The Milperra Massacre

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Robbo

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MILPERRA MASSACRE, FATHERS DAY AT THE VIKING TAVERN SEPTEMBER 2 1984

WAY DOWN THE BOTTOM AFTER THE PHOTO OF LEANNE WALTERS, THE 14YR OLD GIRL WHO WAS ALSO KILLED THAT DAY, ARE GRAPHIC IMAGES OF THE COMANCHEROS AND BANDIDOS BIKIES KILLED THAT DAY…

CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED…

IF SOME OF THESE WANNA BE “NIKE BIKIES” SAW THESE PHOTOS MAYBE THEY WOULD THINK TWICE ABOUT INKING UP AND CARRYING WEAPONS THINKING THEY ARE MOVIE STARS

UPDATE 18/06/12

I have been swamped with searches and queries on current day pics of the main players since the TV show has been aired. Not surprisingly the ones who are still alive, are living their lives in a much different way to how the did 30 years ago. The main ones I get and for Jock Ross and Snoddy Spencer. If anybody has links to other pics let me know via the comments or an email and I will post them. Same goes for any video footage on youtube or elsewhere…

Some new ones I came across via and reader.cheers

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Here is one I have been sent in the last few days,of Snoddy, who killed himself in jail following the massacre.

Snoddy Spencer back in the day

The aftermath was devastating for all

The Milperra Massacre was a firearm battle between rival motorcycle gang members on September 2 (Father’s Day) 1984, in Milperra, a south-western suburb of Sydney. Seven people were killed: six motorcycle gang members and a fourteen year old female bystander.

The massacre

The massacre had its beginnings after a group of Comancheros broke away and formed the first Bandidos Motorcycle Club chapter in Australia. This resulted in intense rivalry between the two chapters.

An advertised “British motorcycle swap meet” was placed in a few local press releases, at the Viking Tavern, with a scheduled start at 10 a.m. on Sunday, September 2, 1984.

On Sunday September 2, 1984 around 1 pm, a heavily armed group of Comancheros entered the carpark of the Viking Tavern during the motorcycle part swap meet with 30 similarly armed Bandidos arriving soon after with a back-up van carrying weapons following close behind. Both sides proceeded to line up at opposite ends of the car park. William George “Jock” Ross, who had founded the Comancheros in 1968, signalled by waving a machete in the air and the two clubs charged at each other.

Police responded after receiving reports that “a man” had gone berserk with a rifle at the Viking Tavern in Milperra and “a few shots” had been fired. The first of more than 200 police began arriving but the fighting continued for another 10 minutes before they were able to stop it. Four Comancheros died from shotgun wounds, two Bandidos died after being shot with a Rossi .357 magnum rifle and a 14-year-old bystander, Leanne Walters, also died after being hit in the face by a stray .357 bullet. A further 28 people were wounded with 20 requiring hospitalisation.

Mark Pennington, one of the first policemen on the scene, was later awarded $380,000 compensation for psychological damage.

6 BIKIE CLUB MEMBERS WERE KILLED THAT DAY…4 FROM THE COMANCHEROS, 2 FROM THE BANDIDOS AND ONE MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC, TEENAGER LEANNE WALTERS

COMANCHEROS

Andy: Andrew Thomas
Blowave: John Bodt
Bones: Scott Dive
Chewy: Rick Lorenz
Dog: Tony McCoy “Dog” was shot with two blasts to his upper right chest and face. He was hit with such force it was estimated he was dead before he hit the ground.
Foghorn; Foggy: Robert Lane “Foggy” was shot in the centre of the chest with a .357 magnum “Rossi” rifle. He remained where he fell and died almost instantly.
Glen: Glen Eaves
JJ: Robert Heeney
Jock: William Ross
Kraut: Kevork Tomasian
Leroy: Phillip Jeschke “Leroy” Was the Comanchero’s “Sergeant At Arms” and was a “hit” target. He was shot with the .357 magnum “Rossi” rifle and died instantly. Entry and exit wound indicate “Leroy” was crouching over and was shot in the back.
Littlejohn: John Hennessey
Morts: James Morton
Pee Wee: Garry Annakin
Snow: Ian White
Sparrow, Sparra: Ivan Romcek “Sparrow” was shot with one round of a shotgun and was shot at such close range that the cartridge wadding can be clearly seen embedded in his right ear. He died instantly with a baseball bat under his body
Sunshine: Raymond Kucler
Terry: Terrence Parker
Tonka: Michael O’keefe

BANDIDIOS

Bear: Stephen Roberts
Bernie: Bernard Podgorski
Big Tony: Tony Cain
Bull: Phillip Campbell
Caesar: Colin Campbell
Charlie: Charlie Sciberras
Chopper: Mario Cianter “Chopper” was shot with two blasts of a shotgun to his chest and died instantly.
Davo: William Littlewood
Dukes: Greg McEiwaine
Gloves: Mark McElwaine
Hookie: Steve Owens
Junior. Mark Shorthall
Kid Rotten: Lance Purdie
Knuckles: Phillip McEiwaine
Lance: Lance Wellington
Lard: Tony Melville
Lout: Rick Harris
Lovie: lewis Cooper
Opey: Stephen Cowan
Peter: Peter Melvine
Pig: Grant Everest
Ray: Ray Denholm
Roach: James Posar
Roo: Rua Rophia
Shadow: Gregory Campbell “Shadow” was shot in the throat by a shotgun and died instantly. Ironically, because of the number of charges this man’s own brother was charged with the murder.
Snake: Geoff Campbell
Snodgrass, Snoddy: Anthony Mark Spencer
Sparksy: Gerard Parkes
Steve: Steve Hails
Tiny: Graeme Wilkinson
Tom: Tom Denholm
Val: Vlado Grahovac
Whack: John Campbell
Zorba: George Kouratoras

