Moran mother was murder target: informer
By Stephen Moynihan
March 8, 2005

A former acquaintance of underworld identity Carl Williams was asked to do surveillance on crime matriarch Judy Moran because she was going to be murdered, a court was told yesterday.

Police informer Mr X told Melbourne Magistrates Court Williams asked him to do surveillance on members of the Moran family and other alleged underworld figures. Mr X said Judy Moran was to be watched, "for the purpose of murdering her", but could not recall who wanted her dead.

The informer is the star witness against Williams, Alfonso Traglia and Victor Brincat, who are all charged over a string of underworld murders.

All three are charged with the murder of Judy Moran's son Jason and his friend Pasquale Barbaro in Essendon in June 2003. Williams and Brincat also face murder charges over the fatal shooting of drug dealer and hot-dog vendor Michael Marshall in October 2003.

Mr X has pleaded guilty to his involvement in the Marshall murder and was sentenced to at least 10 years' jail after agreeing to testify against Williams.

The court heard that Mr X had prior convictions dating back to his early teens and was a convicted rapist.

Brincat's lawyer, Colin Lovitt, QC, said he would not read Mr X's prior convictions to the court because it would "take too long".

During the committal hearing the lawyers representing the three accused have questioned Mr X's credibility as a witness. Mr X has admitted lying to members of the Purana gangland taskforce to "test the waters".

Mr X has now provided a statement for the murder of Mark Moran in 2000. Mr X has alleged he drove Williams to an area close to Moran's home on the night of the shooting.

The court heard that Mr X had also tried to bolster his position by offering to act as an informer against serial killer Peter Dupas. Mr X said he was a penpal of Dupas and offered to relay any information to police as a bargaining tool. The police did not take up Mr X's offer.

The hearing before Chief Magistrate Ian Gray continues.

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.

afl.com.au, newsfiles By Sarah Dolan

On February 15, 2000, the County Court had heard character evidence from North Melbourne Football star and reigning premiership captain, Wayne Carey in a bid to reduce his infamous mate, Jason Moran's, possible sentence for his part in the Sports Bar brawl. Carey insisted his friend, Jason Moran, had matured ''a hell of a lot'' during the past few years and had waved goodbye to his drinking days. ''I know too well what the effects of alcohol can do,'' Carey told the court.

During the hearing, Mark Moran was ejected from the County Court after giving a false identity on entry.

Carey told a County Court judge he had never met the infamous Gangitano and did not ''have a clue'' what happened at the Sports Bar on December 19, 1995. Moran had pleaded not guilty to his part in the wild brawl.

Under cross-examination from prosecutor Peter Robinson, Carey said he had never met Gangitano and had never spoken to Moran about the Sports Bar. He said he knew Moran had been in jail, but did not know what the trouble had been.

''Have you ever spoken to him about cannabis or amphetamines?'' Mr Robinson asked.

''Never in my life,'' Carey said.

''Does he use strong language, f--- or c---? Mr Robinson asked, to which Carey said: ''Not in my presence.''

Carey said he met Moran through a mutual friend six or seven years ago and lived about 400m from his house. They had been to one another's homes and always had a chat if they ran into each other in the street or supermarket. The football star said Moran had matured in the past four or five years and appeared to have given up drinking. Leaning forward and gripping the side of the witness box, Carey said no one made him attend court to give evidence.

''I was asked whether I was certain I wanted to do this and I said I was certain I wanted to do this, because that's what I believe in,'' he said.

''Those are the changes that I have seen . . . I'm up here telling the truth of what I've seen.''

Carey admitted he did not socialise with Moran regularly.

On February 17, 2000, detectives from the Flemington CIU noticed Mark Moran driving a luxury car. When they opened the boot of the car, rented from an agency at the airport, they found a high-tech handgun equipped with a silencer and a laser sight. They also found a large number of amphetamine pills that had been stamped in a specially designed pill-press to look like ecstasy tablets. These were the same as pills obtained by police in a raid the day after Moran's shooting.

Police had also become aware of an unexplained relationship between a star league footballer and a known cocaine dealer/user. There was nothing to suggest the player was involved in drugs but it is believed detectives have informally advised associates of the player that he should "choose his friends more wisely". Police noted the apparent presence of a group of drug dealers, mixing with, and selling to the rich and famous.

They tagged them the 'Bollinger Dealers' - young criminals who aspire to the champagne set. Many of these dealers are the sons and daughters of a group of former Painters and Dockers members who were heavily involved in armed robberies and other crime in the 1970s.
These dealers never sell drugs such as heroin and move only "party drugs" such as cocaine and ecstasy.

On March 6, 2000, Judge James Duggan said Jason Matthew Moran played a key role in supporting Gangitano who started the fight that left 13 people injured. The judge said that although Gangitano's reasons would never be known, he probably would not have instigated the fight without the support of Moran and his roommate, Mark John MacNamara.

The judge said Mr Campbell Lawler suffered the worst injuries, including loss of vision in one eye, after he was repeatedly struck with a pool cue and then kicked by Gangitano and Moran. A woman also suffered a broken jaw.

"I am satisfied that it can only be described as an extreme example of this offence (affray). It came completely out of the blue so far as the patrons were concerned," Judge Duggan said.

Moran, 32, of Moonee Ponds, was convicted after pleading not guilty to one charge of affray. MacNamara, 35, of Ascot Vale, pleaded guilty to affray. The brawl occurred at the Sports Bar, King Street, on 19 December 1995 at 5.30am. Moran was sentenced to serve a minimum non-parole period of 20 months and MacNamara was sentenced to 18 months' jail, with nine months suspended for three years.

The court was told there were several possible reasons for Gangitano's outburst of violence. The judge said there was not enough evidence to show the brawl was because the bar owner owed Gangitano money. He said it could have followed a row with a patron or may have been racially based.

"The irony of suffering a racially motivated attack in Melbourne was not lost on Mr Lawler who remarked that, as a colored man, he had lived through the apartheid era in South Africa without being involved in any such episode," Judge Duggan said.

He noted Moran suffered several skull fractures during his arrest. The judge said the handling by police of Moran appeared to be remarkably heavy handed and included the waterside worker being struck on the head with a gun.

On May 8, 2000, known associate of the Morans, Frank Benvenuto, son of former Melbourne Godfather Liborio, was shot dead in the bay-side suburb of Beaumauris.

On Thursday June 15, 2000, Mark Moran was shot dead outside his house.

Mark was murdered outside his luxury home in Combermere St, Aberfeldie, near Essendon, at 8.30pm, seconds after pulling up in his white Commodore ute.

In February 2002, Melbourne coroner, Mr Frank Hender, said Moran had spent the day "in the usual fashion", taking his children to school, going shopping with his mother and having her car repaired, and having lunch with his wife. About 7.10 that night at the Gladstone Park shopping centre, he met an associate, Darren Hafner, for a drug deal.

Mr Hender said that Moran had forgotten to bring the cannabis he had promised Hafner, but said that he would bring it the next day, along with some ecstasy tablets. Hafner, the court was told, was concerned about Moran "not being on the ball".

Moran arrived home about 7.45pm and returned a phone call to a friend, Paul Brodie. They discussed football tickets. After 8pm, Moran left home again, telling his wife he would be back in 15 minutes. She did not see him alive again.

A neighbour who heard four loud bangs looked out of her window to see Moran slumped on the front seats of his car. Local resident Sue Taylor said she dismissed four gunshots she heard as just a car backfiring until her street was swarming with police.

"There was a white utility. Both doors were open and what I think I saw were some legs hanging out the car,'' Ms Taylor said.

Mark Moran was shot twice in the chest. An ambulance was called immediately but Moran was dead by the time it arrived. An autopsy showed he had died from gunshot injuries. Amphetamines and cocaine were found on him.

This was the day after a series of raids on a network of amphetamine factories in which an identity known as the' Penguin' was arrested. Neighbours roused by the gunfire rushed outside to find his body slumped in the front seat of the car. Moran was dead before ambulances arrived. Mark left two children, Tayla and Josh.

The families of slain mafia bosses Robert Trimbole, Alfonso Muratore and armed robber Frank Valastro sent their condolences.

In the days after shooting it became apparent that the Moran's believed that the father son team who they were in dispute with were responsible for killing Mark. There were reports of shots being fired around the North Fitzroy home of the major suspects shortly after his death.

Shots were heard in Rae Street Brunswick on the night of June 20, 2000 and a car was damaged by gun fire in Brunswick Street near Rae St on the night of Marks funeral (June 22).

Another suspect was body-building drug-dealer, Dino Dibra. He was to meet a similar fate to Mark's four months later.

Homicide squad investigations were headed by Detective Inspector, Brian Rix. He said that Mark "saw himself as a bit of a heavy." Another policeman said that "Jason was out of control, Mark was the brains."

Criminals told the Herald Sun reprisals for Mark Moran's murder were inevitable.

"If one goes down, you can be sure there will be others,'' one underworld figure said.

"The ball has just started rolling. There will be a few more, you just watch. There will be a few names we all know.''

Police called for underworld calm, fearing more bloodshed. Det-Det.-Insp. Rix appealed to the Moran family to help investigators solve the killing.

On June 16, 2000, police seized more than 3kg of amphetamines from Jeffrey Robert Milne's home in Intervail Drive, Airport West. Milne, president of Mark's former football club, claimed that the drugs had been stored in his back yard bungalow by Mark Moran.

On June 22, 2000, about 500 mourners dressed in black coats and dark sunglasses gathered to farewell Mark Moran. Jason, granted day leave from prison to be at the funeral at St Therese's Church in Essendon, sat under guard with his head in his hands during the service. He had hinted at revenge.

"Words could never, ever express the way I am feeling. This is only the beginning. It will never be the end,'' ``REMEMBER, I WILL NEVER FORGET.'' Jason wrote in a Herald Sun death notice.

Rumours abounded that he may have been killed in revenge for the murder of Alphonse Gangitano. Jason was embraced by a long-haired Hells Angel at the funeral. Many bikies attended the funeral wearing full colours whilst in church. Death notices included many from Australian Rules footballers including a former Carlton captain who remembered them running a premiership lap in the 1980's.

On July 10, 2000, Andrew Fraser, the Moran brother's lawyer, appeared in court on charges relating to cocaine trafficking. His former clients had included Alan Bond, Dennis Allen and Anthony Farrell. Detective Senior Constable Stephen Paton of the drug squad said police had monitored all of Mr. Fraser's telephone calls, taping those they felt were pertinent to their investigation.

Paton, from the Victorian drug squad, told the court police were investigating a number of people in February 1999 year when Mr Fraser's name came up. Paton himself was arrested and charged with drug trafficking in August 2001.

When the magistrate asked Detective Paton if brothers of gunned-down underworld figure Mark Moran were under investigation, Paton replied they had been.

On October 15, 2000, Dino Dibra, a cocaine and ecstasy dealer and an associate of Charlie Hegyalji was blasted to death outside a home in Krambruk St, West Sunshine. Dibra was the prime suspect immediately after Mark Moran's murder. Dibra was also one of several men charged over the bashing and stabbing of a man forced at gun point into the boot of a car in August 1999 and was also awaiting trial over a shooting at the Dome nightclub, Prahran in the same year.

On Friday December 29, 2000, the Age reported that an attempt by two of Victoria's most notorious criminals to play Santa for their mates in Fulham prison has been foiled by Scrooge-like jail authorities. Or, at least, partly foiled.

Prison sources said prisoners Jason Moran and John Higgs, had tried to "shout" the party for their unit by having thousands of dollars sent into the jail. The prisoners still managed to organise a lavish Christmas blow-out last week for fellow inmates and their children and families at the jail, near Sale, with gifts, a Santa and $2500 of seafood buffet, roasts and salads. But Corrections Commissioner Penny Armytage declared the party excessive and told the private prison's management, Australasian Correctional Management, that future celebrations must be significantly scaled back.

Authorities intercepted the money, returned it, and refused the pair permission to host the party. But organisation was so far advanced that they allowed the event to proceed, on condition it was paid for by each prisoner and catered by the jail's food services manager.

Higgs, the self-proclaimed biggest amphetamine producer in Victoria, was doing six years for his part in a massive drug ring broken after an eight-year police investigation.

"They were big-noting," said a prison source. "But that sort of largesse doesn't come without the expectation of some sort of, let's say, mutual obligation from the other prisoners in the future."

Prisoners in Victorian jails are able to seek permission to host Christmas parties for their children. Ms Armytage this week confirmed that the party had been held on the Wednesday before Christmas. One of two parties organised by inmates at the jail, it was attended by about 30 prisoners, more than 100 children, and prisoners' partners and family members.

Ms Armytage said prison authorities became aware of Moran's and Higgs' generosity and the scale of the event after two $1000 money orders were sent to one of the prisoner's trust account. But food orders had already been placed.

"Prison management confirmed they became aware of the scale of the order after it had been placed and management exercised its discretion that it would not be paid for by any individual prisoners, which is what had originally been proposed. It would only go ahead if all the prisoners contributed and they all paid their share," she said.

On January 17, 2001, Darren William Harland faced the Melbourne Magistrates' Court after he was caught with a loaded gun while visiting Jason Moran at Fulham prison, in eastern Victoria, the previous year. A loaded semi-automatic Phoenix .22 pistol was found in a bag in his car. When asked if it was his gun he replied: “ It wasn’t in there when we pulled up”.

A reference from champion Melbourne footballer David Schwarz helped him to escape jail. Harland, who was a water-side worker, and an unidentified friend fled when the guards called police. The pair were arrested in Melbourne shortly after. Harland, a former VFA player for Werribee and Port Melbourne and son of 80's Port legend 'Buster' Harland, pleaded guilty to charges including owning an unlicensed handgun.

Schwarz's glowing words helped convince magistrate Jenny Bowles to impose a $3500 fine and a six-month suspended jail sentence for Harland. It was the second time Harland has avoided jail. Two years before he received a suspended sentence for his role in a hotel brawl.

On Feb 3, 2001, Jeffrey Robert Milne appeared in a County Court witness box to say more than 3kg of the drug had been stored in his back yard bungalow by Mark Anthony Moran. The court heard he and Moran met through their love of football. Milne eventually became president of the Kensington Football Club that Moran had played for. Prosecutor Mark Rochford said the drugs were found at Milne's house after Moran had been subjected to a surveillance operation by the drug squad.

The seized drugs included more than 2kg of methamphetamine, 1.3kg of ketamine, 990g of pseudoephedrine, and 39 boxes of Sudafed containing 2010 tablets. Weighing scales had also been found in the house and glassware used to make amphetamines were found in Milne's car.

On February 25, 2001, Milne, 37, pleaded guilty to three counts of trafficking in a drug of dependence and one of possessing a drug of dependence. Being "as generous as he could'', Judge Barnett sentenced him to three years' jail. He ordered Milne to serve two years before becoming eligible for parole.

Jason Moran was paroled in September 2001 and left Australia amid fears for his life. He would return a few months later to give evidence in the inquest into the shooting of Alphonse Gangitano.

By Derryn Hinch

Question time: What is it between Australian sports stars and gangsters? Why do their worlds get so entwined so often? And I’m not just talking about illegal bookies and fixed cricket matches.

If some of the things our so-called sporting heroes get away with here were even attempted in the United States they would be banned for life.

“Broadway Joe” Namath, the flamboyant quarterback for the Superbowl- winning New York Jets, was forced by football authorities to close down his bar in Manhattan because several unsavoury characters associated with The Mob were said to have been seen drinking there.

Namath’s crime? Somebody might inadvertently let slip that a certain player was injured and would not be playing on a certain night. That would give the crims an edge in the betting.

And Pete Rose, former champion player and coach of the Chicago White Sox was actually jailed. His crime? Betting on baseball. Of course, the White Sox don’t have the best record in sport. They threw the World Series prompting the plaintive cry from a kid to “ Shoeless” Joe Jackson: “ Say it aint so, Joe”.

But here in Australia it seems anything goes.

The latest mix between the murky world of crims and sport involves Melbourne’s star player David Schwarz.

The Demons’ Vice Captain provided a character reference for a man who was caught with a loaded gun in his car in a jail car park while visiting one of Melbourne’s best-known thugs.

And the reference helped Darren William Harland escape jail. The reference was handed to Magistrate Jenny Bowles and although it wasn’t read in court the defence lawyer said it was “ very positive”. The magistrate said she was initially going to send Harland straight to jail. Instead, after the Schwarz words of wisdom she fined Harland $3500 and gave him a suspended sentence. Obviously Schwarz can kick goals off the field as well as own.

But look at the Harland case. He was visiting Jason Moran, one of Australia’s least savoury people. Moran was an associate of slain gangster Alphonse Gangitano. His drug-dealing brother Mark Moran was murdered last year which was no loss to Melbourne.

A loaded semi-automatic pistol was found in a bag in his car. When asked if it was his gun the smart-arse replied: “ It wasn’t in there when we pulled up”. Then when guards called police Harland and a friend fled. He was arrested later in Melbourne. Hardly the actions of an innocent man.

