Gangland matriarch Judy Moran eating and knitting her way through 26-year prison term
GANGLAND matriarch Judy Moran was placed in isolation when she was first jailed — but she now spends her days behind bars knitting and eating chocolate.
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GANGLAND matriarch Judy Moran was placed in isolation when she was first jailed — but she now spends her days behind bars knitting and eating chocolate.
The 70-year-old, jailed in 2011 for 26 years for the murder of brother-in-law Des “Tuppence” Moran, is said to have “gained at least 25kg” due to her sedentary life and sweet tooth.
Wheelchair-bound Moran is now living a lifestyle akin to that in a comfortable nursing home, according to sources.
She spends “every waking hour” knitting, drinking tea, and eating.
Moran, who has long suffered poor health, is now in a relatively comfortable “minimum-security unit” at Victoria’s main women’s prison, the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Deer Park.
She shares the apartment-style setup with three other “mature-age” prisoners.
The Herald Sun has learnt Moran has now given up on maintaining her glamorous appearance, which she had kept up even during her trial for murder.
Her blonde locks are now grey, and trimmed regularly by a fellow prisoner who used to be a hairdresser.
“She’s morbidly obese. She’s gained at least 25kg since she’s been inside,” a source said.
“Judy literally spends every waking hour just knitting all day long while eating chocolate and biscuits.
“She uses an electric wheelchair to move around and only really leaves her unit to get her daily medication.”
The prison website details how each unit has its own kitchen and dining facilities, where prisoners are required to cook and prepare their own meals and do their own washing, ironing and housework.
“Groups of prisoners share activity areas and a quiet area for reading and writing,” the website states.
It’s understood some of Moran’s fellow inmates are “so impressed” with her gangland notoriety they regularly offer to buy her confectionery — and enjoy listening to her many stories in return.
“There are two other women in particular who are very dazzled by Judy and her lifelong links to crime,” the source told the Herald Sun.
“They pamper her and run around doing errands and buying chocolate when the prison shop is open.
“She’s like a mother figure to them.”
The Moran matriarch, whose family story featured heavily in the first series of television series Underbelly, is now effectively all alone, having few visitors.
Her two husbands and her only children, Mark and Jason Moran, were killed in gangland wars over three decades that brought death and terror to the streets of Melbourne and Sydney.
Moran’s first husband, Leslie Cole, was shot dead in Sydney in 1982 after the pair had divorced.
Then, in June 2000, Mark Moran was killed by two bullets as he was getting into his car in Aberfeldie.
Almost exactly three years later, as the Melbourne underworld war was at its height, Jason Moran, with friend Pasquale Barbaro, was shot by a lone gunman while watching an AFL clinic his children were attending.
Moran’s sons were both 35 years old when they were killed.
Less than a year later, her estranged second husband, Lewis Moran, 62, who was facing drug trafficking charges, was shot in a pub on Sydney Rd, Brunswick.
At her own trial in 2011 for the murder of Des Moran, she was found to have been the getaway driver.
Her lawyers outlined to the court a catalogue of health issues including knee and hip problems as well as low blood pressure and a thyroid condition.
Given her ailing health, it is likely the matriarch of the Melbourne crime family will die in jail.