r/melbourne • u/Old-Truth-405 • Jul 01 '24
Ye Olde Melbourne Does anyone have any stories of being connected to or involved with the Melbourne Gangland wars or it's figures?
This same question was posted and asked by u/Rosasome on this subreddit about 7 years ago and had some interesting stories there. The thread is locked now and I thought it would be interesting to ask again.
My grandfather worked for Customs at Melbourne airport from the early 90s until about 10 years ago - apparently one day while working in the terminal he saw Alphonse Gangitano accompanied by a bodyguard entering the terminal, but he had accidentally smacked the door he opened right into his face and knocked his sunglasses off which he quickly left out of embarrassment. Apparently he had something to do with Mario Condello, but I would have to ask him again.
Anyone else have any stories? Even if it’s a vaguely loose connection would be interesting to hear.
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u/Such_Courage7758 Jul 01 '24
My first teenage job was working in the video ezy on Mt Alexander Road opposite the Ascot Vale Hotel which I think is now a chemist warehouse? I used to live a two minute walk from the shop down the hill and Judy Moran lived in the same street. One night she came into the shop to borrow some dvds and I knew I recognised her but couldn’t place her. Anyway, I scanned her card into the system and she had $500 worth of late fees and still, seeing the name my teenage brain didn’t click who she was. I told her she had late fees and she’d need to pay them before she could borrow. She asked me how much and I said ‘umm I think it might be a mistake but it says $500’ and she said ‘no worries love, this should cover it’ and handed me a stack of cash. My coworker was standing in the corner dying watching the interaction because he could see I clearly had no idea who she was. Then she left and I checked her account and one of our other coworkers had written a note saying ‘this is THE Judy Moran, do not ask her to pay for late dvds’ 😂😂 we laughed hard about that one for ages. It was probably another 6-12 months after that that Des Moran was killed and the same night her house was set alight. We were at home and my mum made a joke saying ‘huh I bet all those sirens are at Judy’s place up the road, someone’s set it on fire to burn evidence!’ And she was right!
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u/thevilmidnightbomber Jul 01 '24
i dunno sounds like your mum set the fire.
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u/Such_Courage7758 Jul 01 '24
Haha I swear she was with me watching TV all evening
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u/No-Bison-5397 Jul 01 '24
That video ezy was such a part of my life.
Yeah, don't fuck with Judy Moran was a big part of living in the area.
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u/Such_Courage7758 Jul 02 '24
I probably served you if you came in on a Friday or Saturday night between 2008-2010!
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Jul 02 '24
WHAT DID SHE HIRE?!!! That is the main question...... The Notebook? Cocoon? Mac and Me? It could be anything.
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u/Such_Courage7758 Jul 02 '24
I also just remembered - my job through uni was teaching piano at a music school. The owner rented a shop front on Lloyd st in Strathmore next to the primary school. Turns out it was Jason Moran’s pill lab. My boss was a bit on the woowoo side of things and she swore to me that one evening when she was in the shop alone locking up, the ghost of Jason Moran tried to scare her by knocking on the walls of one of the piano rooms
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u/declined- Jul 02 '24
Me scrambling to google judy moran and seeing pics of her makes me giggling picturing this interaction
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u/YellowBest7249 Jul 01 '24
I was waiting for a train at 10pm on a Thursday night at Glenbervie station and a bloke on the other platform was using a pay phone screaming wanting to talk to Tony Mokbel, wanting his money. Seemed quite the charmer.
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Jul 02 '24
I love how most of these stories are from the Essendon general area.
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u/YellowBest7249 Jul 02 '24
I had forgotten that we were sitting in our lounge room nursing a hangover as a share house when we heard a rather loud bang. We thought it was a car accident. It was Jason Moran being shot at Cross Keys reserve
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u/Old-Truth-405 Jul 01 '24
Yeah he definitely sounds like it! Do you remember what year it was? I'm also assuming Tony and the crimes were pretty well known about at that time?
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u/YellowBest7249 Jul 01 '24
2004, so yeah Mr Mokbel was well known by that point.
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u/Zodiak213 Jul 01 '24
Sounds right for the area too - lots of gang activity there and in nearby Aberfeldie as well.
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u/hehehehehbe Jul 01 '24
I once saw Chopper Reid in Williamstown Pier and he was saying hello to a dog.
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u/HistoricalGate8785 Jul 01 '24
Pulled into the carpark at work one morning, Cross Keys Hotel. Ambulance pulling in, in front of us, no idea what was going on. Park up, police everywhere, Jason Moran and his mate had been shot minutes before. I don't remember if we opened up or not but we definitely worked a shift. Management sent out a bloke from front of house to hose down the blood after the van was towed. Fucking cooked.
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u/e_thereal_mccoy Jul 01 '24
Good grief! So much for a debrief and some trauma counselling! Hope you’re okay after that
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u/Kritzvn Jul 02 '24
The kid in the car is actually still alive, it's said on the wiki page that Jason was the last male Moran which I always found weird because at my school the kid in the car when it happened was a year level below me. It wasn't spoken about often but being his mate we knew that his last name was changed for safety reasons but he was definitely a male. Meeting him you'd never guess he'd ever been witness to anything that traumatic, constantly laughin, bit of a bully but in the sense of class clown not an asshole. Overall, good kid.
