|
The Kanes partook in a deadly feud
with the team of armed robbers led by Raymond
'Chuck' Bennett.
In this they were apparently backed
by members of the Consorting Squad.
On April 21, 1976, the feud
heightened after Bennett and his men allegedly committed the
Great Bookie Robbery.
During the robbery a boxing trainer,
Ambrose Palmer, had been referred to by name by one of the robbers.
Ambrose apparently recognized the
voice as that of a man who'd been trained by him years earlier.
Palmer kept the mans identity to
himself for sometime but eventually let his name slip to one of the Kane
brothers.
At a Richmond hotel in mid-1978,
one of Bennett's men, Victor Mikkelsen, refused a drink from Les Kane.
A brawl resulted and Brian Kane had an ear
almost bitten off.
On October 19,
1978, the fiery Les Kane was shot dead at his Wantirna home. His wife Judy was
pushed away by three masked men with machine guns. She
and the rest of the young family were then forced at gun point to listen from
another room while Kane was pumped full of lead in the bathroom. He
was bundled into a distinctive pink Ford Futura and never seen
again. Bennett,
Mikkelsen and another member of the Bennett gang, Laurence Prendergast, were
charged with the murder.
The famous Les Kane
murder trial featured Colin
Lovitt QC.
The trio were
acquitted.
On November 26, 1982,
Brian Kane was shot dead at the Quarry Hotel in Brunswick.
Two men wearing balaclavas
walked into the packed pub and opened fire with handguns, tagging Kane in the
head and chest.
The two unknown shooters
escaped as Kane slumped to the floor.
His murder was never solved.
Death notices flowed for the
fallen criminal.
One was written by a young
boy destined for criminal infamy in his own right.
It spoke adoringly of
"Uncle Brian" and ended with: "Your little mate, Jason
Moran."
 The Kane and the Moran
families have been close for many years.
Trisha Kane, the daughter
of Les, fell in love with notorious gangster Jason
Moran (right) when she was 15 and he became her first boyfriend and then husband.
Jason
Moran was shot dead in June 2003.
On May 10, 2008, Age reporter John Silvester wrote that with Tony Mokbel's "Big Fat Greek Adventure coming to a close the alleged organised crime boss faced a clear choice — freedom or family".
He will have to give information on the murders of police informer Terrence Hodson and his wife Christine for authorities to even consider plea discussions. Detectives believe the double murder was set up by a corrupt former member of the drug squad.
Mokbel would have to give up the former police behind the Hodson murders to have a chance of receiving a sentence of less than 30 years. The deal will be simple — rat or rot.
A special taskforce, code-named Petra, is investigating the double murder. Convicted gangland killer Carl Williams had claimed a former policeman told him that Hodson was "a problem" and had to go. Williams claimed the former detective later said the matter had been "sorted". It was just before the double murder.
Taskforce investigators have secretly visited David Miechel in jail but he refused to co-operate with any investigation.
While Mokbel might have no issue in sinking bent cops to save himself there is a sticking point. He would have to name the actual killer and the star suspect is a man who is virtually related to him through marriage.
The suspect (later revealed to be Rodney Earl Collins) is a cold-blooded killer implicated in the murders of Mike Schievella, 44, and his partner, Heather McDonald, 36, at their St Andrews home in 1990.
Police said they were bound and tied and their throats slashed. One theory was they were killed because they were suspected of talking to police.
The suspect has been listed as a person of interest in three murders in the 1980s including that of Brian Kane.
The man has also been named as a suspect in the February 2006 murder of Carlton identity Mario Condello.
The former armed robber and gunman once formed a hatred against a policeman who had arrested him. His cell was covered with hanged stick-figures with the detective's name scrawled under each one.
|
