February 23, 2025 • 53 mins
The Melbourne gangland war was a brutal chapter in Australia’s criminal history, and the Kane brothers—Brian and Leslie—were right at its core. Known for their violent reputations and deep ties to organised crime, the Kane brothers became infamous figures in Melbourne’s underworld. Their brutal feuds, particularly with the Moran family and other crime syndicates, escalated into bloody street wars, leading to assassinations, betrayals, and an era of chaos that gripped the city.
Join Holly & Matthew as they explore the dark world of the Kane brothers and their role in Melbourne’s gangland war.
Background episodes (chronological order):
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weird-crap-in-australia--2968350/support.
Join Holly & Matthew as they explore the dark world of the Kane brothers and their role in Melbourne’s gangland war.
Background episodes (chronological order):
- 137 & 138 - Squizzy Taylor and the Fitzroy Vendetta
- 309-312 - L'Onorata Societa, and the Victoria Market Murders
- 76 & 77 - The Walsh St Shooting
- 118 - The Death of the Vampire Gigolo
- 327 & 328 - Chopper Read
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weird-crap-in-australia--2968350/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A strange, spiraling white light was spotted in the early
morning sky over Sydney, with even skeptical witnesses wondering if
it was a UFO. They were last seen on the
beach with a tall man and that's the best description
police have ever had of it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
More than seventeen years after Harold Holt disappeared into raging
surf at Chevy a Beach, his widow has finally revealed
his last romantic words.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Docky, terrifying, mesmerizing. That's the way a number of Australians
have described the alleged encounter with the Yowi. It's time
for the Weird Crap in Australia podcast. Welcome to the
(00:45):
Weak Crap in Australia Podcast. I'm your host Matthew Sol
Joining me, of course, is the Researcher extraordinaire and the
Queenbean Chunk himself being joker. If you hear him being
noisy in the background, he's just asking for a pat
in his less than polite way. And let's not be
are the lead introducing, of course, Holly the Researcher extraordinaire.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Hello, Matthew, Hello Joker.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Well today we're going to be jumping into some subject
matter that we've been talking about for quite some time.
We haven't really taken a crack at it. In the
early two thousands a series came out called Underbelly and
it was met with the same sort of local enthusiasm
that Australians have for most prime drama.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Which is Water Rats, Blue Heelers, Black Snow. How many
more crime dramas can I think of.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
When I was growing up And this dates me a
little bit here, but when I was growing up, Holly,
this was what was in our home when the television
was on. Okay, Blue Heelers, like you mentioned water Rats, Stingers,
which was about undercover cops Police Rescue, which was on ABC.
The Bill, which is the British cops shows. Is the
(01:59):
Bill still running? I don't think it is.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Not, as far as I know, but I'll check that way.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
No, but it had such a it had this enormous
run on television. So Australians have always had this, you know,
penchant for cop dramas and cop TV and Black Snow
like you just brought up there, Holly. As a fantastic example.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
The Bill, Sorry breckon. The Bill went from nineteen eighty
four until twenty ten, twenty six seasons.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
That's a run.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
That's fuck, that's a long time.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
They had Australian coppers there too, and in that show.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
It wouldn't surprise me. A lot of Australian actors go
over there, so they'd have to put some Australian cops
in there eventually.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, well we've talked about that before. How the British
will We'll have to cover it maybe one day. But
the British love Australian or they used to love Australian
soap operas, and so every now and again you'd have
an Australian soapiactor end up on the bill and they'd
be like, you know, oh, you know, you come from
Australia and they do this whole storyline with it. Anyway,
I'm completely getting off topic here. So Australia really does
(02:59):
love it's crime dramas, and so an idea was sort
of conceived of tackling the Melbourne Gangland Wars essentially between
let's call it ninety ninety up to about two thousand
and five.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
It's officially ninety five to five.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
I'm pretty good. I was pretty damn close. And that
series of course was called Underbelly. Now you have to
keep in mind we're going to be talking about a
group of individuals who are constantly lying with police who
are corrupt, and a rather dodgy media and a judiciary
which also seemed to have corrupt elements. I don't know
(03:39):
if we're going to touch on Miss X.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
We will eventually. I want to set the wide scene
before we get into that.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Sounded dirty dinner we're going to touch Miss X. No, well,
a lot of people did touch Miss X, but we'll
get into that later on. So everyone in this is unreliable.
So if you have watched the under Belly series, it's
even worse now for you because you have to remember
that there are a lot of elements of drama that
(04:09):
applied over the top of any sort of true or
based on a true story television show or film. One
of the most egregious examples of this, in my opinion,
in the entirety of cinematic history, is probably the film
that started the whole genre, Texas Chainsaw. Texas Chainsaw one
(04:29):
hundred percent right, Holly. The reason for that is that
the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a very very loosely inspired
by the Killings of ed Gean, as was the film Psycho,
as was the film Silence of the Lambs.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
There's a wide spectrum of shit between those three, so
it's yeah, I can see what you mean by a dramatization.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And it's interesting. I've actually got a graphic novel in
our graphic a collection called what did Eddie? What did
Eddie Gean Done? Yeah, something like that, Yeah, something along those.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Something really grammatically offensive.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Look what Eddie? Yeah, look what Eddie Gan did or done?
Something along those lines. Fantastic book. Highly recommend that graphic novel.
Amazing art and it has one of the most prolific
true crime authors who actually helped co wrote the script.
And I believe they're working on another one as well.
Now that is the problem with adaptations is when you
(05:30):
look at the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it's a family of hillbillies.
The dude wears a costume, very elaborate. This is the movie, Yeah,
this is the film. The only thing that they sort
of borrowed from Eddie Gan because Eddie Gan was Wisconsin,
not Texas. They basically borrowed the accusations of Gan being
a transvestite, which I don't which in my opinion was
(05:54):
a very misunderstanding of Eddie Dean's pathology back in the day.
And the other aspect is the turning of human remains
into lampshades and things like that, which Eddie did. Whether
or not Eddie Gan cannibalized his victims, I don't think
he did, because he was digging people up. He was
(06:18):
more interested in He was more interested in being inside
a woman in a.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Very rather than a woman being inside him.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Well his mother. No, Actually, we're not going to go
down this track because I'm going to do a full
episode on Edward Gan, which is not what we're trying
to do. The point I was trying to get to
is that adaptations of true crime events exaggerated and they're dramatized.
So if you watched the first season of Underbelly, which
dealt with people like Carl Williams and his gang, I
(06:52):
need you to forget about all of it.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Thankfully Holly did not watch them, so Holly doesn't need
to forget about them.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yep, you just need to put it all out of
your mind because a lot of that it's exaggeration, it's
over the top. They consolidate characters.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, you take a bunch of people who survive by
laying who then survive by selling their story, or it's
someone who's investigating their stories and they're always going to
talk themselves up, and then you add film dramatization over
the top of it. Barely any of it.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Is real, exactly, Holly. You surmise that very very well
instead of my rambling about pop culture, which everyone knows
I do. So you know you're obviously tuned in for
three hundred and fifty odd episodes. I don't need to
worry about too much. So if you have watched under Belly,
just put it out of your head, forget about it.
Go revisit it after we've done a couple of these episodes,
(07:44):
and you might find that you're able to sort of
get something more out of it, or you'd be able
to define what is probably true and what isn't. I
would wager, Holly that even though you are the research
or extraordinaire, I don't even think you've probably got Wethink
one hundred percent accurate.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Oh, no doubt, because there was a code of silence
at that point in time. So there are people who
saw it who gave very little away, and it's all
just what's been put together in the in the aftermath.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
One of the players during, or one of, in my opinion,
one of the minor minor players in the Gangland Wars
was Chopper eight.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
We did two parts on one of the most notorious
liars that has ever existed in criminal history. He was
a part of the Gailan Force.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
He will be mentioned in this episode.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And when we're talking about Carl Williams,
he would never get his story straight and at the
end of the day, I don't know if half of
his accounts were accurate, and his portrayal on television, I
don't necessarily believe that was particularly accurate either. We're going
(08:50):
to get into all of that as we start to
dive into this. So that was my preamble. Yes, we
are now talking about the Melbourne Gangland War. This is
part one the Kine family, which has a biblical connotation there, doesn't.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
It, Holly, It's the wrong spelling, but yes.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
So I think that's probably a great place to leave
my massive disclaimer and jump into today's episode Take it Away.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
The Melbourne ganglen Wars refer to a series of violent
murders that took place between the mid nineteen nineties and
early two thousands, primarily involving members of Melbourne's criminal underworld.
The conflict arose from power struggles over the city's lucrative
drug trade, particularly between the Moran family and Carl Williams,
as well as other rival factions. The killings were sensationalized
by the media and later dramatized in the TV series Underbelly,
(09:40):
which ran from twenty and eight to twenty thirteen. And
we mentioned it in Chopper Reid's episodes.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yes, so Chopper Reid was adapted into an Underbelly series.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
He got a mini series.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, it was like three episodes. I think. Yeah. There
was a lot of controversy at the time because the
actor was quite well in doubt and they had a
lot of penis shots, which apparently upset people, possibly chop
a rig I think it's no. I think he was
dead by that stage. There is a terrible double standard
in media where you can show off a completely naked
(10:14):
woman in I mean to this point in the in
this day, sometimes pretty egregiously, but if you show a
penis or an erect penis.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
A flaccid penis is kind of on the nose. But
if you two an erect penis, Oh my god, it
is porn.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Erect penises are completely banned on Australian television.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
You will most movies.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now, obviously there's the implication of sexual
arousal on a film set, which is something you don't want.
You know, that moves into the realm of pornography. But
I do want to take your shot at our standards.
You know, the male body is fine, the female body
is fine. We can be a bit more adult about it.
(10:56):
So shop a read. That particular depiction of him caused
a bit of controversy amongst the media sensors. Then there
was the adaption of another story that we talked about,
which was the politician who disappeared in Golden when he
took on the Donald McKay. Yeah, Donald McKay, when he
(11:16):
took on the marijuana bandits. I think that was I
think well bandits.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
The Honorable Society is what they were called.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah, I just like the term bandits. The other adaptations
that they've done. The first series, of course, is what
we're going to be covering today, which is, well, this
is going to be a series. Some of the stuff
that we're going to be talking about was covered in
the first series of Underbelly, and then the third season
I believe was the sort of prequel, so that was
(11:47):
about the workers and Dockers.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Once again, I haven't seen any of it, so I
have no idea what connections are makesed Underbelly.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
The workers and Dockers eventually morph into the Cane crime family.
They start as union boys and they remain union boys.
And when I say union, I mean union is in
criminal organization or cronyism.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I'm not sure whether you're a few you, but I
feel like I should no go for it.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Please.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
There were only three boys, two of them were Dockers,
and they did not run the Painters and Dockers union.
They no, it was only two of them. Do you
know how big that union was?
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Well, I mean that was one of the first crime
unions in in Melbourne, and I mean Melbourne was such
a hotbed for it. Because again, if you see this
is we've done, Like lots of listeners have asked us,
you know, when are you going to get to the
gang land wars like this is a huge part of
austraying crime history and you've never covered it. The reason
for that is because we wanted to establish context.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
It's a fucking knot and I need to show you
the threads before I show you the not as m.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
So it's like, why was Melbourne so ripe with gangs? Well,
because the mafia established them themselves, and if you listen
to our Alfia episodes you will see how that started.
