Police believe Marshall used his business, Love Dogs, based outside the Motel nightclub, as a front to sell amphetamines.

Marshall is believed to have previously forced a van owned by a company known as Shot Dogs away from the lucrative York Street site after threatening to assault the business' owners and patrons.

The Age later reported that Shot Dogs was owned by several police officers and their families.

A close friend of Carl Williams' (left), known as 'The Runner', told police that in September 2003 he met Williams, millionaire drug trafficker Tony Mokbel and others at the Red Rooster store in Moreland Road, Brunswick.

Mokbel was upset by the death of his old school friend Willie Thompson and he wanted revenge.

"At this meeting Tony confirmed that he believed Michael Marshall was responsible for Willie's death and he wanted him dead," the Runner said during a police interview.

"Tony offered Carl and I $300,000 to kill Marshall. When I shook hands with Tony he passed a piece of paper to me, which had the details of Marshall's address."

But Mokbel didn't know that Williams had organised Thompson's murder, and was to be paid a small fortune to kill an innocent man.

The Runner later told police: "I was surprised because I knew that Carl was behind Thompson's murder but it appeared that Tony did not know what had really happened."

The 'Runner' wanted a serious down payment. Williams gave him $50,000 in a manila envelope, saying: "This is from Tony."

Most of the blood money disappeared at the casino and TAB.

On October 25, 2003, Michael Marshall died after being shot outside his home in South Yarra.

Police said he was standing outside the house in Joy Street when he was fired upon about 6.30pm.

Marshall was shot up to five times in the head with a handgun in front of his five-year-old son and girlfriend after arriving home.

The 'Runner' later gave evidence to police saying, "At the time of the shooting I had no idea, nor could I have foreseen the possibility, of his son being present."

"The gun went off."

A stray bullet hit his hot dog van, missing the gas tank by one centimetre.

Metropolitan Ambulance Service paramedic Paul Stefaniak said the victim died soon after he was delivered to The Alfred hospital trauma centre at 6.49pm.

"We arrived to find a man lying on the street with massive head injuries following a single gunshot wound. He was in a critical condition when we transported him," Mr Stefaniak said.

Police spokesman Wayne Wilson said all of Joy Street, which runs west of Williams Road and crosses Hobson Street to a dead-end, had been declared a crime scene and had been closed to the public.

A statement released by police said witnesses had reported seeing a man fleeing the scene of the shooting.

Sergeant Mark Colbert said police arrived to find a woman and child at the address.

"They are very distressed, as you can imagine."  

The task force probing Melbourne's gangland murders later charged two men over the shooting.

Victor Brincat, 43, and Thomas Hentschel, 41, were arrested less than six hours after Marshall was killed.

The pair were in a Toyota van near the Elsternwick hotel at the corner of Glenhuntly Road and the Nepean Highway.

Brincat and Hentschel were remanded in custody to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court.

Victor Brincat, a convicted bank robber, was arrested in June 1999 by the Special Operations Group shortly after attempting to rob the Lygon Street National Bank.

He is famous for jumping from the back of a police car vehicle being transported from St Kilda Road police complex in 1990.

He was later re-captured.

In July 2003, Ten News reported that Brincat had recently been released from prison and that it was believed he was one of the many people interviewed by homicide squad detectives in relation to the shootings of Jason Moran and Pasquale Barbaro.

A Herald Sun death notice after Moran's murder read:

''Thirty pieces of silver. Respect to all the poor little kiddies.

Mick Gatto (The Don), Rod Collins, Benji, Carl Williams and Dad, Victor Brincat, Alfie.

Lest we forget. 2003''

It is not known if the letter was genuine

On November 13, 2003, Hentschel was interviewed over the slaying of gangster Jason Moran.

Hentschel spent three hours being questioned over the June 2003 killings of Moran and his criminal associate Pasquale Barbaro.

He was asked about his whereabouts and knowledge of the killings by detectives from the Operation Purana taskforce investigating Melbourne's underworld killings.

Detective-Sergeant Stuart Bateson told Melbourne Magistrates' Court earlier that security camera footage showed a balaclava-clad man with a shotgun being dropped at the scene in a white Toyota Hiace and running towards the victims' van.

The footage, from the Cross Keys Hotel security camera, then showed the man running from the carpark and into parkland.

Det-Sgt Bateson said Mr Hentschel, of Cheltenham, and Victor Brincat, 43, were arrested in a white Toyota Hiace van a short time after Marshall was shot.

"(The van) is identical in appearance to that which is depicted on security camera footage from the Cross Keys Hotel," he said.

The court heard the white van the pair were arrested in belonged to Mr Hentschel.

Det-Sgt Bateson said witnesses at the Moran murder scene had helped police develop photofits of the driver of the white van.

"And that description is very similar to the respondent (Mr Hentschel)," he said.

Det-Sgt Bateson told the court Purana detectives had established similarities between the Marshall and Moran murder cases, including:

A LONE gunman assisted by a driver was responsible in each case.

THE assailants were lying in wait for the victims in both cases.

THE gunman was dropped at the scene by his driver in both cases.

THE gunman fled on foot in both cases.

THE calibre of the guns used in each case was identical.

WITNESSES to each crime have given similar descriptions of the gunman and driver.

The court heard police would allege Mr Hentschel used his own car to drop off the gunman who killed Marshall.

Defence lawyer Nicola Gobbo said Mr Hentschel had been in solitary confinement since his arrest for his own protection.