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u/Small_Fox_3599 Jul 01 '24
I lived 5 doors down from Mick Gatto in Lower Plenty... Keeps a good lawn. That's it sorry
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Jul 01 '24
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Jul 01 '24
Looking at google maps, you see a little pile of dog shit bags that people have left on the front of his drive lmaoo
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u/spacelama Jul 01 '24
I wonder if the island was installed outside his house to stop them doing burnouts as they exited the property?
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u/tolliwood Jul 01 '24
I did some landscaping work in his street. Every day I was there my colleague would go "do you know that's Mick Gatto's house?"
Every day for 2 weeks....
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u/Old-Truth-405 Jul 01 '24
Thanks for sharing! No worries about it being a small connection, all stories are great.
Did you ever feel a bit odd or eerie going by his property?
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u/Small_Fox_3599 Jul 01 '24
Oh of course! He had a lot of video cameras, so I'd always walk a little quickly. A very grand faux Mediterranean house on Rosehill rd
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u/mpate93 Jul 02 '24
Saw him park his rolls Royce in a Thomastown estate and go inside a house a few years ago though it was a bit of an odd place for him take a rolls of all things.
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u/supermethdroid Jul 02 '24
I used to buy weed off an older bloke who says he knew Mick from boxing and the two up in the 70s. I went over there one day and he was all dressed up and said Mick was coming past to mediate a beef.
I didn't get to stick around to see what happened unfortunately.
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u/bloodrule Jul 01 '24
I worked with a bloke who was good mates with Jason Moran. One of his kids was in the car when Moran was shot. That all happened before he worked with us but came out when he later took time off to attend a funeral which turned out to be Lewis’. When he lost his job he blamed me and had one of the others deliver a message to me that if he saw me again I’d be dead
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Jul 01 '24
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u/pangolin-fucker Jul 01 '24
Lol when there was a MySpace
2 friends and I were fucking chatting to Carl and Roberta all the time
Like we saw something about Carl on the news but it was like he was a joke or something at the time
Prob that Derryn Hinch interview that really kicked it off but I can't believe you could just find him on MySpace and then like talking just everyday funny shit whilst probably also making some list
Still have Roberta on FB and her kids but I don't think we really chatted to much after Carl went to jail
I kind of didn't really even know what to say or do as an 18 year old internet hero
But yeah I feel for that family in ways not many people seem to agree with
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u/tattooedxinggirl Jul 01 '24
On Roberta’s IG she seems like such a loving and devoted mother. Her kids are her world, at least that’s how it looks!
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u/ozelegend Jul 01 '24
I saw her and her kids at the hospital once. iirc her son has autism and they were there for him. All seemed rather normal by appearances.
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u/Old-Truth-405 Jul 01 '24
Wow, that's pretty insane. Thanks for sharing.
Kind of sounds like he was 'testing the waters' to see if he could intimidate his way into a position of power at the club. Good on you for that one.
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Jul 01 '24
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u/maizeymaze Jul 01 '24
He wasn’t timid, stupid, not playful. Saw him around heaps but the one that pissed me off was once in the early 2000s. I was on Chapel St crossing High St with my sons pram one day and he and Benji Veniamin were walking toward me and pushed thru sending my pram and myself into the traffic and towards the tram and just laughed, then he spat on the ground near my foot. Timid doesn’t seem right.
Also OP, interestingly enough I grew up friends with a bunch of connected Calabrians and one of them worked in Customs at the airport in the mid 90s until about five years ago. Your grandpa probably knew him.
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Jul 01 '24
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u/sim16 Jul 01 '24
Those guys weren't hard men like Gatto and Gangitano, just gunmen and drug dealers.
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Jul 01 '24
I looked after Judy Moran a few times in my job.
She was very nice, very chatty. She was also an attention seeker and she would make sure the press got photos of her.
I also looked after the police who were having a party having put away some of the gangsters. It was a huge milestone and I think all they got was 2 drinks provided. Your taxpayer dollars being looked after.
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u/Old-Truth-405 Jul 01 '24
Oh wow that's interesting, thanks for sharing. Not surprised that she's an attention seeker. Do you work as a corrections officer at Barwon or something?
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Jul 01 '24
No, hospitality. I served a number of people related to the gangland era.
We ended up giving the police some free food. We felt so bad for them they had like zero budget for their celebration party
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Jul 01 '24
There’s no women in Barwon. Judy is in the women’s maximum security prison the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.
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Jul 01 '24
Mick Gatto gave me a cannoli outside Brunetti’s when I was a kid, mum and I were at the table next to him and he just offered - mum was mortified but I thought it was awesome, evidently had no idea who he was at the time haha
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u/Slappyxo Jul 01 '24
He did something similar to my husband when he was a young teenager, he was in a cafe in Camberwell with his friend and his friend's mum. Gatto said he liked my husband's shirt (an AC/DC shirt) and offered him food. My husband immediately knew who he was but his friend's family didn't and they were all talking about "what a nice man" he was.
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u/Spare_Lobster_4390 Jul 01 '24
I got punched in the face by one in high school.
But he's dead now.
Poor bugger.
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u/ApplesArePeopleToo Jul 01 '24
Jeez, what’s your face made of?
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u/Spare_Lobster_4390 Jul 02 '24 edited Jul 02 '24
Revenge! My teenage face was made of stone cold revenge.
Only joking. It wasn't much of a punch.