Aftermath

As a result of the massacre, the New South Wales Firearms and Dangerous Weapons Act 1973 was subsequently amended. The court case following the “Milperra Massacre” was at the time one of the largest in Australian history. In total forty-three people were charged with seven counts of murder. Christopher Murphy, Solicitor, acted for the Banditos’ members charged as a result of the incident. Greg James QC, as he then was, represented all but one of the Banditos’ members during their trial, that being Colin Campbell. Greg James QC was Juniored by a number of Junior including John Korn, Andrew Martin, and Philip Young. Mr. Campbell was represented by Mr Greg Woods QC, as he then was.

During the longest joint criminal trial in NSW history, armed members of the Tactical Operations Unit were stationed in the courtroom and witnesses required armed guards from the Witness Security Unit to escort them home. More than two years later, on June 12, 1987, the jury delivered 63 murder convictions, 147 manslaughter convictions and 31 of affray. The judge in the case named the instigator of the violence as William “Jock” Ross, the “supreme commander” of the Comancheros, saying “Ross was primarily responsible for the decision that members of his club go to Milperra in force and armed”. Ross received a life sentence for his role in the violence.

Eight other members of the Comancheros gang received life sentences and 16 Bandidos received sentences of seven years for manslaughter. Interestingly, as the Bandidos arrested were charged in regards to all the deaths, this resulted in one being found guilty of the manslaughter of his own brother. Commonwealth Games gold medallist boxer Philip McElwaine was the only motorcycle club member to be acquitted at trial of the manslaughter and murder charges that were brought against him.

2007

In a repeat of the circumstances that led to the Milperra massacre, in early 2007 more than 60 members of the Parramatta and Granville chapters of the Nomads, previously affiliated with the Comancheros, defected to the Bandidos. The defection resulted in a new eruption of violence between the Comancheros and Bandidos involving fire-bombings and drive-by shootings. New South Wales Police set up Operation Ranmore to stop the violence escalating, which has resulted in 340 people arrested on 883 charges as of January 2008.

Movie plans

In 2002, Australian film maker Martin Brown produced a documentary titled 1% One Percenters Search For A Screenplay in an effort to raise interest for a big budget movie of the massacre. The documentary, first aired on 2 February 2003, follows Brown as he looks for screenwriters, funds and a director for his movie. It includes interviews with the police investigating officer, ex superintendent Ron Stephenson, Comanchero president “Jock” Ross, Bandido vice president “Bullets” and several other Milperra survivors.

Book

“Brothers in Arms” is a book by Lindsay Simpson and Sandra Harvey.

Television mini-series

A television mini-series Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms based on the book will screen on Network Ten in 2012. The screenplay was written by Greg Haddrick, Roger Simpson and Jo Martino. It is directed by Peter Andrikidis. It stars Callan Mulvey, Matthew Nable, Susie Porter, Maeve Dermody, Anthony Hayes, Todd Lasance, Luke Ford, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Damian Walshe-Howling, Nathaniel Dean and Luke Hemsworth.

A GALLERY OF IMAGES FROM THAT DAY…I HAVE OTHER VERY GRAPHIC PHOTOS OF THE DECEASED TAKE BY POLICE AT THE VERY BOTTOM OF THIS POST…

PLEASE DO NOT LOOK IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY DEAD BODIES AND BLOOD

: Snoddy Spencer back in the day

: Wrecking Crew

: Rex Walters at his home in Ingleburn. His daughter Leanne was shot and killed during the bikie Milperra massacre.

: Leanne Walters was shot and killed during the bikie Milperra massacre.

: Comanchero shot dead where he stood and died instantly

: Bandido “Chopper” was shot with two blasts of a shotgun to his chest and died instantly.

: Comanchero “Dog” was shot with two blasts to his upper right chest and face. He was hit with such force it was estimated he was dead before he hit the ground.

: Bandido “Shadow” was shot in the throat by a shotgun and died instantly. Ironically, because of the number of charges this man’s own brother was charged with the murder.

: Comanchero “Foggy” was shot in the center of the chest with a .357 magnum “Rossi” rifle. He remained where he fell and died almost instantly.

: Comanchero “LeROY” Was the Comanchero’s “Sergeant At Arms” and was a “hit” target. He was shot with the .357 magnum “Rossi” rifle and died instantly. Entry and exit wound indicate “LeROY” was crouching over and was shot in the back.

: Comanchero “Sparrow” was shot with one round of a shotgun and was shot at such close range that the cartridge wadding can be clearly seen embedded in his right ear. He died instantly with a baseball bat under his body

Massacre At Milperra

Monday 3rd September 1984

Seven people are dead and 20 injured after a motorcycle enthusiasts’ picnic went horribly wrong in Sydney’s south-west yesterday. The recreation day, organised by the British Motorcycle Riders Club at the Viking Tavern in Milperra, broke out into a wild brawl just before 2.00pm. More than 30 men were arrested and police have already questioned over 500 witnesses in what is being described as ‘the Milperra massacre’. Although no charges have been laid, many are expected in the immediate future.

