A LAWYER executed in a contract killing believed he was safe from any attempt on his life, despite a feud with a local mafia boss.


Joe Acquaro, 55, stood no chance when a gunman opened fire up to five times as he left his Gelobar restaurant in Brunswick East to walk to his Mercedes early yesterday. His body was found at 3am.

Mr Acquaro was involved in a bitter struggle with a figure alleged to be Melbourne’s “godfather” as well as other key mafia figures, and is understood to have been offered witness protection.

“I’ve got nothing to lose,” Mr Acquaro told the Herald Sun recently regarding a contract taken out on him.

“I’m isolated. They can’t physically harm me. They are trying to destroy my reputation, my family. I’m not afraid of dying. They are not men of honour,” he said.

The Herald Sun can reveal that Mr Acquaro had learned that a foreign hitman had entered Australia in recent months, and he feared he was the man’s target.


Aware that a $200,000 bounty had been put on his head — a sum later increased to $500,000 — he changed his appearance but largely stuck to his routine in what may have been a deadly miscalculation.

Sources within the Calabrian community have claimed that Mr Acquaro saw himself as a future leader of its elite Honoured Society in Melbourne.

Mr Acquaro spoke recently of feeling isolated after a falling out with the powerful Madafferi brothers, Tony and Frank, with whom he had been lifelong friends.

Mr Acquaro had also fallen out with his two sons who had grown close to the Madafferi family.

Detectives from the anti-gangland Purana taskforce had spoken to Tony Madafferi about the contract and warned him he would be spoken to again if anything happened to Mr Acquaro.

Three years ago Mr Acquaro and Frank Madafferi were involved in a bloody fight, which the lawyer is ­believed to have won.

Mr Acquaro was regarded as a conduit between high-end mafia figures and politicians.

Tony Madafferi had launched a failed legal bid involving Mr Acquaro, whom he claimed was a source of damaging revelations about the brothers aired in the media.

One source said he was stunned that Mr ­Acquaro — given the kind of peril he was facing — would walk out of a business he was widely known to operate and head to his vehicle in the dark.

“It was coming. I don’t know how he was still walking around. It wouldn’t have been anyone local,” the source said.

Senior Calabrian figures are believed to have warned Mr Acquaro in recent years to confine himself to his legal ­activities.

“Don’t be a gangster, be a lawyer,” he was told.

One underworld figure said it was an open secret that Mr Acquaro, a former president of the Reggio Calabria Club, wanted to be Melbourne’s godfather.

He saw himself as being in no danger, although others sensed he was at enormous risk.

“He didn’t give a f---, but this (the execution) was a matter of time,” the underworld source said.

“His attitude was that there was a new wave and he was at the head of it.”


Police are likely to be confronted with a range of potential motives.

One prominent organised crime figure is believed to have become enraged after being represented by Mr ­Acquaro in recent years.

That criminal is believed to have been of the view that he was not given the best chance in a major prosecution and this had cost him many years in prison.

Another senior underworld player is believed to have recently taken a financial interest in Mr Acquaro’s Gelobar.

Detective Inspector ­Michael Hughes of the Homicide Squad said Mr Acquaro had closed Gelobar, on Lygon St, about 12.40am and was walking to his car when he was repeatedly shot.

Police will review CCTV and recovered a broken mobile phone near the scene.

“We have an early report that a witness has heard a car travelling down that street (St Phillip St) away from Lygon St at reasonably high speed,” said Det Insp Hughes.

Police were further investigating whether Mr Acquaro’s death was linked to a fire at Gelobar in January.

A source familiar with Melbourne’s Italian organised crime scene said the prospect of a revenge killing was ­remote.

“I’m pretty sure there’ll be no comeback,” he said.

Business owner and friend George Mirabella, who had known Mr Acquaro for most of his life, said he had no idea why he was killed.

“I’m upset. My staff are crying in my office,” he said.

Sam Loprete laid flowers where his friend died.

“I knew him since he was a little boy and I cannot believe this has happened to him,” he said.

“He was my solicitor for many, many years. Yesterday I was having a coffee with him and now I wake up and see this news.

“How could anyone shoot someone and just leave them there with the rubbish? I feel devastated.”