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EDiTOriAl JANAE HOUGHTON
Silk & Miller murders
S
ergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller (pictured below) were working on an undercover operation when they pulled over to check a dark blue Hyundai Excel on a cold August night in Moorabbin in 1998. On approaching the car they were shot by the occupants. Both police died.
Hoddle Street massacre
O
n Sunday, 9 August, 1987, gun-wielding 19-year-old Julian Knight went on a 45-minute shooting spree on Hoddle Street, Clifton Hill, at about 9.30pm.
In the days that followed, police and the public joined together in their grief and outrage of the murders.
During the massacre, perhaps Victoria’s worst, Knight killed seven people and injured 19 others. He used three guns including a shot gun and rifle. Members of the public and police bravely put their lives on the line, trying to stop Knight. By about 10.15pm, he had run out of ammunition and surrendered to police. Knight was charged with seven counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder, seven counts of causing serious injury and 12 counts of causing injury. In 1988, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 27 years. The carnage he caused that night still haunts those involved.
The Lorimer Taskforce was set up, resulting in Bandali Debs and Jason Roberts being arrested, charged and sentenced. Debs will spend the rest of his life in jail and Roberts received a minimum jail term of 35 years.
Underworld war Whether you believe it all started when Alphonse Gangitano, 40, was killed in his laundry in 1998, or about a year later when serial killer Carl Williams survived a shot to the stomach, the underworld war intrigued Melbourne. Between 1998 and 2009, Williams’ gang and what was known as the Carlton Crew killed more than 30 people, as both sides fought to control Melbourne’s drug trade. The carnage stopped when police arrested Williams, who was subsequently sentenced to 35 years’ jail for murdering rivals Lewis and Jason Moran and drug dealer Mark Mallia. Williams was killed in jail last year while serving his sentence.
Walsh Str eet Murde rs
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In the earl y constable hours of 12 Octobe s r, were calle Steven Tynan and D 1988, amien Eyr d to invest e car in Wa ig lsh Street, ate an abandoned South Yarr As a. ambushed they approached th e car they and shot to were death. After a lon g-r Victor Peirc unning police inve stigation, e, Trevor P four men – ettingill, A Peter Davi nth d the young McEvoy – were charg ony Leigh Farrell a n constable s, but wer ed with the murder d Two other e later acq s of suspects, u it te d Je . were shot and killed dd Houghton and G ary by police in separate in Abdallah, cidents.
www.police.vic.gov.au/policelife
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yn old Jaid month- m near 4 1 f o y a The bod as found in a d w Leskie 998. d 1 rphy ha Moe in nda Mu 15 June, y il B r e His moth for the night on r Greg t te gone ou with baby-sit Jaidyn ft le d n murder 1997, a wicz. Jaidyn’s . e to z s in a n o m o D tigati ll Australians er ce inves a The poli e attention of rged with murd a th caught szewicz was ch . d a 8 9 m 9 o 1 D r in eath an M l ed a tria ddler’s d and fac uitted of the to acq He was r be re-tried. e v e n n a c
2.
Jane Thurg ood-Dove Murder
3.
Jane Thurg o the drivew od-Dove was shot de a front of he y of her Niddrie ho ad in me r 6 Novemb three young childre in er, 1997. n on To with her m this day no-one has u b for inform rder and there is a $ een charged ation abou 1 million re t the crime. ward Police belie ve been mista Ms Thurgood-Dov e may have ken for an other wom in the sam an who live e street. d POLICELIFE April 2011
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