The Tavern’s car-park exploded into violence when two bikie gangs, the Comancheros and the Bandidos, arrived there at around 2.00pm The previously peaceful meeting turned into chaos as two shots rang out.

The crowd, including families with young children,scattered. ‘People took off in all directions. As I ran I was worried I was going to get a bullet in the back.’ said one of the British Motorcycle Association members.

The event had been organised to coincide with Father’s Day and was widely advertised. It was a regular motorcyclists’ function–a swap meet– where enthusiasts gather to exchange motorcycle parts and socialise. The organisers had planned a barbecue and hired a band to provide entertainment. The day had a family atmosphere.

Trapped witnesses say the shoot-out lasted 15 minutes

An estimated 30 shots were fired in the first 10 minutes and people hid wherever they could to avoid the crossfire.

Witnesses say the shootout lasted 15 minutes and the gangs trapped 40 bystanders inside one of the tavern bars as they fought it out.

One of the dead was a 14-year-old girl–all others slain were men. Fourteen ambulances attended the scene and armed security guards have been placed on hospital wards.

Mr Wes Graham, 23, who was on the hotel porch when the bloodbath began, saw one man shot in the head. ‘I saw another guy shoot someone in the guts, and he just keeled over and then the girl was shot. She wasn’t even doing anything.’ he said.

The police response was quick and decisive. One hundred officers were at the scene, including members of the crack Tactical response Group and the Special Weapons and Operations Team. The police could not stop the killings which had happened so quickly but were there to diffuse violent outbreaks during the afternoon as people were detained for questioning.

Members of the bikie fraternity believe that yesterday’s massacre was planned. The two gangs, the Comancheros and the Bandidos, split up 18 months ago and had been feuding ever since. ‘Reports so far suggest that these blokes had decided beforehand to sort themselves out at Milperra,’ said Mr Ross Goodman, President of the NSW Motorcycle Riders’ Association.

Brothers in Arms

Brothers in Arms

By Sandra Harvey

Format: Paperback, 288 pages

Other Information: 16PP b&w PHOTOS

Published In: Australia, 01 April 1989

Father’s Day 1984: seven people die in a blaze of gunfire on a sunny afternoon in a hotel car park.Among the dead, a fifteen year old girl caught in the crossfire when two heavily-armed bikie gangs, the Comancheros and the Bandidos, clash. Brothers in Arms tells the extraordinary story of this murderous outbreak, from its vicious beginnings in the closed world of Sydney’s motorcycle gangs to its inevitable end in death and imprisonment.

Wrecking Crew

Wrecking Crew

Caesar Campbell, Donna

Macmillan Publishers Aus., 01/09/2011 – 288 pages

Wrecking Crew’ takes you into the heart of the Bandidos, and the outlaw biker world, through the eyes, fists and boots of Caesar Campbell, founding member of the Bandidos in Australia and the club’s first sergeant at arms and legendary enforcer. Jailed for seven years after the bloody ambush at Milperra that saw two of his brothers killed, Caesar led and protected the other imprisoned members of his club inside some of Australia’s toughest jails. But when he was finally released Caesar found that the world of the outlaw motorcycle gangs was changing, and that his particular values of courage, brutal force and utter loyalty to your club were making him more enemies than friends. And with Caesar Campbell you’d rather be a friend than an enemy…

THE critics are already calling Brothers in Arms “Underbelly on wheels” but the real Milperra massacre was more like hell on wheels.

By the time Glen McNamara and other detectives screamed into the Viking Tavern carpark on that Father’s Day 28 years ago, bullets were still flying and bodies piling up.

McNamara and his colleagues were dressed in jeans and T-shirts and armed with service revolvers — hardly the safest combination for perhaps the biggest gunfight on Australian soil since the Kelly Gang’s last stand or even the Eureka Stockade.

“Bikes were overturned and cars were parked everywhere and bikies were down, injured,” recalls McNamara.

Gunsmoke hung in air that reeked of cordite and blood.

McNamara and his mates crouched between cars and advanced across the carpark motorcycle swap-meet that had turned into a battleground.

He immediately tripped over a warm, bleeding body.

Comancheros enforcer Mario Cianter had just been cut down with a shotgun blast.

“His chest was blown away and still smoking, like a burnt sausage cut open,” says McNamara.

Five other bikies were dead — and 28 injured, 20 badly.

But the worst thing about Milperra was that a 14-year-old girl, Leanne Walters, was shot dead while selling raffle tickets. She was hit in the face with a .357 round from a handgun.

Milperra produced the longest-running and one of the biggest criminal trials in our history: 42 Bandidos and Comancheros went down on 63 murder and 147 manslaughter charges.

Only one, former Commonwealth Games gold medal boxer Phil “Knuckles” McElwaine, was able to beat the homicide rap.

Television drama being what it is, unlike the book it’s based on, the depiction of this outrage on Channel 10 over the next few weeks will bear only a passing acquaintance with reality.

That’s taking nothing away from the makers, just a fact of show business life.

The truth is, of course, that like the main players in Melbourne’s underworld wars, underneath the gang “patches” the “outlaws” on their iron horses were no more than drug dealers and their hired muscle fighting over a hugely profitable trade. Still are.

The drug trade is global and so is the bloodshed it breeds.