But there are other links between famous footballers and the Morans. Kangaroos captain, Wayne Carey, gave character evidence for Jason Moran, to try to lessen his prison sentence. You may recall Carey became some sort of rehabilitation expert based on several vague conversations he had with Moran when he bumped into him in the supermarket on a couple of occasions.

Still I guess it beats grabbing a strange woman on the breast outside a nightclub at 9 o’clock in the morning.

Now, there is a bigger issue here. Does the AFL step in and ask questions about players and who they associate with in cases like these? An American football commissioner certainly would. And with good reason.

Football is big business. Football betting is big business. And I believe football must not only be clean but be seen to be clean.

When cricket matches can be fixed at an international level anything can happen in any sport. And things are not helped when governing bodies - like the Australian Cricket Board - try to shove things under the carpet. Mark Waugh and Shane Warne would have been banned for life in the United States and should have been expelled for at least two years here. But that, as they say, is another story.

On August 24, 2001, the Herald Sun reported that a Ferrari, a jet ski and a penthouse, all belonging to Antonios Mockbel, were seized in Victoria's biggest drug raid. Several men were arrested including Lewis Moran, 56, the father of Jason. Lewis Moran was accused of selling hashish for $25,000 to a police informer in December 2000.

Mokbel was closely associated with racing for many years. He was part of a group of racetrack punters who became known as the 'tracksuit gang' during the mid to late 1990's. The group which wore designer tracksuits, was known for big, and often successful betting plunges. Sources said that the group would often bet up to $250,000 in an afternoon at the track.

It was later revealed that Mokbel was in contact with two top jockeys who were either seen with him or heard talking with Mokbel during phone-taps. The series of raids involved over 100 Victorian and Federal Police. Seven men and women appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court to face charges involving the possession and trafficking of amphetamines, ecstasy, ephedrine, cocaine, hashish and LSD. The ephedrine was capable of making 40 million amphetamine pills which could be sold as fake ecstasy.

Four men were accused of trafficking 550kg of ephedrine - which could produce $2b worth of illicit drugs was seized from a shipping container of ceramic toilets, delivered to a Coburg factory in November 2000.

Mokbel was described as the principle player in the ephedrine scheme. He owned a plush Beacon Cove penthouse and the Ferrari. Mokbel also owned a $350,000 Mercedes Benz AMG.

Jason Moran was released from Fulham prison on September 5, 2001. In an unusual move, the Parole Board allowed him to leave Australia with his family because of fears for his life. He returned to Melbourne on November 20.

On January 14, 2002, the inquest into Alphonse Gangitano's murder begun. Coroner Iain West was expected to hear from several of Gangitano's former henchmen, including Jason Moran. Other associates expected to contribute to the court proceedings included Graham Kinniburgh.

In an opening address to the inquest, Mr Jeremy Rapke, QC., identified two criminal associates of Gangitano as suspects in his murder.

"Very considerable suspicion attaches not only to Graeme Kinniburgh but also to Jason Moran in relation to the murder of Gangitano," Mr Rapke said.

Reporting on the inquest, John Hamilton described the 12 cm scar under the stubble on the head of Jason Moran that runs down the right side of his skull.

"Illuminated by four overhead spotlights in the Coroner's Court, the scar seemed to glow like a jagged lightening strike. Little flashes darted off to Mr Morans right ear as he sat in the front row in his sharply tailored blue pin-stripe suit with a patterned tie resembling a ring of keys. Moran also wore a diamond buckle ring on his wedding finger," Hamilton wrote.

"The ring sparkled and flashed as he spent some time examining his fingernails and cuticles or waved a cheery greeting to somebody he knew in the public gallery."

Hamilton concluded his piece by recalling evidence given by a former legal representative of Gangitano's and the fact that Moran, sitting in front of him began buffing his diamond ring in an abstract fashion. Jason was accompanied in court by his father Lewis, who is on bail following his and Antonios Mockbel's arrests the previous August.

Evidence suggested that both Kinniburgh and Moran were at Gangitano's house on the night of the murder, Mr Rapke said. Long-time friend and criminal Graeme Kinniburgh left blood at the murder scene and associate Jason Moran was seen leaving the house that night by a witness. Mr Kinniburgh's blood was found on a banister inside the house and his skin was found on a larger dent on the front security door.

Jeremy Rapke, QC, assisting the coroner, said evidence strongly suggested Mr Kinniburgh was present during the murder but fled quickly to set up his alibi. Mr Rapke said two people sitting in a car saw two men leave the Gangitano house about 11.25 that night.

One was shown a video lineup and picked out Jason Moran, who has prior convictions for assaults and drugs, as the man he saw. The man picked Moran out of a police video lineup as the person he saw walking up Gangitano's Glen Orchard Close driveway on the night of the murder. The witness said he saw the same man and another person leave the property a short time later. Mr West found the man was a credible witness who had accurately identified Moran, who was known to Gangitano and who had the opportunity to be there.

"While the witness was not in a position to say that he actually saw Jason Moran enter the premises, I am satisfied he did and that he was present at the time the deceased was shot," the coroner later said.

There was speculation that evidence at the inquest would include a police tape allegedly featuring Moran's lawyer, disgraced solicitor Andrew Fraser. It was unknown whether Fraser, in jail for cocaine importation at the time of the hearing, would be called as a witness.

Mr Rapke said Fraser represented Mr Moran when police interviewed him about the murder. He refused to answer questions. But in a secretly recorded conversation on August 11, 1999, Fraser was asked by a colleague: "Who do you reckon did Gangitano?"

"Jason," Fraser replied.

Mr Moran was also recorded by police making disparaging remarks about Gangitano, blaming him for a vicious attack at the Sports Bar in 1995. The court was also told of another taped conversation between Jason Moran and another lawyer in which Moran said of Gangitano: "He's a fucking lulu....if you smash five pool cues and an iron bar over someone's head....you're a fucking lulu".

Mr Rapke said the conversation took place in the context of Fraser talking about the Moran family.

The inquest heard Gangitano spent the morning of his death at Melbourne Magistrates' Court, where he was facing charges over the King St brawl. Mr Rapke said Gangitano and his co-offender, Mr Moran, appeared somewhat distant from each other at the court hearing.

Gangitano returned home and after 9pm he spoke to his mistress and several friends on the phone. His de facto wife was visiting her sister with their two daughters.

Mr Kinniburgh, 60, told police he arrived about 11pm and found his mate on the phone. He said Gangitano, who was found wearing underpants and a shirt, told him he was about to have a meeting. He said he left to buy cigarettes.

Mr Rapke said Mr Kinniburgh's claim a meeting was about to take place was not corroborated and Gangitano's mistress said he would never hold a meeting in his underwear. When Mr Kinniburgh returned he found Gangitano's de facto in the laundry with her husband's body. Gangitano had been shot three times -- in the head, face and back.

On January 14, 2002, the inquest into Gangitano's shooting hit a wall of silence yesterday as the two prime suspects were excused from giving evidence.

Jason Moran and Graeme Kinniburgh were exempted by the coroner on the ground they might incriminate themselves. The two men suspected of killing standover man Alphonse Gangitano have refused to give evidence to a Victorian coroner. Their lawyers claimed the evidence would incriminate them.

Legal representatives said there was no evidence implicating the pair in the murder.

"You don't have to be guilty to claim the privilege against self-incrimination," said Mr Kinniburgh's lawyer, Tony Hargreaves.

The inquest heard that a convicted killer told police he drove Mr Moran to Templestowe on the night of the murder.

Russell Warren Smith, who later committed suicide, told police he was afraid of Mr Moran. "I am very scared for my own safety at the moment, as I know what Jason Moran is capable of," he said. In a statement tendered to the court Smith, said Mr Moran asked that he drive him to and from Mr Gangitano's home on the night of the murder.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Jeremy Rapke, QC, said Mr Smith, who met Mr Moran when the pair were in Barwon Prison, hanged himself in September 1998, five months after making the statement.

Mr Moran allegedly told him: "You can't come in, just wait here. I'll be back in five or 10 minutes."

Smith told police he waited in a car while Mr Moran went into a Templestowe house on January 16, 1998.

A man in a car had seen a man walking purposefully to and from the home and later identified Mr Moran in a video line-up. According to the statement, Mr Moran stayed at the house about 15 minutes before telling Mr Smith to drive to Williamstown.

The pair stopped briefly at a McDonald's store for takeaway food on the way. When the car reached the top of the Westgate Bridge, Mr Smith alleged, Mr Moran tossed what he said was an apparently unusually heavy, empty McDonald's paper bag from the car into the Yarra River.

Mr Smith said the bag appeared heavy as it travelled further than expected when thrown. He said this may have been because Mr Moran had placed something inside it.

Detective Senior-Sergeant Charlie Bezzina, of the homicide squad, told the inquest police divers searched the Yarra River for a week but did not find a gun, the bag or its contents.

Two days after the murder, according to Mr Smith's statement, Mr Moran visited his house and warned him not to tell anyone he had driven to or from Mr Gangitano's house. He told him Gangitano had been "put off".

Counsel for both Mr Moran and Mr Kinniburgh asked that their clients be excused. Coroner Iain West allowed the pair to exercise their right against self-incrimination.

Mr Moran's lawyer urged the coroner not to find his client contributed to Gangitano's death. Chris Dane, QC, said there was insufficient evidence to say who fired the fatal shots and identification of Mr Moran at the scene was "gravely suspect".

Tony Hargreaves, for Mr Kinniburgh, said police claims his client was involved in or was present at the murder were speculation and innuendo.

Closing the inquest into Gangitano's death, counsel assisting Deputy State Coroner Iain West, Jeremy Rapke, QC, said the evidence against Mr Moran and Mr Kinniburgh was not such that Mr West could make a positive finding of contribution, but was nevertheless "good enough" to implicate them.

Mr Rapke outlined a police scenario in which Mr Kinniburgh spent at least 30 minutes at Gangitano's house before Moran arrived armed with a .32 calibre handgun after 11pm. Gangitano tried to flee into the laundry as Mr Moran fired at him with a small pistol, hitting him three times, Mr Rapke suggested.

In the police scenario, Mr Kinniburgh bumped his elbow trying to flee the house and left his DNA on a screen door.

He ran upstairs to check he had not been recorded on Gangitano's elaborate security system, leaving his blood on an upstairs banister, and then went to a nearby service station to set up his alibi before returning.

Few were prepared to honour Alphonse Gangitano's memory by turning up for the findings of his inquest on January 25.

Four years and 10 days after his Templestowe murder, those findings pointed the finger at two of the closest of those associates: Jason Moran and Graham Kinniburgh.

Deputy coroner Iain West found that both were in Gangitano's home at the time of his shooting. But the coroner could not say who pulled the trigger. Homicide squad detectives are now preparing a fresh report for the Office of Public Prosecutions to consider whether there are new grounds to lay charges.

Neither was in court, but it might be said that Mr Moran did have a representative to put his case - his mother, Judy.

Judy Moran said her son was a beautiful boy who had been set up by the police.

Around the time Mr West was reading his findings, family patriarch Lewis Moran was fronting Melbourne Magistrates Court on drug charges. Lewis was released on bail and is due to reappear in May.

While Mrs Moran, in orange skirt orange sunglasses and orange hair, did not put her case to the court, she did put it to the media as she ran the gauntlet to a green four-wheel-drive.

Initially stating that she did not want to comment, she quickly relented.

"My son's a beautiful boy - that's all I can say."

"Is he innocent?"

"My word he's innocent."

"Was he framed?"

"Of course he's framed by the police, like he's always been framed."

"He had nothing to do with this?"

"No. Nothing."

"Was he there on the night?"

"He was home, he was home. The police know. They had a bug in the roof ... they know where he was. They couldn't produce the papers.

"Just remember - my son is a beautiful boy. And Alphonse was my friend, too (and a friend) of the family since he was 16 years of age. How would my son do that - they grew up together?"

Mr West also rejected Kinniburgh's version of events that night.

Kinniburgh told police he arrived at Gangitano's house around 10.40pm but left because the mobster was about to have a meeting. He said he returned around 11.45pm after buying cigarettes, to find Gangitano's de facto wife calling an ambulance.

But the coroner found Kinniburgh left his DNA on a security door after bumping against it during a hasty exit.

On February 28, 2002, a Melbourne coroner found Mark Moran, who was murdered outside his Essendon home in June, 2000, may have been shot by more than one person.

But Frank Hender delivered an open finding on the death of Mark Moran, saying "all that can be determined from the evidence at this stage is that a person or persons killed him by gunshots".

Mr Hender said two guns were used to kill Moran, who was shot in the chest as he was getting into his utility.

"The use of a 12-gauge shotgun and a sidearm (handgun) may or may not indicate the presence of more than one person on the scene," he said.

Furthermore, the coroner said, it was "possible but very unlikely" that Moran was killed in a drive-by shooting.

Police, who had interviewed 500 people about Moran's death, announced a $100,000 reward for information on the murder. Jason Moran and mother Judy appeared briefly at the inquest but no family member was in court for the coroner's finding.

On May 3, 2002, two days after Moran associate, Victor Pierce, one of the four acquitted of the 1988 Walsh St police murders, was shot dead in Bay St., Port Melbourne, the Herald Sun reported that Peirce was involved in a long-running feud with the Morans, and was suspected by them of being involved in the murder of Mark Moran in June 2000.

His killing may have been an act of revenge by supporters of the Morans.

Rumour has it that alleged drug baron Tony Mokbel, busted with other men including Lewis Moran in a massive August 2001 Port Melbourne raid, and brother Milad engaged Peirce to murder a man who was informing against them.

Peirce set fire to his car at the Port Melbourne Docks but the hunted man escaped injury.

The man cannot be named so we chose John. John is currently in police custody on drugs charges but is expected to make a bail application shortly.

It is believed Peirce pocketed a sizeable deposit from the group although his attempt at knocking John was unsuccessful, hence the May 1 shooting.

Tony Mokbel had a bail application revoked on April 29, two days before Peirce was killed.

On May 8, almost a week after Peirces' death, a death notice from Jason Moran was published in the Herald Sun. It read simply, "Victor - Rest Peacefully - Jason Moran".

On May 9, 2002, drug trafficking charges against Lewis Moran, were dropped.



Lewis Moran

Moran, 57, was due to face a preliminary hearing at Melbourne Magistrates' Court but the charges were withdrawn. A spokesman for the Office of Public Prosecutions declined to comment on why the charges, which were laid by detectives from the Victorian drug squad, were struck out.

Mr Moran was charged with possessing and trafficking a drug of dependence after Victoria's biggest drug bust, Operation Kayak.
The 11-month investigation involved the drug squad, Australian Federal Police and the Australian Customs Service, and ended with 31 arrests.

Mr Moran, of Essendon, was accused of selling 10kg of hashish for $25,000 to a police informer in December 2000. He was arrested last August and released on bail with a $20,000 surety -- returning to court on January 22 this year, the day Coroner Iain West delivered his finding into the death of gangster Alphonse Gangitano. On the same day, Jason attended Victor Perice's South Melbourne funeral.

On June 26, 2002, the Age reported that an investigation had been launched after jailed drug dealer, John Higgs, held an underworld meeting while on accompanied day release from the Fulham prison in Gippsland. State corrections commissioner Dennis Roach had asked Australasian Correctional Management, the prison's operator, to explain how Higgs managed to meet former fellow inmate and underworld associate, Jason Moran, while on a 12-hour community access leave on May 23.

Higgs has been granted leave on several occasions as part of the prison's rehabilitation program. He was meant to be visiting his wife when the meeting with Moran took place at Higgs' home at Mount Cottrell, on Melbourne's western fringe. Higgs' minimum security grading has been upgraded and community access visits suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.

Authorities want to know how the meeting was organised and what was discussed by Higgs and Moran. The commissioner has also asked ACM why it took two weeks to notify authorities of the breach. An ACM spokesman said the meeting was reported to management by the accompanying guard. The delay in informing the commissioner's office was caused by an administrative error.

"Fulham is operated within the rules and guidelines by the Victoria Government ... Higgs breached the conditions and his leave has been suspended," the spokesman said.

ACM, which also operates Port Phillip Prison, west of Melbourne, faces possible fines if the commissioner finds management was negligent.

On July 12, 2002, the Herald Sun reported that more than 25 Victorian detectives are accused of corruption in a secret report to Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon. The police ethical standards department has submitted the review to Nixon, and suggested more than 80 charges be laid, who are mostly former members of the drug squad, the report said.

Offences investigated by the taskforce include the planting of evidence and cash on suspects, drug rip-offs, protecting drug dealers and the theft and resale of chemicals used in drug-making. The police investigation, codenamed Operation Ceja, is growing as more accused drug offenders make fresh allegations.

On July 12, 2002, the Herald Sun also reported that police feared drug squad corruption claims could end up reigniting an underworld feud over the murder of Mark Moran.

