At the height of Melbourne’s “Underbelly” gangland wars, Australia’s most infamous crime matriarch Judy Moran cut a stylish figure with designer clothes, immaculately styled platinum hair and oversized sunglasses.
But her family’s life of crime also brought with it tragic loss.
The loves of Judy’s life were her sons, Mark and Jason. Both were key players in Melbourne’s illegal drug scene and paid the ultimate price.
In 2000, Mark was shot dead outside his Melbourne home.
Three years later, Jason was shot and killed while sitting in his van watching his kids’ footy clinic at a suburban park.
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At his funeral she said, “All will be dealt with, my darling,” while leaning over his coffin.
In her 2005 memoir, My Story, she wrote:
“I have lived in a world of murder, corruption, bribery, crime and fear. A world where to ask too many questions would see you belted for your curiosity. A world with rules for men and where women know their place.”
Her husband Lewis Moran was killed a year later while having a beer at a local bar.
Keen to maintain her lavish lifestyle, Judy demanded money of Lewis’ brother, Des “Tuppence” Moran and when Des refused to hand over cash, Judy arranged a hit and Des was shot at a cafe.
Police quickly identified Judy as the organiser of the slaying and in 2011 she was convicted of murder and jailed for 21 years.
Now 81, bedridden and more likely to be wearing tracksuits than designer threads, Judy’s home is a cell in the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre on Melbourne’s bleak western fringe.
The maximum security prison is also home of notorious mushroom murderer, Erin Patterson – who prison sources say is now ruling the inmates.
In May last year, reports surfaced that she was planning lodging a petition for mercy and early release on grounds of having poor health.
Underworld figure Mick Gatto, who was cleared of murdering a hitman in 2004, told the Herald Sun he was helping with her application and “funding it a bit” – but ultimately, no applications were submitted.
PILLAR OF STRENGTH
Pitted against the Morans was the son of another matriarch, Barbara Williams.
In his day Carl Williams waged a bloody drugs war with the Morans but he was the apple of Barbara’s eye.
Whereas Judy basked in her sons’ notoriety, Barbara led a quieter life in the working-class home where she’d raised Carl.
But the two matriarchs both shared an unbreakable bond with their sons.
On the rare occasions when she commented on Carl’s activities, Barbara described the drug boss as “well-mannered” and someone who “never back-answered his parents”.
Carl called Barbara, 60, his “pillar of strength” and he was shattered when she died after taking a lethal mix of medication one night in 2008.
At the time Carl and his father George were in jail – Carl for four underworld killings and George for drug trafficking.
Carl was refused permission to attend Barbara’s funeral and 18 months later met his own end when he was beaten to death in jail by a fellow inmate.
GRANNY EVIL
Once a brothel madam, Kath Pettingill was dubbed “Granny Evil” and had a glass eye after being shot.
She was also mother to eight sons who would make up one of Victoria’s most notorious criminal brood.
Sons Victor Peirce and Trevor Pettingill were charged with the 1988 Walsh Street police murders that saw two young officers ambushed and shot dead while checking a stolen car.
Charges were eventually dropped but Victor, 43, was well-known to police for a series of armed robberies.
He was killed sitting in his car in a supermarket carpark in 2002.
Believing her son had been murdered by rival criminals, Kath said on radio: “If I had a gun at this moment, first of all I would get even.”
One of Kath’s other sons, Dennis Allen, aka “Mr Death” was suspected of involvement in up to a dozen killings and amassed a fortune dealing drugs before dying of heart disease in 1987 while in prison awaiting trial for murder.
Today Kath is in her early 90s and reportedly lives in a seaside community in Victoria but has said of what might happen on her death:
“I won’t be going to heaven. I wouldn’t know anyone.”
