How Carl Williams went from gangland boss to supergrass

Carl Williams became a marked man when he began his transition from gangland boss to supergrass — but questions about his murder remain.

Carl Williams was prepared to become Australia’s most prolific underworld snitch.

But Williams named his price and paid for it with his life.

At the time of his murder, aged 39, he was under protection inside the state’s most secure jail.

The planning and execution of Williams’ demise all happened under the glare of CCTV cameras placed inside the Barwon Prison protection unit he shared with two hand-picked inmates.

It was if no one was watching.

They weren’t.

As his killer Matthew Johnson stalked him from behind on April 19, 2010, Williams was reading the Herald Sun, known as the Bible inside jail.

The paper carried a front page story about Victoria Police paying his daughter’s private school fees.

Dangerous people had known for months Carl Williams was ‘co-operating’ with police.

Prisoners mimicked dog howls that morning as Williams ate his breakfast.

It bothered him.

Williams rang his dad, George, spoke to his ex-wife, Roberta, and even called his lawyer before reading the story again.

Then metal hit the back of his skull.

Yet Johnson’s brutality was no snap reaction to the article outing Williams, to use the criminal vernacular, as a “dog”.

Williams’ murder was already a done deal.

Dangerous people had known for months Williams was “co-operating’’ with police about an alleged dirty cop and a veteran hitman. They did nothing.

It was only when gangland figures feared the baby-faced Williams was willing to “lag’’ on them that he was eliminated.

But the scope of his cooperation has been a closely guarded secret.

That Williams was willing to “fully assist investigators with eight to 10 murders’’ would have made him Australa’s version of mafia turncoat Henry Hill — whose mobster life was portrayed in the Hollywood movie Goodfellas.

Carl Williams was murdered at Barwon Prison.

Had Williams lived, he could have brought down the biggest names in Melbourne’s gangland.

At the top of the list was the 2004 murders of police informers Terence and Christine Hodson.

It was this double-execution that began his transition from gangland boss to supergrass.

The process began in 2007 just before Williams pleaded guilty to three murders and a conspiracy to murder. (Williams had already been found guilty of the 2003 Marshall killing).

Before he was sentenced to 35-years jail he had already told police he could help them with an alleged bent cop suspected of having ordered Terence Hodson’s murder.

It sparked the formation of Taskforce Petra.

The Petra taskforce document was sent to Victoria Police’s then deputy commissioner Simon Overland in 2008.

The Petra taskforce steering committee and its investigators had grander plans.

They were priming Williams to give them the dirt on six more unsolved murders and tie the loose ends on another.

The document unearthed by the Herald Sun was sent to then Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland on December 15, 2008.

In it Petra taskforce Detective Inspector Steve Smith states Williams had “indicated that he wishes to make statements’’ not only about the Hodson executions but a who’s who of gangster murders: Quadara, Mladenich, Peirce, Radev, Mallia, Marshall and Kinniburgh.

The eight cases in which nine people were murdered all took place between 1999 and 2004.

Police had investigated numerous gangland players but it not known who Williams planned to name in “can say’’ statements which have never surfaced or may have not have been taken.

The military-style operation to take the high-profile prisoner from jail to Swan Island — a restricted army base near Queensclliff — for the “extensive debriefing’’ was meticulously planned.

In December 2008, Carl Williams’ father, George, was taken from prison to meet his son. Picture: Ellen Smith

In late December, 2008, Williams was loaded into the back of a nondescript van with “blacked-out’’ windows.

His father, George, was transported from another prison to meet up 24-hours after his son arrived at the secret site.

Inspector Smith states the force had secured “exclusive access’’ to the base where Williams would start “from the beginning and give everything up’’.

“Williams will be removed from Barwon Prison by members of the SSG (Special Security Group) and be handed to (name redacted) at a pre-determined location,’’ the document reveals.

“The … forward commander for this operation will be (name redacted).

“The Petra Inspector will deploy with the forward commander. Williams will then be conveyed to the location in a blacked out van.’’

The “debriefing sessions’’ with detectives would be conducted over several weeks around Christmas with some staff staying on base while others would commute to and from the base from accommodation nearby.

Carl Williams with his daughter, Dhakota. Picture: Instagram

“The selected venue allows for the de-briefing process, the eating, living and sleeping arrangements for both Carl and George Williams to take place in the one block of the venue.’’

In a highly redacted paragraph of the plan, it appears Williams was going to be allowed to spend time with a woman at an “undisclosed remote location’’.

The Herald Sun has previously been told by a source with knowledge of the operation Williams spent time with his girlfriend during his stint away from prison but that they did not have sex.

Other allowances were made for his ex-wife, Roberta, and daughter to visit him but it is believed this fell through.

Police would also sleep at the base.

As it turned out, removing Williams from prison was a mistake.

