By Sid Astbury Jun 17, 2009, 2:38 GMT
Sydney - When George Williams leaves an Australian prison next week after serving time for drug trafficking, the 62-year-old patriarch will become the only adult male member of Melbourne's warring Williams and Moran crime families still alive and out of jail.
'What George wants is a nice bath and a good bed,' partner Kathleen Bourke said. 'It's time for him to settle down with whatever time he's got left.'
What time he has remaining may depend on what appetite the feuding families still have for the tit-for-tat killings that have cost at least 29 lives. The prognosis is not good.
This week the last adult male Moran was shot in the head four times as sat at his favourite table in a Melbourne cafe. The death of Des Moran, 60, came as a shock to those who thought the feud had resolved itself through death and incarceration.
Roberta Williams, whose former partner, Carl Williams, is serving 35 years for killing a couple of Morans, was among those surprised at the lunchtime hit at the Ascot Pasta and Deli Café.
'If they are willing to kill some defenceless drunk like Des, who else are they prepared to kill?' she said. 'I mean, where the fuck does it all end? You can't even have a fucking cup of coffee without getting shot these days.'
But hoodlum-turned-author Mark Read reckoned he had seen it coming. 'I told friends he would be dead within the year and I was right - as I generally am on these matters,' he said.
Read had a lot of respect for Des, recalling that among the Morans 'he was the one who could have you shot with a phone call or bashed with a nod of his head.'
Detective Inspector Bernard Edwards gives George Williams a good chance of a natural death.
Commenting earlier this year when Des Moran survived an attempt on his life, Edwards said he was convinced the botched assassination attempt was not part of the battle over control of the drug trade.
'When I say it's not gangland related, I don't think Des is in the league of some of the people we have dealt with previously,' he said.
Those who have followed the cycle of vendetta killings that began in 1998 are with the police on this one. They doubt Read is right when he claimed Des Moran 'got whacked as general underworld housekeeping.'
Even before the Ascot Pasta and Deli Cafe cleaned up and reopened for business, three arrests had been made, the getaway car had been found and the alleged murder weapon safely stored away in a plastic zip-lock bag ready to be tendered as evidence when the case comes to court.
The Morans appear to have begun devouring their own.
Judy Moran, 64, was charged with being an accessory to the murder of Des Moran. Police will allege that she dumped the getaway car - along with a pair of white gloves she wore when she drove it just hours after the hit.
The arrest of Judy Moran has come as a huge shock. Until now, she had been an object of pity. Her first husband was an early casualty. Sons Mark and Jason were victims 10 and 16. Widowhood came a second time when Lewis Moran was blown away in 2004.
There is a chilling postscript: even as Judy Moran was being interviewed by police, her house was set on fire. One view is that the place was firebombed to destroy evidence, another that it was a reprisal arson attack.
Police Commissioner Simon Overland said he was confident the latest killing and the suspicious fire don't signal that the gangland war has resumed.
'The evidence, or the briefings I've got, indicate it's not,' Overland said. 'But we'll obviously continue to watch the situation pretty carefully.'
Someone who will be watching very carefully is everybody's 'dead man walking' - George Williams.
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