The Carlton Crew - History

History

The group was formed by Alphonse Gangitano and included convicted criminals Graham Kinniburgh, Mick Gatto and Jason Moran. Gangitano had logged several minor arrests in the late 1970s and early 1980s while building a reputation as "The black prince of Lygon Street". Gangitano recruited a score of thugs (mainly of Italian origin) who installed jukeboxes and vending machines in local bars and nightclubs under the threat of violence, then reinvested their profits in drug trafficking.

In 1995, Melbourne police suspected Gangitano in two murders: those of small-time crook Greg Workman (killed at Wando Grove while celebrating a friend's release from prison) and prostitute Deborah Boundy (whose clients included Carlton Crew hitman Christopher Flannery). Boundy was scheduled to testify in court and died before the trial from a self-inflicted shot of undiluted heroin believed to have been supplied by Gangitano.

On july 15th ,1995, Gangitano engaged in a wild melee with Jason Moran and Mark McNamara at a Melbourne nightclub. Prosecutors were still debating various charges against him, when Gangitano's wife found him dead in the laundry room of their Templestowe home on 16 January 1998. Gangitano had been shot several times in the head.

Mick Gatto succeeded Gangitano as head of the group. In June 1999, he was charged with deception for placing 39 bets with a bookie under the pseudonym ('Mick Delgado'). In February 2002, a Royal Commission investigated Gatto on suspicion of accepting $250,000 to 'mediate' labour disputes with the Australian Workers' Union.

On 13 December 2003, Kinniburgh was murdered outside his home in Kew.

Carlton Crew member Mario Condello boasted a record of convictions for arson, fraud and drug trafficking. Police also suspected him for multiple murders. In 2005 he was charged with plotting to murder crime boss Carl Williams, who also faced charges of scheming to ambush Condello. A trial for that case was pending when unknown gunmen murdered Condello outside his Brighton home on 6 February 2006. Six hundred mourners attended his funeral, with Mick Gatto serving as a pallbearer.

It is also well known that the Carlton Crew had well known Gambino crime family Mafia boss Carlo Lombardi who was a life time member of the Crew but like most of the other Members was gunned down outside a cafe in Sicily,Italy, It is said that Carlo left behind 2 kids and a $150 million dollar empire,on one has been charge with the killing but people close to Carlo said "It was a day Carlo knew was coming".

The Carlton Crew still operates today in Melbourne, and there has been speculation that Mick Gatto still leads it to this day..

Read more about this topic:  The Carlton Crew

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    “No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now.”
    —Richard M. Nixon (b. 1913)

    “No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”
    —Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)

    “Racism is an ism to which everyone in the world today is exposed; for or against, we must take sides. And the history of the future will differ according to the decision which we make.”
    —Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)