The recent outbreak of shootings among outlaw biker gangs here mimics “wars” in North America, Scandinavia and Germany.

In each case, it’s about “new” gangs taking on old ones, mostly over drug money.

Meanwhile, in Melbourne, police are still looking for the guns used to shoot Bandido heavy Toby Mitchell last November. Another episode in a never-ending and bloody story.

Father pleads ‘Don’t turn my little girl into bikie moll’

April 01, 2012

THE father of the 14-year-old girl shot dead in the Milperra bikie massacre is terrified his daughter will be portrayed as a “bikie moll” in a new television series about the tragedy.

Rex Walters at his home in Ingleburn. His daughter Leanne was shot and killed during the bikie Milperra massacre.

Rex Walters, 68, says he feels Channel Ten should have consulted him before making the adaptation of the book Brothers In Arms, which documents the deadly shoot-out between bikie gangs The Bandidos and The Comancheros, on Father’s Day 1984.

His daughter Leanne was caught in the crossfire and was the only non-bikie among the seven killed.

Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph about his concerns, Mr Walters said: “I really wish they had spoken to me. There have been bad things written about her in the past which aren’t true. What sort of clothes will they have her in? I still have the outfit she wore when she died – it was a lovely jumper, a belt and jeans – they weren’t the clothes of a bikie. I just want my daughter to be remembered properly.”

In the book, Leanne is described as a girl from a broken home, who got involved with the bikies because she didn’t have a family support network.

Mr Walters, from Ingleburn, admits Leanne was living away from her parents but said: “We had a good relationship — the last conversation I had with her was that she was coming to see me on Father’s Day.”

He also said stories about why she was at the Viking Tavern were untrue.

“She was there with a friend of mine. She loved his bike and wanted to go to the bike swap meet. It wasn’t because she was involved with a bikie.”

A Ten spokesman said the series focuses on the relationships between the key members of the motorcycle clubs.

BELOW AFTER THE PHOTO OF LEANNE WALTERS WHO WAS ALSO KILLED THAT DAY ARE GRAPHIC IMAGES OF THE COMANCHEROS AND BANDIDOS BIKIES KILLED THAT DAY…CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED…

IF SOME OF THESE WANNA BE NIKE BIKIES SAW THESE PHOTOS MAYBE THEY WOULD THINK TWICE ABOUT INKING UP AND CARRYING WEAPONS…

Leanne Walters was shot and killed during the bikie Milperra massacre.

Comanchero shot dead where he stood and died instantly

Comanchero “Sparrow” was shot with one round of a shotgun and was shot at such close range that the cartridge wadding can be clearly seen embedded in his right ear. He died instantly with a baseball bat under his body

Comanchero “Leroy” Was the Comanchero’s “Sergeant At Arms” and was a “hit” target. He was shot with the .357 magnum “Rossi” rifle and died instantly. Entry and exit wound indicate “Leroy” was crouching over and was shot in the back.

Comanchero “Foggy” was shot in the centre of the chest with a .357 magnum “Rossi” rifle. He remained where he fell and died almost instantly.

Comanchero “Dog” was shot with two blasts to his upper right chest and face. He was hit with such force it was estimated he was dead before he hit the ground.

Bandido “Chopper” was shot with two blasts of a shotgun to his chest and died instantly.

Bandido “Shadow” was shot in the throat by a shotgun and died instantly. Ironically, because of the number of charges this man’s own brother was charged with the murder.

Caesar Campbell – OLD bikies never die. They don’t mellow, either.

Paul Kent

The Daily Telegraph

August 28, 2010

OLD bikies never die. They don’t mellow, either.

Caesar Campbell, the biggest and baddest of all, took three shots at the Milperra Massacre.

Between the second and third shots – a shotgun followed by a .38 – he reached over to tear the throat out of Comanchero Ivan “Sparra” Romcek, who died right there. He was 38 then. Caesar, not Sparra.

He is 64 now, sitting in the lounge-room of his home in the Snowy Mountains region, with pictures of his brothers on the wall as clean-cut young men. Then there is the other photograph, the brothers photoshopped together with their bushy bikie beards.

Here are the two sides of the man called Caesar.

Moments earlier, his son walked into the lounge room and grabbed his father by the hand and leaned over to kiss him on the forehead.

“Hey Dad,” he said.

“Son,” said Caesar.

Amid all the Bandidos paraphernalia decorating the room, sitting on the coffee table is a single sheet of paper – a hospital report from January this year. It details the two scars across Caesar’s forearm, the scar across the shoulder that bisects a tattoo and the pale scar that runs across his cheek.

“I told the cops I had a run in with sheet metal,” Caesar said, explaining the scars.

Four pieces of sheet metal, to be exact.

“I was walking a bit behind the woman,” he said, indicating his wife Donna, “and one of them decided he was going to put his hand on her shoulder. So I stepped on the four bits of sheet metal and one of them had a jagged edge and happened to get me.

“But,” he said, “the jagged edge had a piece of metal go up here,” and he pokes the soft skin under his jaw, “and it come out here.”

He points to where the steel came out through the tongue.

The obvious hazards of scrap metal are not all the dangers ex-bikies face.

Caesar has been shot more times since he left jail than he was at Milperra, when along with his brothers Shadow, Bull, Wack, Snake and Chop he took on the Comanchero in the most famous bikie brawl in Australia.

