Milperra Massacre: The day seven people were killed when bikies left Comancheros to join the Bandidos and let hell loose on Sydney streets

SEVEN people were killed on this day in 1984 - including an innocent 14-year-old girl - after a car park shootout sparked by a group of bikies quitting the Comancheros for the Bandidos.

Witnesses and bystanders could not believe what had happened in the usually quiet suburb.

FOR many Sydneysiders this Father’s Day signifies a day of paternal appreciation, love and fond memories.

For others, scarred by the events of 30 years ago at a car park in Sydney’s southwest, the day haunts them.

Tensions were at boiling point in 1984 after members of the Comancheros Motorcycle Club walked away from their brotherhood and patched over to the first Australian chapter of the Bandidos.

Three of the six dead bikies lay covered outside the Viking Tavern in the wake of the Milperra Massacre.

The deep-rooted rivalry and feuding between the clubs exploded into violence on September 2, 1984, claiming seven lives and thrusting bikie gangs into the national spotlight.

Six bikies and 14-year-old bystander Leanne Walters were killed when the two warring clubs engaged in gunfire at a swap meet in the carpark at the Viking Tavern in Milperra.

The Comancheros suffered the greatest casualties, losing four members while the Bandidos lost two of their brothers.

Man seated beside a victim of the Father's Day shootout between rival bikie gang members.

William 'Jock' Ross was found guilty of murder following the Milperra massacre in 1984. Picture: Library Nwn

Mark Shortall was a member of the Bandido bikie gang involved in the Milperra Massacre in 1984.

Terrence Parker faced charges following the shootout between rival bikie gangs at Milperra.

Dozens more were injured including the Comancheros founder and leader, Scotsman William “Jock” Ross.

The massacre captivated the nation, made headlines across the globe, and a huge police investigation culminated in about 31 people being tried for murder.

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After a lengthy journey through the judicial system, nine men were convicted of the seven murders and 21 men convicted on seven counts of manslaughter.

Robert Heeney, also known as JJ Heeney, convicted of manslaughter. Seven people died.

Gregory McElwaine, Mark McElwaine and Phillip McElwaine — all faced charges following the shootout.

Gregory McElwaine, Mark McElwaine and Phillip McElwaine — all faced charges following the shootout.

Anthony Melville faced charges following the shootout between rival bikie gangs at Milperra.

Colin Campbell, Milperra massacre.

Gary Annakin, charged in relation to the Milperra Massacre, a battle between two rival bikie gangs.

The men convicted of murder received prison sentences ranging from life to 18 years.

Former champion boxer turned Bandido Philip “Knuckles” McElwaine beat the murder charge but was found guilty of affray.

Among those found guilty of murder were eight Comancheros including Ross, and one Bandido, Tony “Lard” Melville.

However the murder convictions were later overturned to manslaughter on appeal.

The bikies had their sentences drastically reduced, including Ross who reportedly served just over five years.

Witnesses and bystanders could not believe what had happened in the usually quiet suburb.

The Bandidos president who led the split from Comancheros, Anthony Mark “Snoddy” Spencer, did not make the trial, having taken his own life while in jail.

Other players have since died, are living a quieter life, like Ross, or cashed in on their tales of notoriety.

Former Bandidos Sergeant-at-Arms Colin “Caesar” Campbell — convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to seven years jail without parole — published a book in 2011 on life as a bikie enforcer. The hotel at the scene of the crime underwent a major makeover and became The Mill Hotel.

Leanne Walters who was shot and killed during the 1984 Milperra bikie massacre.

Leanne was caught in the crossfire and was the only non-bikie among the seven killed.

Leanne was selling raffle tickets when the shooting began.

Leanne was in hospital only months before she was shot.

Reports at the time and a popular book chronicling the events, one of Australia’s worst public place shootings, depicted a religious-like devotion within the Comanchero club ranks to their brotherhood and the hierarchy.

According to the book Brothers In Arms, which later inspired a TV mini-series, Ross — the self-proclaimed supreme commander — was a military-style ruler.

With this came a non-negotiable set of club rules, including not getting into bed with other members’ wives.

Former bikie Geoff Campbell watched two of his brothers die in the Milperra Massacre.

Thirty years ago, membership to these groups was restricted to Anglo-Saxons and required a plausible level of motorbike riding skills.

Nowadays membership conditions have relaxed and the ranks of the nation’s most notorious groups — Rebels, Hells Angels and Nomads — have embraced members with Middle Eastern heritage.

Bandidos bikie gang members acts as pallbearers at the funeral of two of their own at Rookwood Cemetery. Picture: Ian Mainsbridge.

The game changed in the mid-90s to 2000s when power struggles between clubs erupted and there were sweeping recruitment drives to bolster power.

“That’s when the recruitment processes and the bikie gangs changed considerably and one of the reasons for it was the violence between the gangs was getting greater,” former NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Clive Small said.

“They needed more membership so they could assert authority and protect themselves.”

Bandidos bikie gang members at the funeral of two of their own at Rookwood Cemetery.

Sam Ibrahim, from one of Sydney’s more infamous underworld families, was a senior member of the Nomads Parramatta chapter, which split in 2007 to form the Kings Cross-based club Notorious.

Ibrahim shares the Middle Eastern background of other bikie gang heavyweights, including ex-Comancheros Sydney president Mahmoud “Mick” Hawi.

Bandidos bikie gang members at the funeral of two of their own at Rookwood Cemetery.

Mr Small, who co-authored Blood Money: Bikies, Terrorists and Middle Eastern Gangs, says Ibrahim is an example of people who don’t jump through the traditional nominee hoops to climb up a club’s ranks.

Changing membership has propped up numbers but also made clubs more susceptible to infiltration and abandonment, he believes.

“What you are seeing is numbers of bikie gangs breaking away and patching over to other clubs and you would not have seen that in the 80s,” Mr Small said.

“This is all coming about because of power struggles between the clubs. Some clubs are weakening and others are building.”

Gang members look on at the funeral of two Bandidos bikie gang members.

Anti-gang laws introduced in NSW in 2013 were brought in to combat tit-for-tat bikie shootings plaguing Sydney’s streets.

Tattoo parlours, family homes and businesses were targeted as the Hells Angels and Nomads feuded.

But Mr Small believes the criminal minds have matured over recent years.

“The reason for that is simply while they are shooting at one another and fighting these battles it’s costing them money,” he said.

Aezra Lorenz, the wife of Richard Lorenz, aka Chewy, the Comanchero bikie gang member charged in connection with the shootout at Milperra.

The girlfriend of Gregory McElwaine outside Penrith Court, where Gregory McElwaine, Mark McElwaine and Phillip McElwaine of the Banditos Motorcycle gang all faced charges following the shootout between rival bikie gangs.

Ron Stephenson, former chief superintendent of CIB Operations. He had been responsible for Operation Hard Walk, a murder operation following the Milperra Massacre.

Ron Stephenson, former chief superintendent of CIB Operations speaks to the media about the massacre.

Comanchero biker Glen Eaves after serving murder sentence for involvement in Milperra massacre.