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Frank Nugan, brother of Ken and a boss of the Nugan Hand Bank, was found dead in the Blue Mountains. He had a rifle beside him. His body was slumped across the front seat of his Mercedes-Benz with a bullet wound to the head.

Robert Trimbole refused to give evidence at the inquest into the 1979 disappearances of drug couriers Douglas and Isabel Wilson on the grounds that it might incriminate him.

Ray Denning escaped from Grafton jail, the first man to escape from the establishment in its 80-year history. 

Ebert murdered

Michael Ebert a high roller in the Melbourne massage parlour scene, was shot dead outside one of his establishments in Rathdowne Street, Carlton.

Ebert had been present when Shane Dennis "Jock" Rowland was killed in a Richmond house on May 1, 1976.

Ebert, notorious criminal Keith Faure and Hans George Obrenovic were found guilty of manslaughter.

Ebert was sentenced to eight years but was out in three.

Condello comes under police attention

A detective from Stawell received information that Mario Condello was involved in a Calabrian Mafia marijuana crop in the area.

The detective took his information to Victoria Police command.

Having heard allegations that Condello had friends in the Victoian Police Criminal Investigaton Branch who might tip him off, police command decided to give the job of investigating Condello to the secretive Zebra taskforce which acted independently of the CIB.

The two-year Zulu investigation was launched and centred on a various criminal activities connected with Condello that included drug trafficking, arson, fraud and an attempted murder.

Over a year after his escape, Ray Denning caught up with an old acquaintance from Katingal Jail, Russell 'Mad Dog" Cox. Cox had made a spectacular escape from Katingal in Queensland in 1978. He remained on the run for 12 years before being captured in the company of Denning (who had been recaptured and had escaped again in Melbourne).

Robert Trimboli fled Australia. He ended up in France traveling via the US.

Mario Condello jailed

Condello practised law until he was struck off the Supreme Court roll in 1982 while facing drug and conspiracy charges.

He was jailed for six years for conspiracy and trafficking Indian hemp later that year.

Joe Arena, the friendly God Father', used his family home as surety for a bail application for fellow underworld figure Laurence Joseph Sumner. Sumner was charged with trafficking $2 million of heroin and was acquitted. 

Sumner was seen drinking with members of the jury in a hotel near the court that night.

Sumner became an associate of several Italian crime figures and a close friend of Arena's. He was suspected of attempting to blow up Melbourne Godfather Liborio Benvenuto's car in 1983.

Sumner was rumoured to have supplied the gun used to kill Arena in August 1988.

Condello's men attack businessman

It was alleged Mario Condello employed two men to break the legs of businessmen Richard Jones who refused to release his rights to the name of a printing business.

They went to the victim's Box Hill home at 6am and checked the man's sleeping children before blasting him with a double-barreled shotgun as he lay in bed with his wife.

The man was saved only because he was shot in bed and the doona cushioned the blast, leaving him with a deep wound embedded with feathers.

Edward John "Teddy" King was convicted of the shooting.

He pleaded to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to 12 years' jail.

Condello was also charged but key evidence against him was deemed inadmissible.

Mark Moran's father Leslie 'Johnny' Cole, a close associate of famed Sydney underworld figure Frederick 'Paddles' Anderson, was executed during the NSW drug wars.

Brian Kane was shot dead at the Quarry Hotel in Brunswick.

NSW: Ian Steele escapes - heads south

Ian Steele escaped from a NSW jail and headed for Northcote, inner-Melbourne, where he kidnapped a man and forced him to drive into NSW before heading back to Melbourne. Police intercepted his car in the city and Steele was shot in the face. Jailed for 17 years, he escaped again in 1986 and fled to England where, in 1990, he was jailed for life for killing his girlfriend.

A bomb was planted under the car of Liborio Benvenuto, the "Melbourne Godfather". An astute and experienced criminal, Laurence Joseph Sumner, is rumoured to have helped plant the bomb.

Heorin dealer Dennis Allen's home at Chestnut St. Richmond is raided. Victor Gouroff (drug user and close associate-later executed) was present. The police had been following Helen Wagnegg (also a drug user - later executed) when she arrived at Allen's home. 

They observed Victor Gouroff  greet her at the door. When she arrived home later she was arrested with 1.5g of heroin. Allen's house was then raided. Police discovered drugs, guns and explosives.

