AAP General News (Australia)
04-19-2010
Fed: High security couldn't save underworld kingpin
By Catherine Best
MELBOURNE, April 19 AAP - Carl Williams had it coming for a long time.
The gangland kingpin was always destined for a grisly end, but it wasn't expected to
come within Her Majesty's penitentiary.
On the inside, the 39-year-old was one of Victoria's most protected inmates. Locked
in isolation at Barwon Prison's maximum security Acacia unit, he had limited access outside
his cell to mingle with other prisoners and few visitors.
When you are one of Melbourne's most notorious underworld figures you command a level
of security beyond that of the average criminal.
But it wasn't enough to save him. At about 1pm (AEST) on Monday, Williams' brutal past
came back to haunt him.
He was attacked in an exercise yard, suffered serious head injuries and went into cardiac
arrest, unable to be revived.
There were plenty who wanted him dead.
Williams' rap sheet reads like the script of a Godfather spin-off. A puppeteer in Melbourne's
drug wars, he was serving a life sentence for ordering the murders of three underworld
rivals and the failed conspiracy to murder another person.
The crime boss was already serving time for a fifth murder when he was sentenced to
a non-parole period of 35 years.
Detectives suspect he was responsible for up to 10 executions.
Williams was one of the central figures in Melbourne's bloody underworld war which
claimed 27 victims between 1998 and 2006.
But he was never the trigger-man. Instead, he paid hitmen to commit the murderous deeds.
They were actions of cowardice, said to sentencing Judge Betty King, who condemned
Williams' infamy, which was further fuelled by the hit Underbelly television series.
"I have a concern that some younger members of the community who are involved in petty
crime may be looking to you as some sort of hero," Justice King said at his 2007 sentencing.
"You are not. You are a killer, and a cowardly one who employed others to do the actual
killing, whilst you hid behind carefully constructed alibis.
"You were indeed the puppet master, deciding and controlling whether people lived or died."
Williams received a life term for murdering gangland patriarch Lewis Moran, his son
Jason Moran and another underworld figure, Mark Mallia.
He was already serving 21 years for the 2003 murder of drug dealer Michael Marshall.
A high school dropout, Williams was a labourer and one-time semi-professional gambler
before embarking on a life of crime.
He notched up his first conviction in 1990 for possessing stolen goods, before serving
six months for attempting to traffic amphetamines in 2004.
But it was a drug feud with the notorious Moran brothers in October 1999, when Williams
took a bullet to the stomach, that set him on a path that would see blood spilt.
Close associates said getting revenge on the Moran family became Williams' obsession,
resulting in a tit-for-tat battle for control of Melbourne's drug trade.
"Since being shot in the stomach, Carl became obsessive about the Moran family," a
former Williams associate, turned informer, known as Mr X, told police.
"Whenever he was drunk and the conversation came up he would start saying things like:
`I want every one of them dead and every one of their crew dead'."
The first Moran to fall was Mark.
In June 2000, the 36-year-old was shot dead outside his Essendon home while sitting
in his car. Williams was charged with his murder in February 2005 but the charge was later
withdrawn when he pleaded guilty to other murders.
Mr X alleged Williams wanted Jason Moran killed on the anniversary of his stepbrother's
death and a plan was hatched to stake out Mark Moran's grave in the hope Jason would visit
to pay his respects.
When that did not work out, Mr X said, it was decided to kill Jason Moran at the sports
oval he visited most Saturdays to watch his children play football in Essendon.
Moran, 36, and his bodyguard Pasquale Barbaro, 40, were shot dead while sitting in
a van packed with 10 children, including Jason Moran's six-year-old twins.
Just over a year later, Jason Moran's father Lewis, 58, was the victim of another bold
daylight murder when he was shot in front of patrons of his local watering hole.
This murder came only a day after the funeral of Carl Williams' close friend and bodyguard
Andrew Veniamin.
Former boxer Mick Gatto was acquitted of Veniamin's murder on the grounds of self defence.
Justice King said Williams had shown no remorse for the killings and had no psychological
disorder that contributed to his crimes.
In a rare move, the media was permitted to photograph Williams in the dock of the Supreme
Court on the day he was sentenced.
The chubby felon - who referred to himself as "The Premier" because he "ran the state"
- grinned for the cameras, apparently basking in the notoriety of his crimes.
Justice King later remarked "it was apparent that you were enjoying the game of being famous".
Before Williams became "famous" he lived with his parents for the better part of his
life in Broadmeadows, until marrying Roberta in 2001. The pair, since divorced, has one
child, Dhakota, aged nine.
Williams' father George is a convicted drug trafficker and his mother Barbara died
of an apparent overdose in November 2008. His elder brother died of medical complications
in 1997 at the age of 31.
Even in jail, Williams could not escape the media spotlight. On the day of his death,
the killer stared from the front page of Melbourne's tabloid newspaper over a story about
a police deal that has taxpayers footing the bill for his daughter's private school education.
In death, the underworld warlord will, no doubt, continue to grab headlines.
AAP cmb/pmu/jlw/tr/cdh
KEYWORD: WILLIAMS OBIT
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