Slain in hail of bullets: Inside the downfall of bikie boss Shane Bowden
Shane Bowden was a powerful bikie until he was executed in a hail of 21 bullets - allegedly at the hands of his gang mates. Now an exclusive new doco lifts the lid on the crime. WATCH
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An exclusive new crime documentary has lifted the lid on the shocking execution of notorious Gold Coast bikie Shane Bowden.
Mayhem in the Mongols, a two-part series launched this week by The Courier-Mail, delves deep inside the brutal slaying of one of Australia’s baddest bikies.
Bowden, a former Finks bikie gang ‘Terror Team’ enforcer alongside current Mongols national president Nick ‘The Knife Forbes’, was shot an incredible 21 times as he arrived home from a late night gym session in his girlfriend’s black BMW in October 2020.
WATCH EPISODE 2 IN THE PLAYER ABOVE
WATCH EPISODE 1: MAYHEM IN THE MONGOLS
Police have sensationally alleged that a tracking device was fitted to the vehicle in the weeks before the killing as part of a carefully-planned hit.
Ten Mongols gang members including Forbes’ son Haydn, 26, have been charged with the murder and will be contesting the charges.
Episode 2 of the documentary looks into the murky life of Bowden and dramatic details of the crime and its aftermath uncovered by The Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail.
They include explosive court document allegations. Among them:
- Fellow gang members including Haydn Forbes and accused gunmen James Mau’u and Junior Jasmine Torope test-fired the murder weapons at a Ripley farm near Ipswich
- Mongols gang members David Steven Meatuai and Peter Michael Cummins did a “dry run” of the trip to Bowden’s home, and the planned getaway, two days before the shooting
- A GPS tracker was fitted to the undercarriage of the BMW weeks before the murder while Bowden was visiting his lawyer’s Southport office. DNA linked to two of the accused hitmen, Fidel Gunes and Joshua Small, was allegedly found on a SIM card inside the tracker, the court documents state.
- The accused ringleader issued orders from their jail cell to keep suspects who could tie them to the crime “zipped up”, and used a jail counsellor as a go-between to their co-accused.
Mayhem in the Mongols looks into Bowden’s background as a violent criminal and a womaniser who slept with fellow gang members’ wives and once even had a fling with a female prison guard.
How he made many enemies and became a heavily marked man.
It reveals how Bowden was an Olympic cycling prospect but he burnt out before the trials for the 1996 Atlanta Games - and went from pedalling with the peloton to riding with outlaw bikies
After ditching the lycra, Bowden took up bodybuilding and was soon mixing with steroid-pumping gang members in the gym.
He turned to crime and would spend much of his adult life behind bars.
Bowden copped a six-and-a-half year sentence for his leading role in the 2006 Ballroom Blitz, when Finks and Hells Angels bikies fought a pitched battle with guns, knives and chairs at a kickboxing tournament in the ballroom at the Gold Coast’s Royal Pines resort.
During the wild brawl, Bowden shot another infamous bikie, the now-jailed-for-life killer Chris Hudson, who’d defected from the Finks to the Hells Angels.
After a reign of terror on the Gold Coast, Bowden ended up in Melbourne with other former Finks bikies who had patched over to the Mongols and fled Queensland in response to the-then Newman Government’s tough new anti-gang laws.
It wasn’t long before Bowden found himself back in jail in Victoria for a violent 2015 burglary he committed while dressed in camouflage and night-vision goggles.
After another five years behind bars, Bowden was released from Victoria’s Loddon Prison in June 2020.
He was picked up from jail in a stretch limousine by fellow Mongols including heavyweight gang member Toby Mitchell.
But Bowden soon fell out with the Mongols and was booted from the gang in what’s known in the bikie world as ‘bad standing’.
He’d cosied back up with his old gang the Finks but the shameless casanova had a fling with a senior member’s wife.
Just 15 days after being released from jail, Bowden was shot in a drive-by shooting outside his Melbourne home.
That prompted him to flee Victoria for Queensland with a gunshot wound to the leg which became badly infected.
But on arrival on the Gold Coast, he was thrown straight into hotel quarantine after it emerged he’d previously had Covid and had lied on his border pass.
All the other 80-plus passengers on the Jetstar flight from Melbourne to Coolangatta were also placed in quarantine.
Just a few weeks later, Bowden was dead - executed in a hail of bullets as he arrived home at Pimpama on the northern Gold Coast in his girlfriend’s black BMW coupe.
He was blasted with a hail of 21 bullets by two hooded gunmen who ambushed him as he pulled into the garage, and had allegedly lain in wait for two-and-a-half hours.
Nineteen shots were fired with a machine gun pistol, the other two with a long-arm firearm.
Bowden’s partner and her kids were inside the unit at the time.
Court documents later revealed a tracking device had been attached to his car in what they said was like a scene straight out of the movies.
A massive manhunt began, and police began drip-feeding information and appeals to the media over several months.
First, police announced a $250,000 reward for information and an indemnity from prosecution in a bid to break the bikie code of silence.
They then released CCTV footage of two getaway cars that were found burnt out near the murder scene.
Next, cops disclosed that a GPS tracker had been fitted to Bowden’s BMW three weeks before he was gunned down.
Then they released CCTV footage of two suspects loading jerry cans into a car at a Logan petrol station.
Finally, in July last year, police unveiled dramatic CCTV footage of the actual shooting.
It showed two men running from a vacant lot, one of them clearly carrying a rifle or shotgun.
They ran down the road and into Bowden’s garage with guns drawn.
They ran back out, apparently swapped weapons, and the killer with the handgun ran back inside to fire more bullets.
The two men then ran back down the road, jumped into a silver Holden Commodore driven by an accomplice and sped off.
A few weeks later, police began rounding up and arresting a string of Mongols gang members and associates and charging them with Bowden’s murder.
They include Haydn Forbes, Adam John Murphy, James Winston Mau’u, Junior Jasmine Torope, Peter Michael Cummins, Jake Taylor, David Steven Meataui, Fidel Gunes and Joshua James Small.
The gang’s lawyer, Michael Gatenby, has said they’ll fight the charges.
All are still before the courts.
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Originally published as Slain in hail of bullets: Inside the downfall of bikie boss Shane Bowden
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