And because they effectively became, you know, the the produce union,
you know, almost like the supermarket union. Not to be
(13:12):
confused with modern unions. I don't want to be fucking sued.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
They did actually supply the supermarket chains.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yes, yeah, yeah, And because that is essentially how organized
labor starts in Melbourne, you then see other crime elements
also establish unions. And then even to this day, we're
seeing crackdowns on the CMFAU and we've also seen that
there are gang elements potentially attached to the CFMU. So
(13:42):
Melbourne has always been rife with this. And the reason
that we know this and we know that the origins
of this, we know this because we covered the mafia,
and we've covered Chopper Read and we've covered all of
these different people, so that when we finally get to
gangland wars, we can now refer you back, or if
if you've been with us since day one and hey,
(14:03):
happy seven year anniversary, you would now be primed for this. So, yeah,
what's a lot of warnings in this episode.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
What I'm going to do in order to help people
who are new into this and just decided to randomly
listen to this one. In the show notes, I will
go through our back catalog and I will write out
the order in which to listen to the episodes to
give you the context of where we're going.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yep. So there's a lot of history that we're going
to gloss over. And the reason that we're going to
do that is because we're very coveted. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
The gangland violence stemmed from disputes between the Moran family,
one of the city's most prominent crime syndicates, and a
direct competitor to the Honorary Society that we talked about
in episodes three hundred and ten to three hundred and fourteen.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
You want me to butcher their actual name, go for it,
the Nangareta, the Jungetta, nandra Getta. Yeah, I do not
have the Italian accent.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Well, there will be something.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
You're really bad for our Italians because they get really
upset about mispronunciation, Maria. I don't know if you've seen.
There's like a whole series of There are two things
that really upset Italians on social media. Don't break the
spaghetti to and be very careful with pronouncing words correctly,
which look to be fair. Our audience is pretty good.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
At we can't even pronounce Australian and we're Australian. Your
Italian's got no hope.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Australia Australia, Australia, Australia, Australia.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, well, there will be some crossover with this series.
As Lorna Rata Society's strong days were before nineteen eighty,
It's possible the Morans only grew in prominence because the
power of the mafia started to wane.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
I mean, you could make the argument that the reason
that their power started to wane is because they became
legitimate the mafia. Yes, yeah, And I mean, I don't.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Know, when you start playing by the rules, it gets
harder to break them.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I think there is a point where a lot of
criminal organizations eventually evolve in to a mainstream organization. And
I mean so much of the foundations of corporate Australia
corporate America was built on the back of crime.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Well, a rebellion is technically a criminal act.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
So look, the police force is built on a gang.
You know. They employ the worst of the worst Irish
thugs to be cops, you know, in the early days,
which inspires people like Ned Kelly. The mafia moves into
Australia and basically takes control of the farms because Italians
(16:35):
immigrate here and start building their farms, and they eventually
have to move into a proper distribution company because it
is it's funny, it's more difficult to operate as a
mafia than it is to operate as a tax dodging company,
which is really really funny.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
It's not tax dodging, Matthew, it's tax minimization.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
You know. And it's like, you look at those different
aspects of Australian society and I would argue that America
is even fucking worse. You know, the mafia starts the
lottery in America and eventually the government just takes it over,
but they keep all of the old mafia rules. So
there is a lot of crime that eventually becomes legitimate business.
(17:22):
So if you ever ask yourself, why does big business
seem so fucking corrupt. It's because the origins of big
business generally either fall in the I accidentally created saying
I don't know what it would become, I e. YouTube,
or we were criminals but we had to legitimize ourselves
to make even more money.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
The Moran family was led by Lewis Moran, who was
born in nineteen forty one. The family had strong ties
to Melbourne's amphetamine market, which was beginning to balloon in
the mid nineteen nineties. His step son Mark Moran and
biological son Jason Moran were both heavily involved in drug
trafficking learning the family business as it were, but this
episode isn't directly focusing on them. This episode focuses on
(18:07):
their extended family, the Canes, and the brothers Leslie Brian
and to a lesser extent, Raymond.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Brian Kane, best known of the three brothers, One said
that their father refused to buy school books for him. Instead,
he told him to go and steal some then write
his name in them. I've just purchased school books because
I've started this counselor's course. Everyone, please keep your fingers
crossed that I actually fucking pass it and keep up
with it. As someone who gets distracted very easily, I
need all that positive vibes come in my way. One
(18:36):
hundred and thirty dollars for one of them. They're very expensive.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Yeah, it's a raw.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
When you were going to school, and sorry, this is
a bit of a diversion. When you were going to school,
were you provided textbooks by the library or did you
have to purchase textbooks?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
You could try and get the laveryone's, but they only
had two for a class.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Of eighty really, so you had to purchase. So you
were purchase dollars a semester. Wow, yeah, minimum, and that
was that was when you were doing university in Maduro, right.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
And also in Canberra. It was four and a half
years of that.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, so they slapped you with this this very expensive degree.
And then on top of that, you know, you have
to spend five hundred dollars on books a semester.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yeah, semester and I had winter semester some of those times,
so it was three times a year.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
The struggle, man, the struggle must be real. What about
when you're in high school?
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Were you given textbooks or the only textbook we were
overhanded was a math textbook, and we were threatened that
if it came back in any kind of disarray that
the teacher would be very upset considering how strict that
teacher was. None of the books ever came back around.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I'll have to ask my sister, who's a teacher. But
it's infinitely fascinating to me that going to a very
small country high school with I think we were lucky
to have six hundred students, we had biology textbooks in
the life for us, we had our math books. As
a class. We were led to the library. We were
not the library the library to pick up our textbooks,
(20:09):
and we had we never were worried about not having textbooks.
Yet in Sydney, in a larger high school, you had
none of those resources. And that still blows my mind.
I always thought you guys had far more opportunities than us.
But I think that the opportunity for city learning versus
country learning is that if you do want to explore
(20:29):
things like the arts, for example, which was something that
I was heavily invested in when I was a teenager,
and I think if things had gone differently, I would
have had more access to things like that. Outside of that,
like your education was terrible comparatively to mom, which has
nothing to do with the episode, And I'm very sorry,
and I'm going to keep my mouth shut for a
few paragraphs. Anyway, back to the fucking quote that I
(20:50):
was Brian would end up a golden gloves boxer and
a ruthless standover man collecting debts for SP bookies. SP bookies.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I have no idea what that stands for. It was
in a photograph of a news article, so I couldn't.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Really look it up. If anyone knows what an SP
book he is, I would love to hear. But he
was not the most violent of the three brothers. That
was Les Kane, even by underworld standards, regarded as a
psyncher path with when he lost his temper quote from
The Brutal Lives of King Brothers Andrew Ruhlamer Butler January twentieth,
twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Herald son Leslie Herbert Kane was born January first, nineteen
forty five and left school at fourteen when he joined
the Painters and Dockers Union.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
And also Holly just very quickly another industry in Australia
that started as a criminal enterprise that became a quote
unquote legitimate the tab bookies.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
I didn't put this in the script, but Leslie's job
while he was with the Painters and Doctors, his first
job was fudging the books and the pace slips so
that the money that the dockers were being paid look legitimate.
The Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union the FSPDU or
We're just going to call on the Painters and Dockers
(22:05):
was an Australian trade union from nineteen hundred to nineteen
ninety three. It represented shipbuilding laborers who worked on task slate, painting, cleaning,
boiler maintenance and docking ships.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
The Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union existed in Victoria
from about nineteen hundred until its demise in nineteen ninety three.
From the nineteen fifties until the late nineteen seventies, many
of Melbourne's organized crime figures were allegedly members or connected
in some way to the Painters and Dockers. There were
many colorful characters among them, some with a lot more
(22:36):
desire for fame and fortune than others. Quote from the
Painters and Dockers of Victoria, Derek Phillipson Lyons would Investigations
and Forensics, twenty fourth of July twenty eighteen. Now you
may be wondering, of course, why there's so many unions
in Australia that are corrupt. Unfortunately, it is the nature
of any organization, the reason that the unions probably suffer
(23:00):
a little bit more from corruption than other organizations. So honestly,
when you're talking about police, church, union, schools, government, everyone
seems corrupt these fucking days. Especially after doing this episode,
this podcast for seven years, made me incredibly jaded. The
union movement started as an illegal action in this country,
(23:22):
and so they were always criminals until like I mentioned earlier,
that the criminals until you build a structure around them,
and then they become at least an industry, whether it's
regulated correctly or not.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Well, remember back to the Melbourne clubs when we were
talking between file Lap and Big full Out. The bookies
became legitimate between those two horses.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Yeah, yeah, exactly right, Holly. So the union movement as
well started as criminal movement under the conditions of in
my opinion, tyrannical taxi. Back in the day, we talked
about that as well. If you want more info on that,
check out our episode on the Eureka Stockade. The Eureka Stockade,
(24:09):
I was saying. It was either one of the rebellions
or the stockade, but the stockade is probably the better
place to see. It was the stockade.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Leslie, along with his brothers, was one of those colorful characters.
Leslie was married twice, first to Trisha, with whom he
had a son and two daughters, Suzanne and Trisha. Trisha
later married Jason Moran, old Sad, son of Lewis Moran.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Calling your daughter, Trisha, you're Trisha and she is Tricia.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Her name was probably Patricia and they just dropped the
putt at the start.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
No offense to anyone out there who has a you know,
they're the fourth or the fifth, or the sixth or whatever.
I understand family tradition is very important to some people.
I completely understand that, but god damn, you're really setting
your kit up to fucking fail, aren't you.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
At the very least, it gives you something them, something
that they have to live up to, which is always
a bad idea.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yeah, like a name for a person is like the
first I have a very very I don't know me
is this unique? I'd love to hear from all of you.
Don't don't forget to let us know, you know all
the social medias, et cetera. I think that the first
gift you can give your child is a good name,
if that makes sense, not a unique name, A good name,
(25:23):
a strong name. You know something that they You have
no idea how much a name helps people.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Leslie's second wife was Judy, a woman who was not
part of the darker world of her husband, but knew
the rules around the life her husband led and some
of the dangers that came along with it.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Mister Leslie. Herbert Kane, who shot a policeman in a
hotel at Northcote, the Melbourne suburb or North Northcote, Yeah,
Melbourne suburb, was placed on a good behavior bond on Friday,
three years after the shooting. You can get on a
good behavior bond after shoot.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
A cop in the seventies you could.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Mister Kane, twenty nine of Burwood, had played a guilt
in the country court to maliciously wounding the policeman at
Northcote on January seventeenth, nineteen seventy one. Senior Constable RoAF
was shot just above the ankle after trying to eject
mister Kane from a hotel. The court was told quote
from the Camera Times, Monday, fourth of March nineteen seventy four,
page six, man gets bond for shooting policemen. Important to
(26:20):
remember as well at this point in time Melbourne. Well,
actually no, I would say that nearly every state in
Australia is probably incredibly corrupt at this point. So you
may be sitting there scratching your head and go, well,
fuck man. I attended a free Gaza rally the other
(26:42):
week and I got pepper sprayed because I moved too
close to a police officer. Standards today in the standards
back then were very, very different, and mostly due to
corruption within law enforcement, industry and the judiciary.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
On April twenty first, nineteen seventy six, a handful of
men in gray dust coats stepped into the lift of
fifty five Queen Street, heading for the second floor. Another
dressed as a fridge repairman that had been called in
by the staff, walked through the front door, made his
way upstairs and quietly unlocked the fire escape. Moments later,
six mass men stormed into the Victorian Club armed with
(27:19):
machine guns, shotguns and pistols. Inside around forty book makers
were settling bets from three race meets over Easter, the
first chance they had to balance their accounts.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
The bandits took one hundred and eighteen bookmakers' bags, more
than half of which held more than the maximum insurance
level of twenty thousand and ninety thousand, from ACBC bank box.
