Rule Andrew - Underbelly: a tale of two cities

For Paul Delianis and Carl Mengler, who saw the door was slightly ajar and crashed right through it.

Paul Delianis

Carl Mengler

The authors

John Silvester has been a crime reporter in Melbourne since 1978. He worked for The Sunday Times Insight team in London in 1990, and has co-authored many crime books, including the Underbelly series, Leadbelly and The Silent War. He is currently senior crime reporter for The Age.

Andrew Rule started in journalism in 1975 and has worked in newspapers, television and radio. He wrote Cuckoo, the inside story of the Mr Stinky case, since re-issued in the collection Sex, Death and Betrayal, and has co-written, edited and published several other books, including the Underbelly series. He is a deputy editor of The Age.

Apart from extensive original research and interviews with sources on both sides of the law, the authors have drawn on published sources listed below. We wish particularly to acknowledge the work of the late Richard Hall and of Keith Moor, Bob Bottom, Tom Noble and gun-for-hire John Kerr.

Booth, Pat: The Mr Asia File.

Bottom, Bob: Connections.

Bottom, Bob: Connections 2.

Bottom, Bob: Shadow of Shame.

Bottom, Bob: Without Fear or Favour.

Freeman, George: An Autobiography.

Goodsir, Darren: In the Line of Fire.

Hall, Richard: Greed.

Hickie, David: The Prince and the Premier.

McCoy, Alfred: Drug Traffic.

Moor, Keith: Crims in Grass Castles.

Noble, Tom and Smith, Arthur: Neddy.

Reeves, Tony: Mr Big.

Reeves, Tony: Mr Sin.

Silvester, John and Rule, Andrew: Tough: 101 Gangsters.

Silvester, John and Rule, Andrew: Underbelly series, 1-11.

Whitton, Evan: Can Of Worms.

Wilson, David and Murdoch, Lindsay: Big Shots.

Wilson, David and Robinson, Paul: Big Shots 2.

Victorian Coronial reports into the deaths of Ray Bennett, Les Kane, Brian Kane, Norman McLeod, Laurie Prendergast and Roger Wilson.

NSW Coronial report into the presumed murder of Christopher Dale Flannery.

Final report of the NSW Drug/Murder Taskforce.

Nagle, John: Special Commission of Inquiry into police investigations into the Donald Mackay murder.

Royal Commission reports from:

Costigan, Frank.

Stewart, Donald.

Williams, Edward.

Woodward, Philip.

Supreme Court transcripts (various).

Leslie Herbert Kane. Born Carlton 1 December 1945. One of three gangster brothers and heavily connected in the notorious Painters and Dockers Union. In the 1970s considered Australias most violent man. Shot dead in the bathroom of his Wantirna unit 19 October 1978. Body never found. Three men charged and acquitted of the murder.

Raymond Patrick Bennett. The mastermind behind the 21 April 1976 Great Bookie Robbery. Charged and acquitted of the murder of Les Kane. Shot dead inside the Melbourne Magistrates Court 11 November 1979 allegedly by Less brother, Brian.

Brian Raymond Kane. Melbourne standover man and suspect for the murder of Ray Bennett. Shot dead in the Quarry Hotel 26 November 1982.

Alan David Williams. Footballer, armed robber and drug dealer. A Melbourne-based gangster connected with failed attempts to bribe and then murder New South Wales undercover detective Mick Drury. Died of natural causes mid 2001.

Christopher Dale Flannery. School drop-out who became an underworld drop-kick. Born Melbourne 15 March 1949, the youngest of three children. Became Australias most notorious hit man reputedly killed 14 people. Charged and acquitted of two contract killings, moved to Sydney and became a key figure in a major underworld war. Known as Rentakill, went missing 9 May 1985 body never found.

Kathleen Flannery. Blood loyal wife of Chris. She stuck with him when others wouldnt and was dragged into an underworld war as a consequence. After his death she reclaimed her life and raised her children away from the underworld.

Tom Ericksen. Former insurance salesman who became an influential figure with connections to police and gangsters. A one-legged private detective known as Hopalong Tom. In the 1970s, Ericksen employed another shadowy character, Gianfranco Tizzoni, in his repossession business. Tizzoni was the man who later helped organise the murder of anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay. Strongly linked to Chris Flannery and almost certainly helped set up the hit mans murder contracts. In 1988, National Crime Authority officers charged him with 195 counts of giving secret commissions (bribery) and 11 counts of making threats to kill. On 10 August that year, he was due in court to answer the charges. He died earlier that morning, a 52-year-old blind one-legged diabetic.

George David Freeman. Colourful Sydney racing identity who protected himself by bribing police. Royal Commissioner and former New South Wales policeman Justice Donald Stewart found Freeman was linked to race fixing, SP bookmaking and illicitly protected casinos. He employed hit man Chris Flannery until the underworld and corrupt police decided to make the hit man redundant. Flannery went missing on the way to Freemans house and has never been seen again. It wasnt crooked police but a crook chest that got George in the end. Freeman had chronic asthma. The man who survived being shot in the head died from complications from an asthma attack in March 1990.

(Dr) Nicholas George Paltos. Born Kastellorizon, a small Greek island, in 1941 the youngest of ten children. Migrated to Australia with his family aged six. Completed an electroplating diploma. Won a Commonwealth Scholarship and studied medicine at the University of New South Wales while working nights as a taxi driver. Became a fashionable GP whose patients included Kerry Packer and many of Sydneys major crime figures such as George Freeman, Danny Chubb and Robert Aussie Bob Trimbole. Alleged to have provided morphine for Freemans raging habit. Organised the importation of 5.5 tonnes of hashish resin with a street value of $40 million. Arrested as part of the Australian Federal Police Operation Lavender sentenced to a minimum of 13 years. Struck off the medical register. Found guilty of conspiring with former detective Roger Rogerson, of perverting the course of justice for using false names to hide money in bank accounts. Released 1994. Died of natural causes 2003.

Roger Caleb Rogerson. Born January 1941. Rose to the rank of Detective-Sergeant of the New South Wales Police Force. Received bravery awards and the Peter Mitchell Trophy for outstanding police work. Had suspicious links to underworld figures including Arthur Neddy Smith, Graham Abo Henry and Christopher Dale Flannery. Smith claimed Rogerson protected him while he committed major crimes. Rogerson was responsible for the shooting death of Warren Lanfranchi. During the inquest the coroner found he was acting in the line of duty, but a jury declined to find he had acted in self-defence. Rogerson was later commended by the police force for his bravery. However, it was alleged by Lanfranchis partner, Sallie-Anne Huckstepp, and later by Neddy Smith, that Rogerson murdered Lanfranchi for robbing a police protected heroin dealer and for firing a gun at a policeman. Served three years for conspiring to pervert the course of justice and became a colourful after dinner speaker.

Robert Aussie Bob Trimbole