Age crime writer and Underbelly co-author Andrew Rule today told Radio 3AW that Desmond Moran was a career criminal, but "a friendlier and more harmless version of his dead relatives".
Melbourne's gangland war: the victims Denis Walter: "In March this year Desmond 'Tuppence' Moran said that when there was an attempt on his life that it was 'a mongrel intent on making a name for himself'." Des Moran shot dead in Melbourne street VIDEO: Des Moran gunned down IN PICTURES: The scene of the crimeAndrew Rule: "He did, he used some colourful language. An edited version of it was that the accused was an 'inbred albino something' ... of taking a potshot at him up at his house in Langs Road, which of course is not that far from Union Road in Ascot Vale."He wasn't driving that night, he's a very careful man, he had a friend who was going to drive him, and the friend was sitting in the driver's seat when a bullet came through the windscreen at high velocity and hit the steering wheel, and saved the friend's life."(Des Moran had been drinking) and sticking to the law in that event could have saved his life. Sadly like many of us he's a creature of habit and his habit was to drink coffee at a particular coffee shop in Union Road, a coffee shop owned by people that would be well-known to him I think, a well known family... "Presumably anybody looking for him would know that most mornings on a sunny day he'd be out late morning having a coffee there."He's really the last man standing, no longer, as of an hour ago. His brother was Lewis Moran who was shot dead in Brunswick, in the Brunswick Club. It was well held that Lewis got himself shot because he liked cheap beer." Walter: "Call me crazy, but if you're in this situation wouldn't it perhaps make sense to alternate where you go for coffee or beer?"Rule: "I think if it was you or me Denis we would, however we're not the crazy risk takers these people are, they're different from most of us. There's an element of fatalism about them. Lewis was certainly fatalistic, he'd even given up carrying a gun himself."Tuppence is widely regarded as ... probably a friendlier and more harmless version of his now considerably dead relatives - his brother Lewis and his nephews Jason and Mark, all very dangerous and violent men. Having said that, Tuppence was a career criminal and was known as such and he may have got himself into some sort of scrape that's yet to be seen what it's all about. Whether its an extension of the Langs Road affair or something completely different who'd be sure."You'd wonder if there's enough of them left to have a spate, I'm not sure as they say in the business who'd be left to 'back up'."I think the police would be looking at all the interesting people from that area, the sort of people that might be drinking at coffee shops in the district - their relatives and friends." theage.com.au
