Antonio Bellino
By Don Cameron
9780646510156

'Time For Truth' is the story of Brisbane's so-called infamous Mafia Don, Antonio Bellino, named by the Fitzgerald Inquiry as one of five people of interest who were allegedly involved in corrupting the Queensland Police Force. On 12 May 1987, Antonio was accused of involvement in: drugs, prostitution, illegal gambling, corrupting police, sly grog, kidnapping children, Mafia connections and smuggling birds overseas. Antonio was flabbergasted, 'Are you serious? Even Capone didn't do all these things!' The Fitzgerald Inquiry took two and a half years to complete. Antonio was never charged and is still waiting for his name to be cleared. Prior to the media maelstrom generated by the Fitzgerald Inquiry, Antonio was well known as a family man and a charismatic, high-flying, wealthy, big-time nightclub operator whose major weakness was his generosity. The frenzied media's scurrilous, profit driven motive to sensationalise the story by resorting to malicious, inaccurate and unsubstantiated reporting forever destroyed Antonio's reputation. 'Time For Truth' chronicles Antonio's life in Australia from the 1950s. He left school at thirteen to work in factories, became a plasterer, then eventually a successful nightclub owner. In the nightclub game, the underworld problems of police corruption, protection money, prostitution, drugs and illegal gambling come with the territory. Antonio's unique, hard-nosed way of dealing with these issues is extraordinary and diversely opposite to what the general public have been led to believe. Antonio Bellino's story is powerful as it is starkly relevant to this day. It is sometimes amusing, often violent, it highlights some of this country's double standards of race priority and tall poppy successes as well as the age old injustice of 'guilt by association'.