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The top bikie bloodshed moments that forged Western Australia’s underworld of this century

The fuse was lit on a cold dark night in the golden WA outback. On a Sunday evening in October 2000, a single .308 calibre sniper bullet tore through the air at the Ora Banda pub, striking Gypsy Joker Billy Grierson dead as he sat around a campfire. It was a precision kill that shattered the uneasy equilibrium of the state’s underworld. No one could have grasp how quickly out of control the new war would become. The gang immediately pointed the finger at the pub’s owner, former police commander Don Hancock, sparking a thirst for vengeance that would soon drag outback bloodshed directly into the quiet suburbs of Perth. Eleven months later, that vengeance arrived in the form of a devastating terror attack. On a leafy street in Lathlain, a remote-controlled bomb planted under the front passenger seat of an old Holden Commodore station wagon detonated, assassinating Hancock and his mate racing identity Lou Lewis. The explosive shockwave twisted metal, blew out neighbourhood windows, and sent a chilling message to the entire state that the dirty denim, beer bellied, foul mouthed motorcycle gangs were no longer just a fringe menace. A single bullet in the red dirt and a car bomb in the suburbs drew the battle lines for the next two decades of gangland warfare. 2004 - The Execution of Kevin “Mad Mick” Woodhouse When Kevin Ashley Woodhouse, aka Mad Mick, was gunned down in a hail of bullets outside the Bayswater Aquatic Centre in Perth on May 12, 2004, it showed just how quickly loyalties die when you’re a 1 percenter. Woodhouse was sitting outside the aquatic centre at 4.30am waiting for it to open when he was shot four times at close range with a 0.357 Smith & Wesson revolver. As the assassin sped off on a motorcycle and the blood drained from bullet holes in his body, he allegedly whispered “Johnny Montoyo” to a security guard who came to his aid. Johnny Montani was a close friend of Woodhouse but the pair had a falling out prior to the slaying. Montani would eventually be acquitted of the alleged wilful murder in December 2008, but only after enduring three trials, three years in prison on remand and running up a legal bill of $550,000. At the time that Woodhouse was gunned down he was a dead man walking and he knew it. He was a nominee with the Club Deroes outlaw motorcycle gang when he was booted out — suspected of cooking amphetamine. Woodhouse defected to join the rival Coffin Cheaters — sparking a war between the two clubs — which saw an attempt on his life in early 1998 when he was shot in his car in Beechboro. He managed to drive to the Cheaters’ clubhouse in Bayswater before being taken to hospital. 2008 - Mercanti’s Defection to the Finks Troy Desmond Mercanti was already a household name and poster boy for the Coffin Cheaters bikie gang as its sergeant-at-arms when he was beaten and booted out of the club over allegations he was using the gang’s muscle to line his own pockets. He defected to the Finks in what former senior police officer and head of the State Protection Squad, David Parkinson, labelled a “disastrous situation” which had the potential to end in bloodshed. Mercanti added much needed notoriety that the interstate club desperately needed as it tried to create a strong hold in the Coffin Cheaters territory. The first violent clash came in October, when Finks bikie Stephen Wallace was shot in the shoulder during a club run along the Great Eastern Highway at Wooroloo, 55km east of Perth, in a sniper-style shooting. Another member of the group was hurt in the shooting when he fell from his motorcycle. Police believed the attack was an attempt to murder Mercanti. 2010 - The Kwinana Motorplex Brawl It was about 1.30pm on Sunday, October 3, when the family orientated Harley Street Bike Drags at the Kwinana Motorplex descended into violent chaos. In a public staging area where modified motorcycles were preparing to race, two carloads of Finks had just arrived and spotted a passing Coffin Cheater. One spat at him from the car and the Cheater retaliated — punching him through the window. The Finks began piling out of the car, when they were set on by several Cheaters. Other came running from around the venue to join in and the brawl was on. Innocent families watched on as bad blood between two gangs boiled over into all-out war. To this day police still believe it was only luck that bystanders were not injured or killed. Finks bikie David Marrapodi, a long time friend of Mercanti, was shot in the leg — Stephen Wallace was injured again, this time he had three fingers severed. Fellow gang member Troy Smith was cut on the head and chest. Several Coffin Cheaters were also hospitalised. It was believed up to about 20 men were involved in the clash including members of the Club Deroes, who had stepped-in to help the Coffin Cheaters. 2010 - Second Gang War Erupts As WA Police were trying to contain one bikie war, another was brewing between the Rebels and the newly minted Rock Machine and there were grave concerns that innocent bystanders would be caught in the crossfire. The latter club, from Canadian, had set-up a new clubhouse in Myaree and recruited about 20 members, making it a target of the Rebels who were then Australia’s biggest gang with 50 members and four clubhouses in WA alone. At about 2.40am on November 16, two Molotov cocktails were thrown through the front of the Ink Assault tattoo shop in Bibra Lake which was owned by a member of the Rebels. The quick work of first responders limited the damage to the front reception area of the premises. Ten days later on Friday, November 26, Senior Rebels bikie Mark Charles Rodgers was allegedly set-upon by three Rock Machine bikies in East Fremantle. He was bashed with a big torch before being hit with pepper spray. Then on Sunday, January 23, up to 20 men stormed the Lost City Tattoo parlour on Rockingham Road in Spearwood at about 2pm, which was linked to a member of the Rock Machine gang. The men attacked the manager, and chased him into a back room where up to eight men bashed him while he was on the ground, while a customer was punched to the ground. The invaders then systematically trashed every part of the business, throwing a computer screen through a window which landed on the ground outside. 