Jason Moran

Jason Matthew Patrick Moran and Mark Anthony Moran, half brothers with a history of drugs, guns and football.

The Moran name has been well known through three generations of criminals.

The half-brothers had strong links with the Carlton Football Club through Jason's late grandfather, Leo Brooks, a long-serving doorman, player confidante and life member at the Blues.

Through Mr Brooks, Moran came to know a number of Carlton players, including former premiership champion Wayne Johnston.

Johnston said he met Jason and Mark when they were children.

"In those days a lot of the players, myself included, used to come down from the country and stay with Leo and that's where I first met the boys. I used to babysit them."

Trisha Kane fell in love with Jason (pictured left as a sixteen year-old) when she was 15.

He became her first boyfriend and then husband.

Trisha is the daughter of Les Kane, a Painter and Docker who was murdered in the bathroom of his home in Wantirna in 1978.

Brian Kane was drinking with his wife and a friend when two men wearing balaclavas walked in and shot him.

His death was widely regarded as a payback for the murder of Raymond "Chuck" Bennett, one of the men believed responsible for killing his brother.

Brian Kane's death inspired a teenage Jason Moran to address a death notice to his "Uncle Brian", signing it "Your little mate, Jason Moran".

Bennett and two others were charged with Les Kane's murder but acquitted.

Two months later he was shot dead inside the Melbourne Magistrates' Court complex while being escorted by two unarmed detectives.

After leaving school, Jason worked several honest jobs.

He was employed at a city abattoir for three years before leaving to become an apprentice plumber for six months.

He moved on to work as a sales representative for two years and remained on the payroll of a jewellery wholesaler for the next seven years despite suggestions he did very little work for the company.

Jason and Mark Moran were hard drinkers and frequented several Ascot Vale Hotels.

They knocked around with football identities and crooks.

Mark (right) and Jason Moran were well known in the Flemington and Ascot Vale areas in the mid-1980's.

"They came from a pretty good school (of criminals)", one detective said.

"They were part of the Ascot Vale crew and it's produced some of the best crims in Australia over the years".

The crew of bank robbers included: Mark Militano, Frank Valastro, Jedd Houghton, Graeme Jensen, Victor Peirce and Gary Abdallah, all have been shot dead.

Jason Moran's criminal record dates back to 1988.

He was sentenced to one years' jail with an eight month minimum for recklessly causing injury.

Jason (pictured left with his mother, Judy) was known as a hothead.

Once, when a driver cut in front of him without indicating at the intersection of Bridge and Punt roads, Moran grabbed a wheel brace, smashed the other motorist's windscreen, dragged him from the car and beat him severely.

"Jason got back in the car and was laughing," a fellow criminal who witnessed the attack, Russell Warren Smith, said later.

Football and political identity Phil Cleary, a one-time acquaintance of Lewis Moran through the Coburg Football Club, witnessed a bloody incident in 1989 that left him horrified by the volatility of the Moran clan.

It was after Cleary had coached Coburg to a win in the Victorian Football Association second semi-final.

He'd joined a few of his charges at the Prince of Wales Hotel in ascot Vale.

At the bar were Lewis and Jason Moran.

According to Cleary, a brawl erupted after a Coburg official mistakenly answered Jason's mobile phone.

What followed was a punch-on involving chairs and glasses.

Instigator Jason was in the thick of it and, after the dust settled and the Coburg contingent was walking away, he trapped in an upstairs room the official who had answered the phone by the bar.

That official staggered from the pub with a jagged hole in the side of his head.

Jason had bitten off his ear and spat it back at him.

Lewis had taught Jason how to "look after himself".

The pair loved to spa together, lovingly belting each other around.

According to sources on both sides of the law, cocaine fuelled many of Jason's brutal underworld outbursts.

Not only was he using the expensive drug, according to sources, but he was also selling it in major quantities.

One police officer said it was known Moran snorted cocaine to pump himself up before launching into violence against his enemies.

The officer said Moran had used the drug before driving to the city on several occasions to fire shots at a nightclub.

"He was very dangerous when he had a nose full of that (cocaine) and a firearm . . . When he needed to do certain things, he used it for a bit of extra assistance," a detective said.

Police said Moran used alcohol as a courtroom excuse for his behaviour but he was more often affected by cocaine.

"He could really go right off tap and when he did he could not be controlled. If he wasn't on speed or cocaine, I'll go he," a detective said.

"He tried to say that he was really shocking on the grog, but I've got no doubt it was more than that."

In a nightclub in 1994, fuelled by cocaine, Moran pulled a gun on an off-duty policeman before he was told the cop was a local.

A detective told author and journalist Paul Anderson of Jason pulling a gun on him inside Chasers nightclub.

"He was with a prostitute I knew. He came over and had a chat to me thinking I was trying to fuck her. He fired up and ended up pulling a shooter. I was standing within a metre of him and he showed it to me and said, 'Do you know who I am?' The woman calmed him down, said I knew a few blokes and was in the job, and he quickly handed the gun to someone else who ran it out the door. After that he just wanted to stand there and drink piss all night. I didn't want any part of that."

One nightclub source told of an incident two weeks before during which Jason shot two people in the legs upstairs at the former Fantasia Nightclub in Commercial Rd, Prahran.

Jason was colourful Lygon Street identity Alphonse Gangitano's right-hand man.

The dapper hoodlums acted like movie gangsters and dressed in suits and wool-blend trench coats.

A former police officer said Moran and Gangitano would regularly drink upstairs at the Joker Bar in Lygon Street, Carlton.

"It was a little section out the back. It was a nice little bar."

Workman was shot seven times in the chest and once in the back.

The party was to celebrate the release of Mark Aisbett, who had been charged with armed robbery.

The guest list almost was a who's who of Melbourne's underworld and included Gangitano and Jason Moran.

