(Login IrishHood) Forum Owner Posted May 13, 2005 1:15 PM
Mark Moran
Jason Moran
Mark Anthony Moran, formerly Mark Anthony John Cole, and Jason Matthew Patrick Moran. Half brothers with a history of drugs, guns, armed robbery, and footy. The Moran name has been well known through three generations of criminals.
On November 10, 1982 Leslie "Johnny" Cole, the natural father of Mark Moran was shot dead in Sydney. The Melbourne heavy was believed to have been big-time Sydney criminal Frederick Charles 'Paddles' Anderson's number one man. Anderson, who died five years later, was likened to a true Australian God-father, the head of the entrenched underworld in Sydney. In phone taps, police learnt that Anderson was heavily involved with race fixing.
Leslie Cole was ambushed and killed outside his luxurious, fortified home in Kyle Bay.
He was returning home after an appointment with a physiotherapist for treatment on a wound received in an attack on his life two months before.
Mick Sayers, an SP Bookie who had moved into the King's Cross drug-trade, was a suspect but charges were never laid. The day before Cole was killed he had been involved in union faction fighting in Melbourne. But Sydney detectives were certain his killing was related to an underworld feud and probably drug related. He was the first victim of Sydney's gangland wars which saw eight high profile underworld figures disappear in the early 80's.
Lewis Moran, the well-respected hard man of the family, once told friends he was prepared to make sacrifices for his son (Jason).
"I'd even do time for the boy," he said.
Lewis was arrested as part of Victoria's biggest drug sting in August 2001. He was charged with offences relating to the investigation into the $2 billion drug ring allegedly run by Antonios Mokbel.
Mark and Jason Moran both attended Penleigh and Essendon Grammar. Mark was "adored by his teachers - but not his fellow students - according to www.crikey.com.au, a web page which lists the most notable alumni from Australia's high schools.
The half-brothers had strong links with the Carlton Football Club through Jason's late grandfather, Leo Brooks, a long-serving doorman, player confidante and life member at the Blues. Through Mr Brooks, Moran came to know a number of Carlton players, including former premiership champion Wayne Johnston. Johnston said he met Jason and Mark when they were children.
"In those days a lot of the players, myself included, used to come down from the country and stay with Leo and that's where I first met the boys. I used to babysit them."
Trisha Kane fell in love with Jason Moran when 15 and he became her first boyfriend and then husband, a family friend later told the Herald Sun. Trisha is the daughter of Les Kane, a painter and docker who was murdered in the bathroom of his home in Wantirna 25 years ago. The Kane and the Moran families have been close for many years.
Les Kane, was killed while his second wife and their two young children were held at gunpoint in other rooms in their unit on October 19, 1978. He was shot with a machinegun fitted with a silencer, then bundled into the boot of his car and driven away. No trace was ever found of the car or his body.
His brother, Brian, was shot dead four years later in the bar of the Quarry Hotel in Brunswick. He was drinking with his wife and a friend when two men wearing balaclavas walked in and shot him. Brian Kane's death was widely regarded as a payback for the murder of Raymond "Chuck" Bennett, one of the men believed responsible for killing his brother. Bennett and two others were charged with Les Kane's murder but acquitted. Two months later he was shot dead inside the Melbourne Magistrates' Court complex while being escorted by two unarmed detectives.
Mark and Jason Moran were well known in the Flemington and Ascot Vale areas in the mid-1980's.
"They came from a pretty good school (of criminals)", one detective said.
"They were part of the Ascot Vale crew and it's produced some of the best crims in Australia over the years".
The crew of bank robbers included: Mark Militano, Frank Valastro, Jedd Houghton, Graham Jensen, Victor Peirce and Gary Abdallah, all have been shot dead. Jason had carried a gun since he was a teenager and was considered an expert in counter surveillance.
Mark Moran was a former professional chef, very fit and a champion footballer for West Kensington. The club president, Jeff Milne, was later charged with possessing large amounts of drugs allegedly owned by Mark. Mark Moran also spent a lot of time at Melbourne's 24 hour gymnasium, 'Underworld'.
Jason Moran, a water-side worker, was always known as a 'good scrapper' , a notorious gangster and a close associate of another man of very similar notoriety, Alphonse Gangiatano.
Career criminal Raymond Denning once told an inquest that the Moran's were involved in an armed robbery which is believed to have 'triggered' the Walsh Street police shootings. The prime suspect for the hold-up at the Coles warehouse at Barkly Square Brunswick on July 11, 1988, was Graham Jensen. He was shot by police months later, the day of the Walsh Street murders which saw police charge Jensen's best friend Victor Pierce with seeking immediate revenge.
During the Coles robbery a guard was shot dead. Denning claimed that the heist had been carried out by three of the 'Ascot Vale Crew', headed by Mark Moran. The other two robbers, he alleged, were running mates, Russell 'Mad Dog' Cox and Santo Mercuri. In mid-2001 Melbourne police said that Mark was known to associate with Cox and Mercuri, by then both in jail.
Armaguard employee Dominic Hefti was carrying around $30,000 cash through a store room behind the supermarket when he was confronted by a gun man. Shots were exchanged and Hefti fell, fatally wounded at the scene. The gunman, wounded and bleeding escaped through the supermarket and commandeered a car from a woman at gunpoint.
During a search of Russell Cox's home, the page of his telephone directory containing the woman's name and address had been ripped out.