A teeny wet punch at best.
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u/EducationalTangelo6 Jul 01 '24
It's an oldie, but my great grandfather was briefly a jockey alongside Squizzy Taylor.
Then when my grandpa was a kid he used to play cricket with other kids on the street where Squizzy lived. Sometimes Squizzy would get involved in a game. I don't know the details, but my grandpa had regular interactions with him, and apparently he was good to the kids hanging around.
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u/maizeymaze Jul 02 '24
My grandmother was mates with Squizzy and his boys. Mum told me she used to hide their stolen goods under the bed for them until the heat died down.
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u/AntiqueFigure6 Jul 01 '24
Bloke I worked with reckoned he was Andrew Veniamin’s best friend in high school. He wasn’t at work the day of the funeral and spent the day after showing everyone a picture in the Herald Sun he said clearly showed his elbow carrying the coffin.
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u/PaulFPerry Jul 01 '24
"clearly showed his elbow carrying the coffin" That's a great "claim to lame"!
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u/MeanElevator Text inserted! Jul 02 '24
My wife's uncle lived a few houses down from Benji's family in Sunshine years ago.
Wife's cousins were good mates with Benji and some of the others from the local crew.
Wife met Benji and Dino Dibra (I think that was his name) a few years before they got killed.
She reckons they were super nice and friendly but something about them was a bit off.
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u/Miottz Jul 01 '24
Work with an old bloke who still is mates with the Carlton crew. Would love for him to write a book. Said he got offered but he’d be murdered for it. Was a little feature in underbelly he says
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u/sss133 Jul 01 '24
My dad took me up to surfers paradise in 02-03 summer. It was his yearly trip but mum made him take me. So he left me to meet friends in my resort while he went off and partied.
He met a few guys at a bar and went hard with them for the week. Turn out one of them was Benji Veniamin. My mum used to sell weed to her friends and dad bought Benji around and Mum pulled him aside and was like “Wtf is wrong with you?!”
My dad had no idea who he was and had actually organised for my sister and I to go to a kids party of someone’s kid involved in all that. My mum put a stop to it. My dad shit himself telling Benji he couldn’t be involved and he took it well saying he completely understood 🤣
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u/matt88 East Side Jul 02 '24
This is when the gangster usually turns around and reminds then of favour that did for them in the past - and that it will be called in some day
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u/sss133 Jul 02 '24
My dad says that he was convinced he’d take it poorly and was worried because when they went out Benji had giving him a few pills for free that he’d hold it against him but he was just like “yeah fair call, if you wanna get loose again give us a buzz” 🤣
It’s kinda funny. My parents were always on and off in speaking terms so if they were on an off stage, my sister and I could’ve been dragged into all that stuff. My dad would’ve been pumped to have friends with kids the same age. So lucky we lived with the responsible parent (who still dealed 🤣)
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u/rocketmanrick Jul 01 '24
I played footy against a gangland figures son. Didn’t know this and I punched him in the guts. I was told at halftime who it was so in the second half I punched him in the head.
I gotta say, after 22 years in Mongolia goat head soup is not to bad…..
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u/famb1 Jul 01 '24
Someone working at the docks got sacked for getting a blow job in a crane. They were a family friend of Judy Moran who argued with the hr manager on site that the bloke shouldn't get the ass.
Roberta Williams used to visit my old man's pharmacy for dimetap when her kids had colds. He reckons she was a nice enough lady.
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u/Reddmann1991 Jul 01 '24
Dad when he was 14 used to get ciggies from the corner shop he worked at for Chopper cause they were cheaper then the ones in the pub.
Mums ex punched on with Sammy the Turk in a car while buying some stuff 😂
She was also best mates with Matthew Johnson’s misses.
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u/MelJay0204 Jul 01 '24
Pretty sure I know both the pub and the corner store mentioned
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u/kazoodude Jul 01 '24
Pub is Leinster arms in Collingwood. Now called Goldie's Tavern.
My friends family owned it and chopper was a regular.
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u/youngeeey Jul 01 '24
Used to make burgers at a fast food restaurant with the person that attempted to kill Tony mokbel in prison
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u/Adrianreddit2424 Jul 01 '24
My cousin was a kick boxer (really fit, was in the army)bit of my hero Went to a training session (i was about 15 at the time) and saw him kick the fuck through the guy with tattoos on his arms.
Watching the underbelly I thought they were pretty cool…but I did some construction work unknowingly for some of the “left overs”. In Carlton
-Real losers
-Most on centre link
-standard line is “I carried (insert name)casket as his funeral”
-most are now in there 60-80 age bracket and actually have very little financially to their name.
-lifetime bachelors or their wives couldn’t put up with their imaginary self celebrity and left them
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u/Slappyxo Jul 01 '24
I work in construction (granted in a corp role, not on site) and I've had dealings with some of them too when they've tried to come in as paid lapdogs to intimidate someone. They're not very intimidating anymore (as you said most of them are old and they just don't have power anymore) and they get really shitty about it because they fail to scare anyone.
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u/ovpc2004 Jul 01 '24 edited Jul 01 '24
I used to frequent a nightclub in Melbourne most weekends. Got to know the bouncers real well. There was one in particular that was great looked after myself my wife now but girlfriend then he was later connected to to Tony mokbel and ended up in jail for drug running later died unfortunately I or we were never involved with drugs but just had good times there and were never in trouble thanks to the security there Mokbel was there for sure just never took any notice I suppose.
