T HE M AYFAIR M AFIA
DICK KIRBY
has also written
Rough Justice
Memoirs of a Flying Squad Officer
The Real Sweeney
Youre Nicked!
Villains
The Guvnors
Ten of Scotland Yards Greatest Detectives
The Sweeney
The First Sixty Years of Scotland Yards Crimebusting
Flying Squad 1919-1978
Scotland Yards Ghost Squad:
The Secret Weapon against Post-War Crime
The Brave Blue Line:
100Years of Metropolitan Police Gallantry
Death on the Beat:
Police Officers killed in the Line of Duty
The Scourge of Soho
The Controversial Career of SAS Hero:
Detective Sergeant Harry Challenor MM
Whitechapels Sherlock Holmes:
The Casebook of FredWensley OBE, KPM
Victorian Crimebuster
The Wrong Man:
The Shooting of Steven Waldorf and
The Hunt for David Martin
Laid Bare:
The Nude Murders and
The Hunt for Jack the Stripper
Londons Gangs at War
Operation Countryman:
The Flawed Enquiry into London Police Corruption
Scotland Yards Gangbuster:
Bert Wicksteads Most Celebrated Cases
Praise for Dick Kirbys Books
His style of writing pulls no punches and he tells it like it is. Highly recommended.
Police History Society Journal
Its no-nonsense portrayal of life in the police will give readers a memorable literary experience.
Suffolk Journal
All of the stories are told with Dick Kirbys acerbic, black humour in a compelling style, by a detective who was there.
American Police Beat
a series of gripping, individual stories.
Daily Express
A superb description of crime-busting at the front end.
Bertrams Books
Dick Kirby knows how to bring his coppers to life on each page.
Joseph Wambaugh, Author of The Choirboys
impeccable research, interviews and documentation, written in Kirbys delightful, conversational style.
Police Memorabilia Collectors Club
Kirby writes with authority and clarity highly recommended.
Real Crime Magazine
A well-researched book written by an experienced, natural raconteur.
History By The Yard
He is uniquely placed to draw on those sources which really matter.
London Police Pensioner
To Ann
When love speaks,
The voice of all the gods
Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.
Shakespeares Loves Labours Lost
An extract of a song from the Australian outback; it might have been composed with The Queens of Maddox Street in mind.
For the days growing short, the nights coming on;
Well, darling just gimme yer arm and well joggle along,
Well joggle and joggle and joggle along.
The Mayfair Mafia
The Lives and Crimes of the Messina Brothers
DICK KIRBY
First published in Great Britain in 2019 by
Pen & Sword True Crime
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
Yorkshire Philadelphia
Copyright Dick Kirby 2019
ISBN 9781526742612
eISBN 9781526742629
Mobi ISBN 9781526742636
The right of Dick Kirby to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanica including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.
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Crime, Air World, Frontline Publishing, Leo Cooper, Remember
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About the Author
D ick Kirby was born in 1943 in the East End of London and joined the Metropolitan Police in 1967. Half of his twenty-six years service as a detective was spent with the Yards Serious Crime Squad and the Flying Squad.
Married, with four children and five grandchildren, Kirby lives in a Suffolk village with his wife. He reviews books, films and music, is a consultant for a television series and writes memoirs, biographies and true crime books this is his seventeenth.
Kirby can be visited on his website: www.dickkirby.com .
Acknowledgements
A brief historical and biographical note, before I delve into the acknowledgements section. Over fifty years ago, as a brand new police constable in East London, I quickly discovered that many of my contemporaries were among the most idle, column-dodging, piss-taking and, on occasion, cowardly police officers whom God ever blew breath into. Salvation came from the west, when a constable from Kings Cross was transferred to my station. Well-educated, tough he had been a member of the N Division boxing team yet surprisingly compassionate to the criminals he encountered, Ed Williams and I hit it off immediately. We carried out the very last arrest of a suspected person, loitering with intent to commit a felony; the next day, felonies were struck off the statute books, to be replaced with arrestable offences.
That friendship has endured unabated for over half a century, and I am most grateful to Ed for his extremely kind and thoughtful foreword to this book.
My thanks also go to Brigadier Henry Wilson and Matt Jones of Pen & Sword Books for their help, assistance and encouragement, plus George Chamier for his careful overview to check and eradicate my mistakes.
A number of people came forward to assist with researching this book, but top of the tree was Michael Nesbitt, editor of Britains Gangland magazine, who provided me with enormous assistance and to whom Im most grateful. In addition, I should like to thank the following: John Lewis; Dave Allen of the Bow Street Police Station Website; Mick Carter of the ReCIDivists Luncheon Club; Siobhan Clark, archivist for the Metropolitan Women Police Association; Bob Fenton, QGM of the Ex-CID Officers Association; Alan Moss of the History by theYard website: Susi Rogol, Editor of the London Police Pensioners Magazine; Dr Clare Smith of the Metropolitan Police Heritage Centre; Barry Walsh of the Friends of the Met Police Historical Collection; Neil Fraser of Fraser & Fraser, Probate Researchers; Ellie Longman of Bury St Edmunds library; P. Feakins and D. Hjiej-Andaloussi of the Freedom of Information Team; HM Passport Office; and the staff at Gunnersbury Cemetery.
