Kerry Giakoumis lived double life before police fear he was killed in Hells Angels dispute

A Hells Angels associate feared murdered in an internal club bust-up was living a double life before his fateful trip to Melbourne.

The last picture of Hells Angel associate Kerry Giakoumis in a Melbourne taxi. Picture: Supplied

The last ever photo captured of Kerry Giakoumis paints an ominous tale.

Sitting in the back of a Melbourne taxi, the 29-year-old’s brow is furrowed as if in the middle of a troubling thought.

The Hells Angels associate never wanted to come to Melbourne and had concerns about what the trip could mean.

But the Adelaide concreter never could have imagined what was to unfold when he stepped foot inside the gang’s infamous Thomastown clubhouse a year ago.

“I know he wouldn’t have gone thinking this would ever happen. He wouldn’t have done that to his family,” a close friend said.

Homicide squad detectives believe Giakoumis is dead and his killing is linked to internal club ructions.

There is talk there had been rancour between the Melbourne and Adelaide crews, but that the South Australians were not expecting to return home minus one of their own.

One theory is that whatever happened inside the clubhouse on June 10 erupted spontaneously and Giakoumis did not make it out of the building alive.

Kerry Giakoumis.

ROAD TRIP WITH NO RETURN

Wearing his distinctive Chicago Bulls sweatshirt, Giakoumis hit the road with several members of Adelaide’s North Crew chapter on June 5, 2020.

He told loved ones the trip was to scope out a big concreting job but something did not seem right.

Giakoumis was not himself and had been bombarded with calls asking him to go.

“I never knew him to just up and go like that. He said he was going for work purposes but it didn’t seem to add up,” the friend said.

If Giakoumis knew of troubles within the gang, it was something he kept secret from loved ones, having gone great lengths in the past to protect his friends and family from the underworld.

“His motto was what people don’t know won’t hurt them. He wanted to protect his friends and family from that lifestyle and didn’t open up about it,” a friend said.

“I wish he had told us what was going on. He was very much living a double life and didn’t want to drag other people into it.”

Giakoumis’ concerns became known during his trip to Melbourne. He kept regular contact with his mum, who booked him a return flight home despite previous plans he drive back with the Hells Angels.

When he never made the flight, his friends and family knew something was very wrong.

“There had been no activity on his phone or bank account. We knew something was wrong,” the friend said.

Giakoumis at a convenience store in South Australia that was captured on the day he left the state. Picture: Supplied

FAMILY MAN WITH DANGEROUS MATES

Though Giakoumis kept dangerous company, he was a family man at heart.

He lived with his mum, dad and brother in an outer suburb of Adelaide and was counting down the days until he could call himself an uncle.

“It’s bittersweet for his family – he was so excited to meet his nephew,” the friend said.

Giakoumis wanted a family of his own one day too.

It was an ambition that kept him from formally joining the Hells Angels. He feared the trouble it could bring.

“The year before he disappeared, I saw his drive to start a family and meet a girl and do things right. He was never planning on joining the Hells Angels because of the implications it would have on a family. He wanted to be his own person,” the friend said.

Giakoumis had been running with North Crew members since he was teen.

Some were his former classmates at Charles Campbell College and he considered them to be “lifelong brothers”.

However the brotherhood betrayed him, with police and loved ones confident certain club members know the secret of what happened to Giakoumis and why.

“Kerry has lifelong friends in the North Crew that aren’t happy about it. It’s time for them to step up,” his friend said.

“If they were his real mates, they would want him found and closure for his family whether or not they were involved. They all call each other bros but if you leave one behind, that’s not cool. You don’t do that to someone.”

COLOURFUL HISTORY OF THE BIKIE CLUBHOUSE

If Giakoumis was nervous before leaving Adelaide, he should have been alarmed at the prospect of visiting the Lipton Drive clubhouse.

The Hells Angels are a fearsome club but the Thomastown stronghold is home to its Nomads members, regarded as the gang’s enforcement arm.

It is a place with a troubling history of brutality where those judged to have stepped out of line are not spared members’ wrath.

Hells Angels clubhouse in Thomastown. Picture: Carmelo Bazzano

In 2007, senior member Terence Tognolini fell from favour and was savagely bashed and, reputedly, ferried into the street in a wheelbarrow and dumped.

There are suspicions that some years earlier he had been a key player in the 1999 murder of Vicki Jacobs, murdered in bed at her Bendigo home with her young son asleep beside her.

Police later probed whether a party was held at Lipton Drive that night.

Investigators later bulldozed their way into the QG and seized weapons, bulletproof vest and documents as part of the Jacobs inquiry.

A German tourist was lucky to survive after being taken to Lipton Drive in 2009.

He told members at a city strip club that he was an Angel back home but they quietly worked out he was lying and invited him back to Thomastown for a nightcap.

There he was pummelled with a baseball bat and bashed and kicked, before being dumped in another suburb.

Four years earlier, another man was dragged out of an Ivanhoe bar and bashed in the street before being taken to Lipton Drive.

He was later taken to hospital with severe head injuries and a partially amputated toe.

This history of extreme violence is a painful thought for Giakoumis loved ones to confront.

But no matter the truth, they want answers about what happened to him the night he disappeared.

“Whether he is dead or alive, we want him home so we can put our minds at rest,” his friend said.

Homicide squad detectives are keen to speak to anyone with information about what happened at the Hells Angels clubhouse or any other location in the early hours of 10 June last year.

Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.