Inquest set to solve infamous disappearance of gangland figure Laurie Prendergast
The widow of gangland figure Laurie Prendergast is hoping an inquest will finally declare he was murdered 35 years ago — saying she has never hought her husband disappeared of his own free will.
Police & Courts
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The wife of gangland figure Laurie Prendergast hopes an inquest will finally declare he was murdered.
Ursula Prendergast said she has not thought at any time in the past 35 years that her husband disappeared of his own free will.
Prendergast was a central figure in an era of Melbourne underworld carnage which left many foes and friends – including Great Bookie Robbery mastermind Raymond Patrick Bennett – dead.
Mrs Prendergast told the Sunday Herald Sun she did not expect answers from the looming Coronial inquiry.
But she does want an earlier finding that did not conclude her husband had been murdered to be overturned.
“All I can hope for is that they give me the conclusion; that they at least can say he’s been murdered; that they give us a death certificate,” she said.
“There’s no maybes. He was murdered. He wouldn’t leave us all behind.”
Prendergast and his allies had been in a long period of conflict with some members of the ruthless Kane family in the years before he disappeared on August 23, 1985.
He was charged and acquitted over the 1978 murder of Les Kane at his Wantirna home.
But Mrs Prendergast said he was more worried about the police than the Kanes.
Notorious hit man Rodney Charles Collins has been previously investigated over the murder of Prendergast.
Prendergast’s friend, the contract killer Christopher Dale Flannery, disappeared and was murdered months earlier.
But Mrs Prendergast said there was no connection as, by then, “Chris wasn’t in our life.”
She said it was puzzling that the theory her husband disappeared voluntarily ever had more credibility than him being murdered.
The extreme level of security at one of his earlier court appearances pointed to authorities knowing his life was in serious danger, she said.
Mrs Prendergast said the torment of loss was compounded by a lack of information on what had happened.
“We don’t know who. We don’t know why,” she said.
“There will never be closure. It would have been kinder if they shot him and left him.”
Mrs Prendergast said she had grown used to the idea that no one would ever be held to account for her husband’s murder but hopes justice will be served in another jurisdiction.
“My favourite saying is; God knows everything.”
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