Radio Australia Today Editorial

Another underworld killing in Melbourne.

17 June 2009

Des Moran was murdered the other day as he went into his regular deli cafe in Melbourne.

Des Moran knew the dangers of the underworld. His brother Lewis was gunned down in 2004. His nephews Jason and Mark were killed a few years before that. Jason’s father-in-law Les Kane was murdered in 1978. Kane’s brother Brian was murdered in 1982.

There have been many more deaths in this dynasty, a dynasty that no longer exists after Des Moran’s death.

Yes, underworld killings have been rife over the last 30 or so years here in the garden city, Des Moran being just the latest.

Except it’s not an underworld killing as such. The police were emphatic that the death was not gangland related. Arrests were made yesterday, and to the surprise of many, two of the people charged over the death came from within the Moran family itself. Moran’s own sister-in-law, Judy Moran, wife of Lewis Moran was charged with Being an Accessory to Murder, the police allegeing that she was driving a car involved in the killing. Also arrested was a sister-in-law of one of Judy Moran’s murdered sons.

Self-confessed former killer Mark “Chopper” Read was in the newspapers this morning saying that Des Moran was the dark horse of the Moran clan, and far from the public image of him being an innocent party in the underworld, Read alleges that Des Moran was the only Moran with real criminal power.

Now that’s he’s gone, and the alleged perpetrators caught, you might think that at last there will be an end of the gangland violence.

Don’t be too sure. Soon after she was arrested, Judy Moran’s house was gutted in an arson attack. And another underworld figure, currently overseas, has promised that when he returns to Australia, he will deal with Moran’s death.

No folks, this incident only proves that criminals will never be able to kill each other into peace.

– Phil