GHQ Issue 3

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GHQ A soldier's story, a soldier’s co

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GHQ MAGAZINE

Contents

INTRO MEET THE TEAM EDITORS LETTER OWN THE MORNING WRONG PLACE WRONG TIME THE ULTRAS CALVEY CORNER CAT – SFX MICKEY GOLDTOOTH JEFF TURNER NICK REYNOLDS RICK BULTER LEO GREGORY / BRIAN JONES VINNIE BRADISH DAVID CRUICKSHANKS CARLTON LEACH BOSS OF HOLYWOOD TAYAH KANSIK RYAN SIMS MOB STORY FRANK MCAVENNIE JIMMY TIPPETT JNR TOTAL FOOTBALL

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GHQ is the new ‘go to’ for men and all those that wish to follow. The realm of articles and subjects will not be confined to your stereo typical, re-hashed, age-old stories or events, but instead a monthly magazine that consists of new blood and young minds. Yes, fashion, sport, health, humour, politics and music, will be found within, but in addition, GHQ will have a no holds barred approach and get questions and answers for the deserving reader.

GHQ will be bringing back to life the issues and topics that all blokes and geezers want, wish and talk about. In addition, the management team have a personal list and catalogue of some of the most talked, read and seen in all cultural aspects of ‘The Scene’, within the shores and beyond. With this ensemble of unique, fresh, class and sexiness, GHQ, promises with its delivery. When one of the management was asked to describe GHQ in his own words, he proudly said, “We have the production quality found within The Sopranos, the grittiness of Snatch and the qualities of a Savile Row tailor” So, tie up your laces, pop your collars and get ready for a nitro fuelled cutting edge delivery of nothing short of the dogs bollocks!

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MEET THE TEAM GHQ Editor Jason Allday is London born and raised who humbly describes himself as a product of a working-class upbringing. Jason Published his first book after the untimely death of his youngest brother. He has since self-published 2 follow up books, highlighting the people he aligns and identifies with as working-class icons. Jason was once asked,” Of all the people you’ve photographed & interviewed, who would you say is the most impressionable?”, he simply laughed and replied, “After interviewing a well-known criminal, I thanked him for his time and story, to which he replied, Thanks, I sacrificed many lives for it!” Jason lives a shared life in both central Florida & London where he often drives on the right side of the road but feels protected by both the friends he keeps and the small arsenal of guns he owns.

GHQ Picture Editor & Photojournalist Brian Anderson is Glasgow born and bred. Brian has had an incredible 25 career as a Tabloid press photographer working for news agencies, before working on assignments all over the world with one of world’s biggest newspapers (News of the World). He is currently working with some of the world’s iconic music artists including Pete Doherty and The Libertines / Tom Walker / Gerry Cinnamon to the legendary comeback of the Bay City Rollers. Brian currently resides in Glasgow with his wife Margaret and Daughter Katelyn. He operates as a photojournalist in the UK and also documents the streets of his hometown of Glasgow and has done since 1988.He also has documented the world of UK crime for over two decades including all the biggest crime families and the most feared individuals over the last 50 years in London / Glasgow / Manchester /Liverpool / Birmingham / Newcastle Dublin and Belfast. He is the author of 6 books including Faces of the Underworld to critical acclaim which also inspired a TV series in the UK and America called British Gangsters. He has also worked on various documentary’s and film sets. The rumour has it Brian sleeps with his camera under his pillow (this may be gospel) one things for certain though, one shot from his camera and your history!!

JASON ALLDAY

Editor’s Letter

BRIAN ANDERSON

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GHQ – Editor’s Letter and Content review

W

elcome one and all! Another month, we’re still here and the ‘competition’ is still drawling out

the same old. Good for them, but let’s see what’s in store for our loyal readers. I’ll start off by confirming the GHQ team have successfully acknowledged that no useless, pointless amounts of ads and self-serving promotions have made it into another edition of our brain-child; no carbon based Mars equipped tools, no 2 million pounds worth of diamond encrusted shoes or endless photos of the champagne socialites attempting to ‘fit-in’ with what and who we are – but what we do have is relatable everyday trainers and polos that all will find in their own wardrobes that are lining up for a Friday night out or a weekend jolly-up - So, perfect!

What we do have is some top drawer, relatable rascals, icons, lads and lasses you’d welcome for a pint and an afternoon in your company. Leo Gregory, who knows one of the best places for a Sunday pub lunch (cheers, mukka!) graces our pages. Brian Jones, who all at GHQ highly acknowledge as The Stone of Stones and a very articulate piece of writing from our very own, bad-boy of rock n roll, Nick Reynolds (who always disappears when it’s his shout for a round) on the making of his new documentary, Rolling Stone, life and death of Brian Jones. Frank McAvennie, who some affectingly know as Goldie-locks with a heart of gold. Rick Butler, who’s clearly still got it! Mr. Ori Spado, the Hollywood Mob Boss - and that’s Mr. Spado, to you ladies and gents. Vinnie Bradish, a rascal who has successfully (literally) turned his life around. In addition, a piece of writing covering every day mental health, that to many is a taboo subject, but after reading, will show why a psychologist, a transformation coach and his writing couldn’t have been timed better by a chap who’s no stranger on the positives of the day-to-day pressures of life. That’s some of the highlights, (no pun, Frank me ol’ Mukka) and plenty more for all to read.

So, on behalf of myself, Brian and TEAM GHQ - Cheers and enjoy!

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''OWN THE MORNING, AND YOU OWN THE DAY'

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Darren Jon Timms

''OWN THE MORNING, AND YOU OWN THE DAY'' In my years of research into the habits of high achievers, I established, they all had one thing in common; They each indulged in a morning routine which set them up for the day.

The routines varied slightly, but for all intent and purpose, they believe that to own the day, you must own the first hour on awakening, and I heartily agree.

If you want the best from life, the quickest way, in my opinion, is to role model those who have reached the levels of achievement you wish to emulate. Role modelling can take literally years of the guesswork out of the equation, so listen carefully, and incorporate the following into a new morning routine and see what it can do.

1. Instead of reaching for the mobile phone, which most of us do, spend your first 10 minutes exercising.

Running on the spot, some press-ups, shadow boxing, skipping, or anything that gets that heart beating faster and the lymphatic fluid moving.

The body needs to move the lymph fluid for ultimate health, and unlike the heart which pumps blood, we have no lymph pump. Hence, we must proceed with conviction to achieve this goal.

Secondly, sweating releases brain-derived neurotrophic factors, a brain chemical that actually grows neural connections and keeps the grey matter in tip-top condition.

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Thirdly, working out also releases dopamine (the neurotransmitter of motivation), and serotonin, which are the hormones of happiness, and who does not want to be happier?

2. The next 10 mins are allocated to contemplation. Personally, I write down 5 things to be grateful for.

Gratitude, like all emotions, is a positive mindset we cultivate by directing our focus in a specific direction. The more we practice gratitude, the more grateful we become, and we cannot be fearful, angry or anxious while experiencing gratitude. They cannot co-exist!

Nerd stat: The fact you awoke when over 140,000 people did not; a figure repeated every single day is reason enough to be grateful.

If your limbs and senses are working, you have a roof over your head, water and food in the cupboards, and some money in your pocket, you are one of the privileged on a planet where over three billion fellow human beings survive on less than a few dollars a day.

3. Visualization.

Now use the next 10 minutes, journaling and visualizing how you want your life to be and how you can actively achieve the goals that will get you there‌ Start by planning for the day ahead, then as you get better at not only writing down your goals but sticking to them, create longer-term goals and spend time each morning visualizing the successful conclusion of those dreams.

Most of us are more likely to make a shopping list than a list of our goals and aspirations. I strongly suggest you get a journal and a pen and change that fact. You can thank me later, as you join an ever-increasing populace that understands the power of creating and acting upon to-do lists.

4. Feed your mind.

Spend the next 20 mins reading or listening to content that stimulates and expands your mind. There are so many quality podcasts, you tube clips, and audiobooks to choose from. Pick a few that can inspire you to become your highest version and engage with them every day.

My advice especially right now is this.

Instead of listening to the mainstream world news, and the apocalyptic narrative on the way to work, try listening to a podcast, or audiobook that will stimulate not overwhelm your mind with trepidation and fear.

That may appear complicated, but not so. Just set your alarm an hour earlier than usual, jump out of bed the moment it goes off, instead of hitting snooze or check your social media and perform this 50minute routine. Try it for a month and tell me it has not changed your life.

Until the next time, be legendary.

Darren Jon Timms, Psychologist, transformation coach and author of the Amazon best-selling book, ''The Journey back to self''- a road map of discovery.

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WRONG PLACE WRONG TIME

AUTHOR DAVID P PERLMUTTER’S TRUE STORY NO 1 IN THE AMAZON BESTSELLER CHARTS

So, you may have heard about this International trending book that has received 100’s and 100’s of 5-star reviews?

Take yourself back to the early 90s.....Sun, Sea. A time of money and glamour in Marbella, a place on the map for all Brits to make a second home. With the history of its old Hollywood lifestyle with Sean Connery making a home here and many other Hollywood stars prior to the 90s, Marbella was the place to be for the A List lifestyle.

So when David P Perlmutter decided Marbella was the destination to get away from his troubled life back in the UK, he didn’t realise that those troubles were relatively small compared with what he was about to experience!

It was 1991, David P Perlmutter arrived in the beautiful Costa Del Sol making his way to Marbella. He was young, had an amount of money in his pocket from his previous job in real estate back in London and lived like a celebrity when he arrived. Champagne, Cocktails, Yachts, and fancy hotels to David seemed in abundance.

