Murdered mobsters of Melbourne: gruesome gangland killings that shocked the state
From ugly jail bashings to ruthlessly being taken out in their own homes, these mobsters chose a life of crime and met violent ends that shocked Melbourne and became the stuff of legend.
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Infamous underworld crime boss Carl Williams once said it was “Better (to be) a tiger for a day than a sheep for life,” and that sentiment rings truly for Melbourne’s dead criminal elite.
Organised crime is a high-stakes business and there are countless unscrupulous characters willing to claw themselves to the top using any means possible, as these now-defunct mobsters learnt. Living fast and dying young was how these men lived their lives, and their violent deaths are now the stuff of Melbourne’s criminal folklore.
Read on to find out how these shady gangsters met their brutal end, and let us know in the comments below what others you remember.
Frank Benvenuto
(December 15, 1947 to May 8, 2000)
Locals thought Francesco “Frank” Benvenuto, was simply asleep in his car when they saw him slumped over the steering wheel while parked outside a Beaumaris home, on May 8, 2000. In reality the 52-year-old Victoria Market fruiterer had been shot and his murderer has never been found.
Frank was a known associate of the Moran family and a high-ranking Melbourne Mafia figure. He was the head of the Honoured Society in Melbourne, which has links to the formidable Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, and rose to power after his father, former Mafia head Liborio Benvenuto, died from natural causes. Liborio believed his son-in-law Alfonso Muratore was better suited to taking over his title when he died rather than his son, Frank, and Muratore was earmarked for succession. Frank was jealous of Muratore’s relationship with his father and was believed to have ordered Muratore’s death after Muratore left his wife, Frank’s sister, for his mistress following his father Liborio’s death. There were also rumours that Muratore was threatening to expose the Mafia’s dodgy dealings in Melbourne’s fruit and veg markets before he died.
Frank Benvenuto was interviewed by homicide detectives about Muratore’s death, but no one was ever convicted and his death remains a cold case. With Muratore out of the picture, Frank was free to take over as the head of the Melbourne’s Italian underworld until his demise.
Carl Williams
(October 13, 1970 to April 19, 2010)
He was the baby-faced crim that everyone underestimated. Carl Williams rose to the top of Melbourne’s underworld food chain powered by a thirst for revenge against the Moran family.
He was shot in the stomach by Jason Moran during a drug dispute with him and his brother Mark at a northern suburbs park in 1999. The scuffle prompted Williams to wage war against the Morans. And while Williams’ own lawyer, Peter Faris QC, would later say after his client’s death that Williams was a “gutless” and “stupid” man, Williams succeeded in gaining control of Melbourne’s criminal underworld by bloody force.
In a true lesson that crime doesn’t pay, Williams was brutally bashed to death with the stem of an exercise bike by fellow inmate Matthew Johnson while serving a life sentence for murder at Barwon Prison. He died lonely and broke at the age of 39.
Nik Radev
(January 29, 1959 to April 15, 2003)
Nikolai “Nik” Radev, also known as “Nik the Russian” had a simple motto for survival — never leave home without a pistol — and it worked for him — for a while.
Despite having no known legitimate means of income, the high-flying crim famously had a penchant for designer clothes and jewellery and was a regular at city strip clubs. His wrap sheet included assault, blackmail, threats to kill, extortion, firearm offences, robbery and drug charges. He was believed to be an enforcer working for the Russian mafia in Melbourne, but fatefully he decided not to take a gun out with him the day he was gunned down in Coburg in 2003.
Radev’s reputation for brutality preceded him and his standover tactics made him a problem for police and a threat to other criminals. He was shot seven times in the head and chest as he sat in his Mercedes-Benz coupé, and it was suspected Andrew Veniamin and Carl Williams were behind the killing.
Graham Kinniburgh
(October 20, 1942 to December 13, 2003)
A former member of the feared Painters and Dockers union as well as the notorious Carlton Crew, Graham “The Munster” Kinniburgh was shot outside his Kew home at the age of 61.
Kinniburgh was Melbourne’s “Mr Big” at the time of his death and was known as the underworld’s peacemaker. He was a master safecracker and a natural diplomat who brokered deals with and between the city’s nastiest criminals. He was implicated in the death of fellow Carlton Crew member, Alphonse Gangitano, the first mobster to die in the now infamous Melbourne gangland killings, who he visited the night Gangitano was killed. Jason Moran was also present at the time.