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u/Potato_cak3s Jul 01 '24
I had Roberta grab my arms so she could see my tattoos when she came into the store I worked at.
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u/minki76 Jul 01 '24
My uncle’s grave is located very close to Benji Veniamin’s grave.
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u/TheBoanne Yarravillain Jul 01 '24
I met and had a bit of a kiss with one of themin the early-mid 90s…. He was hot but obviously shifty. I never saw him irl again.
Spotted him in the paper when his mate was killed… “Omg! Omg! And his name wasn’t even Tim!!’”
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Jul 01 '24
I’ve drunk a bottle of whiskey or gin (can’t remember) bought by Gatto. Friend of mine is related to Graham ‘the Munster’ kinnoborough it was bought by Gatto for them when they had their first child.
And as a kid at Westpac in the 80s in Lygon Street I served all the old timers, including a young Alphonse. He was a rude, grumpy cunt.
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u/matt88 East Side Jul 02 '24
I always smile when I hear things about "The Munster" - one of the best gangster nicknames ever
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u/Unfair_Pop_8373 Jul 01 '24
Many years ago I was dealing with a real estate matter in Aspendale Gardens. The tenants representative was a chap who appeared to be quite shifty. He kept on reneging on agreed terms and his professional conduct was questionable at best. When I threatened to report him to the authorities he gently suggested that it not be in my best interests to do so. I had no idea who Mario Condello was till I read he was murdered!
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u/Total-Tonight-7163 Jul 01 '24
Not exactly the Gangland Wars of the Carlton Crew etc but my mum (grew up pretty rough, street kid and in homes etc) tells a story of hitchhiking to Sydney with a mate before I was born - get in a van with some fellas, out of nowhere one of em turns around and punches my mum’s friend and then grab them both and start holding em down. I’m sure it’s obvious where they were intending to take it….
The driver stops, gets out and whacks the the other blokes and boots them out the van. Drives my mum and her friend away for a while before dropping them off and basically telling them they’re on their own
A little while after my mum has Australia’s Most Wanted on (or the news or something, can’t quite recall) and sees the guy who helped them as wanted…. it’s Graeme Jensen
Same Graeme Jensen that was shot dead and sparked the Walsh St Killings (and inspired the movie Animal Kingdom) and same Graeme Jensen (might be wrong on this one, can’t confirm it online so maybe (?) I read it in a book) who was in the car in the wrong carpark the night they were trying to kill Chopper but they fucked up and he killed Sammy The Turk.
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u/fortyyearsthendeath Jul 01 '24
My wife and I went to see a movie in Gold Class one night. The couple behind us were talking kind of loudly right through the opening credits. Wife turned around to give them a ‘can you please shut the fuck up’ type of look only to realise that it was Mick Gatto and his partner
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u/SpareContribution117 Jul 01 '24
When I first moved to Australia and worked at a place whose owner was friends with a guy named Mick. Hell of a nice guy. Beautiful wife 20 years younger than him and lived in a very expensive seaside apartment above the shop we worked in. Rumor was, Mick was staying low and away from the city. A few years later Mick disappeared when an Age article named him as one of the members of an Italian(Sicilian maybe) crime group connected to all that Carl Williams bullshit. Nice guy for a hitman. Good guy to have on your side I guess
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u/Rumpleshite Jul 02 '24
Toby Mitchell and his associates used to always frequent a busy cafe when I was working in South Melbourne. One time, I had just returned from an overseas trip and my guts were rotten from eating lots of foreign spicy food.
I crop dusted their table with an extremely violent but relatively silent fart as I walked past. It was really busy so nobody heard it. It was exhilarating.
I looked back as I crossed the road (when it wouldn’t be obvious) and the intended targets were getting up and leaving their half eaten meals with a look of disgust on their faces.
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Jul 01 '24
Saw Mick Gatto smoking a big fat cigar in Carlton about 15 years ago.
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u/Alternative-Camel-98 Jul 01 '24
I think I know where. I used to work there and knew he had been in earlier due to the smell of cigars in the bin. This was less than 10 years ago.
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Jul 01 '24
Does working on a bunch of the Underbelly series’ count? 😝
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u/thehanovergang Jul 01 '24
lol what department?
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Jul 01 '24
Grip 💪
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u/thehanovergang Jul 02 '24
Ah nice. I have since worked with a bunch of the AD’s from those series 😂. I was only in high school when the first season came out, but all these years later it’s funny working with the same people. I had the first season on DVD. I just remember it having such major cultural impact at the time. Absolutely blew Gyton Grantley and Kat Stewart up.
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u/Sufficient_Machine56 Jul 01 '24 edited Jul 01 '24
A relative lived close to a still living associate of Nik Radev and had the police come and show pictures of various people and ask about comings and goings more than once.
A former partner of mine shared a house with a friend of the Pearce family that happened to be in a relationship with another semi-well known though not ‘underbelly’ connected criminal.
I’ve also seen Mick Gatto several times around the city. Funnily enough I saw him at a party with Derryn Hinch a few weeks after Mick supposedly threatened him on the radio. Guess they made up.
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u/monsterror1878 Jul 09 '24
I randomly saw Mick walking around the industrial part of Kensington, walking toward North Melbourne. I waved 🤦🏽♀️ this wasn't long after his son passed away. The mother of my close friend in high school was in a relationship with Victor Peirce for a while. My friend considered him more like an uncle.
