Painters and Dockers' trail of death revealed

MURDERED, maimed and missing - the list of Painters and Dockers rogues and victims reads more like a crime novel.

MURDERED, maimed and missing - the list of Painters and Dockers rogues and victims reads more like a crime novel than a Cabinet submission.

Marked confidential, Submission 5731, released today by the National Archives, shows Cabinet was briefed on a roll call of rogues involved with the notorious waterside trade union.

It was linked to 15 murders and 23 acts of violence where death may have resulted.

They include unionist Alfred "The Ferret" Nelson, whose body was never found but who was believed murdered.

His car was recovered from the Yarra River in 1971.

There was Patrick Chamings, shot dead in 1970 after a brawl behind Collingwood's Vine Hotel, and Allan Johnston, who died after a fight at the Yarra Hotel.

Desmond Bernard Costello was shot dead, his body dumped near a freeway, and Rene Loftus was fatally struck by a car traced back to the Painters and Dockers.

Former state secretary of the union, Patrick Shannon, was shot dead at the Druids Hotel by Kevin James Taylor and Garry Harding, with union rival Billy "The Texan" Longley convicted over the hit.

Taylor was a busy man. He was later convicted of murdering Harding; stabbing him to death inside Pentridge, where they were serving sentences for murdering Shannon.

In October 1982, Cabinet papers also reveal that senior ministers called in the Australian Federal Police over claims a Victorian undertaker was telling his staff to leave when he sealed coffins in preparing to send them overseas.

Evidence taken in a confidential session by the Costigan Royal Commission revealed "the undertaker had on the premises blank death certificates".

"The commission noted that there was no legitimate reason for this and concluded that the undertaker had placed himself in a position where he could prepare a death certificate relating to an entirely fictitious person," the submission states.

It was suspected the undertaker was being used to "dispose of bodies in a secret fashion".

Former PM Bob Hawke was sickened by activities he says were "not only illegal but absolutely contrary to the principles of trade unionism".

"I was very upset about it," he recalls. "To me the practices of the Painters and Dockers were something that I found appalling. We made it quite clear that as far as the ACTU was concerned there was no support at all for those practices."

Other details in the cabinet submission show that Lawrence Chamings, brother of Patrick, was shot dead in 1973 at the Moonee Valley Hotel, Fitzroy, with an 11-year-old boy killed by accident at the same time.

The victims weren't all blokes. June Thompson, a close associate of the Painters and Dockers, was shot in Melbourne in 1977. A Sydney native, her body was dumped at Webb Dock.

In 1979, walking to join the ship the Lysaght Endeavour, they shot Charles Reeves, too.

Even being in custody was little protection; Raymond Chuck Bennett was shot dead in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court foyer.

The cabinet submission said the Costigan report had found the union had developed a code of violence and lawlessness.

Cabinet was told the Costigan report had found the government's Australian National Line crews and facilities and Webb Dock were being used to import narcotics and firearms.

Ultimately, the affair led to the National Crimes Commission's establishment.