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Gangsters' wives paid out for 'suffering'
Topic Started: Feb 8 2009, 12:05 PM (85 Views)
Warren
Administrator
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Gangsters' wives paid out for 'suffering'

By Liam Houlihan and Adrian Tame

August 05, 2007 12:00am
Article from: Sunday Herald Sun


MELBOURNE'S gangland widows have bagged a fortune in compensation for their notorious underworld partners' deaths.

A "gangland pension" of up to half a million dollars has been paid to women who lived high on criminal profit.

Yet genuine victims of crime have been denied compensation.

The jackpot, totalling up to $493,000 for crime families, has been kept secret from taxpayers, who paid the bill.

A Sunday Herald Sun investigation has uncovered public payouts to wives and girlfriends of gangsters Alphonse Gangitano, Victor Peirce, and Mark, Jason and Lewis Moran.

Victim advocates are angry and old-school gangsters sneer that those claiming compo are soft.

Underworld matriarch Kath Pettingill said: "In the old days you wouldn't have dreamed of going to government for money.

"Death was an occupational hazard."

Mrs Pettingill, who has buried three sons, said she did not seek compensation when the last of them, Victor Peirce, was shot in Port Melbourne in May, 2002.

Crime Victims Support Association president Noel McNamara said "gangsters' molls" were picking the pockets of genuine victims.

"This is ludicrous," he said.

"Live by the sword, die by the sword."

Mr McNamara said the women "exploit the scheme, are protected by its secrecy and are experts when there's easy money to be made".

The investigation found:
# Wendy Peirce and her four children received $153,000 in compensation and other payouts when partner and accused cop-killer Victor was executed.

# Virginia Strazdas received a $20,000 gift from taxpayers after gangster boyfriend Lewis Moran was shot in a Brunswick pokies pub.

# Judy Moran received $20,000 when son Jason - drug dealer, standover man and killer - was executed at a junior footy clinic. And she was paid up to $50,000 as part of a family claim over son Mark Moran's death.

# Trisha Moran, widow of Jason, pocketed up to $50,000 for his death.

The families of "Lygon St Godfather" Alphonse Gangitano and Mark Moran are believed to have been each paid up to $100,000.

The Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal refused to disclose payouts.

It is not known if payments have been made to Graham "The Munster" Kinniburgh's family or Victor Peirce's surviving lover and her son, or to Carl Williams for having been shot in the stomach.

And embattled lawyer Zarah Garde-Wilson refused to say if she had claimed crimes compensation over slain boyfriend, Lewis Caine.

The widows defended the payments.

Ms Peirce said: "People say I have been living off the money Victor was supposed to have made from crime. But what have the kids done wrong?"

Virginia Gangitano reportedly didn't know where her husband obtained his money and she never asked.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said laws guided the tribunal on compensation claims.

"An applicant's character must be taken into account, including past criminal activity," the spokeswoman said.

Critics of the system have called for open court compensation deliberations.

Mrs Pettingill said part of the money Victor's widow, Wendy, received was paid to his children - the two youngest were at school at the time of his death.

She said she understood the argument when young children were still dependent.

"Jason Moran's twins were in the vehicle with him at the footy clinic when he was shot and they would have suffered, so I can see why they should get something," she said.
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