One bag contained seventy eight thousand dollars. The money was
in used notes from racecourses. Quote from the Canberra Times, Thursday,
(27:49):
twenty second of April nineteen seventy six, page one. One
point three million dollar robbery in Melbourne.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Police later declared that the raid was very well planned,
as just moments before the whole thing hopped off, two
point two four million dollars had just been delivered to
the room, including that CBC box and its contents.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Police believe gunman who nodded at least one point three
million dollars in a raid on the Victorian Club yesterday
had been watching the building for more than a week.
Senior detectives believe the bands may have set up cameras
on the vacant third floor of an office block opposite
to film cash deliveries. The Scottish Amicable Life Association building
has clear views of the bookmakers settling room on the
(28:29):
second floor of the club in Queen Street. Quote from
The Age April twenty second, nineteen seventy six. The one
point three million bookie raid we also mentioned as well.
Very powerful weaponry was used during that attack. We don't
have those sort of guns in Australia anymore.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
The bandits burst into the settling room and five of
them disarmed two main Nicholas guards Maine. Nicholas was a
company similar to Armorguard. One of the disarmed guards tried
to tackle a gunman. Oh why because it was a
guard and that's his job.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
No. No.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
The bandit knocked the guard to the floor with the
machine gun and then stuck the muzzle to the guard's
eye and said, if.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
You want to do something like that, you get your
head blown off.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
The sixth bandit ran behind the bar of the crowded lounge.
He held five staff, including three women, at machine gun point.
He was then joined by another bandit. Twenty five bookies
were shepherded from the room, forced into the one with
the members, and forced to lay down.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
The bandit's todd staff, bookmakers and members. If anyone tries
in a fear that women will be the first to go.
Do you lift your heads will blow them off? Quote
from The Age, April twenty second, nineteen seventy six, the
one point three million bookie raid.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
I have the feeling that there's a lot more swearing
in those quotes than what was reported.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
I'm just shocked that the ard decided that his mediocre
pay was worth trying to stop to be a bunch
of people with machine guns. What the fuck was he thinking?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
To be legit, he was delivering money to a knock white,
legitimate source, so he was probably getting us the money
on the side, so therefore it probably would have actually
been worth it.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
So do you think that so? Funnily enough to go
back to pop culture as I often do. This is
a joker situation, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah? This is the go in the purple suits, just
broken into the place.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Yeah. This is one criminal organization robbing another criminal organization.
Very interesting, So you think that So your theory is
that it's less likely that they were legitimate guards and
more likely enforces for a criminal organization, So they would
you know, they would act accordingly?
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Why not both?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yeah? Yeah, no, that's very interesting, Holly.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I like that theory, two of the bandits stood guard.
One ran through the room, pulling phones from the wall.
He even smashed into a small on premises barbershop in
order to pull the connection in there. He then joined
the other three in settling the room.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
One of the bandits ordered to security guards open the
doors of a black metal mesh clearing room containing the money.
The doors had not been locked. The guards and bank
officials were then heard into the lounge and also ordered
to the floor. Inside the room sat eight green metal
boxes at about two feet long and eight inches wide
in a smaller brown wooden box. All were padlocked. One bandit,
(31:11):
using heavy bolt cutters, forced open each box. As each
box was opened, it was emptied into black calico bags.
From the age April to twenty second, nineteen seventy six
to one point three million bookie raid.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
The thieves moved with precision, reading the room as paniced
bookies looked on. They spent just eleven minutes inside before
vanishing into the streets of Melbourne. Officially, the hall was
valued at one point four million dollars or nine million
in twenty twenty two, but whispers put the real fear
closer to three million. Or twenty one point one million
in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Yeah, because they were cooking the books.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yeah, and there was only so much insurance would give them. Yeah,
there's no point claiming more if that's all that it'd get.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Assistant Crime Commissioner Graham Davidson told a news conference that
he had no idea how the men made their get
away from the Victorian Club in the City Center, but
was following up a report that some men were seen
entering a white panel van outside the building at the
time of the robbery. Quote from The Camera Times, Thursday,
twenty second of April nineteen seventy six, page one, one
point three million dollar robbery in Melbourne.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
The men fled down the fire escape through the door
they'd entered by, then hopped in a vehicle and high
tailed it out of there. It took a few minutes
for members of the club to report the theft. Frank
Murray ran to the first flaw to raise the alarm
and then the police were called.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Senior police described the raid as the best organized and
executed in Australian history. They have not ruled out the
possibility that one or more of the bandits may have
been members of the club, or at least have been
frequent visitors. They said the gang's expertise and precision timing
indicated a thorough knowledge of the building. The Chief of
the Victorian Chief Superintendent Graham Davidson, said, there's no doubt
(32:50):
about it. The place has been thoroughly cased. These men
were pretty slick professionals. For given time, we'll crack it.
Quote from Chief Superintendent Davidson said, quote from The Camera Times, Thursday,
twenty second of April nineteen seventy six Paint one one
point three million dollar robbery in Melbourne. I would argue
that they probably had police assistance.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Just enough of a delayed tactic.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
I mean, look to this day and this isn't a
this isn't a major spoiler. To this day. There are
members of the Victorian Police Force who are still in
active duty who were absolutely working with gangs during the
gang Land Wars. Some have argued that they were quote
unquote working their case or that they were quote unquote undercover.
(33:35):
You know, there was assistance by police. You know, you
basically had three criminal organizations. There was a massive criminal
element inside the Victorian Police. Don't forget as well. Victorian
police also helped the Catholic Church cover up all the
child sexual abuse. We covered that when we covered historic
child abuse in Australia. There were also elements of the
(33:57):
Victorian Police that were working with CLU with or were
actually members of various gangs in Melbourne at the time.
To this day, Victoria has never had a Royal commission.
After the finale of the gang Land Wars, which has
never really would you describe it as finishing wholly or
(34:19):
sort of. There are still connections to this day where
minor crime like that will never ever see the scale
of that violence again. But I feel that there are
still criminal elements that leaked out of the gang Land
Wars that are still pretty prominent in Melbourne today.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Yeah, but the same could be said of the mafia.
Like the elements are still there, the apparatus are still there.
It's just whether or not someone's going to rise to
power and take control again.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
There's just not that public exhibition of power that used
to exist.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
It's also a lot harder for them to hide it
from the general public nowadays.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
I mean that's always going to be the thing. You know,
modern technology has completely changed the way the criminals operate.
It's completely changed the way that we look at crime,
and it look, honestly, you want to be a career criminal,
good luck to you. It's harder than it's ever been before.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
You want to be a career criminal, go join the
people on Capitol Hill.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Yeah, and quick, very very quick diversion here. A lot
of crime now is digital. You know. It's about scams,
fraud siphoning money from different companies, ciphering money from bank accounts,
all that sort of stuff. There is a push at
the moment to increase quantum computing, and some interesting things
just happened recently which may have now pushed quantum computing
(35:35):
a lot further than we thought it would be at
this point. Once we move into the era of quantum computing,
encryption which is what we use now to protect your data,
to protect your passwords, all that sort of stuff. If
we move to a quantum internet, we don't have to
encrypt anything anymore. You won't be able to hack a
(35:55):
quantum internet and so or at least theoretically.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
You won't be able to until you ken Yeah, except.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Well, yeah, exactly right, which would make it even harder
for criminal organizations. So, yeah, if you're in the business
of crime. Just become a politician. You're going to make
more money. It's going to be easier to commit crime.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
The team that hit the Victoria Club was supposedly led
by Ray Bennett, who was one of many small gang
leaders in Melbourne. While it will possibly never be known
who exactly took down the Victorian Club and walked away
rich as hell, there are always theories and accusations.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
One of the proceeds from Melbourne's Great Bookie robbery had
been used to revive a failing Chop, suey and dim
sim business. It was alleged in the City Court today
the owner of the business, mister Norman lung Lee twenty eight,
is alleged to have been one of the five or
six men who took part in the robbery at the
Victorian Club, Melbourne on April twenty first last year. Quote
(36:47):
from The Camera Times, Friday, twenty fifth of March nineteen
seventy seven, page nine. Allegation of use of stolen money.
By the way, if a gang owns a business or
a mafia owns a business, they always run at a loss.
There's no such thing as a failing business when you're
using it to launder money.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
During this case, the exact amount alleged to have been
stolen in the Bookie heist was released to the public
one million, three hundred and eighty seven, five hundred and
forty dollars. Lee was supposedly the recipient of a quarter
of a million of that money. It was later revealed
that the six men who robbed the club were Ian Carroll,
Lawrence Pendergas, Norman Lee, and the Kine brothers, Les and Brian.
(37:27):
But some sources will actually differ on that, so it's
never going to be truly settled.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
That's a name you don't see too often anymore, as
there Pendegases, Prendigast. Yeah, Prendigas Pendergast. I went to school
with a couple of Pendergases. But yeah, you don't hear
that name often anymore.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
A lot of the names that are associated with his
crime families have changed.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Over the years, probably to disassociate.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
For exactly that reason. Yes, Brian Kin was in a
pickle despite helping to pull off one of the biggest
heists of the century. Despite helping to pull off one
of the biggest heists of the century, he and his
crew had received no money for their part and with
so much money disappearing off the bookie's deaths, he felt
they were actually entitled to some of it. A few
(38:12):
weeks after the heist, Cain rain Bennett demanding a share
of the robbery's profits. That was unknown if he offered
black mail about turning Bennett in or avoiding a beating
in exchange for the money. Brian was a known standover man,
very violent, and his threats were not to be taken lightly.
Bennett refused to play Caine more and moved into damage
control mode.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Brian Kin made a comfortable living by frightening fellow criminals
and was well qualified to demand a share of the
book he robbery funds. It was not accustomed to taking
no for an answer, but Bennett wasn't easily frightened. He
also had a reputation, like the Caines, was well connected
in the painters and Dockers Union. He was not going
to plan one of Australia's biggest crimes to give up
(38:53):
the profit to a family of sharks. Quote from Killing
Cain by John Silvester and Andrew Rawle, October twenty third,
two thousand and nine, City Morning Herald.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Over the next few months, tension between Brian Kin and
Ray Bennett worsened until Brian Kan was cornered in a
pub and brutally beaten as a warning not to ask
for more than his share. Furious, Why do criminals do this?
Because they're dumb?
Speaker 1 (39:18):
There are six people you got away with the crime.
Everyone took the same amount of risk, Everyone gets the
same fucking share. And when you turn around and you
start big mouthing, which is always what happens within these groups.