His absence was noticed and rumours swirled about Williams’ secret trip.

Among them were tip-offs police had allowed Williams to shack up with a sex worker.

During his stay at Swan Island, Williams began to make his three statements about the Hodson murders.

He claimed he hired veteran hitman Rodney Collins to kill police informer Terence Hodson in a hit, he alleged, paid for by drug squad cop detective Sergeant Paul Dale.

Terence Hodson was an informer to Sergeant Paul Dale. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

And to Senior Constable David Miechel. Picture: Jessica O'donnell

Hodson was an informer to Dale and his police colleague detective Senior Constable David Miechel.

The relationship between Hodson and his handlers soured in October, 2003, after the drug dealer turned informer was caught red-handed with Miechel burgling a drug-house.

The drug house, linked to Mokbel, was under police surveillance controlled by Miechel and his boss, Sergeant Dale.

Hodson claimed both his police handlers were involved.

But he never made it to the witness box.

As he and his wife watched TV in their Kew home on a May night in 2004, someone walked down a long driveway to the Hodsons’ unit where CCTV captured his image.

The hitman then entered the house and fired bullets in the back of their heads before taking the surveillance tape with him.

Terence Hodson and his wife, Christine, were murdered at their Kew home.

Williams confessed to police he was the middleman in the killings.

As fate would have it, his old lawyer-turned police informer Nicola Gobbo was due to be a star witness in the case.

Both had pointed the finger at Dale.

History then repeated itself.

Williams was murdered and the case against Dale and Collins fell apart

Williams’ death was probably met with relief by Gobbo.

Leading up to the 2010 murder trial she launched a court case to get out of testifying on health grounds.

After Williams’ death, Victoria Police revealed links between his murder and a re-vamped homicide probe into the execution of Richard Mladenich.

But in reality, she feared her own history as informer 3838 would be unveiled.

After Williams’ death, Victoria Police revealed links between his murder and a re-vamped homicide probe into the execution of Mladenich in St Kilda’s Esquire Motel in 2000.

But it became clear homicide detectives never got Williams to put ink to paper.

It is possible, however, he made an unsigned “can say’’ statement, indicating the information he could provide, while on Swan Island.

Mafia-linked criminal Rocco Arico, whom a Coroner once named as the triggerman for the Mladenich shooting, is suspected of knowing Williams was set to implicate him.

It was no coincidence that another inmate was on the phone to Arico in the minutes after the gangland boss was bludgeoned to death.

That inmate flinched at the thuds.

Nor did he fear that the enraged Johnson would attack him too.

Matthew Johnson told police he acted alone in killing Carl Williams.

Both Arico and the inmate have since been questioned over the Mladenich murder and it remains a key theory both were complicit in Williams’ jailhouse murder.

A taskforce dubbed Driver took up where Petra left off, with the added responsibility of probing the Williams murder.

Even Gobbo entered the fray again and offered to help the taskforce.

Numerous investigators believe Driver was shut down prematurely.

It would ultimately be unable to progress the Hodson murder nor prosecute anyone other than Johnson for Williams killling.

Johnson was convicted of Williams’ murder in 2011.

But conspiracies were investigated between those inside jail and powerful underworld figures on the outside.

Rocco Arico is suspected of knowing Williams was set to implicate him. Picture: Hamish Blair

It included Arico and his wider network.

Taskforce Driver looked through the accounts of Elite Cranes — a business controlled by colourful identity Mick Gatto and business partner Matt Tomas — looking for $400,000. They found nothing.

Betting accounts linked to others were also probed.

Unanswered questions remain.

Why did Johnson have Williams’ police statement on his computer? Did Arico have Williams “knocked”? Was there a “whiparound’’ within the underworld to raise the cash to pay Johnson to kill Williams? Why would Johnson condemn himself to life in prison?

Johnson’s only words to a pair of detectives who interviewed him at Barwon Prison about killing Williams was “I acted alone’’.

There is no doubt Williams was marked for death because he broke the underworld code of silence.

Johnson was a highly connected gangland player, the leader of the Prisoner of War gang.

Nicola Gobbo in 2011 made a short-lived attempt to furnish the Driver taskforce with information.

Police underestimated him. The information Williams had was invaluable.

It could be argued Williams never had more power than when he was in prison.

Just before his killing, prison authorities had considered separating Williams and Johnson because of a perceived threat.

Williams had even requested to be moved to Mokbel’s unit.

But his death was never fully explained.

The state Coroner side-stepped holding an inquest, in most cases mandatory for a death in custody, arguing there were multiple ongoing probes at the time.

But still, the right questions are still begging to be asked.

In 2011, Gobbo made a short-lived attempt to furnish the Driver taskforce with information.

Given her history with the force, contact with her was quickly shunned.

But with her gone overseas indefinitely, who knows what secrets she has taken with her.