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He was also naive and care-free. The job he had when he arrived was short lived. David started to see not all were friendly and straight living. His problems seem to spiral out of control as rapidly as the money was dwindling. His time in Marbella went from bad to worse...What unfolded was totally unforeseen. The start of David’s nightmare began. Unfortunately, it was not a nightmare. It was a dangerous reality that was unfolding before his eyes. A scary outcome was heading his way and the worst part...His proclaimed innocence was falling on deaf ears. Would he be heard, or would he be facing time in a prison cell?

‘Wrong Place Wrong Time’ as the title suggests is a true story unveiling the rollercoaster ride that took place for David P Perlmutter in the early 90s Marbella...One that still haunts him to this day.

David initially documenting his did he know just become and fans should be a book.

started writing a blog, times in Marbella, little how popular it would frequently telling him this

Skip to current day and here we are....An international bestselling book, currently No 1 in the Amazon Book Charts, also frequenting top of the charts in and now No 1 in Australia, America, Spain, UK and around the world. With fans around the world suggesting the book should be a movie, a celebrity fan base saying the book should be a movie and the reviews just keep on coming. This book has sustained the charts since its release in 2013 and has become even more popular. The life of this book and David’s story has become more prominent in the book world and amongst social media platforms. David with over 54k followers on Twitter, has fans tweeting every day, and on his other social media platforms waiting in anticipation for the film release.

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THE ULTRAS

GHQ

By Jason Allday

Italy’s hardcore football fans are often criticised both publicly and nationally. But are the ultras exhibiting something other than extremism in their support and love for their teams?

For close to 60 years, ultras have been accused by local government and (of course) the press of extreme levels of fanaticism and racism within their supporting groups. The ultras are said to be, “a fascinating way to understand, not football as such, but why it means so much to people and why an area of measured and marked grass can inspire such extremism.” But, if anyone were to speak, understand, or have been involved in Italian history, they would understand the phenomenon that is typically misrepresented by the mainstream press.” The first fundamental truth with the ultras, is it is one of a national movement. Their ties or roots derive from a place within a town or city, or the geographical location itself. They are patriots with a sense of belonging, a social identity that encapsulates their pride and history.

Interwoven within the history of the ultras, there has been reports of murders, missing persons, bank jobs and drug-dealing, in addition to the routine punch ups that happen on most match days. Yet, for all of the reported negatives, there are lots of community aspects of the ultras. In a small town called Cosenza, the ultras had created Italy’s first playpark for disabled children and opened a food bank for the poor. Within the history of this ultras, they had a Franciscan friar. It’s comforting to read and find out, that with so many ultras being coined fascists and racists, it’s inspirational when you are afforded the luxury to look further than what appears just on the surface. Cosenza was devoutly anti-fascist. So, if you were to look for a place that clearly contradicts mainstream media’s representation of the extremism they present of the ultras, this is definitely one of those, so, ‘how do you like them apples!’

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In one report, the president of Genoa FC, Enrico Preziosi, in one prolonged rant, once said that “certain ultras should be wiped from the face of the earth”. In 2009, when he was England manager, Fabio Capello complained: “In Italian football, the ultras are in control.”

Throughout their 50-year history, the ultras have been, critics say, masked and violent criminals, sacking cities at every away game. They embody suspect or dangerous traits: blind loyalty, tribal affiliation, omertà towards the police, caveman masculinity and brute muscle. At worst they have become the willing foot soldiers of both organised crime and of Italy’s fascist revival.”

They can be seen at every football match in Italy: groups of fans often stationed behind one of the goals for maximum visibility; singing, bearing banners with various messages on them, combined with a team logo or special phrase.

Ultras are very passionate about their team, and make sure that they are known and heard.

They are often referred to as Tifosi, from the Italian word tifo, which in the Italian context means a passionate group of supporters rather than a display or banner, as it has come to mean in other countries.

In the late 1950’s and early ‘60’s, fans were simply going to the game to support their team.

As time passed, more recognisable groups began to emerge, known locally as ultras. Slowly across European leagues they could be seen as separate groups of fans in each of the games. It is reported that Club Fedelissimi Granata Torino 1951, are among the first recognised organised supporters’ groups, and were an early example of the ultras phenomenon.

The curva is again common in Italy, and fairly self-explanatory, originating from the curved shape of the stand behind the net, and has become synonymous with ultras, and well known for being their territory in the stadium.

Trouble on your doorstep (literally!)

Current Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa once threatened a Newell Old Boys' group of ultras with a hand grenade, when they landed at his doorstep in his hometown.

Marcelo Bielsa says he, “dies after each defeat” and seemed prepared to do this when they came to his front door holding a hand grenade when he was confronted by some Ultras after his team Newell’s Old Boys lost 6-0 to San Lorenzo in the Copa Libertadores in 1992. “I die after each defeat," Bielsa said at the time. "The week that follows is hell.

"When the mistakes are of such a grotesque magnitude, the conclusion has to be that the manager is responsible." He was not the only one who thought that. Soon the barras bravas were at the door of his home in Rosario. There were about twenty of them, demanding he come out and face them. Bielsa came out holding a hand grenade. "If you don’t go now,’ he

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told them, ‘I will pull the pin." The barras bravas dispersed. In an interview with Kaiser magazine one fan said: "The madness sparkled in his eyes. Nobody could look at Bielsa, only at the grenade in his hand. We imagined he would face us with a shotgun, not a grenade."

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GROWING UP AFTER THE WAR IN THE EAST END OF LONDON, LINDA FALLS IN WITH LOCAL GANGSTERS INCLUDING THE KRAYS, FREDDIE FOREMAN AND RONNIE COOK. WHEN THE LOVE OF HER LIFE, MICKEY CALVEY, IS GUNNED DOWN ON A JOB GONE WRONG, LINDA RESOLVES TO CARRY ON HIS WORK. BUT IN 1990, AFTER YEARS OF LIVING IN FEAR OF HER LOVER RONNIE COOK, LINDA FINDS HERSELF ACCUSED OF HIS MURDER ALONGSIDE DANNY REECE, IN A TRIAL THAT SHOCKS THE NATION. STILL, LINDA STICKS TO HER CODE OF HONOUR, REFUSING TO CONFESS. UNTIL NOW...

AFTER 18 YEARS BEHIND BARS ALONGSIDE NOTORIOUS NAMES INCLUDING ROSE WEST AND MYRA HINDLEY, SHE IS RELEASED. THIS IS THE FINAL TRUTH ABOUT HER LIFE AND WHAT HAPPENED THE DAY RONNIE COOK WAS MURDERED.

Calvey’s Corner - A Family Affair My name is Linda Calvey also known as the black widow.

A nickname given to me many years ago by the police after my first husband Mickey Calvey was shot dead by the police. Myself and my children are very honoured to have been asked to have our own page in this exciting new magazine. As you can see, we are all equally contributing we are a very close family and have gone through many trials and tribulations together over the years.

There have been many books and articles written about me and when my last dear husband George was dying, he said to me put the record straight and tell your side of the story. So, that’s why I have written this book I am very glad that I did so. The book has been very well received, it is on sale on amazon and various bookstores. I

'What a fantastic read, but not for the fainthearted!' MARTINA COLE 'True crime has never been more female - or more deadly.' KIMBERLEY CHAMBERS 'Admired and respected by the men who worked with her, she is the real deal.' FREDDIE FOREMAN

am pleased I have been able to put my side of the story at long last, the book is published by Mirror books and it’s the only book to have been endorsed by Martina Cole - a true honour and I hope some of you will decide to read The Black Widow. We all hope you will enjoy our

If you think you know everything about the East End's toughest gangsters, think again.

contributions to the magazine today and in the future, all

Meet Linda Calvey, aka the Black Widow.

stay safe in these troubled times best wishes. Linda

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Ros Kemp with Linda Calvey on the podcast

Linda Calvey column June On Thursday the 21st of May my podcast interview with Ross Kemp was aired, if that’s the correct word.

Obviously, as we are in lockdown, this was recorded several months ago. I went with my agent and a friend to meet Ross at the studio and have to say what a great guy he was. Ross was welcoming, making us coffee and simply being a gentleman.

It was a real pleasure to meet him. I really enjoyed the day, Ross had read my book the, ‘Black Widow,’ and because of that asked if I would do this podcast. He said it was one of his favorite interviews. We hit it off straight away. I am sure that I will meet up with him again sometime in the future. He was such a down to earth person. Because of this interview, my agent is now looking into me doing the interviewing and several people have kindly agreed to do this with me.

So, as they say, watch this space. Any way folks all just stay safe in these uncertain times and let’s all hope that normal life can soon resume, as it’s hard for all of us not being able to just go and visit our friends and loved ones. Anyway, ‘till next time be lucky. Linda x

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Calvey’s Corner Fletcher, Melanie and mum Linda

Picture – Brian Anderson

Melanie - I Just watched our mums podcast with Ross Kemp and I’ve got to say I was super impressed. Even though she’s my mother, I thought she was fantastic in that podcast, she was not phased or camera shy (laughing). She really is a natural. It always seems weird watching my mum do interviews, probably because we’ve got such a close connection. I admired her and to be honest, even in some parts where it was hard to listen to, because my mum’s story is my story too - I lived through it as she did. She, as a mum, a best friend and as a woman, she is one of the most mentally strongest I’ve ever known. There was a great response when the podcast was aired. The last time I looked, it was over six thousand views; many friends have contacted me via social media, complimenting and giving thanks on how great it was. A positive level of support. So, I guess that says something, after all the years of being imprisoned, it’s finally her time to shine and without question it’s something that is long overdue. Many people have lived off her story, but now she’s had the opportunity to set everything straight in her words, in her own book that when it launched was titled, ‘The Black Widow; Linda Calvey’. We had a book launch in June 2019 at the infamous Blind Beggar. The event was a fantastic success and people came from far and wide and that was only just the beginning of this ongoing journey. It was through Ross Kemp reading her book that sparked his own interest in our mum and the rest as they say is still to be written. I’m going to sign off for now, stay safe and be lucky. With best regards to all. Melanie x

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Fletcher Calvey.

