Crime Investigation Australia

The notorious baby-faced underworld figure who police believe killed 10 people pleaded guilty to the murders of Mark Malia (August 2003), Jason Moran (June 2003) and Lewis Moran (March 2004). He was killed in April 19, 2010 with extreme violence by a prison inmate whilst serving 35 years in a maximum security prison for these murders. He had previously been found guilty of the murder of Michael Marshall, who was shot dead outside his Toorak home in October 2003. The murders occurred at the height of Melbourne's notorious gangland war that raged between 1998 and 2006, leaving 27 dead. Williams mother, Barbara, publicly defended her son after his jailing and berated the trial judge. The Moran family had dominated Melbourne's criminal world for more than a decade when Williams vowed to wipe them out. In November 2007, Carl’s father, George, was jailed for a minimum of 20 months for a massive drug trafficking operation which he carried out with his son. Over two and half years Carl made about $500,000 selling methamphetamine. George, now 63, lives in suburban Broadmeadows, Melbourne, and suffers from chronic heart disease, diabetes, anxiety and depression. Barbara committed suicide at her Essendon home in December 2008, and their other son Shane died of a heroin overdose aged 31.

Painter and docker, Les Kane was described by his widow, Judi, as "the most violent man in Australia". Les came to prominence when he declared war on the armed robber Ray Chuck, the mastermind of what is known as the Great Bookie Robbery in 1976. But Chuck struck first. Les was machine-gunned by Chuck, within a few feet of his horrified wife and children in their Wantirna home and his body removed and never found. Les’s older brother, Brian Kane, was once Melbourne's top standover man, before he was gunned down in the Quarry Hotel in Brunswick in November, 1982. Mourners at his funeral included the entire Moran clan. Kane's niece Trish later married Jason Moran, who was shot dead with Pasquale Barbaro in 2004. Judi Kane today speaks of how she fell for a man whose cocky self-assurance hid a psychopathic streak. By the time she realised they would never live happily ever after, she was in too deep. Billy Longley is a veteran of the waterside crime war that gripped Melbourne and Sydney finally ended in the early 1980s, it was a war that led to at least 40 people being murdered. Longley, one of the most feared men on the docks, was known as "The Texan" because he wore a Stetson and carried a Colt .45. He was a Painters and Dockers Union presidential candidate and the leader of a union faction at war with his rival, Pat Shannon. In 1970, Longley was convicted in connection with Australia's biggest armed robbery to that time, the Mayne Nicholas heist in the Sydney suburb of Guildford, which netted $587,870. He disappeared in 1973 and a few months later Pat Shannon was gunned down in a South Melbourne's Hotel. Longley, Kevin James Taylor, Gary Leslie Harding were convicted of Shannon's manslaughter. . Now aged 83 Longley lives quietly in suburban Melbourne, he goes ballroom dancing and counsels school children against getting involved in violence.

One eyed crime matriarch Kath Pettingill mothered a brood of 10 children, many of whom variously went to early graves, prison or witness protection. She has a string of convictions and wrote an autobiography titled “The Matriarch” She is reported to have offered $20,000 for the testicles of an undercover detective who infiltrated her crime family. Her family included: DENNIS ALLEN, SON: one of the most feared drug dealers in Melbourne. Nicknamed ‘Mr. Death’ or ‘Mr. D’, he was believed to have been involved in up to 13 underworld murders including members of his own family. He’s been blamed for the dismembering of a Hells Angels biker with a chainsaw. He died in 1987, aged 35. VICTOR GEORGE PEIRCE, SON - A member notorious armed robber who was one of four men charged and acquitted of the ambush murders of two young police constables in Walsh Street, South Yarra, on October 12, 1988. At age 42, Peirce would meet his end, becoming a victim of the Gangland killings, shot dead in 2002. Pierce’s defacto, Wendy Peirce, told a newspaper in 2007 that her husband had organised the Walsh Street killings as payback for the death of his friend Graeme Jensen, who was shot dead in Narre Warren by police the day before. TREVOR PETTINGILL, SON - Born February 16, 1965, Trevor's experience of institutions began when he was six years old. He was put under state supervision because he was seen to be in moral danger. Trevor became a hardened career criminal. In 1987, with mother Kath, he pleaded guilty to heroin possession. Trevor was also charged with the murders of the two policemen in Walsh St in 1988. PETER JOHN ALLEN, SON - has multiple convictions for rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and other offences, and spent 28 years behind bars. JASON RYAN, NEPHEW - Jason moved in with his uncle Dennis Allen during the height of his heroin empire and was apparently used as a carrier of drugs and guns. Jason became a witness for the prosecution in the t

