Read the story behind Australia's most daring heist 11 Minutes by Gregory M Carroll
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11 MINUTES
A Crime Novel of Melbourne’s 1976
Great Bookie Robbery
by Gregory M Carroll
About 11 Minutes
Six men. Eleven minutes. The perfect crime.
Melbourne, 1976 – a gang of masked gunmen storm the Victoria Club and vanish with what would now be worth $80 million. No one is convicted. The money is never recovered. Within a decade, every man is dead.
11 Minutes is a gritty Australian noir crime novel inspired by the real-life Great Bookie Robbery 1976 – a Melbourne crime fiction classic in the making. Told with sharp, fast prose and insider authenticity, it reveals the rise and fall of the crew who pulled off Australia’s greatest heist gone wrong thriller.
From the 1970s Melbourne underworld to the shadowed world of crooked cops and violent unions, the story dives into the Painters and Dockers, the organized crime Australia tried to forget. It’s a world of loyalty, betrayal, and the cost of silence — where power is fleeting, and no one walks away clean.
Through the eyes of Ian Carroll’s younger brother, author Gregory M Carrollexposes the true price of ambition in the Australian underworld. He knew these men. He buried one of them.
For fans of George V. Higgins, Don Winslow, and Peter Temple, this is historical Australian crime fiction at its rawest — part Australian true crime, part moral reckoning.
What Reviewers have said about 11 Minutes
“A promising read for those who appreciate a crime novel with depth, historical resonance, and a distinctly Australian voice”- Michelle B, ex Kings Cross bar worker
“A quietly devastating tale of crime, loyalty, and consequence — 11 Minutes captures the uneasy truths of Melbourne’s underworld.”- Mark Q, ex Melbourne bookie
“Your writing is perfect for this ‘vintage crime’ genre — it’s a fun ride, so easy to get into the characters — so much so that I found myself rooting for them!”- Katrina M, School Registrar
S y n o p s i s
The novel opens by plunging into a raw, industrial 1970s Melbourne. Six men pull off the biggest heist in Australian history. The Great Bookie Robbery. In just eleven minutes, they rob the bookies of $80 million in today’s money. No one is convicted. The money never recovered. Yet within a decade, every man was dead.
Ray ‘Chuck’ Bennett and Ian ‘Fingers’ Carroll aren’t just thieves. They’re products of the docks, raised on violence, shaped by the Painters and Dockers Waterfront Wars that left 40 dead. That sets the psychological and moral framework that propels their ambitions.
The crew transitions from street-level thieves to men who command respect and fear. The plan — brilliant. Conceived in Pentridge, developed in the UK, training meticulous. Robbing the bookies after a long weekend of races of all their untraceable cash. The perfect crime.
For a short time, they enjoy the Life of Riley. However, it’s not just the police looking for them. The Kane brothers, Australia’s Krays, and Sydney Toecutters want a share. Meanwhile, the seeds of internal fracture are sown, the once-tight bonds begin to unravel.
In the aftermath, greed and paranoia take hold. Mistakes during the heist set off a chain reaction. As the body count rises, Ray and Ian struggle to maintain control. Their wives wrestle with love, fear, and the inescapable pull of the crime.
With enemies on all sides, one thing becomes clear; no one truly gets away. The stolen fortune disappears without a trace, so too do the men who took it. In the end, 11 Minutes isn’t about the heist. It’s about what came after. The price of power. The weight of greed. The illusion of control.