He recruited mainly Italian thugs who installed jukeboxes and vending machines in local bars and nightclubs under the threat of violence, and then reinvested their profits in drug trafficking.
[citation needed] In 1995, Melbourne police suspected Gangitano of two murders: small-time criminal Greg Workman and prostitute Deborah Boundy.
Boundy was scheduled to testify in court, but died before the trial from a self-inflicted shot of undiluted heroin believed to have been supplied by Gangitano.
Prosecutors were still debating charges against him when Gangitano's wife found him dead in the laundry room of their Templestowe home on 16 January 1998; he had been shot several times in the head.
[citation needed] In February 2002, a Royal Commission investigated Gatto on suspicion of accepting A$250,000 to mediate labour disputes with the Australian Workers' Union.