The man blamed by Moran associates for arranging the murder is one of many expected to get bail because of an investigation into the corruption allegations.

"He was relatively safe in jail, but it will be on again if he gets out," an underworld source said.

Mark's associates quickly blamed a former partner in crime for organising his 2000 killing. Moran believed the man had ripped him off and shot him in the stomach as a warning.
Associates of Moran consider his murder was a payback for the earlier shooting incident.

The man who was shot in the stomach by Moran is one of those expected to get bail because of the ESD corruption investigation. He is considered by police to have been a major player in the Melbourne crime scene.

"He will either skip the country or be knocked (murdered) if he gets out," an underworld source said.

Another man already released because of the Victoria Police ethical standards department investigation blames some former drug squad detectives for the death of his mother and has vowed revenge. He had been caring for his ill mother before his arrest and she died while he was in custody.

On July 17, 2002, seven alleged major players in Melbourne's drug scene had their criminal trials put off indefinitely. With the fallout from corruption allegations against former drug squad detectives widening, a prosecutor conceded he could not say when the seven would face trial. The five men and two women are accused of trafficking commercial quantities of drugs.

Their cases were listed to be heard in the County Court this year (2002) but the uncertainty over the results of a police ethical standards division investigation into the former drug squad has delayed the cases.

Dozens of other cases remain in legal limbo as the ESD investigation continues. Prosecutor Geoff Horgan, SC, asked Judge James Duggan to adjourn the cases of the seven alleged drug traffickers until next year. When Judge Duggan asked if this would be for a trial, Mr Horgan said he could not say when the prosecution would be ready to proceed to trial.

Those released on bail because of the unresolved corruption allegations included a man accused of trafficking $20 million in amphetamines

Carl Anthony Williams, of Hillside, was due to appear in court on September 9 to face charges stemming from a 1999 raid at a home in Broadmeadows. During a raid on November 25, 1999, police allegedly seized about 30,000 tablets, a pill press and 6.95 kilograms of powder containing methylamphetamine, ketamine and pseudoephedrine, with an estimated street value of $20 million.

Mr Williams faces three drug charges from the raid, including a manufacturing charge. But because of ongoing ESD investigations into the former drug squad, the trial date was scrapped and the matter is listed for mention on February 5 next year.

Mr Williams' solicitor, Theo Magazis, told The Age that his client had already spent almost 18 months in custody on the charges, and because of the trial date being dropped faced another "substantial period" in custody.

"It was probably understandable that Judge Duggan found there were exceptional circumstances for granting him bail," Mr Magazis said.

Mr Williams had been in custody since May 19, 2001, when he was arrested again and charged with three further drug offences, including trafficking and possession. His father, George Williams, 56, and Barry Armstrong, 60, both of Broadmeadows, are also facing drug charges from the raid. Both had previously been granted bail. The trial of the trio was to start in September.

Carl Williams, his wife Roberta, 33, and Walter, Pablo and Olivian Foletti face separate charges relating to ecstasy worth $1.5 million.

Prosecutor Geoff Horgan, SC, said the DPP did not oppose bail for Carl Williams and he was released after spending more than a year in custody without trial. Judge James Duggan granted a bail request. An application in November last year was denied who has spent more than 14 months in custody, being granted bail, but asked the judge to retain the $100,000 surety currently in place.

Judge Duggan granted bail to Carl Williams and ordered him and the six others to return to court on February 5 next year for a mention hearing.

As Carl Williams was being released, the Magistrates' Court was hearing accusations that two members of the former drug squad pocketed $10,000 from an alleged drug trafficker during a raid in April last year.

On October 25, 2002, Lewis Moran was nabbed and the home of Graeme Kinniburgh was raided.
Lewis was arrested as part of Victoria's biggest drug sting. He was charged with offences relating to the investigation into the $2 billion drug ring allegedly run by Antonious Mokbel.

The Moran family patriarch was one of eight people arrested by the Victoria Police major drug investigation division during pre-dawn raids around Melbourne. Those arrests come on top of the 31 already made by the joint Victoria Police and Australian Federal Police Taskforce Kayak drug team.

One of the homes raided was that of notorious associate Graeme Kinniburgh, although he was not charged. After Mr Moran was accused of selling 10kg of hashish for $25,000 to a registered police informer in December 2000, the charge was withdrawn by the Office of Public Prosecutions without explanation in May 2002.

But detectives from Operation Ferry, which is part of Taskforce Kayak, continued to secretly investigate and monitor Mr Moran in the hope of gathering more evidence. Those Operation Ferry detectives re-arrested Mr Moran and charged him with 17 drug and firearm offences.

The charges against Mr Moran include trafficking in commercial quantities of amphetamine products and ecstasy, possessing and trafficking cocaine and possessing an unregistered pistol. Police allegedly found a loaded 9mm semi-automatic pistol in Mr Moran's Essendon home during the raids. The withdrawn hashish charges against Mr Moran were reinstated.

Jason Moran was in Melbourne Magistrates's Court to watch as Magistrate Barbara Cotterell remanded his father in custody to May 27, 2002.

Prosecutor Jack Vandersteen said police would need until April 2002 to prepare the brief of evidence against Mr Moran and his co-accused.
He said there were thousands of hours of telephone intercept and listening device material to prepare.

Taskforce Kayak detectives raided nine homes in Essendon, Brunswick, Airport West, Kensington, Sunshine, Keilor Downs and Melton, seizing firearms and cash.

Charges against the eight arrested include trafficking in commercial quantities of amphetamines, cocaine and ecstasy.

On November 3, 2002, Robert Slusarczyk, a died in an ultralight aircraft crash. The dead pilot had worked as an amphetamines cook for Mark Moran's drug supplier. He also made corruption allegations against former Victoria Police drug squad detectives, which were still being investigated.

Slusarczyk, who died in the accident along with passenger and friend Vincenzo Maioramo, was facing serious drug charges. The drug supplier who had enlisted Slusarczyk's services was shot in the stomach by Moran after Moran received a batch of speed, which wasn't of the quality that he demanded.

Moran was later murdered in what his underworld associates believe was a payback for the stomach-shooting incident.

Police believe Mr Slusarczyk was cutting Moran's speed to reduce the quality and was then selling what he cut out of each batch.

After his arrest in 1999, Mr Slusarczyk accused a number of drug squad members of corruption. His trial was one of about a dozen prosecutions put on hold pending a police ethical standards department investigation into allegations of corruption against the drug squad. His trial was postponed because of a continuing Victoria Police ethical standards department probe into the allegations made by Mr Slusarczyk and others.

Mr Slusarczyk was charged after police raided his Beechworth home and discovered a clandestine amphetamine laboratory. He and passenger Mr Maioramo, 72, died when their single-engine ultralight plunged to ground in the state's northeast.

Mr Slusarczyk, who turned 51 the day he died, had taken off from the Porepunkah airfield near Bright, but his aircraft crashed in a vineyard at Gapsted, 6km from Myrtleford.

The Australian Ultralight Federation and the State Coroner are investigating the crash.

The man blamed by Moran's underworld associates for arranging the execution was the man who hired Mr Slusarczyk to make speed for Moran. He is one of a number of alleged major drug dealers to have recently been released on bail as a result of the unfinished ethical standard department (ESD) investigation into drug squad corruption allegations.

Mr Slusarczyk had also made corruption allegations -- which are still being investigated -- against former Victoria Police drug squad detectives.

The Herald Sun later discovered it was Mr Slusarczyk who was rewarded for leading police to wanted gunman Pavel "Mad Max" Marinof in 1986. Although it has previously been made public that an informer was paid a $50,000 reward for revealing where Mad Max was hiding, the identity of the informer has remained secret until now.

Mad Max shot and injured four police officers in June, 1985 at Noble Park. Police intercepted his panel van on the Hume Highway at Kalkallo in February, 1986.

There was then a gunfight in which Mad Max died and two police were wounded.

On November 7, 2002 a horse trainer linked to Mark Moran was bailed on drug trafficking charges.

Mark's brother-in-law, Paul Sequenzia, of Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds, was accused of conspiring to traffic a commercial quantity of amphetamines and possessing and trafficking pseudoephedrine. He was charged with Lewis Moran as part of an inquiry into a $2 billion drug ring allegedly headed by Antonios Mokbel.

Senior-Detective Victor Anastasiadis, from the drug squad, told Melbourne Magistrates' Court Mr Moran had described Mr Sequenzia in tapes secretly recorded in June 2001 as his drug cook. Sen-Det Anastasiadis said a police informant had handed more than 150,000 tablets containing pseudoephedrine to Mr Moran.

Mr Moran later said he was having problems extracting the pseudoephedrine from the tablets and the informer had given him written instructions on how to extract the drug. Mr Moran and several others were arrested on October 25.

Mr Sequenzia was in Queensland and later surrendered to police. Mr Sequenzia's counsel, Mr Robert Richter, QC, said his client worked with "reputable trainers'' in Victoria and South Australia and had a job waiting with trainer Ahmad Taber.

The drug case against Mr Sequenzia was weak, Mr Richter said.

Prosecutor Jack Vandersteen opposed bail, saying there was a risk of Mr Sequenzia fleeing and committing more offences. But magistrate Phillip Goldberg granted Mr Sequenzia bail with a $100,000 surety. Mr Sequenzia was due to return to court in May.

On November 27, 2002 Lewis Moran was refused bail and he remained in custody. Melbourne Magistrates' Court was told Mr Moran was involved in drug deals worth $10 million over four years.

Magistrate Lisa Hannan heard police followed his alleged dealing in Melbourne's northwest by using two associates who were police informers.

Sen-Det Victor Anastasiadis told the court earlier one informer gave Mr Moran $5.5 million in pseudoephedrine-based tablets, used to make amphetamines, and would get a share of the amphetamines in the alleged deal with Mr Moran.

Mr Moran, 57, of Essendon, was charged with 17 offences including trafficking commercial quantities of amphetamine, hashish, ecstasy and pseudoephedrine. Mr Moran and his co-accused, Herbert Wrout, 61, of Brunswick, appeared in court via video link from the Melbourne Assessment Centre.

Sen-Det Anastasiadis said he feared for the informers' safety if the accused pair were released.

On December 8, 2002 the Age reported that mystery surrounding the a plane crash the month before had deepened, with a report expected to show no fault with the aircraft and no clear cause of the crash.

Robert Slusarczyk died along with a friend, Vincenzo Maioramo when the ultralight plane he was piloting crashed in a vineyard near Myrtleford on November 3.

Sources at the Australian Ultralight Federation, one of the bodies investigating the crash, said no mechanical fault in the aircraft had been found.

"It is baffling," one source said. "So far, we've been unable to pinpoint anything wrong with the ultralight. We are now having to rely on eyewitness reports to get some indication as to the cause of the crash. Mr Slusarczyk was known to be a very careful pilot."

Mr Slusarczyk was an experienced ultralight pilot who was known to have taken meticulous care of the aircraft. Witnesses close to the crash site are believed to have told investigators the engine could not be heard shortly before the aircraft plunged to the ground.

An autopsy has ruled out the possibility that Mr Slusarczyk had a heart attack or had a condition that may have contributed to the crash. The AUF report was expected to be completed within a fortnight. The coroner was also investigating.

On Christmas Day, 2002, a story in the Herald Sun told of new rewards to help solve two murders, one of these being Mark Moran's.
Police had said they hoped $100,000 rewards would help solve the murders of notorious gangsters Mark Moran and Richard Mladenich one month apart in 2000.

Homicide detectives believe the slayings were payback killings linked to a violent western suburbs crime gang.

The execution-style murders may have been connected to a series of other unsolved crime-figure shootings in the previous four years, which had seen the demise of gangsters Alphonse Gangitano, Dino Dibra and Paul Kallipolitis.

Police hope the $100,000 rewards posted on Christmas Eve would encourage people to come forward with information.

Detective Inspector Andrew Allen, of the homicide squad, said police had identified links between the Moran and Mladenich murders and a drug-dealing gang operating in Melbourne's west. But after a two-year investigation, they were no closer to charging anybody over the deaths.

Police interviewed more than 500 people over Mark Moran's murder and now believe it was part of a tit-for-tat series of killings, which related to the slayings of Dibra outside his Sunshine house on October 15, 2000, and Kallipolitis in a West Sunshine house on October 15, 2002.

"We are looking at the possibility of a connection between at least those three murders. We believe there are common links," Det-Insp Allen said.

Mladenich, 39, who knew Moran and had a lengthy criminal history, was shot dead in front of three criminal associates by a balaclava-clad gunman, who burst into his room at St Kilda's Esquire Motel on May 16, 2000.

Det-Insp. Allen said police wanted to solve the crimes to prevent further bloodshed.

"There's always concern that we've got networks of criminals who are prepared to execute others in cold blood," he said.

"There are obviously concerns that these paybacks have been occurring for some time.

"We are concerned that someone innocent may get caught up in it and for that reason we hope people come forward and give information."

He admitted some people who could help investigators might be afraid to contact police, fearing for their own safety.

"Yes, the shutters do go up because its perhaps considered to be an underworld-type killing," he said.

"The information is always treated confidentially."

Det-Insp. Allen said police could not guarantee immunity to anybody who came forward with information that might incriminate themselves.

On March 17, 2003, the Herald Sun reported that investigators had ruled out foul play over the death of police informer and amphetamine cook Robert Slusarczyk who died in the ultralight aircraft crash.

An investigation by the Australian Ultralight Federation found nothing suspicious about the fatal crash. A report sent to the Coroner's office found Mr Slusarczyk was flying too low in gusty conditions.

Just hours after the death of small-time crook Willy Thompson, Moran family patriarch Lewis was released on bail. Lewis Moran, 58, made a 20-metre dash from the cells at the Melbourne Magistrates Court to a waiting car that was driven off by an unidentified man.

He did not say anything or show any emotion as Suzanne Kane, the sister of Jason Moran's widow Trisha, hugged him and then led him to the car.

Moran was arrested last October and is accused of trafficking commercial quantities of amphetamines, hashish, ecstasy and pseudoephedrine.

Police had opposed bail, saying he would seek retribution for his son's murder and pose a threat to a police informer. He was released on condition that he report daily to police, obey a night curfew and not contact witnesses.

Moran was granted bail on Monday after a court heard the children of his murdered sons needed a father figure.

Lewis Moran's lawyer Nicola Gobbo said her client should be freed on bail so he could be a father figure and a role model to the children of his murdered sons.

Suzanne Kane told the Melbourne Magistrates Court the family was devastated and there were no men to support the Moran women.

"We just can't help our kids at the moment," Ms Kane said.

"They just need him (Lewis Moran)," she said.

The court also heard police feared Moran would seek to avenge Jason Moran's murder and could also be a threat to two police informers in the case.

But magistrate Lisa Hannan discounted those claims in granting bail to Moran.

He was freed the next day after further negotiations over his bail conditions.

On June 15, 2000, MARK MORAN was killed with two bullets as he was stepping into his car outside his luxury home in Aberfeldie.Mark's real father Les'johnny'Cole was shot at point blank range with .38 revolver in sydney's 1982 underworld war.


JASON WILLIAM MORAN, 35, (1967 - June 21, 2003) was an Australian criminal from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and a member of the infamous Moran family, notable for its involvement in the Melbourne gangland killings. He sported a 12cm scar on the side of his face.

Early life

Moran attended both Penleigh Grammar School and Essendon Grammar School. Moran met his future wife, Trisha Kane at the age of 15. Kane is the daughter of Les Kane, a notable Melbourne painter and docker and career criminal. His early working life consisted of time spent at the Melbourne wharfs. Moran was among mourners at the funeral of Victor Peirce.

Moran was reported to have shot Carl Williams in the stomach during an argument in Broadmeadows on October 13, 1999, giving rise to lengthy violent turf wars known as the Melbourne gangland killings.

Gangitano and Moran, along with associate Mark John McNamara, were charged over an attack in a nightclub on December 19, 1995, at the Sports Bar nightclub in King Street, Melbourne for which Moran received a term of imprisonment.

Moran was considered by many to be a "dead man walking" and when paroled from prison in September 2001 was allowed to leave Australia due to fears for his life. He later returned to give evidence in the inquest into the death of Alphonse Gangitano on November 20 which began on January 14, 2002. Moran was suspected of the killing of Alphonse Gangitano and with Graham Kinniburgh. Gangiatano was found dead in the laundry of his Templestowe house by his wife in 1998.

Daylight execution

Murder scenePasquale Barbaro and Moran were executed by a lone gunman at 10.40am on June 21 2003, whilst watching a Saturday morning Auskick Australian rules football clinic his young children were attending. Police feared the murder of Moran would lead to further violence in the Melbourne underworld war. Father Joe Giaccobe, a friend of the Moran family performed Moran's funeral.

Parish priest Father Joe Martins said of Moran during the service, "Any funeral presents a challenge. Obviously, the church does not make judgments about the person. They need the prayers and whatever the church can do for them," he said. "They have to answer to God. We will not deny them".