My point of view on mum’s podcast with Ross Kemp. Ok let me start off like this. Now some may be surprised by this, as I confess to having not read my mum’s latest book as of yet. So, I will quickly explain why. Mum’s first book that was done by Kate Kray, I did read when it first came out and I found this a bit vague, but I’m not going to go into that, but simply explain why I have not read mums new book. I have had lots and lots of different people telling me what they thought of the book, all reviews are glowing and that they have been blown away by it. But also, I have noted how many folks have said how sad some parts are especially the part where my dad dies and who they’ve been reduced to tears. And I’m not just talking about the female variety, I’m also talking about big ugly tough bastards with the mandatory ‘Mars bar across their boats’, who’ve had to put the book down and take a breather. So hence, I have not read it yet, but of course I will when I feel the time is right for me. Right, ok, my review of mum’s podcast. I listened to this a couple of evenings ago now, and I must say that along with many other people, I was very impressed how my mum conducts herself throughout. I enjoyed Ross and her engaging in conversation; chewing the fat so to speak. I admire her honesty and her integrity, as have I always. She has always been the best teacher for life that I could ever of had. Whilst listening to mum talking about Ron, it did bring back some memories - all bad of course. He was an absolute horrible bastard and I despised him even as a young kid and the feeling was mutual. He could not stand to be in the same room as me. I Look very much like my father, so that obviously haunted him, as I was a constant reminder, which he probably could taste. He hated me so f*cking much. I also believe he hated mum kissing or cuddling me. Also, mum showing me any affection when I were younger. He used to just sit there glaring at me with a face like a slapped arse.

You’ll all see (or actually hear) when you listen to the podcast. I think that everything mum has been through in life, has simply made her a strong human being and the matriarch that she is today. I really did enjoy listening to her latest podcast, looking forward to mum being in the driver’s seat and her doing the interviews to come. No doubt she’ll have an array of London’s finest and the surroundings of naughty boys and girls. Good things are on the horizon for the good ship Calvey. We look forward to smooth seas and the sun in our faces and the wind on our backs. Stay safe and look after each other. God bless - Fletcher x

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CAT SFX During these uncertain times in the world, all new releases have been put on hold, but as a little treat we’ve decided to bring out the B-Side to the long-awaited debut release from Anglo-Italian, London based artist Cat and her band CAT SFX STAY YOUNG is a modern look at life in the digital age. It’s a hard-hitting song questioning social morals combining heavy punk rift electric guitars and fast paced drumming all mixed in with poetic lyrics and a synth back beat in essence meaning it’s new, exciting and instantly unforgettable.

When asked what inspired this particular song, Cat said: “The song is about how detached we have become in the digital age, where it’s so easy to see everything as disposable. Love/sex/ a quick fix. Everything is just a swipe away and we’ve lost having a proper connection. It is almost become uncool to care, uncool to have a connection with someone.

Everything seems a bit fake, and when you start to like someone, want something a bit more it’s seen as being a bad thing”

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What’s more. CAT SFX have been very creative with the video making process for this track. Given that we’re all in lockdown and on social distancing restrictions, Cat realised that the making of a music video was going to prove somewhat difficult. That’s when she came up with the genius idea of putting a request out online asking for people to star in the video themselves.

Therefore, the accompanying video to STAY YOUNG is quite a unique treat showcasing a whole host of fans singing and dancing along to the track in their own homes further promoting the “STAY HOME STAY SAFE” moto.

STAY YOUNG is most definitely a song of our times.

CAT SFX are the latest signees to Alan McGee’s Creation 23 Record label

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CAT – SFX

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MICKEY GOLDTOOTH

Gangster tours with GHQ All aboard the naughty bus! Gangster Tours will guide you through the streets of London, where personal attention and a memorable experience is given on each and every tour, by your host and tour guide, Micky Goldtooth. Micky is the lovable and likable rascal you’ll remember from your school days. He’s as energetic as he is entertaining, with what is nothing short of an insightful and fun experience of the gangsters and the criminal underworld. With his trademark laugh and personal knowledge of the gangsters and the streets they once roamed, you’ll leave as entertained as you will educated on what is not just another history tour, but an adventure on what has become London's Best Gangster Tour.

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Jason: What gave you the idea of gangster tours?

Micky: People were making money by selling pictures and memorabilia of my profile on t shirts etc. I discovered this when my niece sent me a picture of the famous Meek Miles (American rap singer) wearing a picture of me on his T-Shirt. Then my Son bought a framed picture off the Internet for £25. So, I decided to run a Gangster tour and do what I know best, I started selling me. The tours were inspired by Mad Frank Fraser, he once had a minibus. A 7-seater, but I knew I would need a double decor - I don’t mess. I wanted a 75-seater for the amount of people that I knew would be interested. So, I went out and bought one, done it up. The Kray Twins were first memorabilia on the bus, followed by all the gangsters of the underworld of all whom, I personally knew or know!

Jason: How does it all flow so smoothly? You’ve also got some special places you go through - can you talk about them.

Micky: We love what we do, so there’s a lot of attention to detail. We pick up from London Liverpool St station; twice on Saturdays 2pm & 5pm. Once we’re all ready, we head straight to the courthouse (Old St magistrates) Shoreditch. This is our first stop. We go in and look around. You can see the original cells are still there, Banksy has painted some pictures in the cells of the twins. We can get a drink there and listen to the history and of the times the Krays were banged up. Then we head towards Bethnal Green Rd, which is where I was born and bred myself.

First shout is St Matthews church, the Krays funeral was held there. Then as we continue, we can see down the street of 178 Vallance Rd, which is where the Krays lived and gathered - this was known as Fort Vallance. Repton boys club is a road directly opposite where the Krays used to box, this is where Tommy ‘Ginger’ marks was killed by Freddy Foreman and Alfie Gerrard, which leads us to the next church, St James church. This is where Reggie married Frances Shea. E Pellicci’s is opposite the church, a frequent visit by all the underworld gangsters for a slap-up breakfast and meeting point. The police station, Bethnal green, is our next point of interest where Ronnie was first arrested. English's funeral parlour is practically next door, this is where they’re laid to rest. Next stop the Blind beggar, where we do a reenactment of the famous shooting; the killing of George Cornel by Ronnie Kray. It’s fun and informative. We continue the tour with our historian speaker, Mr. Ian McKenzie, telling the stories of Jack Spot and all the gory details of murders that history holds. We stop off at the George Borough market where you have a choice of stay or return to Liverpool St station!

We do have a lot of fun and banter - so many laughs are had. Please be advised this is an adult tour with adult humour! 16+.

Jason: You’ve got some very unique items on the tour bus - can you go into detail about those items Micky: There's always a good selection of memorabilia items on the 'Naughty bus although, they change frequentl

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.Jeff

Turner’s six punch combination

ALI BOMAYE

Back in March this year there was a computer simulation “Heavyweight great elimination tournament” (WBSS). Eight fighters took part, and the two who reached the final were, Ali and Mike Tyson. What the f*ck Eric “Butterbean” Esch and David Haye were doing in there is totally beyond me, as is the decision this computer jank came too in the final declaring that Tyson won a 12-round decision over Ali. As much as I liked Iron Mike’s destructive rise to the top of the pile in the mid-80s to 1990, there is no way on earth that he could ever have beaten a peak Ali, he wouldn’t have had a prayer. I will state my case, as in my humble opinion as to why Ali is the greatest Heavyweight in history, and as to why Tyson is undoubtedly in his shadow.

Legend of the ring Mike Tyson

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If you compare opposition both fighters encountered in their careers, I will say that Ali faced the better quality. Ali defeated five undisputed champions in his career, (Liston, Patterson, Frazier, Foreman and Leon Spinks) whereas Tyson defeated none. Tyson beat Heavyweight champs who held just portions of the Heavyweight Title (Berbick, Bone-crusher Smith, Thomas, Tucker, a faded Larry Holmes, Tubbs, Michael Spinks, Bruno, Seldon and Botha) Tyson fought three undisputed champions - Buster Douglas, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis and was beaten inside the distance by all three. Ali made eighteen defences of the title over two reigns and Tyson nine over two reigns, but when you consider that Michael Spinks was deemed the linear champion until Tyson blasted him out in one round in July 1988, then that’s when Tyson’s true reign started, going on to make two defences before being sparked by Buster Douglas.