In the new book Enforcer, which Donna wrote with the help of her friend Liz – out on Monday and described by Donna as “97 per cent fact and 3 per cent fiction” – Caesar details how the war started, not because the Comanchero had split over issues of power, as was pushed in court, but because the Campbell brothers had caught Comanchero president Jock Ross having an affair with a club member.

Ross soon split the club so he didn’t have to answer charges, and the city chapter eventually patched over to become Bandidos.

Guerrilla attacks escalated until the two gangs ran into each other at the Viking Tavern on Father’s Day 1984, when seven eventually died.

Caesar was the second man shot after his brother Snake, two blasts of a shotgun putting him down next to Sparra before a Comanchero named Robert “JJ” Heeney – or maybe it was his Ol’ Lady, Caesar always thought she had more balls – shot him with the .38 that lodged under the skin in his forehead.

He can’t remember a lot of what happened next. The .22s, he said, sting, while shotgun blasts are more like being thumped with a baseball bat.

The last time he was shot was several years back when he was watering his lawn and a car rolled past, with the windows coming down. He dropped the hose and opened his arms when – crack, crack – two .22s hit him in the guts.

“Is that the best youse can f … ing do?” he yelled at the fleeing car.

It never stops for old bikies. Just two weeks ago he was having a drink at his local when it started again.

“A bunch of Lebs sitting in two cars,” he said, “and the ‘big, bad bikie’ thing came out. They got out of the cars. They were about 23, 24, and there was seven of them. I decked three and the other four didn’t want nothing to do with it.”

At a rough count Caesar, an underground fighter and the Bandidos’ sergeant-at-arms, has had about 800 fights.

That works out to be about a fight every three weeks since he had his first at 14, when his father put him in a boxing tent.

In all that time nobody has ever dropped him to as much as a knee. He used to worry about losing. In his 40s he was sure it was near and in his 50s he was certain. But it still hasn’t happened and he is content now, at 64, that if it does happen it will be because of his age and not because the other bloke is better.

“Unless, of course, it’s another bloke in his 60s.”

The fascinating part is that it keeps happening. Might it be because, nowadays, he looks more like an old bloke trying to look like a bikie, rather than the 24-carat real deal?

“They look and they see a 60-year-old bloke and they think he’s not going to be much trouble,” Caesar said. “And normally a 60-year-old bloke, to a 20 and 30-year-old, isn’t going to be any trouble.

“But I’ve been hit with baseball bats, bricks, shot, stabbed, hit with a car …

“I can take a thump and it doesn’t affect me so much.”

Years back he was in a pub toilet when a rival bikie told him some blokes in the carpark were loading his bike onto the back of their ute.

“Put the bike back down,” he said when he found them. Soon after, two were unconscious and the third was groaning. Caesar then took

a boning knife he kept on his belt and sliced the little finger off each of them, then wrapped them in a handkerchief. When he got home he tossed the small package to Donna.

“Not more fingers,” she said. He already had another 20 or so kept in a jar.

Not that he is always looking for a fight. Some years back he was in a pub when a bloke started in on him.

“You’re built like a brick shithouse,” he kept saying. “How big are you?”

It got to the point where Caesar stood up and walked to the pub next door. Shortly after the bloke was there, too.

“How big are you?” He got up again and began to walk out through the toilets, when the bloke grabbed him on his colours. “I thought, ‘F … why’d you have to do that?”

Milperra – the spark that started the bikie violence

By Paul Kent

The Daily Telegraph

April 11, 2009

IT begins with an open window. Everything today, the escalation in violence, the historical hate between the Bandidos and Comanchero, begins with that window.

As secrets go, Colin “Caesar” Campbell has been hanging on to the secret of that window for 26 years.

Like his brothers Bull (Phillip), Snake (Geoff), Wack (John), Chop (Mario) and Shadow (Gregory), Caesar was once a Comanchero.

They were the Wrecking Crew and together with the McElwaine brothers – Knuckles (Phil), Gloves (Mark) and Dukes (Greg) – the unofficial muscle of the gang.

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“They could walk into a room of a hundred men and clear the room,” said Bear Campbell, an adopted brother. They broke away in 1983 because of the window.

Not even the Comanchero that remained, the ones that stayed loyal to then-president William “Jock” Ross when the gang split in 1983, knew about the window.

They still don’t.

“You’re just the ninth person to know this,” Bear said yesterday. “And four are dead.”

Bear is Caesar’s adopted brother, and we are talking about Caesar’s secret. Caesar is 62, the last surviving original Bandidos office-bearer, and despite a recent stay in hospital he can still clear a room if he must.

From retirement Caesar watches the latest escalation of bikie violence, filthy at the attacks on homes where children sleep, adamant this was never what it was about.

Those naive to their war might point to Milperra, but Caesar insists back then they had honour. Indeed, Milperra was all about honour.

Police still believe the war began over turf, or drugs, or a combination of both. They alleged it in court in 1984, some seven weeks after the violence in the carpark of Milperra’s Viking Tavern, when six bikies were shot dead, as well as 14-year-old Leanne Walters.

Now, for the first time, Caesar Campbell has let go of the secret that cost him two brothers – Shadow and Chop – at Milperra, and which would see Wack die three years later from illness caused by the massacre.

“One of the Campbell brothers and another member went to another member’s house and saw Jock Ross’ vehicle out the front,” he said.

“They went to the front door and looked through the window and saw Jock and the other member’s wife in a compromising position in the lounge room.

