The Gangland War (29 page)

Pallbearers play their part.

Detective Sen Sgt Stuart Bateson leads members of the Purana Taskforce away from the Melbourne Magistrates Court after winning an order to interview a murder suspect.

Actor Rodger Corser channels detective ‘Steve Owen'.

Purana Taskforce members led by dogged detective inspector Gavan Ryan (centre) just after Williams had been sentenced to 35 years. This time, police held the press conference.

Frank Holden plays a character uncannily similar to Ryan.

Mario Condello … a man of means by no means.

Changing places: Martin Sacks tries the dark side.

Every dog has its day: CarlWilliams in happier times, when he gave the press conference and the police said ‘no comment'. It didn't last.

Red Rooster or KFC? … Gyton Grantley's ‘Carl' ponders the big questions.

Roberta Williams with family friend Andrew ‘Benji' Veniamin. A short time later he was shot dead.

Below: Kat Stewart as Roberta.

It was the beginning of the end
but it was not the end
of the killings.

 

THE kilometre-square block in the middle of South Yarra is one of the busiest in Melbourne. Traffic there regularly slows to a crawl. No-one would have noticed the late-model sedan that cruised the choked streets for days.

No-one, that is, except the police surveillance experts assigned to help Victoria's gangland taskforce, codenamed Purana.

Police were tracking two of the suspects in some of Melbourne's unsolved underworld murders. Both were known to police. Neither can be named but they were, at the time, loyal members of Carl Williams' rat pack. Much later they would rat on him. They were The Runner and The Driver and this would be their latest (and last) hit for the supermarket shelf stacker turned crime boss.

They drove around the block bounded by Chapel Street and Malvern, Toorak and Williams Roads, past the upmarket boutiques that thrive near the 1960s housing commission flats. They
cruised by the 24-hour Prahran police complex in Malvern Road then turned left into Williams Road and past The Bush Inn Hotel, a favourite with local police. They pulled over, checked the side streets and studied the area as meticulously as town planners.

In one week in October 2003 they went to the block at least four times.

Experienced police knew these men were not sightseeing. They were there on business.

Detectives checked the area for likely targets and considered the possibility of a Spring Carnival raid on the Pub TAB at The Bush Inn. Two luxury car dealerships were also marked as susceptible. There was also a theory that the two suspects might have been planning an armed rip-off of a drug dealer in the area. But the investigators could only make educated guesses.

The detectives did have one big advantage — they had planted a tiny bugging device in the car being used by the suspects. But while it may have seemed that the men were researching a crime, they were not discussing details. Why would they? They knew what they were planning so there was no need to spell it out.

They also had another advantage. The hit team was stupid. They had to know police were close to them, but they continued on regardless. And Carl Williams, who now believed his own publicity, considered himself untouchable.

For the first time, Purana was ahead of the pack. Investigators had found the source of the gang's clean cars — untraceable sedans that could be used as getaway vehicles. The source was a close friend of The Driver — a backyard mechanic who re-birthed abandoned cars.

A police technical expert managed to plant a tracker in the car. All detectives had to do was wait.

But when The Driver picked up the car, he noticed the brake
light was flashing. He pulled over, checked the wiring, found the bug and ripped it out.

The police infiltration should have been blown but inexplicably the hit team didn't abort their plan.

The Driver wanted to pull out, but The Runner and Williams suspected he was fabricating the story to avoid the latest hit.

And The Runner was getting impatient to kill. He followed the target several times from his home in South Yarra to his business in Abbotsford. He knew his movements and was confident he could set up an ambush. The man who had been marked for death was Michael Marshall: hot dog salesman, kick boxer and drug dealer.