Australasian biker news
Joker feared murdered
By Penelope Debelle
July 2, 2005
The hardest part about looking for
missing Adelaide Gypsy Joker Steve Williams is the number of people who
might want him dead.
Mr Williams, whose slick pony tail and
piercing eyes became the media-friendly face of Adelaide's bikie community -
a risky internal strategy because it contravened a code of silence -
vanished almost three weeks ago and has probably been murdered.
He was dropped at a hotel in
downmarket Gepps Cross at 2.30pm on June 14, where his abandoned car was
found. There was no blood or signs of a fight, indicating he was with
someone he knew.
His circle of family and friends,
brothel madam Stormy Summers for whom Williams provided in-house security,
Stormy's husband Mark Garner, Williams' former partner Kim Asling , their
daughter Blayze and girlfriend Alena Skipper fear he must be dead.
"It is out of character absolutely,"
says Ms Summers, who was given away by Mr Williams at her outdoor white
wedding to security worker Mark Garner in November, 2003.
"He was a devoted father and loved his
daughter very much. Everything in his whole life revolved around her and he
would not put her through this."
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AdvertisementTwo days after Mr Williams disappeared, Ms Skipper reported him
missing. The couple shared an apartment in Ms Summer's red-light complex.
Any thought that Mr Williams might
have been out partying had turned serious when he failed to drop off a
laptop computer to Blayze at a Thursday meeting arranged earlier in the
week.
"His girlfriend Alena was staying with
us and he was supposed to come and pick her up, but the time kept passing
and he didn't come," said Blayze, who was not told her father had
disappeared for another two days.
Blayze described a generous father who
would visit often, take her on trips and watch her at horse shows riding
Homer, which he helped buy for her.
"My dad loved that horse," says
Blayze, who found nothing unusual in having a bikie dad who would take her
to the Gypsy Joker fortress to play.
"We'd go to the clubhouse and play, go
there for Christmas parties and stuff, it was cool," she said.
But family life aside, Mr Williams was
troubled, with enemies inside and out of gang circles.
His profile was raised in January,
2001, in an ugly hotel brawl in the town of Beachport, in south-eastern
South Australia, between 15 Gypsy Jokers and 40 police on the Jokers' annual
Christmas run.
Three police were injured, including
one who had his jaw broken. The next day, a club member broke his back in an
accident with a police car.
Bikie Steve Williams has not been seen since June 14.
Photo:David Mariuz
Members of the elite police squad, STAR (Special Tactical And Response)
force, were suing Mr Williams over the brawl. But while the case was due to
be heard in August, Mr Williams was not worried about it.
After the Beachport incident, Williams, 39, was elected Gypsy Jokers
president, with a brief to improve the club's image just when the new law
and order Government of Premier Mike Rann set up a specialist bikie
taskforce, Operation Avatar, and passed legislation to prevent bikie
fortresses being built.
But after three years, Mr Williams' strategy grew unpopular and he was voted
out. Mr Williams, who rarely rode because a bike accident destroyed his
ankles and left him with a painful limp, resigned from the club although he
retained life-long membership.
Personally, Williams was troubled. He grew up burdened by thinking he killed
someone in a schoolground accident, finding out only years later the boy had
recovered and was fine.
Monash academic Arthur Veno, who befriended Mr Williams in 2000 through a
book Dr Veno was writing on Australian bikie clubs called The Brotherhood,
said that while Mr Williams had become autocratic within the club, he later
carved out territory working from Ms Summer's premises as a smalltime
godfather, providing muscle to collect debts.
As if he did not have enough enemies, Mr Williams had begun a recent crusade
against pedophilia.
There are plenty of explanations for what might have happened - including a
rumour he was murdered by a rival gang and turned into pet food - but no
sign of a body.
In bikie circles this is odd because targeted killings send out a message
that require a body to be found.
Dr Veno has ruled out suicide. "If Steve was going to kill himself, he would
have done suicide by cop," he said.
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