Underworld rivalries: Matthew ‘The General’ Johnson Gavin ‘Wrecking Ball’ Preston

They went from new kids on the block to prison kingpins but their alliance took a dramatic turn after Carl Williams’ murder.

This power struggle has raged for years but what sparked it remains unknown.

Matthew ‘The General’ Johnson is known as the leader of Victoria’s most feared jail gang – the Prisoners of War.

The motley crew was relatively unknown to the public until Johnson bashed Carl Williams to death in Barwon Prison in 2010.

Johnson’s nickname, ‘The General’, thereafter became synonymous with the so-called order he enforced within Barwon Prison.

Gavin Preston.

Matthew Johnson.

Legend has it Johnson’s P.O.W. gang was a phoenix which rose out of an earlier incarnation, Youth Gone Wild.

And both gangs were formed with another inmate as feared as he is.

Gavin ‘Capable’ Preston was once regarded as the silent partner of the duo.

They became friends in Pentridge Prison before it was closed in 1997.

Inside its bluestone walls veteran crooks gave them a hard time. Johnson and Preston set out to change the dynamic.

Gavin Preston arriving at the Supreme Court. Picture: Hamish Blair

Fellow kingpin Matthew Charles Johnson at the Supreme Court.

Their alliance was forged on a common goal of survival but it would change over time.

The recidivist inmates over time went from new kids on the block to kings of the jail system.

Their mantra was anti-authority. The basic goal was to rule the prison and to admonish any co-operation with authorities by hunting and attacking informers.

But Johnson, from Melbourne’s tough Dandenong streets, and Preston, a Sunshine boy, often clashed.

Ultimately, it will always be speculated that Johnson and Preston fell out over Carl Williams murder.

And that is not to suggest either man wanted Williams alive, but who promised what to whom when he was dead.

Police investigated whether Preston had a role in challenging Johnson to kill Williams.

The smart money would say there has been tension ever since, probably over money.

Preston was arrested in 2012 and sent to remand.

For a time Preston was kept out of ‘general population’ but within an hour of being sent there he was attacked.

Preston, it appeared, was no longer a Prisoner of War leader, but a target.

Johnson and Preston broke the rules of normal society and lived by a code inside jail’s four walls.

Now only the law of the jungle applies.

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Originally published as Underworld rivalries: Matthew ‘The General’ Johnson Gavin ‘Wrecking Ball’ Preston