The real story of Melbourne’s gangland war

The gangland war has become like folklore in the tale of crime in Australia. From 1995, dozens of murders occurred in Melbourne in a wrestle over drugs and egos involving notorious underworld figures such as Carl Williams, Tony Mokbel, and the Morans. At the centre of it all was Stuart Bateson, a detective with the Purana taskforce. Today, John Silvester - who wrote the definitive account of the gangland war - talks to Bateson about what investigating this violent web of crooks was really like, and hear part of a recording of a real gangland hit. Bateson talks to Sly ahead of the release of a new three-part documentary from Channel Nine called Naked City: Hitmen, which screens from March 4.

You can listen to The real story of Melbourne’s gangland war online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The real story of Melbourne’s gangland war is an episode from Naked City by The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

This episode is 38:04 long.

This episode was published on Feb 24, 2026.

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