Workman and the other two criminal heavyweights had been drinking at the Australia Hotel in Richmond before the party.

About 4am an argument broke out between Gangitano and another guest, Martin Paul.

As Workman walked out the front door he was shot eight times. A guest drove him to the Alfred Hospital, where he died a short time later.

Two witnesses later told police they had seen Gangitano run from the porch holding a gun as Workman lay on the ground.

Another woman said she had seen Gangitano and Paul standing at Workman's feet before someone had yelled, "Get him out of here". She said Paul had led Gangitano away.

The two witnesses were placed in the witness protection program, but later retracted their statements.

When Gangitano was murdered in January 1998, there was speculation it may have been a payback for the murder of Workman.

Gangitano and Jason, along with Mark John McNamara - an aspiring trotting driver whose career was ended when he fell from a sulky at Moonee Valley - were charged over a brawl on December 19, 1995, at the Sports Bar nightclub. 

It was alleged that Gangitano beat patrons with a pool cue until it broke while his henchmen bashed others.

It is believed the gang were at the club to collect unpaid protection money.

Gangitano unleashed himself, more than likely after management refused him money to keep peace and harmony inside the venue.

A South African tourist was repeatedly bashed with a pool cue until it broke over the man's head.

He was then stabbed with the broken pieces and hit with an ashtray.

Another woman had her jaw broken.

Ten people had to be hospitalised.

Gangitano, who police say was wielding a pool cue and chasing another victim up the road when apprehended, was charged with affray and granted bail.

In later evidence, police said that a phone tap on Jason Moran's home recorded him telling a friend on the morning after the brawl that he had "basically started it all and that he was in the process of washing blood from his clothes."

A court hearing was later told that Moran and McNamara were with Gangitano during the surprise attack on Sports Bar patrons.

Gangitano, described as ''the man in the grey suit'', beat one customer until his pool cue snapped, then asked: ''Who's gonna be next?''

Police had to use force in arresting Jason and he suffered a fractured skull.

He was rushed to the Royal Melbourne Hospital and admitted.

After healing, he was granted bail.

On January 22, 1996, Jason again terrorised patrons of a nightclub.

This time it was Chasers in Chapel Street, South Yarra.

Jason and his de-facto Trisha Kane, with friends, arrived at the nightclub in the early hours of the morning.

After a dispute over a chair at a bar, Trisha began arguing with a woman referred to in court documents as Ms Clements.

Jason told Trisha to "cut it out" but after she called Ms Clements a "stupid bitch", the woman threw a drink in Trisha's face.

Jason then punched Clements in the mouth.

She stumbled backwards and was punched to the floor where she was further punched and kicked.

Charged with recklessly causing serious injury, Jason was again granted bail, this time with a $250,000 surety and an 8pm to 8am home curfew.

It has been speculated that Jason and Alphonse Gangitano had a falling out.

Moran received a flogging and ended up in a critical condition in hospital.

While it has never been proved who administered the beating, the suggestion is that Gangitano was the man responsible.

Jason recovered but was told that he would have to give up drinking due to the long-lasting effects of two severe beatings.

This apparently occurred shortly before Gangitano's murder.

On January 16, 1998, 40 year-old Gangitano was found dead in the laundry of his Glen Orchard Close, Templestowe house by his wife.  

He had been shot several times to the head.

The Age reported nine months after the slaying that Gangitano had been surprised and had run from the kitchen.

Wounded and fleeing his assassin, Gangitano was then shot in the head as he lay on the laundry floor.

On the night of his murder  the stand over man was visited by a friend, Graham Kinniburgh.

Apparently Kinniburgh left the house shortly after 11pm to buy cigarettes from a local store.

Returning about 30 minutes later, he found Gangitano's de-facto wife with the body of her husband, which she had just discovered.

Jason was later interviewed about the murder, his legal representation coming from disgraced criminal lawyer, Andrew Fraser.

The advice provided by Fraser as usual to 'keep your mouth shut' and that he did. Fraser was later jailed for dealing cocaine at the time of Gangitano's shooting.

At the January 2002 inquest into Gangitano's death it was revealed that Jason Moran had allegedly been observed at the Templestowe home on the night of the shooting.

Jason's mother, Judy Moran later denied her son was involved in any way with Gangitano's murder.

"Jason worshipped Al and Al was like my brother," she told the Sunday Herald Sun.

"None of the underworld pointed the finger (at Jason). A witness described a tattooed bald man entering Al's house and Jason didn't have a birthmark, let alone a tattoo."

She said she was summoned to a meeting in Sydney and told the identity of Gangitano's killer.

"He is a small framed man with evil eyes," she said.

On May 1, 1999, Moran was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment, with nine months suspended for three years, over the assault at Chasers.

In sentencing, Judge Mervyn Kimm described the incident as "a violent and cowardly attack upon a defenceless young woman".

Carl Williams, a man who was part of a father son amphetamine operation, was shot in the stomach at a meeting with the Moran brothers at the tiny Barrington Crescent park in the outer-western suburb of Gladstone Park on October 13, 1999.

Jason Moran and his half-brother Mark had arranged to meet amphetamine manufacturer Williams to discuss their mutual business interests.

The Williams and Moran families had trafficked drugs for years and while they often did deals when it suited, they were also competitors for a slice of the lucrative illegal pill market.

But the two groups were never friends and the niggles remained. The Morans, always quick to take offence, began to stew. At first it was a simple domestic matter: Carl Williams' wife Roberta had previously been married to Dean Stephens, a friend of the Morans.

The next was competition. Williams was undercutting his rivals, selling his pills for $8 compared with the Morans' $15.

The third was business. Williams had supplied the Morans with a load of pills. But he had not used enough binding material and they were crumbling before they could be sold.

