Hitman: Inside the murderous world of Rodney Collins

Had Rodney Collins grabbed the gun taped beneath his table, he would’ve been blown away by police. His death would have saved many lives over the next two decades.

It’s the early 1980s and the special operations group has just raided a home in Katunga Court, Broadmeadows.

The resident – a wiry armed robber named Rodney Charles Collins – is seated at the kitchen table and talking to a senior policeman.

As the exchange wears on, one of the cops notices Collins reach slowly under the table for something.

The SOG – used for the highest-risk arrests – knows he is not a man to be trusted and one of them kicks the table over.

Wired to its bottom is a gun which – had Collins grabbed it – would have almost certainly resulted in him being the one shot.

Rodney Collins in the 1980s.

Had the SOG eliminated Collins, it would have saved a lot of other lives over the next two decades.

Many murderers are haunted by their actions until the day they die but it’s long odds he was one of them.

Collins was an ice-cold hitman, suspected of building a double-figure kill tally in a four-decade career prowling Melbourne’s crime world.

He took lives for money, in rage and to eliminate foes.

There was the infamous contract ambush of a police witness and his wife, a pub bistro hit on a gangland figure and the split-second slaying of a fellow party guest.

Cash was king for Collins, who was suspected of killing for both sides during the city’s period of gangland carnage in the 1980s.

Those who engaged him would have known there was not room for sentiment with the flint-hearted gunman.

Rodney Collins (centre) is escorted by Police to the Melbourne custody centre in the 2000s.

He is believed responsible for the 1982 fatal shooting ambush of feared Painter and Docker Brian Kane at Brunswick’s Quarry Hotel.

Three years later, hated Kane faction rival Laurie Prendergast disappeared, presumed murdered.

The disappearance is thought to be the handiwork of Collins.

A veteran detective who worked on Collins over armed robberies said he was a soulless career criminal.

“You often talk about the crooks with dead eyes and he was one of them. There was nothing in them,” the investigator said.

Collins knew he was in grave danger from many enemies on his own side of the law.

When police raided a Footscray house, they found him asleep in a kids’ bunkbed with a loaded gun.

Police outside the Quarry Hotel in Brunswick in 1982 after Brian Kane was shot. Collins is believed responsible.

A reporter adventurous enough to once meet him in an underground car park saw the change when his request for money in exchange for a non-existent photo was not met.

“He went from friendly to ice-cold,” the newsman said.

At least twice, the wives of Collins targets died not because of who they were but because of what they might say later.

Collins was prime suspect in the brutal 2004 murder of police witness Terrence Hodson at his Kew home.

Hodson’s wife Christine also died that night, leaving behind a working theory that she was shot only because she had seen the shooter.

The same scenario played out in the execution-style killings of Ray and Dorothy Abbey at West Heidelberg in 1987.

Ray, who had committed armed robberies with Collins, was the intended target.

Collins was the prime suspect in the infamous 2004 murders of police witness Terrence Hodson and his wife Christine

Laurie Prendergast’s 1972 disappearance was heavily suspected to be Collins’ handiwork. Picture: Supplied

Asked later why Dorothy Abbey had to die, Collins replied that: “Dead men tell no tales.”

Collins remained ready for action and well-connected to the day in 2008 when he was detained over the Abbey murders.

Police who searched his north suburban home found a 58-page secret police file on a major Melbourne drug dealer.

Also seized were a loaded pistol, a balaclava and surveillance gear.

There has always been strong suspicion that Collins was behind the death of another couple, Mike and his partner Heather McDonald at St Andrews in 1990.

They were tortured and their throats eventually cut in what may have been a deadly drug rip-off.

But it was not always about business for Collins.

In 1983, at a party in Reservoir, he snapped and shot dead an Irishman called Patrick Brendon Coghlan, then wounded the host in the leg for good measure.

A decade after the Abbey arrest, Collins died in maximum security Barwon Prison.

Police visited him shortly before his death in one last attempt to extract details of his murderous deeds and who was behind some of them.

The answer was no.