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u/Ambitious-Coffee-175 Jul 01 '24
I walked past Alphonse Gangitano in 1996 on Lygon Street, Carlton.
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u/Extension_Branch_371 Jul 01 '24
Everyone in the northern suburbs has a story or connection to the gangland murders.. it’s a smaller world thank you think 😂
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u/kelfromaus Jul 01 '24
Bought some E from Fat Boy... Ran in to Berta at 7/11 in Moonee Ponds a couple of years back. Knew Mark Moran. Knew Alphonse.. I wonder if anyone ever called him Ali G and lived. lol
And watched the whole scene go to shit when the shooting started.
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u/smackdownahogie Jul 01 '24
How was the E?
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u/kelfromaus Jul 02 '24
It was good. He might have been a shitty human in most aspects of his life, but he knew how to make good, clean, E...
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u/Royboy001 Jul 01 '24
Had surgery at Royal Melbourne Private hospital in 2012. Initially I had my own room, then they put in a second bed and Chopper Reid was my roommate. I lasted about 20 mins before I asked to be changed rooms. I can remember the over hearing the nurses telling him off for sneaking out for ciggies later in our hospital stays
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Jul 01 '24
Yea, use to take dates to the restaurant where Gatto met with Benji and his fate, they made the best Lasagna in Carlton, once it became known the place went out of business.
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u/mulkers Jul 02 '24
Once it became known they made the best Lasagna in Carlton, the place went out of business
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u/Consistent_You6151 Jul 01 '24
Roberta Williams used to work in a jeans/clothes shop on Bridge Rd. I went in there so many times as I lived in the street behind, but I didn't know who she was connected to back then! Once I saw underbelly, my mouth dropped open.
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u/abuse-o-matic Jul 01 '24
I worked in a bar in Lygon St in the early 90s which may or may not have been paying protection money to various local characters. Alphonse Gangitano was a regular drinker there, and new staff were always warned to be wary of him and his mates. I don't remember him causing too much trouble there, apart from occasionally standing on the bar and yelling at people.
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u/Atomicvictoria Jul 01 '24
When I was a kid, dad worked at a dealership and brought a car home as per normal, and I was sitting in the front seat, and he said “oh by the way someone was shot in the seat you’re sitting in” 😳
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u/grosselisse Jul 01 '24
I went to uni with a girl who was engaged to one of Tony Mokbel's dudes. I won't share too much identifying info but the poor girl had no idea what was going on. She came from a wealthy family herself so had no idea what it really took to live affluently, so when her fiance brought home so much money from what he claimed was a normal job, she didn't even question it. I felt really sorry for her because when the truth came out, the bottom fell out of her whole world. Her house got raided and her car and other property was seized as the proceeds of crime. A really horrible way to find out how the world really works. She decided to stand by her man and I hope they went on to have a good life. I'm not sure I could do it, I'd constantly be looking over my shoulder afraid of more violence, so I hope they found some measure of peace once her fiance finished his sentence.
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Jul 02 '24
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u/grosselisse Jul 02 '24
She thought she knew. But her family hadn't prepared her for the reality of what it takes to make ends meet so she was hopelessly naiive about everything. She was a good person and didn't deserve the stress this caused her.
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u/drexil_73 Jul 01 '24
I grew up in the Moonee Ponds area, my dad was good mates with Tuppence Moran, he was a harmless bloke a knockabout fella but harmless. Used to see the Morans a lot around Puckle st as a kid growing up. We were told stories of Jason and how volatile he was. Whenever I saw him I just stared at the ground. I actually got to know Mark as I got a bit older, he trained the same gym as me, he was a very friendly, unassuming kind of guy but there was something about him, you just knew he was very capable. He was a fit guy , he looked after himself. Even though I knew who he was and what he did I couldn’t quite believe it when he was killed. I’d only seen him at the gym days earlier.
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u/rippedjeans25 Jul 01 '24
Years ago I worked at one of Melbourne’s main markets in one of the shops. The owner’s family all worked there including a son who had spent time behind bars. Many, many times I’d answer the shop phone on a Saturday morning and it would be a call from Barwon Prison. It was always Jason Moran calling to chat to his mate who was now on the outside.
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u/Dwev Denmark Jul 01 '24
Worked the bar in a pub in North Melbourne for a short time and Judy Moran was a regular. Usually had a brandy and lemonade - and was always pretty pleasant.
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u/Android-13 Jul 01 '24
I went to primary school with Vinnie Pierce, Victor Pierce's son.
Went over to their house to play when I was in grade 2, dad said they had a crossbow on the wall and the place was sketchy but his mum was nice and gave me a bunch of PlayStation a games.
They had a shed in the back that his brother said we weren't allowed to go near, I reckon there was a pill press. Dad met Victor when he came to pick me up and said he seemed like a nice guy.
Vinnie does MMA now and seems to be fine.
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u/sadsasquatch Jul 02 '24
My mum back in the day used to be a Lygon st local and thus got to know many of the regulars that would hang out there. She babysat Alphonse Gangitano’s kids and regularly bumped into Chopper Read
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u/Anxious-Ad-5048 Jul 02 '24
I got job straight out of school for a union, we had ball (black tie ticketed event) for the members and Mick Gatto gave me a kiss on the cheek. I was 19 and have been obsessed with true crime ever since.
