The Sydney gangland wars (or the Gang wars) were a series of murders and killings of several known criminal figures and their associates that took place in Sydney, Australia, during the 1980s.[1] A vast majority of the murders were seen as retributive killings, attempts to control Sydney's drug trade, and expansion of criminal territory.[2] A significant number of the murders that took place during the Sydney gangland war went unsolved, mainly due to corrupt police and their association with members of the Sydney Underworld.[1]
Organised crime in Sydney can be traced back to the Razor gangs of the 1920s and 1930s.[citation needed] By the 1950s, the Sydney gangland scene started to become more organised with various criminal figures controlling illegal casinos, brothels, SP bookmaking, Drug Trafficking, nightclubs and ran Protection rackets, across greater Sydney, often supported by corrupt police.[citation needed]
Between 1950 and 1968, rival criminals became involved in a series of violent confrontations, resulting in various public shootings.[3] One such confrontation occurred when 45-year-old former boxer and standover man, William "Bobby" Lee, was shot at the Ziegfeld Club in Kings Cross in the early hours of 30 May 1951, by rival standover man Chow Hayes.[3] Lee and Hayes were involved in a feud over an assault of an associate of Lee. The feud escalated on 1 May 1951, when a gunman, presumably sent by Lee, shot dead Hayes' nephew and young boxer, Dennis "Danny" Simmons, in a case of mistaken identity.[3]
On the afternoon of 8 June 1956, 27-year-old standover man and thief, John "Joey" Manners was shot three times after leaving the Australian Hotel in The Rocks.[4] It was alleged that Manners was killed by rival criminal, George Joseph Hackett over a dispute of the proceeds of a robbery.[5] Hackett was charged with Manners' murder on 25 October 1956, but was acquitted after a key witness, Keith Craig failed to appear at Hackett's trial.[4] Three years after his acquittal, on 27 July 1959, Hackett was shot and killed before being dumped from a car on Elswick Street in the inner-city area of Leichhardt.[4]
On 9 July 1963, standover man Robert "Pretty Boy" Walker was shot to death in what the media considered as "the first murder committed with a machine gun".[3] It was alleged that Walker's murder was committed by rival standover man Lenny McPherson and his associate and hitman Stan "The Man" Smith, in retribution for Walker shooting and wounding Smith during a raid on Walker's home days earlier.[3] The murder of Walker occurred on the night of Lenny McPherson's wedding to his second wife. It was theorised that McPherson and Smith quietly slipped away from McPherson's wedding reception and drove a stolen car to the inner eastern suburbs of Randwick.[6][7] McPherson and Smith spotted Walker coming out of a house. As Walker was walking down the street, Smith and McPherson pulled alongside Walker in their car and shot Walker with an Owen Submachine gun, killing him instantly and driving away from the scene.[3][6][7] After killing Walker, it was alleged that McPherson and Smith dumped the car a mile from the scene, disposed of the weapon and changed into a different set of clothes, before getting into McPherson's own car, driving back to McPherson's wedding reception and slipping in unnoticed.[3]
As the 1960s continued, more violent public murders continued to take place.[3] In early hours of 10 February 1964, 54-year-old standover man and greyhound trainer Charles "Greyhound" Bourke was shot 20 times with a high-power rifle on the front lawn of his home in Randwick.[3] Bourke was reportedly involved in a feud with Lenny McPherson over providing protection for a new illegal baccarat club, and was reported to be encroaching on McPherson's protection rackets in the Newtown area.
Bourke's murder was followed by the murder of standover man Robert "Jacky" Steele on 26 November 1965.[3] It was alleged that Steele was shot by Lenny McPherson after Steele called McPherson a "grass" after reading an article in the magazine Oz about McPherson, naming him as "fizzgig" (an informer).[6] Steele spent a month in hospital before dying of his injuries.
