Ex-bikie boss Hawi’s wife’s Sydney life after his brutal murder
CAROLINA GONZALES talks exclusively to The Daily Telegraph about life since her ex-bikie husband Mick Hawi was brutally murdered. The devoted mum to the couple’s three boys says her “handsome Comanchero boss husband had it all; threads, fast cars and gold and diamond jewellery. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST.
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EXCLUSIVE: You would not immediately pick diminutive Carolina Gonzalez as the wife of a brazen national bikie gang boss.
Petite, unassuming and reticent, the Chilean-born Mrs of Mick Hawi, the man she affectionately calls Mike, lives a low key existence in St George, South Sydney, doing the school run in plain T-shirts and jeans, bereft of any make-up or bling.
She is surprisingly warm, naturally good looking, and gentle on initial impression.
Only a pair of Gucci trainers and the Mercedes 4WD she drives to ferry her three children to school and rugby hint at the lavish life she once led when, at the height of the 2007 bikie wars, her young and handsome Comanchero boss husband had it all; designer threads, fast cars and a taste for gold and diamond jewellery.
CAROLINA GONZALEZ SPEAKS TO DANIELLE GUSMAROLI:
More crucially, though, it is Carolina’s seemingly self-effacing nature that is paramount and in stark contrast to Hawi’s searing confidence — no doubt an essence that drew him to her like the proverbial moth to a flame.
Carolina was the perfect foil to the showman: quiet, dependable, staunchly loyal, uninvolved in her husband’s nefarious activities, and happiest at home with her three sons.
“They’re all mummy’s boys,” she says quietly, affectionately glancing over at the youngest on a tricycle touring the room at an undisclosed location where we meet.
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The restless 22-month old clambers onto her lap and tugs at the phone in her hand calling for pictures of “dada.”
Probe her, though, about the life Hawi lead before he was jailed for murder over the 2009 Sydney Airport brawl, a charge later downgraded to manslaughter on appeal, and the protective lioness comes out.
“Look, I’m not painting a picture of Mike as a saint, Mike made a mistake choosing the Comancheros; he was with them for six years and that doesn’t define all of him,” she says, a determined steeliness to her voice.
“I visited him every week at Silverwater, Lithgow and Bathurst for six years and, had he served 28, I would have stood by him, through anything.”
She is at pains to insist jail reformed him and that there was no evidence on him (regarding the airport killing) but he was still jailed.
“He took the blame for the club,” she claims, before adding that unlike whoever killed her husband: “Mike was no coward.”
After 23 years together Carolina grew to know and accept every facet of Hawi’s life.
Her love for him was big. Perhaps it never faltered, or was taken for granted, living with the fear he would one day be killed. It is clear grief has placed a stranglehold on her heart but she counts down to the day that justice prevails.
“I’d lie awake at night with my head on Mike’s chest listening to his heart, to memorise the sound, I’d trace his fingers … I feared one day he’d be taken,” she says, her resolve breaking once more as she struggles to stifle tears.
Hawi’s three sisters present in the room look downwards. One snivels and wipes a tear from her wet eyes.
“What did the killer get from taking him?” Carolina ploughs on.
“If they heard my mother-in-law’s cries, or saw the pain in my father-in-law’s eyes the killers would know how much suffering they had caused.