Carl Williams

He was married to convicted drug trafficker Roberta Mercieca (born 23 March 1969), with whom he had one daughter, Dhakota Williams born 10 March 2001.

Williams held various labouring jobs before opening a children's clothing store in partnership with his wife, which eventually failed.

Carl Anthony Williams (13 October 1970 – 19 April 2010) was an Australian convicted murderer and drug trafficker from Melbourne, Victoria.

He was a central figure in the Melbourne gangland killings as well as their final victim.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 35 years for ordering the murders of three people and conspiracy to murder a fourth (which was unsuccessful).

Williams spent much of his childhood in Western Melbourne with his friends and older brother Shane who died of a heroin overdose in 1997.

On 25 November 1999, Williams, along with his father George and another associate, were arrested and charged with drug trafficking after a raid on an illegal drug factory that had been set up in a unit located in Fir Close, Broadmeadows.

In excess of 25,000 amphetamine tablets were seized by police, estimated to be worth up to A$20 million.

On 13 October 1999, Williams was shot in the abdomen by Jason Moran because he owed the Moran family $80,000.

This event sparked a lengthy underworld war known popularly as the Melbourne gangland killings.

Mark Moran is shot on 15 June 2000 after arriving at his home in Aberfeldie.

Williams was due to stand trial for his murder, but the charge was dropped when he pleaded guilty to other murders.

In 2002, after meeting through a mutual friend, Tony Mokbel, Williams courted the services of the murderer Andrew Veniamin as his right-hand man until early 2004.

On the Saturday morning of 21 June 2003, Jason Moran and a colleague, Pasquale Barbaro, were fatally shot in the parking lot of the Cross Keys Hotel in Strathmore, Melbourne, where Moran and Barbaro had brought five children to attend an Auskick football clinic.

The clinic had just finished, and many adults and children were standing around.

Moran and Barbaro sat in the front seats of Moran's minivan—with the five young children sitting in the rear—a gunman approached and fired both a shotgun and a handgun into the vehicle.

Both men died at the scene.

Three years earlier, a shotgun and a handgun had been used to gun down Moran's half-brother Mark.

Two of the children in the minivan were Moran's, and all were age 7 or under.

The gunman—nicknamed "The Runner" before he was identified as Victor Brincat—later told police that Carl Williams was the person who paid him to kill Moran and Barbaro, and that Williams had paid him less than the $100,000 fee he was originally promised.

Williams later pleaded guilty to the murder of Jason Moran.

Mark Mallia was an associate of murdered underworld criminal, Nik Radev.

At 8:05 a.m. on 18 August 2003 a fire was reported in a stormwater drain in Sunshine.

Fire brigade members attending to the fire recovered a wheelie bin containing the remains of a charred body inside, later identified as Mallia.

Marshall was shot outside his luxury South Yarra home in front of his five-year-old son on 25 October 2003.

It was also revealed that Williams was serving a sentence of 21 years for the 2003 murder of Michael Marshall.

Williams, who described himself as a semi-professional gambler, was banned from the Crown Casino on 2 April 2004 by police commissioner Christine Nixon under the Casino Control Act.

Lewis Moran was fatally shot in the inner-city Brunswick Club on 31 March 2004.

Williams pleaded guilty to his murder.

On 28 February 2007, Williams pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court of Victoria to the murders of Lewis Moran, his son Jason Moran, and Mark Mallia (whose name was initially suppressed by the court).

Williams also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder gangland rival Mario Condello.

A suppression order prevented the media from reporting this until the day of sentencing.

Under a deal with police, Williams was not charged for his alleged involvement in orchestrating the murder of Mark Moran, Jason Moran's half-brother.

Williams's mother Barbara Williams was found dead in her Melbourne home on 22 November 2008, having overdosed on unspecified drugs in an act of suicide.

She had been suffering from depression.

On 19 April 2010, while incarcerated at HM Prison Barwon, Williams was beaten to death with the stem of an exercise bike by another inmate, Matthew Charles Johnson.

Williams enlisted the help of others willing to perform the contract killings in exchange for large payments of cash.

At the time of his death, he was in the maximum-security Acacia unit of HM Prison Barwon near Geelong.

Williams would have been 71 before he was eligible for consideration of parole.

Williams attended Broadmeadows Technical School, leaving in Year 11.