The fourth niggle was greed. The Morans claimed ownership of a pill press and said Williams owed them $400,000. Carl disagreed.

The meeting provided the Moran brothers with the perfect opportunity to remind Williams where he stood.

Soon after they arrived Jason Moran pulled a gun, a .22 Derringer. A woman nearby heard a man cry out, "No Jason", and then a single shot.

Mark Moran urged his half-brother to finish the job but Jason replied that they needed the big man alive if they were ever to get their money.

Williams refused to co-operate with police after he was ambushed. When detectives interviewed him in hospital, Williams said he had felt a pain in his stomach as he was walking, and only then realised he had been shot.

His wife, Roberta, gave more away in a later conversation with The Age, but denied the shooting was drug related. "Mark was yelling 'Shoot him in the head', and Jason then shot him in the stomach," she said.

"I am told that the police documentation put together in that brief includes a belief that the shooting was at the behest of the former husband," her barrister, Con Heliotis, QC, made an emotional plea for a suspended sentence later told the Supreme Court.

Dean Stephens, Roberta Williams' ex-husband, was a close friend of the Moran family.

If the Morans thought that shooting Williams would frighten him, they were horribly wrong. The wound soon healed and the drug dealer began planning his revenge, setting off a very public underworld war.

In January 2000, Mark John McNamara, 35 of Ascot Vale, pleaded guilty to one count of affray over the King St brawl.

He was sentenced to 18 months' jail, with nine months suspended for three years.

Then, on February 15, 2000,  the County Court had heard character evidence from North Melbourne Football Club captain, Wayne Carey in a bid to reduce his infamous mate, Jason Moran's, possible sentence for his part in the Sports Bar brawl.

Carey insisted his friend had matured ''a hell of a lot'' during the past few years and had waved goodbye to his drinking days.

''I know too well what the effects of alcohol can do,'' Carey told the court.

During the hearing, Mark Moran was ejected from the County Court after giving a false identity on entry.

Carey told a County Court judge he had never met the infamous Alphonse Gangitano and did not ''have a clue'' what happened at the Sports Bar on December 19, 1995.

Moran had pleaded not guilty to his part in the wild brawl.

Under cross-examination from prosecutor Peter Robinson, Carey said he had never spoken to Moran about the Sports Bar.

He said he knew Moran had been in jail, but did not know what the trouble had been.

''Have you ever spoken to him about cannabis or amphetamines?'' Mr Robinson asked.

''Never in my life,'' Carey said.

''Does he use strong language, fuck or cunt? Mr Robinson asked, to which Carey said: ''Not in my presence.''

Carey said he met Moran through a mutual friend six or seven years before and lived about 400m from his house.

They had been to one another's homes and always had a chat if they ran into each other in the street or supermarket.

The football star said Moran had matured in the past four or five years and appeared to have given up drinking.

Leaning forward and gripping the side of the witness box, Carey said no one made him attend court to give evidence.

''I was asked whether I was certain I wanted to do this and I said I was certain I wanted to do this, because that's what I believe in,'' he said.

''Those are the changes that I have seen . . . I'm up here telling the truth of what I've seen.''

Carey admitted he did not socialise with Moran regularly.

On March 6, 2000, Judge James Duggan said Jason Moran played a key role in supporting Gangitano who started the fight that left 13 people injured.

The judge said that although Gangitano's reasons would never be known, he probably would not have instigated the fight without the support of Moran and his roommate, Mark John MacNamara.

The judge said Mr Campbell Lawler suffered the worst injuries, including loss of vision in one eye, after he was repeatedly struck with a pool cue and then kicked by Gangitano and Moran.

A woman also suffered a broken jaw.

"I am satisfied that it can only be described as an extreme example of this offence (affray). It came completely out of the blue so far as the patrons were concerned," Judge Duggan said.

Moran was convicted after pleading not guilty to one charge of affray.

He was sentenced to serve a minimum non-parole period of 20 months.

The court was told there were several possible reasons for Gangitano's outburst of violence.

The judge said there was not enough evidence to show the brawl was because the bar owner owed Gangitano money.

He said it could have followed a row with a patron or may have been racially based.

"The irony of suffering a racially motivated attack in Melbourne was not lost on Mr Lawler who remarked that, as a coloured man, he had lived through the apartheid era in South Africa without being involved in any such episode," Judge Duggan said.

He noted Moran suffered several skull fractures during his arrest.

The judge said the handling by police of Moran appeared to be remarkably heavy handed and included the waterside worker being struck on the head with a gun.

Jason - with shaved head sporting a jagged scar - remained fearless and cocky during his time in prison, although he turned on the charm for the female warders.

"What he did behind closed doors, I don't know," one prison insider said, "but he did work out a lot of problems I had with other prisoners. He never tried to bribe me. 

On Thursday June 15, 2000, Mark Moran was shot dead outside his house.

Mark was murdered outside his luxury home in Combermere St, Aberfeldie, near Essendon, at 8.30pm, seconds after pulling up in his white Commodore ute.

In the days after shooting it became apparent that the Moran's believed that the father son team who they were in dispute with were responsible for killing Mark.

There were reports of shots being fired around the North Fitzroy home of the major suspects shortly after his death.

Shots were heard in Rae Street Brunswick on the night of June 20, 2000 and a car was damaged by gun fire in Brunswick Street near Rae St on the night of Marks funeral.

Carl Williams was the gunman and his getaway driver would later be implicated in another three murders.

Police later established that Williams had only been waiting 10 minutes when Moran returned. It smelled of an ambush.

On June 22, 2000, about 500 mourners dressed in black coats and dark sunglasses gathered to farewell Mark Moran.

Jason, granted day leave from prison to be at the funeral at St Therese's Church in Essendon, sat under guard with his head in his hands during the service.

He had hinted at revenge.