Magistrate Clive Alsop ordered Mr Hentschel's transfer into the custody of police for up to eight hours so they could interview him at the St Kilda Rd police complex.

Mr Hentschel, wearing a grey tracksuit and glasses, agreed in court that he understood he had the right to refuse to answer questions.

Mr Hentschel was returned to the custody centre by detectives after three hours.

On May 12, 2004 a court was also told that police recorded the movements and conversations of Brincat and Hentschel in the nine days before Marshall's death.

On the way to Marshall's house the pair allegedly discussed what type of firearm to use, where Brincat would be let out of the car and picked up, and the need for Brincat to shower and change his clothes.

The court was told that witnesses saw a man fitting Brincat's description fleeing the scene of the shooting.

On March 1, 2005, two gangland murder hearings (Marshall's and Moran's) were held simultaneously because the case against the three accused relied on the evidence of a supergrass known as Mr X.

In January Mr X had been sentenced to a minimum of 10 years' jail for his involvement in Marshall's murder.

In his opening, prosecutor Geoff Horgan, SC, said Mr X would give evidence that he carried out surveillance on the home of Michael Marshall on at least 30 occasions before the murder.

He Carl Williams ordered the murder of Marshall, who was involved in the illegal drugs trade, but said the motivation for the killing remained unclear.

"(Mr X) will say that the murder was organised by Carl Williams and he engaged Victor Brincat," Mr Horgan said.

At the time of the killing, Brincat was the partner of Michelle Mircieca, Williams' sister-in-law.

Mr Horgan said the car carrying Mr X and Brincat was under police surveillance in the period before the murder.

"Marshall pulled into Joy Street, South Yarra, with his five-year-old son beside him in the front," Mr Horgan said.

"Brincat ran forward and at almost contact range, if not contact range, fired four to five shots, leaving him (Marshall) dying on the roadway."

He said Brincat ran from the scene before he was picked up by Mr X and the pair drove to a flat in Melbourne's south.

Mr X, called Williams to tell him the job had been done.

They were to meet Williams, but were arrested in Elsternwick within hours and it was not long before Mr X turned informer, the first of Williams' cronies to break the criminal code of silence.

Later in 2005 Carl Williams was convicted of Marshall's murder.

The hearing was conducted in secret, its' result not revealed until February 2007.

On June 28, 2006, the Age reported that two Victorian policemen were being investigated over their connection to a lucrative hot dog business that made up to $10,000 each weekend.

St Kilda senior sergeant Rick Lewis and Oakleigh Detective Sergeant David Brodie were believed to be involved in Shot Dogs, which operated vans outside some of Melbourne's most popular night spots.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman confirmed that the ethical standards department was probing claims that Shot Dogs paid off-duty officers cash to sell hot dogs and marked police cars had been seen delivering bread rolls and other food to vans when supplies ran low.

Senior Sergeant Lewis was registered as the company's original director when Shot Dogs was established in 1995.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission records revealed that he had since transferred the business into his wife's name.

Sergeant Brodie's wife was also listed as a director, with a 50 per cent holding in the company.

Another policeman, St Kilda sergeant Chris Lim, helped to establish the business but withdrew a few months later.

Sergeant Lim was being investigated by Victoria Police's ethical standards department over his interests in a property company, in which a fellow investor is an associate of prominent underworld figure Mick Gatto.

Police need permission to engage in outside work.

The hot dog business had six vans near venues including the Palace and the George in St Kilda and the Motel and the Marquee Club in South Melbourne.

The Age had also been told that Shot Dogs bought Michael Marshall's hot dog van after he was gunned down in October 2003.

Senior Sergeant Lewis — who was sanctioned by force command in 2001 for sending "hard core" pornographic material over the police email system, and who was the AFL's investigations officer for nine years before an acrimonious falling-out in 2004 — denied any involvement in Shot Dogs.

"You're way off the mark," he said. "I am not a director of the company. I am not an employee of the company. It's my wife who runs the show." Senior Sergeant Lewis also denied he and Sergeant Brodie bought Marshall's hot dog van.

"Mick Marshall's hot dog van, I think, is at the state forensic science laboratory," he said.

But sources at the Purana gangland taskforce said that, despite it receiving a bullet hole on the night Marshall was shot, the van was never seized for examination.

Senior Sergeant Lewis' wife, Cheryl, a criminal barrister, conceded that Shot Dogs had been owned by her husband and Sergeant Brodie.

"They are both policemen and they had the business, but they couldn't get it authorised (by force command)," she said. "It is not a big deal. Police are allowed to be involved in other businesses."

Ms Lewis conceded that a Shot Dogs van started trading outside the Motel six days after Marshall's death. "What … are you saying, that a man's not dead a week and we take up his position? Oh well, that's business."

Sergeant Brodie did not return The Age's calls.

Victoria Police inspector David Wolf said officers seeking outside work had to get permission from their district commander. The Victoria Police manual states: "There must be no conflict of interest between the functions and responsibilities of an employee and any private pursuits caused by outside employment."

Inspector Wolf said employment in the security, gaming or liquor industries would be considered a conflict of interest.

A register of bank accounts, debts and investments of serving officers and their families is among several changes Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon had called for to the Police Regulations Act, as a further tool to rid the force of corrupt police.

More than 20 officers were reportedly being investigated by the Office of Police Integrity over unexplained assets and lifestyles that would require money well beyond their police income. Some are suspected of making investments in the names of friends and relatives to try to conceal their true wealth.

On March 1, 2007, a chilling recording of the murder of Marshall was released by the Supreme Court.