> Skip to content
  • Published: 4 January 2010
  • ISBN: 9780143203223
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $27.99

Crims in Grass Castles




The story of how Australia's most wanted man in the '80s - mafia drug boss Robert Trimbole - had activist Donald Mackay murdered, trafficked heroin with Terry Clark and the notorious Mr Asia syndicate, and escaped justice thanks to official corruption or ineptitude.

The true story of Robert Trimbole, Mr Asia and the disappearance of Donald Mackay.

Robert Trimbole: race-fixer, drug boss, Mafia powerbroker, murder contractor, arms dealer. In the 1970s Trimbole and the Calabrian Mafia ruled Australia's marijuana trade from their castles in Griffith, NSW – dream homes built with drug money. The business expanded to heroin when Trimbole joined Terry Clark and the notorious Mr Asia syndicate, and then to murder when anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay blew the whistle.

Walkley Award–winning journalist Keith Moor learned the truth about Mackay's disappearance from those involved, recording candid interviews in the late 1980s with the hit man, his contact and the infamous supergrass Gianfranco Tizzoni, as well as a top cop. His classic account now includes excerpts from the unpublished memoir of Mackay's widow and a dossier on the involvement of controversial federal minister Al Grassby.

Moor asks why 'Aussie Bob' Trimbole was allowed to flee the country and was never brought back to face his crimes. He also questions how Trimbole's Griffith Mafia bosses – Australia's true Godfathers – are today able to maintain their links with the global drug trade as they continue to enjoy the view from their grass castles.

  • Published: 4 January 2010
  • ISBN: 9780143203223
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $27.99

About the author

Keith Moor

Keith Moor is Editor of the Melbourne Herald Sun's Insight investigative unit. Formerly the Melbourne Herald's Chief Police Reporter and Canberra political correspondent, Keith won the Walkley Award for news reporting in 1986 for his coverage of the kidnap of two Victorian aid workers in Pakistan. He became the Herald Sun's first Chief of Staff when the newspaper was formed in 1990, then its News Editor and Managing Editor (News) in 1995. Keith's journalistic awards include the Melbourne Press Club Quill Award for best print feature in 2000, News Limited Newsbreaker of the Year award in 2004, News Limited Specialist Writer of the Year Award in 2007 and the 2007 Quill Award for the best deadline report in any medium for his coverage of the arrest of Tony Mokbel.

He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in England.

Keith has written or co-written five books, of which Crims in Grass Castles is the first.

Also by Keith Moor

See all

Praise for Crims in Grass Castles

Keith Moor did what no-one else could. He tracked down Australia's supergrass Gianfranco Tizzoni as part of his decade long investigation into the murder of Donald Mackay and the secret organisation behind that cold blooded assassination. He exposed the police who didn't try and won the confidence of those who did

John Silvester, Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities

Painstakingly researched

Ross Fitzgerald, Weekend Australian