Moran's father, Lewis Moran was unable to attend the service due to imprisonment at Port Phillip Correctional Centre. Authorities refused Moran's request to allow him to be released from prison to attend the service. Lewis Moran was later murdered whilst drinking in a Brunswick bar.


LEWIS MORAN(? - 2004) was an Australian criminal and patriarch of the infamous Moran family of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Notable for his involvement in the Melbourne underground war and was shot dead in broad daylight in a Melbourne hotel in 2004. His murder occurred one day after the funeral of fellow Melbourne underworld criminal and suspected hitman, Andrew Veniamin.

Moran was a long term associate of Graham Kinniburgh after meeting as workers on Melbournes waterside. Kinniburgh was executed outside his Kew home.

Murder

The scene of murderOn March 31, 2004, masked gumen entered the Brunswick Club on Sydney Road, Brunswick at approximately 6.40pm. Lewis Moran was shot and killed whilst drinking at the bar. His associate Bertie Wrout was severely wounded.

Arrests

Keith Faure, his brother Noel Faure and associate Evangelos Goussis have been charged with the murder and are awaiting trial.

A well-known Melbourne criminal has told a court he did not kill underworld crime boss Lewis Moran, despite having a tattoo similar to one of the gunmen.

The Melbourne Magistrates Court has granted police permission to question Faurew, 50, over Moran's murder at the Brunswick Club in March last year.

The court heard that Purana detectives suspect Faure, who is currently serving a jail term for firearm offences, was one of the gunmen.

A large tattoo on his right hand is similar to one seen on the hand of one of the gunmen, the court heard.

The court also heard that Faure's brother Keith, who is on remand for the alleged murder of convicted killer Lewis Caine, told police he had a close relationship with one of Moran's killers.

Faure told the court he was innocent and would refuse to answer any police questions.

He said he could not have committed the murder because he has difficulty running due to an injury, and witnesses have told police the gunmen ran from the scene.

Why I lied to protect the Walsh Street killers
By John Silvester
October 1, 2005

The star witness who refused to testify against four men charged with the ambush murders of Constables Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre says she lied to save her husband from a life in prison.

But now ¡ª 17 years after the murders that changed the way police around Australia perform their duties ¡ª Wendy Peirce is finally prepared to admit that Victor Peirce was guilty as charged.

She said the murders in Walsh Street, South Yarra, were carried out as as a payback after detectives killed Peirce's best friend, Graeme Jensen, during a botched arrest in Narre Warren a day earlier.

Victor Peirce, his half-brother Trevor Pettingill, Peter McEvoy and Anthony Farrell were all charged and later acquitted of the police murders.

Mrs Peirce says her husband, who was shot dead in Port Melbourne on May 1, 2002, showed no remorse over the police killings.

"He just said, 'They deserved their whack. It could have been me.' "

Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre were shot dead when they went to investigate the discovery of a stolen car in Walsh Street on October 12, 1988.

The car was left there by Peirce's gang to lure a police patrol for the ambush.

"It (Walsh Street) was spur of the moment, we were on the run. Victor was the organiser," Mrs Peirce told The Age.

She said she was staying in a Tullamarine motel with Peirce but he left during the night to join members of his gang to set up the Walsh Street murders.

Mrs Peirce named the shooters as Jedd Houghton, who was later shot dead by police, and Peter McEvoy.

She also said the car abandoned in Walsh Street was stolen by Gary Abdallah, who was shot dead by police in a Carlton flat.

Mrs Peirce said her husband always believed police would never prove he led the ambush team. "He covered his tracks and he didn't think he'd get pinched," she said.

Wendy Peirce was persuaded by police to become a prosecution witness against her husband, but after 18 months in protection, costing nearly $2 million, she refused to give evidence in his Supreme Court trial.

She was later sentenced to 18 months' jail with a minimum of nine months for perjury.

Mrs Peirce claims she was never going to give evidence and planned to sabotage the police case from within by failing to testify.

But senior police say she changed her mind because the court process took too long, she didn't like witness protection and Peirce and his family persuaded her to return to them.

The joint head of the investigation taskforce, Inspector John Noonan, said he had no doubt that if Wendy Peirce had given truthful evidence the four accused men would have been convicted.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Age Mrs Peirce said:

*Melbourne hitman Andrew Veniamin killed Victor Peirce's best friend, Frank Benvenuto, in May 2000 as a payback for an earlier underworld murder. She said Veniamin and Peirce held peace talks in which her husband agreed not to seek revenge for the death of his friend.

*Melbourne solicitor Tom Scriva laundered money for gangsters but squandered it before he died in July 2000. She said she once gave him $120,000 in armed robbery proceeds hidden in plastic shopping bags.

*A fortune in drug money buried around Richmond by her brother-in-law, Dennis Bruce Allen, who died in 1987, has never been recovered.

*When her husband discovered she had a sexual relationship with Graeme Jensen, he said: "If I had known about the affair I wouldn't have done it (Walsh Street)."

*She routinely went on $5000 shopping sprees using money from her husband's bank robberies. "We wasted it all ¡­ I'd buy things just for the sake of it," she said.

Mrs Peirce said she had finally decided to tell the truth because she wanted to sever all ties with the underworld.

"I don't want my children connected to the criminal world," she said.

"I loved Victor, but now that he is gone I feel I have been freed. Now every time I hear a car door slam I don't have to worry that it is the police about to raid us. I think of all the murders and feel so sorry for their families. No one deserves this."

Graeme Allen Kinniburgh



Born in 1943, Kinniburgh was nicknamed 'Munster'.

Considered the most influential gangster in Victoria, the former Painter and Dockers associate lived in a double storey, highly secure, brick-fenced, house in a prestigious part of Kew in Melbourne's leafy eastern suburbs.


Kinniburgh, a close associate and trusted confidant of Alphonse Gangitano had been very well known to police for three decades.



Gangitano was known as a hot head but Kinniburgh was more controlled although he used to flare up as a younger man.

Kinniburgh faced charges during his criminal career for wounding with intent to cause murder and escaping legal custody.

His record lists offences of dishonesty, bribery, possession of firearms, escape, resisting arrest and assaulting police.

In November 1979, the police received information on a narcotics drop from Thailand arranged through the Painter and Dockers.

A phone tap was immediately put on Kinniburgh's North Melbourne home.

In June 1992 Kinniburgh was charged over a $1m armed robbery in East Melbourne.

He appeared in court on 27 July 1992.

Also charged were: John Peter McIntyre, then 51, and Robert John Mather then 47.

Daniela Pagliaro, 27, of Earl Street East Kew faced one charge of handling stolen goods.

The four were bailed on strict conditions.

On January 16, 1998, Kinniburgh visited Alphonse Gangitano at his Templestowe house.

He had been drinking with a mutual friend, Lou Cozzo, at the Laurel Hotel in Ascot Vale before driving to his friends home.

Kinnburgh left the house shortly after 11pm to buy cigarettes from a local store only two minutes away.

Returning about 30 minutes later, he found Gangitano's de-facto wife Virginia with the body of her husband she had just discovered in the laundry.

He had been shot several times to the head.

Kinniburgh adopted a code of silence and refused to answer questions from the police.




On January 14, 2002, the inquest into Alphonse Gangitano's murder begun.
Coroner Iain West was expected to hear from several of Gangitano's former henchmen, including Jason Moran.


He was paroled the previous September and left Australia amid fears for his life.

Other associates expected to contribute to the court proceedings included Graham Kinniburgh.

In an opening address to the inquest, Mr Jeremy Rapke, QC., identified two criminal associates of Gangitano as suspects in his murder.

A phone call from West Australiuan crime figure John Kizon to Gangitano the night he was murdered in January 1998 helped implicate Kinniburhgh.

Iain West said the call showed he had been with Gangitano about the time of his death.

Mr West said a phone call from Perth had shown Mr Kinniburgh had been with Mr Gangitano at a time he told police he had been elsewhere.

The phone call was from Mr Kizon, who rang Mr Gangitano from a Chinese restaurant in Francis Street, Northbridge, the night he was murdered.

Mr Kizon, in a witness statement to the inquest, said he and Melbourne barrister Stephen Shirrefs - who was having dinner with Mr Kizon and Mr Kizon's associate Craig Christian - had spoken to Mr Kinniburgh during the phone call.

Mr Kinniburgh had told police he had visited Mr Gangitano before leaving about 11pm.

Mr Kinniburgh claimed he returned about 45 minutes later to discover Mr Gangitano's de facto wife phoning police and an ambulance after she and her daughters found Mr Gangitano shot dead on the laundry floor.

Mr West said he did not accept Mr Kinniburgh's version of events and his involvement in Mr Gangitano's murder was greater than he led police to believe.

Kizon was recently named in connection with Perth millionaire and race-fixer Laurie Connell.

"Very considerable suspicion attaches not only to Graham Kinniburgh but also to Jason Moran in relation to the murder of Gangitano," Mr Rapke said.

Evidence suggested that both Kinniburgh and Moran were at Gangitano's house on the night of the murder, Mr Rapke said.

Kinniburgh left blood at the murder scene and associate Jason Moran was seen leaving the house that night by a witness.

Mr Kinniburgh's blood was found on a bannister inside the house and his skin was found on a dent on the front security door.

Among the evidence pointing to Mr Kinniburgh's possible involvement, Mr Rapke said, were small amounts of DNA recovered from the house after the murder.

That material matched the DNA profile of Mr. Kinniburgh, he said.

Jeremy Rapke, QC, assisting the coroner, said evidence strongly suggested Mr Kinniburgh was present during the murder but fled quickly to set up his alibi.

Kinniburgh told police he arrived about 11pm and found his mate on the phone.

He said Gangitano, who was found wearing underpants and a shirt, told him he was about to have a meeting. He said he left to buy cigarettes.

Mr Rapke said Mr Kinniburgh's claim a meeting was about to take place was not corroborated and Gangitano's mistress said he would never hold a meeting in his underwear.

When Mr Kinniburgh returned he found Gangitano's de facto in the laundry with her husband's body.

Gangitano had been shot three times -- in the head, face and back.

In evidence, Gangitano's widow, Virginia, said when she bumped into Kinniburgh "about a year ago" he said to her: "I didn't do it. I don't have anything to do with it." Questioned by Mr Rapke, Mrs Gangitano said she had no reason to disbelieve this claim.

On January 14, 2002, the inquest into Gangitano shooting hit a wall of silence yesterday as the two prime suspects were excused from giving evidence.

Jason Moran and Graeme Kinniburgh were exempted by the coroner on the ground they might incriminate themselves.

The two men suspected of killing standover man Alphonse Gangitano have refused to give evidence to a Victorian coroner. Their lawyers claimed the evidence would incriminate them.

Legal representatives said there was no evidence implicating the pair in the murder.

"You don't have to be guilty to claim the privilege against self-incrimination," said Mr Kinniburgh's lawyer, Tony Hargreaves.

Mr Rapke outlined a police scenario in which Mr Kinniburgh spent at least 30 minutes at Gangitano's house before Moran arrived armed with a .32 calibre handgun after 11pm. Gangitano tried to flee into the laundry as Mr Moran fired at him with a small pistol, hitting him three times, Mr Rapke suggested.

In the police scenario, Mr Kinniburgh bumped his elbow trying to flee the house and left his DNA on a screen door.

He ran upstairs to check he had not been recorded on Gangitano's elaborate security system, leaving his blood on an upstairs banister, and then went to a nearby service station to set up his alibi before returning.

Immediately after the shooting, Mr Kinniburgh rushed to a nearby convenience store, where he was filmed by a security camera and thus acquired an alibi, Mr Rapke said. Mr Moran, meanwhile, left the house.

Mr Rapke said there were gaps in the evidence against Mr Moran and Mr Kinniburgh, but said it was "good enough" to implicate them.

He conceded the quality of the evidence meant Mr West could not "make a positive finding that either Kinniburgh or Moran fired the shots that killed Gangitano.

Few were prepared to honour Alphonse Gangitano's memory by turning up for the findings of his inquest on January 25.

Four years and 10 days after his Templestowe murder, those findings pointed the finger at two of the closest of those associates: Jason Moran and Graham Kinniburgh.

Deputy coroner Iain West found that both were in Gangitano's home at the time of his shooting. But the coroner could not say who pulled the trigger. Homicide squad detectives are now preparing a fresh report for the Office of Public Prosecutions to consider whether there are new grounds to lay charges.

Neither was in court, but it might be said that Mr Moran did have a representative to put his case - his mother, Judy.

Judy Moran said her son was a beautiful boy who had been set up by the police.

"Was he framed?"

"Of course he's framed by the police, like he's always been framed."

"He had nothing to do with this?"

"He was home, he was home. The police know. They had a bug in the roof ... they know where he was. They couldn't produce the papers.

Mr West also rejected Kinniburgh's version of events that night.

Kinniburgh told police he arrived at Gangitano's house around 10.40pm but left because the mobster was about to have a meeting.

He said he returned around 11.45pm after buying cigarettes, to find Gangitano's de facto wife calling an ambulance.

But the coroner found Kinniburgh left his DNA on a security door after bumping against it during a hasty exit.

On October 25, 2002, Lewis Moran was nabbed and the home of Graeme Kinniburgh raided.

Moran was arrested as part of Victoria's biggest drug sting.

He was charged with offences relating to the investigation into the $2 billion drug ring allegedly run by Antonios Mokbel.

Kinniburgh's home was also raided but no charges were laid.

Taskforce Kayak detectives raided nine homes in Essendon, Brunswick, Airport West, Kensington, Sunshine, Keilor Downs and Melton, seizing firearms and cash.

Charges against the eight arrested include trafficking in commercial quantities of amphetamines, cocaine and ecstasy.



Modest mobster who kept the peace
December 14, 2003
The Age
By John Silvester

When he was interviewed by police after the 1998 murder of his friend and fellow gangster Alphonse John Gangitano Kinniburgh was uncharacteristically tongue-tied.

Asked by experienced homicide investigator Gavan Ryan what he did for a job, he responded: "Occupation at the moment? It would be - I'm a - well, I'm still - I'm still - I'm still a rigger, I'm still a rigger, yeah." Ryan - a member of the Purana gangland taskforce - is now investigating Kinniburgh's murder.

The theory goes that a startled Kinniburgh ran to the front door, injuring his hand on the security mesh in his haste to throw it open. He then went upstairs to check the security video to see if there was any compromising evidence - a speck of his blood was found in the area. Kinniburgh told police Gangitano was on the phone when he arrived and asked him to leave while he had a meeting. The Munster said he went to get cigarettes and returned 30 minutes later to find Big Al dead.

It was a fabrication. Kinniburgh left the murder scene and went to the shop in the hope he could convince police he was not present at the killing.

Coroner Iain West said later: "I do not accept Graham Kinniburgh's version of events, as I am satisfied he was present at the time the deceased was shot."

He said Kinniburgh went to the convenience store to be filmed on the security camera "thereby attempting to establish an alibi of being absent from the premises at the critical time".

"I am satisfied that both Graham Allan Kinniburgh and Jason Matthew Patrick Moran were implicated in the death," Mr West said. The difference between Moran and Kinniburgh could be seen at the inquest. The younger gangster wore a flash suit, while Kinniburgh dressed down. He would do nothing to draw attention to himself.

While Kinniburgh could afford imported suits, he mostly preferred the casual clothes of an off-duty dock worker, but in middle age he had acquired some expensive tastes and was a regular at the exquisitely expensive Flower Drum restaurant in Melbourne's Chinatown.

Kinniburgh lived in a large, tasteful house in Belmont Avenue, one of the better blocks of Kew, a prestigious suburb, more the haunt of doctors, lawyers and stockbrokers.

But he drove a secondhand Ford Falcon, the car he drove home on the night he was shot.

While Kinniburgh did not flaunt his wealth he managed to put his two children through private schools while not working in any legitimate job.

In 1994, his son married a girl from a well-to-do Melbourne family. After the wedding, it was just a short walk from St Peter's Anglican Church to the reception in Melbourne's grand old establishment hotel, The Windsor. During the stroll, an alert observer might have noticed photographers taking pictures not of the wedding party but of the guests. They were intelligence police looking to upgrade their files.

One friend of the bride was startled when introduced to Kinniburgh, not so much by the man himself as by the four who were standing around him. "They were all wearing Ray-bans and it was 10 at night," she said later.

Kinniburgh welcomed his 100 guests with a speech that left an impression. One who did not know The Munster's background, later said: "He reminded me of Marlon Brando."

A guest of the bride, a property developer, was dancing with a woman from the groom's side. A friend of the groom, released from prison days earlier after completing his sentence for biting a man's ear from his head, told the friend of the bride that he would be shot if he did not become a wallflower. The property developer immediately lost interest in the music and retired to the bar.

Earlier this year, Kinniburgh's daughter married into a well-known Melbourne family with strong connections to Melbourne's legal and political establishment. The reception was held at Rippon Lea. The couple are believed to be overseas on their honeymoon.

