clearance and almost unlimited access to Royal Australian Air Force bases. The Friedrichs lived with Shirley's brother in Sydney until the start of the trial. On 23 July 1991, Friedrich appeared in court for fraud involving $296,662,436.99. Death On 27 July 1991, Friedrich was found dead in a muddy field on his farm near Sale, Victoria, with a single gunshot wound to the head. His death was ruled to be suicide. Autobiography Friedrich was writing an autobiography with the assistance of Richard Flanagan at the time of his death. It was published posthumously. In it, he claimed to have been born in South Australia in 1945 to German parents, attended boarding school in West Germany and studied engineering at the Technische Hochschule. Friedrich also claimed that, while working for an American construction company, he was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency and, under the codename "Iago", worked in Laos, Vietnam, Egypt, New Zealand and West Germany against far left-wing extremists before returning to Australia in 1975. Simon Caterson, writing in The Australian, described it as "one of the least reliable but most fascinating memoirs in the annals of Australian publishing". A subsequent 2017 essay by Caterson likening Friedrich to Jeff Tracy is titled "John Friedrich: Australia's Most Altruistic Fraudster". References 20th-century Australian criminals 20th-century Australian businesspeople Australian fraudsters 20th-century German criminals 20th-century German businesspeople German fraudsters Businesspeople from Munich Suicides by firearm in Victoria (Australia) Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia 1950 births 1991 suicides German emigrants to Australia Criminals from Bavaria