Where our worst crims are buried

Australia’s cemeteries hold the remains of the infamous as well as the famous. Here’s where some of our most notorious criminals ended up.

Our cemeteries hold the remains of the infamous as well as the famous.

Melbourne’s necropileses are dotted with the graves of those who were involved in the gangland wars of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Two of the most feared names from that bloody saga, Carl Williams (convicted of the murder of four underworld figures) and Andrew Veniamin (suspected of involvement in the murder of five) are buried in Keilor Cemetery. Resplendent with gold lettering, an inlaid portrait and a statue of Christ the Redeemer, Williams’ standing black marble tombstone makes quite the statement.

Carl Williams’ grave at Keilor Cemetery is not exactly what you would call ‘modest’. Picture: David Crosling

Fawkner Memorial Park probably holds the dubious record for the largest rogues’ gallery, with Mark Moran, Dino Dibra, Alphonse Gangitano, William Thompson and Nicolai Radev among the names buried there. Mark ‘Chopper’ Read – once reported to have said he was responsible for “four to seven (murders), depending on how you look at it” – is also buried at Fawkner.

Other notorious criminals buried in Melbourne include Brian and Leslie Kane, at Springvale, and Joseph ‘Squizzy’ Taylor, whose grave is in Brighton Cemetery.

Sydney’s circle of deceased criminals is spread far and wide, with George Freeman at Waverley, Frank Trimbole at Pinegrove Memorial Park and Lennie McPherson at the Field of Mars Cemetery in Ryde.

Mark Moran’s grave at Fawkner Cemetery is in the shape of a love heart, with space presumably left for a partner.

Rookwood holds the remains of bikie boss Mick Hawi and Kings Cross crime figure Abe Saffron, while there is a certain irony in the fact that the warring gangland queens Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh both now share a patch at the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park in Matraville.

Rookwood also features a number of bushranger graves, including Jimmy Governor and Robert Hancock, and for many years it held the ashes of Captain Moonlite, although they were reinterred at Gundagai in 1995.

Country cemeteries in NSW and Victoria hold a number of the most famous bushrangers, with Ben Hall buried at Forbes and Ned Kelly interred at Greta, east of Benalla.

Other states have their share of the infamous dead, of course. Lutwyche Cemetery in Brisbane holds the remains of John Andrew Stuart, charged over the 1973 bombing of the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub in Fortitude Valley which killed 15 people. And Fremantle Cemetery is now home to serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke, better known as the Nedlands Monster.

Some of Australia’s most notorious killers have no known grave sites. The ashes of convicted serial killer Ivan Milat were scattered off a bridge near Wollongong after his death in 2019. And the terrorist responsible for the Lindt Cafe Siege in December 2014 was buried at an undisclosed location, the authorities believing there was no way the people of Sydney would let a monster like that rest in peace.

Originally published as Where our worst crims are buried