Duncan Campbell - Underworld: The inside story of Britain’s professional and organised crime

Duncan Campbell has been writing about crime for nearly half a century. He was the crime correspondent of the Guardian and chairman of the Crime Reporters Association. He has written extensively on the subject of crime for various publications, including Guardian, Observer, Esquire, New Statesman, London Review of Books, Radio Times and Oldie.

He has written four other books on crime: That Was Business, This Is Personal; A Stranger and Afraid; If It Bleeds and Well All Be Murdered in Our Beds! The Shocking History of Crime Reporting in Britain.

Duncan was the first presenter of BBC Radio Five Lives Crime Desk and the winner of the Bar Council newspaper journalist of the year award. He has appeared in numerous documentaries about crime and was the consultant on the 2018 film about the Hatton Garden burglary, which was partly based on an article he wrote about the case for the Guardian.

Many people helped with this book. I would like to thank particularly Hlne Mulholland for her diligent research, my agent Andrew Lownie and the publishers, Sara Cywinski and Emma Smith of Ebury Press, and Helena Caldon. I am indebted to the members of The Underworld team at the BBC responsible for the many original interviews with the main players in the history of gangland: Lorraine Heggessey, Andrew Weir, Louise Norman, Frank Simmonds, Jonathan Dent and Sarah Horsfall.

Others assisted with advice, information, interviews, research and in other ways. They include the late Bobby King, Jonathan Green, Eric Allison, Ralph Edney, Torquil Crichton, Clive Christie, Ray Baron, the late Alex Marnoch, Neil Darbyshire, the late Brian Hilliard, Wally Probyn, Kathy Bailey, Veronica Forcella, John Masterson, Andy Malone, Rosa Bosch, John Hodgman, Brendan Gibb-Gray, Rosanna Lusardi, Jim Dickinson, the late Pat Kavanagh, John Grieve, Stewart Tendler, Ed Upright, David Bailey, Henry Vaughan, Ian Cobain, Peter Huck, Nur Laiq, Rob Evans, Helen Pidd, Lorna Macfarlane, Sheila Ableman, Deborah Taylor, David Cottingham, Ron McKay, Linda Blakemore and Ruby Crystal.

I would also like to thank the staff of the National Archives, the British Library, Colindale Newspaper Library, the Guardian Library, the Mitchell Library and the Herald-Evening Times Library in Glasgow, the Bramshill Police Staff College Library, the late Camille Wolff of Grey House books and the staff of Broadway Books. I have referred to many books in the course of the research and their titles, for readers seeking greater detail, appear at the back of the book.

There will inevitably be omissions and errors. This is, in part, due to the fact that the hardest three words for villains, police officers and crime reporters to say are: I dont know. Also, many memories have become clouded by time and nostalgia. A plea of mitigation rather than a defence.

23 December 1911 East End Vendetta trial.

27 November 1918 Billie Carleton dies of supposed drug overdose.

19 November 1922 Frattelanza Club fight.

18 January 1923 Cortesi brothers sentenced for Frattelanza fight with Sabinis.

18 April 1925 Brilliant Chang deported.

8 February 1931 Eddie Manning dies in prison.

24 October 1933 Kray twins born.

18 January 1934 Charlie Richardson born.

24 January 1936 Body of Red Max Kassel found.

8 June 1936 The Battle of Lewes between racetrack gangs.

4 October 1936 Jack Spot leads attack on Blackshirts march in the East End.

10 January 1940 Ruby Sparks escapes from Dartmoor Prison.

1 May 1941 Murder of Little Hubby Distleman in Soho.

31 October 1941 Babe Mancini hanged for murder of Little Hubby Distleman.

5 December 1945 Kidnapping of Irene Coleman.

31 December 1945 Ghost Squad formed.

29 April 1947 Alex dAntiquis shot dead by armed robbers.

9 July 1947 Billy Hill claims London gangland take-over in the battle that never was against the Whites.

19 September 1947 Charles Jenkins and Chris Geraghty hanged for dAntiquis killing.

3 September 1950 Sunday People exposes Messinas.

19 March 1951 Alfredo Messina arrested.

21 May 1952 Eastcastle Street mail van robbery: 287,000 stolen from ambushed mail van, biggest robbery of its time.

2 November 1952 PC Sidney Miles shot. Christopher Craig and Derek Bentley arrested for his murder.

24 September 1953 Maples store burgled.

21 September 1954 KLM bullion raid.

21 October 1954 People reporter Duncan Webb attacked.

11 August 1955 The fight that never was: Jack Spot and Albert Dimess battle in Soho.

31 August 1955 Carmelo and Eugenio Messina arrested.

2 May 1956 Jack Spot attacked by Frankie Fraser and others.

25 June 1956 Tommy Smithson murdered.

21 July 1957 Jack Spots Highball club burned down.

14 December 1958 Ronald Marwood stabs PC Raymond Summers to death.

8 May 1959 Ronald Marwood hanged.

16 August 1959 Street Offences Act changes face of prostitution.

7 February 1960 Pen Club shootings.

28 May 1960 Peter Scott/Gulston steals Sophia Lorens jewels.

11 October 1962 John Gaul fined 25,000 for living off immoral earnings.

11 July 1963 Harry Challenor plants half-brick on Donald Rooum.

8 August 1963 The Great Train Robbery.

15 April 1964 The Great Train Robbers convicted and gaoled for up to thirty years.

12 June 1964 Jack The Rat Duval beaten.

18 June 1964 Lucien Harris beaten.

12 July 1964 Peer and Gangster story published in Daily Mirror.

2 January 1965 Ginger Marks murdered.

20 April 1965 Reg Kray marries Frances Shea.

29 June 1965 Thomas Waldeck murdered.

8 July 1965 Ronnie Biggs escapes from Wandsworth Prison.

24 July 1965 Freddie Mills found dead in car.

7 March 1966 Mr Smiths: Dickie Hart killed in gangland fight.

9 March 1966 George Cornell killed in the Blind Beggar.

2 May 1966 John Bradbury sentenced to death for Waldeck murder.

12 August 1966 Three policemen shot dead in Shepherds Bush.

11 November 1966 Harry Roberts caught for murder of three policemen.

12 December 1966 Harry Roberts, John Duddy, Jack Witney gaoled for life for the murder of three policemen; Frank The Mad Axeman Mitchell escapes from Dartmoor.

24 December 1966 Frank Mitchell killed.

4 April 1967 Richardson gang torture trial starts at the Old Bailey.

28 October 1967 Jack The Hat McVitie murdered.

25 January 1968 Charlie Wilson recaptured.

8 May 1968 Ron and Reg Kray arrested.

7 January 1969 Krays trial starts at the Old Bailey.