‘A solicitor I’ll call The Spider is the keeper of secrets, banker, tax adviser and brains behind the top crime lords. In fact, if he did a runner to South America, most of the drug bosses in town would be on the dole’.

THERE is a secret tactic often used in the criminal world which says it all about the betrayal and hypocrisy which is part of the underworld. It is called the Lemon Twist, and nobody in the straight world knows how it works. A drug gang wishes to maintain its standing in the eyes of the criminal world, yet remain out of jail. They pick a known police informer, some physically weak wimp who is easily frightened. They call him in and explain to him that he now works for them — after a nice little beating, of course.

They then find out from him which police he is working for. They provide him with a weekly sling of money and supply him with a regular line of drugs. He is happy under the protection of the gang. He is given good information on the drug dealings of other gangs and crews. Every bit of information the informer gives to the police is handed to him by his controlling crew. All the information is geared to help the police catch members of other gangs and upset their drug and gambling businesses.

The Carlton Crew have at least four Lemon Twists working for them. It is a closely-guarded but widely-practised trick used by major crews in Melbourne and Sydney. The gangs can control the flow of information and can kill the ‘Lemon’, or informer, at will. The Carlton Crew have been doing it for about ten years and that is why they have kept out of jail. Some of the old dockies were doing it back in the 1960s. They controlled their own informers and the flow of information.

There are some drug and gambling crews who will never come to jail because of the Lemon Twist. The information given to the police from the Lemon Twist is top notch, so they have to act on it.

There will be a lot of top notch crews who will be furious that I have tipped a bucket on this old but secret trick, but it is so simple that even a group of drug-crazed retards can put a Lemon together.

It has been used to get some members of the criminal world legitimately shot — killed by the police — without the police ever knowing that their informer was a controlled man and the information he passed on was part of a set-up. The police act on the information in good faith in a 100 per cent legal raid that, in some cases, ends in tragedy. It is simple, smart and deadly.

Lemons are usually drug dependent and easy to control. They generally get overdosed when they are of no further use. Left alive, they can give the whole game away.

*

I can talk about underworld tactics because I am walking away from it all. The wise old men of the criminal world know these tricks and the young punks coming up are too stupid to put them together.

One of the most sophisticated tactics is the Apple Cucumber, a little known and rarely-mentioned trick that I have personally used to great effect.

I first heard of it from the really old crims I met in Collingwood in the early 70s who had been around in Squizzy Taylor’s day. Old Horatio Morris spoke of it, and so did The Texan. Now I will explain it.

The Apple Cucumber is to kill or capture your target by using a close friend or family member. I will give you an example. I wish to kill Mr X but Mr X is aware of the plot and is on guard. I steer an agent of mine into Mr X’s friend, in a pub, club or race track. My agent is always careful never to mention my name. Mr X’s friend and my man become great mates, drinking together, going to parties. My agent may even get to meet Mr X and they may all go out together. Eventually the friend will say to my agent, ‘Can I bring my mate with me?’. Bingo. I have Mr X where I want him.

The agent tells me that Mr X will be at such and such a hotel at 6.30 that night. My agent meets them for a drink. He walks out one door, I walk in the other … and that’s the Apple Cucumber. Mr X is totally unaware that his life is at risk until it’s too late.

The Apple Cucumber is very difficult to detect or escape from. The target is manipulated into a set-up and led to his death by an unsuspecting friend or relative. Brilliant, yet simple. Dead simple.

*

Behind every smart gangster there is an even smarter lawyer. In Melbourne there is one lawyer who stands at the head of the pile. Let’s just call him The Spider.

The Spider was the man who introduced the Melbourne underworld to the three magic words ‘Off Shore Banking’. He has set up accounts in Fiji and New Caledonia for assorted crime bosses and underworld personalities. The Spider acts on behalf of Melbourne’s criminal establishment, the cream of the crop. The Spider runs the biggest money laundry in Melbourne and in many ways could be called the Meyer Lansky of the Melbourne criminal world. In the mid 1980s he was the first one to start setting up accounts in Tel Aviv.

In fact, if The Spider died, a lot of top drug men and gambling figures would have great trouble finding out where their money was. The Spider acts as a middle man, peacemaker and go between in the underworld. He is the keeper of secrets, banker, accountant, tax adviser, financial consultant and legal adviser to the top crime lords in Melbourne — the Carlton Crew, Freddy the Wog, The Tiger, just to name a few. If you make big money in the crime world of Melbourne then you talk to The Spider. He hides it for you, washes it for you, cleans it, invests it. He can be seen at certain upmarket auction houses buying for his clients. His office is a neutral ground, often warring criminal factions will meet there to settle a problem with The Spider acting as a middle man. Criminal meetings, even large scale drug deals, can be set up with him over dinner in some restaurant. He has been under federal investigation and a number of other authorities have had a good look at him, but he is still going strong.

This man is not just employed by drug criminals. He is a part of the top level criminal scene. In some cases some large scale money operations have had to be put off because the solicitor was out of the state or country on holidays or on business. I could not overstate this man’s power in the criminal world. He knows where the money is and whose it is, and he is the only one who can get to it.

I had a meeting with him once. He wanted to organise a peace meeting between my good self and a crew of crims. I declined. But it shows that if you want someone bribed, or at least an offer made, The Spider is the one to organise it. He is a fixer, a criminal money man. He is the banker and ‘Godfather’ to many of Melbourne’s top drug and gambling men.

He also enjoys the company of young prostitutes and has them supplied to him free of charge. One 15-year-old prostitute was told to tell him she was only 13 to excite him further. He enjoys fine wine, good cigars and top quality cocaine. He handles a lot of the money from the massage parlour and escort service scene.

When one young criminal felt that some money he had given to the solicitor to wash seemed to have shrunk at the laundry he decided to get even. But the solicitor had the power and the friends, so the young crim ended up being punished. I was asked to do the punishing and, as a favour to a friend, when this young man arrived in jail I dealt with him. On my release The Spider thanked me. Big deal.

What this solicitor just doesn’t fully understand is that if I, or any other headhunter went into real war with any of his clients then he would be the first cab off the rank. He would go into the boot first because, after all, he is the keeper of the financial keys, the brain behind many of the mental retards in the drug and gambling worlds. If he did a runner and fled to South America most of the drug bosses in Melbourne would have to go on the dole.

I have always kept a close eye on him and in 1987, if real war had broken out between some crime crews and me, I fully intended to kidnap or kill The Spider so that the big cash reserves of my enemies would have been frozen, because his secrets would have died with him.

He has become so powerful that he can hardly be stopped. Even if he was struck off and couldn’t practise as a solicitor, he would be a full time financial and tax adviser. His legal law practice has become a yoke around his neck.

*

I have only ever been caught in a police raid once, and that was in 1974. After that I started to make detailed study of police equipment, police radio codes, and their tactics and strategies. The Special Operations Group is the master of the early morning wake up call, they have their own codes and signals and are heavily armed.

My findings were as follows: spread as much confusing misinformation as acceptable and if that doesn’t work, put your hands in the air and smile, for there is no counter move to a surprise.

Hey, no ears doesn’t mean no brains.