The man suspected of assassinating Donald Mackay has died, aged 92.

The anti-drugs campaigner and Liberal Party candidate is believed to have been executed on the order of the Mafia at Griffith in 1977.

In 1986, the suspected hit man – James Frederick Bazley – was jailed for nine years for conspiracy to murder.

However, the career criminal, also jailed for life for the double murders of drug couriers at Rye in 1979, has never named the mafia bosses involved or where Mackay’s body is buried.

News Corp reports Bazley died yesterday morning in a Melbourne nursing home aged 92, potentially sparking a new search.

It’s claimed he told an associate where he disposed of the body, but swore him to secrecy until after his death.