Carl Williams’ last days of freedom a blur of drugs and women

Popping Xanax to control anxiety, juggling three mistresses and drug benders — Carl Williams’ life was spiralling out of control in his final days as a free man.

Carl Williams’ life was spiralling out of control by 2004.

The final months of Carl Williams’ life as a free man were a blur of women, drugs and murder, but he became increasingly isolated and racked with anxiety.

As Australia’s most deadly underworld battle unravelled, Williams even lived apart from wife Roberta and his relationship with closest ally, Melbourne’s busiest hitman Andrew “Benji’’ Veniamin was fracturing.

Thousands of pages of police intelligence and transcripts of phone recordings spanning from October 2003 to June 2004 – obtained by the Herald Sun – reveal Williams’ life was spiralling out of control as he obsessed more and more that he would become the next victim of the gangland war he started.

But his ego was also rampant, and one former ally told police a cocaine-fuelled Williams boasted in early 2004 he had already had “seven” of his enemies executed.

As many as 10 hits were ultimately attributed to him, but he was only convicted for four murders and one conspiracy to murder.

Carl Williams with bodyguard Andrew “Benji” Veniamin in February 2004.

Phone bug transcripts reveal Williams becoming particularly agitated about his fate after his most deadly two-man hit squad became the first players in the war to be pulled in by the anti-gangland Purana taskforce in October 2003.

Both assassins would eventually turn against Williams, one of them with the help of the crime boss’s own lawyer Nicola Gobbo, who a decade later would be exposed by the Herald Sun as police informer Lawyer X.

“Fatboy”, as Williams was known, admitted in recorded conversations to being consumed by thoughts the “other side’’ could kill him at any moment.

He was justified to be fearful, with transcripts revealing the Carlton Crew, a long-established gang who he had increasingly aggravated, preparing to strike back.

Among the many hits he would be investigated over, Williams was alleged to have killed Carlton Crew member Mark Moran in June 2000, organised a public execution of his half-brother Jason in June 2003 and was suspected of ordering the ambush hit of the gang’s veteran safecracker Graham “The Munster’’ Kinniburgh in his Kew driveway six months later.

Mick Gatto.

Andrew Veniamin.

In reference to Williams’ killing spree, Carlton Crew “money man’’ Mario Condello, is detailed in one transcript declaring: “There will be no peace until that c--t is put in a hole.’’

It led to Condello and fellow Carlton Crew member Lewis Moran putting a contract on Williams’ head.

Close mate Veniamin seemed to know their time was running out.

Veniamin distanced himself from Williams in the early months of 2004 as the crime boss’s phone calls to wife Roberta reveal he had turned to Xanax to control his anxiety and constant headaches.

After having temporarily stayed in the Exhibition St pad with Williams, he kept on the move.

Veniamin’s instinct was right, and the diminutive hitman was shot dead during a confrontation with Mick Gatto at a Carlton restaurant on March 20, 2004.

Veniamin’s body is carried out of La Porcella restaurant in Rathdowne Street, Carlton.

Roberta had also moved out of another flat in the building she and Williams had been leasing in the city, apparently craving some normality, as their marriage grew more strained.

She was certain her husband was not only partying, but was sleeping around, and in one conversation Veniamin was concerned at what Roberta might do if she found out about Williams’ extramarital affairs.

“Did the missus find Vicky yet?” Veniamin asked Williams, who responded, “Is she lookin’ for her?”

Williams, undeterred, would ask Veniamin for introductions to women.

``Why didn’t you tell her to introduce her to me ... (to) the friend?,’’ Williams asked Veniamin.

But Veniamin was protective of Roberta.

“No, no, no … cause she’s a serious girl and she’s lookin’ for a relationship. Ready to settle down,” Veniamin tells Williams, to which Williams quips “Yeah, so am I.’’

Williams at one point was juggling three women in addition to his wife.

Recordings not only depict a man whose nerves were fraying, but also portray Williams as an egotist who called himself the “premier’’ because “I run this state’’.

In a statement to police, Williams’ cousin Mick Thorneycroft described how during a cocaine binge in Fatboy’s 30th floor Exhibition St flat, he even gloated: “I’ve had seven of them killed so far.”

Thorneycroft, who turned on his cousin, claimed Williams recruited him to be involved in the next planned hit.

The following day he was told the hit would be on “Mario’’, and he would get $30,000 as the driver.

Roberta Williams was certain her husband was sleeping around.

More than $100,000 was allegedly offered to the hired shooter, Sean Sonnet, who would be arrested near Brighton cemetery before the plot was carried out.

Condello was ultimately killed in the driveway of his Brighton East home in February 2006, while Williams was in jail.

His murder remains unsolved.

Hours of coded conversations reveal Williams was also well versed in counter-surveillance and was very aware Purana detectives were watching and listening to his every move.

In June 2004, Williams and Roberta were seated at a window table closest to the door at the swank Chine on Paramount restaurant on Little Bourke St, while an undercover policeman was sitting nearby enjoying the up-market cuisine.

The surveillance man made his observations quietly and there was no dialogue in the uncrowded restaurant until he got up to leave.

It was then that Williams piped up, asking the officer whether he had been given a receipt for his meal, a court later heard was a joke reference to making sure he was reimbursed by the police department.

Williams’ barrister Con Heliotis observed: “It was quite clear, as you were leaving, that he knew you were police.”

Originally published as Carl Williams’ last days of freedom a blur of drugs and women