By the time Andrew “Benji” Veniamin confronted Mick Gatto at the back of his Carlton restaurant on this day 20 years ago, the hitman had become a liability to a growing list of enemies and anyone who had done “business” with him.
In a time when Melbourne gangsters are being shot dead at cafes and outside gyms, there’s no point making the task easier for a man with a gun by bragging about your life on TikTok or Insta.
John Latorre was a friendly Epping greengrocer to those who didn’t really know him, and a capo in the mafia to those who did. But even captains have a boss, and when the big bucks stop, the buck stops with someone.
What if a trained tracker dog is given Samantha Murphy’s scent before the trail is hopelessly compromised, and the hound follows it from her home to the point where it stops? Sadly, in Victoria this isn’t a reality.
For Middle-Eastern organised crime groups embroiled in a vicious war over Melbourne’s illicit tobacco trade, revenge has become a more potent motivation than profit.
Cliff Lockwood arrived in Melbourne as a strapping country lad with dreams of becoming a hero cop. But his pathetic death as a derelict cat lover is a postscript to perhaps the ugliest chapter in police history.
It’s a lucrative and booming criminal practice in Victoria, which can aid in anything from petrol drive offs to gangland hits.
No one wants to spell out the bitter truth in cases like Samantha Murphy’s disappearance — when people vanish for more than a few days, the odds against their return grow longer with every hour.
If Sam “The Punisher” Abdurlahim’s boxing bout isn’t derailed by the arsonists who set Thornbury’s Furlan Club on fire, fans of the sweet science will get a little extra entertainment on Saturday night.
When Roger Rogerson turned up at the dressing room door of sultry Welsh singer Shirley Bassey, for once he didn’t have a gun in his pocket. But he did have her stolen handbag.
Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/journalists/andrew-rule/page/14