For three decades Kinniburgh has been connected with some of Australia's biggest crimes.

Police say he was the mastermind behind the magnetic drill gang that grabbed $1.7 million from a NSW bank, a huge jewellery haul from a Lonsdale Street office and valuables from safety deposit boxes in Melbourne. He was alleged to have been the organiser of a bullion snatch in Queensland and was once charged over receiving stolen property from a burglary on Lindsay Fox's home. When police raided Kinniburgh's home they found $4500 in a drawer and a rare pendant owned by Mrs Fox in a coat pocket. The Munster told police they could keep the money if they did not charge him over the burglary.

While he was convicted over the bribery, he beat the theft charges by having an identical pendant made in Hong Kong to raise doubt about the unique nature of the jewellery.

Kinniburgh had many friends.

One of them was Lewis Moran, whose sons Jason and Mark have been murdered in the underworld war.

Modest mobster who kept the peace
December 14, 2003
The Age
By John Silvester

The Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union.

Within a year of Sir Henry Bolte's appointment as Victorian Premier in 1955, bribery allegations prompted newly appointed Chief Commissioner, Selwyn Porter to order a clean-up of gaming-squad police.

The clean-up, headed by ex-military man Mick Miller, was so effective that it caused a shake-out in the control of the underworld, with criminal elements from the waterfront moving in to fill the void.


Similar to Italian crime gangs, the 'dockies' followed an unwritten set of rules which included assistance to members, rejection of conventional justice and, of course, silence.

A brief history of the Painters and Dockers and information on:

Victor Allard James Frederick Bazely, Desmond Costello, Alfred Nelson, Freddie 'the frog' Harrison, Laurie Jones, The Kane's, Graham Kinniburgh, Bill Longley, Moran Family, Jack "Putty Nose' Nicholls, Steven Nittes, Victor Pierce, Jack Twist, Harold Nugent, Pat Shannon, Doug Sproule, Allan Williams, Charlie Wootton

LATEST - October 6, 2002: Herald Sun discredits accuser of alleged paedophile Archbishop - highlights dockie connection.
The Sunday Herald Sun highlighted the fact that the man accusing Catholic Archbishop George Pell of sexual abuse has Painter and Docker links.

The report came days after there was a scuffle between the accuser and a media throng camped outside his house on the first morning of a private hearing into the allegations.

Many have seen the report to be a reaction to the scuffle. Full Story


Freddie 'the frog' Harrison.

Harrison was known as a standover king. He ran an inner-suburbs protection racket in the 50's and demanded money from sellers of sly grog and SP bookies.

Freddie was killed as he uncoupled a trailer at 13 South Wharf on the Melbourne water front on February 6, 1958.


A gunman walked up to Harrison and said, 'This is yours Fred', and blasted half his head away with a twelve gauge shotgun.

This happened in front of dozens of work mates. All claimed to have seen nothing. The bullets used by the killer were said to have been disposed of by Charlie Wootton (below).

A week before his murder, Harrison had been pig-shooting with two friends, Jack Twist and Harold Nugent.

Jack Twist and Harold Nugent

As mentioned above, Twist and Nugent were friends of Freddie Harrison's.

The pair had been pig-shooting with Harrison a week before he was killed at Port Melbourne.

According to Tom Prior in his book 'Untold Violence', things turned nasty. Inside a car , Harrison turned a shotgun on Nugent and told him he was 'too big for his boots.' As Harrison fired, Nugent pushed the gun away with his hands losing two fingers and a thumb in the process.

Harrison turned the shotgun on Twist and fired. The gun jammed and Twist wrestled it away. Harrison managed to drive off, leaving Twist with the bloodied Nugent. Nugent later said he wounded himself in an accident while carrying his gun like a walking-stick - the wounds to the back of his hands, however, were puzzling).

Twist was interrogated by police after Harrison's murder but no charges were laid. He died in mid-1988 of cancer after moving to Hastings, on Victoria's south eastern coast.

Nugent was Charlie Wooton's step-father.

Charlie Wootton

Born in Sydney in 1941, Charlie Wooten has often been linked to illegal casinos and other gambling establishments.

As a teenager, Wootton reputedly disposed of the shot gun shells used by Freddie 'the frog' Harrison's killer on February 6, 1958.

On December 10, 1971, the day of union elections involving groups headed by Bill Longley and Patrick Shannon, a group of men turned up in five cars and began shooting.

Longley named Bob Dix (Pat Shannon's driver, Charlie Wooton and Corsetti (a long-time associate of Wooton), as being in the car. The group had lost the election.

During the shooting, Longley fled, unscathed. The opposition group seized the ballot papers and many were destroyed.

Wooton was among nine men associated with the dockers to be shot and wounded the following year ('72).

Pat Shannon was shot dead at Druids Hotel in South Melbourne in October 1973.

In the 70's, Wooton allegedly made millions out of Bacarat schools using dockers as hard men who ensured the swift running of the schools and the prompt payment of debts. He was later to become a well respected gaming identity.

Wooton was convicted of gaming offences in 1975 and 1979 and then twice in the late 1980's. He was fined on each occasion.

Wooton was named as a 'Melbourne criminal' in a Commonwealth -New South Wales Joint Task Force on Drug Trafficking tabled in Federal and NSW Parliaments in 1983. He was stated to be an associate of John Doyle, now deceased, nominated as the Hong Kong-based drug partner of ex-NSW policeman, Murray Stewart Riley, jailed in 1978 over a previous $40m drug importation.

Wooton was investigated by federal police in 1986; in 1987 and 1988 his activities were probed by the NCA and the Victoria Police.

Transcripts of conversations between Painter and Docker Stephen Nittes (see Bill Longley below) and a member of the Nick Paltos Lavender drug syndicate had Nittes saying that he'd been told 'if you ever get into trouble with the police, ring up Charlie Wootton.

Reclusive in his older age, Woottons' was one of the notable death notices after high-profile crime lord Alphonse Gangitano, was killed in 1998.

Gangitano, a standover man involved with drug dealing, moved amongst the Italian groups as well as dealing with mainstream Australian criminals associated with the Painters and Dockers.


The Dock Wars

The dock wars of Melbourne began in the very early 1970's. The apparent reason for the escalation of waterside violence was the influx of drugs into Australia.

Most of the drugs coming in were being imported by Chinese triads. The Painter and Dockers Union as well as Police became involved as each group sought their cut of the profits. Police had been involved with the Chinese for many years pertaining to illegal gambling in China Town in Melbourne and similar Asian quarters throughout Australia.

Almost all of the feuding on the docks could be put down to disagreements over the distribution of ill-gotten profits and who would have the power to determine this distribution.

The warring between factions peaked un the lead-up to the elections for the maverick Painters and Dockers Union.


Alfred Nelson

In the lead up to union elections, Alfred Nelson, the wharfie's union welfare officer, disappeared. His car was fished from 10m of water near a wharf but his body was never found. Desmond Costello was apparently killed within days as a reprisal for Nelsons death.



Desmond St Bernard Costello
Costello was shot dead and his body dumped in an open excavation ditch in Collingwood. This was said to be in revenge for the murder of Alfred Nelson shot dead only days before.


During the elections, seven bullets were fired into the union's South Melbourne office.
Union secretary Terry Gordon told a federal inquiry into the waterfront, 'we catch and kill our own'. The State Secretary, Pat Shannon, echoed these sentiments by adding that 'no bullet had ever hit a non-union member.
Gordon's rhetoric was blown apart when 10 year old Nicholas Korvat was killed. The boy was shot in a gun battle at the Moonee Valley Hotel, Fitzroy. Docker Laurence Chamings was also killed in the attack.




Billy 'the Texan' Longley

Longley was a presidential candidate and the leader of a union faction at war with that of Pat Shannon's.


Longley was one of the most feared men on the docks during the 1960’s and 1970’s. He was known as "The Texan" because he wore a Stetson and carried a Colt .45.

Longley was convicted for a March 4, 1970, Mayne Nicholas robbery in the Sydney suburb of Guildford in which Victorian armed robbers ventured north.

The gang netted $587,870 in what was Australia's biggest armed robbery to date. The robbery was carried out along with fellow dockers, Stephen Nittes and Laurie Albert Jones.

The pair were sentenced to 16 years jail. In 1984, Nittes was recorded and photographed with Sydney Underworld figure, Dr Nick Paltos in Fawkner Park, South Yarra.

Paltos was a principal of the Lavender drug syndicate which had close links to Robert Trimboli. Nittes was recorded saying that he could "get rid of twenty kilos" of heroin and the tapes led to his return to jail.

During the early 1970s when the Melbourne waterfront war was in full flight, and Longley, described as an evil genius" disappeared from sight.

Despite being one of Melbourne underworld's most sought-after figures, Billy "The Texan" Longley managed to elude both police and his enemies for 16 months.

But, unlike a few of his friends and a lot more of his enemies, Longley actually turned up alive.

Longley doesn't want to actually rub anyone's nose in it by bragging about his 16 months "in smoke" (underworld term for lying low), but he reckons the police and rival crims who were looking for him never even came close.

He lived at a number of houses scattered around Melbourne, and even used to get out for the occasional game of golf.

"I also used to jog a mile every night at dusk and I never tried to disguise myself," he says.

Longley knows a bit about going into smoke. He ran free for 16 months as the painters and dockers waged war on Melbourne's waterfront - a war that the Costigan Royal Commission said had led to at least 40 people being murdered.

He was just one of a number of painters and dockers who went into hiding during those wild and bloody times.

Some months after Longley disappeared in 1973, Pat Shannon was gunned down in South Melbourne's Druid's Hotel (now the Water Rat).

Longley was eventually convicted for ordering Shannon's murder, but almost 25 years later still maintains his innocence.

A huge police hunt in 1973, '74 and '75 failed to find Bill Longley.

"I was very fortunate in that I had an excellent network of very good friends who looked after me," he says.

"I remember a detective getting in the box during my trial and saying police had a squad of 21 men looking for me around the clock.

So you can imagine their surprise when I came forward with my lawyer and presented myself at Russell St police headquarters after 16 months on the run."

Longley's time on the run ended on February 13, 1975 when he gave himself up to homicide squad detective Jimmy Fry.

He says he came forward because he didn't want a judge to think his evasion of police was evidence of his guilt.

"My contention was that I wasn't fleeing the police but that I was keeping my head down, like a lot of other painters and dockers, on account of it was liable to be shot off by opposing factions in the waterfront battle," he says. "Those were wild times and a lot of my mates had been killed. I have a strong self-preservation instinct, and that's why I went in to smoke."

"They got the usual from me. Billy Longley's my name and I live at so-and-so, and that's all I've got to say to you. Tell 'em nothing - that was the code in those days."

In 1983, Longley was subpoenaed to give evidence to the Costigan Royal Commission into the Painters and Dockers Union. The Royal Commission was set up after a violent struggle in the union left as many as forty people dead.

Longley has been credited with from 11-16 other killings, although he denies these. Most of the dead were political rivals, murdered in the year following the election. During his lifetime, he was charged with another murder, manslaughter and three attempted murders.

Longley maintains that whenever a criminal was on the run they would head to Melbourne and avoid the criminal haunts of Sydney.

"We had a saying 'Sydney for money, Melbourne for blokes'," Longley recalls. "When we would go through Sydney we would never go to Bondi or Kings Cross because every crim in Sydney was concerned with what they used to call their insurance.

"And their insurance was picking up the phone and ringing through to their local CIB and saying to a detective they knew that they had just seen x and y at the Coogee Bay pub and they were still there if they wanted to get them - and not to forget that the call was part of their insurance."

Sydney, he says, was all about building up the insurance for future crimes by dobbing in other criminals. For Longley, Melbourne was a different place, a place where criminals had principles.

"Things were different in Melbourne. The significance of the saying 'Melbourne for blokes' is that other crims wouldn't dob you in to police. There were principles in the underworld then, and that's why so many international and interstate crims chose Melbourne to go into smoke."

Longley wasn't at all surprised early in 1998 when the much-publicised hunt for Queensland escapee Brendon Abbott and his sidekick Brendon Berichon turned to Melbourne. The pair were just another couple of additions to the motley crew of crims to have chosen Victoria as a hidey-hole while on the run. Although Abbott and Berichon were captured in Darwin in May, it was to Melbourne they fled after Berichon allegedly freed Abbott and four other prisoners from a high-security Brisbane jail in November last year.

Longley says Victoria used to be nationally and internationally renowned as a good place for criminals to go to ground, and the list of fugitives from the past to have done so reads like a Who's Who of crime.

It includes British MP John Stonehouse, Great Train Robber Ronald Biggs, armed robber and master of disguise Russell "Mad Dog" Cox, notorious NSW crime figure Edward "Jockey" Smith and convicted murderer Roy "Red Rat" Pollitt.

While Longley says Melbourne's reputation as a place to hide hasn't changed, police aren't convinced. A former member of the now-disbanded Major Crime Squad, which used to have responsibility for hunting fugitives, didn't have much time for The Texan's theories.

"Some of our best information on the whereabouts of escapees and other fugitives came from the Melbourne underworld," the retired officer says. "And Victoria can't have been that great a place to hide in because all the crooks nominated by Longley, other than Ronnie Biggs, were caught or killed."

He also says police access to much-improved electronic listening devices, telephone taps, surveillance techniques and sophisticated tracking equipment was making it harder for fugitives to avoid detection.

In an ABC-TV special, screened in 1998, Longley stated that among his friends were a number of senior Victorian police, including Brian "The Skull" Murphy, the former Victorian detective whose evidence helped convict him of murder.

Murphy and Longley subsequently formed a rather unlikely friendship and business partnership. The pair became friendly after Longley’s release from gaol in 1988, and now offer their services as industrial mediators.

"I’d like to set up as a consultant, advising people and firms on security matter. They might think I know the ropes, as someone who knows life from the other side of the tracks," says Longley.

"Looking back on my life, I regret the violence I’ve been involved in. But, the 1970’s were dangerous times on the waterfront. If you were a member of one faction or another, you could finish up with your head shot off,"

Now aged 72 (in 1998) and living quietly in suburban Melbourne, Longley goes ballroom dancing and counsels school children against getting involved in violence. Longley also lectured college students about keeping out of trouble and not being sucked in to a life of crime. "There is no glory in being in jail," he said.




Patrick Francis Shannon

A union rival of Billy 'the Texan' Longley, Pat Shannon, stood for an opposing faction at the bloody elections of 1971.

On December 10, 1971, the day of the election, Longley drove to the Williamstown Naval Dockyards with close associate and infamous gunman, James Bazely. He was standing on Longley's ticket.

He left Bazely's car parked just outside the main gates and walked towards the voting area. According to Longley, the returning officer told him that they had clearly won the election. As Longley chatted with supporters among the hundred or so crowd, he suddenly noticed some new arrivals.

According to Longley's statement at a later Commission, the men turned up in five cars and began shooting. Longley named Bob Dix (Pat Shannon's driver), Charlie Wooton and Corsetti (a long-time associate of Wooton), as being in the car. He could not be sure who was shooting.

During the shooting, Longley fled, unscathed. The opposition group seized the ballot papers and many were destroyed.

Wooton was among nine men associated with the dockers to be shot and wounded the following year.

Longley went into hiding for 16 months beginning in early 1973. A huge police hunt in 1973, '74 and '75 failed to find Longley.

After 16 months on the run, Longley came forward with his lawyer and presented himself at Russell St police headquarters.

Pat Shannon was shot dead at Druids Hotel in South Melbourne in October 1973.

At 9.55pm, Shannon was drinking when a man walked in carrying a .22 calibre rifle. The gunman pumped three shots into Shannon. He died instantly.

Police arrested four men over the murder: Longley, Kevin James Taylor, Gary Leslie Harding and Alfred Leslie Cannott.

Harding made a three-page statement to police.

In court, the Crown alleged that Longley paid Taylor $6000 for the hit and that Harding pointed Shannon out to Taylor in the hotel.

Harding's evidence was that he waited in the car and Taylor ran up, threw the gun into the back seat and said: "I shot him, I got him".

Longley, Taylor and Harding were convicted of Shannon's manslaughter.

Within 12 months Harding was dead, hacked to death in his Pentridge Gaol cell.

Longley, almost 25 years later, still maintains his innocence.

From: Australian Crime, Chilling tales of our time. Edited by Malcolm Brown.


Police apparently refused to act on the violence involved with the union, the allegation being that police were being paid to give Painters and Dockers a free reign. The allegations against police was given further credence when the then chief of the Victorian Homicide Squad, Kevin Carton, found the Victoria Police not competent to investigate the murders and prepared a report that called for judicial inquiry. His appeal was declined.


James Frederick Bazely

Born in 1924, Bazely was allegedly a hit man and also a target of pre-election violence, stood with a gun in his hand and a foot on the ballot box the day of the union elections.

Following the union ballot, Bazely was wounded in two separate ambushes.