And look, why am I applying professional standards to criminals? Well,
there are professional criminal organizations who do operate in a
(39:40):
professional capacity much better than this. But this is what
happens when you have a bunch of thug psychopaths, sociopaths,
or group up together. There's always some asshole who turns
around and says, I deserve a bigger share. The fact
is that they all took the same amount of risks,
all did the same amount of work. So what happens
is this person then basically puts their hand up and
says I can't go along with the program. I want
(40:02):
more than I do, and that basically signals to the
rest of the group, well, we can now get rid
of this person. Should we need to, or we can
use them as a scapegoat, or we can just shoot
them during our next robbery, or we can steal their
share and shoot them as well, and anyone who happens
to be in their vicinity. It happens every time. It
is fucking textbook, and I don't understand. Well, I do
(40:23):
understand it. You put a bunch of social mail contents together.
This is generally what.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Happens, according to a couple of the sources I found,
which they all contradict each other, so this could be
entirely wrong. There was one point three million dollars yep.
A quarter of a million dollars was given normally in
order to prop up his business, which was probably a
fraud for laundering money laundering the money, so he would
have gotten a decent amount, but that was mostly on
(40:47):
a way using your business. So we need this, So
here's some money. Shut the fuck up. Yeah, everyone else
got less than that, because you can't get six quarter
millions out of one point three million. It doesn't work.
The math isn't there.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
So everyone else got less than that, which means that
if Les and Brian turned around and said we only
got like fifty thousand dollars, What the fuck we want more?
Why are you hoarding this shit? Then that's kind of
my brain legitimate, like one six of one point three
is what are we looking at? Two hundred and something
thousand dollars? Yeah, not quite two fifty, but two hundred
(41:23):
thousand dollars roughly.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
But I mean, they're obviously using the business to loaner money,
so it would be foolish for them to not. I mean, obviously, again,
this is what happens when you hire thugs. But you know,
from the perspective of the leader, it's like, well, we're
using this business to louner the money. We need this
business to exist in order to make our crimes easier.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Yeah, but then you've got a quarter of a million.
Why don't I get a.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Quarter of a million? He didn't get a quarter of
a million, but.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
He got a quarter of a million. Why can't I
have a quarter of a million.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
And See, that's why you don't work with criminals because
they're stupid, because that's not how it worxt. I've I
come from a very colorful family. There are members of
my family who were criminals.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
You also have colorful characters.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
And you know, there were one of one of my
family members who's you know, passed away now and did
his time for his crime. He was a driver for robberies,
right like, he was the driver and he never read
it on the rest of the gang, and he never
said anything about them. And he did his time and
(42:27):
that was it, you know, and then sold a lot
of pot. He was a very clever dude, though ironically
it was a very very clever dude. I don't know.
I just they talk about a criminal code. It doesn't
really exist.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Criminal code has given me what I want and fun off.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yeah, the nature of the personality that you're attracting to
these sort of things that it does lead to idiocy.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Furious about his beating, Brian valdrivve and escalated matters by
threatening to not only go after Ray Bennett, but his
entire family. This was attacktive Kin often used against his
victims in his line of work, and thus it was
a standard action for him to continue along the script
he'd known for almost fifteen years. Bennett didn't take too
kindly to this being turned on him, and he looked
(43:18):
at Kin's own vulnerabilities well. Leslie Kan and their other
brother were members of the Underworld and thus more likely
to be protected or expecting a move against them. There
were people connected to Brian that would not be so
hard to get to, but hey, he thought bugger that
time to aim high.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Brooding dislike had erupted into bloodshed. After Brian Kin was
on the receiving end of the beating in a Richmond
hotel from one of Bennett's mates, leaving him missing part
of his left ear. Brian Kan's brother Les found revenge
and threatened to attack Bennett's family. Brian was dangerous, but
measured Les was a psychopath, a Melbourne Underworld figure said,
(43:56):
quote from Killing Kin by John Sylvester and Andrew Rule,
October twenty third, two thousand and nine. At Sydney Morning, Herald.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Mickelson was assumed to have initiated the conflict, and it
was widely believed that further retaliation was inevitable. With Mickelson
on Bennett's side of the conflict, Bennett knew there was
only so long before the Canes came for him and
his family, so he decided that the best defense was
a good offense.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
As Bennett's then lawyer Joe Galacchi noted dryly, it's hard
to be a standover man when someone takes a bune
out of your ear. Mister Glucchi always was perceptive, which
is why he would later become a judge. The year
chumping was a deadly insult that had to be avenged
in blood. Bennett, who was also perceptive, decided it to
(44:39):
get in first quote from The Brutal Lives of the
Cane Brothers Andrew Brawl and Mark Butler January twentieth, twenty
twenty one, the Herald Son and what exactly that revenge
entailed is something we will pick up next episode. Ha ha,
I teased you, and you.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
It's not hard to figure out what's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Well, it's called the gang Land War, not the gang
Land Everyone had a nice high tea and then had
delicious drinks afterwards while enjoying a succulent Chinese meal.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
The Gangland tea party with meal, you know, So.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
It's uh, it's obviously going to ramp up funnily enough
these sort of things. When it comes to the criminal world,
they do escalate based on just this sort of stuff.
That's why if someone starts demanding a bigger share after
the money has already been divvied up. Do the smart
thing if you're a crime lord and put two bullets
in their head, and anyone else who thinks that they
may want to take revenge after doing that. But we're
(45:41):
going to talk about more of that next week. Now.
If you'd like to get in touch with us, perhaps
you yourself participated in the Melbourne Gangland wars.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
Don't come after us.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
We'd love to hear from all of you. You can
find us on at the social media just typing weird
crap and Australia into the search engine of your social
media of choice except X for obvious fucking reasons. You
can also shoot us a good old fashioned email Week
Crap in Australia at gmail dot com. Don't forget while
I mentioned that in jest about being connected to gang
LAMB wars, don't forget. If you do send us any information,
(46:12):
we will forward it onto the relevant authorities. So just
be careful of what you let us know. Just a
bit of a warning there. If something needs to remaining
confidence but could implicate someone in a crime, we do
have to report on it. We do have to forward
that information onto the relevant authorities, which thankfully has never happened.
(46:34):
You can also help us out fire a couple of
different avenues, first and foremost being our Patreon friendly five
dollars us D a month. Not only do you get
these mainline episodes completely uncut and add free, you also
get yourself a bonus minisode where I take a look
at some of the Australia's at weirdest headlines from the week,
or I just go on a rant. So if you
enjoy the rants, you'll probably enjoy the Patreon. You can
(46:56):
also grab yourself a week Crap in Australia T shirt
from our red bubble and see public stores just typing
weird crap in Australian did the search engine? See all
our amazing designs from all the lovely artists that we've
worked with over the years. You can also grab our
book series Volume one two six, No. One to five,
one five, one to five.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
We're working on ze on six.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
Now, Good God, Holy where is the time Gone? Volume
one to five is available now from our great mates
at Impact Comics dot com dot au. If you're living
here in Australia and you want the paperback, please please
please support local businesses, especially Impact Comics. Right now, what
is going on with the constant tariff bullshit is affecting them.
(47:36):
Their product comes from America, it's printed in Canada and
they have to pay input duties as well. Like it's
just fucked. So they need your help. If you can,
please please visit Impact Comics dot com dot au and
grab yourself a weird crap in Australia book. If if
it does help you buy you know the sets, or
(47:57):
you buy a couple of books. Just shoot them an
email and say, hey said, if I supported your business,
he'd come down and signed these books for me before
they shipped down. They will absolutely hold those books. We'll
sign them for you and send them out. So please
support small business in this country. Big business can go
fuck itself. Small businesses need our help more than they
(48:17):
ever have before as it becomes even more difficult to
compete in that market. Especially our great mates at Impact
Comics who have always supported us Mail and Cam support
Camebra artists, They support Canbra small business, they support the public.
They put on amazing events for everyone. Free Comic Book
(48:39):
Day is coming up on the twenty fifth of May,
and if you go to Free Comic Book Day, Impact
Comics has to pay those free comics that they give out,
so please buy something as well if you attend Free
Comic Book Day. And it's not just about Impact Comics,
though they do have a personal relationship with us. They've
been our great mates for a very, very long time.
(49:00):
What your local business in this country, it is going
to get the economy is going to get tougher, not easier,
and we need to support those locals who support locals.
You know, it's a big, big problem in this country
at the moment because some of our biggest employers they
want to reduce the amount of money that they're paying
to the workers, and the workers put money back into
(49:22):
the economy. That's how it works. Don't believe anyone who
talks you about trickle down economics. That's bullshit left over
from the Reagan era in the seventies. It's fucking bullshit.
It was bullshit then, it's bullshit. Now, make sure you
go out and support those local small businesses. They need
you more than they ever have before, especially the members
of the public in the restaurant industries. Restaurants are hurting
(49:43):
more than anybody else, So please go out there and
support them when you can. Everyone is doing it tough.
Let's support the small guys, fuck the big guys. Ah,
what else do I need to say after going on
to that rant about supporting local business. Oh and also,
if you want to pick up the paperback, you can
pick that up from lulu dot com. They tap your
local printer in your local area, so you're helping your
(50:04):
local economy as well. And last but not least, talking
about the fucking big guys, if you do grab digital books,
you can grab wee crap in Australia from the Kindle shop.
Otherwise we give only the final words.
Speaker 2 (50:17):
So at the end of each one of these Gangland episodes,
I'm going to read you guys a little story that
I found on the Internet regarding different figures. So this
one is going to be about Judy Moran, the matriarch
of the Moran family. This one is from such Courage
seven seven five eight on a Reddit thread about connections
to the Gangland War. My first teenage job was working
(50:40):
in the video easy on Mount Alexandra Road, opposite the
Ascot Vale Hotel, which I think is now Chemists Warehouse.
I used to live a two minute walk from the
shop down the hill, and Judy Moran lived on the
same street. One night, she came to the shop to
borrow some DVDs and I knew I recognized her, but
I couldn't place her anyway. I scanned her card into
the system and she had five hundred dollars worth of
(51:00):
late fees, and still seeing the name of seeing the name,
my teenage brain didn't click who she was.
Speaker 1 (51:05):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
I told her she had late fees and she'd need
to pay them before she could borrow.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
She asked me how much, and I said, I think
it might be a mistake, but it says five hundred dollars,
and she said, no, worries, love, they should cover it,
and handed me a stack of cash. My coworker was
standing in the corner dying watching the interaction because he
could see I clearly had no idea who she was.
And she left and I checked her account and one
of our other coworkers had written a note saying, this
(51:31):
is the Judy Moran. Do not ask her to pay
for late We laughed hard about this one for ages.
It was probably another six to twelve months after that
that des Moran was killed, and the same night her
house was set alight. We were at home and my
mum made a joke saying, huh, I bet all those
sirens are at Duty's place up the road. Someone set
it on fire to burn evidence. She was right.
Speaker 1 (51:55):
God, I would quit the next day then, because her boys,
the Moran boys, would easily have come back into that
Video Easy and robbed the whole place and maybe shot
you for that.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Got that five hundred dollars back, that's interest.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
It's one thing I really really hate about criminal organizations
is they do take out their pettiness on people just existing,
and that's that's why they need to be Like I
don't look, I don't give a shit about corrupt people
shooting each other. Doesn't really bother me in any way,
shape or form. It's the people who are working at
the club, the people who are working at the Video Easy.
(52:30):
They're the people who become inavertent victims because of soca
pass and sociopass within gangs. But yeah, man, I would
have been quitting the net like I would have just
walked out right there and then and got the fuck out.