Fred Cook, VFA footballer at Port Melbourne and close friend of Dennis Allen, disclosed that two SP bookmakers had made an offer to him of $1000 to play below his best. "I thought about it for 30 second", he said, "and then knocked it back. Human nature made me consider it but then I went out and played my guts out for Port, and we won." 

According to Cook, betting on VFA football was common, with up to $30 000 wagered around the ground each time Port played key opposition.
Cook was later jailed several times for crimes involving drugs and theft.

McMillan gets 17 years

Drug trafficker David McMillan first gained notoriety in 1983 when he was sentenced to 17 years for masterminding a heroin import operation and then plotting to escape from Pentridge Prison's D Division in a helicopter.

He ended up serving 10 years after convincing authorities he was reformed, but slipped the country on a forged passport just months after his release.

He was allegedly found at Bangkok airport with 250kg of heroin, worth $400,000 on Australia's streets, in his luggage, along with about 30 false Australian passports in the months after his release.

Greg Pasche, one of heroin dealer Dennis Allen's 'brothers', disappears. He had grown up as part of the family after meeting Lex Pierce, Dennis' brother, while they were in a boys home

He was found dead not long after. His body, discovered in a State Forest, had multiple stab wounds and a fractured skull.

Painter and Docker, Charlie Wooton was named as a 'Melbourne criminal' in a Commonwealth -New South Wales Joint Task Force on Drug Trafficking tabled in Federal and NSW Parliaments.

Victor Gouroff, an associate of Dennis Allen disappears.

The bodies of Rocco Medici and his brother in law Giuseppe Furina found in a river near Griffith, they were suspected of  blowing up the car of Liborio Benvenuto.

After visiting Dennis Allen, Wayne Stanhope disappears. His car was seen at Allen's the night before his disappearance and found burnt out shortly after.

Jika Jika fires at Pentridge Prison

Barry Robert Quinn, a convicted double murderer, died in hospital a matter of hours after being set alight inside the infamous Jika Jika maximum security unit at Pentridge.

Alex Tsakamakis had doused him in glue and flicked matches at him until he was a human fireball.

Roy "Red Hat' Pollitt escaped from a NSW jail in 1980 and headed to Melbourne. Was harboured for a number of years by infamous drug dealer Dennis Allen who hired him to kill confessed drug supplier Alan Williams. 

In a case of mistaken identity, Pollitt shot dead Williams' brother-in-law, Lindsay Simpson, at Lower Plenty. He was jailed for life in 1990.

Ray Watson now in Armed Robbery Squad is appointed head of taskforce into violent gang activity. There was zero tolerance with anyone seen committing a crime arrested.

Thomas Messinger is shot dead at 17 St Martins Crt Wantirna by an SOG team led by Neil O'Loughlin.

Sydney hitman Christopher Dale Flannery, also known as Mr Rentakill, leaves home at 8.15am with a false passport, a wig and binoculars, to keep an appointment with his boss, Sydney crime Czar George Freeman. He was never seen again.

Jamie Pettingill dies after a mysterious heroin overdose.

Miss X, an associate and alleged girlfriend of drug-dealer and murderer, Dennis Allen, is instructed by him to meet corrupt NSW detective Roger Rogerson at Sydney Airport. Allen gave her a black ravel back containing $100,000 and two tickets, to and from Sydney, under different names. She arrives in Sydney at 11.30 a.m. and finds Rogerson in the terminal close to the women's toilets. 'He sort of said: 'G'day, threw a bag at me and ripped the other one (containing the money) off me and ran away,' she later told a court in Sydney.

The bag Rogerson threw at her contained books, clothing and plastic bags of heroin weighing about a kilo. She flies back to Melbourne, where the heroin is collected from her, and the next morning, an envelope containing $7000 is placed in her letter box.

Rogerson's version was as follows: After being phone the previous day by Kath Flannery, Chris Flannery's wife, expressing concern over her 15 year-old son, depressed after his father's disappearance the previous week.. He takes the boy and his sister, together with his own two teenage daughters, on a boat trip on the Georges River, presumably at the same time the airport exchange is alleged to have taken place.

