The unsolved murder that started an underworld war

No one knows exactly when Richard Mladenich turned from promising footballer to professional gangster but once he went down the dark path, there was no turning back.

Maybe it was when his stepfather spitefully burnt Richard’s football boots in the backyard, or when he started pinching cars at the age of 14 to go joyriding. But like many elements of Mladenich’s short and violent life, the truth will never be known.

Mark Mladenich (left) and his late brother Richard, who was murdered in a St Kilda motel room in 2000.

His murder on May 16, 2000, wasn’t exactly headline news, but we now know it was the first murder that began the Underbelly crime war, which would result in 16 killings over 10 years.

His brother, Mark, is still fighting for answers and believes there should be a fresh investigation as detectives believe they know the identity of the only living crook linked to the killing.

“I’m now 77, and I am sick of this. It is a real kick in the teeth. Richard may have been a bit of an arsehole, but he was a human being. I just can’t get any answers. It is as if he doesn’t matter. His mother died not knowing what happened.”

Mladenich, 37, was shot dead in front of three criminal associates – one sleeping on the floor and two in bed – by a gunman wearing a hoodie and dark glasses (it was 3.30am), who burst into his room at St Kilda’s Esquire Motel.

His killers didn’t need to hunt their quarry. Mladenich had been dealing drugs out of room 18 at the motel for weeks. The door was open for customers and the killer even announced he was there to see Richard, who rose to greet him, only to be shot at close range.

Mark Mladenich thinks his brother didn’t have a chance. “Dad died when he was 4½ and Mum married the worst bloke in the world. I was 19 and probably more interested in hanging around with my mates.”

A police mugshot of Richard Mladenich. Credit:

When Mark saw his brother was in with the wrong crowd, he tried to intervene.

“I drove him to the local police station and I asked them to sort of shake him up.

“The cop said he would handle it. I took him inside and the cop gave him a can of Coke and talked to him as if he was a child. What good was that?

”He ended up in Turana [boys’ home] and then the youngest boy in maximum security, with murderers and rapists. Who do you blame? Richard, the state, or his stepfather?

“His footy boots were burnt when he was 14 or 15 by his stepfather. [His stepfather] was a mongrel who pulled a knife on me but came off second best.

“After he had done time, I got him a try-out at Footscray [now the Western Bulldogs]. The coach said he looked alright, but then Richard just disappeared again. He would come back from prison to Mum’s and make all the promises, then he would be gone and back in jail.”

Mark says their mother, Odinea, died suffering dementia, not knowing who killed her son. She died on March 1, 2022, aged 96.

She told me years ago that as a teenage offender, Richard was sent to adult prison, finding his way to the maximum-security Jika Jika unit that was later found to be inhumane and closed down.

“They took my little boy, and they gave me back a zombie. He was a victim of this rotten society.”

Mark says: “Every Sunday, she would take a train and a tram to get to the jail to visit him with clean clothes and food. Then she would be told Richard has been a bit naughty this week, and he won’t be having any visitors, and she would turn around and go home. Who would do that?”

Mark Mladenich is appealing for answers into the gangland murder of his brother, Richard.

Already a big teenager, jail weights turned him into an imposing and uncontrollable inmate. It was as much his behaviour inside as his crimes outside that had him assigned to maximum security. “He had to become like he was to survive,” his mother said.

His police file included nine pages of offences, usually street violence but also included several warnings, including that he would fly into “violent rages that can be triggered off at any time … he will attempt to kill a [police] member or members”.

Another read: “According to prison officers with years of experience, they stated [Mladenich] was one of the craziest and most violent offenders they have seen. [He] is a mountain of a man who has a very violent and unpredictable nature. He must be approached with caution and extreme care. A tough cookie.”

So why was he killed?

Inside prison, he was the minder for drug dealer Carl Williams and when both were released Carl wanted him to reprise the role.

