Short-form True Crime

At the top of the heap, it's a long way down... The Little Fella, George Freeman, phoned to tell the owner of The Palace, an illegal Kings Cross casino, that everything was 'sweet in town - for now'. An all-clear from Sydney's gaming boss. He tended to have the right oil. Beer, served in contravention of liquor license conditions, at heavily marked up prices, was the liquid gold that gave Abe Saffron his start as a crime boss. 'Mr Sin' rebuilt Kings Cross from there. Carl Williams joked that he ran Victoria, that he was 'the premier'. He wasn't of course, but he behaved like the State's Lord High Executioner for five bloody years. Why? For 12 years, nine blocks of Cabramatta were Heroin Central. Tri Minh Tran's 5T street gang run them. L'Onorata Societa [The Honored Society], our mafia, celebrates 100 years since its first killing in the 2020s. Here, we look at how bosses handle succession and generational change. Shotguns appear regularly.

Some 'one-percenters' have committed criminal acts, 100% crimes. Hells Angel Chris Hudson, stewing in the steroid, booze, and ice juices, was, in his girlfriend-victim's words, 'completely out of his mind, insane, just completely gone' when his handgun came out after his fist and boot went in. A lot of crimes were committed on Father's Day 1984, one of the saddest days for outlaws, when Bandido met Comanchero in the car park of the Viking Tavern. What did happen when the Bandidos prez KK - Chaos was another name - was gunned down by two Rebels in the basement of the Blackmarket Café, under the Hellfire S&M club? A sniper in the desert near Kalgoorlie and a Gypsy Joker bomb team in Perth are not two stories, they're one bloody unfinished revenge story. Melbourne Hells Angels Roger, Peter, Ray, and Terence - the Greenslopes Angels - took the amphetamine group of drugs from petty contraband into the black mass market. And changed Australia.