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A violent man takes his last victim - himself
By Kate McClymont and Les Kennedy
May 13, 2006
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AdvertisementTHREE weeks after allegedly killing the Bandidos chief Rodney
"Hooks" Monk, Russell Oldham waded barefoot into the sea at Balmoral Beach and
shot himself in the head.
Horrified onlookers reported that about 8pm on Thursday Oldham waded out into
knee-deep water where he put a gun to his head. Police divers recovered the
pistol but it is not known whether it was the same weapon used in the murder of
Monk.
According to Herald sources, police had information that Oldham, a past national
sergeant-at-arms of the outlaw bikie gang, was in the area because three days
before his death members of the Bandidos had been contacted by police and warned
to stay away from the Mosman-Manly area.
Oldham, 39, was having dinner in East Sydney on the evening of April 20, with
Monk, Monk's bodyguard, Ray Curry, and two women. Oldham and Curry had been to
jail together over their involvement in the 1998 shooting of two men lured to
their deaths in a Bankstown house. An argument ensued between Monk and Oldham,
which led to Oldham shooting Monk in the head in a lane behind the restaurant.
There had been internal feuding within the "Downtown" chapter of the Bandidos
between Monk, its president, and the bikie he deposed, Felix Lyle. The feud is
believed to have been sparked by the murder of the drug dealer and Bandidos
associate Mihad Sande, 29, of Merrylands.
Sande, a father of two children who worked at his family's Parramatta printing
business, was shot several times in the head beside a borrowed van he had driven
to Cromwell Park, Malabar, for what is believed to have been a drug deal
involving the sale of pseudoephedrine worth more than $1 million.
Following the shooting Monk became obsessed that members of another gang were
responsible for the rip-off and had brandished a pistol at Sydney nightclubs in
his search for answers as to who was responsible.
It is believed he discovered the drug rip-off came from within the ranks of the
club and that Oldham was somehow involved: breaking a cardinal rule that gang
members did not rip off fellow members.
The Sande murder led to the kidnapping and torture of Lyle's 24-year-old son,
Dallas Fitzgerald, in February this year. Police believe that Monk was behind
Fitzgerald's abduction.
Monk stripped Lyle of his gang colours earlier this year for "not being of good
character".
However, police believe Monk's murder may have been triggered by Oldham's
unstable mental state due to his suspected addiction to the drug "ice" (crystal
methylamphetamine) rather than part of the feud.
Oldham, a former medical student at Sydney University, had a history of
violence. At the time of his death he was on parole for the manslaughter of the
two men in Bankstown plus a prior conviction of assault.
The Bandidos were noticeably absent from the streets of Sydney yesterday with
about 100 having left at sunrise for a ride to Ballarat, Victoria.
Oldham's body was formally identified by a relative at the Glebe Morgue late
yesterday. The pistol he used to take his own life is now undergoing ballistic
tests to establish if it was the gun used to kill Monk. Police are also trying
to establish Oldham's movements in the past three weeks.
Bikie murder suspect suicides
From: By Karla Lawrence and James Phelps
May 12, 2006
Scene ... Police recover a gun. Picture: Bill Hearne A MAN believed to be Sydney
bikie murder suspect Russell Oldham last night waded into the knee-deep water at
Balmoral beach and shot himself in the head.
The middle-aged man was spotted by horrified evening walkers as he stood in the
shallows, just metres from the shoreline, pointed a handgun at his temple and
fired.
The witnesses told police the man took off his shoes before wading in and firing
a single round about 7.45pm (AEST).
Detectives early today were trying to formally identify the man as Oldham, the
prime suspect in last month's murder in an east Sydney street of Bandidos bikie
chief Rodney Monk.
A crime scene was established on the beach last night, with forensics experts
and water police scouring the area for clues.
Police recovered a handgun on the shoreline three hours after the shooting.
The suicide comes almost three weeks after Monk was gunned down outside a
restaurant during a night out with his girlfriend and three others, including
Oldham.
Monk, 31, was president of the Bandidos city chapter and brother of a Sydney
police officer. He contrasted his bikie lifestyle with mixing in high society.
He attended parties with the likes of Danish Crown Princess Mary's Sydney
socialite bridesmaid Amber Petty and lived with his girlfriend in Tamarama.
Oldham has been the centre of a manhunt since the shooting, with senior police
appealing for him to surrender amid fears of a retribution attack.
Police will ballistically test the gun used, for a possible match to the weapon
used to kill Monk.
A Balmoral resident told The Daily Telegraph he heard one shot shortly before
8pm.
"It was a real loud bang," the man said. "It really startled us.
"About 20 minutes later the sirens started.
"It's real strange that something like this should happen around here because
it's such a quiet area.
"I thought it must have been kids with firecrackers."
The body was dragged from the water and laid about 5m from the water's edge
before it was removed just before 10pm.
Oldham's involvement in the murder of Monk marked the final transformation of a
would-be-doctor turned bikie.
He served a prison term for the manslaughter of two men before devoting his time
to raising money for charity, including an effort to help a young, disabled
girl.
Oldham, who was released from jail in 2004, boarded at the exclusive St John's
College.
He stood out for his intelligence - which won him a place in medicine - and his
cricket talent.
Body of bikie found
By David Braithwaite
May 12, 2006 - 7:03AM
Police wanted to interview former Bandidos Bikie Gang Sergeant of Arms Russell
Oldham, 39, over the murder of Bandidos Downtown Chapter president Rodney Monk,
31, who was shot dead in an East Sydney lane.
A man found dead at Balmoral Beach on Sydney's North Shore last night is
believed to be suspected Bandidos bikie murderer, Russell Oldham.
The body of a 39-year-old man with a gun-shot wound to the head was pulled from
the water by bystanders at Balmoral Beach about 8pm.
A fire-arm was recovered from the beach, police said, and the death was not
being treated as suspicious at this stage.
The man has not been formally identified but news reports suggest it is Russell
Oldham.
Oldham was the prime suspect in the shooting murder of Bandidos bikie chief
Rodney Monk outside an East Sydney restaurant last month.
Reports said witnesses at Balmoral Beach saw the man wade knee-deep into the
water at the beach last night and shoot himself in the head.
