The Gangland War (43 page)

He was also investigated over his alleged connection to the killing of Mike ‘Lucky' Schievella, 44, and his partner, Heather McDonald, 36, at their St Andrews home in 1990. The couple, connected to the drug world, were forced to kneel, then bound and gagged before they were slaughtered in their own home. Just like the Hodsons.

It is not the first time a selective leak might have contributed to murder after finding its way into print.

Observers with long memories recall that Isabel and Douglas Wilson were drug couriers for the notorious Mr Asia heroin syndicate in the 1970s. When the pair decided to talk to police about drug running that fact soon appeared in the
Brisbane Sun
newspaper.

The Wilsons' bodies were later found in Rye, Victoria, on 18 May 1979. They had been shot on the orders of the syndicate boss, Terry Clark, because they had been talking.

The Wilsons, too, were dog lovers: their pet was found wandering in the suburbs because the hit man wouldn't kill it. But, as with the Hodsons, it didn't save them.

Police say that while Williams
was planning to kill him,
Mario was trying to set up his
triple hit counter attack.

 

THE big man strolling through the city's legal precinct didn't look like someone on the underworld equivalent of death row. He had no idea that within days he would become yet another victim of Melbourne's vicious gangland war.

Mario Condello was deep in conversation with a member of his legal team when he stopped mid-stride and beckoned. He wanted a chat.

It began badly. Then went downhill.

‘I'm not fucking happy with you,' he opened. He was not in the mood for idle chit-chat.

The author, unused to such robust language in a public street, asked the reason for his apparent concern.

It was his picture that had appeared in the most excellent crime book
Leadbelly — Inside Australia's Underworld Wars
(available at all good book stores).

The caption read, ‘Mario Condello … a man of means by no means.'

‘What's that supposed to mean?' he demanded. It was a rhetorical question.

For a nano-second, the author considered responding that it was a clever play on words to illustrate that Condello was a disbarred lawyer living a million-dollar lifestyle without actually working.

But he wisely decided to remain silent on the grounds of self-preservation.

Condello, dressed casually but expensively, was also offended by the word ‘shady' appearing in a caption under another of his photos in the seminal work
Underbelly 8
.

The author quietly suggested that it was a fair comment given Condello's record, which includes convictions for arson, fraud and drug matters.

Years earlier, Condello was the target of a police taskforce code-named Zulu that investigated his alleged criminal links to drug trafficking, arson, fraud and attempted murder.

The author suggested that since Mario had been sentenced to 13 years' jail, the term shady was fair and apt, perhaps even understated.

Condello, always the argumentative (if disbarred) lawyer, instantly responded that he had served only six years and furthermore, ‘It should have been two … we all make mistakes'.

During the chat in Lonsdale Street, just days before he was due in court to face an incitement to murder charge, Condello was in vintage form. He moved from threatening to entertaining and, finally, charming.

He wanted his name kept out of the papers as he didn't need the publicity or the notoriety. Headlines were bad for business, he said. He did not expand on what that business might be. When it was pointed out to him that his arrest for attempting to incite
the murder of a rival underworld figure, Carl Williams, his father, George, and a Williams' team member, was of more than passing interest, he graciously acknowledged that such headlines were inevitable. He said of the so-called rival, Carl Williams: ‘I hardly knew him. I met him once at Crown (casino). That was it.' Certainly, Mario had been a frequent and welcomed guest at Crown where he had unfettered access to the high-rollers' Mahogany Room and was said to turn over more than $7 million a year.

No wonder they gave him free finger food.

Money may open doors, but bad reputations can close them. Both Condello and Williams were later deemed undesirables and banned from the casino by order of Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon.

Condello's trial before a Supreme Court jury was due to begin in early February 2006. The court was to hear allegations that he offered a contract of $500,000 for the triple hit and would organise a fake passport to get the killer out of the country.

The case was simple, relying on a police informer and secret tapes that appear to indicate Condello would pay for the murders.

