NEWS UPDATE:
Fight club’s deadly finale
By PAUL ANDERSON and MARK BUTTLER
23jul03

WILLY Thompson was a small piranha swimming in a big pond of sharks. He was not small in a physical sense. The former security guard was a martial arts expert turned actor.
He was ranked well down in the criminal hierarchy, with just a short list of convictions. But through his links to the cocaine and amphetamines trade, Thompson was reputed to have connections with major underworld figures – including some who have been caught in the latest cycle of gangland killings. A fit and strong man in his early 40s, Thompson was said to be an intimidating person.
He had just left his gym, which specialises in “extreme” jiu-jitsu and wrestling, and was sitting in his sports car when the hitman struck.
The modus operandi was typical of a recent underworld murders. The list of those gunned down in similar fashion includes drug kingpin and standover merchant Jason Moran and his associate Pasquale Barbaro, bandit and drug dealer Victor Peirce, amphetamines producer Mark Moran and reputed mafia man Frank Benvenuto. With an $80,000 sports car and a home in Port Melbourne, Thompson led a highly charged lifestyle. Connections with the fashion and movie worlds, combined with his former work in the security scene, made him a recognised figure around Melbourne’s nightclubs, where drugs and standover tactics are rife. He recently featured in a small-budget independent short film that premiered at this year’s Melbourne Underground Film Festival. Nightclubber is a dark and violent depiction of Melbourne’s club scene that involves gun play and sex scenes. The film was screened at the George Cinemas in Fitzroy St, St Kilda.
Thompson’s martial arts skills were used to set up the movie’s fight scenes.
He also took a role in a 22-minute TV pilot called Infin8, which involved time travel and people with special gifts. Dale Reeves - producer, writer and star of Nightclubber - yesterday spoke of his dismay at losing his mate. “It’s a very sad day,” Mr Reeves said. "I just knew Willy as a good man, an honourable man. I don’t judge people. He was a great actor. “He was there every day. His love was acting and choreographing fight scenes. I had the utmost love and respect for him.”
A nightclub source said Thompson was respected for his martial arts skills, including karate, tae kwon do and jiu-jitsu. He had been successful at competition level and had recently taken to grappling, a rugged form of wrestling with fewer rules and brutal contact.
“He wasn’t a very big bloke but he was certainly very competent,” the source said. “He was a fitness fanatic. He was a fairly well-liked sort of person.” While sources said Thompson had only a few convictions, he was known in underworld circles. He was linked by his Port Melbourne address to slain career criminal Victor Peirce – a notorious armed robber and drug dealer who was acquitted of the 1988 Walsh St murders of police officers Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre. A police source said Thompson also had strong links with Jason Moran – the powerful drug figure blasted to death in his family van last month. Sources also linked Thompson to vicious criminal Nikolai “The Russian” Radev.
Radev, a standover man with his hand in the drug trade, was gunned down as he walked to his Mercedes-Benz in Coburg in April. Radev, also a wrestler, was known to carry a gun down his pants. The Herald Sun understands that criminal intelligence, passed on to police, has linked Thompson to Radev’s murder.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,6796242%255E2862,00.html