Violent and well-known northern suburbs career criminal Rod Collins, who shares his name with a decorated detective, had a tough upbringing.

Also known as Rod "The Duke" Earl, he never new his real father and his three siblings were his stepfather's children.

Collins left school in year 8 and, after a bitter relationship with his stepfather, moved out of home at 15.

He moved in with his grandfather in Richmond and began working as a labourer.

Soon he was drinking heavily and at 17 he had his first brush with the law.

He was arrested carrying a knuckle-duster at 18.

When Collins was 20 he was sent to Pentridge and spent four years there after abducting and raping a woman and, in a separate incident, firing a gun.

Collins married in 1971.

In 1973 the couple purchased a house in Katunga Court, Broadmeadows.

In 1977 he was convicted of possessing marijuana.

Collins and his wife separated in 1981and were divorced.

But soon after the divorce came through, they reunited.

His wife and their teenage daughter moved back to the Katunga Court house.

Collins often carried a gun and rumour was he'd used it more than once.

In 1983 he was twice charged with carrying a pistol.

In 1986, Collins was acquitted on a murder charge.

In late February 1988, Kath Parker opened her front door just before midnight and three men walked into her house.

She recognised the by now notorious Rod Collins as one of them but did not know who the others were.

The trio then began to threaten Parker.

She had made a statement to police regarding a 1986 bank robbery.

Her son Darryl, one of the two men involved was caught soon after, convicted and jailed.

The second bandit escaped.

Parker told police who the other bandit was.

After Darryl was jailed, his alleged accomplice moved in with Parker's girlfriend.

This appeared to be the motivation behind Kath Parker choosing to make a statement.

On March 4, 1988, a woman in the Ringwood shopping centre carpark noticed a man who appeared to be dress oddly for what was a sunny early autumn day.

He was wearing gloves and a pair of thick pants over a pair of jeans and was carrying a blue duffle bag.

The man walked from his car to another and climbed in with several other men.

Shortly after, both cars sped out of the carpark, one turning left, the other right.

The woman noted the registration of one of the cars and contacted police.

Police later formed the view that the men had a police scanner in their possession, were about to commit a robbery at one of several banks in the area but heard a call on the scanner which asked police to check on an alarm a short distance from where the men were parked.

After hearing the D-24 call, the group of potential armed robbers fled the area immediately.

At around the same time, Kath Parker phoned Brian Rix, the armed robbery squad detective who had charged her son, and told him of the home invasion.

She also told Rix that she now feared for her life.

On Tuesday March 8, 1988 detectives decided to watch Collins' house.

If he threatened Kath Parker and drove to her house, they would arrest him.

Rix and fellow detective Steve Curnow drove to Broadmeadows with a team from surveillance and waited at the end of Collins' street for him to make  move.

Shortly before 9pm he went to Broadmeadows to report for bail with the surveillance police following him.

Collins was reporting everyday due to drug offences he had been charged with months earlier.

After signing the bail book he went straight home with his wife.

The couple parked on the nature-strip out the front of their house and police watched Collins walk to a car which was parked about 20 metres down the street.

He checked through every window of the car and then returned to his hime.

Shortly after, one of the surveillance police checked on the mysterious car.

The car's registration plates matched those reported to have been in the Ringwood carpark.

And one of those rego plates was definitely a fake.

The car was registered as belonging to an Elwood man but it had not been reported stolen.

Curnow and Rix sped south to Elwood and located a car with exactly the same front number plate as the other vehicle but it was missing its rear plate.

Police continued to tail Collins and several days later they spotted him leaving the Broadmeadows police station.

He climbed into a green Ford F-100 which they discovered was registered to career criminal Peter Lawless.

Lawless had been released from jail less than a year earlier.

Investigators made inquiries as to Lawless' recent movements.

Detective Peter Butts interviewed the Ringwood witness.

The best description she provided of any of the men she had seen was the one who looked like her stepfather.

Lawless fitted the description.

Police discovered that Lawless owned a factory in Dandenong, the base for his painting and decorating business.

Surveillance officers watched the premises intently.

In mid-March Collins confronted Kath Parker, this time outside a public swimming pool.

She noted the car's registration and contacted police who discovered that the car was registered to Peter Lawless.

At 4.15pm on March 18, 1988, police followed Lawless as he left the factory.

He drove to a nearby supermarket and met up with Collins and an unknown man.

The trio left in separate cars and drove in convoy towards Ringwood.

Police were certain a heist was about to take place but something seemed to scare the potential armed robbers and their job was apparently aborted.

Investigators were now certain that the Lawless/Collins team were going to pull off a major armed robbery on a Friday.

The following week, police lined the route from Dandenong to Ringwood and lay in wait.

Shortly after 2pm, Collins, Lawless and two unidentified men met up in Springvale and drove off in two cars.

One of the cars was parked in a Ringwood side street before the men continued their trip together.

The group returned to Lawless' factory to collect a motorbike and drove back to Ringwood at 4pm.

Police watched them dup another stolen car. Several officers waited with the vehicle for when the men returned to it.

The robbers forced their way into the Ringwood branch of the National Australia Bank through a rear door.

Detectives had set up a camera focussed on the bank and the robbery was recorded for prosperity.

Traffic congestion had meant that the men were late and by the tie they had entered the bank it was closed, the staff relaxing with Friday drinks in a room upstairs and the cash safely locked away in heavy steel filing cabinets.

