Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Alphonse Gangitano "The Black Prince of Lygon Street"




Alphonse John Gangitano, 24 March 1957–16 January 1998, was an Italian Australian organised crime identity from Templestowe, a suburb of Melbourne. Nicknamed the "Black Prince of Lygon Street", Gangitano was the face of an organisation known as the Carlton Crew, and a close associate of convicted criminals Graham Kinniburgh, Mick Gatto and Jason Moran. He was also an associate of Sydney identity Tom Domican, and alleged Perth organised crime boss John Kizon.

Gangitano became one of the first of the 1998–2006 Melbourne gangland killings when he was murdered in 1998.

Gangitano, Moran and associate Mark McNamara were charged over serious assaults on several patrons at the Sports Bar nightclub in King Street, Melbourne on 19 December 1995.
Moran later said of Gangitano: "He's a fucking lulu....if you smash five pool cues and an iron bar over someone's head....you're a fucking lulu". It was violently portrayed in the TV Show Underbelly as a brutal callous attack.

On the day of his death, January 16, 1998, Gangitano is reported to have had a telephone conversation with Kizon.
That same day, Kinniburgh drank at the Laurel Hotel in Ascot Vale with associate Lou Cozzo before driving to Gangitano's home. At a subsequent coroners' inquest, evidence was presented that Kinniburgh and Jason Moran were in Gangitano's home that night. Both were exempted from giving evidence at the inquest, on the grounds that their evidence might incriminate them.
Kinniburgh left Gangitano's house shortly after 11pm, to purchase cigarettes. Upon his return 30 minutes later, he found that Gangitano had been shot several times in the head, in the laundry. Gangitano's
de facto wife Virginia was with the body. Traces of Kinniburgh's blood were later discovered on the back flyscreen door at Gangitano's home. Kinniburgh respected the code of silence, frustrating police investigating the murder.

Gangitano's pallbearers included Gatto and Kizon.
Gangitano was survived by his wife and two daughters, and was widely believed to have had another child with which he had no contact to an unidentified woman.