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During the shooting,
Longley fled, unscathed.
The
opposition group seized the ballot papers and many were destroyed.
Longley went
into hiding for in early 1973.
A huge police hunt in 1973,
'74 and '75 failed to find him.
After
16 months on the run, Longley came forward with his lawyer and presented himself
at Russell St police headquarters.
Pat Shannon was shot dead at Druids Hotel in
South Melbourne on October 17, 1973.
Shannon
was running a fundraiser for an injured docker on the night of October 17,
1973, when he was killed.
The
gunman, gripping a handkerchief in his mouth as a form of disguise, levelled a
.22 rifle and shot Shannon three times.
He
was hit in the head, shoulder and chest.
He
reportedly muttered, "You cunt" before dying where he fell.
Fellow
docker John Loughnan told a latter inquest:
"I
was facing the Moray Street door. We drank to about 10 p.m. and then I heard
fire crackers go off. All of a sudden Pat said: "You cunt" and fell
off his seat. Then I saw blood flow from his mouth. I could not work out what
was happening. I did not see any of the (accused) men in the hotel."
Police arrested four men over the murder:
Longley, Kevin James Taylor, Gary Leslie Harding and Alfred Leslie
Cannott.
Harding made a three-page statement to police.
In court, the Crown alleged that Longley paid
Taylor $6000 for the hit and that Harding pointed Shannon out to Taylor in the
hotel.
Harding's evidence was that he waited in the car
and Taylor ran up, threw the gun into the back seat and said: "I shot him,
I got him".
Longley, Taylor and Harding were convicted of
Shannon's manslaughter.
Within 12 months Harding was dead, hacked to
death in his Pentridge jail cell.
Longley
still maintains his innocence.
Celebrity gangster
Mark 'Chopper' Read arranged to have his ears cut off while serving time in Pentridge
Prison in 1978 and appointed fellow H-Division prisoner Kevin Taylor as the
cutter.
Chopper asked Taylor
to perform the gruesome task after having a request to get out of H-Division
knocked back by the prison classification board.
Chopper figured
having his ears copped off would get him out of H-Division and into hospital.
He was right.
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