Tyson was ferocious, from the time he made his pro debut in March 1985 until his demise. I get the feeling that a good percentage of his opponents were intimidated and beaten at the stare down. The first sign that Tyson could struggle against a determined fighter who would fight back, was when he won a remarkably close ten round decision against faded contender James “Quick” Tillis in his twentieth fight in March 1986. He seemed frustrated and lethargic as Tillis stood his ground. In Ali’s twentieth fight he beat the formidable Sonny Liston in a stunning upset to win the undisputed Heavyweight Championship of the world. Ali was a seven to one outsider and truly shocked the world of boxing when the fearsome Liston quit on his stall at the end of round six. Ali went on to make eight defences and was stripped of his title in April 1967 for his refusal to being inducted into the US Arm. He would remain inactive for the next thirty-seven months. Tyson outpointed Donovan “Razor” Ruddock in June 1991 and remained inactive for the next forty-nine months, he was incarcerated in March 1992. Although Tyson spent eighteen months more than Ali away from the ring, you have to look at their perspective comebacks, and frankly you cannot compare the two of them. In Ali’s first fight back, he took on top ten contender and world class fighter Jerry Quarry, Ali won in three rounds.

The Greatest Muhammed Ali

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Tyson on his comeback fought Peter McNeeley - Say no more! Ali then took on Oscar Bonavena, a real roughhouse top ten contender from Argentina, who gave Ali hell before Ali stopped him in the fifteenth round. Next up was the great Joe Frazier, who handed Ali his first loss in the fight of the century. After Tyson beat up McNeeley, he swept aside Buster Mathis Junior, Bruce Seldon and poor old Frank Bruno before well and truly getting his clock cleaned by Evander Holyfield, getting stopped in eleven rounds and taking an utter pasting.

Ali’s win against the beast, that was George Foreman in 1974 and surely puts this argument to bed, a truly remarkable performance. Ali went on to make ten defences of his title although, well past his best.

At thirty-five years old, he could still stave off the murderous punching Earnie Dee Shaver, whereas at thirty-six Tyson was thoroughly clobbered by Lennox Lewis. Ali’s ill-fated comeback against Larry Holmes in 1980 at the age of thirty-eight, was a painful one-sided thrashing against an all time great. Ali had the chin and the courage to stay on his feet for eleven rounds before being pulled out by his corner, at the same age (thirty-eight) Tyson was knocked out by Danny Williams and Kevin Mcbride, two journeymen.

In summing up my case for Ali, I know he had fights against some lesser talented fighters (Richard Dunn, Alfredo Evangelista, Jurgen Blin, Brian London to name a few) but Tyson fought just as many, if not more. Ali was never knocked out, losing just once inside the distance, (see Larry Holmes above) Tyson was beaten inside the distance five times. Tyson’s two reigns as an alphabet champion lasted just under four years, Ali’s two reigns as an undisputed champion lasted seven years. Look at the fact’s punters!

You cannot compare Tyson with Ali! Ali was the greatest Heavyweight Champion of all time.

I rest my case!

Jeff Turner’s top ten greatest Heavyweights of all time 1. Muhammed Ali 2. Joe Louis 3. George Foreman 4. Larry Holmes 5. Rocky Marciano 6. Jack Johnson 7. Joe Frazier 8. Jack Dempsey 9. Lennox Lewis 10. Gene Tunney

Ali and Cooper

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GHQ

THIS IS ENGLAND – JOE ENGLAND

PARKLIFE This a story about how the hard times of Lockdown created something positive. But before I get to that, some background.

No matter what class you are from, admit it or not, we all have the tendency to look down on others.

When I moved from Essex to Surrey, I found it hard to adjust. Didn’t feel like I belonged in this new place.

Missed my mates. I was only young but when young you are impacted by change more than when you grow up. In the nearby county of Hampshire was this caravan park. A proper caravan park. I remember many times when going to join the M3, glancing to my right, thinking, ‘I might not still like where I’m now living, but at least I don’t live on that.’

Fast forward to 2016. My separation was messy. Surely that is given. She got the place, the very home for 17 years I had paid the mortgage, put down a 15k deposit and spent fuck knows how much gutting the place with the help of my dad and younger brother doing a new fit. Looking back, the collapse of our marriage was my entire fault; even though I never conceded that at the time. You just don’t, do you? So I have no regrets she has the place.

I got a mortgage approved, but all that was available was part buy/part rent. I was not prepared to be paying a mortgage and the same amount for rent and on top of that, monthly maintenance fees. Fuck that. With no home, I moved back in with my parents. Before I did, my friend, the author John King, who had lost both of his parents, importantly told me this: ‘Cherish this, Joe. Moving back ‘home’ will be something special. Just don’t interfere with their routine and it will be great.’ I lived there for 5 months. And it was everything he said it would be. A rare late in life connection with my parents. Still produced fanzines from their old bedroom, which was now my room; it hadn’t changed in look since the 80s. But it was a tough time. Inside my head.

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A mate called me one day and said there was a place going for 60k. But it was on a park home estate, that old caravan park. I wouldn’t say I was suicidal, but I wasn’t ecstatic either.

When I went to view, the owner was out. He had rabbits. Hay all around the garden and inside the place. Got told he was in his 70s, had mental health issues, was moving into a Care Home.

He had a single bed with a Star Wars duvet. But you look beyond all that. Although it was a small place, it had two sheds, a large garden and on the end of a lane; the privacy factor a massive incentive. I bought it outright.

The first person I befriended was Tony. As I said, ours was a single lane, first on the left when you turn into the park estate. He said I would soon find out who likes you and who doesn’t want to know you. That all became evident within days not weeks. Tony also liked to talk a lot. Annoying for some, but Tony’s an exception.

‘Did you know just 2 years ago, that property on the end opposite you, used to be a brothel?

She had a red light on in the window. She must have been the Bionic Woman as she was working 24/7.’

Cars used to drive up and down the lane all night, queues going out onto the road like a McDonald’s Drive-thru. A regular was some geezer in his 90s, staggering up there using his wheel frame. We all have our needs.

Anyway, no surprise she got kicked off the park. Amazed she got away with her style of trade for as long as she did.

The next occupants were a family with two kids. Normality resumed? No. This geezer had a mountain of debt kept hidden. Tony said he also had a massive drinking problem. Before this geezer set off for work each morning, Tony would see him knocking back about 4 cans of White Stripe from the boot of his motor before driving into work. Not long after they had moved in, the geezer hung himself out the back of the property.

Next to move into what I now called to myself the Amityville house, was Mad Dog and Penny.

Mad Dog is a construction worker, on the road at 6am and home at 7.30pm. Like clockwork.

He also indulges in other lines of work that I will not expand on here, only to say The Daily Mail would be outraged.

Anyway from day one, Mad Dog had issues with the site owners, neighbours, but not me.

He became my best neighbour. He is called Mad Dog for a good reason as know a lot of stories about him from mates who known him a lifetime. But we clicked, were good mates. But he was at war with the lane and I couldn’t take sides.

One example springs to mind. Last October. Nine Lombardy poplar trees on my side of the lane were being cut down as now at an age where they were at risk. Anyone who knows about these trees will tell you that at a certain age all that is holding them up is the trunk; the innards perished by ants etc. Well the trees were cut down but that week the cut down tress and debris was put in part of the car park cordoned off, for collection when the job was completed. But we were told, same rules applied, we could not park our cars in the lane. Well John from Lewisham, retired but handy, parked outside the spot between mine and Mad Dogs. He had no choice as nowhere else on the site to park. I was in the shower

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and I heard this enormous roar. I turned off the shower, wrapped a towel round me and went outside, getting between them, just as blows were about to be exchanged. It was like a scene from The World of Sport in the 70s. The little ref, a Benny Hill extra (yeah, me) stood in-between Giant Haystacks and Big Mad Dog. Well, not for the first time, I defused the tension down the lane. I was actually glad I broke it up as quickly as I did as it was freezing out and as I hand my arms outstretched separating them and worried my towel would fall, exposing what I would call the best mate of my body, at his most vulnerable; cold, wet and shrivelled.

It all got sorted. But Mad Dogs was also having a serious fall out with Keith and Tina, his next door neighbours. Now I knew Tina from way back and Mad Dog was convinced that they had grassed on him to the site owners over something I do not need to go into detail about, only to say, it was fucking hard work being the United Nations Peace Keeping Force down this bleeding lane. I was exhausted. Every night I’d come home from work hoping nothing had kicked off. And there are many other stories I could add here. But certain I’ve already basically painted the picture. And then along came Covid-19.

A couple of weeks in, many in the lane were now out of work, me quickly realising I shouldn’t be moaning about working from home when I still had a job, and Tina comes round, calls me from my gate – I’m sunbathing – and shouts out: ‘We’re having a team street quiz night tonight at 7.30pm. You interested?’

I said yes, and that I would invite Mad Dog and Penny. At first they were not interested, but I am very good at persuading someone to do the right thing when it is the right thing to do and said we were going to be a united team and go out there and win it.

At 7.30pm I was amazed that the whole lane was out in force. At a safe distance, sat in their respective teams. I didn’t even recognise some of them. We all had to have team names and when it came to our team, Mad Dog and Penny, turned to me: ‘Well Joe, what we going to be called?’

‘We’re The ICF,’ I informed Tina. She had 40 questions for the night, some you knew, some you would never know, surely. ‘Who invented the ring pull on a tin can?’

Anyway two things of importance. One, we won and two, everyone stayed for a kind of after quiz party, keeping a safe distance of course. But something amazing was happening. Everyone was talking to each other; many for the first time even though had lived here for years.

We made it a weekly Sunday night event. The winning team set the following weeks 40 questions and so on. For the record, Team ICF have won it 3 times. No one else is yet in double figures. Admittedly Mad Dog did say he was going for a piss one time and came back whispering, ‘The answer to what is a Mississippi Saxophone is a harmonica.’ And one week I was so pissed off I couldn’t remember the name of the character Diana Rigg played in The Avengers, I said I needed to get another beer. Google told me it was Emma Peel before I had hit the fridge and I was back out there in seconds, letting the rest of my team know the answer to question 14. But that is only a couple of examples of our skulduggery and no doubt others have their phones hidden and set to Google.

