Underworld figure Pasquale Barbaro spent his last day alive coming and going from the Earlwood home of construction industry figure George Alex.
Those who knew Barbaro said the 35-year-old was hoping to take over the "business interests" of Mr Alex's slain former business partner Joe Antoun.
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The Barbaros have long been known to law enforcement authorities as one of the major organised crime families. Vision courtesy Seven News Melbourne.
But when Barbaro finally left Mr Alex's Larkhall Avenue house at 9.45pm on Monday, at least one gunman, with two accomplices, jumped out of an Audi four-wheel-drive and opened fire, killing the father of two.
Despite the killers knowing Barbaro's whereabouts in a backstreet in Earlwood, investigators don't suspect Mr Alex was in any way involved in his death.
Friends on Wednesday visited the double-storey Larkhall Avenue home that Mr Alex shares with his elderly mother, but were not invited in.
Detectives were, however, and they spent about two hours inside questioning him about the shooting and his links to Barbaro.
Mr Alex has a history of hosting colourful and criminal identities at his home.
When previously living at Burwood, Mr Alex had home-grown terrorists Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar conducting boxing training two to three days a week at his house.
![Pasquale Barbaro was shot dead in Earlwood on Monday.](/web/20161119054220im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/q/2/5/f/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsqzdg.png/1479453686406.jpg)
It was before the pair were linked to Islamic State and, at the time, Sharrouf was Elomar's boxing manager.
"They didn't want to train in front of their community and I had premises at my house at the back and they trained there maybe two, three days a week, for two to three hours if that," Mr Alex has previously told the royal commission into the construction industry.
![Khaled Sharrouf, third from left, shakes hands with Mike Tyson. George Alex is on the far right wearing a black shirt.](/web/20161119054220im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/h/w/n/l/c/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsqzdg.png/1479297790136.jpg)
"We were able to obtain a fight on Foxtel for them and he fought for Australia against the Japanese and he won."
Mr Alex also counts Comanchero bikie Bilal Fatrouni and Melbourne crime figure Mick Gatto as "good friends".
![George Alex arriving to give evidence at the royal commission into the construction industry.](/web/20161119054220im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/h/y/8/x/6/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gsqzdg.png/1479297790136.jpg)
He told the royal commission he did not hang around these crime types because he needed "muscle".
"There is no requirement for that," Mr Alex said.
"I've been doing kung fu since I was four. I've got titanium legs, I'm pretty good. I take care of myself."
Barbaro, whose family is linked to the Calabrian mafia, had allegedly previously attempted to kill Mr Alex's business associate and debt collector, Mr Antoun.
But Barbaro aborted the hit when Mr Antoun's wife and children answered the door.
Mr Antoun was killed when he was shot four times when he went to the front door of his Strathfield home in December 2013.
Brothers for Life gang leader Farhad Qaumi and his brother Mumtaz Qaumi, who were associates of Barbaro, are now on trial for murder after allegedly arranging the killing.
However, police on Wednesday said they did not believe the shooting of Barbaro was linked to the death of Mr Antoun.
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