My Life by Roberta Williams & Michael Gleeson- book review
A boring read if you don't know the players personally
Most of us would buy this type of book to find out all the gory details of what went on with Roberta’s husband, the recently murdered hit-man and underworld figure Carl Williams.
This book does not deal with any of those facts unfortunately. Most likely, because Roberta lives in the sort of world where you can wind up dead pretty quickly, if you say too much.
I know Roberta Williams personally having lived next door to her for a number of years. She is a friendly, talkative, garrulous character, but this front belies the sadness and domestic violence she has experienced both growing up and in her personal life.
The book covers her sad childhood and then a string of violent partners. Little of what went on in her underworld life with Carl has made it in the book. She touches on her close relationship with murdered killer Benji Veniamin. Mick Gatto killed Veniamin and Roberta makes her hatred of this man well known, almost painting Veniamin as a saint. It is this sort of naivety that has let Roberta and hence her book down.
Not much is said about the Moran’s and the important role they played in the William's life. Not much is said about the corrupt police, nor the fact that Carl was a major police informer. In fact the silence is deafening. Do not be surprised if one day they kill Roberta too, as she holds many secrets, and many would prefer she take them to the grave.
The problem with books like these is that the authors make the mistake of believing they are famous in their own right, and that we all want to read about their life stories.
I only want to read about the ins and outs of the underworld. Who was sleeping with who. Who killed who, and what drugs were sold when, and where. Who ordered so and so to be murdered and why.
To be honest the book suffers from the same fate as Judy Moran’s book. Roberta claims she was not party to all of this important stuff. If this is the case then why are you writing the book, and why in the hell are we reading about it? Without all the crime and controversy, Roberta is nothing more than a boring Western Suburbs housewife, like all the rest of them.
Roberta should have held off publishing this work, as after she published it, her ex husband Carl was murdered in prison by one of his so-called mates, Matthew Johnson. Johnson smashed Carls head in with a stem from an exercise bike. The murder was a supposed underworld hit to help a corrupt policeman named Paul Dale get off a murder charge.
It is alleged Dale had a drug dealer named Terence Hodgson killed (and his wife too) as he was selling them drugs and Terence and his wife were going to inform on him. Williams was the man whom Dale paid to have them killed. Des Moran was also killed by Judy Moran, his sister in law, and after this book was published too.
You see it is getting interesting already but Roberta has covered none of this stuff. If she did it would be a guaranteed best seller. Don’t waste your money unless you are from Melbourne, in Victoria and you know some of the players like I do.
By the way Roberta, where is the signed copy of the book you promised me?
