Chris was born in Brunswick, Melbourne, Australia in 1949; the son of Edward William and Noelle Mary Flannery; with brother Edward and sister Erin. He was married to Kathleen, and had two children, Peter and Christine.
Chris attended St. Joseph's Primary, St. Joseph's College, West Brunswick State School, Moreland High School and Brunswick Boy's School, all in the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne, but left school at the age of 14 to eventually become a notorious gangster and professional hitman (nicknamed Mr. Rent-a-Kill) in Melbourne and Sydney.
He was convicted of housebreaking and car stealing when he was 14 years old; convicted of assaulting police and carrying firearms when he was 16 years old; served four years for rape by the age of 19; and was credited by Australian investigative journalists with at least a dozen killings although he was never convicted of murder.
Chris worked for some time as a bouncer in St. Kilda. He was described as flambuoyant and hot-headed, and was said to have had a macabre sense of humour: at parties at his family home in Melbourne, a coffin was laid out on the kitchen table and filled with ice to cool the beer. He moved to Sydney in 1984 to work as a bodyguard. It was reported that he sometimes carried a pathology textbook on gunshot wounds which detailed the effects of bullets fired from pistols and guns.
Chris disappeared on 9th May 1985. His wife reportedly claimed that he had become cannon fodder in Sydney's gangland war and that his death was the work of a professional hitman on a $100,000 contract. A three year judicial inquest concluded in June 1997 that he had been killed by rival hoodlums in 1985.
The film "Everynight ... everynight" (1994) is based on his life. Chris is also portrayed in the two-part ABC film "Blue Murder" (1995).
[his portrait is illustrated above; courtesy of "Big Shots II" (Wilson, 1987)]