Judy Moran always suspected Carl Williams of organising hits on her sons

When her son Jason was gunned down — just a few short years after her first son was shot dead — Judy Moran knew immediately who was behind the violence.

Judy Moran knew Carl Williams was behind the murder of her son Jason in the immediate aftermath of the horrific footy clinic gangland attack.

Jason and his mate Pat Barbaro died 20 years ago this week in an underworld war ambush at the Cross Keys Reserve in Essendon.

There were 10 children in the back of Moran’s van as the shooter opened fire with a shotgun then a revolver.

It would ultimately be shown that Williams had ordered two of his underlings to carry out the killing on June 21, 2003.

But Judy Moran did not need a police investigation to tell her who was behind the murders.

It was common underworld knowledge that Williams had killed her other son, Mark, three years earlier.

Former homicide squad detective senior sergeant Rowland Legg said that, when spoken to days after Jason’s death, she was clear the same culprit was responsible.

Mark Moran lays dead in his car outside his Aberfeldie home in June 2000.

A shattered Judy Moran sobs at Jason’s murder scene. Picture: Peter Smith

“One of the things she did express was the fact that she had no doubt that Carl Williams was behind it, which was also something on our minds, too,” Mr Legg said.

“But we couldn’t totally exclude the possibility of some unrelated situation because of Jason’s background. In cases like this, you have to exclude other possibilities as best you can, no matter how strong a suspect might be.”

Mr Legg said he wanted to make sure Judy Moran knew his team would treat the investigation like any other.

“I wanted to assure her that the death of Jason, as had been the case with Mark, would be properly investigated, despite the history of her sons and their dealings with police,” he said.

Barbaro, a man who was no major crime figure, was dreadfully unlucky.

Mr Legg said he had travelled to Cross Keys as a friend, not as a bodyguard for Moran, as has previously been reported.

Mark Moran was gunned down outside his home.

Jason Moran died in front of his children.

The white van used by the killers sat in Woodman St for some time before the hit team moved in, parked nearby and the shooter carried out his deadly work.

Mark and Jason died in retaliation for their wounding of Williams in a meeting over the drug trade at a Gladstone Park reserve in 1999.

The murder of Jason was another grim landmark in the utter disintegration of Judy Moran’s family, which unfolded in the space of less than a decade.

In March, 2004. her husband Lewis was shot dead at the Brunswick Club in another ambush put together by Williams.

Five years later, Desmond “Tuppence” Moran, the brother of Lewis, was shot dead at an Ascot Vale Cafe.

Judy was ultimately charged with involvement in the killing of Des and remains in jail serving a long term for his murder.

Now aged 78, she is one of the oldest inmates at the maximum security Dame Phyllis Frost Correctional Centre in Deer Park.