For three decades, the name William Francis Waghorn had meant something in the ganglands, even if he had spent nearly all of that time - 26 years - in jail.

His last visit was a 15-year stretch for murder.

He’s a fairly distinctive figure - short and powerful, shaved head, forearms like pistons, fists like shot-puts.

He never had a trade to speak of.

He used to joke that he had done some concreting, until "toes started sticking out of my work".

In 1990, he had hidden the body of one Johnny Turner in a barbecue he was building.

Turner was the son of old time gangster Joseph Patrick Turner.

Waghorn was found guilty and then granted a re-trial over the stabbing murder.

In 1991 he stood trial again and was convicted.

In his 1991 book, Chopper - From The Inside, celebrity gangster Mark 'Chopper' Read wrote that he and Waghorn had been "friends without a cross word for "some twenty years".

He also wrote that "if there is anyone who can throw a punch harder than Waghorn, I have yet to meet him".

According to Read, an incident involving Waghorn and another close friend of Chopper's, 'Mad' Charlie 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.

They let Frankie out of Beechworth jail in north-east Victoria on a frosty morning in August 2004.

A woman named Rebecca had corresponded with him while he was in jail.

On his release, he moved in with her and the couple lived in a house owned by the mother of David “The Rock” Hedgecock (left), a close associate of Carlton elder Mick Gatto.

At that time, Tony Mokbel was reputed to be offering a $400,000 contract for the murders of Gatto and his closest associate, Mario Condello.

Condello would fall to assassins’ bullets outside his home in Brighton in February 2006.

Frankie was being asked questions about what Gatto and Hedgecock were up to.

Were they planning to hit Mokbel before he could get them?

Was Frankie being groomed as a contract killer for the Carlton Crew?

“I told them I didn’t know jack shit,” said Frankie.

Hedgecock had given him and Rebecca a bunk-up with the accommodation, that was all.

Among his few belongings, Frankie had 11 certificates for baking and dessert preparation.

As he and his partner Rebecca had driven home after his release, they drove past the bakery where he was hoping for a start.

The morning air and the smell of fresh bread gave him hope.

For the first three days, he stayed at home relaxing and acclimatising.

Then he went down to Centrelink and registered for Job Search, and later on to Medicare to register, then he went to open a bank account.

He even saw a bloke about pre-paying his funeral.

It was like creating a whole new identity.

By the second week, some old heads heard Frankie was out and they came around to offer him a bunk-up, a rort or two to get him back on his feet, but Frankie was only thinking of his interview at the bakery.

He got the job but immediately the talk began that the bakery had taken on a killer.

He never started the job; too much drama, too soon.

He was legally bound to tell his new bosses he had a criminal record.

If he didn't, he'd hand back the four years' parole.

Temptation was everywhere though.

One day in the local hardware store he noticed an armoured car.

Two old security guards were hauling eight bags of cash out of the store.

He gave himself a neck strain trying to stop looking at them.

Be a simple thing to come back next week, this time tooled up.

The money would be his, good as gold.

Frankie drifted back into Melbourne and some of the old haunts, but always with a lemon squash in hand.

A nightclub owner offered Frankie work looking after the showgirls.

All he had to do was take them on and off the stage.

But what if some punk recognised him and decided to take a crack.

What was he going to do? Ignore it? No, instinct said he would shoot them in the face.

For Rebecca's sake and his own, Frankie wanted to go straight, but at 51 it was hard to rewire himself.

Frankie found work, a friend of a friend has agreed to take him on, but was one day at a time.

Chopper Read and his wife Margaret gave Frankie a bunk-up, $5000 to tide him over.

They get together for a drink every week, it helped to keep Frankie's mind right.

The Bulletin's Adam Shand wrote that 'Frankie drove us both home from the pub one night. He leant over to me in the back, his eyes glittering like sapphire. "Imagine if we got pulled over now - Chopper Read, Frankie Waghorn with a crime writer in the back. We might have some problems."

"Only if we were heading towards the bush," deadpanned Read.'

Frankie told Shand he was not going back to jail, not into Victoria's new privatised jails.

He had spent a little time in a couple, surviving the deadly politics by working up to 12 hours a day in the kitchen.

For all the new rules and technology, jail was more dangerous than ever.

Jail was now a dangerous place, he said.

Not like in the good old days in Pentridge, when it was a second home full of mates.

At 51, he feared he might not come out again this time.

A few weeks later he was arrested.

An officer who had been on duty the night a warrant was issued and was told of Frankie's past violence and murder and promptly went off duty, leaving it to the Special Operations Group to bring him in.

Four carloads of SOG officers intercepted Francis William Waghorn on a Preston street one summer afternoon in 2005.

He had been implicated in a run through of a drug dealer’s home in suburban Reservoir.

A woman had been bashed over the head with a claw hammer.

Frankie was outraged and tried his best to smash the police station where he was questioned, throwing around chairs and tables.

There were more than a dozen witnesses who claimed they had seen Frankie and/or his vehicle.

Waghorn was facing charges of armed robbery, aggravated burglary, threats to kill, causing serious injury and possession of a prohibited weapon, to wit a samurai sword.

The magistrate committed the accused for trial, saying the evidence against him was overwhelming.

He was looking at 10 years behind bars at least.

To Waghorn's thinking, he couldn't help but feel there was another agenda running.

The prosecution seemed to flounder quickly.

By trial time, all the witnesses, bar one or two, had disappeared or recanted.

One witness claimed Frankie had a big tattoo across his chest.

When pressed on his identification of the suspect, the witness said he had been told by police to pick out Frankie’s picture.

And when Frankie got in the witness box, he stripped off his shirt - no tattoo.

The case against him had gone from overwhelming to underweight in short order.

The jury retired to consider a verdict.

Frankie was still on his way to the court holding cell when they came back with a not guilty verdict.

“It’s a cigarette verdict,” said his lawyer, Bernie “the Attorney” Ballmer. You wouldn’t get through one smoke.

But it was a costly smoke for Frank.

He spent nearly $20,000 in legal fees to win a case that should never have got beyond the committal hearing.

Police say one was armed with a handgun during a robbery of a Gaffney Street newsagency in Coburg, in Melbourne's north, about 7pm.

The men allegedly stole a large sum of cash before fleeing in a stolen red Commodore which was later found dumped in Vincent Street, Coburg.

The four men were arrested nearby, police said.

Detectives charged Dwayne Matthews, 28, of Reservoir, Frank Waghorn, 53, of Preston, Dennis Ahern, 29, of Bundoora and William Ahern, 33, also of Bundoora, over the incident.

The men were remanded to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates Court.