Willie
Thompson
Thompson is believed to
have moved to Melbourne from interstate as a teenager in the early 1980s where
he went to school with drug lord Tony Mokbel.
He gravitated towards
Melbourne's professional fight scene and gained his karate black belt in 1984 at
the now-closed Zendokai gym in the Port Phillip Arcade in the city.
For several years he trained a crew of kickboxers
and worked for security firms.
By the late 1980s, Thompson had become a senior
bouncer on Melbourne's nightclub circuit.
Until about 1993 he was a doorman at
Chasers in South Yarra and at Bombay Rock in Brunswick.
Thompson then became involved in a
business supplying vending machines stocked with lollipops to nightclubs.
He appeared in a locally produced film
The Nightclubber, a sci-film shot at the Tunnel Nightclub and the Men's Gallery.
The film, which had been screened at the
Melbourne International Film Festival and once at RMIT, was entered in the
London and New York film festivals.
Nightclubber was a dark and violent depiction of
Melbourne's club scene that involved gun play and sex scenes.
The film was also screened at the George Cinemas in
Fitzroy St, St Kilda.
Thompson's martial arts skills were used to set
up the movie's fight scenes.
He also took a role in a 22-minute TV pilot
called Infin8, which involved time travel and people with special gifts.
A fit and strong man, Thompson
was said to be an intimidating person who led a highly charged lifestyle.
Connections with the fashion and movie worlds,
combined with his former work in the security scene, made him a recognised
figure around Melbourne's nightclubs, where drugs and standover tactics are
rife.
A nightclub source said Thompson was respected
for his martial arts skills, including karate, tae kwon do and jiu-jitsu.
He had been successful at competition level and
had recently taken to grappling, a rugged form of wrestling with fewer rules and
brutal contact.
"He wasn't a very big bloke but he was
certainly very competent," the source said.
"He was a fitness fanatic. He was a fairly
well-liked sort of person."
Thompson was not a well-known member of
Melbourne's underworld although he was suspected of dealing drugs in the Port
Melbourne area and of being a speed manufacturer.
He did not have a long criminal history and had
not been convicted of an offence for more than 10 years.
Police sources said was once associated with Mark Moran.
"Thompson certainly would have known Jason
Moran and Moran would have known him, but I don't think you can afford to
read very much into that" said Assistant
Commissioner (Crime) Simon Overland.
Thompson's car was firebombed
by standover man Nik "the Bulgarian" Radev
in early 2002.
Radev was involved
in amphetamine dealing and has been described as a notorious career criminal and
a difficult man with lots of enemies.
On July 17, 2002, amphetamine
dealer and the leader of a band of potential hitmen, Carl
Williams was bailed.
Five months later his associate, known as the
Runner, was also released from jail.
The Runner and Carl
Williams met daily, and Williams asked his new
right-hand man to find his sworn enemy, Jason
Moran.
The Runner began to track
Moran. With every report Williams would peel off between
$500 and $1000 for the information.
The Runner was not the only one spying on
Moran.
Williams also received information from millionaire drug
trafficker Tony Mokbel and
also Willie Thompson.
Jason
Moran would be dead within seven months.
Adam Shand, the excellent Bulletin
journalist, wrote that on April 15, 2003,
Radev
and his bodyguard were sitting
chatting Tony Mokbel and
other associates at the Brighton Baths Café.
Radev had allegedly
been a partner in an amphetamine business with some of the men present that day.
He had been complaining that the quality of the
speed had been no good and he wanted to meet the cook to sort the problem.
A meeting was being organised between Radev and
the cook, a well-known crim named George Peters.
As the group was sitting at the Brighton Baths
Café, someone had allegedly made a call to Willie Thompson, informing him of
Radev's meeting with Peters, the cook.
Thompson was in dispute with Radev
over $400,000.
The witness said Thompson seemed to know that Radev
was in mortal danger.
Radev had told
people that Thompson had earlier gone to Perth to hire someone to kill him.
Others said he had gone to Perth to play golf.
Some of the group then
accompanied
Radev to
the Preston area for the supposed meeting.
Radev and a companion were travelling in
his black late-model Mercedes coupe in company with a third man, who was driving behind them in a silver
Toyota.
At about 4.35pm the Mercedes parked near
neighbourhood shops at the side of Queen St and about
25m from the intersection of Reynard St.
The Toyota pulled up next to it.
The three men then got out and began talking by
the roadside.
A car drew up alongside Radev,
and a man allegedly jumped out and poured rounds from a revolver and a pistol
into Radev's back and head.
Radev's dead body was found in the street beside his
car.
Police said they had two witnesses
who were on the scene and that they had confessed to having a hand in the
conspiracy to kill Radev.
One helped lure the gangster to the killing
ground, the other even drove the getaway car.
Both nominated the late Andrew
''Benji'' Veniamin as the shooter, but who ordered the killings is a matter
of great dispute.
The Herald Sun wrote that
it understood that criminal intelligence, passed on to police, linked
Thompson to Radev's
murder.
The paper later reported
that he despised Radev.