From: The Matriarch by Adrian Tame

Roger Rogerson opens two accounts in false names at the York Street, Sydney, branch of the National Australia Bank, and in three visits deposits $110,000 cash.

As a result of this chain of events Rogerson was initially convicted of conspiring with Dennis Allen to supply heroin between March and May 1985, but the conviction was overturned on appeal. Later Rogerson was charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice by allegedly misleading a police inquiry into the source of the $110,000 deposited False accounts. Rogerson was initially convicted, but after serving nine months of his eight-year sentence was released in 1990, pending appeal.

Rogerson pending release in 1990 did not please Miss X, who claimed at the time in an interview with Age reporter John Silvester, that her years as a protected witness had wrecked her life.

She claimed to be in fear of Rogerson who, she said, mouthed death threats at her in court during his committal hearing.

He lost the appeal and was returned to jail in 1992 with a reduced sentence. Rogerson was released in December 1995.

From: The Matriarch by Adrian Tame

Dennis Allen's home is raided by police who had been bugging the house he shared with Rhonda Meehan. He received 10 years for drug and weapons charges.

Melbourne hitman, Christopher Dale Flannery vanished in Sydney and was never seen again.

He had been linked with corrupt detective Roger Rogerson and the attempted murder of police officer Mick Drury

Greengrocer Giuseppe Sofra was shot 3 times in the legs.

At the age of 32, Peter Allen, a member of the Pettingill crime family, walked free from jail determined to make big money and live a lavish lifestyle.

Within days, he was driving a flashy sports car and living with a new girlfriend in Brunswick while dealing in high-quality heroin.

Condello was back in court 

Mario Condello was charged with conspiring to defraud an insurance company of $1.4 million.

The Supreme Court was told Condello's company bought 120,000 art prints for $2.50 each.

The judge said a sham sale was then arranged in Italy for $1.4 million.

He said the prints were insured with the intent of having them burned.

Condello claimed the prints had been destroyed by a fire in Naples.

The court was told a claim was lodged with Vanguard insurance weeks later, stating the prints had been deliberately set on fired by rioters.

Condello was jailed for four years with a minimum of two.

Russell Street Bombing

Policewoman Angela Taylor is killed when a massive car bomb explodes out the front of Russell St Police Headquarters

Detectives arrested Peter Allen. He'd been out only eight months.

In December 1988, he was sentenced to 13 years' jail for trafficking heroin and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

In dismissing his appeal against the original sentence of 10 years, the Full Supreme Court bench said he had shown no remorse. "Persons detected in the business of trafficking in heroin should expect little mercy from the courts."

Allen's possessions were also confiscated as profits of crime.

Ten Victoria Police officers police raided the Kallista home of Peter Michael Reed at 5.45am. in their hunt for those responsible for the bombing of the Russell Street police headquarters

It was alleged that upon attempting to enforce the arrest by forcing entry to the premises, Reed produced a .455 Smith and Wesson revolver and fired at police, seriously injuring Det Sgt Wylie.

Reed was then fired upon by Det Sgt Quinsee and arrested. Reed was charged with attempted murder, recklessly causing serious injury, using a firearm to prevent apprehension and possessing explosives in suspicious circumstances in addition to charges related to the bombing.

Reed later stated at his trial in unsworn evidence that "the police started the shooting and he only used his firearm in self defence".

Police arrested Stanley Brian Taylor during a 2am raid on his Birchip home.

Brothers Craig and Rodney Minogue were arrested in a Swan Hill motel at 5.15 am later that day.

Smith was charged with trafficking cocaine and cannabis valued at about $500,000. After one of his team, Peter James Cross, gave evidence against him, Smith was sentenced in the County Court to a maximum of 11 years' jail. Ashford was sentenced to 10 years with a minimum of eight, Schievella got eight years with a minimum of six.

Notorious bank robber Hugo Rich, aka Olaf Dietrich, flew from Bangkok, to Melbourne Airport.

He had imported at least seventy grams of heroin, which he concealed within condoms that he had swallowed.

Rich was arrested the next morning by the Australian Federal Police, who searched his flat and found one of the condoms in the kitchen, and some heroin in a plastic bag under a rug in another room.

He was taken into custody, and passed the remainder of the condoms during the night at the hospital in Pentridge Prison.

Dietrich alleged that the drugs had been planted by the police.