Bazely was jailed after anti-drugs campaigner Donald Bruce Mackay disappeared from Griffith, NSW. in July 1977.
He was also found guilty of the April 1979 murders of drug couriers Douglas and Isabel Wilson at Seymour north-east of Melbourne.

The Wilsons' bodies were found in a shallow grave at Rye.

Bazely was sentenced to life imprisonment in April 1986 for the murder of the Wilson's.

He received concurrent sentences of nine years for conspiracy to murder Donald Mackay, and four years for the theft of $260,000 from Downards Security in 1978.

Bazely's appeal to the Full Court in June 1986 against the murder convictions was dismissed speedily and he had no chance of finding the $60,000 needed for an appeal to the High Court.


The Kane's
Les, Bryan, and Ray Kane, were the enemies of the 'Bennett Gang'.

They were stand over men who had conducted 'ghosting' rackets on the docks for several years. Ghosting involved the dock-side employment of fictitious individuals. The salaries of the non-existent dockers were collected by those running the rackets as were tax refunds in the worker's names.

The Kane family partook in a deadly feud with the team of armed robbers led by Raymond 'Chuck' Bennett.

In this they were apparently backed by members of the Consorting Squad.

The feud heightened after Bennett and his men undertook the Great Bookie Robbery on 21 April 1976.

During the robbery a boxing trainer, Ambrose Palmer, had been referred to by name by one of the robbers.

Ambrose apparently apparently recognized the mans voice as that of a man who'd been trained by him years earlier.

He kept the mans identity to himself for sometime but eventually let his name slip to one of the Kane brothers.

At a Richmond hotel in mid-1978, one of Bennett's men, Victor Mikkelsen, refused a drink from Les Kane. A brawl resulted and Les had an ear almost bitten off.

On October 19, 1978, Les Kane was bundled into a distinctive pink Ford Futura.

His wife Judy was pushed away by three masked men with machine guns. Kane was never seen again.

Brian Kane was shot dead at the Quarry Hotel in Brunswick in November 1982.


Victor Allard

In 1979, painter and docker, Victor Allard, a probable heroin dealer, was shot dead in Fitzroy while in the company of Dennis Allen.

Allen became the prime suspect.

Graham Kinniburgh

In November 1979 the BCI received information on a narcotics drop from Thailand arranged by Graham Kinniburgh, through the Painters and Dockers.

A phone tap was immediately put on Kinniburgh's North Melbourne home.

Kinniburgh was a close associate of high-profile underworld figure Alphonse Gangitano.

Gangitano was from a respectable Italian family but not one that had connections with the Calabrian and Sicilian organised crime syndicates.

In his life as a criminal this lack of forced allegiances allowed him to move amongst the two main Italian groups as well as dealing with mainstream Australian criminals associated with the Painters and Dockers.


Jack "Putty Nose' Nicholls. One time Union Secretary.



Doug Sproule, a target of pre-election violence.



Allan David Williams, was a former docker who supplied drugs to Dennis Allen.

Williams brother in law was mistakenly killed by a man acting for Allen who believed him to be Williams.

Williams was also a friend of big time speed dealer John William Higgs.


It was Williams who attempted to have policeman Mick Drury assassinated so that he would not give evidence to sink Williams heroin empire.

He had sold heroin to Drury at the Old Melbourne Hotel.

When police swooped for the arrest, Williams was startled by the screeching tyres of an over anxious police officer. A former champion footballer, Williams legged it, outrunning police.

Allan Williams passed away at the age of 49 on August 28, 2001.

He apparently died from hepatitis many raising the question as to whether or not this was caused by syringe use.

Jason Moran

Notorious criminal Jason Moran was entrenched in the Painters and Dockers culture as a water-side worker.

The stand-over man and half brother of Mark Moran , gunned down in 1999, was jailed for his part in a vicious brawl involving Alphonse Gangitano.

The Moran's are feared in the Melbourne underworld and have faced many charges relating to high level amphetamine trafficking.

They were also involved with the Flemington crew of armed robbers.

These included Frank Valastro, Graeme Jensen, Mark Militano and Walsh Street suspect Jedd Houghton.

Career criminal Raymond Denning once claimed that the Morans were directly involved with the armed robbery and shooting of a security guard in July 1988.

This robbery is said to have directly led to the Walsh Street police shootings.


Victor Pierce

Victor Pierce, a member of the Pettingill crime family who was acquitted Walsh Street police shootings worked on the docks for four years before he was shot dead on May 1, 2002.

He was sitting in his car in Bay Street, Port Melbourne when another car pulled up along side and Pierce was shot three times.

The shooters car was a mid-80's Commodore, eerily similar to the one used to lure the two young policeman to Walsh Street in 1988. The car used in Victors shooting was found burnt out the next morning.

Italian Crime Connections

The influence of Italian families and syndicates affiliated with organised crime is said to have been entrenched in the underworld of Australia's east coast since the 1930's this page includes a brief history and a glossary of terms. The identities discussed below include:

Vincenzo Angiletta, Giuseppe 'Joe' Arena, , Antonio Barbara, Frank Benvenuto, Liborio Benvenuto, Domenico Cirillo, Domenico Demarte, Giuseppe Furina, Santo Ippolito, Domenico Italiano, Rocco Medici, Antonio Monaco, Vincenzo Muratore, Alfonso Muratore, Robert Nancarrow, Antonio Peluso, Guiseppe 'Joe' Quadara, Gantanol 'Tom' Scriva, Michele Scriva, Giuseppe Sofra, John Vasilopolous


LATEST: September 2002
Domenico "Mick" Italiano, from the family of former Melbourne Godfather Benvenuto Italiano, was a suspect in the 1998 murder of John Furlan.

The motor mechanic's Subaru Liberty exploded soon after he left his Coburg house early on August 3, 1998.

MORE

The Australian based group of Mafia-style Italian criminals is known as the Honoured Society. Other names bestowed on them have included the 'Black Hand'. In Calabrian parlance, the Honoured Society was referred to as L'Onorata or N'Dranghita.

Mob related extortion in Queenslands cane fields in the 1930's is generally seen as the birth of Mafia style corruption in Australia.

Within the fruit and vegetable industry, Calabrian immigrants had received considerable assistance from the Honoured Society. In turn they were indebted, often for life.

While drugs, particularly marijuana, have become a huge money spinner for the Society, its role in primary production is very strong. Society members have been able to use their agricultural skills to grow crops as well as using their place in the fruit and vegetable industry to transport and distribute the drug.

American organised crime investigator John. T. Cusack was summoned to Australia by local police to see if he could help them improve their insight into the Honoured society. Before returning to the US on August 11, 1964, he reported, among other things, that there were five established rules within the Society.

1. Aid was to be extended to a member no matter what the circumstances.

2. There was to be absolute obedience to the officers of the society.

3. An offence against an an individual member was an attack on the Society and must be avenged.

4. No member will turn to a government agency for justice.

5. Omerta, the code of silence, must always be obeyed. No member was to reveal any of the organisations secrets. 'They realise in silence there is security while testimony against a Society member can bring death', Cusack said.

1963-64 market murders: Committed at the height of a struggle for control of Melbourne's Mafia.

Omerta: Code of silence followed by Honoured Society and similar Mafioso groups.

Domenico Italiano (Godfather died December 1962)

Domenico was known as 'Il Papa', or 'the Pope' and was the Godfather of the Honoured Society.

Vincenzo Muratore was his trusted lieutenant and Antonio Barbara, Italiano's right hand man.

Domenico was the father in law of notorious hit-man, Michele Scriva.

Domenico Italiano died peacefully of old age in his West Melbourne home in December 1962.

His funeral was held at St. Mary's Star, of the Sea.

Antonio Barbara (Died 1963)
'The Toad', as Antonio Barbara was known, had served five years jail for killing a woman near Queen Victoria market in 1936.

Soon after the December 1962 death of Domenico Italiano, Barbara, another senior member of the society died.

He was Italiano's right hand man and was well known for violence.

His death, on the heels of Italiano's, left a huge hole in the upper echelons of the Honoured Society.



Vincenzo Angiletta (Shot dead April 1963)

A gunman who migrated to Australia in 1951. He became a producer of fruit and vegetables for the Society.


He wanted the society to be like the Sicilian Mafia in the United States and called for extortion rackets to include non- Italians.

This was rejected by Demarte and other Society elders.

Angiletta reacted to this snub by refusing to sell his produce to designated wholesalers and going direct to the public.

He was warned but refused to conform. Angiletta was stabbed once on Society orders but still refused to return to the fold.

He was then kidnapped and covered in excrement at Woodend. He vowed revenge and began his own group called La Bastarda- the Bastard Society and recruited 300 members.

Angiletta sold his market garden in Kew to a Greek family rather than a designated Calabrian Family. It is believed that Angiletta then became a marked man. He began carrying a pistol.

In the early hours of April 4, 1963, Angiletta, by then employed as a cleaner, was hit twice in the head by shotgun fire as he parked his car in the garage of his Stafford Street, Northcote home at 2.30am.

Friends of Angletta blamed Demarte and Muratore.

Demarte was shot as he left his North Melbourne home at 3.30am on November 26, 1963.

He survived but decided to forgo all of his positions in the Honoured Society. Muratore was shot dead early in 1964.

Vincenzo Muratore was his financial advisor.



Domenico Demarte (Shot November 1963)

In 1963 Demarte became head of the Society after Domenico Italliano died.


Demarte, a market commission agent experienced problems when a rival faction emerged within the Society.

This was led by Vincenzo Angiletta. Angiletta was shot dead soon after. Angiletta's allies blamed Demarte and Alfonse Muratore.

Demarte was shot at and wounded by a shotgun blast while leaving his Chapman Street, North Melbourne home to go to market at 3.30am on November 26, 1963.

This was seen as revenge for the shooting of rebel member Vincenzo Angiletta, leader of La Bastarda. The shooters were believed to have been two relatives of Angilletta.

Demarte survived but decided to forgo his position in the Honoured Society.


Vincenzo Muratore (Shot dead January 1964)

Vincenzo had been a trusted lieutenant of 'Godfather' Domenico Italiano.

He was Domenico Demarte's financial advisor when Demarte took over as Melbourne's 'Godfather' after the deaths of Italiano and Antonio Barbara in 1962 and 1963.

Vincenzo was a prominent market merchant and commission agent and the father of Alfonso Muratore, shot dead in 1992.

Vincenzo was killed with a shotgun outside his Avondale Street, Hampton home on the way to a supermarket at 2.30am on January 16, 1964.

This was allegedly a payback for the Vincenzo Angiletta murder in April 1963. He was said to have been killed by two male relatives of Angilletta, one who escaped to Italy after the killing.




St Mary's Star of the Sea Church, West Melbourne, was the site of yet another grand scale community funeral after Muratore's murder


Antonio Monaco (Shot dead January 1964)

Monaco was a market seller.

He was shot dead on January 18, 1964 two days after Vincenzo Muratore's murder.

Monaco was leaving his Dandenong Road, Braeside home at about 2.30am.

The attack allegedly involved three men as a payback over a domestic dispute (Underbelly 1).

Domenico Cirillo (Shot February 1964)

Cirillo was a fruit and vegetable retailer.

He was wounded with a shotgun blast when leaving his Ardmillan Road, Moonee Ponds, home when leaving for market at 4.30am on February 6, 1964.

Two people have been said to have been involved in the attack which came about as the result of a domestic and financial dispute (Underbelly 1).





Rocco Medici - Giuseppe Furina (Found dead May 1984)

Medici was a close associate of Liborio Benvenuto.

He was found tortured near the Murrumbidgee River with brother in law Giuseppe Furina on May 6, 1984.

Medici and Furina were both from the Melbourne suburb of East Keilor

and were associates of Laurence Sumner, one of Victoria's most notorious criminals.

Sumner was said to have supplied the bomb which took out Liborio Benvenuto's land cruiser and it has been alleged that Medici and Furina were killed as payback for the explosion.

Sumner was an associate of several Italian crime figures and a close friend of "The Friendly Godfather" Giuseppe 'Joe' Arena, who was gunned down in his Bayswater home in 1988.





Giuseppe Sofra (Shot June 1985)

Soffra was a green grocer

He was shot three times in the back of his legs at his Springvale Road fruit shop on June 19, 1985.

The shop was owned by Anotonio Madafferi.

The shootings were said to have been related to a price cutting war in the area and a warning to the two men.

Liborio Benvenuto (Godfather dies - May 1988)

Liborio was born in Calabria December 15, 1927. Involved in the fruit and vegetable industry, he was the son of a man reputed to be 'in charge' of several Calabrian villages.

Benvenuto was described as a small and dapper fellow.

He was a close associate of Joe Arena (shot dead 1988).

Liborio was the father of Frank Benvenuto, shot dead on May 8, 2000.

Liborio Benvenuto rose to prominence following the 1963-64 market murders of Muratore and Angiletta and became the undisputed Godfather of Melbourne.

Benvenuto's right hand man was Michele Scriva. He was married to a daughter of Domenico Italiano. Scriva'a son, Tom, married one of Benvenuto's daughters.

Benvenuto was the father-in-law of Vincenzo Muratore (killed during the wars in 1964). His daughter was married to Vincenzo's son, Alfonso (killed in 1992), until he left her.

On May 10, 1983, Benvenuto's four wheel drive was blown up at the market.

No one was hurt. A shotgun was found in the car.

Benvenuto said at the time: "I have no enemies, only friends at the market. "I don't know why anyone would do this at all. "I have never done anyone any harm."

In 1984, the bodies of close-associates Rocco Medici and Giuseppe Furina were found in the Murrumbidgee River, believed by some to be a payback for the bomb.

An astute and experienced criminal, Laurence Joseph Sumner, is rumoured to have helped plant the bomb.

Sumner was also believed to have supplied the gun which was used to kill Joe Arena although it has also been said the pair were close friends.

Sumner was later involved in amphetamines and caught in a speed lab at his home in 1991. He then became an informant into one of Melbourne's biggest drug cartels.

Liborio Benvenuto died of natural causes in May 1988.

He had not considered son Frank a worthy successor and close associate Giuseppe "Joe" Arena' was summonsed to Benvenuto's Beaumauris home.

Discussions were held about him becoming head of the organization.

But on his death bed Liborio Benvenuto anointed son-in-law, Alfonso Muratore as Godfather.

In a shock move however Muratore declined the offer and the next year left his wife, Liborio's daughter, Angela, for mistress Karen Mansfield.

Muratore was shot dead outside his Hampton home it 1992.

An inquest heard allegations that Frank Benvenuto took out a contract of Muratore's life for snubbing the Honoured Society and his family but was never charged.

Frank Benvenuto was shot dead in May 2000.

Giuseppe "Joe" Arena's ascension never came to pass and a rival faction murdered him outside his Bona Vista Rd, Bayswater, home on August 1, 1988, six weeks after Benvenuto had died.

Arena was shot from behind with a shotgun, the traditional Honoured Society method of death with dishonour. The killing happened shortly after he and his wife came home from a wedding in Footscray.

Dominic "Mick" Gatto was considered a prime suspect but later spoke out and denied the allegations vehemently.

Michele Scriva

Michele was born in Reggio Calabria on June 19, 1919 and migrated to Australia in 1936.

Scriva, a notorious hit-man, was the right hand man for Liborio Benvenuto.

The pair were related through marriage. Michele was married to a daughter of Domenico Italiano and his son Tom married one of Benvenuto's daughters.

Scriva was a stall holder at Melbourne's fruit and vegetable markets and in 1945 was acquitted of murdering Giuseppe "Fat Joe" Versace in what was probably Victoria's first Mafia hit.

Versace was stabbed 91 times.

He was later sentenced to hang for stabbing Frederick Duffy to death in North Melbourne, but the sentence was later commuted and he served 10 years.

Giuseppe 'Joe' Arena (Shot dead August 1988)

Joe was known as the friendly Godfather.

He was a close associate of Liborio Benvenuto, undisputed Godfather of Melbourne.

It had been suggested by Liborio that Arena would take over after his impending death.

This never came to pass.

Arena was murdered in the backyard of his Bayswater home on August 1, 1988, a few months after Liborio had died.

It has been said he was killed on the instructions of a rival as he was seen as a possible successor as Honoured Society leader.

Former boxer and current building industry identity, Dominic "Mick" Gatto was considered a prime suspect but later spoke out and denied the allegations vehemently.

More on Giuseppe 'Joe' Arena


John Vasilopolous (Shot December 1990)

In 1989 a senior executive with retailer Coles-Myer called for an investigation into the mafia-style kick backs which seemed to becoming more prevalent at the fruit and vegetable market.

He employed John Vasilopolous to head an internal investigation.

Vasipolous severely rocked the system that the Honoured society had in place. He refused to pay bribes and also deemed some of the fruit to be of an unacceptable quality.

While this was happening, Coles manager Robert Desfosses was seriously assaulted by two men in the carpark of the Sunshine Fruit and Vegetable Distribution Centre on June 18, 1990.

