The American biker expert Thomas Barker wrote that the murder of Hancock was the most "notorious" biker-related crime in Australia since the Milperra massacre of 1984.
[4] Hancock with his white hair, expensive clothing, and an easy-going manner reminded many of a "courtly gentleman", an impression further reinforced by his tendency to recite poetry in his booming voice.
[2] However, Hancock was known to his colleagues such as Detective Jack Peter Lee to have a "dark side" as he was extremely ruthless and competitive as he would not accept any sort of personal defeat.
[5] The normally affable Hancock was known to explode in fury if he lost a game of billiards as he insisted that he had to win at everything and to lose at anything would reduce him to a state of white-hot rage.
The Canadian journalists Julian Sher and William Marsden described Hancock as being a "frontier justice" policeman whose methods were better suited to a gold rush community in the Outback in the 19th century than to modern Australia.
[3] The Australian journalist Tony Barrass wrote in 2018: "A no-nonsense, old school detective, Hancock’s running battles with the Mickelberg brothers of Perth Mint Swindle fame, along with a range of high-profile criminal cases including the Shirley Finn murder, had made him a household name in WA [Western Australia].
Both Hancock's father and grandfather had prospected for gold in the Ora Banda area and he felt a deep connection to a community that he considered home.
[7] He had hopes of turning Ora Banda, an early 20th century gold rush boomtown, into a tourist attraction that would remind Australians of their heritage.
[11] Hancock had long hated outlaw bikers, whom he referred to as "criminal scumbags", and was clearly deeply unhappy about the presence of the Gypsy Jokers in Ora Banda.
[13] Rebecca Price, the chef of the Ora Banda Inn's restaurant, recalled that Hancock was drunk that day and in a belligerent mood as he cursed at his wife for taking too long in the washroom.
[16] Trouble began at about 6 pm when one of the Gypsy Jokers, James "Spud" Manson, tried to provoke a fight with another bar patron, Robbie Mitchell, which increased the tension in the pub.
[17] A moment later, a furious Hancock drove off in his Ford 100 "ute" (the Australian English term for a pick-up truck) in the direction of Grant's Patch.
[17] Kirten Forster, a mine technician, asked Alison Hancock what was happening and received the reply: "Dad's closing the bar and he's going to get his gun".
[31] O'Rourke attempted to interview the Gypsy Jokers who were notably angry about what they regarded as a police double standard with Hancock said to be receiving preferential treatment because he was a former policeman.
[30] As Lee made the 7 hour long drive to Ora Banda on the Great Eastern Highway, he felt "deep apprehension" as he knew that bikie cases were very difficult to solve and that a former policeman was the chief suspect.
[33] Lee, a veteran of the Royal Australian Navy who joined the Western Australia Police Service after his honorable discharge, disliked the Outback.
[2] Lee described the Outback as a harsh desert where men outnumbered women four to one and where alcoholism and amphetamine abuse were major problems with the miners who worked in the area.
[35] The Gypsy Jokers dug up a coffin from a graveyard in Kalgoorlie that belonged to a teenage boy and placed among his bones a bomb made of Power gel explosive that is commonly used in the mining industry along with PVC pipes and a fuse.
[38] Mike Bezemer, the boyfriend of Alison Hancock, returned from a trip to Tasmania on 18 October to take care of the Ora Banda Inn.
[39] On 1 November 2000, two Gypsy Jokers, Grame "Slim" Slater and Sid "Snot" Reid, dosed Hancock's Ora Banda house in gasoline and attempted to burn it down via Molotov cocktails.
[53] Robertson taunted Reid about his financial problems as he reminded him that Gypsy Joker leaders such as Kirby and Slater were very affluent while he could barely afford the mortgage on his house.
[54] Robertson reminded Reid that the Crown had offered a reward of $500,000 Australian dollars for information leading to the arrest of Hancock's killers, which was more money than he was making as a low level drug dealer for the Gypsy Jokers.
[54] Robertson as part of his psychological campaign intended to "crack" Reid confronted Lenny Kirby's brother, Thomas, who was also a Gypsy Joker, about a marijuana shipment that the police had seized.
[55] At a meeting in Gosnell Park, Reid was told by Slater not to speak to his friend Tony Sarros, whom the Gypsy Jokers suspected might also be an informer after Robertson was seen talking to him several times.
[58] Robertson warned Reid that his fellow Gypsy Jokers were planning to kill him along with his common-law wife Moutinho and promised him that he could protect the couple if he agreed to turn Crown's evidence.
[65] Mid-way though the trial, a letter by Slater was discovered under which he asked a friend to commit perjury by testifying that Reid had been expelled from the Gypsy Jokers "a day or two before he got arrested".
[65]The Crown Attorney argued that Slater's entire defense was a lie while Lovitt sought to explain away the letter as a desperate attempt by a wrongly accused man to be acquitted.
[67] Reid was provided with cash, a Sony Play station and allowed conjugal visits with his common-law wife as part of his plea bargain.
[68] Nikki Skerry, the girlfriend of Grierson who was pregnant with his child at the time of his killing, fought very hard for a coroner's inquest where she hoped might name the killer of her boyfriend.
[69] Hope ruled that he could not name the killer as Hancock was dead and the "notoriously anti-social past behaviour of the Gypsy Jokers" ensured that they had a number of enemies.