No one really knows why cult criminal and notorious escapee Raymond John Denning turned police informer, and no one really knows if that decision cost him his life.
asserted
decision → know → life
For years the gunman was a counter-culture hero, blowing the whistle on the secret and brutal world behind bars.
asserted
gunman → blow → bars
There were good reasons Denning became a bad man.
asserted
Denning → be → ?
His dad, Jack “The Hat”, was a thief who physically abused his wife.
asserted
who → abuse → wife
When he was about to be released from prison to terrorise her, she chose escape by suicide.
asserted
she → release → suicide
Ray found her.
asserted
Ray → find → her
At 13, he was living on the street and by 18 was an armed robber.
asserted
he → live → 18
A headline act in NSW, Denning decided to try his luck in Melbourne after escaping from Goulburn Prison on July 15, 1988.
asserted
Denning → decide → July
Through a network of sympathisers, he contacted the notorious armed robber Russell Cox, who was on the run since escaping from Sydney’s Katingal jail in 1977.
asserted
who → contact → 1977
Cox was born in Queensland and did most of his jail time in NSW, but to understand his criminal journey, you must understand his connections to Melbourne’s criminal royalty.
asserted
you → bear → royalty
Master armed robber Ray Chuck and Cox were close – they married sisters – and when Chuck was planning Melbourne’s 1976 Victoria Club Great Bookie Robbery he wanted Cox on the team.
Cox tried to escape from his NSW prison to join Chuck, but failed in his attempt.
asserted
Cox → marry → attempt
When he did escape the following year, he eventually teamed up with one of the Great Bookie robbers, Ian Revell Carroll, only to later kill him in a shootout.
asserted
he → escape → shootout
(A Melbourne magistrate dismissed murder charges against Cox, ruling it was not clear who shot first.)
asserted
who → dismiss → Cox
A week after his escape from Goulburn, Denning met Cox at Doncaster.
asserted
Denning → meet → Doncaster
Cox tried to book his mate into a local motel, saying the escapee couldn’t stay at his safe house because he was looking after a wounded associate.
asserted
he → try → associate
Denning could not have known that the associate was Santo Mercuri, who had been shot in the hand a few days earlier by wounded security guard Dominik Hefti when Cox’s team raided an Armaguard crew at Brunswick.
uncertain
team → know → Brunswick
Hefti would die from bullet wounds.
asserted
Hefti → die → wounds
The murder of Hefti sparked a deadly domino effect culminating in the October 12, 1988 ambush murders of Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre in Walsh Street, South Yarra.
asserted
murder → spark → Street
What we now know is that a rats’ nest of criminals connected with Cox deliberately laid a false trail to blame another armed robber, Graeme Jensen, for the Hefti murder.
asserted
nest → know → murder
Two major underworld figures who hated Jensen and liked Cox deliberately blamed the wrong man.
asserted
who → hat → man
When police tried to arrest the innocent Jensen in Narre Warren on October 11, 1988 – 38 years ago this month – he attempted to flee and was shot dead.
asserted
he → try → October
We would never have known this if Cox and Denning had not been arrested at what was then Doncaster Shoppingtown casing another Armaguard job.
asserted
what → know → job
When armed robbery detectives searched the crooks’ two cars they found gloves, binoculars, beanies, three sawn-off semi-automatic rifles, shotgun cartridges, maps, bullets, a revolver, hair dye and a manual for a hand-held police scanner.
asserted
they → search → scanner
They also found Denning’s prison library card.
asserted
They → find → card
In December 1988, Cox and Denning were chatting in prison.
asserted
Cox → chat → prison
Denning said Cox was laughing and “gloating” that Jensen was blamed for the robbery and Hefti’s murder.
asserted
Jensen → say → robbery
He apparently didn’t care that two young cops were killed in the fallout.
asserted
cops → care → fallout
Two months later, Denning said he wanted to talk to armed robbery detectives.
asserted
he → say → detectives
And talk he did.
asserted
he → talk → talk
“Russell Cox told me that this murder and armed robbery committed on Dominik Hefti had been done so by himself with Sam Mercuri and a person named Mark Moran,” Denning told police.
asserted
Denning → tell → police
“In December 1988, Russell told me that he had set up the Armaguard job on Hefti at Brunswick and that he, with Sam and Mark, had been watching the premises for a couple of weeks before the robbery.
asserted
he → tell → robbery
“He said that this was the same way as the job he had done with Laurie Prendergast on the security guards at Myer in Melbourne.”
asserted
he → say → Melbourne
Denning’s confessions highlighted not only Cox’s crimes but the underworld world of betrayal.
asserted
confessions → highlight → betrayal
Standover brothers Les and Brian Kane wanted a piece of Chuck’s Bookie Robbery money.
asserted
brothers → want → money
It would later be alleged that in 1978 Chuck, Prendergast and another Bookie robber, Vinnie Mikkelsen, murdered Les Kane in his Wantirna home.
asserted
Chuck → allege → home
The three were charged and acquitted of murder.
asserted
three → charge → murder
Brian Kane threatened to cut the head off one of them and deposit it on defence barrister Colin Lovitt’s front door mat.
asserted
Kane → threaten → mat
In November 1979, Chuck was shot dead in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, where he was facing a hearing over an armed robbery charge.
asserted
he → shoot → charge
In 1982, Brian Kane was gunned down in the Quarry Hotel in Brunswick by two gunmen once believed to be Cox and serial hitman Rod Collins.
asserted
Kane → gun → gunmen
Mark Moran’s brother, Jason, married Les Kane’s daughter, and days after Brian Kane’s murder, placed a death notice to “Uncle Brian”, signed by “Your little mate, Jason Moran”.
asserted
brother → marry → mate
…and 46 more, not listed.
The Aporia
