Melbourne gangland war: $1m reward to find hitmen behind murder of Willie Thompson
A $1 MILLION reward is being posted to find the hitmen behind the contract killing of an underworld drug dealer during Melbourne’s bloody gangland war.
VIC News
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A $1 MILLION reward will be posted today to find the hit team behind one of the most crucial killings of Melbourne’s gangland war.
The anti-gangland Purana taskforce has undertaken a major review of the execution of Willie Thompson — a close mate of Tony Mokbel — and believes it can bring the brutal triggermen to justice.
Thompson was a prolific drug dealer who is believed to have died on the orders of Carl Williams, who wanted to seize his “market share”.
Investigators hope the big cash bounty can flush out those who carried out the Thompson contract killing at Chadstone in 2003.
They have urged a person who contacted them in 2004 with anonymous information on the killing to again come forward.
JAILHOUSE CONFESSION IN GANGLAND KILLING OF DRUG DEALER
Detective Insp Tracie McDonald of the taskforce said: “We’re confident this murder is solvable. All we need is the right information from the right people.”
Notorious hitman Andrew Veniamin had previously been linked to the crime, but police are not convinced that he was involved.
Williams also used other shooters during the gangland conflict as he wiped out enemies and those who stood between him and money.
Investigators are prepared to offer an indemnity to anyone able to identify the principle offenders in the execution.
Thompson was a close friend of some of Melbourne’s most feared criminals when he was ambushed after leaving a gym on July 21, 2003.
He was dead within a minute of the killers making their move on Waverley Rd.
They boxed-in his Honda sports car before one fired with a shotgun and another used a pistol from the passenger side.
INSIDE MELBOURNE’S SECRET GANGLAND WAR
MURDER OF WILLY THOMPSON TOPPLED THE CARL WILLIAMS EMPIRE
The murder of the well-connected Thompson led to the ill-conceived revenge killing of hot dog salesman Michael Marshall.
That execution would ultimately result in the destruction of Williams’s empire and cause Mokbel to flee overseas, fearing he would wear a murder charge.
Insp McDonald said Thompson was, in many ways, the “forgotten gangster” of the whole bloody era.
“While lots of people are familiar with other crime figures from the gangland period, not many know anything about Willie Thompson’s story,” Insp McDonald said.
“The circumstances surrounding his death are shocking. He was shot in a very public area and died a brutal death.”
The $1 million reward came after a review of unsolved killings investigated by Purana.
Thompson’s is one of those from an era of gangland bloodshed which began with the murder of Alphonse Gangitano at his Templestowe home in 1998.
Police have identified strong suspects in most of the murders. Some of those involved are dead and others are serving jail terms.
Among the unsolved cases are those of career criminal Richard Mladenich, shot dead in a St Kilda motel in 2000, and Mario Condello, gunned down in his Brighton East driveway in 2006.
Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers via 1800 333 000 or visit crimestoppersvic.com.au
7 SHOTS TO END AN EMPIRE
FEW of the many executions from Melbourne’s bloody gangland war generated the fallout of William Aubrey Thompson’s.
Thompson was virtually unknown to the public — apart from the small number who saw him in the low-budget film The Nightclubber — before he was shot dead in one of the textbook ambushes of the era.
But the kickboxer’s killing ultimately helped end the reign of Carl Williams and allegedly pushed Tony Mokbel into a dramatic bolt from Australia.
On paper, Willie Thompson was just a former security guard who ran a Chupa Chups vending business.
In reality, he was a high-level drug trafficker who had previously done business with key underworld players such as Williams, Jason Moran and Nik Radev.
He had strong connections in Western Australia and a coronial hearing last year heard he was under investigation for drug trafficking by detectives in another jurisdiction.
“He was definitely playing in the ones,” a police source said.
An underworld witness would testify it was Williams who commissioned the hit on Thompson, an amphetamines dealer. Police later said it was because Williams coveted Thompson’s “market share”.
Thompson had just minutes to live as he left the Extreme Jiu Jitsu and Grappling gym in Chadstone on Monday, July 21, 2003. He trained there on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, raising the strong possibility he was a victim of routine.
That night, Thompson arrived at 6pm and was leaving at 9.15pm with the business owner and a student.
He walked to his sports car, parked opposite a Red Rooster restaurant on Waverley Rd, and put his gym gear in the boot before climbing into the driver’s seat.
The killers then made their move.
A maroon 1996 Ford Falcon sedan darted across from the Red Rooster car park and pulled up at a right angle to Thompson’s car, trapping him.
Two armed men — one the driver — climbed out. One stood at the driver’s side door and blasted Thompson with a shotgun.
The other moved to the footpath and opened fire with a pistol.
Thompson, 39, was shot seven times in the head and chest and pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
The killers took off in the Falcon, which was found torched hours later in Port Melbourne. It had earlier been stolen from Travancore in Melbourne’s northwestern suburbs.
Thompson, who had marriage plans at the time of his death, enjoyed the kind of top-shelf underworld friendships that meant things would not rest with his death.
Chief among those friends was old schoolmate and drug boss Mokbel. Others included a group of accomplished armed robbers linked to murders, major heists and the drug trade.
Like Thompson, they operated well under the public radar but would clearly have been enraged by the events in Chadstone.
It was the underworld equivalent of a death sentence when Mokbel concluded that a drug-dealing hot dog salesman called Michael Marshall was responsible.
On September 30 of that year, gangland A-listers Mokbel, Williams and his father George and three other people, one a contract killer known as “The Runner”, met in a Brunswick Red Rooster.
A witness would later give evidence that Mokbel’s fury was palpable.
“Tony was upset and angry about Thompson’s death, he mentioned that he went to school with him and was a very close friend,” The Runner testified.
Mokbel offered $300,000 for Marshall’s murder, a fat fee gleefully accepted by Carl Williams.
Soon after, Mokbel allegedly handed over a piece of paper with Marshall’s address.
The Runner would later tell investigators: “I was surprised because I knew that Carl was behind Thompson’s murder, but it appeared that Tony had no idea of that.”
Though Williams had been responsible for a long trail of bloodshed, it would be the first time he’d been paid to avenge one of his own killings.
What he did not know was that shaking hands on the Marshall plan would also be his undoing.
Shrewd detectives from Crew Two of the Homicide Squad already had The Runner and an accomplice under the microscope over the executions of Jason Moran and Pasquale Barbaro at a junior footy clinic at Essendon earlier that year.
The Runner was caught on the phone uttering one of the most famous quotes of the gangland era to Williams.
“Listen, I think that horse got scratched, the one that, ah, you and George tipped me for,’’ he said.
The hitmen’s car was under heavy police surveillance when The Runner gunned down Marshall in front of his young son at South Yarra.
They were arrested within hours. With nowhere left to run, the hit team cut deals with police, destroying Williams’ empire and putting him behind bars.
He was beaten to death in Barwon Prison in 2010 by vicious jailhouse gang boss Matthew Charles Johnson.
Mokbel was eventually charged with the Marshall murder.
But, before he could be arrested, he turned fugitive, eventually carving out a new life in Greece before being arrested in 2007.
The Marshall charge was later dropped but Mokbel was ultimately handed a big jail term for his drug crimes.
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