2011 - Nick Martin Survives Balcatta Drive-By Rebels State president Nick Martin was just arriving home from the gang’s clubhouse on March 18 and was attempting to park his Harley Davidson outside the Balcatta property. Before he could react, a figure wearing a balaclava, gloves and carrying a sawn-off rifle, opened fire on him. Three rounds were fire in quick succession — one struck Martin in his left upper arm, with another bullet piercing his motorbike’s petrol tank. Remarkably, the Rebels kingpin survived — driving himself to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital when he underwent surgery to remove shrapnel from him body. Rock Machine member Benjamin Sipkes was initially charged with attempting to murder Martin, but was later sentenced to six years and four months jail for unlawful wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. 2016 - The Banksia Grove Bloodbath On April 26, the quiet northern suburbs became the latest scene of blood shed in the ongoing gang wars. What began as a property dispute on Cassia Link in Banksia Grove erupted into a chaotic gunfight. Mitch Finnerty, a 23-year-old father and associate of the Coffin Cheaters, was shot dead in a residential driveway. Veteran Coffin Cheater Pellegrino Mule, and his then 24-year-old son Mark were also wounded in the crossfire as bullets tore through the suburban street. Brock Kevin Johnston, a nominee of the rival Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang, was initially charged with Finnerty’s alleged murder and the attempted murders of the Mules. But it was the underworld’s unbroken and strict code of silence, that saw the charges against him sensationally dropped. Key witnesses flatly refused to cooperate with police, taking the secrets of the Banksia Grove bloodbath back to the clubhouse and leaving a young father’s murder unsolved. 2020 - The End of Nick Martin’s Reign For nearly a decade, Rebels state president Nick Martin seemed untouchable, surviving the 2011 drive-by and ruling the state’s biggest gang with an iron fist. But his reign ended in the most audacious public execution in Western Australian history. On December 12, 2020, Martin was sitting with his wife and stepdaughter at the Perth Motorplex in Kwinana, watching the drag races. Under the stadium lights, a single sniper bullet fired from roughly 300 meters away struck him in the chest. The high-velocity round exited Martin, grazed his son-in-law Ricky Chapman, a former Bandido, and came close to injuring a five-year-old child sitting nearby. It was a military-style execution in front of hundreds of innocent spectators. The sniper hit, by Benjamin Luke Johnston shattered the illusion of bikie invincibility and triggered Taskforce Ravello, the largest gang crime operation the state had ever seen. The fallout ultimately forced the WA government to introduce the toughest anti-bikie laws in the world, banning the public display of gang patches and tattoos. It would turn out that Martin’s death was allegedly the result of a bitter and long running hatred with his ex-rebel bikie club mate — turned Comanchero — now Mongols bikie, David James Pye, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 34 years. 2021 - The Ascot Retaliation Drive-By The paranoia that gripped the underworld following Martin’s assassination was immediate and he had a number of enemies that were potential targets. Dayne Brajkovich, the heavily tattooed Hells Angels sergeant-at-arms was the first caught in the cross hairs of police and rival gangs, for the brutal bashing he dished out to Martin at Scarborough’s Sandbar just weeks before his death. On the night of March 2, 2021, the blowback arrived. A stolen Porsche pulled up outside Brajkovich’s fortress-like home on Sedgeland Way in Ascot. Six shots from a handgun were fired directly into the property while Brajkovich, his wife, and his stepdaughter were inside. Nobody was injured, but the message was deafening. The alleged shooter was a former Rebels biker acting out of misguided revenge and proved the post-Martin underworld was a powder keg waiting for a spark. 2022 - The Gnangara Execution of Joseph Versace Despite the intense police heat and draconian new laws suffocating the bikie clubs, contract killings remained a brutal reality. On a Thursday afternoon in September 2022, the underworld proved it was still settling scores with lead. Joseph Versace, a 34-year-old father and known associate and fixer for the Rebels, was lured to a Sydney Road workshop in the semi-rural suburb of Gnangara. He was shot twice, once in the stomach and once in the chest before he was left to die on the workshop floor. The hit made headlines not just for its cold-blooded nature, but for the bizarre aftermath. The accused shooter, Joshua Duperouzel, was arrested days later in a surreal scene after he approached a woman eating lunch in a Belmont riverside park, asked for a sandwich, and calmly told her to call the cops because he was wanted for murder. 2023 - The Kings Park Concert Stabbing A bitter falling out between the Hells Angels and their ex sergeant-at-arms Dayne Brajkovich nearly costs the state’s most feared bikie enforcer his life. About 12 months prior, the former Muay Thai champion had reportedly been booted from the club after a violent confrontation with the gangs Perth president over his dislike of other senior Hells Angels members were socialising and partying with rival gangs. On the night of December 8, 2023, Brajkovich and his wife were leaving the Ministry of Sound Classical concert at Kings Park when the ghosts of his past caught up with him. Just before 10:00pm, as the crowd filed out, Brajkovich was ambushed from behind, by a group of men with one of the assailants attacking him with a knife and delivering a severe, life-threatening laceration the left side of his neck, effectively slitting his throat. He also suffered injuries to his fingers as he desperately tried to defend himself. The attackers sped-off, and have never been identified. Brajkovich survived and spent the months afterwards reportedly lying low overseas and waiting for the dust to settle before he returned to the west where he’s patched to the new Mongols East End chapter.

exclusiveThe top bikie bloodshed moments that forged Western Australia’s underworld of this century

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The top bikie bloodshed moments that forged Western Australia’s underworld of this century