The vile past of Carl Williams' killer Matthew Charles Johnson

JAILHOUSE killer Matthew Charles Johnson's life has been dominated by the most explosive violence.

JAILHOUSE killer Matthew Charles Johnson's life has been dominated by the most explosive violence.

His muscular body and death stare are backed by guns and knives, or whatever weapon is required.

He has shot, stabbed and bashed people, but victims and witnesses alike rarely have the courage to go on the record.

In 2007, police suspected he had shot a man in a Melbourne suburb and approached the clearly injured victim. Despite a bullet hole in his hand, he was never going to name Johnson.

"He's an evil p----. He wouldn't think twice about killing you," one of many police officers to have dealt with Johnson said.

Johnson often chose victims who, as well as being scared, had other reasons for not wanting to involve the law.

He spent years leading gangs of younger crooks on "run-throughs" at the homes of drug dealers in southeastern suburbs.

Sometimes just his glare was enough.

A prison source said: "He's got the coldest, deadest eyes.

"It's like you're looking into a black hole. There's no expression. There's no emotion. You know he'd kill you as quick as look at you."

Johnson's start to life was not ideal. He was born to a young mother and his father died when he was six.

He was barely out of jail between his first stint in custody and the age of 29.

He spent much of his youth in Pioneer Bay, on the edge of Western Port Bay, before moving to the southeastern suburb of Keysborough.

There he began to become a major problem for police in the Springvale, Dandenong and Noble Park areas.

Johnson always remained mute in police interviews, but investigators were left in no doubt about his loathing of the law.

"He could kill a cop, no problem," one detective said.

His notorious behaviour behind bars stretches back to the 1990s in Pentridge Prison, where he was investigated for stabbings.

He later led the violent "prisoners of war" gang, which ruled by force and standover.

Younger prisoners were fed up with being bashed by hardened older inmates such as the late Victor Peirce.

One of those to come off second best was killer and career criminal Gregory John Brazel.

Johnson, another man who cannot be named, Stephen Wenitong and Jason Brian Paisley bashed Brazel with an exercise bike seat, a vacuum cleaner extension and a sandwich maker in 1998.

All were given more jail time in 2002 after a grotesque trial in which a juror was hit by a bag of excrement, two of the prisoners exposed their buttocks and the judge was abused.

Tough as he believed he was, he did not draw the line at women and children.

In May 2007, at gunpoint, he terrorised a mum named Julie, her daughter, only 15, and a young neighbour in Doveton.

Unlike many, and as terrified as she was, Julie spoke of her ordeal.

"He opened the door and put a gun to my head," she said.

He told her: "Get out of the car or I'll kill you."

Johnson pulled her from the car. She said: "He held a gun to my daughter and was strangling her. It's taken her to hell and back."

Julie was later peppered with fire bombs while driving and harassed at her house by people she believes were linked to Johnson.

It forced her to leave her home for country Victoria.

"I'm a victim and I have to live with this for the rest of my life," she said.

"I had a house for 28 years and I've lost it. I live with that face every day of my life. He is evil. He is the most evil man you could wish for."

About the same time Johnson was charged, but acquitted, over the murder - over $50 - of teenager Bryan Conyers at Pakenham.

Opinions of Johnson in prison, where he is known to many - especially himself - as The General, are divided.

Some say he is a coward who attacks from behind or with the help of accomplices.

Others say he is a master manipulator prone to indiscreet violence, including bashing prison guards.

He and another so-called "prisoner of war" bashed a guard as they attempted to get to infamous neo-Nazi and convicted murderer Dane Sweetman.

"He surrounded himself with nutcases who'd do his bidding. Everyone was scared," a source said.

There are suggestions in the system that the number of inmates aligning themselves to the "prisoners of war" since the death of Williams has increased five-fold. But survival, as a main player in prison, can never be guaranteed.

As Williams found out.