The wives and children of two underworld kingpins murdered at the height of Melbourne’s gangland war no longer use the famous surname of their dead relatives.
Jason Moran’s twin son and daughter were in the backseat of his Mitsubishi van when a gunman shot him dead after a junior footy clinic car in June, 2003.
For the past 16 years since their father’s death, Christian and Memphis, now aged 22, changed their surname in a bid to ‘protect themselves’, a family friend claims.
Their mother Trish, who was married to Jason at the time he was murdered, joined the kids by dropping the Moran name.
‘Trish wanted to protect the kids. It’s a pretty famous surname around Australia then and now,’ a family friend said.
Jason’s killing came three years after his brother Mark was gunned down in the driveway of his home in suburban Melbourne just metres from where his wife Antonella and kids Josh and Tayla were sleeping.
Mark was shot dead by his drug rival Carl Williams – who pleaded guilty to the crime on the advice of his laywer Nicola Gobbo, who on Friday was revealed as the infamous ‘Lawyer X’.
Now, almost two decades on, Daily Mail Australia can reveal that Mark and Jason’s wives and children are back in Melbourne living normal lives, but still under their different names – a deliberate effort to shake off the notoriety of their relatives.
Jason (left) and Mark Moran (right) were central figures during Melbourne’s bloody gangland war, before being murdered in 2003 and 2000 respectively. Their wives and children have since had to change their names to escape unwanted attention
Jason’s wife Trish Kane (centre) and their twins Memphis (left) and Christian (right) went by the surname ‘Middleton’ after his death
Mark’s wife Antonella (centre) and their children Tayla (left) and Josh (right) choose to go by the surname Cole, which comes from Mark’s biological father Leslie Cole
JASON MORAN – TRISH, CHRISTIAN AND MEMPHIS MIDDLETON
Immediately after Jason’s death, his wife Trish Kane took their twins Christian and Memphis to Western Australia.
They spent a few years there before returning to Melbourne in time for both children to attend high school – under a different surname, ‘Middleton’.
A close friend of the family revealed that name was Trish’s mother’s maiden name, but on turning 18 both children were allowed to pick whether they wanted to go back to their father’s name.
‘Everyone uses the name Middleton except Christian, who has just gone back to his dad’s name,’ the friend said.
‘They were allowed to make that decision when they were 18. Obviously before then Trish wanted to protect the kids, it’s a pretty famous surname around Australia then and now.’
‘After the funeral they moved to WA for some time, I’m not sure when but we didn’t see them for years.’
Soon after Trish and the kids returned to Victoria, the twins began at prestigious Melbourne private school Wesley College.
After graduating in 2014, Christian went on to study at RMIT University, while his sister attended the Melbourne School of Fashion but is now working at a real estate firm.
The famous Moran family: From Lewis and Judy, to Mark and Jason, all the way through to Memphis, Christian, Tayla and Josh
Jason Moran was shot dead after a junior football clinic at Essendon, in Melbourne’s north, in June 2003 (pictured). His twins Memphis and Christian, Mark’s son Josh, and their nephew Blaise Armour, were sitting in the back of the Mistubishi van when the gunman attacked
Just days later a young Christian (pictured), six, gave the middle finger to a throng of media as he entered his father’s funeral
Jason’s coffin was carried out of St Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church to the theme song of AFL side Hawthorn, of which he was a mad supporter
Jason and Mark’s mother Judy Moran (pictured) stands outside the packed funeral for her youngest son in June 2003
Right about the time the ‘Middletons’ returned to Melbourne, the gangland war was back in the headlines after the release of the hit TV series Underbelly.
But the family friend said the children and the family had never watched the series.
‘At that stage they were just kids, I don’t think they ever thought their life was different to anyone else,’ she said.
‘I know they haven’t watched it (Underbelly) and they have no intention to, not many of them did.’
The series covered the ins and outs of Melbourne’s gangland war, to which the Moran family was central.
Lewis Moran had controlled the city’s drug trade long before his stepson Mark and son Jason joined the fold, while the family’s matriarch Judy Moran (nee Kane) had always been a dominant figure about town.
But life changed for the Moran family when hungry new players such as Carl Williams entered the drug business.
After years of endless finances made from owning the streets, it almost overnight literally became a fight for life and death.
Jason Moran (pictured), a member of the Carlton Crew, leaves the inquest into the death of Alphonse Gangitano in 2002. He is believed to have shot Gangitano dead in January 1998, kicking off the gangland war that eventually killed him, his brother and his dad
Then and now: A young Trish Kane (left) smiles in an old family photo, while more recently posing for a picture with her twins (right)
Memphis (left) attended prestigious Melbourne private school Wesley College, before studying at the Melbourne School of Fashion
A young Christian Moran outside his father’s funeral in 2003 (left), before changing his surname to ‘Middleton’. More recently he has returned to using his father’s surname, with a family friend revealing he was given the option upon turning 18
Christian (pictured front row, third from left) attended the prestigious Melbourne private school Wesley College
MARK MORAN – ANTONELLA, JOSH AND TAYLA COLE
Tensions had long been bubbling under the surface when Mark was shot dead by Carl Williams in the driveway of his family home at Aberfeldie, in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, just after 8pm on Thursday, June 15, 2000.
The 35-year-old had been putting his garbage bins out on the kerb for the next morning’s collection when Williams opened fire.
His wife Antonella and their two young children Josh and Tayla rushed outside the home to find Mark lying dead in a pool of blood.
Unlike their cousins, Mark’s wife and two kids remained in Melbourne after his death but used the surname ‘Cole’ – which came from his biological father Leslie Cole.
Leslie had been married to Judy Kane, but the pair split after Mark was born in 1964 and she remarried with Lewis Moran in 1966. The following year the pair welcomed their son Jason.
Immediately after the death of his half-brother, Jason vowed to seek vengeance.
He posted a death notice in the Herald Sun that read: ‘Words could never, ever express the way I am feeling. This is only the beginning. It will never be the end. REMEMBER, I WILL NEVER FORGET.’
Mark Moran’s wife Antonella (centre) and their two children Tayla (left) and Josh (right) were inside their Aberfeldie home on the night he was shot dead by Carl Williams
Tayla and Antonella Cole (pictured) smile during happy times on their family getaway to Mykonos, Greece, in 2010
Notorious criminal Leslie John Cole (left) was briefly married to Judy Kane (right), and together the couple welcomed a son Mark
Mark Moran was born Mark Cole, but changed his surname after his mother Judy Kane remarried Lewis Moran (pictured)
Notorious drug lord and convicted killer Carl Williams (pictured) worked for the Morans, before turning against the family and ordering or personally carrying out the hits on Mark, Jason and Lewis, as well as Lewis’ brother Des ‘Tuppence’ Moran
But with several threats made against his life Jason soon fled to London, before returning home under a year later.
On a cold winter’s day in June, 2003, just months after arriving back from England, Jason Moran drove his twins Christian and Memphis, and nephews Josh Moran and Blaise Armour, to an Auskick football clinic at Essendon.
After cheering on the kids from the sideline for more than an hour, Jason and his bodyguard Pasquale Barbaro put them into the backseat of their blue Mitsubishi van and slid the door shut.
Just moments later after buckling up their own seatbelts, gunman Victor Brincat ran up to the driver’s side window and fired a series of shots into the front two seats – starting with a shotgun, before pulling out a revolver.
Moran and Barbaro were killed instantly, within touching distance of the frightened children in the back seat.
A total of 36 men were killed between 1998 and 2010, but for most Australians that scene is the lasting memory of Melbourne’s gangland war.