"Words could never, ever express the way I am feeling. This is only the beginning. It will never be the end,'' ``REMEMBER, I WILL NEVER FORGET.''

Jason wrote in a Herald Sun death notice.

Other death notices included many from Australian Rules footballers including a former Carlton captain who remembered them running a premiership lap in the 1980's.

Rumours abounded that Mark may have been killed in revenge for the murder of  Alphonse Gangitano.

Many bikies attended the funeral wearing full colours whilst in church.

Jason was embraced by a long-haired Hells Angel.

On Friday December 29, 2000, the Age reported that an attempt by two of Victoria's most notorious criminals to play Santa for their mates in Fulham prison has been foiled by Scrooge-like jail authorities. 

Or, at least, partly foiled.

Prison sources said prisoners Jason Moran and John Higgs, had tried to "shout" the party for their unit by having thousands of dollars sent into the jail.

The prisoners still managed to organise a lavish Christmas blow-out last week for fellow inmates and their children and families at the jail, near Sale, with gifts, a Santa and $2500 of seafood buffet, roasts and salads.

But Corrections Commissioner Penny Armytage declared the party excessive and told the private prison's management, Australasian Correctional Management, that future celebrations must be significantly scaled back.

Authorities intercepted the money, returned it, and refused the pair permission to host the party.

But organisation was so far advanced that they allowed the event to proceed, on condition it was paid for by each prisoner and catered by the jail's food services manager.

Higgs, the self-proclaimed biggest amphetamine producer in Victoria, was doing six years for his part in a massive drug ring broken after an eight-year police investigation.

"They were big-noting," said a prison source.

"But that sort of largesse doesn't come without the expectation of some sort of, let's say, mutual obligation from the other prisoners in the future."

Prisoners in Victorian jails are able to seek permission to host Christmas parties for their children.

Ms Armytage confirmed that the party had been held on the Wednesday before Christmas.

One of two parties organised by inmates at the jail, it was attended by about 30 prisoners, more than 100 children, and prisoners' partners and family members.

Ms Armytage said prison authorities became aware of Moran's and Higgs' generosity and the scale of the event after two $1000 money orders were sent to one of the prisoner's trust account.

But food orders had already been placed.

"Prison management confirmed they became aware of the scale of the order after it had been placed and management exercised its discretion that it would not be paid for by any individual prisoners, which is what had originally been proposed."

"It would only go ahead if all the prisoners contributed and they all paid their share," she said.

On January 17, 2001, Darren William Harland faced the Melbourne Magistrates' Court after he was caught with a loaded gun while visiting Jason Moran at Fulham prison, in eastern Victoria, the previous year.

A loaded semi-automatic Phoenix .22 pistol was found in a bag in his car.

When asked if it was his gun he replied: “ It wasn’t in there when we pulled up”.

A reference from champion Melbourne footballer David Schwarz helped him to escape jail.

Harland, who was a water-side worker,  and an unidentified friend fled when the guards called police.

The pair were arrested in Melbourne shortly after.

Harland, a former VFA player for Werribee and Port Melbourne and son of 80's Port legend 'Buster' Harland, pleaded guilty to charges including owning an unlicensed handgun.

Schwarz's glowing words helped convince magistrate Jenny Bowles to impose a $3500 fine and a six-month suspended jail sentence for Harland

It was the second time Harland has avoided jail.

Two years before he received a suspended sentence for his role in a hotel brawl.

This Sporting Life
By Derryn Hinch 

Question time: What is it between Australian sports stars and gangsters? Why do their worlds get so entwined so often? And I’m not just talking about illegal bookies and fixed cricket matches.

If some of the things our so-called sporting heroes get away with here were even attempted in the United States they would be banned for life.

“Broadway Joe” Namath, the flamboyant quarterback for the Superbowl- winning New York Jets, was forced by football authorities to close down his bar in Manhattan because several unsavoury characters associated with The Mob were said to have been seen drinking there.

Namath’s crime? Somebody might inadvertently let slip that a certain player was injured and would not be playing on a certain night. That would give the crims an edge in the betting.

And Pete Rose, former champion player and coach of the Chicago White Sox was actually jailed. His crime? Betting on baseball. Of course, the White Sox don’t have the best record in sport. They threw the World Series prompting the plaintive cry from a kid to “ Shoeless” Joe Jackson: “ Say it aint so, Joe”.

But here in Australia it seems anything goes.

The latest mix between the murky world of crims and sport involves Melbourne’s star player David Schwarz.

The Demons’ Vice Captain provided a character reference for a man who was caught with a loaded gun in his car in a jail car park while visiting one of Melbourne’s best-known thugs.

And the reference helped Darren William Harland escape jail.

The reference was handed to Magistrate Jenny Bowles and although it wasn’t read in court the defence lawyer said it was “ very positive”.

The magistrate said she was initially going to send Harland straight to jail. Instead, after the Schwarz words of wisdom she fined Harland $3500 and gave him a suspended sentence.

Obviously Schwarz can kick goals off the field as well as own.

But look at the Harland case.

He was visiting Jason Moran, one of Australia’s least savoury people.

A loaded semi-automatic pistol was found in a bag in his car.

When asked if it was his gun the smart-arse replied: “ It wasn’t in there when we pulled up”.

Then when guards called police Harland and a friend fled.

He was arrested later in Melbourne. Hardly the actions of an innocent man.

But there are other links between famous footballers and the Morans. Kangaroos captain, Wayne Carey, gave character evidence for Jason Jason Moran, to try to lessen his prison sentence.

You may recall Carey became some sort of rehabilitation expert based on several vague conversations he had with Moran when he bumped into him in the supermarket on a couple of occasions.

Still I guess it beats grabbing a strange woman on the breast outside a nightclub at 9 o’clock in the morning.