"Beanie Bandit" arrested

After carrying out stick-ups on banks and building societies, and netting over $50,000 in the process, Aubrey Broughill (aka the "Beanie Bandit" or the "Grandpa Harry Bandit") was arrested at age sixty-two.

Detectives found a sawn-off .38 revolver and a .22 calibre sawn-off semi-automatic rifle in his Traralgon flat.

Looking forward to returning to jail, Broughill pleaded guilty and was sentenced to sixteen years with a twelve year minimum.

Mark Militano shot dead outside his Kensington flat by Ray Watson.

Valastro suspected of machinegun hold-up

Notoriously violent armed robber Frank Valastro was a prime suspect for a job carried out by the "Machine Gun Gang" who fled with $50,000 after shooting and wounding two guards outside a Glen Waverley bank in May 1987.

Three bandits armed with M-16 and M2 machineguns jumped an Armagard van and went trigger happy.

During the five-minute robbery, the machine gunners let more than sixty rounds go - into the van, into the air and around the guards' feet.

Dropping empty gun clips the bandits casually clicked full ones into their weapons and continued to strafe the street.

The spray sent bystanders and those in surrounding shops diving for cover.

To coerce the guard inside the van to throw out the money, one bandit took his gun from the head of Brian Litchfield and placed it to his foot, then pulled the trigger.

Boxer, Barry Michael was bashed and bitten at a King Street nightclub by Alphonse Gangitano, a friend of another champion boxer Lester Ellis, and his men.

Convicted armed robber Frank Valastro shot dead by SOG. He was also a cocaine dealer. His death allegedly started a pact among criminals to kill two Police for every criminal gunned down.

Brian Murphy left the police force. He formed Industrial Mediation Services (Australia) with friend, notorious Painter and Docker and convicted murderer, Bill Longley, the following year.

Nazi adherent and underworld crime figure Phillip Grant Wilson, 34, is blasted twice at close range with a shotgun outside a South Yarra chiropractic clinic. Wilson was doing manual work at the clinic when he was slain about 6.40 pm. Unsolved.

Alphonse John Gangitano opened a casino but a police raid found Vince Mannella, John Higgs and criminals who work for the brothers Jason and Mark Moran.

Sept 1987

Trevor Pettingill pleaded guilty with mother Kath in for heroin possession. He was sentenced to seven months jail, Kath Pettingill received eight months. 

When Ion Ban was arrested by Russell Bassett, the senior detective confiscated a vinyl bag containing a large sum of money. The suspect claimed that it had contained $7000 but only $5000 was given as evidence.

Senior Detective Russell Bassett was shot at from just 6m during a $250,000 robbery on an ANZ bank in Footscray.

The State Bank branch in Oak Park is held up. The robbers leave empty handed but shots are fired. Forensic records showed the gun used was definitely the same one used in the Walsh Street police shootings. This robbery was linked to four unsolved recent hold-ups, police dubbing the perpetrators as the Flemington Crew. The gun was retrieved next to tram tracks in Parkville's Royal Park Golf Course in 1990.

Liborio Benvenuto, former 'Godfather of Melbourne' dies of natural causes. His son Frank  was murdered on May 8, 2000.

Security guard killed in Brunswick bank heist

Career criminal Raymond Denning once told an inquest that Jason Moran  was involved in an armed robbery at the Coles warehouse at Barkly Square Brunswick in which a guard,  was shot. The other two, he alleged, were the notorious Russell 'Mad Dog' Cox and  Santo Mercuri. Mercuri spent four years on the run until recaptured in 1993. Police believed Graeme Jensen was responsible for the robbery and he was shot while they pursued him on 11 October, the day before the Walsh Street shootings of Constables Tynan and Eyre.

Cox and Denning re-captured

Raymond Denning, who had escaped from Goulburn Jail a week earlier, was captured in Melbourne with another absconder Russell 'Mad Dog' Cox.

Denning got a phone number for Cox and the pair arranged to meet. They met at Doncaster Shopping Centre.

Armoured security guards became suspicious and alerted police who moved in and arrested the pair. They were charged with conspiracy to rob an armoured car, using a firearm to resist arrest and being equipped to steal.

Cox had been at liberty for 11 years when he was nabbed.

