Founded 1970s Years active 1970s−2006 | ||
Ethnicity Mainly people of Italian and Irish ancestry Membership 50-100 associates (2000s) | ||
The Carlton Crew was a criminal organization based in Melbourne, Victoria.
Contents
It was formed in the late 1970s by FSPDU's enforcers and independent racketeers and named after the Melbourne suburb in which it is based, Lygon Street, Carlton, commonly called "Little Italy". The organisation had a strong rivalry with the Honoured Society and the Calabrese Family, both of which were Calabrian 'Ndrangheta groups also based in Melbourne. The Carlton Crew had a strong role in the infamous Melbourne gangland killings.
History
The group included convicted criminals Graham Kinniburgh, Mick Gatto and Jason Moran. Gangitano was arrested several times for minor offences 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 of two murders, of small-time crook Greg Workman (killed at Wando Grove, St Kilda East, while celebrating a friend's release from prison) and prostitute Deborah Boundy (whose clients included Carlton Crew hitman Christopher Dale Flannery). Boundy was scheduled to testify in court. but died before the trial from a self-inflicted shot of undiluted heroin believed to have been supplied by Gangitano.
On 15 July 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; he 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 A$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 had 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. About 700 people attended his funeral, with Mick Gatto serving as a pallbearer.