Now, there is a bigger issue here.

Does the AFL step in and ask questions about players and who they associate with in cases like these? An American football commissioner certainly would.

And with good reason.

Football is big business. Football betting is big business. And I believe football must not only be clean but be seen to be clean.

When cricket matches can be fixed at an international level anything can happen in any sport. And things are not helped when governing bodies - like the Australian Cricket Board - try to shove things under the carpet.

Mark Waugh and Shane Warne would have been banned for life in the United States and should have been expelled for at least two years here.

But that, as they say, is another story.

- Derryn Hinch

Lewis and Jason Moran arranged to kill rival Carl Williams in front of scores of guests at his daughter's May 2001 christening.

The planned public bloodbath was foiled at the last minute when police secretly stepped in to save Williams.

Detectives set up a sting operation in which Williams was arrested and jailed just hours before the scheduled hit.

A person deep within drug boss Tony Mokbel's gang tipped off police that Williams was about to be murdered at his six-week-old daughter Dhakota's christening.

The informer told a detective the Morans had hired two Sydney hitmen to gun down Williams at a Keilor reception centre during the christening party.

The burly drug lord was shocked when police told him about the sickening plan.

"But then Carl showed some grudging respect for the plan, saying it wasn't a bad one as he would have had his guard down at his daughter's christening," a police source said.

Detectives believe the foiled plot prompted Williams to come up with his own plan to murder Jason Moran when he least expected it.

The Morans put a contract on Williams in 2001 after he shot dead Mark Moran.

They wanted to deliver a strong message and decided killing Williams in front of family and friends at his daughter's christening was a very public way of proving that point.

Police discovered the plot only three days before it was due to be carried out.

An emergency meeting of senior officers was called to discuss how to thwart the attack.

They decided that staking out the christening party in the hope of identifying and catching the hitmen was too dangerous.

A plan to put a booze bus outside the christening to deter the execution was considered.

However the meeting decided getting Williams behind bars was the safest option.

Williams was on bail awaiting trial over a $20 million drug operation, so another arrest would guarantee to put him behind bars and out of reach of the hired killers.

Police command agreed to provide $100,000 to detectives so they could set up a sting involving an undercover officer buying drugs from Williams.

An undercover officer had recently made contact with drug dealer Walter Foletti.

Evidence suggested that Foletti was getting his drugs from Williams.

Detectives planned to use the $100,000 to get proof that Williams was Foletti's supplier.

Police bugs recorded the undercover officer asking Foletti on May 18, 2001, if he could provide a large quantity of ecstasy tablets in a hurry.

Later that day, Foletti told the undercover officer he had spoken to the supplier's wife, Roberta Williams.

She said would confirm the deal the next day.

Foletti rang the Williams home at 10.20am on May 19 and asked to speak to Carl, but was told by Roberta that her husband was still in bed.

He asked her if her husband was "organising that thing for me" and that "the bloke is going to ring me up after 12".

Roberta Williams told him the deal was set for that day.

The undercover officer rang Foletti at noon and arranged to meet at the McDonald's car park in Sydenham about 2pm.

He arranged to buy 8000 ecstasy tablets for $100,000.

Detectives photocopied the notes which made up the $100,000 before putting them in a green shoebox and giving them to the undercover officer.

Foletti arrived at the car park with his nephew, Pablo Foletti, and parked his white Jeep near the undercover officer's car.

Foletti gave a shopping bag containing 8000 ecstasy tablets embossed with the letters XTC to the undercover officer, who handed over the shoe box stuffed with $100,000.

As this was happening, Carl Williams rang Roberta and was recorded asking her if the deal had been done yet.

Roberta told him she hadn't heard, but expected to soon.

Foletti rang her at 3.13pm and she told him to "bring what you've got now", but Foletti told her it would be better if she came to him.

Roberta Williams immediately got in her dark BMW coupe and drove to Foletti's house in the suburb of Hillside.

Surveillance police watched her leave Foletti's house three minutes later. She was carrying a blue shopping bag.

Other surveillance police saw Carl Williams arriving home at 3.24pm in his white Mitsubishi Lancer.

He took a call from his wife on his mobile and she told him she was at the Watergardens shopping centre in Sydenham.

Police followed as he drove there and watched as Carl and Roberta Williams met. After walking round the shops, they got into Carl's car.

Heavily armed members of the special operations group swooped as soon as Carl and Roberta got in the vehicle.

Carl Williams was found with Victoria Police's $100,000 in his lap and he and Roberta were jailed that day.

Roberta was granted bail 48 hours later, but it was 14 months before Carl got out.

The couple were both later convicted of trafficking in a commercial quantity of ecstasy over the drug sting that saved Carl's life.

Foletti was jailed for five years and six months.

Dhakota's christening was rescheduled for December 2003 after her father was released.

Carl and Roberta were keen to portray themselves as a loving and law-abiding family.

They invited the ABC's Four Corners to film the christening at Crown casino's plush Palladium Room. They chose Crown because is had the best security in Victoria.

Among the 120 guests was Greg Domaszewicz -- the babysitter who was acquitted over the 1997 murder of Moe toddler Jaidyn Leskie. 

Police and the underworld expected that when Jason Moran was released from prison he would go after Carl Williams to avenge his brothers' killing.

Moran arrived back in Melbourne on November 20.

On January 14, 2002, the inquest into Alphonse Gangitano's murder begun.  

Coroner Iain West was expected to hear from several of Gangitano former henchmen, including Jason Moran.

Other associates expected to contribute to the court proceedings included Graham Kinniburgh.

In an opening address to the inquest, Mr Jeremy Rapke, QC., identified two criminal associates of Gangitano' as suspects in his murder.

"Very considerable suspicion attaches not only to Graham Kinniburgh but also to Jason Moran in relation to the murder of Gangitano'," Mr Rapke said.