“They knocked on the door, they answered the door, and both members looked at Jock and turned around and came straight to me and told me about it.

“It was then that it was decided that Jock would be brought up on charges of committing one of the greatest offences that you can make in a motorcycle club – apart from selling heroin and making a police statement – by making love to a member’s wife.”

Ross had broken one of the 10 club rules he drew up himself, namely Club Rule 4: “Any member found guilty of screwing another member’s Ol’ Lady, or taking advantage of a rift between them for future conning up, will be thrown out.”

The Campbells and McElwaines, their bond born in battle, were filthy.

Caesar won’t reveal the member’s identity now out of respect to his children but as sergeant-at-arms he ordered Ross to the next club meeting to face charges.

He failed to show.

He failed to show at the next meeting, too, but walked into the third, announced he was splitting the Comanchero into two separate chapters, and walked out.

The Wrecking Crew went to the city, opening their clubhouse at 150 Louisa Rd, Birchgrove. Ross’s clubhouse remained at 65 Harris St, Harris Park, in western Sydney.

Relations remained strained but workable until the club’s annual run. It broke down amid fights and threats, and the city chapter returned and voted to break away.

Police believe the breakaway occurred shortly after Christmas 1983, when Anthony “Snotty” Spencer and Charlie Scibberas flew to America to seek permission to form an Australian Bandidos chapter.

What actually happened was “Snotty” and Charlie had gone to America two years earlier to buy Harley-Davidson parts, met Charles “Ha Ha Chuck” Gillies, president of the Bandidos’ Albuquerque chapter, and now Snotty and Shadow called Ha Ha Chuck. “Within a week it was granted,” Caesar said.

A set of colours were made and taken to Caesar for approval.

More colours were ordered, but for 10 days Caesar was the only man in colours. For 10 days he was president, vice-president, sergeant-at-arms, treasurer and secretary.

Bashing and clubhouse attacks took place until August 1984, when Snotty and Jock officially declared war in a phone call.

Caesar declared homes and places of work off limits. Everywhere else was fair game.

It was unlike today’s bikie war, where homes are now a target of choice, and small attacks continued until Father’s Day 1984.

Among the dead and bloodied at Milperra, Caesar was shot six times.

He was thrown into a car and dropped off at Bankstown Hospital. Some weeks later Caesar gripped the back of his chair while his Ol’ Lady Donna pulled four remaning shotgun pellets from his back with tweezers and a buck knife and no anaesthetic.

Much of what the gangs believed they stood for then is now lost.

Caesar does not see the honour he once stood for, and still stands for.

Some time before Milperra the American Bandidos visited Australia and noticed the Australian patch, the fat Mexican brandishing a pistol, was wrong. The American Bandido has a white beard. The Australian version was black. They ordered the patches back so they could be burned and replaced with the correct patch.

No, said Caesar.

On his jacket was the blood of his dead brothers. He wasn’t giving it up. The Americans insisted, saying the club stood above all else.

Caesar knew in that patch was the blood of everything he stood for, so he looked at the Americans and said, “If you want it, come and get it”.

Caesar, the original Bandido, is the only man in Australia to still have that patch.

It is funny how anything Peter Slipper says Just does not seem to add up…UPDATES ON HIS CONS

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Robbo

UPDATE 05/05/12

Peter Slipper pleaded to retain ongoing use of paper Cabcharge dockets.
NOW WHY WOULD HE DO THAT?

EMBATTLED Speaker Peter Slipper pleaded to retain ongoing use of paper Cabcharge dockets despite high-level government concerns they could be “easily misused”.

In the latest twist in the scandal that has engulfed the Gillard government, it can be revealed Mr Slipper personally challenged a ruling in April 2006 to scrap paper vouchers in favour of electronic cards.

The Queensland MP is under Australian Federal Police investigation over his use of Cabcharge and has stood aside as Speaker until the Cabcharge and sexual harassment allegations, both of which he denies, are investigated.

Mr Slipper – who has in the past been forced to repay more than $20,000 in entitlements – was one of only two federal MPs using paper Cabcharge dockets when the Finance Department recommended they be axed. Out of how many MP’s at Canberra and around the place…Remember this was in 2006. And he still clinged onto the SCAM potential up until the present day…

Using the excuse it was all the driver’s fault as they did not have the electronic gadgets to do instant, accurate and accountable dockets. This has suited this despicable excuse of an MP down to a T.

I have pages of stuff about his off the record journeys to purchase booze, drink booze, wine and dine and get pissed (not to mention doing the same in Parliament House for years…His exploits are legendary.

His bid to try to retain the dockets raised suspicions with Howard government figures keen to crackdown on misuse of travel entitlements.

In a memo, finance said the vouchers were open to abuse due to “unclear handwriting” and “inadequate information for reporting purposes”.

“Cabcharge vouchers are also very difficult to trace and, in the event of being lost or stolen, are easily misused,” the department said in a letter to then Special Minister of State Gary Nairn. Mr Slipper tried to persuade Mr Nairn to allow him to continue to use the paper dockets.

“I had a call from (Mr Slipper) arguing the case to keep Cabcharge vouchers,” Mr Nairn said yesterday.

On April 5, 2006, in an email headed: “Cabcharge voucher books”, Mr Slipper wrote: “Hi Gary, you will recall we spoke about this issue recently and (I) was wondering whether there had been a successful outcome? Peter.”

