The lie that got underworld war victim Michael Marshall killed

When Carl Williams lied about Michael Marshall’s involvement in a contract killing, he as good as signed the hotdog salesman’s death warrant.

Police looking for evidence at the scene of the shooting of Michael Marshall in South Yarra.

Carl Williams lying about a contract killing may have signed the death warrant of underworld war victim Michael Marshall.

A gangland witness testified that Williams told him that Marshall was behind the murder of crime figure Willy Thompson.

The informer, a large-scale drug trafficker, said in a statement that Williams told him Mark Mallia used drug chemicals to pay for Thompson’s death.

His evidence to Purana taskforce investigators said there was a discussion with Williams in 2003 about a litre of P2P, a precursor chemical used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.

The informer asked Williams why it had found its way into the hands of a group of notorious gangland figures.

Carl Williams pointed to Marshall as the man behind the murder of Willy Thompson.

William “Willy” Thompson was shot dead as he sat in his sports car in 2003.

“Carl said that it was the oil that Marshall, meaning Michael Marshall, paid Mark Mallia for the murder of Willy Thompson.”

But investigators later concluded Williams himself was most likely behind the murder of Thompson, who was shot dead as he sat in his sports car after leaving a Chadstone gym on the night of July 21, 2003.

Though he had no public profile, Thompson was a highly connected figure in Melbourne’s underworld.

He grew up with Tony Mokbel and was close to a group of other heavy organised crime figures involved in big-time armed robberies.

Another police informer from the era would later tell police of being at a meeting at a Red Rooster restaurant where Mokbel was enraged at what had happened to Thompson.

That witness said the drug lord paid Williams $300,000 to have Marshall killed in revenge.

The two men allegedly named by Williams in connection with the Thompson matter were both dead within months.

Detectives at the scene of Thompson’s murder in Waverley Rd, Malvern.

Mallia was tortured and killed at a Thomastown home before his burned body was found a rubbish bin at West Sunshine in August.

Three months later, it was Marshall’s turn.

Two men, who cannot be named for legal reasons, carried out the hit, ambushing Marshall in Joy St, South Yarra.

The hotdog salesman and drug trafficker was shot dead in front of his young son moments after arriving home.

Police look for evidence at the scene of the shooting of Michael Marshall, outside his home in Joy St, South Yarra, Melbourne.

The shooter and getaway driver, who were under police surveillance, were arrested hours later and subsequently implicated Williams in that murder and others.

It was one of several homicides suspected of being the handiwork of Williams in 2003, the bloodiest year of the gangland war.

In April, Mallia associate Nik Radev was gunned down by Andrew “Benji” Veniamin in Queen St, Coburg.

Veniamin later came to believe Mallia had him under surveillance and was planning revenge.

Rancour over the death came to a head in a fiery meeting at Crown Casino where Mallia met with Williams and Veniamin.

The same witness who said Williams had spread misinformation about Marshall’s role in the Thompson killing was present that day at The Promenade.

“Andrew confronted Mark and put it on him he had arranged for two blokes to sit outside his house and that a hit had been put on him,” the informer said in a statement.

“Mark denied that he had anyone sitting outside Andrew’s house or that a contract had been taken out on anyone.

“Andrew exploded. Andrew threatened Mark that he would shoot him and his whole family if he found out that it was true. Andrew then got up and left.”

“I told Mark not to worry about Andrew and that either Carl or myself would calm him down.”

Mallia was dead within weeks.

Originally published as The lie that got underworld war victim Michael Marshall killed