Melbourne’s gangland: Brazen hit on Willie Thompson sparked more deaths in underworld war

HE was a respected and talented fighter and a small-time actor, but how did he end up dying in a hail of bullets as a victim of Melbourne’s brutal gangland war?

Drug dealer shooting murder victim William "Willy" Thompson 29 Sep 2002.

THE murder of Willie Thompson was a major junction in Melbourne’s underworld war.

It led to another of the sickening public executions of that period and, ultimately, the downfall of Carl Williams and two of his murderous henchmen.

Thompson had no public profile but was extremely well-connected in the city’s underworld.

Among his close friends were a crew of men suspected of being linked to big armed robberies, underworld executions and drug dealing.

Other buddies included some of the toughest men in the Melbourne kick-boxing scene where Thompson was a highly-respected figure.

And high on his mateship tree was drug lord and former school chum Tony Mokbel, who was said to be infuriated by Thompson’s murder.

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GANGLAND: Inside Melbourne’s underworld

Well-known as a bouncer, Willie Thompson also appeared in locally produced film “The Nightclubber”.

Drug lord Tony Mokbel, one of Thompson’s close mates, was said to be angered by the murder.

On the night of July 21, 2003, Thompson had just left a Chadstone gym and was in his car on Waverley Rd when a Ford Falcon and a van boxed him in.

A gunman leapt from the Falcon and shot Thompson dead as he sat trapped in his $80,000 Honda convertible.

It was the classic underworld ambush of the period: a gunman striking as his quarry had got in or out of a vehicle.

The murder scene on Waverley Road, Malvern.

A bullet hole in a shop window at the murder scene.

Detectives at the scene of the shooting in Malvern, near Warrigal Rd.

Mokbel allegedly made up his own mind who was responsible, sheeting the blame home to a South Yarra hot dog vendor and drug dealer called Michael Marshall.

Marshall had to go, so a witness told police, and Mokbel engaged Williams — who by then had the runs on the board in these matters — to get the job done.

What Mokbel could not have known was that it was actually Williams who, for whatever reason, had arranged the Thompson hit.

Michael Marshall

If the witness was right, Mokbel was effectively shelling out huge money to avenge a friend’s death and putting it straight in the pocket of the real culprit.

Williams organised the Marshall killing, carried out with ruthless efficiency using two career criminals known as “The Runner” and “The Wheelman” on October 25.

Marshall was gunned down in front of his five-year-old son outside their South Yarra home.

But Marshall was not the only one trapped that day.

The killers were literally caught in the act on listening devices installed months earlier by a crew of homicide detectives, led by Detective Sen-Sgt Rowland Legg.

The Runner and The Wheelman were staunch — for a while — but self-interest eventually won out.

They gave investigators the statements that implicated Williams in several gangland killings.

It was effectively the end of the road for Williams, who eventually suffered his own horrific death in maximum-security Barwon Prison in 2010.

Fellow inmate Matthew Johnson bashed him to death.

Williams (left) and the fellow inmate who killed him, Matthew Johnson.

Officers examine the scene where a a burnt-out car believed linked to the shooting was found in Port Melbourne.

Mokbel was later charged over the Marshall killing but the prosecution was dropped.

Beyond the apparent involvement of Williams, the Thompson case remains unsolved.

It is unclear who the shooter was or why it was decided Thompson must die.

Andrew Veniamin, who had been the shooter of choice for such ambushes, had fallen from favour by this time.

Other killers were starting to get this kind of work, chief among them The Runner and The Wheelman.

But a career armed robber and two veteran assassins on the comeback trail also proved themselves more than capable during this era.

In relation to the Marshall murder, a Victoria Police spokeswoman said: “Unsolved homicide investigations always remain open and we urge anyone with information in relation to the murder of Willy Thompson to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or they can submit a confidential crime report to www.crimestoppersvic.vic.gov.au.”

UNSOLVED: Search this case and more in our Cold Case Files

GANGLAND: Inside Melbourne’s underworld

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