My god, that's a great story. That was awesome that
you found that. Holy well, thank you very much for
joining us, for we'd crap in Australia. Please please be
(52:52):
kind to each other. I can't stress that enough at
the moment. Be kind, stay safe. We'll see you next week.
From more, We're crap in Australia till then bye for
now Bye. The Weird Crap In Australia podcast is produced
(53:19):
by Holly and Matthew Soul for the Modern Meltdown. If
you've enjoyed this podcast, please rate and review on your
favorite podcatching app.
A strange, spiraling white light was spotted in the early
morning sky over Sydney, with even skeptical witnesses wondering if
it was a UFO. They were last seen on the
beach with a tall man and that's the best description
police have ever had of it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
More than seventeen years after Harold Holt disappeared into raging
surf at Chevy a Beach, his widow has finally revealed
his last romantic words.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Docky, terrifying, mesmerizing. That's the way a number of Australians
have described the alleged encounter with the Yowi. It's time
for the Weird Crap in Australia podcast. Welcome to the
(00:45):
Weak Crap in Australia Podcast. I'm your host Matthew Sol
Joining me, of course, is the Researcher extraordinaire and the
Queenbean Chunk himself being joker. If you hear him being
noisy in the background, he's just asking for a pat
in his less than polite way. And let's not be
are the lead introducing, of course, Holly the Researcher extraordinaire.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Hello, Matthew, Hello Joker.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Well today we're going to be jumping into some subject
matter that we've been talking about for quite some time.
We haven't really taken a crack at it. In the
early two thousands a series came out called Underbelly and
it was met with the same sort of local enthusiasm
that Australians have for most prime drama.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Which is Water Rats, Blue Heelers, Black Snow. How many
more crime dramas can I think of.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
When I was growing up And this dates me a
little bit here, but when I was growing up, Holly,
this was what was in our home when the television
was on. Okay, Blue Heelers, like you mentioned water Rats, Stingers,
which was about undercover cops Police Rescue, which was on ABC.
The Bill, which is the British cops shows. Is the
(01:59):
Bill still running? I don't think it is.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Not, as far as I know, but I'll check that way.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
No, but it had such a it had this enormous
run on television. So Australians have always had this, you know,
penchant for cop dramas and cop TV and Black Snow
like you just brought up there, Holly. As a fantastic example.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
The Bill, Sorry breckon. The Bill went from nineteen eighty
four until twenty ten, twenty six seasons.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
That's a run.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
That's fuck, that's a long time.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
They had Australian coppers there too, and in that show.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
It wouldn't surprise me. A lot of Australian actors go
over there, so they'd have to put some Australian cops
in there eventually.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, well we've talked about that before. How the British
will We'll have to cover it maybe one day. But
the British love Australian or they used to love Australian
soap operas, and so every now and again you'd have
an Australian soapiactor end up on the bill and they'd
be like, you know, oh, you know, you come from
Australia and they do this whole storyline with it. Anyway,
I'm completely getting off topic here. So Australia really does
(02:59):
love it's crime dramas, and so an idea was sort
of conceived of tackling the Melbourne Gangland Wars essentially between
let's call it ninety ninety up to about two thousand
and five.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
It's officially ninety five to five.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
I'm pretty good. I was pretty damn close. And that
series of course was called Underbelly. Now you have to
keep in mind we're going to be talking about a
group of individuals who are constantly lying with police who
are corrupt, and a rather dodgy media and a judiciary
which also seemed to have corrupt elements. I don't know
(03:39):
if we're going to touch on Miss X.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
We will eventually. I want to set the wide scene
before we get into that.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Sounded dirty dinner we're going to touch Miss X. No, well,
a lot of people did touch Miss X, but we'll
get into that later on. So everyone in this is unreliable.
So if you have watched the under Belly series, it's
even worse now for you because you have to remember
that there are a lot of elements of drama that
(04:09):
applied over the top of any sort of true or
based on a true story television show or film. One
of the most egregious examples of this, in my opinion,
in the entirety of cinematic history, is probably the film
that started the whole genre, Texas Chainsaw. Texas Chainsaw one
(04:29):
hundred percent right, Holly. The reason for that is that
the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a very very loosely inspired
by the Killings of ed Gean, as was the film Psycho,
as was the film Silence of the Lambs.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
There's a wide spectrum of shit between those three, so
it's yeah, I can see what you mean by a dramatization.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And it's interesting. I've actually got a graphic novel in
our graphic a collection called what did Eddie? What did
Eddie Gean Done? Yeah, something like that, Yeah, something along those.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Something really grammatically offensive.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Look what Eddie? Yeah, look what Eddie Gan did or done?
Something along those lines. Fantastic book. Highly recommend that graphic novel.
Amazing art and it has one of the most prolific
true crime authors who actually helped co wrote the script.
And I believe they're working on another one as well.
Now that is the problem with adaptations is when you
(05:30):
look at the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it's a family of hillbillies.
The dude wears a costume, very elaborate. This is the movie, Yeah,
this is the film. The only thing that they sort
of borrowed from Eddie Gan because Eddie Gan was Wisconsin,
not Texas. They basically borrowed the accusations of Gan being
a transvestite, which I don't which in my opinion was
(05:54):
a very misunderstanding of Eddie Dean's pathology back in the day.
And the other aspect is the turning of human remains
into lampshades and things like that, which Eddie did. Whether
or not Eddie Gan cannibalized his victims, I don't think
he did, because he was digging people up. He was
(06:18):
more interested in He was more interested in being inside
a woman in a.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Very rather than a woman being inside him.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Well his mother. No, Actually, we're not going to go
down this track because I'm going to do a full
episode on Edward Gan, which is not what we're trying
to do. The point I was trying to get to
is that adaptations of true crime events exaggerated and they're dramatized.
So if you watched the first season of Underbelly, which
dealt with people like Carl Williams and his gang, I
(06:52):
need you to forget about all of it.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Thankfully Holly did not watch them, so Holly doesn't need
to forget about them.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yep, you just need to put it all out of
your mind because a lot of that it's exaggeration, it's
over the top. They consolidate characters.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, you take a bunch of people who survive by
laying who then survive by selling their story, or it's
someone who's investigating their stories and they're always going to
talk themselves up, and then you add film dramatization over
the top of it. Barely any of it.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Is real, exactly, Holly. You surmise that very very well
instead of my rambling about pop culture, which everyone knows
I do. So you know you're obviously tuned in for
three hundred and fifty odd episodes. I don't need to
worry about too much. So if you have watched under Belly,
just put it out of your head, forget about it.
Go revisit it after we've done a couple of these episodes,
(07:44):
and you might find that you're able to sort of
get something more out of it, or you'd be able
to define what is probably true and what isn't. I
would wager, Holly that even though you are the research
or extraordinaire, I don't even think you've probably got Wethink
one hundred percent accurate.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Oh, no doubt, because there was a code of silence
at that point in time. So there are people who
saw it who gave very little away, and it's all
just what's been put together in the in the aftermath.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
One of the players during, or one of, in my opinion,
one of the minor minor players in the Gangland Wars
was Chopper eight.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
We did two parts on one of the most notorious
liars that has ever existed in criminal history. He was
a part of the Gailan Force.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
He will be mentioned in this episode.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And when we're talking about Carl Williams,
he would never get his story straight and at the
end of the day, I don't know if half of
his accounts were accurate, and his portrayal on television, I
don't necessarily believe that was particularly accurate either. We're going
(08:50):
to get into all of that as we start to
dive into this. So that was my preamble. Yes, we
are now talking about the Melbourne Gangland War. This is
part one the Kine family, which has a biblical connotation there, doesn't.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
It, Holly, It's the wrong spelling, but yes.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
So I think that's probably a great place to leave
my massive disclaimer and jump into today's episode Take it Away.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
The Melbourne ganglen Wars refer to a series of violent
murders that took place between the mid nineteen nineties and
early two thousands, primarily involving members of Melbourne's criminal underworld.
The conflict arose from power struggles over the city's lucrative
drug trade, particularly between the Moran family and Carl Williams,
as well as other rival factions. The killings were sensationalized
by the media and later dramatized in the TV series Underbelly,
(09:40):
which ran from twenty and eight to twenty thirteen. And
we mentioned it in Chopper Reid's episodes.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yes, so Chopper Reid was adapted into an Underbelly series.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
He got a mini series.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, it was like three episodes. I think. Yeah. There
was a lot of controversy at the time because the
actor was quite well in doubt and they had a
lot of penis shots, which apparently upset people, possibly chop
a rig I think it's no. I think he was
dead by that stage. There is a terrible double standard
in media where you can show off a completely naked
(10:14):
woman in I mean to this point in the in
this day, sometimes pretty egregiously, but if you show a
penis or an erect penis.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
A flaccid penis is kind of on the nose. But
if you two an erect penis, Oh my god, it
is porn.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Erect penises are completely banned on Australian television.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
You will most movies.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now, obviously there's the implication of sexual
arousal on a film set, which is something you don't want.
You know, that moves into the realm of pornography. But
I do want to take your shot at our standards.
You know, the male body is fine, the female body
is fine. We can be a bit more adult about it.
(10:56):
So shop a read. That particular depiction of him caused
a bit of controversy amongst the media sensors. Then there
was the adaption of another story that we talked about,
which was the politician who disappeared in Golden when he
took on the Donald McKay. Yeah, Donald McKay, when he
(11:16):
took on the marijuana bandits. I think that was I
think well bandits.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
The Honorable Society is what they were called.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah, I just like the term bandits. The other adaptations
that they've done. The first series, of course, is what
we're going to be covering today, which is, well, this
is going to be a series. Some of the stuff
that we're going to be talking about was covered in
the first series of Underbelly, and then the third season
I believe was the sort of prequel, so that was
(11:47):
about the workers and Dockers.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Once again, I haven't seen any of it, so I
have no idea what connections are makesed Underbelly.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
The workers and Dockers eventually morph into the Cane crime family.
They start as union boys and they remain union boys.
And when I say union, I mean union is in
criminal organization or cronyism.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I'm not sure whether you're a few you, but I
feel like I should no go for it.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Please.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
There were only three boys, two of them were Dockers,
and they did not run the Painters and Dockers union.
They no, it was only two of them. Do you
know how big that union was?
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Well, I mean that was one of the first crime
unions in in Melbourne, and I mean Melbourne was such
a hotbed for it. Because again, if you see this
is we've done, Like lots of listeners have asked us,
you know, when are you going to get to the
gang land wars like this is a huge part of
austraying crime history and you've never covered it. The reason
for that is because we wanted to establish context.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
It's a fucking knot and I need to show you
the threads before I show you the not as m.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
So it's like, why was Melbourne so ripe with gangs? Well,
because the mafia established them themselves, and if you listen
to our Alfia episodes you will see how that started.