Jason was known as a hothead. Once, when a driver cut in front of him without indicating at the intersection of Bridge and Punt roads, Moran grabbed a wheel brace, smashed the other motorist's windscreen, dragged him from the car and beat him severely.
"Jason got back in the car and was laughing," a fellow criminal who witnessed the attack, Russell Warren Smith, said later.
Jason was Alphonse Gangitano's right-hand man before the two had a falling out. This apparently occurred shortly before Gangitano's 1998 shooting. In 1995 Gangitano had apparently given two women who witnessed a murder which he committed air tickets to the UK so they would not testify against him.
The killing of criminal Greg Workman occurred outside a Wando Grove, St Kilda East party Gangitano had attended on February 6. Workman was shot seven times in the chest and once in the back.
The party was to celebrate the release of Mark Aisbett, who had been charged with armed robbery. The guest list almost was a who's who of Melbourne's underworld and included Gangitano and Jason Moran.
Workman and the other two criminal heavyweights had been drinking at the Australia Hotel in Richmond before the party. About 4am an argument broke out between Gangitano and another guest, Martin Paul. As Workman walked out the front door he was shot eight times. A guest drove him to the Alfred Hospital, where he died a short time later. Two witnesses later told police they had seen Gangitano run from the porch holding a gun as Workman lay on the ground.
Another woman said she had seen Gangitano and Paul standing at Workman's feet before someone had yelled, "Get him out of here". She said Paul had led Gangitano away. The two witnesses were placed in the witness protection program, but later retracted their statements.
When Gangitano was murdered in January 1998, there was speculation it may have been a payback for the murder of Workman. Gangitano and Jason, along with Mark John McNamara, were charged over a brawl on December 19, 1995, at the Sports Bar nightclub. It was alleged that Gangiatano beat patrons with a pool cue until it broke while his henchmen bashed others. The gang were at the club to collect unpaid protection money.
In later evidence, police said that a phone tap on Jason Moran's home recorded him telling a friend on the morning after the brawl that he had "basically started it all and that he was in the process of washing blood from his clothes."
A court hearing was later told that Moran and McNamara were with Alphonse Gangitano during the surprise attack on Sports Bar patrons. Gangitano, described as ''the man in the grey suit'', beat one customer until his pool cue snapped, then asked: ''Who's gonna be next?''
The court heard the trio went to the King St bar to collect money from management, then caused mayhem when it was not forthcoming.
On January 16, 1998, 40 year-old Alphonse Gangiatano was found dead in the laundry of his Glen Orchard Close, Templestowe house by his wife. He had been shot several times to the head. The Age reported nine months after the slaying that Gangitano had been surprised and had run from the kitchen. Wounded and fleeing his assassin, Gangitano was then shot in the head a she lay on the laundry floor.
On the night of his murder the stand over man was visited by a friend, Graham Kinniburgh. Apparently Kinniburgh left the house shortly after 11pm to buy cigarettes from a local store. Returning about 30 minutes later, he found Gangitano`s de-facto wife with the body of her husband, which she had just discovered.
He was later interviewed about the murder, Jason's legal representation coming from disgraced criminal lawyer, Andrew Fraser. The advice provided by Fraser as usual to 'keep your mouth shut' and that he did. Fraser was later jailed for dealing cocaine at the time of Gangiatano's shooting. At the January 2002 inquest into Gangiatano's death it was revealed that Jason Moran had allegedly been observed at the Templestowe home on the night of the shooting.
In February 1999, Mark took offence when an associate made a disparaging comment about a female relative.
"He went around to the guys house, stuck a gun in his mouth, took him away and seriously flogged him," a criminal source said.
At Flemington Racecourse on Oaks Day 1999, several police were assaulted by a number of well-dressed men with questionable backgrounds who had been associating with celebrities that day. Mark Moran was one of the men involved.
On November 25, 1999, Carl Williams, then 30, and his father George where arrested when police raided a home in Katandra Crescent, Broadmeadows. Police netted one of the states biggest amphetamine hauls during the raids.
Sgt Andrew Balsillie told the court forensic analysis of a Mambo shirt Carl Williams was wearing showed traces of drugs used to make amphetamines. His fingerprints were also found on buckets and bowls holding tablets and several kilos of powders. Also retrieved were a pill press, about 30,000 tablets, a loaded pistol and 6.95kg of powders containing methylamphetamine, ketamine and pseudoephedrine. Police estimated the hall to have a street value of $20 million.
A detective who heard loud music and a whirring machine as he approached the home was told by Mr Williams that he was having a sleep when police began their raid, a court heard during a bail application on November 14, 2001.
In late 1999, a man who was part of a father son amphetamine operation was shot in the stomach in Broadmeadows. It was claimed by detectives that the two owed the Moran's almost half a million dollars and that the thirty year-old son was shot. It is alleged screams of 'no Jason, no' were heard at the time. Police however believe Mark pulled the trigger. The victim survived but could not remember anything. The man resided near Rae Street Brunswick where shots were heard ringing out on two nights shortly after the funeral of Mark Moran.
In January 2000, Mark John McNamara, 35 of Ascot Vale, pleaded guilty to one count of affray over the King St brawl.
Mark Moran was seen as the brother with the brains and being calmer and trying to keep a lower profile than Jason. The older Jason was seen as being wild, violent and erratic. Stints in jail for Jason however saw Mark assuming a more prominent role.