Kinniburgh’s lengthy criminal record included escaping legal custody, bribery, extortion, assaulting police and wounding with intent to murder. And while he may have made it to the ripe old age of 61 — practically ancient compared to other mobsters in this list who lived fast and died young — he wasn’t one to be taken out easily. Kinniburgh was carrying a gun with him when he was shot, managing to return a single retaliatory shot before he fell to the ground and died.
The Morans
Mark Moran (July 4, 1964 to June 15, 2000)
Jason Moran (September 22, 1967 to June 21, 2003)
Lewis Moran (July 7, 1941 to March 31, 2004)
The Moran family name remains synonymous with Melbourne’s criminal underbelly and gangland murders years after the death of Lewis and his sons Jason and Mark. The crime links were so strong that Jason and Mark’s widows and children were forced to change their surname following the mens’ violent deaths.
Lewis, Mark and Jason were heavily enmeshed in organised crime and the drug trade, with the Morans enjoying prestige as some of the primary producers and dealers of party pills. But a scuffle with Carl Williams was the beginning of the end for the men, with Williams believed to have ordered a hit on Mark outside his Aberfeldie home in 2000. Jason was the next to meet his end, ruthlessly executed alongside his mate Pasquale Barbaro while sitting in a van at a footy clinic in 2003. Five children were sitting in the back seat at the time of the murder, including Jason’s six-year-old twins. Williams is also believed to have ordered the hit
Lewis Moran outlived his sons, but not by long. He was shot by two men outside the Brunswick Club in a hit ordered by — you guessed it — Carl Williams.
Alphonse Gangitano
(April 22, 1957 to January 16, 1998)
Nicknamed the “Black Prince of Lygon Street”, Alphonse Gangitano was the fearsome face of the Carlton Crew until he was found dead in his laundry wearing only his underwear and with three gunshot wounds to the head.
The viciously violent but well-dressed gangster had a formidable reputation among his enemies, with some referring to him as “the Godfather”. He loved the infamy and even fantasised about Andy Garcia playing him in a musical based on his life. He dodged the law for years over his crimes, which included being charged for shooting dead petty criminal Gregory John Workman
But he was believed to have a drug habit and loved to gamble, and eventually met his end at the age of 40. His body was discovered by his wife and two young daughters.
Andrew Veniamin
(November 16, 1975 to March 23, 2004)
Born to Greek Cypriot parents, Andrew “Benji” Veniamin was a key figure in Melbourne’s underworld killings and a key member within Carl Williams vast stable of hitmen during his rise to the top.
Veniamin was good at what he did and had a reputation as Australia’s busiest hitman before he was shot dead by Mick Gatto, a well-known Melbourne businessman. Veniamin was a petty thief in his younger years but is suspected to have murdered seven underworld figures before he too was killed during Melbourne’s bloody gangland war which lasted from the late 1990s to 2006. Gatto would later go on to say Veniamin, a tattooed western suburbs boy who lead the Sunshine Crew, had a vicious “Jekyll and Hyde” character whose anger boiled over easily and with devastatingly deadly consequences.
He died at the young age of 28, and Mr Gatto was later acquitted of his murder on the grounds of self-defence.
Nabil Maghnie
(Killed January 9, 2020)
Nabil Magnie, the most recent Melbourne-based criminal kingpin to lose his life, was shot dead at a Taco Bill carpark in Epping about 8.30pm on January 9.
Magnie was considered one of the city’s most dangerous crime figures at the time of his death and had links to the Comanchero bikie gang. He was under investigation at the time of his death for a double fatal shooting at the Love Machine nightclub in Prahran last year, and he was also arrested in November over the killing of drug trafficker Mitat Rasimi but was released without charge.
It’s claimed he may have been standing over someone following a car crash involving his 20-year-old daughter, but things went awry when another man showed up with a gun. Maghnie’s 25-year-old son and one other man who was with him were also both shot during the confrontation. Magnie was 44 when he was killed and the police investigation into his death is ongoing, with charges yet to be laid.
Originally published as Murdered mobsters of Melbourne: gruesome gangland killings that shocked the state
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