Christopher Dale Flannery

In 1974, Flannery and two other men were alleged to have committed an armed robbery on a David Jones store in Perth.

They were arrested in Sydney by Detective Sergeant Roger Rogerson.

It has been alleged that Flannery paid a bribe to Rogerson to escape conviction.

Flannery was extradited to Perth but acquitted at trial.

However, he was jailed on an outstanding Victorian warrant for rape.

On his release from prison, Flannery became a bouncer at Mickey's Disco, a night club in St Kilda, but was quickly bored by the work and moved into contract killing, hence the moniker "Mr Rent-A-Kill".

According to police, one of his first jobs was the murder of barrister Roger Anthony Wilson.

As Flannery left the court, detectives from New South Wales Police immediately arrested him for the murder of Sydney brothel owner Raymond Francis "Lizard" Locksley, who had been murdered at Menai on 11 May 1979.

In August 1980, Flannery, Mark Alfred Clarkson and Kevin John Henry "Weary" Williams were arrested and charged with Wilson's murder.

His body was never found but police alleged that the trio had forced him off the road, abducted him and taken him to Pakenham, where Flannery shot him.

Flannery is said to have missed and Wilson, bleeding profusely from a head wound, tried to escape.

Flannery is then alleged to have gone "mad" and emptied his gun into Wilson's head and back.

In October 1981, Flannery, Clarkson and Williams were all acquitted.

In 1982, a jury failed to reach a verdict and a retrial was adjourned until 18 April 1984.

Flannery was subsequently acquitted.

Flannery's trial had been scheduled for 31 January 1984.

However, he was provided with a medical certificate by Geoffrey Edelsten certifying that he was unfit for trial in order to avoid Flannery being tried by a particular judge.

In late 1984, he became embroiled in the Sydney gangland war and sided with Neddy Smith.

Smith claims that Flannery became paranoid and "was running around shooting at anyone he thought had anything to do with [Barry McCann] or Tom Domican".

He claims that police attempted to negotiate an end to the gang wars but that Flannery refused to stop the killings.

At one meeting, according to Smith, Flannery told a high-ranking police officer, "You're not a protected species, you know – you're not a fucking koala!"

On 6 June 1984, Flannery is alleged to have been the gunman in the attempted murder of a Sydney Drug Squad detective, Michael Drury.

Drury had been the undercover agent involved in a police drug operation which resulted in charges being laid against Flannery's friend, Alan Williams.

Williams later testified that Flannery had attempted to bribe Drury through Rogerson in order to get the charges against Williams dismissed.

When Drury rejected repeated attempts at bribery, Williams claims, he agreed to pay Flannery and Rogerson $50,000 each to murder Drury.

On what he thought was his deathbed, Drury told detectives he believed he was shot because of "the Melbourne job".

Christopher Dale Flannery, nicknamed "Mr Rent-a-Kill" (born 1948 – disappeared 9 May 1985 ) is alleged to have been an Australian contract killer.

Growing up in a working class background in a culture that was suspicious of police, after leaving Melbourne he entered a life of crime and gang warfare that ended with his disappearance.

Flannery was born in Brunswick, Victoria.

He left school at the age of fourteen and received his first criminal conviction later that year.

At 17, he was convicted of housebreaking, auto theft, assault against police, carrying firearms and rape, and was sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

As Flannery and his wife walked towards their house on 27 January 1985, the residence was sprayed with thirty shots from an Armalite rifle.

No one was seriously injured, though Flannery was shot through the hand as he pushed his wife's head down and he suffered some other minor abrasions.

Flannery blamed Domican, who was later charged and convicted of attempted murder, but the conviction was overturned on appeal.

Rogerson was seen in the area in the days after the shooting and was interviewed by police.

He claimed he was just curious to see what kind of damage such a gun could do.

Edelsten was convicted on 27 July 1990 for perverting the course of justice and also for soliciting Flannery to assault a former patient.

Edelsten was jailed for a year.

After his acquittal, Flannery bought a house in Turrella and brought his wife, Kathleen, and children up from Melbourne.

Flannery went to work as a bodyguard for Sydney crime figure George Freeman.