> Skip to content
  • Published: 25 August 2010
  • ISBN: 9781742531243
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 432

Big Shots

Carl Williams and the Gangland Murders




The inside story of the 'gangland wars' and the final murder Carl Williams always knew was coming.

In 2003, Adam Shand, until then a finance journalist, naively set out to unravel Melbourne's bloody gangland wars. A few months' research, a guaranteed cover story. But his foray into the underworld took him deeper than that. He became embroiled in a complex world where feuds raged between rival families, and where a new generation was clashing with the criminal Establishment. Before long, he found himself counted as a friend by those who sometimes ended friendships with a hail of bullets.
In this fully updated edition, taking in the events of 2010, including the murder of Carl Williams, Big Shots takes the reader into the heart of the city's multibillion-dollar 'disorganised crime' scene, as Shand meets the key figures and suspects, including Carl and Roberta Williams, Mick Gatto and many others. He discovers the human drama behind the brutal slayings that were splashed across the front pages, and in the process comes to question his objectivity.
 
'Shand's effort is a real masterpiece. A standout in the literary true-crime genre, it gives us both a feel for the participants and their crimes but also delves into the murky side of journalism as Shand worries that he's getting far too close to his subjects. If you haven't read Big Shots yet, you're missing out – it's possibly Australia's best true-crime book ever' – Illawarra Mercury

  • Published: 25 August 2010
  • ISBN: 9781742531243
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 432

About the author

Adam Shand

Adam Shand is a writer with nearly thirty years' experience in television, print, radio and online media. As a freelance journalist, he covered the rise to power of Nelson Mandela in South Africa, the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda and the corruption of Zimbabwe's democracy. He is the bestselling author of The Skull: Informers, Hit Men and Australia's Toughest Cop; Big Shots: Carl Williams and the Gangland Murders; King of Thieves: The Adventures of Arthur Delaney and The Kangaroo Gang; Outlaws: The Truth about Australian Bikers; and Carl Williams: The Short Life and Violent Times of Melbourne's Gangland Drug Lord.

Also by Adam Shand

See all