Policing is not sausage
making. Success or failure
can’t be judged by what comes
out the end of the machine.
SO what happened?
For twelve years, gangsters played out a Hollywood movie in Melbourne streets, but with real bullets and real blood.
As with the perfect storm or a hundred-year flood, conditions had to be perfect for disaster to happen. In hindsight, it is clear there was not one reason but many.
The first is history. The Melbourne underworld is notorious for using bullets and blades to settle its differences. Gangsters have been shot on the docks and in court buildings, dumped in the bay, stabbed in prison or have simply ‘gone on the missing list.’ Wars have started over something as simple as the price of tomatoes (the Market Murders, 1963-64); a share of money (Great Bookie Robbery, 1976) or a dispute over sausages (Pentridge Prison Overcoat Gang, 1970s).
The second reason for the war is police apathy. From the 1980s, Victoria Police came under pressure to spend taxpayers’ money efficiently. ‘Key performance indicators’ were imposed, setting artificial goals such as set numbers of random breath tests or patrol hours. Police were expected to cut crime rates and lift solution rates while boosting training and fixing the gender imbalance.
Achieving such goals came at the expense of gathering crime intelligence. Policing is not sausage making. Success or failure can’t be judged by what comes out the end of the machine. Investigation of organised crime requires identifying the next big thing. If police can identify new players before they become entrenched, it solves tomorrow’s problems today – but that requires a large, flexible, committed and expensive intelligence section.
Former Chief Commissioner Mick Miller built the Bureau of Criminal Intelligence and surrounded it with specialist squads but he insisted that when detectives were promoted they returned to uniform to share expertise – and to cut the risk of corruption created by staying too long in crime squads.
But the Miller model was eventually let slide. Specialists such as the stolen-car squad were disbanded and the drug squad was denied resources and not supervised well. Despite conventional wisdom that police should only be allowed to stay in high-risk corruption areas for limited time, detectives were able to make careers in the drug squad. It was a recipe for disaster.
Tackling potential crime bosses requires expensive taskforce policing, so the force ignored the problem until it was too late. The trouble is that budding gangsters get to grow stronger and harder to deal with.
The perfect example: Andrew ‘Benji’ Veniamin. Vicious, callous and cunning, in 1999 he was identified as a man ready to use guns. But little was done. Soon, Veniamin had done his first paid hit, killing Frank Benvenuto in Hampton. He would go on to complete six more contract killings before being shot dead.
When the Purana Taskforce started, investigators were stunned at how little was known about Veniamin and others. Purana’s first head, Phil Swindells, was to spend months gathering vital intelligence before he could move against the gangsters.
THE war might not have started without police corruption. The murders of Terence and Christine Hodson and the ambush killing of Shane Chartres-Abbott have been linked to police – allegations deemed credible enough for two taskforces to be formed to investigate. But there was another link to corruption that created the environment for gangsters to kill.
Three drug squad detectives directly involved in prosecution cases against high-profile suspects including Tony Mokbel, Lewis Moran and Carl Williams were themselves facing charges. The cases against the suspect drug dealers could not be heard until the police cases were dealt with, which would take years. As a result Mokbel, Moran and the others were granted bail, which meant rival drug dealers were on the loose at once, fighting over the same patch.
Nine of the murder victims were on bail when they were killed and Carl Williams was on three sets of bail while ordering murders. Tony Mokbel was on bail when he fled overseas. Nothing has been done to review the bail system. In fact, when a senior policeman suggested it he was pilloried by the legal profession.
THE war was funded by massive drug money, used to pay hired guns. At least fifteen criminals were paid to kill or played supporting roles in murder plots.
Drug money undermined an already under-resourced drug squad that was tainted and out of its depth. But in the end, the easy money meant some crooks began to believe their own publicity. Old-school criminals like Graham Kinniburgh and Lewis Moran knew the value of a low profile but the cashed-up ‘cowboys’ made the mistake of courting publicity, ignoring the fact it would inevitably bring political pressure to clean up organised crime.
As Dino Dibra said before he was shot dead, ‘Mate, I’ve just watched Reservoir Dogs too many times.’
Elements of the media polished the ‘glamorous’ images of some gangsters, treating them as equally credible sources to police.
At one stage, it was the gangsters who held the press conferences and the police who said ‘no comment’.
Some of the taped conversations between reporters hungry for a quote and killers looking for a public relations boost would embarrass both parties if ever released.
Some of the gangsters seemed to think Purana was just another gang. One was foolish enough to write an obscene ‘verse about it while in prison, beginning with the lines:
‘Fucking Purana Squad,
Youse are a fucking joke,
Why pick on us?
We’re nothing but good blokes.’
