The Gangland War Read Online Free

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    Politicians, self-proclaimed media experts and cynical old detectives thought Purana would self-destruct. A lack of success would result in bitter infighting and no results. The underworld code of silence would never be broken, they said.
    To keep up morale during the years of investigation, the taskforce called on Essendon coach and long-time AFL survivor Kevin Sheedy to motivate Purana investigators. Believe in yourselves and your team mates and don’t worry about the scoreboard, he said. Do the planning and the results will come.
    In October 2003 the taskforce was enlarged to 53 staff, including nine investigative groups, with Detective Inspector Andrew Allen in charge.
    From the start no-one really doubted that Williams was behind the killing, but there was no hard evidence. Several names were nominated as the shooter, including The Runner, but names without facts were little use.
    The initial homicide squad team was convinced The Runner was the gunman and had identified others who would later be shown to be part of Williams’ hit squad.
    The initial work of the homicide squad cannot be underestimated. But the better-resourced Purana team was able to make vital breakthroughs — eventually.
    It was months before the first strong lead emerged from the double murder. Near the Cross Keys Hotel in Moreland Road is a public telephone and detectives eventually checked the calls made from there around the time of the murder.
    On a long list, a series of numbers stood out. On Friday 20 June, the day before the double murder, someone rang Williams’ mobile phone from the telephone box. Roberta Williams’ mobile had also been called, and then The Runner’s. It was clear to police that one of the hit team was checking out the layout for the ambush planned for the following day.
    But the next call on the list was not a known suspect. When police tracked down the man who received the call he told them he had been rung that day by a mate. That friend was The Driver. It did not take long to find out that The Driver was a thief, drug dealer and close friend of Williams. He sold speed and had alucrative sideline in stolen Viagra. He was still selling the remains of 10,175 sample packs lifted from a Cheltenham warehouse in April 2000.
    Detectives went to The Driver’s house. Sitting in the driveway was a white van, the same type as one captured on closed-circuit video depositing a masked gunman in the car park just before Moran and Barbaro were killed.
    It was a breakthrough — but not
the
breakthrough. It would take police fourteen months before they could lay charges. Meanwhile, the murders kept happening.
    PURANA detectives knew the Williams team would eventually make a mistake, but wondered how many would die before they found the weak link.
    In October 2003 police learned that The Driver, Williams’ trusted associate, had sourced an abandoned sedan rebuilt by a backyard mechanic — a perfect getaway vehicle.
    Police placed a listening device in the car and waited. But The Driver, having collected the car and driven it a short distance, noticed the brake light was on. He checked it and found the bug, which he ripped out.
    He immediately told The Runner, ‘we’re hot’ and wanted to cancel the job. But The Runner had lost his sense of risk and insisted they push on, a decision he later admitted was ‘sheer stupidity’ caused by the pressure on him to get the job done.
    That night they met Williams separately in Flemington for new instructions but Williams’ growing sense of invincibility lulled him into making a massive misjudgement. The one-time suburban drug dealer with gangster boss dreams ordered his hit team to carry on regardless.
    Inexplicably, The Driver decided to use his own car (a silver Holden Vectra sedan once owned by Williams) to drive to thescene. But it, too, was bugged with recording and tracking devices.
    Police knew that The Runner and The Driver