And because they effectively became, you know, the the produce union,
you know, almost like the supermarket union. Not to be
(13:12):
confused with modern unions. I don't want to be fucking sued.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
They did actually supply the supermarket chains.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yes, yeah, yeah, And because that is essentially how organized
labor starts in Melbourne, you then see other crime elements
also establish unions. And then even to this day, we're
seeing crackdowns on the CMFAU and we've also seen that
there are gang elements potentially attached to the CFMU. So
(13:42):
Melbourne has always been rife with this. And the reason
that we know this and we know that the origins
of this, we know this because we covered the mafia,
and we've covered Chopper Read and we've covered all of
these different people, so that when we finally get to
gangland wars, we can now refer you back, or if
if you've been with us since day one and hey,
(14:03):
happy seven year anniversary, you would now be primed for this. So, yeah,
what's a lot of warnings in this episode.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
What I'm going to do in order to help people
who are new into this and just decided to randomly
listen to this one. In the show notes, I will
go through our back catalog and I will write out
the order in which to listen to the episodes to
give you the context of where we're going.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yep. So there's a lot of history that we're going
to gloss over. And the reason that we're going to
do that is because we're very coveted. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
The gangland violence stemmed from disputes between the Moran family,
one of the city's most prominent crime syndicates, and a
direct competitor to the Honorary Society that we talked about
in episodes three hundred and ten to three hundred and fourteen.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
You want me to butcher their actual name, go for it,
the Nangareta, the Jungetta, nandra Getta. Yeah, I do not
have the Italian accent.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Well, there will be something.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
You're really bad for our Italians because they get really
upset about mispronunciation, Maria. I don't know if you've seen.
There's like a whole series of There are two things
that really upset Italians on social media. Don't break the
spaghetti to and be very careful with pronouncing words correctly,
which look to be fair. Our audience is pretty good.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
At we can't even pronounce Australian and we're Australian. Your
Italian's got no hope.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Australia Australia, Australia, Australia, Australia.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, well, there will be some crossover with this series.
As Lorna Rata Society's strong days were before nineteen eighty,
It's possible the Morans only grew in prominence because the
power of the mafia started to wane.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
I mean, you could make the argument that the reason
that their power started to wane is because they became
legitimate the mafia. Yes, yeah, And I mean, I don't.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Know, when you start playing by the rules, it gets
harder to break them.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I think there is a point where a lot of
criminal organizations eventually evolve in to a mainstream organization. And
I mean so much of the foundations of corporate Australia
corporate America was built on the back of crime.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Well, a rebellion is technically a criminal act.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
So look, the police force is built on a gang.
You know. They employ the worst of the worst Irish
thugs to be cops, you know, in the early days,
which inspires people like Ned Kelly. The mafia moves into
Australia and basically takes control of the farms because Italians
(16:35):
immigrate here and start building their farms, and they eventually
have to move into a proper distribution company because it
is it's funny, it's more difficult to operate as a
mafia than it is to operate as a tax dodging company,
which is really really funny.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
It's not tax dodging, Matthew, it's tax minimization.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
You know. And it's like, you look at those different
aspects of Australian society and I would argue that America
is even fucking worse. You know, the mafia starts the
lottery in America and eventually the government just takes it over,
but they keep all of the old mafia rules. So
there is a lot of crime that eventually becomes legitimate business.
(17:22):
So if you ever ask yourself, why does big business
seem so fucking corrupt. It's because the origins of big
business generally either fall in the I accidentally created saying
I don't know what it would become, I e. YouTube,
or we were criminals but we had to legitimize ourselves
to make even more money.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
The Moran family was led by Lewis Moran, who was
born in nineteen forty one. The family had strong ties
to Melbourne's amphetamine market, which was beginning to balloon in
the mid nineteen nineties. His step son Mark Moran and
biological son Jason Moran were both heavily involved in drug
trafficking learning the family business as it were, but this
episode isn't directly focusing on them. This episode focuses on
(18:07):
their extended family, the Canes, and the brothers Leslie Brian
and to a lesser extent, Raymond.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Brian Kane, best known of the three brothers, One said
that their father refused to buy school books for him. Instead,
he told him to go and steal some then write
his name in them. I've just purchased school books because
I've started this counselor's course. Everyone, please keep your fingers
crossed that I actually fucking pass it and keep up
with it. As someone who gets distracted very easily, I
need all that positive vibes come in my way. One
(18:36):
hundred and thirty dollars for one of them. They're very expensive.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Yeah, it's a raw.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
When you were going to school, and sorry, this is
a bit of a diversion. When you were going to school,
were you provided textbooks by the library or did you
have to purchase textbooks?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
You could try and get the laveryone's, but they only
had two for a class.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Of eighty really, so you had to purchase. So you
were purchase dollars a semester. Wow, yeah, minimum, and that
was that was when you were doing university in Maduro, right.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
And also in Canberra. It was four and a half
years of that.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, so they slapped you with this this very expensive degree.
And then on top of that, you know, you have
to spend five hundred dollars on books a semester.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yeah, semester and I had winter semester some of those times,
so it was three times a year.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
The struggle, man, the struggle must be real. What about
when you're in high school?
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Were you given textbooks or the only textbook we were
overhanded was a math textbook, and we were threatened that
if it came back in any kind of disarray that
the teacher would be very upset considering how strict that
teacher was. None of the books ever came back around.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I'll have to ask my sister, who's a teacher. But
it's infinitely fascinating to me that going to a very
small country high school with I think we were lucky
to have six hundred students, we had biology textbooks in
the life for us, we had our math books. As
a class. We were led to the library. We were
not the library the library to pick up our textbooks,
(20:09):
and we had we never were worried about not having textbooks.
Yet in Sydney, in a larger high school, you had
none of those resources. And that still blows my mind.
I always thought you guys had far more opportunities than us.
But I think that the opportunity for city learning versus
country learning is that if you do want to explore
(20:29):
things like the arts, for example, which was something that
I was heavily invested in when I was a teenager,
and I think if things had gone differently, I would
have had more access to things like that. Outside of that,
like your education was terrible comparatively to mom, which has
nothing to do with the episode, And I'm very sorry,
and I'm going to keep my mouth shut for a
few paragraphs. Anyway, back to the fucking quote that I
(20:50):
was Brian would end up a golden gloves boxer and
a ruthless standover man collecting debts for SP bookies. SP bookies.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I have no idea what that stands for. It was
in a photograph of a news article, so I couldn't.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Really look it up. If anyone knows what an SP
book he is, I would love to hear. But he
was not the most violent of the three brothers. That
was Les Kane, even by underworld standards, regarded as a
psyncher path with when he lost his temper quote from
The Brutal Lives of King Brothers Andrew Ruhlamer Butler January twentieth,
twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Herald son Leslie Herbert Kane was born January first, nineteen
forty five and left school at fourteen when he joined
the Painters and Dockers Union.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
And also Holly just very quickly another industry in Australia
that started as a criminal enterprise that became a quote
unquote legitimate the tab bookies.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
I didn't put this in the script, but Leslie's job
while he was with the Painters and Doctors, his first
job was fudging the books and the pace slips so
that the money that the dockers were being paid look legitimate.
The Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union the FSPDU or
We're just going to call on the Painters and Dockers
(22:05):
was an Australian trade union from nineteen hundred to nineteen
ninety three. It represented shipbuilding laborers who worked on task slate, painting, cleaning,
boiler maintenance and docking ships.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
The Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union existed in Victoria
from about nineteen hundred until its demise in nineteen ninety three.
From the nineteen fifties until the late nineteen seventies, many
of Melbourne's organized crime figures were allegedly members or connected
in some way to the Painters and Dockers. There were
many colorful characters among them, some with a lot more
(22:36):
desire for fame and fortune than others. Quote from the
Painters and Dockers of Victoria, Derek Phillipson Lyons would Investigations
and Forensics, twenty fourth of July twenty eighteen. Now you
may be wondering, of course, why there's so many unions
in Australia that are corrupt. Unfortunately, it is the nature
of any organization, the reason that the unions probably suffer
(23:00):
a little bit more from corruption than other organizations. So honestly,
when you're talking about police, church, union, schools, government, everyone
seems corrupt these fucking days. Especially after doing this episode,
this podcast for seven years, made me incredibly jaded. The
union movement started as an illegal action in this country,
(23:22):
and so they were always criminals until like I mentioned earlier,
that the criminals until you build a structure around them,
and then they become at least an industry, whether it's
regulated correctly or not.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Well, remember back to the Melbourne clubs when we were
talking between file Lap and Big full Out. The bookies
became legitimate between those two horses.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Yeah, yeah, exactly right, Holly. So the union movement as
well started as criminal movement under the conditions of in
my opinion, tyrannical taxi. Back in the day, we talked
about that as well. If you want more info on that,
check out our episode on the Eureka Stockade. The Eureka Stockade,
(24:09):
I was saying. It was either one of the rebellions
or the stockade, but the stockade is probably the better
place to see. It was the stockade.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Leslie, along with his brothers, was one of those colorful characters.
Leslie was married twice, first to Trisha, with whom he
had a son and two daughters, Suzanne and Trisha. Trisha
later married Jason Moran, old Sad, son of Lewis Moran.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Calling your daughter, Trisha, you're Trisha and she is Tricia.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Her name was probably Patricia and they just dropped the
putt at the start.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
No offense to anyone out there who has a you know,
they're the fourth or the fifth, or the sixth or whatever.
I understand family tradition is very important to some people.
I completely understand that, but god damn, you're really setting
your kit up to fucking fail, aren't you.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
At the very least, it gives you something them, something
that they have to live up to, which is always
a bad idea.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yeah, like a name for a person is like the
first I have a very very I don't know me
is this unique? I'd love to hear from all of you.
Don't don't forget to let us know, you know all
the social medias, et cetera. I think that the first
gift you can give your child is a good name,
if that makes sense, not a unique name, A good name,
(25:23):
a strong name. You know something that they You have
no idea how much a name helps people.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Leslie's second wife was Judy, a woman who was not
part of the darker world of her husband, but knew
the rules around the life her husband led and some
of the dangers that came along with it.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Mister Leslie. Herbert Kane, who shot a policeman in a
hotel at Northcote, the Melbourne suburb or North Northcote, Yeah,
Melbourne suburb, was placed on a good behavior bond on Friday,
three years after the shooting. You can get on a
good behavior bond after shoot.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
A cop in the seventies you could.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Mister Kane, twenty nine of Burwood, had played a guilt
in the country court to maliciously wounding the policeman at
Northcote on January seventeenth, nineteen seventy one. Senior Constable RoAF
was shot just above the ankle after trying to eject
mister Kane from a hotel. The court was told quote
from the Camera Times, Monday, fourth of March nineteen seventy four,
page six, man gets bond for shooting policemen. Important to
(26:20):
remember as well at this point in time Melbourne. Well,
actually no, I would say that nearly every state in
Australia is probably incredibly corrupt at this point. So you
may be sitting there scratching your head and go, well,
fuck man. I attended a free Gaza rally the other
(26:42):
week and I got pepper sprayed because I moved too
close to a police officer. Standards today in the standards
back then were very, very different, and mostly due to
corruption within law enforcement, industry and the judiciary.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
On April twenty first, nineteen seventy six, a handful of
men in gray dust coats stepped into the lift of
fifty five Queen Street, heading for the second floor. Another
dressed as a fridge repairman that had been called in
by the staff, walked through the front door, made his
way upstairs and quietly unlocked the fire escape. Moments later,
six mass men stormed into the Victorian Club armed with
(27:19):
machine guns, shotguns and pistols. Inside around forty book makers
were settling bets from three race meets over Easter, the
first chance they had to balance their accounts.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
The bandits took one hundred and eighteen bookmakers' bags, more
than half of which held more than the maximum insurance
level of twenty thousand and ninety thousand, from ACBC bank box.
