Sydney -
An Australian underworld matriarch was found guilty on Wednesday of orchestrating an execution-style murder of her brother-in-law as he enjoyed his daily coffee at a busy suburban cafe.
Judy Moran, a 66-year-old grandmother, was convicted over the slaying of Des “Tuppence” Moran who died from multiple gunshot wounds to the head in Melbourne in June 2009, in a case police described as too far-fetched for television.
The former underworld enforcer, shot at noon at close range by two balaclava-wearing gunmen, was from a family that played a key role in a gang war for control of the city's drugs trade that claimed some 30 lives between 1995 and 2006.
Judy Moran, who uses a motorised wheelchair, had already lost her husband Lewis and two sons Mark and Jason in the Melbourne gang war, which was dramatised in the hit Australian series “Underbelly”, likened to US show “The Sopranos”.
She subsequently traded on her notoriety as a gangland “black widow” with frequent television appearances portraying her family as unwitting victims of underworld violence.
She clasped a tissue between her hands and bowed her head as the jury delivered the verdict after seven days of deliberations at the Supreme Court. She has not yet been sentenced.
It was alleged during the trial in Melbourne that she plotted with a gunman to kill her 61-year-old brother-in-law and that she drove the getaway car to and from the murder scene.
She said she was visiting the grave of her slain son Mark on the morning of the killing and had no motive to harm Des Moran.
But prosecutors said her plan was motivated by an ongoing financial dispute she had with her relative, who she believed was controlling millions of dollars she said was missing from business dealings involving her husband.
The Moran family was part of the so-called “Carlton Crew” which ruled Melbourne's drug trade until a feud erupted with their former driver Carl Williams, who sought revenge after Jason Moran shot him in the stomach.
Williams was linked to 10 underworld murders, including those of three Morans, as his drug empire grew and he hired contract killers to dispose of the Carlton Crew.
Last year he was clubbed to death by fellow inmates in a maximum-security jail, where he was serving a life sentence in relation to three murders. - Sapa-AFP