[1] The murder is notable because of Finn's close relationship with Western Australia Police detectives who, in that era, controlled and regulated Perth's prostitution and gambling activities.
After the war, Shirley's family lived in comfortable surroundings in Mount Pleasant, the riverside suburb of Perth, where she became a teenager before the birth of her three younger siblings.
Though successful at her schoolwork, she was sexually active by age 14, which caused her to be committed for eight months to a notoriously cruel welfare home administered by the Catholic Church.
They married and went to live in Melbourne, Victoria, where he continued his service with the Royal Australian Air Force and she worked as a sales assistant at Buckley & Nunn.
)[5] When her husband suffered a serious injury and subsequent mental instability, Finn, aged 21, chose to engage in sex-oriented activities as a means of supporting her three children, including topless-dancing and body painting.
Flatman, Stella Strong (also from Sydney) and Finn were among a privileged few allowed to operate in the prostitution business under the rigorous line management of Vice Squad chief Bernard Johnson.
[4]: 133 It has been alleged by Wills that the long-established police map of the crime scene is grossly erroneous, incorrectly locating Finn's car near the fifth tee, more than 100 metres (330 ft) from the ninth green, near the golf clubhouse, where the body was found.
On 6 March 2017, the ABC Television documentary series Australian Story aired a piece titled "Getting Away With Murder"[21] which revealed that a coronial inquest would be conducted later that year.
[22] The inquest scheduled to open on 11 September 2017 was in fact commenced on Tuesday 29 August to take evidence from former detective James Archibald Boland about an officially documented 1975 rumour that Sydney criminal Neddy Smith had flown to Perth "for an arranged meeting with [Finn] and an unnamed police officer.
[24] James Archibald Boland (29 August) said he had met a man named Keith Alan Lewis who told him that Smith flew to Perth on 23 June and was "paid $5000 to kill [Finn] on behalf of her business partners."
An official police document, known as "serial 393", was produced to support Boland's claim that "Mr Lewis had been willing to provide information about Smith in exchange for fraud charges against his boyfriend being downgraded."
[25] Bridget Shewring (13 September), daughter of the deceased, claimed her 1975 statement was twisted or mishandled by detectives, and that her mother's partner Rose Black may not have revealed all she knows.
[26][27] Phillip Hooper (13 September) testified that he saw nightclub owner Lawrence Tudori and another man at the scene of the crime and that he was subsequently intimidated into silence by them and Bruce Wilson, a former Australian Workers Union leader.
[39] Peter Burns (28 November), a former security guard at the University of Western Australia, said police ignored his evidence and falsely fabricated his statement when he reported seeing and speaking to Finn near the campus at about 11.30 the night she was killed.
[41] Glen Maxwell Properjohn (30 November), a friend and dressmaker to Finn, expressed his instinctive belief that Johnson had arranged a contract killing by a Sydney hitman.
[47] Linda Watson (20 December), who was a Perth brothel madam in the 1980s, said Johnson threatened that she would "end up like Shirley Finn" if she did not co-operate with him; and that she paid police officers about $2,000 a week.
Johnson had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and the doctor concluded, "I am of the opinion he has no testamentary capability to give evidence or make any reasonable contribution to any legal proceedings.
[49] Bruce Scott (24 July), a former assistant police commissioner who retired in 1992, denied having ordered two junior officers to "get rid of" certain Finn-related case exhibits.
[50] Craig Klauber (1 April), a CSIRO chemist, said that a workmate named Carolyn Langan, who had been a lover of Johnson, had confided in him in the late 1980s that he had made a "bedtime confession" to having killed Finn.
[53] Bob Maher (3 April) a nightclub operator, said there were rumours connecting a violent bouncer and convicted murderer, Walter Coman, with Finn's killing.
[53] Closing the inquest in June 2019, Coroner Barry King announced that there had been "incompetence" in the police investigation and that there were "too many suspects", while vital evidence had "disappeared", including the murder weapon and the victim's car.