The Milperra Massacre was a firearm battle between rival motorcycle gang members on September 2 (Father's Day) 1984, in Milperra, a south-western suburb of Sydney. Seven people were killed: six motorcycle gang members and a fourteen year old female bystander.
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The massacre had its beginnings after a group of Comancheros broke away and formed the first Bandidos Motorcycle Club chapter in Australia. This resulted in intense rivalry between the two chapters.
An advertised "British motorcycle swap meet" was placed in a few local press releases, at the Viking Tavern, with a scheduled start at 10 a.m. on Sunday, September 2, 1984.
On Sunday September 2, 1984 around 1 pm, a heavily armed group of Comancheros entered the carpark of the Viking Tavern during the motorcycle part swap meet with 30 similarly armed Bandidos arriving soon after with a back-up van carrying weapons following close behind. Both sides proceeded to line up at opposite ends of the car park. William George "Jock" Ross, who had founded the Comancheros in 1968, signalled by waving a machete in the air and the two clubs charged at each other.
Police responded after receiving reports that "a man" had gone berserk with a rifle at the Viking Tavern in Milperra and "a few shots" had been fired. The first of more than 200 police began arriving but the fighting continued for another 10 minutes before they were able to stop it. Four Comancheros died from shotgun wounds while two Bandidos died from .357 magnum bullets with a 14-year-old bystander, Leanne Walters, also killed after being hit in the face by a stray .357 bullet. A further 28 people were wounded with 20 requiring hospitalisation.
Mark Pennington, one of the first policemen on the scene, was later awarded $380,000 compensation for psychological damage.
As a result of the massacre, the New South Wales Firearms and Dangerous Weapons Act 1973 was subsequently amended. The court case following the "Milperra Massacre" was at the time one of the largest in Australian history. In total forty-three people were charged with seven counts of murder.[1] Christopher Murphy, Solicitor, acted for the Banditos' members charged as a result of the incident. Greg James QC, as he then was, represented all but one of the Banditos' members during their trial, that being Colin Campbell. Greg James QC was Juniored by a number of Junior including John Korn, Andrew Martin, and Philip Young. Mr. Campbell was represented by Mr Greg Woods QC, as he then was.
During the longest joint criminal trial in NSW history, armed members of the Tactical Operations Unit were stationed in the courtroom and witnesses required armed guards from the Witness Security Unit to escort them home. More than two years later, on June 12, 1987, the jury delivered 63 murder convictions, 147 manslaughter convictions and 31 of affray. The judge in the case named the instigator of the violence as William "Jock" Ross, the "supreme commander" of the Comancheros, saying "Ross was primarily responsible for the decision that members of his club go to Milperra in force and armed". Ross received a life sentence for his role in the violence.
Eight other members of the Comancheros gang received life sentences and 16 Bandidos received sentences of seven years for manslaughter. Commonwealth Games gold medallist boxer Philip McElwaine was the only motorcycle club member to be acquitted at trial of the manslaughter and murder charges that were brought against him.[2]
In a repeat of the circumstances that led to the Milperra massacre, in early 2007 more than 60 members of the Parramatta and Granville chapters of the Nomads, previously affiliated with the Comancheros, defected to the Bandidos. The defection resulted in a new eruption of violence between the Comancheros and Bandidos involving fire-bombings and drive-by shootings.[3] New South Wales Police set up Operation Ranmore to stop the violence escalating, which has resulted in 340 people arrested on 883 charges as of January 2008.[4]
In 2002, Australian film maker Martin Brown produced a documentary titled 1% One Percenters Search For A Screenplay in an effort to raise interest for a big budget movie of the massacre. The documentary, first aired on 2 February 2003, follows Brown as he looks for screenwriters, funds and a director for his movie. It includes interviews with the police investigating officer, ex superintendent Ron Stephenson, Comanchero president "Jock" Ross, Bandido vice president "Bullets" and several other Milperra survivors.[5]
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