Issue 37: Dennis Allen
In 1956 Australia hosted the Olympics for the first time in Melbourne. Out of the 67 counties, there were 3,314 athletes. To house all these athletes an Olympic village was built. After the Olympics about 600 of the houses were used for public housing. One of the young boys who grew up in one of these houses. Though the area was ahead of its time, it became a place were crimes were a part of every day life.
Dennis Allen was born in 1951, the eldest son of Crime Matriarch, Kath Pentigill. early life was filled with crimes and confusion. He grew up believing that his mother, was in fact his sister. He did not know his father and his mother had a string of boyfriends that were brought home.
His early years were also spent at Turana Boys Home, it was established in 1955 though went by many different names beforehand.
In 1971 Dennis was convicted of kidnapping and gang raping a young woman. He was 20 years of age and although he was sentenced to 9 years, he would only serve 5 years behind bars. It was during this time that he took the first steps to becoming a drug kingpin.
It is estimated that at the height of his drug dealing Dennis made between $70 - $100 thousand a week. With such funds coming in he became an addict himself, injecting speed 24x7.
In order to operate Dennis made an agreement with the police. He understood he was being surveilled and so offered to be a fizzgig, someone who would keep the force abreast of what was happening in the underworld. However, he did stipulate that the name be given under the name of ‘Gus’. One lot of police wanted to lock him up - the other half where grateful of the information he was feeding to police.
His drug dealing continued to skyrocket and with that also his drug usage. He hardly slept and ended up having a tourniquet on his arm permanently. In 1984 scared that one of his dealers, Helga Wagner, would rat him out after she had been arrested - he called her up on the pretense of getting the new lot of heroin. He gave her an extra dose of it before filling her stomach with water - to make it look like she drowned. Once dead - she was thrown in the Yarra River. His nephew assisted him with this death too. This is just one of the stories that earned him the nickname Deal A Death.
The paranoia only got worse and it would lead him to murder. When it comes to how Dennis would go about murdering people, he would not be known for his planning nor was he above getting family members involved. He was known for being extremely violent - would kill people with swords, axes and guns
The story of the murder of Anton Kenny came from his nephew, Jason Ryan. In 1985 someone in the Hells Angels approached Dennis wanting to enlist his services in a contract killing.
On the day of the murder Jason remembers that he, Anton and Dennis were just sitting around the coffee table chatting. Then suddenly Dennis pulled a gun on Anton and unloaded it into him. He took him to the backyard to dismember him with a chainsaw; however, Dennis had to end up using a meat cleaver because the chainsaw malfunctioned. He was then stuffed in a barrel that was thrown in the Yarra River. After disposing of the body, he went to the local pub for a drink.
Jason turned witness and Dennis was charged with murder. Unfortunately justice would never be served as he died in prison at the age of 35 due to a congenital heart disease.
When I first came to Melbourne I used to work at a Infamous Hotel at the gates of the old Matchstick/Rosella factory and came into close contact with most of the Family. Mrs P was always polite, but that eye.. Denis I only met briefly cause he went inside. Victor & Wendy i ended up living 3 along when I lived in Port Melbourne & was surprised and saddened when he was hit because he had mellowed out & started to change because he was popping Exstacey tablets like daily medication, but this made him take his eye off the ball.