William “Big Jock” Ross, the Glasgow-born founder of Australia’s Comancheros motorcycle gang, has died at the age of 83. Ross was at the centre of the 1984 Milperra massacre, a gun battle that left seven people dead, including an innocent 15-year-old girl.
From Gorbals to outlaw biker leader
Born on August 5, 1943, and raised in the tough Gorbals area of Glasgow, Ross developed a love of motorcycles as a youngster when his lorry driver father took him out in a sidecar. At the time, the Gorbals was an environment where violence was seen as a way of surviving.
Speaking to the Record in 2015, Ross said: “In the old Glasgow days you never backed off, that’s how you survived. The Gorbals was tough and you had to be tough too.”
At 17, he joined the Army and spent seven years clearing land mines left over from the Second World War in Libya, as well as laying minefields in modern Yemen and Hong Kong. Following his honourable discharge, Ross emigrated to Australia and made his home in New South Wales.
Founding the Comancheros
It was there that he founded the Comancheros, seeking to recreate the sense of belonging he had experienced during his service. The gang was run by Ross like a private army, with military drills, lines of command and even a swastika in one corner.
However, his grip on the Comancheros would eventually be challenged by one of his most loyal followers. Anthony “Snoddy” Spencer had been like a son to Ross. But after travelling to the United States in 1983, he was asked to establish Australia’s first branch of the Bandidos.
The move sparked a bitter feud between the two groups. The Bandidos were viewed as operating in a different criminal class to the Comancheros, with the rival gang involved in drugs and its former president convicted of murder.
The Milperra massacre
The dispute would eventually erupt into one of the world’s most notorious biker bloodbaths. In September 1984, the Comancheros and Bandidos met at a supposedly friendly motorcycle gathering outside the Viking Tavern at Milperra in Sydney.
The Comancheros arrived armed with pump-action shotguns, machetes and baseball bats. Ross had organised his men into a “bullhorn” ambush and supplied them with walkie-talkies. The plan was for the Bandidos to see Ross alone while his men remained hidden in strategic positions. But the Bandidos arrived late and the Comancheros initially believed their rivals were not coming.
Within minutes, gunfire erupted. Women and children ran for cover as the violence spiralled. An innocent 15-year-old girl, Leanne Walters, was shot and died instantly. Four Comancheros and two Bandidos also died in the bloodshed.
Ross was shot in the chest and in the left side of his head but survived. He was among 43 men charged with six counts of murder, although the charges were later reduced to manslaughter. He served five years in jail. Snoddy, the former loyal follower whose defection had helped trigger the feud, later hanged himself in prison after blaming himself for the massacre.
Later life and death
When he spoke to the Record in 2015, Ross said he did not believe Milperra was comparable with the 2015 biker massacre in Waco, Texas, where nine people were killed. He said: “Of course I am interested because bikers are interested in bikers but I don’t think what happened in Milperra and in America are the same. We were at war.”
Asked what the fight had been about, Ross simply answered: “Nothing.” He added: “Pride?” Asked whether he would change anything, he reluctantly said he would not have gone to Milperra. He said: “If I hadn’t gone, I wouldn’t have been shot.”
Ross eventually left the Comancheros in 2003 and went on to work as a fire captain for 20 years. He remained married to Ness, whom he wed in 1978, and became a grandfather.
In 2019, aged 76, Ross came close to death again in a road crash. He was riding his Harley Davidson in Australia’s Hawkesbury region when he was struck by a Toyota LandCruiser allegedly being driven on the wrong side of the road for up to 200 metres. The impact left him in a coma with serious leg, head and internal injuries. He spent three months in intensive care and surgeons used muscles and veins from his arm to rebuild his badly damaged leg, while titanium plates were fitted to his hip and leg.
