The Kathy Pettingill Story
Kathy Pettingill is a name that's both respected and feared, not only by Australia's criminal underworld, but by many in the Victorian police force. As the sixty-year-old matriarch at the head of the most notorious and violent family of habitual offenders in Australian criminal history, her life has revolved around murder, drugs, prison, prostitution and bent coppers - and the intrigue and horror that surrounds such crimes.
Her eldest son Dennis Allen was a mass murderer and a $70,000-a-week drug dealer who dismembered a Hell's Angel with a chainsaw. Two younger sons were acquitted of the Walsh Street murders, the cold-blooded assassination of two police officers which changed forever the face of crime in Victoria. Most of her other children are either dead, living under state protection or in gaol.
In this authorised book, Kathy Pettingill reveals for the first time the chilling truth behind many of the myths and legends that surround her family, including her experiences in the blood-splattered charnel house at the centre of Dennis's empire of drugs and violence. But 'The Matriarch' is no plea for pity - gritty, forthright and deeply disturbing, like its subject, this story pulls no punches.
