As Jack Karlson, a burly, mustachioed man, was being forced into a police car, he proclaimed the words that would lift him from obscurity: “Gentlemen. This is democracy manifest … What is the charge? Eating a meal? A succulent Chinese meal?”
Thirty three years since he uttered the words and 15 since a video of the incident was uploaded to the internet, becoming an online sensation in the early years of social media, Karlson has died.
The Australian petty criminal’s interaction with arresting officers was filmed outside Brisbane’s China Sea Restaurant in 1991 when police, believing he had been dining out on stolen credit cards, tried to arrest him in front of a television news crew.
His booming, theatrical voice first denounced the state of democracy then loudly accused officers of touching him inappropriately.
“Have a look at the headlock here,” said Karlson, as a comically large number of officers tried to manhandle him, “See that chap over … get your hand off my penis! This is the bloke who got me on the penis, people,” he cried.
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Though the incident would bring Karlson fame, that did not occur until the footage of his arrest was uploaded to internet video sites in 2009.
It soon gained worldwide audiences, assisted by Karlson’s well-spoken, vociferous manner as well as his love of succulent Chinese food and, apparently, democracy.
Even then, however, the true identity of Karlson was, for many, unclear with some theorising that he was the Hungarian chess player Paul Charles Dozsa — a man notorious for his repeated instances of “dining and dashing” at restaurants across Australia.
Four years ago Karlson returned to public view in a video by Australian band The Chats. He then featured in an advertisement for a sports betting agency and last year a book was written about him.
In a 2021 interview he said he did not know for many years that the footage of his arrest was popular on the internet.
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“It took me many years for someone to show me it was up there on the internet. Until someone approached me and said can we put it up, and sell bottles of wine with your face,” Karlson said. “The wine incidentally is called Get Your Hands Off My Pinot. And I said ‘go ahead, as long as I get a cut out of it’.”
In June, Karlson, suffering from cancer and other ailments, shared a Chinese meal with Stoll Watt, one of the police officers filmed arresting him.
Karlson still maintained his arrest was a case of mistaken identity but admitted he had “probably made up” the allegation that police had touched his genitals.
Karlson had a deprived childhood and entered state institutions when he was seven years old. He spent much of his early life living in children’s homes and fell into a career of petty crime during the 1950s. He frequently spent time in jail, where he staged multiple escapes including by jumping on to a passing train and impersonating a detective.
He dabbled in acting but was also a professional painter.
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He died aged 82 on Wednesday after spending his final years living in rural Queensland.
“He walked a full and colourful path and despite the troubles thrown at him, he lived by his motto — to keep on laughing,” his family said in a statement.
