Paul Anderson - Shotgun City: Melbournes Gangland Killings

SHOTGUN
CITY
MELBOURNES
GANGLAND
KILLINGS

PAUL ANDERSON

Published in 2004 by
Hardie Grant Books
85 High Street
Prahran, Victoria 3181, Australia
www.hardiegrant.com.au

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Copyright text Paul Anderson 2004
Copyright photographs The Herald & Weekly Times Photographic Collection

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data:
Anderson, Paul.

Shotgun city : Melbournes gangland killings.

ISBN 1 74066 210 5.

1. Crime - Victoria - Melbourne - Case studies. 2. Criminal investigation - Victoria - Melbourne - Case studies. I. Title.

364.1099451

Edited by Sally Moss
Design and typesetting by Andrew Cunningham, Studio Pazzo
Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Books

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

The First War

There are few die well that die in a battle

William Shakespeare, Henry V

A ccording to former Federated Ship Painters & Dockers Union hardman Billy Longley, a good general picks his own battlefield. Longley, the man they call The Texan, is a veteran of a waterside crime war that gripped Melbourne and Sydney from the late 1950s through to the early 1980s. He survived while many men fell during what was a wild Jimmy Cagney-style battle fought in the streets and in the pubs between factions of the then-mighty Painters & Dockers Union.

It was a conflict that claimed at least forty lives as the factions fought for control of the iron-fisted union and its organised criminal enterprises. It was a dirty, brutal war fought for a rich kitty. There was a jackpot to be made from gambling, sly grog and prostitution rackets, and organised fraud. Armed robbery was rife. The distribution of drugs also proved a lucrative pursuit. There were two obvious reasons why the docks were the perfect hub for drug trafficking: they offered an ideal entry point for the smuggle, and the waterside workers extensive criminal contacts enabled the gear to be quickly spread to the dealers and the users. The docklands were an illegal money-making haven for those pursuing criminal ideals. But where there is a big illegal cashflow there is inevitably death during arm wrestles for control. The docks proved a watery killing field.

During the campaign for ascendancy, union-employed gunmen dished out more lead than the local Staedtler pencil factory as unionists, supporters and outside enemies were cut down. But while the brazen hits were prolific, witnesses were scarce if existent at all. The same can be said of the gangland murders of todays era. No matter how many years pass, the criminal code of having been looking the other way remains the same. Back in Longleys day, there was a litany of such hits. The now oft-quoted motto We catch and kill our own a catchcry still proving gun-barrel true today was coined by the Painters & Dockers Union.

A grey 6 February 1958 was to become the reckoning day for powerful Painters & Dockers identity Freddie The Frog Harrison, a reputed trigger man and standover merchant. It came close on the heels of an incident during which Freddie, while on the booze, is said to have blown half a mates hand off with a shotgun. After driving to South Wharf, The Frog was removing a trailer from his Ford with the help of docker Bobby Hayes when a gunman strolled past a score of waterside workers and raised a 12-gauge shotgun.

This is yours, Fred, the gunman said, before bursting The Frogs head open with cigarette-hot shotgun pellets.

True to the adage you dont hear the shot that kills you, Harrison never heard the crack of gunfire that ended his life. No one on the wharf not even Hayes, covered in Harrisons sticky grey matter provided a statement to police. He was looking in the other direction at the time. He would later tell an inquest into Harrisons death: I stood up, turned right and walked away. I didnt look back. When asked why he refrained from looking back, he said: Because the explosion was on my left. Several others, meanwhile, were straining their spuds in the toilet. Homicide Squad boss Detective Inspector Charles Petty told the inquest into The Frogs murder: At least a dozen witnesses have said they were in the toilet when Harrison was killed. Your Honour, it is a two-man toilet.

Without a single witness, let alone witness corroboration, the murder went unsolved.

Another to bite the dust was Alfred The Ferret Nelson an illiterate wharfies union welfare officer who raised funds for sick and injured dockside workers. He vanished without trace in December 1971. Speculation suggests that he was shot dead and incinerated as revenge for an attack on a docker from a rival faction. A Sun