The everyman immortality of Jack Karlson

Jack Karlson, whose death this week aged 82 has been reported in Britain and around the world, was an Australian small-time crook, prison escaper and colourful character who had a tough and difficult life. He was also, however, the reluctant star of a 1991 TV news report that later became an internet sensation.

Back then, Karlson was having a bite to eat in a local Chinese café in suburban Brisbane, when, like Monty Python’s Spanish inquisition, a posse of Queensland police suddenly and unexpectedly swooped to arrest him. Thanks to a tip-off to a journalist, it was all captured on camera.

According to the news report, Karlson was being followed by ‘an American Express investigator’ who had identified him as a suspected credit card fraudster. The investigator called in the police, who came in numbers to apprehend Karlson and inadvertently gave him internet immortality.