Lachlan McCulloch was present when a fellow policeman shot Canberra escaper Arthur Nelson in the back of the head at point blank range in St Kilda East. 

Giuseppe 'Joe' Arena was known as 'The friendly Godfather' and considered the most likely successor to close associate, Liborio Benvenuto, the undisputed Godfather of Melbourne. Arena was shot from behind taking out the rubbish at his Bayswater home.

Earlier in 1988, Arena fell out with a wealthy Italian gangster who had just bought a $1.2 million business in Melbourne.

Former boxer and current building industry identity, Dominic "Mick" Gatto was considered a prime suspect but later spoke out and denied the allegations vehemently.

McEvoy in Bentleigh bank hold-up

Peter McEvoy was facing armed robbery charges at the time of the Walsh Street shootings. The charges involved a hold-up at the National Bank in East Bentleigh - two months before Walsh Street.

He was sentenced to seven years jail with a minimum of five when his case finally came to court in 1992.

He had already spent 23 months in custody which was taken off his minimum term.

Hai Foong Yap shot dead by Police officer Steven Tynan in a Chapel St TAB hold-up.

Graeme Jensen shot dead by police who went to arrest him over an armed robbery which allegedly involved Jason Moran. Homicide squad detective John Hill later committed suicide after he had been charged over the Jensen shooting investigation.

Walsh Street murders of Constables Damian Eyre and Steven Tynan.

Home of Victor Peirce at 86 Chestnut St Richmond home is raided by police. His wife Wendy and nephew taken for questioning along with his friend Anthony Farrell. Later that afternoon police raided the Brunswick flat of Vicki Brooks (Kathy Pettingill's daughter). Victor Peirce apparently fled over a back fence. He was charged with the Walsh Street murders later that month after escaping a charge involving the July 11 Brunswick armed hold-up. Peter McKevoy was arrested but not charged until a later date.

Anthony Farrell charged over Walsh Street murders.

Jedd Houghton, an associate of Victor Peirce and Graeme Jensen and a suspect for the Walsh Street police murders, is shot dead by Police in a Bendigo caravan park.

The TyEyre Taskforce undertakes a series of dawn raids on drug dealers, armed robbers and other known criminals in some way connected with Walsh Street in  a search for Gary Abdallah. According to evidence obtained from Jason Ryan, Abdallah had supplied a get away car which the alleged killers had sought from his Carlton commission flat. The evidence was collected in a interview with Ryan conducted by Detective John Noonan.

Victor Peirce charged with Walsh Street murders.

After being arrested in April 1986, Peter Allen faced court and was sentenced to 13 years' jail for trafficking heroin and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

In dismissing his appeal against the original sentence of 10 years, the Full Supreme Court bench said he had shown no remorse. "Persons detected in the business of trafficking in heroin should expect little mercy from the courts."
Allen's possessions were also confiscated as profits of crime.

Federal Police Inspector Colin Winchester of Operation Seville is shot dead in his car in Canberra.

An inmate of Fremantle Prison notifies the AFP in a statement that the murder of Winchester was carried out by an Italian syndicate involving Alphonse Gangitano.

Boris Belbajev was arrested by a joint police task force for trafficking commercial amounts of heroin.

Belbajev's case would be in court for 10 years, cost $40m and see him acquitted.

Noonan told him that he was not wanted for the shooting, and Abdallah said he hadn't come in earlier “because people were telling me I was going to be knocked [killed]”. 

Dimitrios Nanos, a high profile heroin dealer, was bashed, tortured and killed. He had received a hot shot of heroin and was buried in his Hoppers Crossing front yard.

Gary Abdallah another suspect in Walsh Street  shot dead by police. Killed at his commission flat in Drummond St Carlton.

Bora Alintas Jailed

Bora "Adelaide Assassin" Alintas was sentenced to 11 years, four months' jail for heroin trafficking, armed robbery and assault.

He served only five years before he was released.

Alintas was a South Australian drug dealer and the one time light-middleweight boxing champion of his state.

The headless body of Jim Pinarkos was discovered at Rye beach. He died from an arrow through his heart. After the 1998 death of Alphonse Gangitano, one death notice to the crime lord read, "The impression you left on me will stay forever in my heart - Jim Pinarkos.

Victor John McKoy joined the drug squad.