Peter then went on a shooting spree which ended when police shot his accomplice Alan Rudd and arrested the men.

After Dennis' four year stretch he moved into a Walker St Northcote flat and was found to be harbouring one of his brothers, Jamie, then fourteen, who had escaped from Turana Youth Detention Centre in Parkville.

In 1979, painter and docker, Victor Allard, a probable heroin dealer, was shot dead in Fitzroy while in the company of Dennis Allen.

Allen became the prime suspect.

As well as the harbouring charge, Dennis faced charges of gun possession and drink driving.

They were all appealed but Dennis was eventually sent to Castlemaine jail as his offences had occurred while he was on parole.

He skipped custody while on day release in October 1981.

He was found at a Richmond Hotel with a prostitute and so drunk that he vomited blood.

Dennis built a substantial heroin empire after being released from jail on July 2, 1982.

In May 1983, Dennis' home at Chestnut St Richmond was raided by police.

Victor Gouroff (drug user, former armed robber and close associate - later to vanish) was present.

The police had been following Helen Wagnegg (also a drug user) when she arrived at Allen's home. 

They observed Gouroff  greet her at the door.

When she arrived home later, Wagnegg was arrested with 1.5g of heroin. 

Allen's house was then raided.

Police discovered 30g of heroin, several bags of amphetamines and a cache of guns and ammunition. 

They also discovered explosives that had been buried in the back yard.

Wagnegg, a prostitute, died from an over-dose during a visit to Allen's headquarters in November 1984.

Dennis believed she was talking to police.

Wagnegg had been in jail and upon her release she went straight to Dennis's house where he gave her some shots of what he said was speed although traces of morphine were later found in her system.

Her body was then dumped in the Yarra River.

Jason Ryan remembers Dennis telling him to "grab a bucket and go down the Yarra."

"I went to the river and got half a bucket."

Allen then immersed Wagnegg's head in the murky river water until she drowned.

Dennis believed that if he drowned the doped out Wagnegg in the Yarra water, then had her body dumped in the river, a pathologist at autopsy would deduce that she had fallen in and drowned.

Toxicology reports would reveal the heroin in her system and her lungs would be full of foul Yarra water.

Greg Pasche, Kathy's much-loved "adopted" son, was murdered by either Dennis or the soon-to-be-dead Victor Gouroff.

Greg's body was found in the Brisbane Ranges, just out of Geelong.

Gouroff disappeared shortly after.

His body was never found.

Police believe Dennis murdered him.

Gouroff was later implicated in the murder of a woman in 1982.

Stanhope's car had been recorded by police as being at the home of Allen the night of his disappearance.

It was later discovered burnt out in the Brisbane Ranges near Geelong, his body was never recovered.

This was the only murder Allen was charged with.

Dennis's notoriety in 1984 came not only from his soaring drug empire but also from his reputation as a dealer of guns, particularly to those planning armed robberies. 

He apparently supplied guns to armed robbers including brother Jamie who held up pubs and TAB's in the late seventies.

Dennis was also becoming a favourite of police in their relentless search for 'gigs' or informers.

Codenamed 'Gus', he was said to have informed on many armed robbers who were later jailed. 

It was at this time also that several armed robbers from the Flemington area were shot dead, some by police.

Another criminal of note, Jimmy Loughnan (left) was arrested for an armed robbery in North Balwyn.

He was outraged at being arrested crying 'set-up'.

Pollitt was jailed for life in 1990.

Dennis apparently refused to pay Pollitt after the wrong man was killed.

In late 1984 Dennis faced court on charges of carrying a hand gun.

He was sentenced to 12 months jail, appealed, was granted bail and was later acquitted.

In her biography, The Matriarch by Adrian Tame, Kath Pettingill, says that Dennis was directly involved with corrupt Sydney detective Roger Rogerson (left) and that drugs were purchased from and sold to him at airport meetings.

Kath says that a woman who claimed to be the girlfriend and close associate of Dennis was instrumental in bringing Roger Rogerson down.

Known as 'Miss X', the woman was placed in a witness protection program.

Miss X was a useful source of information to police, providing the evidence that produced the only conviction recorded against Rogerson.

