Vic: Gangland mediator swamps death notices

AAP General News (Australia)
12-16-2003
Vic: Gangland mediator swamps death notices

MELBOURNE, Dec 15 AAP - Career criminal Graham Kinniburgh again dominates Melbourne's
death notices, a tradition which creates extravagant outpourings of grief following a
gangland execution in Australia's "most liveable city".

For the second day in a row, the Herald Sun has published message after message mourning
the passing of the latest victim in Melbourne's underworld war.

Members of the Gatto, Moran and Wootton families were behind many of the 82 notices
which spilled across 3-1/2 tightly packed columns today.

"Graham, you were my loyal friend for more than 40 years, no words can express the
way I feel," writes Lewis Moran, who recently lost sons Mark and Jason the same way.

Mr Moran has been released on bail from drug charges after lawyer Nicola Gobbo said
the children of his slain sons were devastated because they did not have a father figure
to look up to.

Last year a coroner found Kinniburgh was present with Jason Moran when Melbourne gangster
Alphonse Gangitano was shot dead in his Templestowe home in 1998.

"A true and loyal friend, sadly missed," writes John Gatto, a member of an Italian
family with long links to Melbourne's criminal culture.

One of the longest comes from Charles Wotton, Danny Corsetti and their families.

Crested by racing horses, which compete for attention with roses, the words "Rest in
Peace" and "Remembered Always" on other notices, this lengthy mourning statement reveals
the man known as "The Munster" was also called "Handsome" by others.

"So long, my lifelong friend of 48 years, love you, "Handsome", you will live in my
heart forever.

Charles Wootton and Kinniburgh had links dating back decades through the Painters and
Dockers' Union, which was also a training ground for Jason Moran.

Wotton and Corsetti were among those accused of a shooting which disrupted Painters
and Dockers' Union election in 1971, leading to the docklands wars of the early 1970s.

Wootton was among nine men associated with the Dockers' to be shot and wounded the
following year.

So far, none of the messages make obvious references to revenge or payback, which has
been the case following other gangland shootings.

No date for Kinniburgh's funeral has been announced.

AAP ag/rs

KEYWORD: KINNIBURGH NOTICES

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