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 'Mad' Charlie
Peter Hegyalji
Born in Hungary on August 6,
1956, Hegyalji migrated to Australia with his parents in or around 1964.
According to detectives the stand-over man and
drug dealer was a 'funny, and when he wanted to be, charming man'.
Celebrity criminal and close friend, Mark
'Chopper' Read, wrote that Hegyalji bit off the nose of an enemy as a
teenager and was given his name 'Mad' Charlie.
Since the late 1970's when he, Read
and Nick "The Greek" Apostolides were standing over criminals
and relieving them of their illicit earnings, Hegyalji
lived up to his moniker.
He was good with his fists and
weapons and wasn't afraid to use either.
It was a lifestyle that won him respect
and enemies in equal measure.
Charlie was a big fan of true
crime and especially American gangsters.
He travelled to the US just to be in
the company of some of them including Carlo Gambino whom he shook hands with as
a 17 year-old on one of his overseas sojourns.
He was also a regular at the Kill City crime bookshop in
Prahran.
In the 1970's he called himself
'The Don'
He modelled himself on crime figures such as Chicago's Gambino family.
Despite
his form, Hegyalji was
well liked by some police - as much for the quality of his
information as for his gregarious personality.
Like
notorious Richmond drug dealer Dennis Allen, Mad
Charlie was not only one of Melbourne's better-known crooks but also one of
Victoria Police's better-informed "gigs".
Hegyalji
was a regular and reportedly volunteered the name of an associate who was later
charged with murder.
A known
drug supplier and dealer, Hegyalji
was also a user but, according to
police, he was not an addict.
"He used to go
berserk when he mixed heroin with the booze," a police source said.
"He was no addict. But he used to get pretty yappy when he was on the
booze. A lot of the good crooks didn't like that."
Hegyalji also liked
a drink.
For a great deal of
his life he received sickness benefits due to ulcer and alcohol related
problems.
Hegyalji was
well known to police.
In
1975, at the age of 18 and already with a string of convictions, he was jailed
for nine years for raping a woman during a raid on a fellow criminal to extort
money.
A man was beaten unconscious and robbed of $210 before
Hegyalji
caught a
three-month pregnant woman trying to escape from the Elwood flat.
Hegyalji was involved in gunfights
in the St Kilda and Caulfield areas.
He
also had convictions for armed robbery, drugs offences, possession of a handgun
and assaults.
In his book, Chopper - From The Inside,
Chopper Read wrote that an incident involving his
good friend and feared brawler Frankie
Waghorn and Hegyalji, almost led to bloodshed.
Waghorn had a fight with Hegyalji in Pentridge
Prison's B Division in 1975.
Read wrote that after the fight "I asked
Charlie if he wanted revenge, and revenge would have meant big bloodshed".
"Bloodshed against Frank would have started
a gang war inside Pentridge that would have moved to
the streets after release.
"Frankie
Waghorn would punch the teeth out of an elephant, Charlie, when faced with
the real life and death blood and guts, preferred to take a low profile and
shake hands. I'm glad as Frankie Waghorn is a
good friend.
In the 1980's Hegyalji became heavily
involved in the amphetamine trade.
He recruited a chemist and they made many
'cooks' of speed in Carlton and Gippsland.
Chemistry graduate Paul Lester was
forced, blindfolded, to a property to manufacture speed.
In 1989
Hegyalji was shot in the stomach outside his home in South Caulfield.
He later
shot a man in the car park of a St Kilda hotel as payback.
In
August 1992 the special response squad received information Hegyalji
was
planning a $1 million computer theft in Notting Hill.
The
plan was to break into a factory in daylight, tie up the staff and steal the
computers.
But when Operation DOS swung into action and surveillance was placed
on the gang, Mad Charlie suddenly went cold on the plan.
In
November 1992 the rest of the crew was eventually picked up doing a $60,000
burglary on a business in Little Bourke Street.
In
1995 police raided a
Narre Warren farm house as part of an amphetamines operation.
They
discovered a false wall concealing a small arsenal of weapons.
Police netted six
cans of mace, 17 pistols, shotguns and machine guns, silencers and false drivers
licenses
Also seized was a printout giving information on alarm systems used in
Melbourne buildings including police stations.
Hegyalji's
fingerprints were found on the list.
In 1997
Hegyalji was involved in a Prahran gun battle out side
a panel beaters.
He was
charged with attempted murder.
In July
1998 Hegyalji was released from jail when the charges were dropped.
The intended
victims refused to give evidence in court.
On his release Hegyalji went
back to his criminal enterprises.
He was reportedly keeping company with an
associate of one of Australia's biggest drug dealers and a career armed robber.
One officer who saw him in
October 1998 said he looked in pretty
good shape.
The time inside
is said to have led Hegyalji to relinquish his 'chair at the business table'.
And police believe,
the man who filled is seat was not too keen on giving it back when Charlie
walked from prison.
That scenario, and
the fact that he was owed something in the vicinity of $100,000 proved enough
reason for Mad Charlie to be gunned down in his front yard.
According to
police sources, Charlie liked to talk a bit out of school when he was on the
drink or powders.
"A lot of good
crooks didn't like that."
Hegyalji was
good at dodging trouble, but his luck ran out on November
23, 1998, at 1.00am.
'Mad' Charlie was shot
and killed by a waiting gunman in the garden of his South Caulfield home.
Several shots were pumped into his head at close range.
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