The story in this case alleged Dennis sent Miss X to Sydney Airport on May 14, 1985.

Miss X, an associate and alleged girlfriend of Dennis Allen, was instructed by him to meet Rogerson at Sydney Airport.

Allen gave her a black ravel back containing $100,000 and two tickets, to and from Sydney, under different names.

She arrived in Sydney at 11.30am and found Rogerson in the terminal close to the women's toilets.

'He sort of said: 'G'day, threw a bag at me and ripped the other one (containing the money) off me and ran away,' she later told a court in Sydney.

The bag Rogerson threw at her contained books, clothing and plastic bags of heroin weighing about a kilo.

She flew back to Melbourne, where the heroin was collected from her, and the next morning, an envelope containing $7000 was placed in her letter box.

Rogerson's version was as follows:

"I was phoned the previous day by Kath Flannery (the wife of notorious hitman Chris Flannery (left)) expressing concern over her 15 year-old son, depressed after his father's disappearance the previous week."

"I took the boy and his sister, together with his own two teenage daughters, on a boat trip on the Georges River".

This was presumably at the same time the airport exchange is alleged to have taken place.

On May 21, 1985, Roger Rogerson opened two accounts in false names at the York Street, Sydney, branch of the National Australia Bank, and in three visits deposits $110,000 cash.

As a result of this chain of events Rogerson was initially convicted of conspiring with Dennis Allen to supply heroin between March and May 1985, but the conviction was overturned on appeal.

Later Rogerson was charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice by allegedly misleading a police inquiry into the source of the $110,000 deposited into false accounts.

Rogerson was initially convicted, but after serving nine months of his eight-year sentence was released in 1990, pending appeal.

Rogerson's pending release in 1990 did not please Miss X, who claimed at the time in an interview with Age reporter John Silvester, that her years as a protected witness had wrecked her life.

She claimed to be in fear of Rogerson who, she said, mouthed death threats at her in court during his committal hearing.

He lost the appeal and was returned to jail in 1992 with a reduced sentence.

He was released in December 1995.

Andrew Fraser, a leading Melbourne criminal lawyer before being jailed in 1999 after he was involved in the importation and distribution of over 5kg of cocaine, represented and assisted both Peter and Dennis Allen, and their associate, Walsh Street suspect Anthony Farrell.

Fraser helped Dennis set up 'Mr D Investments' (Allen's nick-name was Mr D - short for death).

He also set up a trust account for Peter in which he amassed hundreds of thousands of dollars made from his massive dealings in heroin.

Dennis also shot out a light in the Cook's bedroom when Fred's wife caught him using their bed to entertain a prostitute. 

Cook and his (de-facto) wife were later jailed for amphetamine possession and trafficking among other offences.

In 'The Matriarch', by Adrian Tame, Cook is referred to by Dennis' minder, the Enforcer, as 'good with words....but he was a user.'

The night before his wedding, Cook arrived at Richmond to explain to Dennis and The Enforcer that, despite their friendship, he couldn't invite them to the ceremony because the media would be there, and he couldn't afford to be seen associating with them.

"It didn't stop him asking for some speed," recalls The Enforcer.

On an episode of the Footy Show on the Nine network in March 2002, Cook appeared as a guest and, as well as promoting his new book and attempting to convey an anti drugs message to young footballers, reminisced with panellist and former Geelong footballer, John 'Sammy' Newman.

The two had been close friends in the mid-eighties. 

They were obviously acquainted through football and also appeared on Channel Seven's Wide World of Sports with Cook hosting the show's VFA segment for a number of years.

One of the stories they told was based on the fact that Sam may have saved Cook's life from the hands of Dennis Allen.

The story went that Cook had been seen by Allen and other gangsters lunching with a policeman at the Hotel.

Shortly later Cook found himself in an upstairs room alone with Dennis and his posse who were bashing Fred with a video camera.

Newman walked in and interrupted them and Cook lived to tell the story.

During his life of crime, Dennis Allen also attempted to blow up a Coroner's Court investigating one of his alleged murders. 

In 1987 Dennis died of heart failure due to his once massive amphetamine addiction.

One of the last people to see him alive in hospital was former lawyer Andrew Fraser.