A sledge hammer was not enough to open the cabinets and although dented, they refused to open for the robbers.

The bandits gave up and fled carrying duffle bags, but no cash.

They climbed into a van and roared of towards the getaway car.

When the robbers arrived at the vehicle police pounced.

SOG officers trapped the men while they were changing cars and trained their shotguns on the offenders.

Lawless and Collins were thrown face down onto the road and cuffed with plastic restrainers before hoods were placed over their heads.

One of the unidentified men was Larry Mauldon, a man well-known to police who was from the Frankston area and had a string of criminal convictions.

When arrested, Mauldon his the side of the curb with his head. His skull was later found to be fractured.

When the four men stood trial in February 1989 they all pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary.

They were originally charged with armed robbery but the DPP did not press ahead with the charges for several reasons.

It was made clear to the DPP that the men would fight the charge, a resulting trial costing an exorbitant amount of tax-payers money.

It was also thought that the men might not even be convicted.

For an armed robbery charge to stick a person is required to be threatened or put into fear, and there was sufficient doubt that any of the bank staff were directly threatened by the bandits.

Mauldon was sentenced to five years jail. He received a lesser sentence to the rest of the men as the judge took into consideration his fractured skull.

Lawless Collins and the fourth man were each given seven years.

Collins came to the attention of Purana taskforce detectives investigating Melbourne's gangland killings.

He has been 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.

Collins has also been listed as a person of interest in three murders in the 1980s including standover man Brian Kane, who was shot in the Quarry Hotel in Brunswick in 1982.

He has also been named as a suspect in the murder of lawyer-turned-gangland-figure Mario Condello, who was shot in the garage of his Brighton home in February 2006.

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.

He escaped going to jail in February 2004 after allegedly being caught with a loaded semi-automatic gun.

A Herald Sun death notice after Jason Moran's 2003 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 was not known if the letter was genuine.

Victor Brincat, Carl Williams and "Alfie" Traglia were later charged with Moran's murder and "Benji" Veniamin was suspected of being involved in several others before he was shot dead by Mick Gatto in March 2004.

Petra Taskforce detectives arrested Collins in relation to the double  killing of Ramon Abbey, 40, and Dorothy Abbey, 39, who were shot in their West Heidelberg home in July 1987.

Detective Superintendent Jack Blayney said Collins was connected to underworld identities.

"What I can say is there are connections between the man we arrested today and other underworld identities,''  he said.

"It was referred to the taskforce in April 2007, to review it.''

Detective Superintendent Blayney said information was received from a Purana investigation.

"It relates specifically to another investigation (and) there are some connections,''  he said.

Detective  Superintendent  Blayney said the double murder was extremely callous.

"They were both put into a position where they were shot in the head from behind in circumstances where it was extremely callous,'' Detective Superintendent Blayney said.

"We have a motive but that's something we'll leave for the courts,'' Detective Inspector Blayney said.

"There was more than one offender involved in this homicide, however two of those others have since passed away.''

Collins is closely linked to Tony Mokbel and is under investigation over a similar case connected to Melbourne's underworld war.

Collins was arrested by detectives from Taskforce Petra - the unit set up to investigate the murders of police informer Terence Hodson and his wife Christine, who were shot dead in their Kew home on May 15, 2004.

Collins was living with Joan McGuire, whose daughter Danielle is Tony Mokbel's partner. Danielle and Mokbel had a child together in Greece while the wanted man was on the run.

Police say Collins is part of Mokbel's extended family.

The Petra taskforce has been investigating links between Mokbel and Collins.

Police allege the Abbeys were killed as part of a failed drug rip-off after three men went to the house believing the couple had cash and heroin hidden in a safe in their garden shed. But they were wrong and the safe was empty.

One of the alleged team, Mark Andrew McConville, was initially found guilty of the murders but the conviction was overturned and he was acquitted at the retrial. He has since died. A second man involved has also died.

Police will allege that Collins was the gunman who killed the Abbeys. They will also allege he tortured Mrs Abbey and cut her throat.

Detectives believe the Abbeys knew their killers. Police also believe the Hodsons knew theirs.

While police would not publicly confirm links between the Abbey murders and the Hodson case, they acknowledge potential connections to ongoing investigations.

Detective Superintendent Jack Blayney, of the crime department, said: "What I can say is that there are connections between the man we've arrested with other key underworld identities.

"It relates specifically to another investigation we are conducting. There are some connections with (anti-gangland taskforce) Purana."

Superintendent Blayney said the Abbey murder investigation was reopened in April 2008.

"When we talk about execution-style killing, they were both put in a position where they were shot in the head from behind in circumstances where it was an extremely callous and calculating act," he said.

Taskforce Petra was set up to investigate the Hodson murders last year after detectives received new evidence linking the murders to police corruption.

Terence Hodson was a police informer and had agreed to give evidence against two drug squad detectives. Confidential police documents exposing him as a police informer were leaked to the underworld before he was murdered.

Mokbel is expected to eventually be questioned over the Hodson double killing and his links to Collins.

There is a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the Hodson murders.

Damon Abbey was five years old when his parents were killed but he remembers being awake in the house when they were murdered. Also in the house were his two elder sisters Elicia and Stacey.

"We have all been involved in the investigation. We've helped in terms of what we can remember of the events."

He said he "knew of the person" arrested over the murders.

Collins, of Holmes Street, Northcote, was remanded in custody to reappear on September 26.