One bag contained seventy eight thousand dollars. The money was
in used notes from racecourses. Quote from the Canberra Times, Thursday,
(27:49):
twenty second of April nineteen seventy six, page one. One
point three million dollar robbery in Melbourne.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Police later declared that the raid was very well planned,
as just moments before the whole thing hopped off, two
point two four million dollars had just been delivered to
the room, including that CBC box and its contents.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Police believe gunman who nodded at least one point three
million dollars in a raid on the Victorian Club yesterday
had been watching the building for more than a week.
Senior detectives believe the bands may have set up cameras
on the vacant third floor of an office block opposite
to film cash deliveries. The Scottish Amicable Life Association building
has clear views of the bookmakers settling room on the
(28:29):
second floor of the club in Queen Street. Quote from
The Age April twenty second, nineteen seventy six. The one
point three million bookie raid we also mentioned as well.
Very powerful weaponry was used during that attack. We don't
have those sort of guns in Australia anymore.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
The bandits burst into the settling room and five of
them disarmed two main Nicholas guards Maine. Nicholas was a
company similar to Armorguard. One of the disarmed guards tried
to tackle a gunman. Oh why because it was a
guard and that's his job.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
No. No.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
The bandit knocked the guard to the floor with the
machine gun and then stuck the muzzle to the guard's
eye and said, if.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
You want to do something like that, you get your
head blown off.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
The sixth bandit ran behind the bar of the crowded lounge.
He held five staff, including three women, at machine gun point.
He was then joined by another bandit. Twenty five bookies
were shepherded from the room, forced into the one with
the members, and forced to lay down.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
The bandit's todd staff, bookmakers and members. If anyone tries
in a fear that women will be the first to go.
Do you lift your heads will blow them off? Quote
from The Age, April twenty second, nineteen seventy six, the
one point three million bookie raid.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
I have the feeling that there's a lot more swearing
in those quotes than what was reported.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
I'm just shocked that the ard decided that his mediocre
pay was worth trying to stop to be a bunch
of people with machine guns. What the fuck was he thinking?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
To be legit, he was delivering money to a knock white,
legitimate source, so he was probably getting us the money
on the side, so therefore it probably would have actually
been worth it.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
So do you think that so? Funnily enough to go
back to pop culture as I often do. This is
a joker situation, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah? This is the go in the purple suits, just
broken into the place.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Yeah. This is one criminal organization robbing another criminal organization.
Very interesting, So you think that So your theory is
that it's less likely that they were legitimate guards and
more likely enforces for a criminal organization, So they would
you know, they would act accordingly?
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Why not both?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yeah? Yeah, no, that's very interesting, Holly.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I like that theory, two of the bandits stood guard.
One ran through the room, pulling phones from the wall.
He even smashed into a small on premises barbershop in
order to pull the connection in there. He then joined
the other three in settling the room.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
One of the bandits ordered to security guards open the
doors of a black metal mesh clearing room containing the money.
The doors had not been locked. The guards and bank
officials were then heard into the lounge and also ordered
to the floor. Inside the room sat eight green metal
boxes at about two feet long and eight inches wide
in a smaller brown wooden box. All were padlocked. One bandit,
(31:11):
using heavy bolt cutters, forced open each box. As each
box was opened, it was emptied into black calico bags.
From the age April to twenty second, nineteen seventy six
to one point three million bookie raid.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
The thieves moved with precision, reading the room as paniced
bookies looked on. They spent just eleven minutes inside before
vanishing into the streets of Melbourne. Officially, the hall was
valued at one point four million dollars or nine million
in twenty twenty two, but whispers put the real fear
closer to three million. Or twenty one point one million
in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Yeah, because they were cooking the books.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yeah, and there was only so much insurance would give them. Yeah,
there's no point claiming more if that's all that it'd get.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Assistant Crime Commissioner Graham Davidson told a news conference that
he had no idea how the men made their get
away from the Victorian Club in the City Center, but
was following up a report that some men were seen
entering a white panel van outside the building at the
time of the robbery. Quote from The Camera Times, Thursday,
twenty second of April nineteen seventy six, page one, one
point three million dollar robbery in Melbourne.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
The men fled down the fire escape through the door
they'd entered by, then hopped in a vehicle and high
tailed it out of there. It took a few minutes
for members of the club to report the theft. Frank
Murray ran to the first flaw to raise the alarm
and then the police were called.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Senior police described the raid as the best organized and
executed in Australian history. They have not ruled out the
possibility that one or more of the bandits may have
been members of the club, or at least have been
frequent visitors. They said the gang's expertise and precision timing
indicated a thorough knowledge of the building. The Chief of
the Victorian Chief Superintendent Graham Davidson, said, there's no doubt
(32:50):
about it. The place has been thoroughly cased. These men
were pretty slick professionals. For given time, we'll crack it.
Quote from Chief Superintendent Davidson said, quote from The Camera Times, Thursday,
twenty second of April nineteen seventy six Paint one one
point three million dollar robbery in Melbourne. I would argue
that they probably had police assistance.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Just enough of a delayed tactic.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
I mean, look to this day and this isn't a
this isn't a major spoiler. To this day. There are
members of the Victorian Police Force who are still in
active duty who were absolutely working with gangs during the
gang Land Wars. Some have argued that they were quote
unquote working their case or that they were quote unquote undercover.
(33:35):
You know, there was assistance by police. You know, you
basically had three criminal organizations. There was a massive criminal
element inside the Victorian Police. Don't forget as well. Victorian
police also helped the Catholic Church cover up all the
child sexual abuse. We covered that when we covered historic
child abuse in Australia. There were also elements of the
(33:57):
Victorian Police that were working with CLU with or were
actually members of various gangs in Melbourne at the time.
To this day, Victoria has never had a Royal commission.
After the finale of the gang Land Wars, which has
never really would you describe it as finishing wholly or
(34:19):
sort of. There are still connections to this day where
minor crime like that will never ever see the scale
of that violence again. But I feel that there are
still criminal elements that leaked out of the gang Land
Wars that are still pretty prominent in Melbourne today.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Yeah, but the same could be said of the mafia.
Like the elements are still there, the apparatus are still there.
It's just whether or not someone's going to rise to
power and take control again.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
There's just not that public exhibition of power that used
to exist.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
It's also a lot harder for them to hide it
from the general public nowadays.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
I mean that's always going to be the thing. You know,
modern technology has completely changed the way the criminals operate.
It's completely changed the way that we look at crime,
and it look, honestly, you want to be a career criminal,
good luck to you. It's harder than it's ever been before.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
You want to be a career criminal, go join the
people on Capitol Hill.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Yeah, and quick, very very quick diversion here. A lot
of crime now is digital. You know. It's about scams,
fraud siphoning money from different companies, ciphering money from bank accounts,
all that sort of stuff. There is a push at
the moment to increase quantum computing, and some interesting things
just happened recently which may have now pushed quantum computing
(35:35):
a lot further than we thought it would be at
this point. Once we move into the era of quantum computing,
encryption which is what we use now to protect your data,
to protect your passwords, all that sort of stuff. If
we move to a quantum internet, we don't have to
encrypt anything anymore. You won't be able to hack a
(35:55):
quantum internet and so or at least theoretically.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
You won't be able to until you ken Yeah, except.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Well, yeah, exactly right, which would make it even harder
for criminal organizations. So, yeah, if you're in the business
of crime. Just become a politician. You're going to make
more money. It's going to be easier to commit crime.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
The team that hit the Victoria Club was supposedly led
by Ray Bennett, who was one of many small gang
leaders in Melbourne. While it will possibly never be known
who exactly took down the Victorian Club and walked away
rich as hell, there are always theories and accusations.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
One of the proceeds from Melbourne's Great Bookie robbery had
been used to revive a failing Chop, suey and dim
sim business. It was alleged in the City Court today
the owner of the business, mister Norman lung Lee twenty eight,
is alleged to have been one of the five or
six men who took part in the robbery at the
Victorian Club, Melbourne on April twenty first last year. Quote
(36:47):
from The Camera Times, Friday, twenty fifth of March nineteen
seventy seven, page nine. Allegation of use of stolen money.
By the way, if a gang owns a business or
a mafia owns a business, they always run at a loss.
There's no such thing as a failing business when you're
using it to launder money.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
During this case, the exact amount alleged to have been
stolen in the Bookie heist was released to the public
one million, three hundred and eighty seven, five hundred and
forty dollars. Lee was supposedly the recipient of a quarter
of a million of that money. It was later revealed
that the six men who robbed the club were Ian Carroll,
Lawrence Pendergas, Norman Lee, and the Kine brothers, Les and Brian.
(37:27):
But some sources will actually differ on that, so it's
never going to be truly settled.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
That's a name you don't see too often anymore, as
there Pendegases, Prendigast. Yeah, Prendigas Pendergast. I went to school
with a couple of Pendergases. But yeah, you don't hear
that name often anymore.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
A lot of the names that are associated with his
crime families have changed.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Over the years, probably to disassociate.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
For exactly that reason. Yes, Brian Kin was in a
pickle despite helping to pull off one of the biggest
heists of the century. Despite helping to pull off one
of the biggest heists of the century, he and his
crew had received no money for their part and with
so much money disappearing off the bookie's deaths, he felt
they were actually entitled to some of it. A few
(38:12):
weeks after the heist, Cain rain Bennett demanding a share
of the robbery's profits. That was unknown if he offered
black mail about turning Bennett in or avoiding a beating
in exchange for the money. Brian was a known standover man,
very violent, and his threats were not to be taken lightly.
Bennett refused to play Caine more and moved into damage
control mode.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Brian Kin made a comfortable living by frightening fellow criminals
and was well qualified to demand a share of the
book he robbery funds. It was not accustomed to taking
no for an answer, but Bennett wasn't easily frightened. He
also had a reputation, like the Caines, was well connected
in the painters and Dockers Union. He was not going
to plan one of Australia's biggest crimes to give up
(38:53):
the profit to a family of sharks. Quote from Killing
Cain by John Silvester and Andrew Rawle, October twenty third,
two thousand and nine, City Morning Herald.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Over the next few months, tension between Brian Kin and
Ray Bennett worsened until Brian Kan was cornered in a
pub and brutally beaten as a warning not to ask
for more than his share. Furious, Why do criminals do this?
Because they're dumb?
Speaker 1 (39:18):
There are six people you got away with the crime.
Everyone took the same amount of risk, Everyone gets the
same fucking share. And when you turn around and you
start big mouthing, which is always what happens within these groups.
And look, why am I applying professional standards to criminals? Well,
there are professional criminal organizations who do operate in a
(39:40):
professional capacity much better than this. But this is what
happens when you have a bunch of thug psychopaths, sociopaths,
or group up together. There's always some asshole who turns
around and says, I deserve a bigger share. The fact
is that they all took the same amount of risks,
all did the same amount of work. So what happens
is this person then basically puts their hand up and
says I can't go along with the program. I want
(40:02):
more than I do, and that basically signals to the
rest of the group, well, we can now get rid
of this person. Should we need to, or we can
use them as a scapegoat, or we can just shoot
them during our next robbery, or we can steal their
share and shoot them as well, and anyone who happens
to be in their vicinity. It happens every time. It
is fucking textbook, and I don't understand. Well, I do
(40:23):
understand it. You put a bunch of social mail contents together.
