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Wednesday January 7, 2009

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Williamses a poor excuse for family

Posted by: By Derryn Hinch, 3AW Drive | 24 November, 2008 - 4:32 PM

The most telling comment following the suicide of Barbara Williams – mother of gangland killer Carl Williams – comes from veteran crime journo John Sylvester. Also known as Sly of the Underworld.

He wrote in The Age today: "For years drugs helped the Williams family live in luxury, but in the end drugs destroyed them all."

The same applies to the Moran family. Look at them. Melbourne’s rapacious and violent and malevolent version of the Hatfields and the McCoys.

If ever you wanted proof that, in the end, crime doesn’t pay just look at these two apologies for families. Jason Moran dead. Mark Moran dead. Lewis Moran dead. Killed by rivals and former friends.

But it was the Williams family that was again in the headlines after Barbara Williams ended her life on Friday night. At home. Alone.  Her former husband George is in jail on drug trafficking charges. Her ‘Mummy’s Boy’ son Carl is in jail for at least the next 30 years on multiple murder charges. Her other son Shane died from a drug overdose.

That family tragedy didn’t stop them making their living out of the dirty business of drugs even if it killed other people’s kids.

And Barbara Williams, the ever-supportive Mum, was always there to make her son a home-cooked meal even when he had blood on his hands. She willingly handled and hid large amounts of drug money for him and her husband.

And she profited from their crimes. When Carl Williams finally copped a plea it meant he would never stand trial for the executions of Mark Moran and Pasquale Barbaro in front of all those kids at the Saturday footy clinic in Essendon.  She even jumped up in court and shouted at Judge Betty King: "You’re a Purana puppet. You don’t deserve your wig and your gown."

Since her death, it has been reported that Carl and George Williams have been offered counsellors, if needed, to help them cope with their grief.

I wonder if the same offer was made to Michael Marshall’s little boy who saw his Dad shot down in the afternoon outside their house on Carl Williams’ orders.

Now there’s speculation about Carl And George Williams being allowed out of jail to attend Barbara Williams’ funeral on compassionate grounds. Why?

They should not be.

That family didn’t show compassion to anybody. And remember what happened when they let Jason Moran out of jail to attend the funeral of his brother Mark. While Mark’s killer, Carl Williams, sat in the church, Jason Moran used that church pulpit to vow the gangland war would go on.

And it did. Barbara Williams is just another casualty. One more in the body count.

Blog comments Your Say

  • I totally understand the statements made here, and now Carl has been refused leave to attend his mother's funeral anyway.
    But I can't help but see it from another point of view - yes Carl Williams did some terrible things, but he is still a human being, and it must tear him up to not be able to say that final goodbye to his mother whom he loved dearly.
    I think it's far too cruel not to allow him out just for that.

    MB Wednesday 26 November, 2008 - 5:35 PM

  • Barbara Williams didn't show any remorse for her son's the dead victims. She remained so disgustingly loyal to her mass murderous little boy, that it makes a mockery of social decency, morals and values.

    Tracey Thursday 4 December, 2008 - 3:51 PM

  • I don't think he should have been allowed to go. The risk to other people attending or just in the area from Carl's enemies who might be bent on retirbution outweigh any sentiment in this argument. Ultimately they were a family devoid of feeling who grew fat on the misery of others, society seeks repayment and this is but one way!

    Pete Saturday 6 December, 2008 - 12:52 PM

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