Little wonder: A few months earlier Williams was shot in the stomach at a meeting with rivals, Jason and Mark Moran. Convinced they would return to finish the job, he wanted Mladenich on his team.

At a meeting at Crown Casino, two weeks before the murder, Mladenich laughed in Williams’ face and walked off. And to make matters worse, he had decided to work for Mark Moran.

He was also said to be in the hole for $120,000 to Williams; while that may have been a contributing factor, it was not the cause. After all, the gunman didn’t try to negotiate or search the motel room for money. He went there not to collect a debt, but to kill Richard.

Jason Moran at the funeral of his brother, Mark, in June 2000.Credit: Ray Kennedy

Thirty-one days later, with Mladenich out of the way, Williams moved on the real target, Mark Moran, having him lured out the front of his Aberfeldie home by a so-called friend, to be shot dead.

So who killed Mladenich?

Williams allegedly handed the job to his two closest mates at the time, Rocco Arico and Dino Dibra. Police allege that on the night of the murder, Williams’ and Arico’s phones “pinged” together in the city. Then they were simultaneously turned off.

Arico was wearing similar clothes that night (not great evidence, as a hoodie to a crook is like scrubs to a surgeon) and asked a friend to provide a false alibi, according to police. He was seen that night with the colourful Tommy Ivanovic.

Carl Williams smiling in the dock in court before his sentencing in 2007. Credit: Jason South

Dibra was an early suspect for Mladenich’s murder and surprisingly turned up to be interviewed by homicide detectives on June 15, the very night that Mark Moran was killed. It is believed Rocco chose that time to lose the hoodie and buy an expensive suit, having the time-stamped receipt to prove it.

In the underworld, friends fall out. Four months later, Dibra was shot 14 times with two guns.

Seven years after ordering Mladenich’s murder, Williams was sentenced to a minimum of 32 years for four murders and an attempted murder.

Soon he was yesterday’s man, but wanted to get back into the game; the only card he had was to inform over the murders of Terence and Christine Hodson, who were shot in their Kew home in 2004.

Terence and Christine Hodson.Credit: Penny Stephens

Working on the theory that informing on an ex-cop was not breaking the underworld code of silence, Williams said a former detective paid for the hit to stop Terence testifying in a drug case. Others, as we shall see, held a different view.

By now, Arico had replaced Williams as a drug dealing big shot and, the theory goes, was concerned he might start talking about the Mladenich murder while he was in the mood to snitch.

Certainly, police planned to try and get Williams to implicate Arico in the murder, with a fellow inmate telling Rocco of the move. Williams was in danger and allowed to pick his prison division mates, picking the fearsome Matthew Johnson (known as The General) and his old mate Tommy Ivanovic. It proved to be a strategic error.

On April 19, 2010, Johnson, armed with the rod connected to the seat of an exercise seat, ambushed Williams, bashing him to death. Despite the sickening noise, Ivanovic kept his back to the attack. When he finally turned around to see the bloody scene, he went to the phone and rang – not for help but his old pal, Arico.

The room where Carl Williams was murdered.

Eight minutes after the attack, and before prison officers were aware Williams was dead, Little Tommy phoned Arico, saying: “I’m shocked mate ... something just really terrible just happened. I think Carl’s dead. I think Carl’s dead, mate. Matty just went crazy.”

Intriguingly, when they searched The General’s cell they found several witness statements, one relating to the murder of Richard Mladenich.

Rocco Arico being taken into court in 2015.Credit: Pat Scala

In 2019, Ivanovic was questioned over the murder of Mladenich. Police also applied to question Arico (who was already in custody) over the murder. Neither was charged.

Arico is in prison serving a long term for drug trafficking, extortion and weapons offences and, as he is not an Australian citizen, is scheduled to be deported to Italy.

With Williams and Dibra gone and Arico no longer able to wield power, Mark Mladenich hopes someone in that circle may be able to shed light on the case.

“There is a million-dollar reward, that’s not to be sneezed at. There must still be people who know the truth.”

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au

John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.