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On VE Day we had a brilliant street party. It was now completely evident, old issues and disagreements had been put aside. We were a small community of friends. And we all loved it.

The quiz nights continued, there is one tonight as I write, and when Lockdown is officially over we are going to have one mad party down the lane. My plan is that moving forward we have a monthly party. Everyone chipping in with food for the BBQ etc.

Brexit divided this country. Covid-19, not just where I live, but around the country, seemed, even with the awful human tragedy and hardship it caused, united us again. The controversy regarding the Dominic Cummings issue appeared to have brought back those divisions in the media and social media in a country that seemed to, as previously stated, to mostly united again during these strange times. But will those dark divisions of those Brexit days and other events that were happening on here on a regular basis, impact the friendship and harmony Covid-19 has brought to the lane when some form of normality returns to society. I’m telling you now. Will it fuck.

Joe England

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GHQ

NICK REYNOLDS

Cons to Icons- Revelling in Rio with Ronnie

So, I had developed the concept for an art show featuring head casts of some of the UK’s most notorious living villains. ‘Cons to Icons,’ would illustrate the paradoxical cycle of how some criminals vilified in the media, were then feted on the celebrity circuit, with both parties profiting. Or in other words how the media was responsible for turning Cons into Icons.

All I needed now was the villains. Having already cast my dad, the next step was to ask him whom I should approach and draw up a list.

This I jokingly referred to as the magnificent seven which included, my dad Bruce, as the Chief Architect of the Great Train Robbery [he never liked the term Mastermind], Ronnie Biggs fellow Train Robber, escapee and one time singer of the Sex Pistols, Freddie Foreman AKA Brown Bread Fred, described as the ‘Godfather of British Crime’. Peter Scott AKA the Human Fly, Roy ‘Pretty Boy’ Shaw, Mad Frankie Fraser, enforcer for the Richardson’s [who I nearly killed but that’s for another story!] and George ‘Taters’ Chatham [my dad’s mentor], referred to by Duncan Campbell [the Guardian’s legendary crime correspondent and author of ‘Underworld’] as, ‘The thief of the Century.’

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The next step was get in touch with them and ask them if it was ok to stick straws up their nose and cover their entire heads in plaster for an hour!

Little did I know then, as chance would have it, my timing was to prove itself fortuitous.

Over the next few years [as I endeavoured with my mission], the names on my list, would all write their memoirs. I was ahead of a curve that would prove to be, in essence, a ‘Gangster Chic’ revival. Aided in no small way by the runaway and phenomenal success of Lenny Maclean’s ‘The Guvnor’ and in keeping within this framework of fascination for British Bad Boys, [with both barrels blasting] came Guy Ritchie’s, “Lock Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels” also featuring the late Lennie Maclean. This was to open the door for a plethora of books and movies – even the fashion industry bought in and exploited this villainous zeitgeist, and sixties so called criminal glam became the next big thing. I was onto something.

The first person I called was Ronnie Biggs. He had been a friend of my dad’s since borstal days. They both shared a love of jazz and the writer Ernest Hemmingway, vowing one day to do something worthy of a book themselves. Ronnie was the best known of the Train Robbers, having escaped from jail in 1965 and then discovered living in Brazil in 1974. A world media frenzy then ensued.

Detective Sergeant Jack Slipper, famously tried to illegally bring him back but as Britain had no extradition treaty with Brazil, Slipper was sent home embarrassed and empty handed.

The whole farce was brilliantly documented in the book ‘Slip Up” which subsequently was made into a film ‘The Great Newspaper Chase’. Interesting fact, Larry Lamb who played Ronnie in the film would years later also play my dad in the film Buster.

GHQ BUSTER

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For the next 27 years Ronnie revelled in his instant celebrity status by taunting the British Establishment in the media at every opportunity. This he achieved by wearing police helmets, and waving Union Jacks whilst flourishing a ‘V’ sign- all paid for by the press of course.

The head of British Police, Sir Robert Marks wrote of him, ‘…he added a rare and welcome touch of humour to the history of Crime.’

Although he was often portrayed as the Joker of the pack, or the ‘tea boy’ of the train Robbery, he was much more than that. I’d met him as a kid before the robbery and then in 1992 when I went to Rio De Janeiro and stayed with him for my 30th birthday. I was taken aback not just by his charm and wit, but his knowledge and incredible memory. He was no certainly no fool, and I would sit for hours in his garden listening to his tales with amazement, sometimes he even would break into Shakespeare!

In the late1970’s Richard Branson got some of the Robbers to do a Train Robbery song, which featured the line, ‘Come on Ronnie make a cup of tea.’

This I think illustrates that there was some resentment of his fame and fortune from some of the gang. As a professional criminal, he wasn’t on the same level as them, but intellectually, he was ‘streets’ ahead of most of them. During his time in Rio he had written 2 biographies, performed with Punk Legends The Sex Pistols and German band Die Toten Hosen, survived a failed extradition and a kidnapping. His son Mike became a famous child star. He had a float at The Rio Carnival dedicated to him and a feature film based on his Brazilian life.

Not bad for an exiled prisoner on the run from justice.

Biggsy was the epitome of ‘the loveable rogue’ and loved he was. When I would walk down the streets with him in Rio, people would toot their horns or shout ‘Beegs, Beegs’ it was astonishing.

When I called him and told him about my project, he was up for it straight away, before furnishing me with a list of stuff to get him from Harrods and Fortnum and Masons obviously!

There was some amusement at Heathrow airport as to what was the 5 kilos of white powder I had in my bag. The customs guys eyes nearly popped out of his head, until I explained it was only plaster. I mean who takes cocaine to Brazil, where its only 5 dollars a gram! That would be like taking coals to Newcastle? Satisfied with this they let me through, and they didn’t even test it, unbelievable!

Fifteen hours later I was sat in Ronnie’s pool with a large Tequila Sunrise. 3 days later after a bender involving Ronnie showing me ‘his Rio’, [and stuff I cant mention here!] it was time to do the cast. Unlike the cock- up I had when doing my dad, this went completely smoothly, and a couple of hours later we were looking at his plaster doppelganger. The first thing I noticed, which I hadn’t in real life before, was that his ear lobes were different. One was noticeably lower and strangely attached to his neck. “Yeah, that’s where the Nazis doing the plastic surgery fucked up” he told me. And he wasn’t kidding, the Nazis in question being

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under the employment of Hitler’s poster boy Colonel Otto Skorzeny, providing new faces and identities for wanted Nazi War Criminals.

Evil, Otto Skorzen with Hitler

Ronnie had a great, you exploit me I’ll exploit you relationship with the press. He couldn’t resist this opportunity to generate a story, or a few quid, so he called his contact for El Globo, a Brazilian newspaper. They immediately came round to his home in Monte Allegre, which sat at the feet of the mountain Corcovado. This mountain is world famous as the fantastic statue of Christ the Redeemer, the symbol of Rio, stands atop- arms outstretched.

Unfortunately, halfway through the shoot, as the photographer reached out to move the sculpture he broke it! Nonetheless, 2 hours later, after many apologies, I managed to fix it and the shoot went ahead.

Three days later, I landed at Gatwick, where a man approached me claiming to be a reporter from Reuters.

‘Are you Nick Reynolds?’ he asked.

‘Yes, that’s me, what do you want?’

‘Well I’ve heard on the grapevine that you were flying back with Ronnie Biggs.’

‘Yes that’s right I replied,’ to which he looked extremely excited looking around, ‘Well where is he?’

‘He’s in my bag’ The reporter looked at me incredulously and then the bag.

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So I bent down unzipped it and took out the bust, it was only upon seeing his face I suddenly realised that his tip off had been lost in translation and he thought I was somehow coming back with the real Ronnie Biggs, I couldn’t stop laughing, he however wasn’t so happy. But seriously! did he really think Ronnie could just fly back to Blighty and that he’d be the only reporter in on it? Obviously the size of the potential scoop must have scrambled his brains.

Later that afternoon the incident was reported in the Evening Standard. Two heads in and already the media were writing about my forthcoming exhibition,. Sometimes don’t you just love the press!

Next Month. He who rides the Tiger, down the morgue and the real Pink Panther

GHQ

RONNIE BY NICK REYNOLDS

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JAM LEGEND RICK BUTLER INTERVIEW

GHQ

Rick Buckler - The Jam Every person and group who blazed the trail of musical success, did it in their own way. When GHQ had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Rick Buckler; drummer for The Jam, Rick was respectively greeted and almost immediately addressed with the title, ‘rock legends’, to which he humbly replied, “we all just loved what we were doing”.

Some groups celebrate their presence and success as an answer to politics, social trends or as a voice of a generation. Rock music after all, has its roots, in general, with blue collar and white working class themes. Rock themed groups and their music has its identity firmly planted from the 1940’s blues and those that were graced as skilled and un-paralled natural-born entertainers. It’s also true, that In some respects, rock and music in general, is a counter-culture or as a people. With the introduction of electric guitars, the ingenuity, flair and entertainment that was once seen in early blues, then successfully transcended into rock music. And from here, many legends were born.

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The Jam were noted to be an English mod band and often referred to as a punk rock band, who were active on the music scene during the 1970’s and early 1980’s. They formed in 1972 Woking, Surrey. The band released 18 consecutive Top 40 singles in the United Kingdom, from their debut in 1977 to their break-up in December 1982, including four number one hits.

