Gangland lawyer Joe Acquaro spoke of bitter falling-out with Madafferi family before murder
A MURDERED gangland lawyer spoke of his bitter falling-out with the Madafferi family months before he was gunned down.
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A MURDERED gangland lawyer spoke of his bitter falling-out with the Madafferi family months before he was gunned down.
But the Herald Sun understands investigators are now exploring the possibility there is no gangland link at all in the execution of Joe Acquaro.
An underworld source said some of the biggest names in Victorian crime would have wanted Mr Acquaro killed, but this did not mean they were involved.
“They would have all liked to have killed him. Nobody is sad about it,” he said.
In the months before Tuesday morning’s murder, Mr Acquaro had said: “Tony (Madafferi) is rampant. He’s slowly getting isolated.
“If you’ve got a problem, you deal with it. It’s a power struggle.
“He perceives I’m a threat to him. He expects me to succumb ... The guy’s lost the plot,’’ Mr Acquaro said.
But those who know the Madafferis doubt they are involved.
The underworld source said: “Tony’s not about revenge. There’s no upside to him, organising something like this.”
The Herald Sun can also reveal that Mr Acquaro’s office was recently ransacked and his car smashed by young crime figures.
The solicitor watched from his Docklands apartment as youths known to him smashed his Mercedes Benz.
In another incident, he caught an ex-employee and others searching for files.
The incidents came as Mr Acquaro’s relationship with the Madafferi brothers, Frank and Tony, was in free-fall.
Mr Acquaro represented Frank Madafferi in the tomato tins ecstasy importation prosecution for which he is now serving a long jail term.
The underworld source said Frank Madafferi did not have the power or finances to organise a contract killing.
Being incarcerated in a maximum-security prison would have made that task even more difficult.
“Frank would have loved to have got this done, but he didn’t,” the source said.
“This is one underworld murder that they’ll solve.”
It can be revealed Mr Acquaro would return case files to Frank Madafferi’s Coburg fruit shop, Mondo Fruits, after he was barred by his own son, Adrian.
Mr Acquaro had bought into the Gelobar to set up one of his sons in a job as a gelati maker, but the son fled after a dispute with his father to work with the Madafferis.
His other two sons would also align themselves with the Madafferi family.
Those shifting loyalties would spark a brutal fight at the Gelobar after Frank accused Mr Acquaro of being a bad father.
A standoff between the Madafferis and Mr Acquaro would play out over the next three years, the Madafferis accusing Mr Acquaro of being a leaker and a police informer.