A confrontation with a Mall Inspector and being forcibly removed by the police are among Private Frank's experiences while giving away Bibles.

BY-LAW No.8, applying to the Rundle Mall in Adelaide's central business area, reads in part:


"Private" Frank, however, has disobeyed this law for two years. To symbolize his conflict with the Council he sometimes wears chains!

Formerly an army "private" and now aged about 70, Frank distributes at his own expense free copies of the New Testament version known as "Good News Australia". Averaging about 20 copies an hour, on one or two occasions per week, his total is now 6,000.

Private Frank refused to say what church he attends or what doctrines he believes other than "Just Christian", but did indicate concern about Satan and women: "Women look at me with their piercing eyes because I try to tell them they are sinners when they think they are good. Men shrug it off and don't worry. Mainly women use dirty language to me. I don't hear them because they swear silently under their breath."

"I was accused four years ago of attempting to murder my wife. I was innocent. They couldn't prove anything because she had no marks on her.

"Satan is using the Adelaide City Council to stop me. They say the Mall is too small for preaching. This is an excuse of the Devil. They sent me three letters to tell me to stop. The Devil is behind it.

"I was looking forward to going to Court to tell the Judge 'You yourself have a Bible on your desk and yet you are trying to stop me from giving Bibles away.'

"The reason the Council has not prosecuted me is that someone in it believes in Jesus Christ.

"If charged with preaching I will say that I am guilty. If I'm breaking the law it is like St. Paul was breaking the law. As long as I have money to buy Bibles I will stop in the Mall regardless. People tried to stop Saint Paul and they put him in chains. That is why I wear chains because of the Council.

"The Council told me I can do it anywhere else in the City. This is the Devil trying to keep me away from where most of the people are. I preach in the Mall because here I reach the homeless, the poor and those in crisis. If the Council opposes me I will wear a large poster to expose them.

"At first the people in my church were against me too and said I was breaking the law. But later the Pastor told them they should be doing something like Frank."

Private Frank works part-time at landscape-gardening. Formerly a Catholic — "I was a Pagan" is how he put it — Frank changed religions four years ago. He was on the verge of suicide due to the divorce. Then something happened and he "decided to do something for Jesus."

A second interview elicited the information that Frank is from Germany and experienced the bombing of Hamburg in 1943.

Frank is against "speaking in tongues", believes that Israel won its four wars with the Arabs by a miracle of God, and thinks the Second Coming of Jesus is close. Said Frank: "It's like the year 40 A.D. now; that was 30 years before the Romans destroyed Jerusalem."