Reporting on the inquest, the Herald Sun's John Hamilton described the 12 cm scar under the stubble on the head of Jason Moran that runs down the right side of his skull.  

"Illuminated by four overhead spotlights in the Coroner's Court, the scar seemed to glow like a jagged lightening strike. Little flashes darted off to Mr Morans right ear as he sat in the front row in his sharply tailored blue pin-stripe suit with a patterned tie resembling a ring of keys. Moran also wore a diamond buckle ring on his wedding finger," Hamilton wrote.

"The ring sparkled and flashed as he spent some time examining his fingernails and cuticles or waved a cheery greeting to somebody he knew in the public gallery."

Hamilton concluded his piece by recalling evidence given by a former legal representative of Gangitano's and the fact that Moran, sitting in front of him began buffing his diamond ring in an abstract fashion.

Jason was accompanied in court by his father Lewis, who was on bail following his and Tony Mockbel's arrests the previous August.

Evidence suggested that both Kinniburgh and Moran were at Gangitano's house on the night of the murder, Mr Rapke said.

Long-time friend and criminal Graham Kinniburgh left blood at the murder scene and associate Jason Moran was seen leaving the house that night by a witness.

Mr Kinniburgh's blood was found on a banister inside the house and his skin was found on a larger dent on the front security door.

Jeremy Rapke, QC, assisting the coroner, said evidence strongly suggested Mr Kinniburgh was present during the murder but fled quickly to set up his alibi.

Mr Rapke said two people sitting in a car saw two men leave the Gangitano house about 11.25 that night.

One was shown a video line-up and picked out Jason Moran as the man he saw walking up Gangitano's Glen Orchard Close driveway on the night of the murder.

The witness said he saw the same man and another person leave the property a short time later.

Mr West found the man was a credible witness who had accurately identified Moran, who was known to Gangitano and who had the opportunity to be there.

"While the witness was not in a position to say that he actually saw Jason Moran enter the premises, I am satisfied he did and that he was present at the time the deceased was shot," the coroner later said.

There was speculation that evidence at the inquest would include a police tape allegedly featuring Moran's lawyer, disgraced solicitor Andrew Fraser.

It was unknown whether Fraser, in jail for cocaine importation at the time of the hearing, would be called as a witness.

Mr Rapke said Fraser represented Mr Moran when police interviewed him about the murder.

He refused to answer questions.

But in a secretly recorded conversation on August 11, 1999, Fraser was asked by a colleague: "Who do you reckon did Gangitano?"

"Jason," Fraser replied.

Moran was also recorded by police making disparaging remarks about Gangitano, blaming him for a vicious attack at the Sports Bar in 1995.

The court was also told of another taped conversation between Jason Moran and another lawyer in which Moran said of Gangitano: "He's a fucking lulu....if you smash five pool cues and an iron bar over someone's head....you're a fucking lulu".

The inquest heard Gangitano spent the morning of his death at Melbourne Magistrates' Court, where he was facing charges over the King St brawl.

Mr Rapke said Gangitano and his co-offender, Mr Moran, appeared somewhat distant from each other at the court hearing.

Gangitano returned home and after 9pm he spoke to his mistress and several friends on the phone.

His de facto wife was visiting her sister with their two daughters.

Mr Kinniburgh, 60, told police he arrived about 11pm and found his mate on the phone.

He said Gangitano, who was found wearing underpants and a shirt, told him he was about to have a meeting.

Kinniburgh said he left to buy cigarettes.

Mr Rapke said Mr Kinniburgh's claim a meeting was about to take place was not corroborated and Gangitano's mistress said he would never hold a meeting in his underwear.

When Mr Kinniburgh returned he found Gangitano's de facto in the laundry with her husband's body.

Gangitano had been shot three times - in the head, face and back.

On January 14, 2002, the inquest into Gangitano's shooting hit a wall of silence as the two prime suspects were excused from giving evidence.

Jason Moran and Graham Kinniburgh were exempted by the coroner on the ground they might incriminate themselves.

The two men suspected of killing Gangitano had refused to give evidence to a Victorian coroner.

Their lawyers claimed the evidence would incriminate them.

Legal representatives said there was no evidence implicating the pair in the murder.

"You don't have to be guilty to claim the privilege against self-incrimination," said Mr Kinniburgh's lawyer, Tony Hargreaves.

The inquest heard that a convicted killer told police he drove Mr Moran to Templestowe on the night of the murder.

Russell Warren Smith, who later committed suicide, told police he was afraid of Mr Moran.

"I am very scared for my own safety at the moment, as I know what Jason Moran is capable of," he said.

In a statement tendered to the court, Smith said Moran asked that he drive him to and from Gangitano's home on the night of the murder.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Jeremy Rapke, QC, said Mr Smith, who met Mr Moran when the pair were in Barwon Prison, hanged himself in September 1998, five months after making the statement.

Mr Moran allegedly told him: "You can't come in, just wait here. I'll be back in five or 10 minutes."

Smith told police he waited in a car while Mr Moran went into a Templestowe house.

According to the statement, Mr Moran stayed at the house about 15 minutes before telling Mr Smith to drive to Williamstown.

The pair stopped briefly at a McDonald's store for takeaway food on the way.

When the car reached the top of the Westgate Bridge, Mr Smith alleged, Mr Moran tossed what he said was an apparently unusually heavy, empty McDonald's paper bag from the car into the Yarra River.

Mr Smith said the bag appeared heavy as it travelled further than expected when thrown.

He said this may have been because Mr Moran had placed something inside it.

Detective Senior-Sergeant Charlie Bezzina, of the homicide squad, told the inquest police divers searched the Yarra River for a week but did not find a gun, the bag or its contents.