The prosecution claimed Condello had purchased an arsenal of weapons from South Australian porn king, Bill Nash.

A police informer said Nash provided 15 weapons including an Uzi 9mm sub-machinegun, a Colt .357 Magnum, a Bentley 12 gauge pump-action shotgun plus handguns and ammunition. The first shipment arrived in March 2003.

Police used a wire on the informer and claim they taped Condello saying he wanted the hit man to gun down Williams in Lonsdale Street with the Uzi from a passing motorcycle.

‘You'll have the fuckin' money to cover you, 150 a fuckin' head. Do ya understand? We don't want to go around hurting innocent fuckin' people … but some of these blokes from the western districts or western suburbs … they just want to take action …

‘Until they're fuckin' gone, mate, there's always going to be trouble.'

The conversations and the alleged plot occurred in March 2004 — when the cool-headed Gatto was in prison waiting for his trial over the Veniamin trial, leaving Condello in charge.

Condello and his lawyers remained confident they could defend the charges. But they didn't get the chance.

To those who wanted Condello dead, time was running out. If he were found guilty, he would have been jailed and put in maximum security, where he would have been untouchable. If he won, he would be able to move where he wanted, when he wanted, free of the bail restrictions that threatened to turn the sitting duck into the dead variety.

Condello said the underworld war was a media myth as it was not two sides fighting, but one side determined to kill its perceived enemies. He said Williams was ‘out of control' and wanted to destroy the established network known as the ‘Carlton Crew.'

‘They were out to kill anyone connected with Mick (Gatto).'

It was a reasonable assessment. Two of Gatto's closest mates had been shot dead — Graham ‘The Munster' Kinniburgh on 13 December 2003, and Lewis Moran on 31 March the following year.

‘It would have been Ronnie (Gatto's friend Ron Bongetti who died in 2005 of natural causes), Steve (Kaya, who gave evidence for Gatto) or me.'

Gatto and Condello had been close and loyal friends for years. In a letter written by Mick Gatto while in jail on remand and offered for sale to the media by a mystery broker, Mick appears to ask Condello to assume control while he is out of action.

‘I tell you what Mario, it's [jail] changed a lot since the days of old. I have to be honest; they treat you with the greatest of respect. I feel a bit like Hannibal Lector.

‘I am good as gold Mario, I can't believe what has happened to me the last couple of days, but so be it.

‘I can't believe for a bloke that prides himself on not getting involved in all the bullshit, I can't believe how trouble finds me. I can't believe that little maggot tried to kill me, anyway he is in his place.

‘Mario give the old bloke my regards and all our team — tell them I am going all right and I will be in touch in the near future.

‘Keep your eyes wide opened; you can't trust any of these rats. I would hate to see anything happen to any of ours.'

When Gatto was acquitted, he took his usual place at the head of the table but the table had moved.

Once a fixture in Lygon Street, they had been forced over the past few years to move their social base to the upmarket Society Cafe in Bourke Street to avoid well-wishers and crime groupies. There was the added bonus that the Parliament end of the city has plenty of security cameras, making life harder for would-be assassins.

Gatto and his friends could be found playing cards and chatting upstairs at Society most days. Condello had an early dinner at the restaurant on Monday, 6 February, eating simply and tipping big. He left shortly after 7pm. His bail curfew meant he had to be home by 10pm and he pulled into the driveway of his North Brighton home with minutes to spare. Punctuality and premeditation go hand in hand. His killer was waiting, and despite the electronic security, he was shot dead in his garage just before 10pm.

Gatto, one of the first to hear, was devastated by the loss of his friend.

Within hours he said: ‘I know nothing about it. I don't believe it is gangland connected … no way. I believe whatever the reason, it will come out in the wash.'

He said he would not speculate as his friend ‘was a very private person. He wouldn't want me to talk about it'.

Gatto, a former heavyweight boxer, later threw eggs at the media flock gathered outside his home, quickly establishing he was not prepared to be interviewed and that he had not lost power in his right arm.