IN the end, the war showed that most gangsters made basic mistakes and acted without considering consequences. The Morans shot Williams without considering he might fight back. Williams started a war without considering it must end with him in jail or dead. ‘Benji’ Veniamin killed so often he knew he must die.
They pretended to live without fear, yet autopsies showed that several were using anti-depressants and sedatives. Mark Moran considered suicide. Many privately sought counselling.
Caught in a world of their own making, some could see no way out. Gangitano had not made enough money to invest in a straight business and lacked the character to turn his back on crime. As a result, his children lost their father.
Others were apathetic: three murder victims had security systems that didn’t work. Others kept predictable routines that made it easy for killers to track them. Two did not use their secure garages, preferring to park in the street – with fatal results.
Several rejected chances to start new lives: Gangitano and Jason Moran returned from overseas only to die. Several refused police protection.
THE turnaround came because finally police got resources denied to investigators for years. They were given time, money and surveillance gear: in fact, 75 percent of the force’s phone tapping and listening devices.
Many politicians and media experts predicted Purana would fail but they were wrong. For the first time in memory the underworld code of silence was smashed.
But while law enforcement has learned that organised crime needs to be constantly attacked, history shows that immediate problems get the resources at the expense of long-term solutions. Eventually, the extra effort needed to mount a Purana-type campaign will be too hard.
Meanwhile, there will always be a supermarket shelf-stacker who wants to be the next Carl Williams, a milk-bar owner who wants to be Tony Mokbel and a schoolyard bully who wants to be Alphonse Gangitano.
The Underworld War is over. Until the next one.
1 Gregory John Workman
Shot dead by Al Gangitano on February 7, 1995.
2 Alphonse John Gangitano
Shot in his Templestowe home on January 16, 1998, by Jason Moran.
3 John Furlan
Died from car bomb on August 3, 1998. Suspect: the late Domenico Italiano.
4 “Mad Charlie” Hegyalji
Shot in garden of his South Caulfield home on November 23, 1998. Alleged killer later shot dead.
5 Vince Mannella
Shot by unknown man as he returned to North Fitzroy home on January 9, 1999.
6 Joe Quadara
Shot dead as he arrived at work at a Toorak supermarket on May 28, 1999.
7 Dimitrios Belias
Body found in a pool of blood below a St Kilda Road office on September 9, 1999.
8 Gerardo Mannella
Shot as he left his brother’s North Fitzroy home on October 20, 1999. One person close to him knew he was about to die.
9 Frank Benvenuto
Shot in Beaumaris on May 8, 2000.
10 Richard Mladenich
Shot in a St Kilda motel on May 16, 2000.
11 Mark Moran
Shot outside his house near Essendon on June 15, 2000.
12 Dino Dibra
Shot outside his West Sunshine home on October 14, 2000.
13 George Germanos
Shot in an Armadale park on March 22, 2001.
14 Victor George Peirce
Shot in his car in Port Melbourne on May 1, 2002.
15 Paul Kallipolitis
Shot in his West Sunshine home in October 2002.
16 Nik ‘The Bulgarian’ Radev
Shot in Coburg, on April 15, 2003.
17 Shane Chartres-Abbott
Shot June 4, 2003, in Reservoir. Alleged corrupt police involvement.
18 & 19 Jason Moran and Pasquale Barbaro
Shot in hotel car park in Essendon North on June 21, 2003. Gunman jailed and now a police witness.
20 Willie Thompson
Shot dead in his car in Chadstone on July 21, 2003.
21 Mark Mallia
Charred body found in a drain in West Sunshine on August 18, 2003. Carl Williams pleaded guilty to his murder.
22 Housam ‘Sam’ Zayat
Shot during in a paddock in Tarneit on September 9, 2003.
23 & 24 Steve Gulyas and Tina ‘Bing’ Nhonthachith
Shot at their Sunbury property on October 20, 2003.
Prime suspect overseas.
25 Michael Ronald Marshall
Shot outside his South Yarra house on October 25, 2003. Carl Williams convicted of his murder.
26 Graham ‘The Munster’ Kinniburgh.
Shot outside his Kew home on December 13, 2003.
27 Andrew ‘Benji’ Veniamin
Shot at a Carlton restaurant on March 23, 2004. Mick Gatto acquitted of murder on self-defence.
28 Lewis Moran
Shot dead in the Brunswick Club on March 31, 2004. Hit man pleaded guilty; now a police witness.
29 Lewis Caine
Shot in Brunswick on May 8, 2004. Gunman jailed and now a police witnesses.
30 & 31 Terence and Christine Hodson
Shot dead at their Kew home on May 15, 2004. Suspected corrupt police involvement.
32 Mario Condello
Shot dead in garage of his East Brighton home on February 6, 2006. Suspected gunman identified.