So much was given in terms of impressionable, iconic songs and a cultural presence by The Jam, but where and how was Rick sitting amongst so many changes in the world of music?

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Jason. Does music remain a large part of your life as it did in your ‘Jam years’?

Rick. “Well, you tend to change. I don’t think it’s the same. It’s still a big part of my life, but not the same. It’s a difficult question. The band was such a big part of your life. Back then the only reason you got out of bed, was to be in the band - it literally dominated everything, especially when you turned professional. Everything was arranged for you, you knew where you were going, you knew what tours you were going to be on and you knew 6 months in advance what was going on. Everything from scheduled recordings, the contracts from the record company, to the recordings you had to do. It really did dominate every aspect of your life. Then we come to present day, I’m not actually tied to anything on that level - the contracts and commitment to dates, tours or anything like that. There’s a big difference in what I do now and the commitment to the logistics like I used to be. I’m still interested in music and what’s going on, but its not exactly the same thing is it.”

Jason. Certainly not in terms of the intensity it once was!

Rick. “The thing I noticed more than anything else, is when you first start, it’s a sort of weekend thing. Playing the clubs - Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, the whole mindset is totally different. When you then stop working for ‘the man’, during the week and you had to then do everything for yourself, after that, it became a lot more serious. You have to then realise, the reason you’re here, is because you’ve reached another level and you have to maintain and understand that, if you’re not earning, and I don’t care who you are, thats just the way it is. No one can survive on fresh air. From an outsiders point of view, you tend to look at the music industry through rose tinted glasses, but when you’re actually doing it, there’s a hard reality to it, which you don’t really appreciate or see, if you’re just a fan of a band.”

Popular music of the United Kingdom in the 1970s was largely built upon styles of music, that emerged from blues from the end of the 1960s. Several important and influential, you could class as sub genres, were created in Britain in this period, by pursuing the predecessors by what many have said were the limitations of rock music, including British folk and rock and glam rock. Every song writer aimed to the best work of their work and considered what they were doing as a craft, that was to be fuel for the engine of musical progression, breaking barriers and their cultural predecessors. Many song writers and artists felt they had to be an original, reinventing the English language, producing something that pushed their own personal abilities, in many cases, without conscience, looking to out play and better themselves. The same artists were self charged with what was once said to be a, ‘literary irony and unfolded with the ease of spoken language’, for any listener that tuned in.

Jason. Your impression of modern music?

Rick. “Like anything, music goes through phases. I mean, I hated the ’80’s, because I didn’t relate to the type of music or the subject matter. It changed a lot, it went back to what I suppose you could call love songs, the music style all went a bit thin in a lot of ways. It really depends what you want from music. I’ve always appreciated musicianship, appreciated people that could really play and I’ve always really appreciated guys, that were great guitarists,

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drummers or whatever place they had in a band. And it’s that style that has taken a bit of a back seat, more now than ever, where media has really taken control of the music industry and turned it into a very refined commodity with these different talent shows. A lot of what is being shown is not actual bands, as such - it’s vocalists, and it’s not necessarily how well people play or how well they preform. That’s just a personal thing in what I enjoy and look for. Bands and music should be about value, what and how they play. I still like to go and see a band play live; it doesn’t matter what level they’re on, and you see some that are really good at what they do and I appreciate that a lot.”

If you listen to songs of the era of The Stones, The Jam and like minded bands, they tell stories in their songs - there’s a point to why they’re writing and ultimately playing live. What was created was nothing less than one in a Million, as opposed to simply another band. Of course, singer songwriters come in all forms, and arguments as to the best of them, could last for hours, but with what was being produced in the 1970’s, no one could argue, that the best of the 1970’s remained a conversation that would also last decades.

Jason. There was a high (music) bar set in the ’70’s and early ‘’80’s. Are there any chances of great or classic bands in todays music?

Rick. “Yes, I do believe they’re still there. I mean, when I look back at late the ’70’s and early ’80’s, there were some great song writers around and that was the thing, the songs were just fantastic. And then there was also the bands to back that up. Not every one was a virtuoso guitar player or an instrumentalist, I just think there was a lot of interesting musical ideas that were kicking off. The Sex Pistols where very straight forward for instance, but they were a really strong band, with some great strong songs. Along with some others too, including the Stranglers, and I guess you could put The Jam in that collection. There was a different mindset, where as sometimes you could have a great singer, they have a lot of style, but not great songs, but again, I think these things tend to come in cycles. I mean, I really like to go and see amateur bands play, and there’ll always be great bands out there, it’s just whether there’s a place for them in the media driven world we live in. I don’t think there’s ever been a time when there’s not been great bands out there, it’s about getting them the right amount of exposure. There was a time when we had an explosion of live festivals for a few years just recently, which I think was fantastic, and there was some really great bands there, but again you wouldn’t necessarily get to hear them on a day to day basis on the radio. I think though, it is healthy the music industry is always changing and it never stays the same, so no one can really say, “oh, it’s not like the old days”, because I bloody hell hope it wasn’t. But again, I think change is a very healthy thing and I know there’s been some great bands out there, because I’ve seen some of them.”

Some of the best rock n roll of all time was recorded in the ’70’s. From David Bowie to Led Zeppelin to Pink Floyd and more. Independent music labels were largely owned by people that had a love for the music. Accountants and corporations weren’t dictating limitations and creative boundaries for the young minded groups emerging from the ashes of the Beatles. It was a time when a level of independence was allowed re birth due to the over saturation of a few dominant groups.

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Jason. I think music in the ’70’s and ’80’s was a testament of the political climate. What do you like to see in terms of music and how it’s portrayed, if it should cary a message for example?

Rick. “Yes, there was, (a message) but that was because a lot of that came from within the music industry, a lot of the industry was driven by what I call, ‘arena rock’, where a lot of the music industry was putting these artists on pedestals and selling them as such. So many of them were elevated to almost, ‘God like status’, sort of positions, and I think there was a great throw back against that. I think more than anything else, if the public want something, and it doesn’t matter what it is, whether it be ‘idols’, the people’s poet, or whatever, then it’s those that are the ones that’ll push themselves to the front.”

The 1970’s was a reminder to the establishment that the working-class intellectual was at the forefront with music and their working class bands. The less prominent bands, albeit not chart toppers or displayed the glitz and glam or groups gaining popularity, where still a voice and in many corridors of the establishment, their voices where echoing a level of anti authority that resonated amongst the masses. It displayed that members of the rock community still have had it in them, albeit on a slightly less intellectual level, but one that still had volume.

Jason. There’s always been a voice of the ‘people’, thats often found in music. Especially when you consider working class groups like the Cockney Rejects, who again were a representation of the working class.

Rick. “There’s always been a need for a voice like that, as people that bought the records related to the groups and felt exactly the same way. There’s truth that it’s about being in the right place at the right time. No record company has a crystal ball, they’ll look at the way the wind’s blowing. I remember bands during my experience doing the London clubs, if a band was filling a club out and people were going to see it, the record companies would take that on board, and say to themselves there’s obviously something going on here. They might not understand it, or even like it, but if they thought it was worth it and could work for them - as it’s a business after all. None of these (industry) people are there solely because they love music, they’re there because it’s a business deal. So there’s a mixture of elements, like you was saying with reference to the social climate. Whether this was viable business proposition, to if they’re going to be stable enough, as even Sid vicious was so unstable there was no way he was going to be around for long. It’s a v very tricky question to answer because again there’s a lot of different elements going on.”

Jason. Music affects people in different ways - how did you see your contribution and how it affected the main stream audience?

Rick. “It’s very difficult to see when you’re in the middle of it all and what’s going on in the bigger picture. What we were doing was as a result of us simply wanting to be in a band, we just wanted to play, make a success of it so we could carry on doing what we liked doing. It was as simple as that. We really didn’t look at it like we were doing something for the greater good, that just really doesn’t come into it. Yes, it could come across, look and sound a bit selfish, but we just loved playing live, if anybody offered us a gig, we’d do it, making

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records and being able to sustain that and that sort of lifestyle, if you like. And that is what initially drove us, and because we felt we had value for us in what we were doing, not just on that one level of having a job, bur we really enjoyed what we were doing, and Paul has said quite often, “that we really didn’t want to get stuck in a rut”, we constantly changed, all of the albums are different from each other, you could appreciate the progression that the band went through from one album to the next because we never rested on one’s laurels, and I think that was always a fantastic challenge for anybody to keep in mind, to push yourself forward and to see what boundaries you’ve got.”

Jason. Will music always be part of your life?

Rick. “Yes, I think music will always be part of my life. I still tend to listen to music from a long time ago, music that I grew up with, it seems to stay with me longer than some of the newer stuff. I don’t really relate to it, most people to speak to seem to feel that also, that the music that you grew pop with stays with you a lot longer. I would hate it if it (music) got suddenly taken away.”

Jason. Looking back at what you was part of and the following you had, can you see that being part of anything impressionable in the future?

Rick. “Music went through a period where it was very tribal in the late ’70’s. There was people that liked heavy metal, reggae, ska and of course the mod scene and you wore the fashion, you drove the cars, the vehicles that suited the music. You hung out with the same people and that as fans, made you feel like you was part of something that was much bigger than just listening to music. Whether that still exists today, and if they still get that type of relationship between their friends and the music they listen to, with the clothes and the fashion they wear. I don’t know whether if it is as strong, but it certainly once gave a sense of a community and belonging that was yours.”

