Tony Mokbel has dodged serious convictions for a long time, paying patsies to be crime middlemen as he paid jockeys to rig races, and 20 years after the brutal murder of Mick Marshall — as the gangland king prays in church — questions linger.
The rapist and killer known as “Mr Stinky” terrorised Victoria for two decades, eluding an inept investigation before brilliant police work finally caught up with him.
Tony Mokbel is much more than the punchline to a bad wig joke. He’s been a cold-blooded crime boss and a corrupter of everything from jockeys to the judiciary.
All hail magistrate Gail Hubble, or ‘Go To Jail Gail’, for adopting the old-fashioned idea of the punishment fitting the crime.
June Nolte wanted the depraved men who brutally tortured and killed her 15-year-old daughter in western Victoria to be hanged. She died before political and legal dishonesty robbed her of her wish. WARNING: Graphic details.
Ten years have passed since Sean Price murdered 17-year-old Masa Vukotic in a crime that chilled Melbourne. Andrew Rule probes his violent past — and the forces that may have shaped him into a brutal killer.
Victoria seems to be the type of state where legal substances can become even more valuable than illegal ones on the black market.
Nobody in Victoria Police command seems interested in who made a small truckload of seized ammunition vanish like a rabbit from a hat, but when officers raided the property of a 76-year-old, they picked on the wrong man.
Hughie Wilson’s ugly end is not well known outside the district where he lived and died. What happened to the World War II veteran still hangs over Colac and Victoria Police, a shameful chapter in the history of both.
When Cam Stuart saw a photo of the man who had been arrested over the deaths of campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay, he knew his face. They had shared a campsite almost two decades before — and the encounter was chilling.
Outlaw motorcycle gangs are a ruthless racket rigged to favour the powerful, manipulative and greedy — and the lowest in the ranks are expendable pawns. The bitter truth is, it’s tough at the bottom.
For every long-range arrest set up overseas — after many years and much money — plenty of fugitives remain one step ahead of the law and out of reach.
After their son allegedly drove a stolen car straight at police, it is a measure of this couple’s desperation that they see jail as their child’s best chance of surviving the drug-fuelled lunacy that took over his life, and theirs.
Like many gangsters before him, Sam Abdulrahim couldn’t help but live in the spotlight in his hometown. And just like them, it painted a target across his tattooed back.
Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-rule