The day the hitman was hit

The Age

16-05-2025

Kath wisely took her time, and Alphonse escaped.
In what would be a pattern, Flannery started as the paid help, then bullied his way into management, becoming a partner in Mickey's. The main shareholder was Ron Feeney, who was shifty as a rat. He would tell police: 'After Flannery had bought the shares, things started to go wrong. His wife, Kathy, came to work there, and the takings started to drop.'
It became a habit of Flannery's (short) life – always wanting more. Now he wanted to become an underworld assassin.
Feeney said Flannery had come to him for advice.
Flannery: 'If you had to get rid of a body, what would be the best way?'
Feeney: 'Take it 10 miles out in the bay and dump it.'
Flannery: 'No, I reckon, dig a big hole up the bush.'
Feeney: 'Why?'
Flannery: 'I'm gonna tell you somethin'. It was just put to me to get rid of a body. I was told to give a price.'
Feeney: 'Did you give a price?'
Flannery: 'Yeah, I was offered 15.'
Feeney: 'Shit. You'd want more than that to have to do that. Why? Who is he?'
Flannery: 'Ah, some barrister they want knocked off.'
The barrister Flannery was casually discussing killing was lawyer turned businessman Roger Wilson, solid citizen, married and a father of three little kids.
When we think of hitmen as cool professionals, think of Roger Wilson, a decent guy killed by strangers for money.
On February 1, 1980, Wilson was flagged over on the Princes Highway near his farm at Nar Nar Goon, Victoria. Flannery and Kevin 'Weary' Williams were alleged to be holding a police sign and dressed as detectives. Wilson was never seen again. In court, it was alleged the pair were paid $35,000 by a rival businessman. All three were acquitted.
Flannery's jubilation was short-lived as he was immediately arrested for the murder of Sydney crook Ray 'Lizard' Locksley. The Lizard was said to be moving into the Melbourne crime scene and had to go. After two Sydney trials and an acquittal, Flannery decided to stay, bringing Kath and their two children to Sin City.
In an off-the-record chat, Kath would tell police: 'What happened was we went to Sydney and we were poor. All we had was our bail money and I think $12,000 ... I mean he wasn't an angel and there was a lot of rorting going on. I mean he made a reasonable amount of money out of the standover.'
Flannery met Sydney illegal gaming boss George Freeman at the Eastern Bath House (how Sopranos), where Freeman offered him a weekly retainer. Kath said Freeman wanted Rent-a-Kill on the books as insurance. 'He pays you and sits you there, and if anyone wants to kill you, to kill George, they have to kill you first.'
When a rival gang tried to take over the poker machine business from mob boss Lennie McPherson, George lent Flannery to Lennie as muscle. Flannery began to hunt the man he believed was responsible, and it would later be alleged the rival gang was looking to get in first.
On January 27, 1985, a crew fired up to 60 shots at Flannery outside his home in the southern Sydney suburb of Arncliffe, hitting him in the wrist and narrowly missing Kath and their two kids.
The truth was he had been on borrowed time for at least six months because he had breached the underworld rule of law: don't shoot cops and don't turn on your bosses.
The Melbourne case against drug dealer Alan Williams was weak, but he didn't want to take any chances. The star prosecution witness was NSW undercover cop Mick Drury, and Williams went to his old mate Flannery for help.
They met at a restaurant along with Rogerson. The deal was that Rogerson would offer Drury a huge bribe to stuff up his evidence. Drury refused and at the next meeting, Flannery told Williams: 'If it was me, I'd have him knocked.'
The deal was done and on June 6, 1984, Flannery shot Drury at his Chatswood, Sydney, home.
The policeman survived, and his testimony would ultimately expose the endemic corruption in NSW.
The man who introduced Drury to Flannery was Robert 'Jack' Richardson, who was also charged. The word was out that Jack might be prepared to do a deal.
On March 4, 1984, the day before the trial, Richardson went missing. He was last seen in St Kilda sitting outside an ice-cream shop with two men, believed to be Flannery and Williams. Within hours, he was dead.
Flannery was making enemies but, in a classic case of not reading the room, he told a senior cop: 'You're not a protected species you know, you're not a f---ing koala.'
Now he was on the wrong side of both honest and bent cops. Then he lost his sponsors in the underworld. Eventually, he shot dead one of his best friends, Tony 'Spaghetti' Eustace.
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The view was if he could shoot cops and kill friends, he would kill anyone. Just as in the Mickey's days, he didn't want to remain a soldier and was moving into drug trafficking, funding an importation of three kilograms of cocaine from Bolivia with the son of a NSW judge.
As a killer, Flannery knew the victim was most vulnerable at his own home, and he and Kath started moving around. Finally, in April 1985, they took a three-month lease on an apartment under an assumed name in the 30-storey Connaught building in Sydney, across the road from the police criminal investigation branch.
If he thought he was safe, Roger 'The Dodger' Rogerson begged to differ, hatching a cunning plan. Rogerson contacted the NSW murder taskforce to organise a meeting with Flannery.
The officer in charge, John Anderson, told the Flannery inquest: 'I was sort of taken back a bit but, nevertheless, I took the view that I had nothing to lose by meeting Flannery, so I said yes … I would speak to him. Rogerson later got back to me and said he would not come to the CIB … he had this contact with Flannery … so the venue was set to meet him at a club in the city.'
At the meeting it was clear that Flannery didn't want to talk. When he left, Rogerson followed him 1.5 kilometres to the Connaught. It was then that he knew where he lived.
Within hours, his pager received the message 'Ring Mercedes' – George Freeman's code name.
Freeman wanted Flannery to inspect a modified sub-machinegun fitted with a silencer – the same type of weapon used in the attempt to murder Rent-a-Kill. The next day Flannery went to his Valiant sedan in the building's car park. It didn't start due to what appeared to be a flat battery (it had been disabled).
Kath said her husband was prepared for action: 'Oh, he had a gun, and it was loaded and ready to go. Yes, it was a silver .38.'
The best theory is he went outside and two corrupt cops he trusted, one being Rogerson, offered him a lift. Within hours, Kath walked across the road to tell police Flannery was dead, nominating Freeman. Police rang Freeman and asked if they could pop around to have a look, and he said no. Several days later they attended with a search warrant and, unsurprisingly, found nothing.
Like so many of his victims, Flannery just disappeared, with speculation he was fed to the fishes in Sydney Harbour.
At Sydney's Long Bay Prison, Friday was traditionally fish and chips day. For years the joke was whether the inmates were nibbling on the lightly fried Flannery.
Hold the vinegar.