3 months ago
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At the front was a bar, a few seats and, from foggy memory, a couch. Standing at the bar would be a smattering of the elite of the 1970s underworld. Safe-breaker Graham Kinniburgh punched a cop outside, breaking his nose, then apologised and offered a bribe. Neither was accepted.
Kinniburgh was shot dead outside his Kew home in 2003.
The Kane boys, Brian and Les, were feared standover men, and often there. Les was shot dead in his Wantirna home and his body never found, and Brian was shot dead at the Quarry Hotel, in Brunswick East, and his body was.
Members of the heavy police squads, the consorters, the armed robbers and the breakers would cruise through the place to see which crooks were associating with each other.
One early morning, a detective (off-duty and off his head) took a police-issue shotgun from the car boot and was about to march into The Galaxy to square up with a crook who had pushed him over.
Fortunately, I was able to persuade him that this short-term solution would cause long-term problems. While the rules were more relaxed back then, it would still be frowned upon to be sticking a shotgun in the face of a gangster inside licensed premises.
Christopher Dale Flannery
Finally, he jumped in his car and drove home using the tram tracks as a form of Google Maps.
One night, legendary detective Brian Rix saw hitman Christopher Dale Flannery sitting with his arms around two women, neither his wife, Kath.
That was not surprising, but what was surprising was that the man they called Rentakill was in Melbourne at all. He was on bail in Sydney over a murder charge at the time.
When Rixy inquired why Flannery was in his patch, he said he was flying back the next day, although his trial would be delayed because he didn’t want the judge who had been selected.
He had a tame doctor, a bloke called Geoffrey Edelsten, who would give him a dodgy medical certificate saying he was too ill due to septicemia from an infected tattoo.
Edelsten would be jailed for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, while Flannery would be acquitted of the murder.
Flannery had been a bouncer and later part-owner of Mickey’s Disco in St Kilda where the law-abiding danced to Saturday Night Fever and gangsters plotted murders.
In the same precinct years later was Bojangles, where Mark “Chopper” Read shot Siam “Sammy the Turk” Ozerkam in cold blood, but somehow managed to convince a jury it was self-defence.
Mark “Chopper” Read has an early encounter with police.Credit: Fairfax Photographic
Alphonse Gangitano was another drawn to Melbourne’s nightlife. His police file has early entries warning he was extremely dangerous and led a gang of up to 15 that attacked off-duty police inside the clubs.
“On most occasions in the past, members have been hospitalised due to the injuries received.”
Another one of his cowardly attacks would cost world champion boxer Barry Michael his career.
Gangitano saw himself as a boxing promoter and approached Michael inside Lazar nightclub in the city to seek a rematch with Lester Ellis. After shaking hands, he jumped Michael, bit him on the cheek and then used a heavy glass ashtray to repeatedly smash the boxer’s nose.
Although it was rebuilt in time for Michael’s next and last fight, it was smashed again, leaving it difficult for him to breathe.
In 1998, Gangitano was shot in his Templestowe house, leaving him unable to breathe at all.
The sinister Mr Sin, Abe Saffron, even owned Sydney clubs, where he would try to compromise legal and police figures. It worked and he died a free man.
Sydney’s original Mr Sin, Abe Saffron (right).Credit: Fairfax Photo Library
Nightclubs try to cater for a particular type of crowd. It may be the gay crowd, sporting crowd or the beautiful people.
Prahran’s Love Machine seems to be attracting a colourful crowd, and a truckload of police attention.
The venue markets itself as the following: “Plush and decadent designed interiors, inspired by Alice in Wonderland, capture our patrons’ fantasy and imagination. An atmosphere that’s both exciting and international, with the suggestive feel of the sin cities of old Shanghai and dynamic New York, it captivates all when inside, rendering this space even more so seductive.”
Police at the scene of a drive-by shooting at Love Machine nightclub in Prahran in 2019.Credit: Chris Hopkins
It, perhaps wisely, doesn’t mention that there is something afoot involving bikies, a power struggle and possibly a hostile takeover. There have been a series of violent incidents, some connected, some not.
On Sunday, April 20, Finks bikie (and former Comanchero) Ruka Carlson tried to run for his life inside the Love Machine after a gun was produced but was stabbed to death outside.
On August 3, it would appear members of the Comanchero bikie gang recruited a team of Dandenong hoods (known as Next-Generation Shooters) to take on the Love Machine’s security team. At least one person produced a knife.
The group appeared to be led by Comanchero former national sergeant-of-arms Tarek Zahed. It remains a mystery why a 45-year-old man from Sydney seems to have developed an obsession with the Love Machine.
Tarek Zahed – more a violent clubber than a night clubber.Credit: Nine News
The middle-aged Zahed is probably not in the club’s ideal demographic, but at least the bikie would pass the dress code. He is known as the “Balenciaga bikie” for his love of designer clothes. Balenciaga is a high-end Spanish fashion label (I had to look that up).
Zahed is well aware of the power of the gun. In 2022, he was outside a Sydney gym with his brother, Omar, when they were ambushed. He survived, but his brother didn’t. Zahed was shot 10 times, with one bullet entering his shaven head. He was left blind in one eye but probably best not to remind him of that if you run into him in a dark alley.
On August 8, Zahed returned to the Love Machine, apparently with a group of Comanchero, and they weren’t there for late-night bar snacks. In the crew was a bikie who has a love-hate relationship with nightclubs, having spent several years in prison for torching one.
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Less than two weeks later, a suburban gangster had his invitation-only birthday party in a private room for about 30 people in the three-storey venue.
As patrons were leaving about 2.30am, there was a dispute outside. It would appear a group was waiting for one of the guests. Words were exchanged, there was a push and shove, and then someone fired a shot that narrowly missed then-Western Bulldogs footballer Jamarra Ugle-Hagan.
While those standing outside the club headed for cover, the footballer didn’t appear to move. Perhaps he was stunned at what had just happened. Perhaps he was just used to the stand rule.
The talented full forward has been traded to the Gold Coast Football Club where it is hoped the only shots he will witness are those at the goals.
If Zahed has aspirations to control the Love Machine, he will have to put them on hold.
He was arrested in Sydney in late October on a warrant alleging he had breached parole (he had been jailed for hindering police in a homicide investigation).
He was arrested at an Airbnb where anti-bikie police from the Raptor strike force team found $12,800 cash, which can buy quite a few Love Machine drink-cards.
Dhir Kakar, the director of Sterling Nightclubs Pty Ltd, the company that owns the Love Machine, is nowhere to be found.
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One of his other clubs, Lux, was destroyed by fire in November last year. A 20-year-old Pakenham man has been charged with arson.
It is alleged the stolen blue VW Golf used in the attack was also used a few weeks later in the December Adass Israel Synagogue firebombing, and a shooting in Bundoora.
Some say Kakar has decided to take a last-minute overseas holiday for his health.
The trip may have been inspired by a rumoured out-of-hours confrontation in the club that was not open for business at the time.
Police have long considered Love Machine a rogue club that should be shut down. The club has been closed pending a Licensing Commission hearing to see if the owners are fit and proper people to hold a nightclub licence.
Watch this space.
John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.