This is generally what.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Happens, according to a couple of the sources I found,
which they all contradict each other, so this could be
entirely wrong. There was one point three million dollars yep.
A quarter of a million dollars was given normally in
order to prop up his business, which was probably a
fraud for laundering money laundering the money, so he would
have gotten a decent amount, but that was mostly on
(40:47):
a way using your business. So we need this, So
here's some money. Shut the fuck up. Yeah, everyone else
got less than that, because you can't get six quarter
millions out of one point three million. It doesn't work.
The math isn't there.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
So everyone else got less than that, which means that
if Les and Brian turned around and said we only
got like fifty thousand dollars, What the fuck we want more?
Why are you hoarding this shit? Then that's kind of
my brain legitimate, like one six of one point three
is what are we looking at? Two hundred and something
thousand dollars? Yeah, not quite two fifty, but two hundred
(41:23):
thousand dollars roughly.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
But I mean, they're obviously using the business to loaner money,
so it would be foolish for them to not. I mean, obviously, again,
this is what happens when you hire thugs. But you know,
from the perspective of the leader, it's like, well, we're
using this business to louner the money. We need this
business to exist in order to make our crimes easier.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Yeah, but then you've got a quarter of a million.
Why don't I get a.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Quarter of a million? He didn't get a quarter of
a million, but.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
He got a quarter of a million. Why can't I
have a quarter of a million.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
And See, that's why you don't work with criminals because
they're stupid, because that's not how it worxt. I've I
come from a very colorful family. There are members of
my family who were criminals.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
You also have colorful characters.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
And you know, there were one of one of my
family members who's you know, passed away now and did
his time for his crime. He was a driver for robberies,
right like, he was the driver and he never read
it on the rest of the gang, and he never
said anything about them. And he did his time and
(42:27):
that was it, you know, and then sold a lot
of pot. He was a very clever dude, though ironically
it was a very very clever dude. I don't know.
I just they talk about a criminal code. It doesn't
really exist.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Criminal code has given me what I want and fun off.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yeah, the nature of the personality that you're attracting to
these sort of things that it does lead to idiocy.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Furious about his beating, Brian valdrivve and escalated matters by
threatening to not only go after Ray Bennett, but his
entire family. This was attacktive Kin often used against his
victims in his line of work, and thus it was
a standard action for him to continue along the script
he'd known for almost fifteen years. Bennett didn't take too
kindly to this being turned on him, and he looked
(43:18):
at Kin's own vulnerabilities well. Leslie Kan and their other
brother were members of the Underworld and thus more likely
to be protected or expecting a move against them. There
were people connected to Brian that would not be so
hard to get to, but hey, he thought bugger that
time to aim high.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Brooding dislike had erupted into bloodshed. After Brian Kin was
on the receiving end of the beating in a Richmond
hotel from one of Bennett's mates, leaving him missing part
of his left ear. Brian Kan's brother Les found revenge
and threatened to attack Bennett's family. Brian was dangerous, but
measured Les was a psychopath, a Melbourne Underworld figure said,
(43:56):
quote from Killing Kin by John Sylvester and Andrew Rule,
October twenty third, two thousand and nine. At Sydney Morning, Herald.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Mickelson was assumed to have initiated the conflict, and it
was widely believed that further retaliation was inevitable. With Mickelson
on Bennett's side of the conflict, Bennett knew there was
only so long before the Canes came for him and
his family, so he decided that the best defense was
a good offense.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
As Bennett's then lawyer Joe Galacchi noted dryly, it's hard
to be a standover man when someone takes a bune
out of your ear. Mister Glucchi always was perceptive, which
is why he would later become a judge. The year
chumping was a deadly insult that had to be avenged
in blood. Bennett, who was also perceptive, decided it to
(44:39):
get in first quote from The Brutal Lives of the
Cane Brothers Andrew Brawl and Mark Butler January twentieth, twenty
twenty one, the Herald Son and what exactly that revenge
entailed is something we will pick up next episode. Ha ha,
I teased you, and you.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
It's not hard to figure out what's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Well, it's called the gang Land War, not the gang
Land Everyone had a nice high tea and then had
delicious drinks afterwards while enjoying a succulent Chinese meal.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
The Gangland tea party with meal, you know, So.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
It's uh, it's obviously going to ramp up funnily enough
these sort of things. When it comes to the criminal world,
they do escalate based on just this sort of stuff.
That's why if someone starts demanding a bigger share after
the money has already been divvied up. Do the smart
thing if you're a crime lord and put two bullets
in their head, and anyone else who thinks that they
may want to take revenge after doing that. But we're
(45:41):
going to talk about more of that next week. Now.
If you'd like to get in touch with us, perhaps
you yourself participated in the Melbourne Gangland wars.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
Don't come after us.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
We'd love to hear from all of you. You can
find us on at the social media just typing weird
crap and Australia into the search engine of your social
media of choice except X for obvious fucking reasons. You
can also shoot us a good old fashioned email Week
Crap in Australia at gmail dot com. Don't forget while
I mentioned that in jest about being connected to gang
LAMB wars, don't forget. If you do send us any information,
(46:12):
we will forward it onto the relevant authorities. So just
be careful of what you let us know. Just a
bit of a warning there. If something needs to remaining
confidence but could implicate someone in a crime, we do
have to report on it. We do have to forward
that information onto the relevant authorities, which thankfully has never happened.
(46:34):
You can also help us out fire a couple of
different avenues, first and foremost being our Patreon friendly five
dollars us D a month. Not only do you get
these mainline episodes completely uncut and add free, you also
get yourself a bonus minisode where I take a look
at some of the Australia's at weirdest headlines from the week,
or I just go on a rant. So if you
enjoy the rants, you'll probably enjoy the Patreon. You can
(46:56):
also grab yourself a week Crap in Australia T shirt
from our red bubble and see public stores just typing
weird crap in Australian did the search engine? See all
our amazing designs from all the lovely artists that we've
worked with over the years. You can also grab our
book series Volume one two six, No. One to five,
one five, one to five.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
We're working on ze on six.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
Now, Good God, Holy where is the time Gone? Volume
one to five is available now from our great mates
at Impact Comics dot com dot au. If you're living
here in Australia and you want the paperback, please please
please support local businesses, especially Impact Comics. Right now, what
is going on with the constant tariff bullshit is affecting them.
(47:36):
Their product comes from America, it's printed in Canada and
they have to pay input duties as well. Like it's
just fucked. So they need your help. If you can,
please please visit Impact Comics dot com dot au and
grab yourself a weird crap in Australia book. If if
it does help you buy you know the sets, or
(47:57):
you buy a couple of books. Just shoot them an
email and say, hey said, if I supported your business,
he'd come down and signed these books for me before
they shipped down. They will absolutely hold those books. We'll
sign them for you and send them out. So please
support small business in this country. Big business can go
fuck itself. Small businesses need our help more than they
(48:17):
ever have before as it becomes even more difficult to
compete in that market. Especially our great mates at Impact
Comics who have always supported us Mail and Cam support
Camebra artists, They support Canbra small business, they support the public.
They put on amazing events for everyone. Free Comic Book
(48:39):
Day is coming up on the twenty fifth of May,
and if you go to Free Comic Book Day, Impact
Comics has to pay those free comics that they give out,
so please buy something as well if you attend Free
Comic Book Day. And it's not just about Impact Comics,
though they do have a personal relationship with us. They've
been our great mates for a very, very long time.
(49:00):
What your local business in this country, it is going
to get the economy is going to get tougher, not easier,
and we need to support those locals who support locals.
You know, it's a big, big problem in this country
at the moment because some of our biggest employers they
want to reduce the amount of money that they're paying
to the workers, and the workers put money back into
(49:22):
the economy. That's how it works. Don't believe anyone who
talks you about trickle down economics. That's bullshit left over
from the Reagan era in the seventies. It's fucking bullshit.
It was bullshit then, it's bullshit. Now, make sure you
go out and support those local small businesses. They need
you more than they ever have before, especially the members
of the public in the restaurant industries. Restaurants are hurting
(49:43):
more than anybody else, So please go out there and
support them when you can. Everyone is doing it tough.
Let's support the small guys, fuck the big guys. Ah,
what else do I need to say after going on
to that rant about supporting local business. Oh and also,
if you want to pick up the paperback, you can
pick that up from lulu dot com. They tap your
local printer in your local area, so you're helping your
(50:04):
local economy as well. And last but not least, talking
about the fucking big guys, if you do grab digital books,
you can grab wee crap in Australia from the Kindle shop.
Otherwise we give only the final words.
Speaker 2 (50:17):
So at the end of each one of these Gangland episodes,
I'm going to read you guys a little story that
I found on the Internet regarding different figures. So this
one is going to be about Judy Moran, the matriarch
of the Moran family. This one is from such Courage
seven seven five eight on a Reddit thread about connections
to the Gangland War. My first teenage job was working
(50:40):
in the video easy on Mount Alexandra Road, opposite the
Ascot Vale Hotel, which I think is now Chemists Warehouse.
I used to live a two minute walk from the
shop down the hill, and Judy Moran lived on the
same street. One night, she came to the shop to
borrow some DVDs and I knew I recognized her, but
I couldn't place her anyway. I scanned her card into
the system and she had five hundred dollars worth of
(51:00):
late fees, and still seeing the name of seeing the name,
my teenage brain didn't click who she was.
Speaker 1 (51:05):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
I told her she had late fees and she'd need
to pay them before she could borrow.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
She asked me how much, and I said, I think
it might be a mistake, but it says five hundred dollars,
and she said, no, worries, love, they should cover it,
and handed me a stack of cash. My coworker was
standing in the corner dying watching the interaction because he
could see I clearly had no idea who she was.
And she left and I checked her account and one
of our other coworkers had written a note saying, this
(51:31):
is the Judy Moran. Do not ask her to pay
for late We laughed hard about this one for ages.
It was probably another six to twelve months after that
that des Moran was killed, and the same night her
house was set alight. We were at home and my
mum made a joke saying, huh, I bet all those
sirens are at Duty's place up the road. Someone set
it on fire to burn evidence. She was right.
Speaker 1 (51:55):
God, I would quit the next day then, because her boys,
the Moran boys, would easily have come back into that
Video Easy and robbed the whole place and maybe shot
you for that.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Got that five hundred dollars back, that's interest.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
It's one thing I really really hate about criminal organizations
is they do take out their pettiness on people just existing,
and that's that's why they need to be Like I
don't look, I don't give a shit about corrupt people
shooting each other. Doesn't really bother me in any way,
shape or form. It's the people who are working at
the club, the people who are working at the Video Easy.
(52:30):
They're the people who become inavertent victims because of soca
pass and sociopass within gangs. But yeah, man, I would
have been quitting the net like I would have just
walked out right there and then and got the fuck out.
My god, that's a great story. That was awesome that
you found that. Holy well, thank you very much for
joining us, for we'd crap in Australia. Please please be
(52:52):
kind to each other. I can't stress that enough at
the moment. Be kind, stay safe. We'll see you next week.
From more, We're crap in Australia till then bye for
now Bye. The Weird Crap In Australia podcast is produced
(53:19):
by Holly and Matthew Soul for the Modern Meltdown. If
you've enjoyed this podcast, please rate and review on your
favorite podcatching app.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!