By Konrad Marshall
- Mafia lawyer gunned down in East Brunswick
- Police warning nine months before killing
- 'He brought cannoli': Grief over 'gentleman' lawyer
- Melbourne's most notorious underworld executions
When he was first hand-picked as a man of great promise, Joseph "Pino" Acquaro was young, not yet 30.
The undisputed head of the Calabrian Mafia, Liborio Benvenuto, identified him early, and urged him to become a lawyer. He could be useful. An asset. It would be a great boon for him personally and professionally to represent his community and also, naturally, the Calabrian crime world.
And so it proved for a time. The work was bold and rewarding. But Acquaro is now dead, at just 54.
His story begins long before though, with his father, Alfredo Acquaro, who migrated here in the middle of the last century. He was a good and straight man – an accountant. Calabrians would come to him not simply for their tax returns and financial advice but if they needed help with a visa issue, or translating Centrelink paperwork. And he would dutifully assist. As a child, Pino saw this, and through that networking he himself became a big part of the Calabrian community.
Pino "Joseph" Acquaro, outside court during the 1995 inquest into the death of Alfonso Muratore.Credit: Geoff Ampt
But sources in the legal community say he also saw the world differently than his father. He was drawn to the dark. As a lawyer he defended members of the Mafia, but also became close with them, insinuating himself into their world, so much so that he left Melbourne in his early 30s, headed to Calabria.
There, one rite of passage dictates that a man begins his true work when he turns the age of Jesus Christ at his death, and so at 33 Acquaro he was given his first major brief. He was to represent Calabrian identities who were witnesses in the alleged Mafia murder of fruiterer Alfonso Muratore.
From then on, his small city legal practice thrived. He represented the commercial and criminal interests of an almost exclusively Calabrian clientele. On the one hand, he was continuing the good work of his father, helping the elderly and the recently immigrated, while on the other hand, he was helping gangsters. He would jokingly describe himself as "the consigliere" – a term for the adviser or right-hand of a crime boss – but it was only half a joke.
Acquaro was heavily involved in various Mafia power struggles, and also a bitter dispute over control of the Reggio Calabria Club in Parkville. His most important legal fight, however, was helping Francesco Madafferi get a visa, after the federal government had tried to deport him on the basis of his criminal history.
Gangland lawyer Joe Acquaro. Credit: Channel Nine
The case was a large part of how Acquaro got his credit and standing in Melbourne, and yet two years ago he and Madafferi clashed. The reasons are murky. It was about business, but also family. It was about money, but also pride.
Whatever the grievance, the falling out changed Acquaro's life. People he called friends now gave him the cold shoulder. He switched gears, dedicating his energy to running a thriving business, the Gelobar, while legally representing only one client, the notorious alleged organised crime figure Rocco Arico.
Police gather evidence at the scene where Joseph Acquaro's body was found on Tuesday morning.Credit: Jason South
He took comfort that some underworld figures still considered him the go-to lawyer, but others believed he was no longer one of them. He was falling out with criminals, with friends, and family.
He was at once lackadaisical about his personal safety, and at the same time extraordinarily worried. He felt as though he had enough skin in the game – that knew enough of the colourful characters to stay safe – but this was a fatal misjudgment.
A woman lays flowers at Joseph Acquaro's Gelobar restaurant on Tuesday.Credit: Jason South
Urged by the police and his remaining friends to take precautions, he failed to do so, and was gunned down shortly after midnight on Tuesday while walking to his black Mercedes, after locking up his Lygon Street gelataria.
The role he was groomed to perform – lawyer to the Mafia – might have seemed glamorous and slick in his youth. But like anything in the underworld, the reality is ugly. His body was discovered by a rubbish man.