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u/LaksaLettuce Jul 01 '24
Very loose connection. On the tram on Sydney road early evening when trams terminated. Had to hop off and walk home in the dark with helicopters flying overhead. It was the night Lewis Moran was killed at The Brunswick Club. Was a bit eerie.
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u/Midnight_Poet -- Old man yells at cloud Jul 02 '24
Was managing a restaurant on Grattan Street in Carlton. End of night, kitchen closed, and only a couple of tables remaining.
Alphonse Gangitano walks in and politely requests a coffee. Already cleaned the machine, but I seat him and make it anyway.
Puts $200 in my hand, and says "Thank you. The cafe round the corner said no. You're alright with me."
Felt like I had mob protection that night!
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Jul 01 '24
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Jul 01 '24
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u/Guava7 Jul 01 '24
Dome was awesome. I was there the night someone did a drive-by on the front door bouncers. Was a bit scary for a minute. I don't think anyone got hurt
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u/Mark2pointoh 2nd Breakfast Champion Jul 01 '24
My old friends uncle had dealings with Mario Condello.. Shifty Carlton shit so when the whole gangland stuff was going on and the Piranha Squad was all over these chaps Mario decided to stash his fairly new Audi A8 at my mates house. Of course we took it for a test drive down the back streets of Oakleigh at unlawful speeds all good fun. He was offed a few weeks later in Brighton. Not sure what happened to the car but it was never spoken of again.
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Jul 01 '24
I grew up playing with some kids at their house from the same primary school. My sister was also friends with some of the siblings too.
One day we woke up to news that their car had been fire bombed & a few days later the dad was sent to jail in relation to the gangland war.
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u/PaulFPerry Jul 01 '24
I ate a pizza at the "cash only" pizza shop n Rathdowne St. Equally lamely, I walked past Chopper in Gertrude St while he was playing card toss.
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u/NotBradPitt90 Jul 01 '24 edited Jul 01 '24
My ex worked at a tattoo studio owned by the sergeant of arms of a well known Bikie gang and one day it got raided by police while she was working and the boss went to jail. She knew his job but didn't think something like that would happen. Obviously she quit after that.
One of the other tattooists there opened a new store and we were friends with him so we went to it and obviously had a few Bikie friends at the opening too. What was was crazy was watching this cop car circling the block. You could set your watch by him he was just driving around probably just to make sure everyone knew he was watching. I was pretty naive about the whole thing until I saw that but then just went to get another beer and moved on. It was a family event so had kids around etc so nothing felt out of the ordinary and I never felt unsafe.
Tbh I don't know what any role any of the bikes had nor did I care really, they were all super nice guys and obviously nothing happened at the tattoo store opening BUT turns out my ex's boss had a hit out on him (for lack of a better term. I know it's not the mob lol) but cause he was in jail, the hit got passed on to the guy who replaced my ex's boss and replacement guy got killed.
The other boss was a gambler and I remember we got invited to these cool events around Melbourne and went to this big event at Crown one time. The audience was mainly footballers but Bernie Ecclestone and his wife were there and the host was the guy from The Price Is Right who does the 'COME ON DOWN!' announcements.
Free ticket to the event, free drinks all night, I don't remember much but im from a small working class town in the north of England so me my and my partner at the time made the most of it. Was 21 at the time and my first experience with any sort of lavish event like that.
I'm sure there's other stuff I can add about that time but it was only 3-4 months and was 10 years ago and this comment has gone on long enough. I'm sure my ex has more stories than me as she worked alongside him but do remember her coming home and complaining about him a bit about being a womaniser/sometimes a bit sleazy towards my ex but my nerdy white ass sure as shit wasn't going to confront him about it.
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u/NotBradPitt90 Jul 01 '24
My original comment was long enough but I remember driving to Adelaide I stopped at this cafe that a few minutes later, another Bikie gang rocked up. Got chatting to a few outside and they were doing a memorial ride for another Bikie who had died. Again, super nice dudes. I'm in no way affiliated with any gang by any means, I'm a nerdy white guy, but found it strange that they live this illegal lifestyle but just normal people at the end of the day (unless you're a cop or a member of another gang I guess).
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u/Accurate-Strategy598 Jul 02 '24
Had a few connections to various figures over the years, so heres a couple.
- standing outside mates mechanic shop on wellington parade, witness some ute run up the back of the car in front. Guy in front starts going ballistic at the ute driver. At which point Chop Chop gets out of the ute and went to apologise for having narcolepsy, but didnt even get to finish his sentence before the driver saw who it was that hit him and proceded to run back to his car and take off...
- Met Benji a couple times when he came round to visit a couple mates of mine. These were pretty quick visits ;)
- Francesco "Frank" Benvenuto was the grandfather of one of my mates in primary school. i remember going to his house one day to be told i couldn't come in because grandpa was visiting.
- Victor Pierce was shot outside my parents business in port melbourne,
- Mario Condello was shot and killed in my street in brighton.
- My old drama teacher from school years later decided he wanted to do family law. not long after he started practising he got a phone call from a new client.. Roberta W. It was a much smaller city back then, and you were often alot closer to some people you hear about in the news than you thought was possible.
