May 21, 2026 — 12:47pmIn 11 minutes it was all over, but the repercussions of the Great Bookie Robbery would rock Melbourne for years.On April 21, 1976, six men raided the Victoria Club where Melbourne’s biggest bookies were settling their accounts with cash. No one knows the exact figure, but it was estimated to be about $15 million.Great Bookie Robber Ian Revell Carroll at his brother Greg’s Wedding.The gang hauled 118 cash bags upstairs to an office and dumped their weapons at the scene. Without the weapons and cash, they were able to scatter immediately – a vital trick to set up alibis.Shortly after the armed robbery, and a few kilometres away at a pub in the suburb of Windsor, Greg Carroll was meeting his brother, Ian Revell Carroll.Greg remembers the smirk on his brother’s face when the news of the robbery broke while they tucked into lunch. What he didn’t know was that his brother was one of the six men behind the audacious robbery.In the latest episode of crime reporter John Silvester’s podcast, Naked City, Greg details the genius of the stick-up, the getaway strategy, and the so-called curse that befell all involved.“I guess I never really brought into the notoriety of Ian. Ian was Ian. Ian was bigger than life,” Greg says.Listen to the full episode below:“I was a bit in awe of him. He stood very large. So it was never a caricature, he was never, you know, the ‘gangster’. He was a very focused and controlled type of guy, and he knew exactly what he was doing. I guess I had the feeling he was invincible, really.”Ian and Greg Carroll at Greg’s wedding.Ian, who Greg says was funny, charismatic and a great organiser, both as a union boss and later as a key member of the Great Bookie Robbery Gang, was killed in 1983 during a shoot-out with Russell Cox.Cox was a master criminal who organised some of Australia’s biggest payroll robberies. Ian and Cox had carried out several armed robberies together.“The first thing I remember was, I guess I didn’t believe it. He had a habit of disappearing. My first expectation was it wasn’t really him, it was someone else, and he had disappeared,” Greg said.“It really didn’t hit me until I had to go and identify his body.”In 1977, Norman Leung “Chops” Lee was the only man to face trial over the Great Bookie Robbery. He was acquitted due to insufficient evidence. A record (at the time) $170,000 reward did nothing to flush out information about the robbery. In 1992 Lee was killed by police in a botched robbery at Melbourne Airport.John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.More:CrimeSMH & The Age podcastsNaked City podcastNaked CityCrimeFrom our partners