Retired lawyer Brian Rolfe recalls Victoria’s gangland figures

Rolfe, now retired, spoke to John Silvester at a deli on Lygon Street in Carlton, about 100 metres from where Gatto shot hitman Andrew Veniamin 22 years ago. Gatto was acquitted of murder on grounds of self-defence.

Rolfe described Gatto as "a good client and good witness" and said of Veniamin: "Andrew was a short guy who wouldn’t take a backward step. At the trial, the prosecution tried to make out Veniamin was an innocent victim, and he was anything but."

Rolfe recalled several of his clients. He briefed Nicola Gobbo, the barrister who became a secret police informer, in the case of Faruk Orman, who was convicted of murdering Victor Peirce. The conviction was later overturned when Gobbo’s role was revealed. Rolfe said: “I briefed Nicola in the Orman case. She was an excellent barrister. She could master a complex drug brief and had a great knowledge of police procedures.” He added: “I said to Bob [Galbally] the office must be bugged. We now know Gobbo was leaking, undermining her own client. It was outrageous no one was prosecuted [over Gobbo’s role as a double-agent] despite overwhelming evidence.”

Of Australia’s oldest hitman, James Frederick Bazley, who was sentenced to life for killing three and was paid to kill Donald Mackay, Rolfe said: “Jimmy was very polite and quietly spoken. After he was released, I saw him walking around Princes Park. I asked, ‘How are you, Jimmy?’ He said, ‘Not bad Brian, but I’m struggling for money. You know what I do, so if you hear of anything give me a call.’”

Describing a lunch with Flannery and client Tony Eustace, Rolfe recalled: "Flannery was quite pleasant. We had lunch at a beautiful restaurant where the table was laden with seafood. There was Chris, his wife Kath, Phil Dunn, and Tony Eustace. There was no one else in the restaurant. The owner said Mr Flannery likes it this way." When Eustace quibbled about costs, Rolfe said he "saw Flannery’s eyes narrow". About a week later, Eustace was shot dead. Flannery went missing in May 1985 and his body was never found.

Of Alan Williams, who tried to have undercover policeman Mick Drury killed, Rolfe recalled: “Alan Williams was very smart until the drugs got him. He bought his heroin from Roger Rogerson in Sydney and would stash it in a locker at Melbourne University SRC. He would wear desert boots and a duffle jacket to look like a student.” Rolfe said that walking down court steps in Sydney with Williams, they saw Drury. “He said ‘G’day Alan’. I was astounded that he would speak to the guy who tried to kill him.”

On Alphonse Gangitano, the Black Prince of Lygon Street, who was shot dead in 1998, likely by Jason Moran, Rolfe said: "I met him in Pentridge and got him bail when he was a teenager. I knew him for many years – he was a charismatic character. His father took me to lunch. He was a lovely fellow who begged me to keep his son out of jail. He could have been anything, but his propensity for violence was extraordinary. Towards the end he was a loose cannon."

Rolfe also recounted a case that troubles him: that of Aaron Rolls, convicted of conspiracy to murder his wife. "I don’t think he meant it. I think he was stringing her [the girlfriend] along because he didn’t want the relationship to finish. I believe he was innocent. It troubles me to this day."