Michael Marshall’s callous underworld murder: ‘Someone shot my daddy’

Michael Marshall being shot in the head outside his South Yarra home was brutal enough, but for it to happen in front of his five-year-old son shocked a city.

When Michael Marshall was shot in the head outside the South Yarra home he shared with his wife and five-year-old son, all he had to defend himself was a bunch of bread rolls he was carrying for his hot dog stand.

The callousness would sicken the public and even the underworld.

Details from phone taps reveal no indication on the eve of drug dealer Marshall’s murder of what would transpire.

George Williams.

Racehorse Lonhro.

George Williams was on the phone with the hitman, known as The Runner, casually talking horses and the Moonee Valley track condition for the Cox Plate.

Williams Snr was insistent classy horse Lonhro would win but The Runner questioned whether the state of the track was against the Sydney champ, who was ultimately beaten by Fields of Omagh.

The next day, across town, it was a similarly unexceptional day for the family of Michael Marshall before he is ambushed.

His wife Michele Marshall’s statement to police later outlined how her husband’s primary interests were a water business called “Miracle Water” and his hot dog van which would operate outside the Motel nightclub in South Melbourne on weekends.

On the morning of October 25, Michael went to the gym and Michele dropped their son at a birthday party.

Michael Marshall.

Carl Williams.

At lunchtime, the family went to the Jam Factory for a meal then took the child to Timezone and Borders bookshop, returning home at 2.30pm.

Michele then left to visit Prahran Market, returning home to find Michael had taken hot dogs from the freezer in preparation for the night ahead.

At 5pm, he kissed Michele goodbye and left with their son to buy bread rolls.

About 45 minutes later, she was looking at her computer and heard two loud bangs, followed by two more.

“I thought it was a car backfiring,” she told investigators.

The next thing she heard was her son banging on the back gate, yelling hysterically.

“Someone shot my daddy, someone shot my daddy,’’ a witness would tell police they heard the boy scream.

“I rushed to the gate and when I opened it, he said, ‘Daddy’s dead’. I pulled him in the back gate,” Michele said.

Tony Mokbel.

William ‘Willy’ Thompson.

“I looked out onto the street and could see Mick laying on the road, face down. I could not see anyone else around.”

As she moved to check on Michael, the boy grabbed his mother and said repeatedly: “No, you might be dead, too.”

Michele broke free and convinced the boy to stay in the yard, moments later running to her dead husband.

Police believe Williams was contracted by bigwig Tony Mokbel to kill Marshall, who he mistakenly believed had murdered his great friend, another gangland figure Willy Thompson.

Detectives investigated whether Williams was actually the one who had Thompson murdered, but that case remains unsolved.

Mokbel has not been convicted of any murders.