During his chat with the author just days before he was shot, Condello admitted he had carried a gun during the underworld war but said it was for self-defence as there had been three plots to kill him.

During the height of the gangland killings, Condello said he moved from his North Brighton home, not to hide from his potential killers, but to draw them away from his family.

‘Why should they be dragged into this?'

For that moment, Condello dropped his tough-guy façade and became just another concerned and proud father. His daughter, he explained, was heading to America for post-graduate medical studies at a world-renowned hospital and his sons were working hard in a well-known Melbourne private school.

While Gatto was in jail, Williams decided to kill Condello as a payback for the death of Veniamin. Running out of hit men, his first plan came a cropper when Lewis Caine confided to the wrong people he was going to kill Mario. His friends flipped him and Caine was swiftly disabled.

The word is that Mario paid for the double cross, outbidding Williams' kill fee.

But Williams would not give up, even though the talent pool of potential hit men was starting to dry up. He employed a new group who lacked the cunning and the caution to last long.

On 9 June 2004, the Special Operations Group arrested two armed men outside the Brighton Cemetery where they were waiting to ambush Condello. Four men — including Carl Williams
— were arrested. It was a major turning point and the first time Purana was clearly ahead of the game.

Williams would not be granted bail and most of his loyal soldiers eventually made statements against him.

Days after the hit was foiled, Condello told Channel Nine: ‘For the first time, I've heard the birds singing in the trees. So let's hope these birds continue to sing and everything becomes more peaceful than it has over the last … however many years … because, after all, we are not going to be here forever.' (He was right about that).

But Peaceful Mario didn't last long: ‘I hope it doesn't continue to others or to myself for that matter because, as I said, I am prepared to forgive once and that's as far as it goes. No more.'

Police say that while Williams was planning to kill him, Mario was trying to set up his triple hit counter attack.

On 13 June 2004 Condello was arrested for conspiracy to murder.

But on the eve of his hearing he said he was relaxed and looking forward to his trial, where he intended to finally clear his name.

He also said he believed his life was no longer in danger.

When he was released on his fourth bail attempt in March 2005, he looked up at the magistrate and promised, ‘I can assure you of one thing: I won't let you down.' Deputy Chief Magistrate Jelena Popovic, no stranger to controversy, didn't need to be told that some hardliners would see her ruling as unnecessarily lenient.

‘I've gone out on a significant limb here. This will not be a popular decision,' she told the man she was setting free. Then she gave what was intended to be a friendly warning but which turned out to be tragically accurate: ‘You will be very closely watched.' Popovic had no idea how right she would be.

For Condello, his release ended nearly nine months in solitary confinement on charges of conspiracy to murder. It would also effectively end his life.

Condello had survived two decades in the underworld, a long jail stint and various plots against his life by developing a highly-tuned sense of survival.

But when he was bailed on a surety of $700,000 and ordered to obey a 10pm to 7am curfew, he showed no signs of knowing that the clock was already ticking. Condello was shot repeatedly in his garage as he stepped from his car on 6 February. It was 9.50pm, just 10 minutes before his court-ordered curfew deadline to be home. Apparently the hit man was able to slip in as the door opened, shoot his victim and slip out before the door closed. He was no amateur.

Those close to Condello say the nine months he spent in jail in virtual solitary confinement scarred him deeply. During his bail hearing, the court heard that since his arrest, the one-time tough guy had suffered depression, high blood pressure and bad migraines. A prison psychologist went so far as to say he had become ‘stir crazy'.

His time on remand appeared to change Condello. He emerged stooped and not as big as he once was. His family said he had rediscovered religion and had re-assessed his life.

But a few days before his murder, he appeared to be the old Mario — upbeat, combative and confident. He said the charges against him had already been downgraded. The conspiracy-to-murder charge had been dropped, he had pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm (during a time in Melbourne where for people in his line of work it was almost a crime of stupidity not to carry a gun) and he was convinced that he would be acquitted of the incitement charge.