Kidnapping, gangland executions and bank robberies: Melbourne’s most shocking crimes in the east
From the execution that sparked a gangland war to the classroom shooting that rocked a university, these are the crimes that horrified Melbourne’s eastern suburbs — and the country.
Outer East
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Over the years, Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, so loved for their leafy streets, good schools and an easy way of life, have also been the scene for a number of grisly and shocking crimes that shocked the country.
Here are some of the more infamous crimes that many people still talk about to this day.
MONASH SHOOTINGS
The 2002 shooting at Monash University led to a review of Australia’s gun laws after it was found the gunman had bought seven firearms legally.
Huan Yun Xiang – then 36 years old — stormed into a classroom at the Clayton campus on October 21, jumping onto a table and screaming, “You never understand me” before shooting William Wu and Stephen Chan, both 26, dead.
Five others, including a lecturer, were injured.
New restrictions on weapon caliber, magazine capacity and barrel lengths were introduced after it was found Xiang had legally bought seven lethal weapons.
Xiang pleaded not guilty at trial on grounds of mental impairment and was found to have a paranoid delusional disorder.
Xiang was ordered to be transferred to the Thomas Embling psychiatric hospital where he remains.
WESTFIELD MURDER
Regular shoppers were stunned to learn a man had been found killed in the lifts at Westfield Doncaster in February 2017 but no one expected the two-year saga that unfolded.
Jonathan Dick was wanted for more than two years, with police eventually charging him with the murder of his brother David in August last year.
Dick, 41, was also charged with attempting to kill former school friend David Cammarata.
A forensic psychiatrist was engaged to determine whether or not mental impairment could be a factor in the trial.
But in February the expert found he couldn’t determine whether Dick was mentally impaired.
Extra material from Corrections Victoria is expected to shed further light on the case in coming weeks.
GANGITANO SLAIN
When Alphonse Gangitano was brutally murdered in his Templestowe home it was the final chapter in a notorious life of crime but just the beginning of a bloody gangland war that would grip Melbourne for a decade.
The 40-year-old was found dead in his laundry in his underwear, with gunshot wounds to his head.
Also known as the Black Prince of Lygon Street, Gangitano was the face of the underground criminal organisation the Carlton Crew when he was slain in January, 1998.
Evidence was presented to a later coronial inquest that fellow gangland members Graham Kinniburgh and Jason Moran were in Gangitano’s home at the time of the shooting.
But no one was sent to trial for Gangitano’s murder, with Kinniburgh and Moran also killed during the gangland war.
Gangitano’s execution is believed to be the first shooting in an underground gangland war that would see 36 criminal figures killed, finally ending with the death in prison of infamous drug trafficker Carl Williams in April, 2010.
MR CRUEL
Templestowe teen Karmein Chan was at home babysitting her two sisters when she was abducted in a crime that shocked Melbourne and remains unsolved nearly three decades on.
The three girls were confronted by a man armed with a knife and wearing a balaclava on April 13, 1991.
The man forced the two younger girls into a wardrobe before taking Karmein, whose body was found about a year later in Thomastown.
It was believed the murder was possibly linked to similar crimes involving girls around Melbourne, with the press dubbing the unknown offender Mr Cruel.
Spectrum Taskforce was established to find Mr Cruel but, with at least 20 suspects unable to be eliminated, the killer’s identity remains unknown.
A $1 million reward remains for information leading to the conviction of Karmein’s killer.
WALSH ST
The 1988 ambush of police constables Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre in South Yarra is a crime that is still talked about in Melbourne more than three decades later.
Constable Tynan, 22, and his partner Eyre, 20, were operating a divisional van on October 12 when they were called to a report of an abandoned car in Walsh St.
They were ambushed and killed by armed offenders as they examined the vehicle, a Holden Commodore.
Many believe the ambush was organised by Victor Peirce in retaliation for the death of his friend Graeme Jensen, who was shot dead by police the day before.
But Peirce and four others charged with the murders were acquitted in the Supreme Court.
Peirce and co-accused Peter David McEvoy were taken back into custody on other charges, with the former shot dead in 2002 in a drive-by shooting in Port Melbourne believed to be linked to notorious gangster Andrew “Benji” Veniamin.
SOCIETY MURDERS
When millionaire socialite Margaret Wales-King and her husband Paul King were killed in 2002 the crime quickly became known as the Society Murders.
The couple were killed at the home of Margaret’s son Matthew Wales, on whom the focus of suspicion would zero in.
They’d attended Wales’ Glen Iris home for a family dinner on April 4 but he’d drugged their soup before killing both with a blow to the back of the neck.
About a month later Wales finally confessed to police, who charged him with the murder of his mum and stepdad.
He was eventually sentenced to 30 years’ jail, with the trial judge finding he’d killed the couple because he resented his mother for using her wealth to manipulate him.
Wales’ wife Maritza received a two-year suspended sentence for attempting to pervert the course of justice but was found not to have played any role in the actual killings.
ARMED ROBBERY
A daylight murder and bank robbery was as brazen as it was unexpected in leafy Blackburn North in 2005.
Career criminal Hugo Rich would eventually be convicted of shooting security guard Erwin Kastenberger.
Mr Kastenberger and colleague Robert Crowe were Chubb armoured van security guards, delivering money to the Commonwealth Bank at the shopping centre on March 8.
Rich and an accomplice made off with about $162,000 after an armed robbery targeting the pair about 1pm.
According to reports, both crooks wore black balaclavas, fluoro tops and gloves.
Rich was later jailed for life with a non-parole period of 30 years.
DRUGS BUST
When 903kg of ice was seized from a suburban warehouse, Nunawading homeowners were shocked to learn the record drug bust happened in their own neighbourhood.
Police raided the Norcal Rd storage in April, 2017, seizing crystal methamphetamine with a street value of almost $900 million.
The quantity seized was equivalent to about nine million individual hits.
The bust followed raids in Doncaster, Blackburn North, Blackburn South and Box Hill.
Two men, a 53-year-old from Blackburn and a 36-year-old from Doncaster, were charged with drugs offences.
The raids followed AFP tip offs to Victoria Police.
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