1967 was marked by more violent and brazen public murders. On 15 January 1967, brothel owner Barry "Big" Flock was shot to death in the grounds of the Scottish Hospital in Paddington.[3][8] A month after Flock's murder, on 7 February 1967, Melbourne gunman James "Mad Dog" Sheridan was shot in the head and dumped in a laneway in the Darling Harbour area.[3] Two months after Sheridan's murder, on 22 April 1967, King Cross casino owner Claude Eldridge was shot to death while walking to his car in Neutral Bay.[3][9] The next public murder occurred on 28 May 1967, when 28-year-old standover man Raymond "Ducky" O'Connor was shot at the Latin Quarter club in front of eyewitnesses, including two police detectives.[3] At the time of his murder, O'Connor was on bail for the murder of a Melbourne woman named Shirley Bowker who was hit by stray round allegedly fired by O'Conner after she was caught in the crosshair of a brawl after a junior VFL game in Richmond on 1 May 1967.[8][5][4] It was alleged that O'Connor's murder was committed by Lenny McPherson after learning that O'Connor was running a rival protection racket[3] and that McPherson also visited O'Connor while he was in prison and threaten him.[10] It was speculated that in early hours of 28 May, O'Connor went to Latin Quarter on Pitt Street where he was relieved of his firearm by Criminal Investigative Branch (CIB) detectives, Maurie Wild and Jack Whelan before sitting with the two detectives at a table.[10] McPherson approached the detectives' table and shot O'Connor twice, killing him.[10] O'Connor's wife, Grace "The Case" O'Connor was a member of the UK-based Australian shoplifting gang known as the Kangaroo Gang that were known for carrying out thefts and robberies of high-end department stores, jewellery stores, and banks throughout the UK and Europe.[4] In 1974, Grace O'Connor disappeared from the home that she and fellow Kangaroo Gang member, Tommy Wraith shared on Seymour Grove in Paddington.[4][11] Her body was never found.[4] It was believed that Tommy and Grace got into a confrontation in which Tommy strangled Grace. It was suspected that after killing Grace, Tommy and an unknown accomplice placed her body in the boot of Wraith's rented car and allegedly drove to an unknown location in Hertfordshire where they dumped O'Connor's body in a shallow grave.[11]
Nearly a month after Ducky O'Connor's murder, on 26 June 1967, 58-year-old casino boss Richard Reilly was shot twice with a shotgun as he was walking to his car parked outside his mistress' apartment in Double Bay.[3][12] Despite being wounded, Reilly managed to get into the car and drove a few hundred metres before lapsing into unconsciousness and crashing the vehicle into the window of a shop.[3] It was alleged that the shooter was rival baccarat operator and standover man Johnny Warren, who was also named as the shooter in Eldridge's murder.[3] In January 1968, believing his mistress, Gloria McGlinn, was committing infidelity, Warren went to her apartment in Brighton-Le-Sands, where he shot and killed McGlinn, McGlinn's suspected lover and McGlinn's mother before shooting himself in the head.[3] The final public murder took place on the morning of 28 May 1968 when brothel owner Joe Borg was killed by a bomb placed under the driver's seat of his car in Bondi.[3]
By the 1970s, criminal figures, under pressure from their associates within the police, began making rival criminals disappear more discreetly by luring or kidnapping them, in some cases, murdering them at a secret location, and either dumping their bodies or throwing them overboard while still alive in the waters off Sydney.[10]
The genesis of the Sydney gangland war was the growing heroin trade in NSW during the 1970s.[13] The period saw the heroin trade explode throughout Sydney, mainly imported from South East Asia.[13] The catalyst for the gangland war was believed to be the arrest of New Zealand drug trafficker and member of the Mr Asia Drug Syndicate Terry Clark by police in London, for the murder of Clark's associate and head of the Mr Asia Syndicate Marty Johnstone, who was shot on Clark's orders on 9 October 1979.[14] During the mid-1970s, Clark ran a heroin importation ring between Singapore and Sydney, with the aid of Griffith-based 'Ndrangheta member Robert Trimbole.[14] Clark, along with four other members of the syndicate, were convicted of Johnstone's murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.[14] Clark died of a heart attack while serving his sentence in Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight in 1983.[14] Trimbole fled Australia in 1981 after hearing about his pending arrest for his involvement in the 1977 disappearance of anti-drug campaigner Donald Mackay.[14] Trimbole fled to the US, then to France, before being arrested in Ireland.[14] After being released by the Irish courts, Trimbole fled to Spain, where he died of cancer in a Spanish hospital on 12 May 1987.[14]
At the time of the Sydney gangland war, there were three major criminal groups locked in battle for control of the Sydney Underworld and the drug trade.
