Tombstones at famous Sydney cemetery read like a who’s who of gangland murders

THEY exchanged bullets in Sydney’s bloody underworld battles but now some of the city’s most notorious gang lords are buried just metres apart in the same Western Sydney cemetery.

THEY exchanged bullets in Sydney’s bloody underworld battles but now some of the city’s most notorious gang lords are buried just metres apart in the same Western Sydney cemetery.

The tombstones at Rookwood Cemetery read like a who’s who of criminals terminated in turf wars and revenge executions.

Former kingpin Walid “Wally” Ahmad, gunned down outside Bankstown Central Shopping Centre in April 2016, is buried there — as is the man suspected of his murder, Hamad Assaad.

The grave of Hamad Assaad is decorated at Rookwood Cemetery.

Assaad was shot dead in his driveway in 2016.

Assaad was suspected of shooting dead Walid Ahmad.

Assaad was shot dead in a hail of bullets in the driveway of his Georges Hall home in October 2016.

The main suspect in that execution, bikie associate Kemel “Blackie” Barakat, also now resides at the Lidcombe cemetery.

Barakat was shot dead at point-blank range as he lay in bed at his Mortlake home in March last year.

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► CHAPTER FOUR: Bikie gangs: Warlords of the underworld

Safwan Charbaji’s murder two years ago is thought to have triggered a series of shootings.

Charbaji died outside a smash repairs outlet.

Mahmoud Mick Hawi attends court in 2014.

Hawi’s grave has fresh flowers.

And to complete the grim circle there is Safwan Charbaji, whose 2016 murder is believed to have ignited the entire tit-for-tat bloodletting.

But they are far from the only violent felons laid to rest at Rookwood.

Former Comanchero president Mahmoud “Mick” Hawi, shot dead after a gym session at Rockdale in February, is also there.

The grave of Pasquale Barbaro at Fawkner Cemetery is unmarked but has flowers.

Barbaro was shot dead in Earlwood. Picture: Instagram

Atop the grave are regularly changed fresh flowers and a handsome framed portrait is draped in beads, while an empty plastic chair sits to the side.

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Hawi served five years jail over a 2009 brawl at Sydney Airport in which Hells Angels associate Anthony Zervas died after being bashed with a bollard. Zervas is also buried at Rookwood.

Kemel 'Blackie' Barakat. Source: Instagram

Kemel was 29 years old.

Crime author and former detective Duncan McNab said the men on Rookwood’s roll-call may have lived lives of “cars, bikes and champagne” but were made equal in death.

“Now they are buried next to some bloke who worked in a factory,” he said, adding it was unlikely they would become cult underworld figures.

“Contemporary gangsters brought nothing to us apart from danger.”