It can hit him from nowhere – the murder of the father he never knew, killed in a professional hit when the son was 14 months old.

When the news reports the discovery of an unidentified body that has been undisturbed for years, “your world stops”, says the boy who is now a man.

It took decades for Stephen Wilson to put together a realistic picture of his father.Credit: Simon Schluter

The worst was when Stephen Wilson, then in his 20s, would drive to work from his Windsor home. On the way to the West Gate Bridge was a giant billboard advertising the TV show Underbelly: Tale of Two Cities.

It showed actor Dustin Clare posing as hitman Christopher Dale Flannery, the man who killed Stephen’s father, Roger.

“It was the hair that got me [a look-alike for Flannery’s]. The first time it scared the hell out of me. I can remember five times when I had to get myself together when I arrived at work,” Stephen says.

We tend to think of hitmen as cool professional killers who for a price target other criminals. But Roger Wilson was no gangster. He was a lawyer and a driven businessman, a husband and father of three, Jacqueline, Jessica and the youngest, Stephen.

Wilson was ambushed and murdered on February 1, 1980, by, police would allege in court, two hitmen who were paid $35,000 by bankrupt businessman Mark Alfred Clarkson, who blamed Wilson for his financial demise. The victim’s body was never found.

Christopher Dale Flannery entering court.Credit: Age archive

The men police would allege killed Wilson, later acquitted along with Clarkson by a jury in the Supreme Court, were Flannery and Kevin John Henry “Weary” Williams.

Clarkson was later jailed over fraud-related charges.

In a rambling defence, Clarkson recently wrote that he was the victim of a giant police and judicial conspiracy – ignoring the fact the system he says is corrupt acquitted him of the murder. “The objective of completely destroying me would have been achieved had I been convicted on the false murder charge presented against me,” he wrote. “In a very real sense the Irish Roman Catholics tried to take my life.”

The passport photo of Roger Wilson. Released by police days after he went missing.

Flannery became Australia’s most notorious hitman, and although he was murdered 40 years ago, he remains a subject of public fascination.

At the........

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