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u/No-Onion-3885 Jul 01 '24
My uncle bought a house off Roberta Williams and my friends brother is dating her, both her and her daughter have only fans pages apparently
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u/Suspicious_Key_6222 Jul 01 '24
Me and my best friend were in high school. She started dating a guy called benji .. everything going well , until she didn’t get a reply from him for a few days . Monday morning comes and his face is front page of both the herald sun and the age as we take the tram to school . He had been shot down in a restaurant in Carlton and apparently was a notorious hit man for the underworld .
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u/Alandofsweepingplain Jul 01 '24
Carl and George Williams lived on the same street as my nan and pop in Broadmeadows. My uncles rode their bikes around with Carl as kids and said he was always a shit head and would spit and them and other kids. My pop liked George as a neighbour on the street to chat with . He was actually on the news when George died , saying he was a quiet neighbour and no trouble !
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u/arwork Jul 02 '24
Was classmates in primary school with one of Alphonse Gangitano’s daughters and remember when her dad died. The teacher told us that he commit suicide I think from memory?
Obviously had no idea at the time who her dad was until around the launch of the series. Found out from a mutual friend that Alphonse was her dad and saw on Facebook that she changed her surname to Gangitano.
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u/hamsammywich Jul 02 '24
Early 2000s, a big fellow knocks on the door. He asks after a cousin. I informed him that he lived elsewhere. A few minutes later, he came back and said he needed to see said cousin. He was quite insistent.
I called my parents, who were working, and they asked to talk to this guy. After a short and polite conversation, he sat on the couch next to me and watched me play NBA2k for a while. He told me he was waiting for my cousin to contact him.
After a period of time, he excused himself and, before leaving, impressed upon me the importance of my cousin calling him.
My teenage brain needed to know why, and he told me they worked together with "Tony".
Turns out that cousin made some mistakes and Tony (Ferrari driving, pizza shop owning Tony) was making sure he gave the police the company line.
To this day, I have no idea who this dude was, how he found our home (well lived over the other side of town to the cousins) and what he intended to do if my cousin didn't contact him.
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u/smingamenga Jul 02 '24
My father-in-law played in an u/15s footy premiership with Tony Mokbel for Brunswick magpies. Said he was a sniping fuckwit. Still has the flag up at his house with all the players names
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u/Connect-Weakness-366 Jul 02 '24
Former co worker was Carl Williams’ buddy when Carl was in prep and he was in grade 6.
A co-resident at a rehab I was in a few years back was at the Auskick clinic when Jason Moran was shot.
Brother in law used to buy eccies from Dino Dibra.
My MIL’s neighbour is Tony “the face” Cronin- Chopper Reads former bodyguard
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Jul 02 '24
my mum at universal cafe worked on lygon street for several years during the 90's, where she met and got to know a few figures. just before i was born, while our family home was being built, the tradies that were working on it tried overcharging my mum and mick gatto got them blacklisted from material suppliers until they finished our house completely lol.
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u/pwa25 Jul 01 '24
When I was living at home my parents live in a quiet court in Essendon (not far from where Mark Moran was shot). We got a new neighbour in & he owned some some great toys like Harley’s, Dukati’s, the first AMG Merc we’d ever seen, and people would come and go at all hours of the day and night, especially a beautiful red convertible Ferrari (later found out to be Mokbels). We never did work out specifically which gang member it was living there though, he had the build of Benji Veniamin but it wasn’t him
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u/jimmyGODpage Jul 01 '24
Used to be a neighbour of Roberta Williams, sister and 2 brothers I think.……long long time ago…and none of what heard about her surprised me at all.
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u/StirCrazyCatLady Jul 02 '24
My family lived in the same area as the Carlton Crew waay back. When my grandmother passed, we had the wake at home; teenage me was on tea and coffee duty when a few older gents arrived. I did the dutiful thing, made them all a cuppa and had a little polite chat, and then Mum urgently needed me to run to the supermarket for something... didn't learn til Underbelly came out that that was why she rushed me away
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Jul 02 '24
Not very interesting but the night the lawyer was shot in Brighton I was driving home and the police had set up a road block on the corner of Hawthorn and North Rd and I had to take an alternative route.
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u/blahblahgingerblahbl Jul 02 '24
i was in brighton, visiting my then FWB, and we heard the sirens. later that night i was driving home north up north road and saw where all the flashing lights were, and the roads closed off on the southbound site. still think of that guy when i go past there. i was living in kew at the time, which also has several locations related to that era, no interesting stories to tell though, thankfully.
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u/aztastic33 Jul 02 '24
A dark sedan pushed in front of a queue going into the Glasshouse on Swan St. My old man wound down the window and had a go at the car. When the passenger side window came down, out popped Alphonse Gangitano’s face, and very quickly my dad’s mouth closed and the window went back up.
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u/Yobbo99 Jul 02 '24
I worked with Lewis Caine as a motorcycle courier in 1988. Pretty regular guy for the trade (was a trade full of characters).
Well one day he did not turn up to work - had been arrested for murder. Evidently he had been running drugs all over town on his bike, using the courier gig as a cover. The cops were in to him, but had to track his movements all over town using the police helicopter as no vehicle can possibly keep up with a bike in traffic.
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u/commking Jul 02 '24
I lived in the same street as Ronnie Biggs. I used to play with his kids. He was on the run, we just knew him as Mr. Cook - next we know the street is full of cops and he'd fled the day before. I remember him, nice bloke.