In the same month the wife of Coles fruit and vegetable buyer Terry Hoskin received a call at her home claiming she would be going to her husband's funeral within a week.

Then in August 1990 Coles buyer Paul Rizza received an STD call at his home warning him, "You better watch your back."

The motive for this was aid to have been a direct attack on the efforts of Coles-Myer to clean up "corrupt market practices."

Then in November 1990, internal investigator John Vasilopolous received a number of threatening phone calls.

More of these calls were made to other investigators and Coles management in early December.

John Vasilopolous was blasted by a shotgun as he answered a knock at the door of his Ivanhoe home on December 19, 1990.

A man with an Australian accent who claimed to be 'Tony' shot him in the stomach.

Vasilopolous survived but resigned from his position.

Trouble continues for fruiterers (1991)

On March 26, 1991, Cheltenham fruiterer, Armedeo Di Gregorio was ambushed and robbed of $4000.

On May 16, 1991, another Cheltenham fruiter, Jack Degillio was ambushed and robbed of $1000 outside his home.

On June 8, 1991, arson caused $100,000 damage to Central Fruit Market in Bentleigh. The premises was doused with kerosene and set alight.

Antonio Peluso (Shot dead June 1991)

Peluso was a Glen Waverly Fruiterer.

He was ambushed and shot several times as he left his home on the way to the market. He died on the veranda of his home.

Peluso was robbed of $4000 but said to be carrying $7000.

Trouble continues for fruiterers (1991)

On June 27, 1991, East Doncaster Fruiterer, Tabaret Louey was bashed by two men and robbed of $2000 on the way to the market.

On July 3, 1991 Wantirna South fruiterer, Phillip Strati, was bashed and robbed of $5000 outside his home.

On August 5 1991 there was an attempt to blow up the Central Fruit Market after explosives were planted on the roof.

Petrol was added but failed to ignite.

On November 20, 1991 a similar attempt on the Central Market also failed.

Santo Ippolito (Beaten to death December 1991)

Ippolito was a retired fruiterer.

He was battered to death by a man who smashed his was into the victim's Springvale home on Christman Eve in 1991.

Ippolito and his wife were in bed after a family barbeque.

There were no demands and nothing was stolen.

A man had broken down Ippolito's front door, entered the bedroom and began beating him with an iron bar.

Ippolito's wife turned the light on but did not recognise the killer. She was bashed.

Ippolito died in hospital the next day.

The 71 year-old, was president of an RSL club and it was said that a dispute there lead to a hitman being paid to kill Ippolito.



On February 29, 1992 a Melbourne market fruiterer and his wife were pistol whipped and robbed of $5000 at their Wandin home by two masked men.

Robert Nancarrow (Beaten to death March 1992)

Robert was the founder of the Nancarrow supermarket chain.

He was beaten to death in his Northcote shop and drowned in his own blood on March 2, 1992. The motive was assumed to be robbery.

Costa rings in

It was then that big-time Geelong fruiterer Costa's Pty Ltd was called in by Coles-Myer.

They were seen as very trustworthy and reputable.

This was successful to a degree with company head and now Geelong Football Club President Frank Costa, appearing on ABC-TV's Four Corners program.

He spoke out against the corruption and spoke of the fear many fruiterers had for their lives.

In 1992 Alfonso Muratore and Orlando Luciano met with Coles-Myer executives in an attempt to smooth things over and to advise them of some of the questionable schemes that had operated at the market.

The meeting was highly secret and the city venue was checked extensively for bugs.

The two were believed to be making a solid sales pitch to the executives, ensuring them that they could do a better and 'cleaner job'.

Muratore was soon dead.



Alfonso Muratore (Shot dead August 1992)

The son of Vincenzo Muratore married Angela Benvenuto, the daughter of Melbourne 'Godfather', Liborio Benvenuto who died in 1988.


He did not consider his son Frank a worthy successor and on his death bed anointed Alfonso Muratore, his son-in-law.

But in a shock move, Muratore declined the offer and the next year left his wife, and Liborio's daughter, for mistress Karen Mansfield.

Alfonso had carried a .22 pistol since mid-1991 after being told that a contract had been taken on on his life.

In July 1992, fellow-fruiterer and associate, Orlando Luciano, met with Coles-Myer executives to discuss corruption problems at the fruit and vegetable markets and to make a sales pitch on their own behalf.

On August 4, 1992 Alfonso, then 39, was shot dead in Hampton as his father Vincenzo had been 28 years before.

He had left his Storey Avenue house with friend, and workmate Ron Lever, the step father of his de facto wife. Lever was shot in the legs to immobilise him but Muratore was shot four times and died instantly.

A 1995 inquest heard allegations that Frank Benvenuto took out a contract on Muratore's life for snubbing the Honoured Society and his family but was never charged. Benvenuto took over Muratore's fruit stall at the market after Alfonso was shot dead.

Ms Mansfield said at the inquest that Frank Benvenuto had tried to hire someone to kill Muratore.

He had been trying to regain control of the market stall when he was shot dead.

He had also told investigators about corruption involving supermarket buyers and fruit and vegetable wholesalers only two weeks before being executed.

Frank Benvenuto told the inquest he had no idea who had murdered Muratore.

Another man police saw as a suspect in Muratore's death was truck-driving fruiterer, Guiseppe 'Joe' Quadara.

Represented by jailed criminal lawyer, Andrew Fraser, it was speculated that Quadara eluded a payback hit when a man of the same name was shot dead in Toorak on Friday 28 May 1999.


Frank Benvenuto (Shot dead May 2000)
Frank was the son of former Melbourne Godfather, Liborio, who became Honoured Society crime boss after winning the bloody market wars of the 1960's.


Frank was related to Michele and Tom Scriva through marriage.

Frank was a known associate of the notorious Moran family.

Liborio Benvenuto, who died of natural causes in 1988, did not consider Frank a worthy successor.

At the time Benvenuto senior was critically ill, it was also thought son-in-law, Alfonso Muratore was not ready to take over the running of his empire.

Giuseppe "Joe'' Arena was summonsed by Benvenuto senior and discussions were held about him becoming head of the organisation.

But it never came to pass because a rival faction murdered Arena outside his Bayswater home shortly after.

Then, on his death bed, Liborio anointed his son-in-law, Alfonso Muratore.

But in a shock move, Muratore declined the offer and the next year left his wife Angela, and Frank's sister, for a mistress.

Muratore was shot dead outside his Hampton home in 1992.

An inquest heard allegations Benvenuto took out a contract of Muratore's life for snubbing the Honoured Society and his family but was never charged.

Benvenuto had no criminal record and detectives could not link him to Muratore's murder.

Benvenuto took over Muratore's fruit stall at the market after the killing.

Frank Benvenuto was shot in the chest at the wheel of his Holden Statesman outside his Beaumaris home at about 3pm on May 8, 2000.

He was on his way to the tip.

His falling out with Alfonso Muratore after Muratore left Angela Benvenuto for lover Karen Mansfield in 1989 is one avenue homicide detectives followed in trying to identify a motive for the murder.

Karen Mansfield said at Muratore's 1995 inquest that Frank Benvenuto had tried to hire someone to kill Muratore.

He had been trying to regain control of the market stall when he was shot dead.

He had also told investigators about corruption involving supermarket buyers and fruit and vegetable wholesalers only two weeks before being executed.

Frank Benvenuto told the inquest he had no idea who had murdered Muratore.

Victor Pierce, one of the men acquitted of the 1988 Walsh St police shootings and a member of the Pettingill crime family, was also believed to be linked the murder.

Police said Pierce worked as "hired muscle" for Benvenuto both before and after a six-year jail sentence for drug trafficking between 1992-98.

Detectives said the circumstances suggested Mr Benvenuto knew his killer, who shot him in the chest through the car window. Peirce was interviewed over the killing, but said he was working on the docks at the time and is believed to have had an unshakeable alibi.

Before his conviction for drug trafficking, he was reported to have fired a machinegun inside the wholesale fruit and vegetable market at Footscray early one morning.

He was working for Mr Benvenuto then, during a period when price fixing, extortion, standover tactics and drug trafficking were reported to be rife at the market.

Some detectives believed the circumstances of his murder -- shot in daylight as he sat in his car -- may be seen as a public warning to his supporters and family.

They expected there will be revenge killings as a result.

"The best indication of which faction killed Frank will be the identity of the next body that turns up,'' a source said.

Drug dealer and stand over man Richard Mlandenich was shot dead at a St Kilda flat on May 16.

He had been released from jail a month before and had shared a room with Chopper Read whilst inside.

He was said to be a giant of a man as well as being extremely violent. Had a criminal record of more than nine pages with most charges relating to street violence.

He also had 24 aliases including John Mancini and RIchard Mantello.

Mark Moran was murdered five weeks later outside his luxury home in Combermere St, Aberfeldie, near Essendon, on June 15, 2000.

Victor Pierce was shot dead on May 1, 2002. In turn, it was also alleged that the Moran's were involved in the Pierce shooting.

Frank Benvenuto had a habit of saying "God bless you'' at the end of most conversations.

On November 15, 2001, police offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to finding Benvenuto's killer.

Police said that they believe a woman walking her dog in Dalgety Rd could possibly help them with their investigations.

Homicide squad detective-Insprctor Brian Rix said police had no proof linking Mr Benvenuto to the underworld.

He appealed for the public to solve the murder of the highly respected member of the Italian community.

Detective Rix said police wanted to hear from the fruiterers associates at the Footscray Market and the Italian community.

Det-Insp Rix said he had spoken to Mr Benvenuto while investigating past market-related crimes and he was "always a very pleasant, well mannered and polite person."

Gantanol 'Tom' Scriva (1945-2000)

Born 1945, the son of notorious hit man Michele Scriva, Tom married Rose Benvenuto, daughter of Melbourne Godfather Liborio and sister of Alfonse Muratore's wife Angela.

Tom Scriva was a disgraced lawyer for suspected Melbourne mafia and underworld figures including Victor Pierce and those accused of the Russell Street bombing.

He was involved in underworld rip-offs and scams worth millions of dollars.

On July 13, 2000, Tom Scriva died after suffering a heart attack at Frank Benvenuto Junior's wedding.

Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read




Chopper is the star of the Melbourne underworld after a movie about his life was released in 2000.

Read's criminal history - which spans 27 years - includes trying to kidnap a judge at gun-point, stabbing a man with scissors, impersonating a police officer and shooting a drug dealer.

Read spent 23 years in prison, was stabbed, had his ears cut off and had a prison baton broken over his head.


In 1979 notorious murderer, Greg "Bluey" Brazel slit Read's stomach open during a prison brawl.

Chopper, being Chopper, burst his stiches the next day doing push ups to get fit enough for a random attack on Brazel.

Read is now a best-selling author and celebrity.

Chopper was a close friend of underworld figure 'Mad' Charlie Hegyalji.

In one of his books, Read wrote that Hegyalji bit off the nose of an enemy as a teenager and was given his name 'Mad' Charlie.




In late 1970's Read, Hegyalji and Nick "The Greek" Apostolides were standing over criminals and relieving them of their illicit earnings.

Apostolides was portrayed by Vince Colosimo as Neville Bartos in the Chopper movie.


Hegyalji was shot dead in front of his home in November 1998.

Chopper named his son Charlie after Hegyalji.

In July 1991, Melbourne underworld figure, Alphonse Gangitano left Australia just as Mark' Chopper' Read was released from jail.

He had apparently put out a $30,000 contract to kill Read. This came after the now famous criminal had refused to ensure Gangitano's safety upon his impending release from Pentridge.


Read once appeared at Gangitano's home in Carlton to demand cash from a robbery.

Chopper was apparently armed with gelignite and a fearful Gangitano escaped through a rear exit. It has been suggested that Read was then jumped on by an associate of Gangitano's, a man known as perhaps Australia' hardest puncher.


On August 5, 1991, John Silvester wrote a story in the Herald-Sun which spoke of Gangitano leaving the country in fear of Chopper.

'....One of the biggest names in the Melbourne underworld has fled Australia because he fears a contract has been taken out on his life.

The man, with a known history of violence, left Melbourne about two weeks ago vowing not to return for at least two years.

He has taken his de facto wife, child and another relative to Italy.

Underworld sources said yesterday he believed two men had decided to take up the contract to kill him.

The criminal, heavily involved in extortion, illegal gambling and corruption, is known to have taken extra precautions before fleeing. He has kept close to a number of his associates who have acted as bodyguards for him.

Police said the man was considered to be one of the leading figures in a syndicate known as the "Carlton Crew". He has lived in a well-protected house in a Melbourne eastern suburb.

Several criminal groups have checked the house trying to find a way to breach the security. So far they have failed. At one stage, a group of criminals was considering using land mines to kill the gangster but gave up the plan because they feared killing innocent people.

Victorian and federal police as well as investigators for the National Crime Authority have taken an interest in the gangster's activities. But although he has been charged with a string of minor offences he has avoided being charged over big crimes.

The criminal has told friends he is concerned there may be an underworld war when standover man Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read is released from jail in the next few months.

Read has said he has nothing but contempt for the "Carlton Crew" and has referred to the gangster who has fled Australia as "The Plastic Godfather". But he has denied there will be violence when he is released from jail.

Police said they had heard the gangster had packed his bags and left Australia.

"He may be gone for two years, but I think he'll wait a few months until the heat is off and then slip back in," a senior policeman said. "He has an expensive lifestyle so he'll get back to his old tricks as soon as he can. "He'll be back - you can bet on it."

Gangitano returned to Australia as Chopper returned to jail. After a short time of freedom, Read was sent to Risdon Prison in Tasmania for shooting an associate in the stomach.

In 1992, the former president of the Victorian Outlaws was shot in the stomach with a 9mm bullet at point-blank range.

Sydney Collins, then 36, claimed in court that underworld toecutter Mark "Chopper'' Read pulled the trigger.

Read's lawyer suggested the bikie had framed her client because the real gunman was a fellow motorcycle gang member.



In 1995, Read married Mary-Ann whilst in Risdon.

Mrs Read, formerly Hodge, married Read after a year-long engagement.


An attractive, well-spoken woman employed with the Australian Taxation Office, said she had read one of Chopper's books and visited him at Risdon in 1993.

Read was being held in maximum security indefinitely after being deemed a dangerous criminal.

Read was released in 1998 after his dangerous criminal tag was overturned on appeal and the pair moved to a farmhouse at Richmond, Tasmania.

The couple had a baby boy, Charlie, named after 'Mad' Charlie Hegyalji.

At first the relationship went well, but Read would eventually return to Melbourne when the marriage broke up in 2001. In 2002 Read would say the marriage was a sham.

Chopper drunk on McFeast
Wednesday 18 March 1998
by Halliwell Hannah

The debut of McFeast Live (16/3) on the ABC got off to a controversial start when Elle McFeast's first guest appeared on the show drunk.

Mark "Chopper" Reed, an infamous criminal and author of about seven books on the Australian crime scene, appeared bleary eyed and spoke with a slur. The glare of television lights seemed to bother him as he struggled to answer McFeast's questions about toe-cutting and other sordid criminal activities.

Finally he admitted the obvious and slurred....

"You've had me stuck in your b$##@% Green Room drinking Melbourne Bitter. I've just done six cans. Then you bring me on as p%$$#@ as a parrot and ask me in-depth questions. I'm obviously drunk. I'm no use to anybody. It's not fair".

At one stage he took out his false teeth and announced with pride...

"These are the James Bond, the carte blanche, the rolls royce of false teeth and I'd like you to pay some form of b$##@% respect to these false teeth"

After oggling McFeast's cleavage and mumbling some incoherent answers, the Earless One was lead off to a corner of the set by the cheeky host, and left there to quietly booze on for the remainder of the show.

Click here for the transcript of the ABC's 2001 interview with Read from 'Australian Story'

In November 2001, Chopper's marriage to Mary-Ann broke up and he returned to live in Collingwood, Melbourne with a woman called Margaret.

There he worked behind a local bar part-time.

In January 2002 it was reported that "Chopper" was back in Melbourne and plans to marry his former girlfriend, Margaret Cassar, next year.

Read turned his back on the farm he shared with his wife in Tasmania and taken up residence in Melbourne with his former girlfriend. He says "farming life wasn't for me" and that he left with just the clothes on his back and enough money to get out of Tasmania.

Now settled back in Melbourne, Read says a trip up the street to run errands takes hours. "I sign autographs everywhere I go."

But Read's violent life has taken its toll. Three weeks ago, he collapsed in the foyer of St Vincent's Hospital and was diagnosed with a diseased liver.

Read, a notorious thug and standover man and a best-selling author — his books are said to be the most commonly shoplifted titles in Australia — says he has left crime behind. He has never made excuses for his life of crime and never taken on the role of victim. "I bashed people for money. I picked on drug dealers because I knew they don't go to the police," Read says.

Now he spends his days gainfully employed. His 10th book is due for release in time for Christmas, his second book has just been released in Britain, he has a lucrative contract with a manufacturer of sunglasses and plans to join the guest speaker circuit next year.