For more I information please visit www.thejamfan.net and www.strangetown.net

Rick Buckler was born in England, United Kingdom on Tuesday, December 6, 1955 (Baby Boomers Generation). He is 64 years old and is a Sagittarius. Rick Buckler is an English pop musician, and former drummer of The Jam. He started playing drums in The Gift with Russell Hastings in November, 2005.

Legend right – Rick Butler today

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GHQ Leo Gregory in the film biopic Stoned about the life of Brian Jones.

Brian Jones - The Rolling Stones - Leo Gregory Brian Jones, (Born Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones, at the Park Nursing Home in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, on Saturday, 28 February 1942), was the founding member of The Rolling Stones. His life has been chronicled with stories including that of his sordid lifestyle and suspicious death after being let go (many would say he was exiled and forced into isolation by the group and their management label company).

The Start It’s been written that Brian was often hitch-hiking to London where he would go to the Ealing Blues Club, sometimes sitting in with the Alexis Korner’s band. One night, Mick and Keith, on a visit to the club, saw Brian play slide guitar and were impressed with his playing of Elmore James’s ‘Dust My Broom’. Soon after this Brian, Ian Stewart, Keith, and Mick began rehearsing at Soho’s Bricklayers Arms pub, and on 12 July 1962, they deputised for Alexis Korner’s band at the Marquee Club – they were billed as The Rollin’ Stones.

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GHQ

Rolling Stone – Brian Jones

Brian Jones was the ultimate rock tragedy, dying young, rich and ruined by his own success. So, Why was Brian Jones So important to The Rolling Stones? Many cult followers and fans of the group in they hey day, may argue that Brian Jones was the soul of the Rolling Stones. Brian’s musical skill and expertise did not extend to composing but examples of his talent can be heard on numerous Stones recordings, among them, his slide guitar on ‘I’m a King Bee’, ‘Little Red Rooster’ and ‘No Expectations’ from Beggars Banquet. He plays the sitar on ‘Street Fighting Man’ and ‘Paint It Black’, organ on ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together’, marimba on ‘Under My Thumb’ and ‘Out Of Time’, recorder on ‘Ruby Tuesday’, dulcimer and harpsichord on ‘Lady Jane’, saxophone and oboe on ‘Dandelion’, mellotron on ‘She’s A Rainbow’, his harmonica playing graces ‘Not Fade Away’, ‘2120 South Michigan Avenue’ and ‘Prodigal Son’.

Brian Jones was played by actor Leo Gregory, in the film, stoned back in 2005, who is still arguably considered the ‘forgotten Stone’. There isn’t a single member of the public that can’t describe Mick Jagger’s big lips, or would think that Keith Richards a nocturnal creature that defies modern medicine and is an example of what a rock ’n roller is all about. But only diehard Stones fans appreciate Jones' contribution to the band's ground-breaking music of the 1960s. He's the one, for instance, credited with introducing sitar and other Eastern sounds into the Stones' otherwise straightforward blues mix.

Bill Wyman said of his band-mate - “He formed the band. He chose the members. He named the band. He chose the music we played. He got us gigs. ... Very influential, very important and then slowly lost it – highly intelligent – and just kind of wasted it and blew it all away."

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If he was still alive, Brian Jones would be in his 80’s. He was in The Rolling Stones for seven years and his importance to the band in those early days cannot be underestimated. He truly was an innovator and despite his troubled life, his influence on music should be recognised.

LEO GREGORY ON GHQ PHOTOSHOOT IN LONDON BY JASON ALLDAY

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Leo Gregory for GHQ Jason: You’d never heard of Brian Jones.. fair to say not an overly huge fan of The Rolling Stones, but upon hearing you’d gotten the lead role (Brian Jones) how did you begin researching the role being there was less social interest in the role than something you’d typically been interested in?

Leo: Basically it’s the same with any role. If it’s a world that you know very well, or it’s a world you’ve ‘dipped your toe’ in, obviously it becomes a lot easier, it’s a lot more natural and then you can put your time and resources into other things. But if it’s a character or a subject matter that you’re literally coming from a place of zero, and then working your way up, (my way is going to be different for different people) but you just have to immerse yourself into it. So if there was no great amount of time to learn and adopt everything about the person, here being Brian Jones, especially if the turn around is quite short. So from the time I got offered the role to principle photography, accepting this was a good few years ago, but let’s say it was about a month, and to go from zero to hopefully hero, isn’t that much of a long time. In an ideal world, any actor would want three, six months even god forbid, a year, to really do it justice. So to jump in the deep end (pardon the pun), obviously you have to do your research on the character first and foremost, the very fascit of it. The music was integral, with this then the fashion, with that comes the women, with that then comes what does he drink and particular to this subject of course, what drugs did he take. So you just have to break it down, cram as much of it in as you can and hope it sticks.

Jason: What did you learn about Brian Jones and The Rolling Stones that you’d not initially known, that helped you take an interest?

Leo: As I said. I didn’t know anything about him, before I’d read the script, if you’d asked me what did he look like, what instrument did he play, or asked me where did he come from, I couldn’t have told you. So I had to learn everything about him. Less so the character, but the time (period), the era, the music, the decadence, the free love, the naughtiness, the rebellion - I totally tapped into all of that. Yes, it might have been in the Ossie Clarke night gowns, women’s shades, and different fashion to that of my own (taste), but the essence of it something new, exciting and fresh. Something that was back then. Something dangerous and anti-establishment, that was before it became big business and part of the big machine, I can always tap into that.

Jason: Do you think Brian Jones was a victim of circumstance or he had a destructive mechanism?

Leo: Thats a good question. I would say a bit of both, but I would add not in the sense that he came from a single parent family, tough background, had to fight for everything with a sense of destitute, or was he from a council estate with the old bill banging down the door everyday. He wasn’t coming from that sensibility. Maybe the type of person, that had to grow up in a such a regimented period of our history, in the world and certainly in the UK, maybe that didn’t sit well with the rebel inside him - but he clearly was infinitely talented, super charasmatic and could charm the pants of any one, but equally in the blink of an eye,

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could be the biggest C.U.N.T you’ve ever met and could rip you to shreds. He was a lot of ‘contrasts’, he had the ability to pick up any instrument and get it too do what he wanted to do, but then he never had the focus, dedication or patients to learn said instrument properly so he could use it to its ability.

Jason: During filming, did your part invoke more of an interest of the character and the group?

Leo: For the purpose for filming, for sure. I would ‘eat and drink’ anything Brian Jones I could get my hands on. Post wrapping the film, was he a character that I could hold on to, no. But, essences of the era, maybe I could hold on to, but not Brian.

Jason: The Rolling Stones remain a cultural phenomenon. Why do you think that is?

Leo: They’re big business now. Primarily you don’t continue to tour without a massive catalogue with much loved hits. And they’ve certainly got that - that’s your bread and butter.

Beyond that, they’ve kept themselves in really good nick, they’ve kept themselves relevant, remained important and there’s essentially a lot of ingredients that go into a cake called success.

Brian Jones

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GHQ

LONDON’S MOST FEARED - VINNIE BRADISH

Vinnie Bradish with GHQ The man walked up to the teller wielding a shotgun for all to see, shouting, "Give me all your money, all the money in this bank, right now!" This is probably one of the most used phrases and likely one no different than when one of Britain's most prolific armed raiders was sentenced in his part in what is believed to be around 50 armed robberies. Vincent Bradish, along with his brother Sean, were said to be ruthless criminals,” by Detective Chief Inspector Bob Cummings, in charge of a case nicknamed “Operation Odie” This operation saw Sean Bradish receive an additional life sentence to his current running sentence. Vincent received a 22-year sentence for his involvement in the raids. The Bradish brothers were the leading figures of the most prolific team of robbers for what is believed to have lasted around ten years. Police also believe the brothers, who have many previous convictions, launched their own "firm" in 1995. A Detective Chief Inspector was reported to have said, "They always carried loaded weapons and were prepared to use them. It was a miracle no-one was ever hurt."

The Bradish's were formerly part of the Jimmy Doyle gang, responsible for 104 raids in the early Nineties.

It was reported in mainstream press, that Vincent and Sean Bradish celebrated after raids like rock stars. They spent much of the estimated £1m they stole enjoying high-speed cars, luxury hotels, women, champagne and recreational drugs. But the pair - with addresses in north and south London were caught after an accomplice, Steven Roberts turned super grass and implicated them in at least 50 robberies. He (Roberts) would be given a new identity, be put into a special unit in jail and his family relocated. Police say he will be in danger for the rest of his life.

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Jason. Where did it (crime) all start?

Vinnie. As far back as I can remember, the first crime I committed was breaking into a shed and stealing a load of alcohol. Martini it was, shaken, not stirred as James Bond would say. So, a few of us drank the Martini, got drunk and went home. I remember it because my mum was trying to wash my face at the kitchen sink, and she was asking what's wrong with me? Then a few years later, still young, I started shoplifting, nicking anything I could get my hands on just so that I could sell the products. I can't remember what I did with the money, but when I was old enough, I would spend the money on clothes or going out to pubs and clubs. Money was always short in my house while growing up. To a certain degree, I committed crime because I wanted the money, and by not working, I liked the freedom that I got from not going to work .

Jason. So, like a good few working class kids, you believed what you were doing (stealing) was no serious offense - ‘kids’ stuff’?