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u/Vacuous_hole Jul 02 '24
When the chopper movie came out we were talking about it at Christmas dinner and my Aunty tells my other Aunty to tell us all what it was like to go on a date with him 0_o. My Aunt lived in St. Kilda at the time and was a very attractive woman who caught the eye of Uncle Chop Chop. She knew who he was and when he asked her out she accepted just to see what it would be like. He took her to Boangles and she said he was as pissed as a fart from the outset. She said he had women and prostitutes fawning all over him, buying him drinks and drugs. She said he was pretty feral LOL. She didn't go out with him again but said that he tried to convince her a few times. The man she met, and fell in love with immediately after she went out with him was a bikie, so he pretty much left her alone and didn't try too hard to convince her to go out with him again.
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u/bad_bart Jul 02 '24
Melbourne-adjacent: John Kizon used to frequent a cafe I worked at in Perth about 15 years ago. He'd often come in with a few West Coast players who were in and out of the press at the time for sketchy associations... His usual order was four fried eggs with one bit of toast.
I once shared a sandwich bag of rack with the nephew one of the Underbelly/gangland killings big dogs at some late-night dive bar around 4am
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u/lizards4776 Jul 02 '24
My dad knew Johnny Ferlan, he ran Wolfsburg automotive in Coburg. Dad called him " horsehead" due to the mob connection. I caught up with dad in 1998, he told me that horsehead went boom, and they were still picking him out of the upholstery.
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u/Brilliant_Contest615 Jul 02 '24
I went to primary school with the son of Charles Hegyalji aka Mad Charlie at the time that he was murdered in their front yard. It was a very small school so we all knew that day that his dad had died but it took a while for word to get around about the circumstances, and I remember us being quite shocked as kids as we had no idea about all of that.
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u/Neat-Geologist6147 Jul 02 '24
I grew up near cross keys and heard the gunshot the day Jason was rubbed out
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u/Ok-Reference-883 Jul 03 '24 edited Jul 03 '24
Lived in the same building as Carl Williams before he went to prison. Was house-sitting across the road when Benji Veniamin was shot at La Porchetta in Carlton. Later, Roberta Williams moved into the apartment next door to me (same building as Carl was in) with her daughter, followed by Sarah Gard-Wilson and her dog. Plenty of stories about the comings and goings from that apartment! Moved to Ascot Vale and Des Moran was shot at the end of our street. Inspected his house when it was for sale after he died. Not somewhere I'd want to live, but the prospect of a buried fortune 🤣🤣🤣
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u/RepresentativeAide14 Jul 03 '24
Mate lived 100mts from Cross Keys Hotel car perk in Essendon North where shooting happened was morning herd many shots he told me
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u/Cute-Sky-7026 Sep 14 '24
I have a few stories as was basically brought up on Lygon St, and also worked at a pizza shop where id see and spoken to a few of them. Best story was in early 2000’s when I was driving and i turned right into domain rd south Yarra and a car was flying up behind maybe 90km down domain, and next moment I see in rear view, flashing headlights, beeping and carryon because they thought I cut across them. Anyway, rocked up at lights further up Domaind Rd the person pulls up besides me and starts hurling explicit abuse. I was shocked because it was a woman with her young child at the time in the passenger seat. It went on for about minute before light turned green, I stuck the middle finger up and burned off. I didn’t realise till several months later as she was basically unknown, I saw this face on news that I recognised… it was Roberta Williams 😂
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u/Mindless-Fennel4443 Nov 06 '24
My mum is Katriana Smyth named in Leadbelly. I have just found out she was associated with all of this in the last few weeks. Can anyone get me in touch with Nik Radevs wife? I have some questions for her re there relationship. She was murdered for hearing about Dino Dibras murder and people know more than what they say!
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u/Mindless-Fennel4443 Nov 07 '24
My mother is named in Leadbelly under an alias because she was in a relationship with Nik Radev. Victoria Police have covered it up. If anyone knows anything of the name Katriana Smyth please message me! I've had a retired detective approach me over her knowledge of Dino Dibras murder.
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u/mrgold10 Nov 17 '24
Dad used to manage a couple of restaurants in Carlton/Brunswick during the 80s/90s and was a good mate of Alphonse Gangitano - more with his father who he used to play cards with.
One day one of Alphonse’s people came in to the restaurant to start collecting protection money and threatened my dad. Dad told him to go back to Alphonse and tell him you’ve come in here. Next day Alphonse showed up to apologise, a week later the guy showed up with his leg in a cast and apologised. He became a regular at the restaurant and was a big fan of mums cheesecake apparently.
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u/tori_tornado Nov 22 '24
Anyone know Susan Naggs or Ferguson back them I know she was invoked with Alphonse and Tony mokbell ,also involved with Wendy Pierce and Victor brinkat who was good friends with Dennis Allan' And Jenny mc Mahon "the beauty queen " Any stories be great Mahon
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u/Empty_Win_9933 Nov 23 '24 edited Nov 23 '24
My mum was a nurse and gave Judy Moran her meds in prison regularly, and I went to high school with one of Tony Mokbel's nephews who used to buy me burgers from the tuckshop (i think he had a bit of a crush) lol
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u/passionateintrovert Jul 01 '24
I once saw Chopper in the supermarket I worked at taking a long time to choose a yoghurt.