Vic: Form was on the board for Graeme "The Munster" Kinniburgh

AAP General News (Australia)
12-13-2003
Vic: Form was on the board for Graeme "The Munster" Kinniburgh

By Susan Murdoch

MELBOURNE, Dec 13 AAP - Almost five years since notorious standover man Alphonse Gangitano
was shot dead, it appears reprisal has finally come to the man implicated in his death.

Graeme "The Munster" Kinniburgh was ambushed and executed shortly after midnight this
morning outside his fortress-style home in the affluent Melbourne suburb of Kew.

It is the latest in a string of underworld killings in Melbourne that are every bit
as fierce as the Painters and Dockers union battles of the 1960s and '70s where Kinniburgh
made his name.

The 62-year-old, who has convictions for dishonesty, bribery and firearms offences,
has been well known to police for 30 years.

In 1979 he was investigated by the Bureau of Criminal Intelligence (BCI) over a narcotics
drop from Thailand arranged through the Painters and Dockers.

And last year his home was raided in connection with one of Victoria's biggest drug operations.

But is was last year's coronial inquest into the shooting death of his associate Gangitano
that catapulted Kinniburgh's name into the public eye.

Gangitano, who thrived on the notoriety of being the "Robert De Niro of Lygon Street",
was shot three times - in the head, face and back - in his high security home in suburban
Templestowe on January 16, 1998.

Coroner Iain West found Kinniburgh and Jason Moran were "implicated" in the death and
were at his home when the shots were fired.

Kinniburgh left blood at the murder scene and Moran was seen leaving the house that
night by a witness.

In June this year Moran, 36, and companion Pasquale Barbaro, 40, were shot dead in
front of a group of children in Essendon North.

Kinniburgh was at his funeral.

Following Moran's death four men have been gunned down in a wave of underworld killings.

The way it is being told, the form was on the board for Kinniburgh.

AAP svm/wjf/jlw

KEYWORD: KINNIBURGH BACKGROUNDER

2003 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.