streak as long as the Princes Highway, who risked all for the thrill of a punt.
What makes Bruce a larger-than-life character is his habit of making lots of money, plus a generous nature that gave it to the needy or mates.
But Bruce dwelled on the edges of the criminal underworld and one of his debt collectors was the deceased murderer, Brian Kane. Another was allegedly Mick Gatto.
With his quick mind and smooth tongue, Bruce learned how to work the punters and the odds.
Bruce risked jail by flouting Melbourne's gambling laws between 1950 and 1980 when legalised gambling was still years away.
His first SP betting ring was on a ship when he joined the navy in World War II.
He caught severe pneumonia and was discharged into an Adelaide military hospital and not expected to live.
He was allowed to leave hospital to go home and die but he had met a nurse and his true love, Emma, the future mother of his four children.
Bruce knew an opportunity when it came, and with his sharp mind and easy manner he became a top insurance salesmen, publican, real estate agent, businessman and millionaire.
Throughout the 1960s and '70s, Bruce was the stalwart SP bookie at the fight nights at Melbourne's Festival Hall.
