Vic: Gatto pays tribute to underworld friend

AAP General News (Australia)
02-10-2006
Vic: Gatto pays tribute to underworld friend

MELBOURNE, Feb 10 AAP - Colourful Melbourne identity Dominic "Mick" Gatto has delivered
a touching eulogy to his great mate, slain underworld figure Mario Condello.

Condello, 53, a disbarred lawyer, was gunned down in the driveway of his sprawling
home in North Road, East Brighton, on Monday night.

More than 600 mourners attended his funeral at St Ignatius Catholic Church in inner
suburban Richmond today.

Gatto, whom police fear could be targeted next in Melbourne's underworld war, said
Condello was a loving, compassionate family man whom he would miss greatly.

"To say farewell to my friend Mario is something that I find impossible to deal with,"

Gatto told the packed church.

"To know this noble gentleman was to love him."

"I say goodbye to Mario Condello, a man among men who I'll miss more than words can say.

"To his family, I'll always be there for you like a true friend."

Gatto said Condello spoon-fed and washed his mother Marina on her deathbed, and rubbed
ice on her lips to soothe her.

"His only concern was her comfort and well-being," he said.

Condello loved his three children and his wife, Vanda, he added.

"They shared many challenges over the past two years but they always strived to live
another day."

Gatto praised Condello's work as a volunteer drug counsellor and told of his strange
sense of humour.

At a wedding the pair attended, Condello had eaten the eye from a barbecued pig's head
on the table and offered the second to him, which Gatto said he reluctantly ate.

Condello then ate the intestines, he said.

Outside the service, a woman mourner yelled at press photographers standing across
the street from the church, telling them to leave and to "show some respect".

Condello's family was whisked away in one of three black Lincoln Town Car stretch limousines.

His body, carried in a black Cadillac hearse, will be interred at the Carlton Mausoleum
at the Melbourne General Cemetery today.

AAP jrd/dk/jt/sd

KEYWORD: CONDELLO FUNERAL LEAD (PICS AVAILABLE)

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