Two days after the murder, according to Mr Smith's statement, Mr Moran visited his house and warned him not to tell anyone he had driven to or from Mr Gangitano's house.

He told him Gangitano had been "put off".

Counsel for both Mr Moran and Mr Kinniburgh asked that their clients be excused.

Coroner Iain West allowed the pair to exercise their right against self-incrimination.

Moran's lawyer urged the coroner not to find his client contributed to Gangitano's death.

Chris Dane, QC, said there was insufficient evidence to say who fired the fatal shots and identification of Mr Moran at the scene was "gravely suspect".

Tony Hargreaves, for Mr Kinniburgh, said police claims his client was involved in or was present at the murder were speculation and innuendo.

Closing the inquest into Gangitano's death, counsel assisting Deputy State Coroner Iain West, Jeremy Rapke, QC, said the evidence against Mr Moran and Mr Kinniburgh was not such that Mr West could make a positive finding of contribution, but was nevertheless "good enough" to implicate them.

Mr West also rejected Kinniburgh's version of events that night.

Mr Rapke outlined a police scenario in which Mr Kinniburgh spent at least 30 minutes at Gangitano's house before Moran arrived armed with a .32 calibre handgun after 11pm.

Gangitano tried to flee into the laundry as Mr Moran fired at him with a small pistol, hitting him three times, Mr Rapke suggested.

In the police scenario, Mr Kinniburgh bumped his elbow trying to flee the house and left his DNA on a screen door.

He ran upstairs to check he had not been recorded on Gangitano's elaborate security system, leaving his blood on an upstairs banister, and then went to a nearby service station to set up his alibi before returning.

Homicide squad detectives then prepared a fresh report for the Office of Public Prosecutions to consider whether there are new grounds to lay charges.

Neither Moran or Kinniburgh were in court, but it might be said that Mr Moran did have a representative to put his case - his mother, Judy.

Around the time Mr West was reading his findings, family patriarch Lewis Moran (pictured left with Jason) was fronting Melbourne Magistrates Court on drug charges.

Lewis was released on bail and is due to reappear the following May.

On May 1, 2002, Moran associate, Victor Peirce, one of the four acquitted of the 1988 Walsh St police murders, was shot dead in Bay St., Port Melbourne

The Herald Sun reported that Peirce was involved in a long-running feud with the Morans, and was suspected by them of being involved in the murder of Mark Moran in June 2000.

At the time many theorised the Peirce killing may have been an act of revenge by supporters of the Morans.

On May 8, almost a week after Peirce's death, a death notice from Jason Moran was published in the Herald Sun.

It read simply, "Victor - Rest Peacefully - Jason Moran".

It is believed Moran's appearance at Peirces' funeral was a sign of his gratitude.

The Age reported that an investigation had been launched after jailed drug dealer, John Higgs, held a meeting with Jason Moran while on accompanied day release from the Fulham prison in Gippsland on May 23, 2002.

State corrections commissioner Dennis Roach had asked Australasian Correctional Management, the prison's operator, to explain how Higgs managed to meet Moran while on a 12-hour community access leave.

Higgs has been granted leave on several occasions as part of the prison's rehabilitation program.

He was meant to be visiting his wife when the meeting with Moran took place at Higgs' home at Mount Cottrell, on Melbourne's western fringe.

Higgs' minimum security grading had been upgraded and community access visits suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.

Authorities wanted to know how the meeting was organised and what was discussed by Higgs and Moran.

The commissioner had also asked ACM why it took two weeks to notify authorities of the breach.

An ACM spokesman said the meeting was reported to management by the accompanying guard.

The delay in informing the commissioner's office was caused by an administrative error. 

"Fulham is operated within the rules and guidelines by the Victoria Government ... Higgs breached the conditions and his leave has been suspended," the spokesman said.

ACM, which also operates Port Phillip Prison, west of Melbourne, faced possible fines if the commissioner found management was negligent.

On July 17, 2002, Carl Williams was bailed, despite having twice been arrested on serious drug charges. 

But the courts had no choice; Williams' case (and those involving six others) were indefinitely delayed while prosecutions against drug squad detectives were finalised.

In December 2002, Williams' close associate, the Runner, was released and within weeks he was going out with Roberta Williams' sister, Michelle.

The Runner and Carl Williams met daily, and Williams asked his new right-hand man to find Moran.

He said Moran was aware he was being hunted and had gone to ground.

"Carl told me that he still wanted Jason dead and that he wanted me to locate Jason so he could kill him. We did not discuss money at this point but I was to start surveillance on Jason Moran."

Williams' ambitions and his desire for revenge were growing. No longer did he just want to kill Jason. "Carl developed a deep-seated hatred of the Moran family … there is no doubt it was an obsession with him. Carl told me on numerous occasions that he wanted everyone connected with the Moran family dead."

The Runner began to track Moran.

With every report Williams would peel off between $500 and $1000 for the information.

His former prison buddy was also paid to deliver drugs and collect money, and set up in a Southgate apartment that Williams sometimes used as a secret bachelor pad.

The Runner would tell police that he was not the only one spying on Moran.

Williams also received information from millionaire drug trafficker Tony Mokbel, and soon-to-be-deceased crime middleweight, Willie Thompson.

Williams and the Runner began stalking Moran, and discussing how they would kill him.

Their schemes ranged from the imaginative to the idiotic.

One was to hide in the boot of Moran's silver BMW, remove the lock and spring out to kill him.

A simpler version involved lying beneath shrubs outside the house where Moran was believed to be staying.

Williams considered hiding in the rubbish bin next to Moran's car, then popping out to shoot him.

Another plan was to lure him to a park and the Runner, dressed as a woman and pushing a pram, would walk past and shoot him.

He and Williams bought a shoulder-length brown wig before abandoning the plan.

But finding Moran proved more difficult than first believed.