Mr Slipper, whose Queensland electorate of Fisher is about 90 minutes drive from Brisbane, argued that his hire car arrangements required the use of Cabcharge vouchers.

Mr Nairns’ staff contacted two limousine companies – including Mr Slipper’s preferred supplier Oakcorp – which both confirmed they accepted Cabcharge through electronic transactions.

Mr Nairn, who lost his seat in 2007, pointed to a range of flaws with the vouchers and told a Liberal colleague: “I really couldn’t justify keeping the voucher system going.”

The AFP is investigating claims Mr Slipper would sign Cabcharge vouchers but leave his long-term Sydney driver Antwan Kaikaty to fill out other details – including the amount.

The Speaker is also facing sexual harassment allegations after male adviser James Ashby launched legal action in the Federal Court.

Mr Slipper declined to comment on the claims last night and requested “copies of this correspondence and details of concerns of the Department of Finance”.

It is funny how anything Peter Slipper says Just does not seem to add up. Here is an article from the Financial Review (who should know their stuff)

By Pamela Williams

Many dozens of limousine and taxi fares paid by the Speaker Peter Slipper for widely differing journeys in Victoria, NSW, Queensland and Canberra have been for identical sums of money, raising new questions amid the cascading claims and allegations levelled against the most senior office-holder in the Australian Parliament in the past week.

An analysis by The Australian Financial Review of taxi and limousine charges in 14 pages of documents released by the Department of Finance reveal what appear to be patterns in Cabcharge vouchers signed by Slipper in 2010 and 2011.

Sixteen different journeys taken by Slipper between January 2010 and January 2011 in Canberra, Sydney or Brisbane – with trips as varied as suburb-to-suburb, city-to-suburb or airport-to-suburb, and using seven different car or taxi companies – each cost $75.68.

For example, on a warm summer’s day (27 degrees) on Friday, January 8, 2010, the Sydney firm of RSL Cabs took Slipper on two trips: one from the airport to the city, and another from the city to the airport. In a striking coincidence, given the ebb and flow of Sydney’s traffic swarms, the fare each way was exactly $75.68.

It was perhaps an expensive run for Slipper, given the average taxi fare between downtown Sydney and the airport – while far from predictable – is about $30 to $40. It seemed unfortunate and almost against the odds for Slipper to take two taxis charging identical city-to-airport fares of $75.68 at different times, on the same day.

If Slipper were a betting man, he might have seen a sign that he could beats the odds when exactly a year later, back in Sydney, he took another RSL taxi on January 7, 2011 – noted suburbs-to-suburbs (but presumably different suburbs to a year before) – and the fare yet again was exactly $75.68.

Another 12 trips by Slipper between January 2010 and March 2011 all cost precisely $85.77 each. These ranged from a journey from Parliament House, Canberra, to the suburbs, three other trips described as suburbs-to-suburbs or suburbs-to-airport, using car companies as disparate as Babylon Investment Group, Canberra Hire Cars, Marcellus K Gill and Oakcorp Limousines, which services south-east Queensland.

In Canberra, Slipper took three trips using Canberra Hire Cars between November 2 and November 5, 2010, and each trip cost exactly $65.59.

A figure of $95.86 was the exact cost of 22 different trips by Slipper between March 2010 and March 2011. A trip on July 27, 2010, with his favoured Queensland limo service, Oakcorp Limousines, from Brisbane to the suburbs was paid by Slipper using his taxpayer-funded Cabcharge card. The bill was $95.86. The fare for a trip with Oakland Limo on March 19, 2011, from the airport to Brisbane was $95.86. The fare on January 20, 2010, from the Canberra suburbs to Parliament House was $95.86. So, too, was a trip on April 22, 2010, with Brisvegas Limos from the suburbs to Brisbane.

Slipper took 24 trips between February and July 2010 from his home in Buderim, Queensland, to Brisbane or Brisbane airport (or the other way from Brisbane to Buderim) where the fare was $327.95 on each occasion.

Five of these trips were with Lazmar Limousines and the other 19 trips were with Oakcorp limousines. The fares, however, were were all the same.

During the same time frame, Slipper took a further seven trips between Buderim and either Brisbane airport or Brisbane city, all with Oakcorp, with the exception of one ride with Lazmar. On all these trips – regardless of whether they were from Buderim to Brisbane or vice versa – the fare was exactly $338.05 each time, suggesting a most precise taxi meter operating in the vehicle.

During eight limo trips with Lazmar or Oakcorp between August 2010 and June 2011 (again Buderim-Brisbane, Brisbane-Buderim), the fare was exactly $287.59.

In 2010, trips on January 19, January 31, February 5, and March 6, using four car companies (A.L. Prosser, Babylon Investment Group, Marcellus K Gill, and Oakcorp Limousines) to be driven variously from Brisbane airport to the suburbs, as well as other suburb-to-suburb fares, all came to the same amount: $146.32. A year later, United Yellow Cabs SA took Slipper suburbs-to-suburbs, and that, too, was $146.32.

Slipper’s cars rarely list the suburbs he visits on his Cabcharge receipts unless the destination is Buderim or Brisbane. Seven trips in 2010 (January 19, 30, February 24, 27, March 19, July 11 and July 27) using cars in Canberra, Brisbane and elsewhere, stated only airport-to-suburbs, suburb-to-suburb, with one exception of Brisbane-to-suburbs – all with the same fare of $126.14.

