Note: This is a fictitious account written for a tutorial exercise.
Gangland leader Charles “Chubba” Williamson was laid to rest yesterday after his funeral degenerated into an attack from the pulpit and relatives about the media’s role in his death.
The funeral, held at St Peter of the Fallen in Essendon North, brought together a mix of grieving relatives, including grandmother Judy Kane, estranged wife, Robina, daughter, Savannaa, and ill father, Maurice, as well as friends, enemies and police.
Media identities, who had written about the underworld gang wars, and actors who had portrayed the criminal in the TV series, Underworld, were also present at the funeral.
Former prison chaplain, Father Bob Norden, told the hundreds of mourners gathered inside and outside the church that Williamson’s life, and the lives of others around him, had been brought undone by crime.
He said Williamson was born into poverty and had a life of struggle, with few high points, but his life ended in pain. Father Norden reserved his harshest criticism for the media, including former newspaper reporters and Underworld authors, John “Tweetybird” Twit and Andrew King.
He told the congregation that Chubba Williamson was part of the “glorification of crime” that had occurred in Melbourne over the past decade and this process had helped make Williamson think he was “too big to die, that he was somehow untouchable”.
Other speakers at the funeral included Desiree Moran, the sister-in-law of Williamson’s mother Delores. Ms Moran said her nephew, “always Charlie-boy” to her, was law-abiding until he started mixing with “crooked relatives”.
Father Norden’s attack on the media resonated with Williamson’s estranged wife, Robina, who confronted authors Twit and King after the funeral, suggesting they had “no right” to attend.
“You shouldn’t be here. You brought horrible attention on me and Chubba, and now Savannaa hasn’t got a dad,” she said to the two writers.
“He didn’t think he was a superstar until you started writing about him. That’s when he got slack and started going mad. You’re the reason he’s dead.”
Underworld author, veteran crime reporter and police confidante, John “Tweetybird” Twit denied Robina Williamson’s claims, and blamed commercial TV journalists for causing the Williamson death.
“They ran that story about his mortgage,” he was heard to say.
Contacted last night about the argument, Twit would only say Robina Williamson had a lot on her mind yesterday and Father Norden “was just shoring up his constituency”.
He said it was possible Williamson was killed because of a leak from Victoria’s Office of Police Integrity. “They leak like sieves,” he said.
Police have charged a 41-year-old with Williamson’s murder and have launched an investigation into his death, including the circumstances surrounding media revelations that the family’s mortgage was being paid for by police.
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