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The Shootout at Dangar Place: When Detective Roger Rogerson Met Warren Lanfranchi

It was long odds that Warren Lanfranchi was ever going to get the old age pension or collect superannuation. Lanfranchi was a bank robber, a heroin dealer who ripped off other heroin dealers, a standover thug and a man who tried to murder a police officer in cold blood. At just 23 he was well past his use-by date.

Tall, fair-haired and ruggedly built, Lanfranchi was raised in a decent Sydney family and there doesn’t appear to be any valid reason why he went off the rails other than the attraction of the big money and the glamour of being a gangster. At age 17, Lanfranchi was sentenced to five years in Long Bay Gaol for his part in stealing a truckload of TV sets. It was here that he met the notorious gangster Neddy Smith and when he was released Lanfranchi became a distributor for Smith, whose couriers were bringing in huge amounts of heroin from Thailand.

Not content making a fortune from cutting Smith’s high-grade heroin and selling it on at a huge profit, Lanfranchi began ‘ripping off’ other dealers. It worked like this: a deal was made with another supplier to buy a few kilos of heroin, a meeting place was arranged and both parties would turn up and make an exchange at a pre-arranged price. Once he had seen the heroin, Lanfranchi took it at gunpoint and left without paying.

In his last ‘rip-off’ Lanfranchi had bundled the sellers into the boot of their car, locked it and made off with $37,000 worth of heroin, which is about $250,000 in today’s money. Soon after, Lanfranchi received a phone call from Neddy Smith telling him that the heroin was the property of a high-ranking police officer who had stolen it during a raid and had given it to his underworld contacts to sell on his behalf. He wanted it back. Problem was that Lanfranchi had already sold it.

In the meantime, Lanfranchi took up robbing banks. As he was sitting in the back seat of the getaway car speeding from a bank in Drummoyne with a bag full of cash from his fifth armed hold-up, a motorcycle cop drew alongside and demanded they pull over. Lanfranchi levelled his pistol at the police officer at point-blank range and pulled the trigger twice, but the gun jammed both times. The luckiest policeman on earth, Constable Ray Walker, later identified Lanfranchi from a photograph. Above all, police take grave umbrage at someone attempting to kill one of their own. Warren Lanfranchi had made a monumental mistake.

With Lanfranchi nowhere to be found, Sydney’s toughest detective, Roger Rogerson, called in a favour with his old underworld informant, Neddy Smith, Lanfranchi’s boss in the heroin business. Rogerson told Neddy to tell Lanfranchi that he wanted to have a chat and work out a deal that would be beneficial to them both. Having blind faith in Neddy Smith and aware of Smith’s close relationship with influential police officers, Lanfranchi fell for it. His impression of coming events was that he was wanted for ripping off drug dealers and bank robberies and that $50,000 would make it all go away. But he had to talk to Roger Rogerson first to set it up.

For their meeting, Lanfranchi chose a narrow lane called Dangar Place near busy Cleveland Street in Chippendale, about five minutes’ drive from the heart of Sydney. It would be easy to see if there were other police around, and there were plenty of ways out if anything went wrong. Lanfranchi had been instructed to come unarmed and not wear a coat. Rogerson would be alone and unarmed.

As Smith drove Lanfranchi to the meeting in a green BMW, 18 detectives were being deployed around Chippendale. At Rogerson’s back were sergeants Graham Frazer and Brian Harding and Constable Rod Moore. Frazer, armed with a shotgun, was hidden in the back of Rogerson’s green Falcon; Harding, also armed with a shotgun, was hidden in the back of Moore’s old white Volvo nearby. Rogerson had a .38 revolver tucked in the back of his trousers under his cardigan.

About 2.50pm on Saturday 27 June 1981, Neddy parked in Boundary Street near the Britannia Hotel, and they got out. Lanfranchi saw Rogerson sitting on a green Falcon at the entrance to Dangar Place, about 40 paces away, and raised his arms, as though to suggest he was not carrying a gun. Lanfranchi crossed Cleveland Street and walked along Beaumont Street to meet Rogerson. Graham Frazer got out of the car and crouched at its rear with his shotgun. Neddy Smith retreated to the BMW.

The two men met about halfway between Cleveland Street and Dangar Place. According to Rogerson, Lanfranchi said: ‘What’s the score? Are we going to be friends or not?’ Rogerson turned, and the two men walked together, with Lanfranchi on the right. They turned right into Dangar Place and walked past the Falcon. Lanfranchi didn’t notice the crouched figure of Sergeant Frazer, clutching his shotgun, at the rear of the car. Nor did he seem to notice the white Volvo, with Constable Moore at the wheel, rolling slowly down Dangar Place from the other end.

Walking together in silence for about 30 seconds, Lanfranchi and Rogerson got to a point about 10 or 15 metres into Dangar Place. According to Rogerson, Lanfranchi said, ‘I can’t do any more jail. Are we going to do business?’

‘There is no business,’ Rogerson replied. ‘We are here to arrest you.’

Lanfranchi spotted Graham Frazer and then Brian Harding, who was now sitting up in the back seat of the Volvo. ‘You tricked me!’ Lanfranchi said. ‘This is an ambush!’ He backed away a little from Rogerson as Rod Moore stopped the Volvo about 10 metres away and he and Harding got out. All four police present agreed later that Lanfranchi reached down the front of his trousers and drew out a silver-coloured gun, which he held in his right hand and pointed at Rogerson.

Rogerson drew his .38 revolver and fired two shots, both from about 4 feet. The fatal shot went through the right ventricle of Lanfranchi’s heart and came out his back, killing him instantly. The other shot went into his neck below his left ear. All the detectives present agreed that Rogerson’s first shot to the chest was the fatal one. Lanfranchi did not fire any shots. Later it was discovered that there were no fingerprints on his gun, which turned out to be defective in a way that made it impossible to fire more than one shot.

There was no formal police investigation of the killing; an inquest was held in front of a judge and jury. The judge explained that it was the jury’s function to find, on the balance of probabilities rather than beyond a reasonable doubt, on the cause and manner of Lanfranchi’s death. The judge supplied them with a number of options from which to choose. He also advised them that they could, if they chose, recommend commendations for bravery on the part of the police.

The jury concluded that Roger Rogerson had shot and killed Warren Lanfranchi ‘while endeavouring to effect an arrest’. The jury had struck out the options of ‘in self defence’ and ‘in the execution of his duty’. The jury did not recommend commendations for bravery for the police. Case closed.