Slipper’s drivers appear to have an almost eerie ability to take travel routes in different parts of Australia where the fares match up to the last cent. For example, on April 15, 2010, Darwin company Taxis Top End appeared on Slipper’s Cabcharge with a bill for $70.64. On November 2, 2010, Canberra Hire cars charged Slipper for a trip suburbs-to-city at $70.64. Just four months later on March 10, 2011, Babylon Investment Group appeared on Slipper’s taxi docket for a trip suburbs-to-suburbs at $70.64.

Slipper’s travel between his Buderim home and Brisbane by limousine, mostly using Oakcorp Limousines but sometimes using Lazmar, also revealed some surprising differentials.

The online calculator for Yellow Cabs in Queensland estimates the fare between Buderim and Brisbane at $215.

But on 70 trips taken between January and July 2010, Slipper paid fares ranging from $312.82 (nine trips) to $322.91 (eight trips), $327.95 (24 trips), $333.00 (nine trips), $338.05 (seven trips), $348.14 (five trips). All of these fares were paid with Slipper’s electronic Cabcharge card.

But Department of Finance records also list other fares using the same limousine service, Oakcorp Limousines, for travel between Buderim and Brisbane during 2010 and 2011 which Slipper paid with a Cabcharge docket filled out by hand.

Covering the period August 2010 to May 2011, the fares paid with paper dockets supplied to the cab driver by Slipper range from $236.36 (13 trips) to $245.45 (25 trips), $250.00 (eight trips), $254.55 (six trips), $259.09 (four trips), $263.64 (three trips) and $268.18 (three trips). These fares, paid manually, are almost $80 to $100 less than those paid electronically.

Slipper did not reply to questions last night about the reason for the disparity.

One astonishing overlap in Slipper’s travels occurred during a trip to Perth in the winter of 2010. On July 1, according to Freedom of Information records now unravelling Slipper’s travel, he arrived in Perth and took a cab from Swans Taxi Co-Op at 11.11am, travelling to East Perth and paying a fare of $40.36. Almost simultaneously, at 11.12am Slipper picked up an Avis hire car in Perth which he kept for several days, returning it on July 3 and paying $348.72.

Other oddities in Slipper’s hire car use have emerged in a Financial Review investigation. For November 14, 2010, Oakcorp Limousines submitted two manual vouchers signed by Slipper – both airport-to Brisbane on the same day, and both for $86.36.

Then on November 19, 2010, Slipper signed a manual docket for Oakcorp Limousines for travel from Brisbane to Buderim – at a cost of $86.36.

He also signed a manual docket for what appears to be a wholly different trip – from Brisbane airport to Brisbane for $245.45 – suggesting a mix-up in his dockets.

On February 5, 2011, Slipper signed an electronic Cabcharge bill for Lazmar Limousines for a trip from Brisbane to Brisbane airport – for $297.68 – a journey for which he usually paid between $68 and $86 (although regularly up to $136, an amount perhaps startling to Brisbanites).

On two consecutive days in July 2010, Slipper stacked up four limousine trips between Buderim and the airport or Brisbane CBD. Three of these took place on just one day, July 27. The records suggest that Slipper took a car from Buderim to the airport on July 26 (at a cost of $333). He presumably flew to Canberra. The next day, July 27, a commonwealth car took Slipper on a 34-minute trip early in the morning. He then flew back to Brisbane, where he took a limo from Brisbane airport to Buderim ($327.95).

Still on July 27, Slipper travelled from Buderim to Brisbane (348.14) before turning around to head back to Buderim ($343.09). He somehow also found time on the day to notch up two limousine trips between Brisbane and the suburbs ($126.14 and $95.86).

At the end of 2010, a rather more startling picture emerges.

According to the records, Slipper travelled on December 29, 2010, using Oakcorp Limousines from his home in Buderim to Brisbane. He paid using electronic Cabcharge a fare of $287.59. On the same day, December 29, 2010, Slipper also signed a manual Cabcharge to pay Oakcorp Limousines for the same trip from Buderim to Brisbane at a cost of $245.45. No records exist showing a return trip in between from Brisbane to Buderim.

The Speaker stood aside this week after a welter of allegations – yet to be tested in court – that he had abused his relationship of power with an adviser in his office.

The adviser, James Ashby, has filed a civil suit claiming that Slipper pressured him for favours during a string of encounters at Slipper’s Canberra flat and through text messaging. Ashby also alleged Slipper had handed bundles of Cabcharge dockets to car hire drivers in exchange for journeys taken earlier this year. These are separate from the travel records released by the Department of Finance, referred to here. The furore that has since enveloped Slipper has been enough to see him stand aside as Speaker, casting the minority Labor government into unknown territory as the federal budget looms.

Last night, though, Slipper released copies of the Cabcharge dockets he says were referred to in Ashby’s affidavit. He said they clearly show that he had signed and filled out all elements of the dockets himself in his own handwriting. He described the criminal allegation regarding the Cabcharges as a complete fabrication.

It is funny how anything Peter Slipper says Just does not seem to add up. Here is an article from the Financial Review (who should know their stuff)

By Pamela Williams

An analysis by The Australian Financial Review of taxi and limousine charges in 14 pages of documents released by the Department of Finance reveal what appear to be patterns in Cabcharge vouchers signed by Slipper in 2010 and 2011.