The torrid details of the notorious Milat family are explored in this episode. Members of the family continue to support Ivan Milat, the nation's worst serial killer. Clearly, this is a family with “ issues”. According to one report, Ivan's brother Boris’s wife Marilyn was having an affair with Ivan and Boris believed that Marilyn fell pregnant to Ivan. When he sought advice from his father, he was encouraged to kill Ivan. Boris says Ivan lacks a soul and a conscience. He says his brother has been a psychopath from his earliest school days and always had a fascination with guns. Boris's comments have sparked a feud within his family, some of whom have reportedly made death threats against him. Carolyn Milat, says her brother Ivan does not have a secret side to him and was always genuine, but another brother, Bill Milat, has said that if Ivan is guilty, then he should be executed. When the trial judge suggested more than one person took part in the killings, Ivan’s younger brother, Richard Milat, publicly denied he had assisted Ivan.

Les, Michael and Gary Murphy, brothers from an Irish family of nine children, were three of the five men convicted of the savage rape and murder of Sydney nurse and beauty queen, Anita Cobby, which sparked calls for the reintroduction of the death penalty. The others were John Travers and Michael Murdoch. Michael Murphy, 33 at the time of the murder, was the eldest of the nine Murphy children. He had been sent to live with his grandmother when he was 12. His brother Gary Murphy was five years younger. Hearing impairment affected Gary Murphy's schooling and he left early to seek work. His strong interest in cars led to him facing several automotive theft related charges in the years before the murder. He was also known to have a very violent temper. Leslie Joseph Murphy was the youngest of the Murphy children, but was known as having the worst temperament. He had faced Children's Court on many occasions for a number of theft-related offences and was 24 at the time of the Cobby murder. Travers was a depraved 18-year-old who had grown up in a dysfunctional family in the outer suburbs of Sydney. He shared his blood with best mate Michael Murdoch in a ceremony that made them so-called blood brothers. The five are serving life sentences for the murder.

David & Catherine Birnie were a Perth couple who embarked on a depraved killing spree in Perth in 1988. Together they would cruise the city’s streets picking up unsuspecting young women who were then kidnapped raped and murdered. It was only after their final victim staged a courageous escape and exposed the House of Horrors that the killer couple were arrested and jailed for life. David later committed suicide in jail. Catherine makes regular appeals to be released on parole. This episode looks into the family backgrounds of both killers and includes an exclusive interview with David Birnie’s first wife, and others who knew the couple when they were children.

Lennie McPherson controlled most of Sydney's organised crime activity for several decades, with his associate George Freeman. Lenny was born in the inner-Sydney suburb of Balmain in 1921, the tenth child of metalworker William McPherson and his wife Nellie. He had some schooling at Birchgrove Primary School and his first brush with the law came at the age of 11 when he was convicted of stealing. Eighteen months later he was convicted on two charges of stealing and sent to a detention centre where he was bashed and raped. He went on to a life of serious crime and was universally feared by his adversaries and often referred to as Sydney's ‘Mr Big’ of organised crime, protected by police who relied on his information to control the Sydney underworld. McPherson had been estranged from his mother for many years, but on her 70th birthday, he unexpectedly turned up at her flat, carrying a live rabbit. He demanded to know why he had not been invited to her birthday party, and when she admitted that it was because of his criminal activities, the furious McPherson tore the rabbit's head off, threw the still-twitching body at her feet and stormed off. He died of a heart attack in Cessnock Gaol in 1996, aged 75. George Freeman was king of Sydney’s SP bookies, and was involved with McPherson in massive money laundering operations on Sydney race tracks and the corruption of Sydney chief magistrate Murray Farquar. During the 1970s George Freeman, was shot with a .22 pistol. but survived, and less than six weeks later the man suspected of the shooting was himself shot dead in the driveway of his Coogee home. Freeman, who was holidaying in Noosa at the time, refused to answer questions on the matter.

Dubbed ‘Mr. Sin’, and ‘the Boss of the Cross’, Abe Saffron ruled his family with an iron fist. A tireless womaniser, he even had his son, Alan, committed to the infamous Chelmsford Psychiatric Hospital, and denied him access to his own children. Saffron’s alleged criminal activities included illegal alcohol sales, dealing in stolen goods, illegal gambling, prostitution, drug dealing, bribery, extortion and murder. Most charges laid against him involved minor firearms or liquor licensing offences but late in his life he finally served seventeen months in jail for tax evasion. He died in 2006, aged 86.