I picked this book up at last year's Crime & Justice Festival and it's been a perfect book to dip into a read a little bit now and then. Makes you realise that everything old is new again - the Gangland Wars of Melbourne are definitely not the first and couldn't possibly be the last.
From the Blurb:
GANGLAND AUSTRALIA details the exploits of an unforgettable cast of villains, crooks and mobsters who have made up the criminal and gangland scene in Australia.
One of Britain's top true crime authors, James Morton, is joined by barrister-turned-legal-broadcaster Susanna Lobez in this fast-paced examination of Australian organised crime. Tracing the developments in and the shifting dynamics of Australia's criminal underworld from the early 1800s until the Melbourne gangland killings of recen tyears, this is compulsive reading.
"Gangland Australia" is a book about organized crime and the professional criminals who have recklessly cut a swathe through Australia over the last 200 years. It is a book with accounts of murder, robbery, standover, prostitution, drugs, great escapes, revenge, betrayal, corruption, police, lawyers, doctors and politicians.This is a forensic investigation of criminal gangs in Australia, from convicts and bushrangers right up to the recent gangland slayings in Melbourne.It is written in a very accessible style, with a narrative flow which reads as part history, part-thriller. The authors have done extensive research and cover a myriad of Australian crime histories including tracing back the beginnings of drug trafficking, ethnic crime waves, police corruption to name a few.Written by one of Britain's most popular true crime authors, James Morton, and leading Australian legal journalist, Susanna Lobez, this is the latest in Morton's highly successful series, which includes "Gangland", "Gangland: The Early Years", "Gangland International: The Mafia and Other Mobs", and "Gangland: The Lawyers".