Led by Lenny McPherson and George Freeman. Considered the "old school" criminal group in the Sydney Underworld,[2] the McPherson-Freeman Group ran Sydney's illegal gambling, nightclub and vice trade since the late 1950s and early 1960s. Frederick "Paddles" Anderson, Stan "The Man" Smith, and Melbourne hitman Chris Flannery were reportedly part of this group.[2]
Led by Neddy Smith and his associate and bodyguard Graham "Abo" Henry, this criminal group was mainly involved in armed robberies and drug trafficking.[2] The gang largely operated in Sydney's Eastern suburbs. The group included Warren "Frenchie" Lanfranchi, Harvey Jones and Danny "Brain" Chubb.[1][15] In 1976, Neddy Smith formed a business relationship with NSW Police Detective Roger Rogerson.[1]
Led by Barry McCann and his associate, Irish-born British standover man Thomas "Tough Tommy" Domican, this group was mainly involved in drug trafficking and were considered to be a major rival group.[15] Like Smith's gang, McCann's gang operated out of the Lansdowne Hotel in Chippendale.[15] During the 1980s, McCann's gang was involved in a feud with Smith's gang and later got into a "tit-for-tat" feud with Chris Flannery.[15] The group included Barry "Sugar" Croft, Terry Ball, George Savvas, Victor Camillieri and Kevin Theobald.[2] McCann was later shot dead at H.J. Mahoney Park in Marrickville on 27 December 1987.
A Calabrian 'Ndrangheta group that were involved in the marijuana trade in the Riverina District during the 1970s.[5][13] The Honoured Society was reported to run a vast marijuana trade between Sydney and Melbourne.[13] Robert Trimbole, Gianfranco "Frank" Tizzoni, Antonio Sergi (born 1935), Antonio Sergi (born 1950), Domenic Sergi, Francesco Sergi, and Francesco Barbaro were reportedly part of this group.[13] Even though the Honoured Society weren't directly involved in the Sydney gangland war, some members were reportedly involved in the heroin trade.
At the time of the Sydney gangland war, no investigations into the killings were carried out, due to police corruption.[1] During the Royal Commission, Taskforce Snowy, headed by the NSW Police Assistant Commissioner John Laycock, was established to investigate the killings.[1][16] Since 1995, Taskforce Snowy carried out the investigation into 14 gangland killings linked to the Sydney gangland war.[16] As a result of Taskforce Snowy's investigations, the NSW Police established additional police investigative taskforces to investigate more unsolved killings attributed to the Sydney gangland war.[17]
Neddy Smith was charged as an accessory to the murder of tow truck driver, Ron Flavell, who was stabbed in a road rage incident at Coogee on 30 October 1987, and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1990.[1] Out of eight murders that Neddy Smith was charged with previously, he had only been convicted for the murder of Harvey Jones.[1] Smith's associate, Abo Henry was sentenced to six years imprisonment for the assault of a police prosecutor on 15 December 1988.[34] Roger Rogerson was convicted of perverting the course of justice in 1990 after detectives found $110,000 deposited by Rogerson in three separate bank accounts under a false name and was sentenced to three years imprisonment.[28]
The Sydney gangland war was first referenced in the drama miniseries, Blue Murder, premiered on the Australian national television network ABC on 14 September 1995. The premise of the two-episode series, focused on the controversial relationship between Neddy Smith and Detective Sergeant Roger Rogerson during the 1970s and 1980s and the vast corruption within the NSW Police. An injunction brought during Neddy Smith's appeal had seen the miniseries' broadcast being delayed in both New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory until 2001.[citation needed]
The second series of the drama series, Underbelly, which loosely focused on events in Sydney and Melbourne between 1976 and 1987, in particular to the marijuana trade in Griffith and the Mr. Asia Syndicate featured several episodes covering events associated with the Sydney gangland war. It aired on the Nine Network from 9 February to 4 May 2009.[citation needed]
The follow-up series, which loosely focused on events in Sydney between 1988 and 1999, in particular to organised crime in Kings Cross, covered events leading up to the Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police and the reorganisation of the police service in the Royal Commission's aftermath. It aired on the Nine Network from 11 April to 27 June 2010.[citation needed]