He also plans to publish three children's stories early next year.

Chopper Drink-Drive Advertisement Wins Gold at Cannes

Sunday 24 June 2001

“Following the awarding of a Bronze Lion earlier in the week, in the Press-Poster section for a school-crossing road safety advertisement, Saatchi and Saatchi Australia won a Gold Lion in the Film section at ‘Cannes Lions 2001’, for its brilliant and provocative drink-drive commercial featuring hit-man Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read. Both advertisements were produced on behalf of the Pedestrian Council of Australia,” said Mr Harold Scruby, Chairman of the PCA.

“The International Advertising Festival, Cannes Lions, is the largest rendezvous for marketing and advertising professionals from all over the world and features the most prestigious advertising awards. Around 9,000 delegates from the advertising and allied industries gather each year at this famous event to celebrate the crème de la crème of creativity in all major media. The Gold Lion award was won in a field of over 6,000 entries from all over the word.

“The advertisement features ‘Chopper’ Read speaking directly to camera at his kitchen table. He undoes his shirt, pointing to different areas on his body where he has been assaulted in prison and says: ‘When I was in prison…I got slashed in the face…my ears cut off… a butcher’s knife here, an ice-pick here, etc., etc … If you drink and drive and you're unfortunate enough to hit somebody, you ought to pray to God that you don't go to prison.’

All parties donated their time and services, without payment, as part of their commitment to reducing the Australian road toll.

View the Saatchi & Saatchi "Cannes Lions" Gold Award "Chopper" Commercial

In April 2002, Read came out in the Herald Sun and disowned the movie. He said that it was 'pure fiction' and that he wants nothing to do with the film. "They used all my jokes and they didn't even invite me to the opening," Read complained.

Read said the movie was a s much a shock to him as it was to Keith Faure, Read's old rival who had complained in court that the depiction of his death at the start of the movie had caused him anxiety and caused him to crash his car into a pole.

read was also peeved that Margaret failed to rate a mention in the film after being with him for so many years.

On May 2, 2002, Kath Pettingill, Victor Peirce's mother, spoke of retribution on talk-back radio the morning after the shooting of her son, saying that the killers 'could run but they can't hide....from me.'

She intimated that she would shoot two people, one a 'big-mouth' the host, Neil Mitchell, believed to be celebrity gangster, Mark' Chopper' Read.

When asked if the family would seek retribution for Victor's shooting, a voice in the background screamed and enthusiastic "Yes!"

Read then called in speaking highly of Pierce and denying any involvement.

Read, speculated about the death of Pierce, a man he'd known for 14 years. He had no doubt Peirce was shot in a busy Port Melbourne shopping strip last night because of his heavy involvement in drugs.

On May 2, 2002: Chopper Read spoke to Jon Faine on ABC Melbourne about his 30 year relationship with Victor Peirce.

Victor Pierce (who was acquitted of the Walsh Street Police Murders) was gunned down in Bay Street, Port Melbourne. "Chopper" speculates that drug debts may have motivated the shooting.

Chopper placed a a provocative death notice in the Herald Sun the day before Victor Peirce's funeral.

In a disparaging reference to Kath's glass eye -- earned in a shooting incident many years ago -- Read wrote: "Don't worry Vic, Kath will keep an eye on things."

In May 2002, Read caused a stir with the release of his latest publication, the children's picture book, 'Hooky the Cripple".

Set in the 16th Century, 'Hooky' is about a hunchbacked son of a prostitute who stabs a bullying butcher in the head 21 times, eventually going to trial for murder.

2002: Fairytale Couple?
John Collis reports on a modern tale of a curious collaboration - Mark "Chopper" Read, Australia's most-credentialed crime novelist, and the enfant terrible of the Archibald Prize, Adam Cullen, who have joined forces to create Chopper's latest work.

On June 4, 2002, the Federal Education Minister was rebuked by Read after he wrongly called Read a "convicted murderer."

Read was on the end of a verbal assault in Parliament, during which Dr Nelson attacked a decision in Queensland to recommend Read's latest book, "Hooky the cripple", for Queensland schools.

Read told the Herald Sun he was not a convicted murderer.

"I was acquitted of the only murder charge I was arrested on." The six year sentence he served prior to his 1998 release was for malicious wounding. The victim lived.

Of Dr Nelson's description of him as a "self-confessed murderer, criminal, assailant, arsonist, torturer", Read said: "Well, he's got that right. It does not mean its the truth. It just means I've said I've done these things."

Dr Nelson's spokesman said the minister was "sorry for misrepresenting the crimes of Read".

In a Herald Sun story published on June 10, 2002, the estranged wife of Mark Read denied their marriage was a sham.

Mary-Ann Read said that when she married Read in Risdon Prison, Tasmania, in 1995 it was because she loved him.

But faced with comments he made the previous week that their marriage was just a sham, she said: "I just can't let this go by."

Read left his wife and child to return to live in Melbourne in 2001.

Mrs. Read, the mother of Chopper's two year-old son ,Charles, said she was disgusted by his comments on a national radio program that the marriage was a ploy to get him out of jail.

"I did it out of love - and that's the truth," Mary-Ann said from her farm near Richmond, Tasmania.

Mrs Read said she had never spoken out about her husband but could no longer tolerate his comments.

"This is the first one I have responded to because it was cruel and uncalled for," she said.

In the radio interview, Read also described another woman, Margaret, as the only woman he had ever loved.

He went on to say that he had married one of the local 'hillbillies'.

But Mrs Read revealed that Read had telephoned her hours before the interview went to air and asked to take him back.

"Mark was on the phone begging for reconciliation," she said.

Mrs Read also sad that when she re-married, there was no indication her husband was going to get out of jail.

"I was quite prepared, when we got married, that he would not be released and that we would never have a future together," she said.

"I was prepared to stand by him. I loved him that much."

"I worked hard for him knowing his parole paper were stamped, "Never to be Released," Mary-Ann added.

On June 10, 2002, Read appeared on Terry Willesee's "Across Australia" program on Sky News Channel.

Read fielded several questions about his new book, (Hooky the Cripple) and was truly at ease in front of the cameras.

Callers were very 'matey' indeed with one calling him a "modern day Ned Kelly," adding that we should rejoice that we can read about him now and not in 200 years." Big statement but I don't believe Read's name has been connected to cop killing as was national hero, Ned Kelly.

At the end of the interview, Read was asked whether or not he was surprised at the support he received from all but one caller.

His answer was quite pertinent to this day and age.

Read said that "Australian's used to be like a flock of sheep that followed the first goat but over have become very, very sceptical."

"Sceptical about people who tell them what they should believe and should think and who they should hate and who they should like," Chopper continued.

"And when you hear someone on a current affairs show slagging the guts out of some poor character, the general public sit back and make up their own minds."

"The last twenty years, Australians have seen far too many perversions from our politicians, our Governor's General, the clergy, the Police Force...they've seen these people really debase themselves in the vomit of corruption."

"And then they hear the media slagging off me and they say, "why should I listen to you...you said the 'bishop' was a good bloke you know...The people make up their own mind and won't be told what to think."

Take a look at it, corrupt cops, corrupt and lying government's and governor's generals, paedophile priests....all over the world....who can you trust?

On July 22, 2002, the Herald Sun reported that a controversial anti-drink-driving advertisement featuring Mark Read has been voted by Australia's advertising industry as the best television commercial of the year.

Developed by Saatchi and Saatchi advertising and the Pedestrian Council of Australia, the advertisement also won best community service advertisement.

Read donated his time free for the ad in which he warns: "When I was in prison, I got slashed in the face, my ears cut off . . . If you drink and drive and you're unfortunate enough to hit somebody, you ought to pray to God that you don't go to prison,"

Pedestrian council chairman Harold Scruby said it was very hard to get and retain public attention.

On September 12, 2002 the Age reported that Sid Collins, a former bikie who survived being shot by Chopper more than a decade before may have met an untimely end on the New South Wales north coast.

Collins, who was shot in the chest by Read because he "thought too much", vanished in suspicious circumstances during a trip from his Gold Coast home to NSW to recover an underworld debt the previous month.

Mr Collins, a member of the Black Uhlans outlaw motorcycle gang, was reported missing on September 1 by his son.

Police searched his home and interviewed neighbours.

Mr Collins' XR8 ute was found the next day more than 100 kilometres away near Tabulam, a small town west of Casino on the NSW north coast.

Police from Casino's Criminal Investigation Unit conducted a line search of a remote property near Tabulam last Thursday.

Forensic police also excavated a small section of a local property but a NSW police spokesman said nothing of significance was found. Neighbours said the property's owners kept to themselves but had guests at unusual hours.

NSW police are treating Mr Collins' disappearance as a homicide.

Mr Collins, 46, is well known to police across Australia and is believed to have been operating a mail-order-bride business from his Gold Coast home in partnership with his wife, based in Russia.

Mr Collins is believed to have moved recently from Tasmania to the Gold Coast.

"He has not been any trouble since he came up here, but we certainly knew to keep an eye on him," a Queensland police source said.

Mr Read was sentenced to eight years in Hobart's Risdon Prison in 1992 for attempted murder after shooting Mr Collins, an associate, in the chest.

On October 30, 2002 New South Wales detectives interviewed Read over the disappearance and suspected murder of Sid Collins.
Read went with his solicitor, Bernie Balmer, to be interviewed by two Casino-based criminal investigation unit detectives as well as Victorian homicide squad detective Ron Iddles at the St Kilda police complex.

He denied any knowledge of Mr Collins' whereabouts and accused the NSW detectives of harassment, claiming they had only interviewed him so they could claim a trip south for the spring racing carnival.

"They wanted to know whether I killed or whether I was responsible for (Collins') disappearance. It seems to me they've received a lot of information that I know something about it," Read said. "I had to put them straight. I reckon he's faked his own death and is living in a motel room somewhere. He's a scurrilous individual.

"(Their trip) coincides with the spring racing carnival . . . and I pointed this out to them. They're probably down here putting bets on for Sid Collins."

A NSW police spokesman denied the trip was timed to coincide with the racing carnival and said the detectives were following a routine line of inquiry.

November 11, 2002: Chopper for Hollywood

Rumour has it that Mark "Chopper" Read is set to become a movie star after signing a two movie deal. A 3AW rumour file caller said Read would star in two films "along the lines of Crocodile Dundee which would entail public investment." As the AW morning team of Ross Stephenson and John Burns suggested, "bad news for crocodiles." Stay tuned!

Three people have been arrested over yesterday's execution-style murder of Desmond "Tuppence" Moran.

Police today took a man, 43, and two women, 64 and 45, into custody over the midday slaying of Moran at his favourite coffee shop in Ascot Vale.

The man is expected to be charged with murder while the two women are likely to face charges of accessory to murder, police said.

All three are from Ascot Vale.

Both women will appear in court later today.

Mr Moran who is the 60-year-old brother of slain underworld figure Lewis Moran and uncle to gangland casualties Jason and Mark was shot several times by two masked gunmen in the cafe near his Ascot Vale home.

The arrests come as it was revealed Moran also known as Tuppence argued with a former racing identity late last year.

"It's believed he picked this bloke up and threw him against a wall, and that led to a lot of animosity," author and journalist Andrew Rule told TODAY.

Mr Moran narrowly avoided death in March when a balaclava-clad gunman shot at him as he sat in his car in the driveway of his home.

"It was widely held at the time [of the March attempt on Des' life] that it could have been that racing identity or one of his brothers," Mr Rule said.

"But at the time Des made an unwise comment. He said: 'If these blokes had been a bit professional, they would have shot me five or six times'.

"Well, guess what, yesterday he was shot five or six times."

Mr Rule said only time would tell if Morans murder meant Melbournes gangland war was back on.

"I wouldn't leap to that conclusion automatically because, as we know, the fellow that financed that gangland war, Carl Williams, is in jail for a very long time.

"[Williams'] has got no money that I know of and very few friends, so I think that matter is still with the jury."


Deli execution spooks Roberta

Williams' estranged wife, Roberta, fears the shooting will reignite the war.

"Des was not a part of all that stuff," The Australian quoted her as saying.

"He deadset minded his own business. You never heard from him."

Despite witnessing some of the most savage days Melbourne's underworld conflict in the 1990s, Roberta expressed concerns that anyone could now be a target.

"If they are willing to kill some defenceless drunk like Des, who else are they prepared to kill? I mean where the f*** does it all end, you can't even have a f****** cup of coffee without getting shot these days," she said.

"It puts me on my toes because I think 'Oh, no, this is all starting over again'. I don't know what the world is coming to; all I know is that this is too shocking to comprehend.

"I can't handle all this madness any more, this is all way too much bulls***."

Roberta said her ex-husband, who is serving a minimum of 35 years in jail for several murders including that of Jason and Lewis Moran, expressed stunned surprise when she phoned him to tell him Mr Moran had been killed.


Police are searching for two men, both of whom are believed to have opened fire on Mr Moran as he was leaving the Ascot Pasta and Deli Cafe in the middle of the busy Union Road shopping strip.

Homicide squad Detective Inspector Steve Clarke yesterday confirmed two gunmen were being hunted.

"I believe that both men shot at the deceased," Det Insp Clarke told reporters. He said several spent cartridges were found at the scene.

"They escaped the immediate scene on foot and were seen getting into a dark blue or green car which was seen leaving the scene along Union Road in a northerly direction.

Mr Moran visited the cafe almost daily.

Within 15 minutes of the shooting, Lewis Moran's widow Judy Moran was at the scene.

Eyewitness Han Carkeek said Ms Moran, who was not believed to be on good terms with her brother-in-law, was screaming "Dessy, Dessy" when she saw his body slumped in the doorway of the cafe.

More than seven hours later, a coroner's van finally arrived to remove the body.

A woman who answered the door at Mrs Moran's Moonee Ponds home said: "Is that what happened? She just screamed and ran off'' when told of the shooting.

News of the murder travelled swiftly through Melbourne's underworld with gangland identity Mick Gatto, who is overseas on business, confirming Mr Moran as the victim within an hour of the shooting.

"Someone called me this morning and told me he had been shot a number of times and was dead," Mr Gatto told AAP.

Mr Carkeek said he heard four shots before seeing Mr Moran fall to the ground in the doorway of the cafe.

"I saw a guy walking out of the shop and falling to the ground," Mr Carkeek told AAP.

"This guy (the shooter) ran off and I heard a car's tyres screech as it drove away."


Long time between killings

The homicide squad conducted the initial investigation which is likely to be handed over to the Purana gangland taskforce.

Mr Moran's killing is the first underworld assassination since 2006 when lawyer Mario Condello was shot dead in the driveway of his suburban home.

It comes three months after a botched murder attempt when a masked man fired a shot through the windscreen of Mr Moran's car.

Mr Moran, who was jailed on drugs charges in 1985, said at the time of the failed attempt in March he had no enemies but suggested he recognised the would-be assassin, whom he described as "some mongrel in-bred albino".

Maurice Moschini, from the nearby Maddison real estate agency, said he heard about six shots fired around noon yesterday.

"I thought it was gunfire - at least half a dozen shots," he said.

"The thing that's most shocked me was that the street was full of young families out shopping - there are a lot of shaken people walking around."

Several doors down, Union Deli and Cafe owner Anne Boland said the first she knew of the shooting was when a customer ran in.

She said within minutes people knew it was Dessy Moran.

"Everybody knew Dessy," Ms Boland said.

"He was just one of our locals. He would have coffee outside that deli every day.

"We knew his name, we knew his family history, but he was just one of our locals."

Ms Boland said Mr Moran was liked on the Union Road shopping strip, "because nothing ever happened, he was just one of the locals".

She said this was the first trouble on Union Road which had long been a stamping ground of the Moran family, which has now lost four men to murder.

Lewis Moran, 58, was gunned down by two men in the front bar of the Brunswick Club in March 2004.

His son Jason, 36, was shot while in a van at a children's football clinic alongside associate Pasquale Barbaro, who was also fatally shot, while five children sat in the back seat in June 2003.

Nine years ago to the day, Jason's half-brother and Lewis's stepson Mark Moran, 36, was shot dead after getting out of his car outside his home.

Gangland rival Carl Williams is serving life sentences after pleading guilty to the murders of Lewis and Jason Moran.

Charges against Williams over Mark Moran's murder did not proceed.

It does seem a bit strange that Dessy is only the second victime after the end of
the gangland war along with Mandello. Mick Gatto's life insurance premiums must be through the roof now if they weren't already.

Why kill Dessy though? He was harmless and didn't seem to be anywhere near as active or involved in the Melbourne scene as the rest of the Moran Family. Like Dean O Banion, Micky Spillane and co the luck of the Irish deserted the Morans. saw Underbelly and though I've heard there are some inconsistencies thought it was a great show.

What a spineless cocksucker that fat prick Carl Williams is though. A man that couldn't have a toe to toe as top man in town by buying friends and keeping out of the picture. They shoulda killed him when they had the chance.