Moran was an expert in counter-surveillance and teamed with a man who appeared to be a bodyguard.

He ditched his flamboyant lifestyle, rented a modest house in Moonee Ponds and kept on the move.

Also, the Runner had never met Moran and Williams did not provide him with a picture.

Once the Runner saw a man matching the description leaving Moran's brother-in-law's home in Gladstone Park. "I am pretty sure (it) was Jason."

They finally spotted him in late February 2003 at a Red Rooster outlet in Gladstone Park.

Williams was not armed.

They followed him and an unidentified female who was driving a small black sedan.

As a surveillance operative Carl made a good drug dealer.

He grabbed a tyre lever and a screwdriver from inside his car and followed at a distance of only 20 metres.

According to the Runner, "about 40 or 50 metres down this road (Johnson Street) the rear of the hatch of the car opened up and Jason shot several shots at us from the back of the car."

Williams lost interest, saying "we will get him another time".

Williams and the Runner went to pubs and clubs where they might find Moran.

They came up empty.

They thought about a hit at the Docks where Moran was said to occasionally work, but terrorist fears had resulted in a massive security upgrade that made it impossible.

Hodson said the officers told him they were interested in being paid to murder targets of the underworld war.

Hodson told corruption detectives that he made inquiries for the officers and found that Jason Moran, who was in Queensland at the time, wanted someone to kill members of the Williams syndicate, including Carl Williams and Victor Brincat.

Hodson said he relayed this information back to the unnamed Victorian officers but there was a dispute over the price of the contract.

The officers, Hodson claimed, were asking to be paid $250,000 per head and Jason Moran was only prepared to pay $200,000.

According to Hodson, a few weeks after these negotiations, Jason Moran was murdered.

The information Hodson gave anti-corruption detectives about these dealings raises several possibilities.

For instance, the most simple reading is that the officers may have indeed been looking to carry out contract killings.

Or, a theory some police sources say is more plausible, is that they may have been trying to get information about who wanted who dead, information they could then corruptly pass on to other criminals.

Carl Williams finally put a bounty on Jason Moran's head in April 2003.

Andrew Veniamin and the Runner would get $100,000 each.

The pair, armed and masked, hid in the back seat of a rented car outside the school expecting Jason to drop his children off.

But he did not show.

Next time, Roberta Williams picked a fight with Jason's wife Trish outside the school in the hope she would call her husband to come and support her.

Still no Jason.

Career criminal Terrence Hodson decided to assist police after he was charged over a break-in in which he and a drug squad detective were arrested while attempting to steal drugs and money from an Oakleigh home.

One of the things he told investigators was that in May 2003 he was approached by police officers who told him they were interested in being paid to murder targets of the underworld war.

Hodson told corruption detectives that he made inquiries for the officers and found that Jason Moran, who was in Queensland at the time, wanted someone to kill members of the Williams syndicate, including Carl Williams and Victor Brincat.

Hodson said he relayed this information back to the unnamed Victorian officers but there was a dispute over the price of the contract.

The officers, Hodson claimed, were asking to be paid $250,000 per head and Jason Moran was only prepared to pay $200,000.

The information Hodson gave anti-corruption detectives about these dealings raised several possibilities.

For instance, the most simple reading is that the officers may have indeed been looking to carry out contract killings.

Or, a theory some police sources say is more plausible, is that they may have been trying to get information about who wanted who dead, information they could then corruptly pass on to other criminals.

Williams wanted Veniamin (who was still associating with Mick Gatto and the Carlton Crew) to set up Moran for an ambush but Benji was frightened Big Mick would realise he was working for Williams.

"Carl was becoming wary of Andrew and told me that he was concerned that Andrew was more in the Moran camp than in ours," the Runner later told police.

In fact, Williams believed Moran was trying to persuade Veniamin to become a double agent and kill Carl.

When Benji failed to deliver Moran to a planned ambush at the Spencer Street taxi rank near The Age building, Williams started to doubt his number one killer.

"From then on Carl would only meet Andrew on his own terms. That way Carl could be sure of his own safety. He did not trust Andrew any more," the Runner said.

The Williams team learned that Jason Moran took his children to Auskick training every Saturday morning in Essendon North.

Williams had eased Veniamin out of the hit team and replaced him with the getaway driver from the Mark Moran murder.

The Runner and his new partner, the "Driver", inspected the football oval and planned an ambush.

On June 14, 2003, armed and ready, they watched the football clinic but did not see Jason.

They agreed to try again the next week.

Williams had another plan. He told the Runner he wanted Jason ambushed on June 15, the anniversary of Mark's murder, at the grave site at Fawkner Cemetery.

"Carl decided, though, that if we were not able to kill Jason on Sunday (June 15) then we would try again at Auskick next week."

On the assigned day it took the hit team more than an hour to find the grave and when they did, they found a card signed by Jason. Leaving, they saw a car fly through a red light. It was probably Moran.

During the following week the team repeatedly went to the Cross Keys ground to fine tune their planned hit.

The Runner would be dropped at the hotel car park where Moran would be parked; he would run up, shoot Moran in the head and then run over a footbridge to the getaway van.

Williams organised a blood test for that morning, giving him an alibi.

On the Saturday morning they collected guns from Andrew Krakouer's (brother to former footballers Jimmy and Phil) house in Pascoe Vale, which Williams used as a safe house, and placed stolen plates on the white van that would be used in the getaway.

Williams' lieutenant, a man who can source chemicals for amphetamines and who cannot be named, then advised the Runner to "get Jason good and get him in the head".

Moran's Grosvenor St property was passed in for $680,000 in July, 2002, but is understood to have sold later for an undisclosed figure.

Police sources said that during a raid on the Grosvenor St house, a Rottweiler charged the officer who had used a sledge-hammer to break the down the front door.