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.Forensic Inveigators - Series 01 Episode 04: Neddy Smith. A vast majority of the murders were seen as retributive killings, attempts to control Sydney's drug trade, and expansion of criminal territory.Gangs of OZ: Gangland War - A tale of three gangs. 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.
Background Organised crime in Sydney can be traced back to the Razor gangs of the 1920s and 1930s. 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.
Between 1950 and 1968, rival criminals became involved in a series of violent confrontations, resulting in various public shootings. 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. 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.
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. It was alleged that Manners was killed by rival criminal, George Joseph Hackett over a dispute of the proceeds of a robbery. 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. 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.
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". 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.Tough Nuts: Australia's Hardest Criminals Series 02 Episode 02: Stan "The Man" Smith - The Enforcer The murder of Walker occurred on the night of Lenny McPherson's wedding to his second wife.Tough Nuts: Australia's Hardest Criminals Series 01 Episode 08: Lenny McPherson - Mr. Big 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 where McPherson and Smith spotted Walker coming out of a house.
As Walker was walking down the street, Smith and McPherson pulled alongside Walker in the car and shot Walker with an Owen Submachine gun, killing him instantly and then driving away from the scene. It was alleged that after killing Walker, McPherson and Smith dumped the car a mile from the scene, disposed of the weapon, changed into a different set of clothes, and then got into McPherson's own car, and drove back to the wedding reception where they slipped in unnoticed.
Following Walker's murder, more public murders took place. 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 Randwick home. 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. 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). 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. 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. On 22 April 1967, King Cross casino owner Claude Eldridge was shot to death while walking to his car in Neutral Bay.
On 28 May 1967, 28-year-old standover man, Raymond "Ducky" O'Connor, was shot at the Latin Quarter club in front of eyewitnesses, including two police detectives. At the time of his murder, O'Connor was on bail for the murder of Melbourne woman Shirley Bowker, who was hit by a 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. It was alleged that O'Connor's murder was committed by Lenny McPherson after learning that O'Connor was running a rival protection racket.
It was alleged that prior to O'Connor's murder, McPherson had visited O'Connor in prison and had threatened him. 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. McPherson, who was sitting at another table, then approached the detectives' table and shot O'Connor twice, killing him.
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 was known for carrying out thefts and robberies of high-end department stores, jewellery stores, and banks throughout the UK and Europe in the 1960s and early 1970s. In 1974, Grace O'Connor disappeared from the home that she and fellow Kangaroo Gang member, Tommy Wraith shared on Seymour Grove in Paddington. Her body was never found. It was believed that Wraith and Grace got into a confrontation in which he strangled Grace. It was suspected that after killing Grace, Wraith 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.
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. 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. 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. 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. 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 drivers’ seat of his car in Bondi.
In the 1970s, criminal figures, under pressure from their associates within the police, began murdering rival criminals more discreetly by luring or kidnapping them, and either murdering them at a secret location and dumping their bodies or throwing them overboard while still alive in the waters off Sydney.Crime Investigation Australia: Families of Crime - The Mr Bigs McPherson and Freeman
The genesis of the Sydney gangland war was the growing heroin trade in NSW during the 1970s. The period saw the heroin trade explode throughout Sydney, mainly imported from the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia. 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.
In the mid-1970s, Clark ran a heroin importation ring between Singapore and Sydney, with the aid of Griffith-based 'Ndrangheta member Robert Trimbole. Clark and four other members of the syndicate, were convicted of Johnstone's murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Clark died of a heart attack while serving his sentence in Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight in 1983.
Trimbole fled Australia in 1981 after hearing about his pending arrest for his involvement in the 1977 disappearance of anti-drug campaigner Donald Mackay. Trimbole fled to the US, then to France, before being arrested in Ireland. After being released by the Irish courts, Trimbole fled to Spain, where he died of cancer in a Spanish hospital on 12 May 1987.
Groups and factions 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.
The FreemanMcPherson Team Led by Lenny McPherson and George Freeman. Considered as the "old school" criminal group in the Sydney Underworld, 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. The McPherson-Freeman Group was also commonly referred as "The Team".
The SmithHenry Gang Led by Neddy Smith and his associate and bodyguard Graham "Abo" Henry, this criminal group was mainly involved in armed robberies and drug trafficking. The gang largely operated in Sydney's Eastern suburbs. The group included Warren "Frenchie" Lanfranchi, Harvey Jones and Danny "Brain" Chubb. In 1976, Neddy Smith formed a business relationship with NSW Police detective Roger Rogerson.
The McCannDomican Gang 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. Like Smith's gang, McCann's gang operated out of the Lansdowne Hotel in Chippendale. In the 1980s, McCann's gang was involved in a feud with both the McPherson-Freeman and Smith-Henry groups and before getting into a "tit-for-tat" feud with Chris Flannery. The group included Barry "Sugar" Croft, Terry Ball, George Savvas, Victor Camillieri and Kevin Theobald. McCann was shot dead at H.J. Mahoney Park in Marrickville on 27 December 1987.
The Honoured Society A Calabrian 'Ndrangheta group that were involved in the marijuana trade in the Riverina District in the 1970s.Crime Investigation Australia - Series 01 Episode 13: Murder of Donald Mackay The Honoured Society was reported to run a vast marijuana trade between Sydney and Melbourne. 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. Even though the Honoured Society were not directly involved in the Sydney gangland war, some members were reportedly involved in the heroin trade.
Investigation