The wife of slain crime patriarch Lewis Moran says his convicted murderer Evangelos Goussis 'got what he deserved.'
Goussis, 40, was this afternoon found guilty by a Melbourne jury of the murder of Moran, 58, at the Brunswick Club in March 2004.
He was also found guilty of intentionally causing serious injury to Bert Wrout. He was found not guilty of Rout's attempted murder.
It is the second murder conviction for the former elite boxer who is already serving a jail term for the murder of Lewis Caine - the former boyfriend of gangland lawyer Zarah Garde-Wilson.
Speaking outside court, Judy Moran said the murder conviction was bittersweet.
"I can't say I'm happy, my husband's dead, but at least these murderers are getting what they deserve,'' Ms Moran said.
Ms Moran said the conviction helped with the grieving process, and told reporters she had a message for Goussis:
"How would you like your mother to go through what I'm going through?''
She applauded the efforts of Purana taskforce detectives, and said she was confident the jury would find Goussis guilty.
"I felt very positive right through, the Purana boys did a wonderful job,'' she said.
Ms Moran, whose sons Jason and Mark were also victims of the gangland war, said she next aimed to speak to Purana about Marks' murder "and see how we can move on with that".
"When that's dealt with then I can die a happy old lady," Ms Moran said. While she said she did not think she could endure much more, she was prepared to put herself through more trauma to have Mark's murder dealt with: "My word I would, any mother would do that. But in the long run I have faith in the Purana boys."
"It takes its toll, please believe me. No-one has come out of this unscathed, not my grandchildren, not myself, my daughter in law, no-one."
Ms Moran said viewers of Underbelly could never now what it was like for her to get a telephone call to say the father of her children was dead.
The Supreme Court trial heard prosecution evidence from another man who claimed he planned the murder, and drove Goussis and another man to the hotel for the killing.
He claimed he and Goussis then collected a cash payment from the man who organised the hit.
The man, who cannot be named, told police that part of his motivation for helping to kill Moran stemmed from a fallout dating back to the murder of Alphonse Gangitano - a man he described a a gentleman.
The criminal told the court that he confessed to being involved in Lewis Moran's murder on the day that the Australian Crime Commission questioned his wife.
He said he wanted to ''get my wife out of that situation''.
He earlier told the jury: ''I was trying to -- not take the heat off my wife, but ease the pressure on my wife.''
Prosecutor Andrew Tinney said the murder was a meticulously planned crime. "It was carried out with frightening efficiency, with a brazen disregard for the safety of innocent people in the locale," Mr Tinney said.
Giving evidence via videolink from prison, the driver said he waited in the car while Goussis and a second gunman went into the club and murdered Moran. "The shotgun misfired so he (Goussis) shot Moran with the handgun twice," the driver said.
The driver said he was first offered the Moran contract by Williams in a meeting near a suburban cafe. After the murder, Williams telephoned him saying: "Good one, mate. You have 150,000 reasons to smile".
Defence lawyer Stephen Shirrefs denied Goussis committed the murder, saying he was visiting his sick mother at the time of the shooting. He said the driver was pointing the finger at Goussis so he could have his own sentence reduced.
It is the second gangland murder conviction for Goussis, who was also found guilty of murdering Lewis Caine two months after Moran's murder.
Stephen Shirrefs SC, for Mr Goussis, said in his closing address to the jury that the witness had already been convicted of another murder, and knew if he did not offer the police something in relation to the Moran case he might get life with no parole.
''Perhaps his life had started to fragment,'' Mr Shirrefs said. ''Perhaps he couldn't sustain it.''
The jury was told the evidence of the witness - a career criminal who had spent half his life in jail -- was an insight into the mind of a deceitful, manipulative person, ''who has had to survive on his wits by being clever, by weaving lies, by trying to keep those lies afloat''.
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