Vinnie. I guess, crime to me was nothing more than innocent fun. I stole a few things, got into mischief and like most working-class kids my age, we saw no danger in what we did or how we acted. Looking back, not me or anyone, I know, would’ve ever predicted that as an adult, I’d be one of London’s most feared and prolific bank robbers. My firm didn’t fuck about, we would take what we wanted - no matter the consequences! As a child of 9, I enjoyed life, growing up with my siblings, 5 brothers and 3 sisters. We grew up in Willesden NW10.

Jason. School?

Vinnie. I Went to Catholic school, learned nothing there, unfortunately. Apart from the fact that I felt penned in, I hated school and was a bit of a loner.

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Jason. You gained nothing from school.... other than a level of resentment towards authority?

Vinnie. This seems just about right for me. As I've said previously, I wasn't able to follow what was going on in class, so I got left behind from the rest of the pupils. It all seemed like bullshit to me. Maybe I was just being negative, but I would've respected them, or their teachings more if I knew what the purpose of their education was. Because as far as I could see, it wasn't about money, and that's what I was interested in.

Jason. So, at this stage of your life, with petty stealing, did you think or feel you’d get what you wanted no matter what?

Vinnie. Yes, even then I felt that I'd get what I wanted no matter what. I never really saw what I was doing as ‘serious’.

Jason. Home life was decent. Mum, dad, brothers and sisters - a ‘regular’ family home life?

Vinnie. No trouble with the law at this early age, but they were in my life as my dad would often get drunk on a Friday or Saturday night. Dad would come home singing Irish rebel songs and then start arguing and fighting with my mum. The police would arrive to arrest my dad, but they couldn't step into the house. So, the police would then ask us to get dad to leave the house. That was never going to happen. As much as we didn't want our parents fighting, we weren’t going to send him out to the old bill. Anyhow, life moved on and we moved to another council housing estate in Church Rd, Willesden. I remember life was good there. We had a nice big 5 bedroomed house. By this time, I was now attending secondary school, couldn't stand that either. I couldn't understand what the teachers were talking about, I couldn't follow them. And they were teaching stuff about various kings and subjects I simply didn’t get. There was no point teaching these subjects to me, all I'd ever heard about the English was how they hated the Irish - the potatoe famine, the troops in Ireland etc. All I wanted to know was how I could make some money. I never shied away from hard work as a kid. So, on Sundays, myself and two younger brothers, one of whom is now serving eight life sentences. We would run around to people's homes, asking if they wanted their dustbins emptied, or anything from the shops- real simple things, it kept us together as brothers, not causing mischief and learning that hard work got you money.

In October, we would all go out asking, penny for the guy, which is what loads of kids did as it was a celebration of Guy Fawkes on the 5th of November. We would gather up all the money and give it to our mum, who would use it to buy clothes and food for the family. Then Christmas would be next, we'd call round to everyone's houses and sing Carol songs for some change. While myself and my brother Sean sang, my other brother Liam would start doing the jig. Most people gave money and loved us, some didn't, but that's life. We enjoyed it.

I left school with no qualifications and drifted in and out of jobs. I wanted to be a mechanic, but no one would take me on because I hadn't passed my exams. Even to this day, I'm not convinced that all this schooling is necessary. People can learn to become something without having to do all this formal education. If I had been given the chance to become a mechanic, then I would've learned on the job. I learn by doing things.

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Next thing you know, I'm going out to clubs, drinking alcohol, taking drugs and seemingly out of control. With no direction in life at all. But I was happy enough. I found Martial Arts, kyokushinkai karate, the strongest karate, and I loved it. I was part of that community for a few years. I loved the hard, physical training and sparring bare fisted, full contact, no punches to the face or kicks to the groin or knee, everything else was allowed. I often limped out of the dojo where we trained 5 or 6 times per week for two hours at a time. As I got older, I started commuting thefts, burglaries or anything else to earn some money. I got locked up a few times in Ashford Remand Center for the under 21s. As I got older my life of crime didn't stop.

I received sentences that sent me to Detention Centres for a few months, later on to Borstal training and then when I reached 21 years of age, I started going to adult prisons. Alcohol played a very large part of my life. I would often get wasted from it. It seemed to fill a hole in my life, a void, it took away the boredom. Boredom is my enemy! After a few spells in prison, I finally met a woman who calmed me down a bit and took my focus away from negative pastimes. Together we would drink in our local pub in Wembley, that's now gone. A few of my friends that frequented the same pub were into armed robberies and were doing well from it. Every week or two, they were in the pub with bundles of £50 notes. Everyone knew what they were doing, but not the details, because obviously you wouldn't want to know the details or even ask about them.

Jason. You saw success and a way of being part of something (crime)?

Vinnie. Being an armed robber made me feel like I was a part of something successful. I worked with my brother and trusted him to have my back, and vice versa. Earning decent money from armed robberies, I felt like this was money I deserved, that we deserved, after the life that we'd had. It seemed as if no matter how hard we worked in the legitimate world, we never got ahead. I was always struggling to get a decent, well paid job, it just wasn’t happening. It seems strange now to say this, but if I'd done my schoolwork and went to university, then maybe I could've earned all these riches legitimately. However, I looked at the world’s leaders as a gang of crooks, the bankers and all their types that ruin the planet for greed, they pay their staff peanuts and expect them to be happy with their lot. Well, I couldn't settle for this, and I often used thoughts like these to console myself for the crimes I committed.

Jason. A dog-eat -dog world. So, would you say a lack of support helped mold a criminal in a young mind?

Vinnie. Definitely! But some of the blame lies with myself, as I didn't try hard enough. I didn't seek out the help that was probably out there. I wasn't able to seek it out as the whole system frustrated me. Too much form filling and all that kind of stuff.

Jason. So, you went to work with your brother.

Vinnie. I was about 30 years old when I'd joined up with my brother, Sean, and we started robbing banks, security vans, post offices, supermarkets etc., anywhere that had money, all were game for us.

Jason. When you were around more criminals than ‘straight goers’, combined with less work opportunities, constant push backs from legitimate jobs, you obviously saw that there’s more options with going one way more than the other?

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Vinnie. My friends from the pub were all doing the same and it seemed easy enough to me. I guess I thought along the lines, they’re earning, so what’s stopping me?

Jason. Working the pavement. Can you talk about a job?

Vinnie. There was one good one. An armored delivery van pulled up and was collecting cash. My brother was on his motorbike with the guy that turned QE against us (Roberts). I was on my motorbike. Both bikes were powerful racing bikes, 600cc. We had been driving around looking for something to rob, and we see the money delivery van pull up at the building society, so we went after it. I entered the premises with Roberts behind me, the guard was walking towards me with the box, I pulled out my sawn-off shotgun and pointed it at him and demanded that he open the box, which he did. I wasn't in a good mood that morning because I had a hangover from the night before. I grabbed the cash bag of £25k and we left the premises and ran across the road and escaped on our bikes. We went to a hotel, where we booked a room and ordered Champagne from the bar.

We were earning good money from the robberies and it was a buzz. We weren’t in it for violence, just cash. We got the cash and we partied hard. But it was no good for our health as we'd go on mad binges for 3 or 4 days at a time. I'd come out of the pub one day after a session and had an epileptic fit. A stay in the hospital on one occasion, getting brought back to a somewhat healthier condition, But I didn't care, I went straight back on it after release from hospital. We were really living life on the edge. The abuse to our bodies, drugs, drink - rock stars.

Jason. So, it was always all about the money - never personal, not emotionally driven or down to the social economic divide (rich vs poor) simply money!

Vinnie. It was always about the money. Sometimes we'd attack a bank and the staff would jump onto the floor and we had no hostages, get what we came in for and quickly leave the bank and disappear.

Jason. An easy in and out. Just another day at the office.

Vinnie. There was no point in starting to use violence. We usually got what we wanted at the point of a gun. If we didn't earn anything one day, we'd forget about it and just go for a drink

Jason. Going back to the start, the, ‘why and how’ you committed a high level of crime - was there a feeling or level of isolation on your part? Some villains have said they felt they were suffering in silence-, not understanding the system and this to a degree, fueled and justified their ways and decision process for a life in crime?

Vinnie. That seems about right. Even when I got released in 2013 after almost 12 years in the nick, I'd go to see my probation officer. She'd talk the same old stuff, it was no help to me at all. One day I told her that she's no help to me. She then asked, “what would I describe as help?” I told her if she got me a job and gave me some keys to a flat (like they would've done in days gone by), that's what I'd describe as help.

Jason. There’s a massive disconnect between the ‘system’ and the working class?

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Vinnie. In the hostel that I was released into, there was some lovely middle-aged woman from the Caribbean that worked at the hostel. She was quite helpful, not so much in anything practical, like helping me to find accommodation or a job, but just as someone to talk to at the end of the day. As for the probation officers, they are no help at all. All they're doing is sitting down chatting to you, filling in endless forms and as some have said, “just earning a wage and going home without really any determination to fix the system or really there to help people.” I’m not sure if that was really the case, but they never helped me, or educated me in how to ‘reform’.

But to be fair, I spoke to one probation officer that I was having a good relationship with, this guy was more helpful than the others that I'd had. I said to him one day, “you've got a great big flat screen TV in the waiting room and no one’s ever using it. Why don't you play Eric Thomas or Les Brown videos from YouTube? These are motivational coaches, to try and turn some young kid away from crime.” He replied, “that most probation officers don't want people to change otherwise they'd have no job.”

Jason. Would you say the help that exists is far and few between? The good people that genuinely care and want to help are spread too thin?

Vinnie. Yes, definitely. In all honesty, I didn't get any help that's worth writing home about. No accommodation or job, I had to find both by myself. There was a time when I thought I'd have to return to a life of crime, as I was so desperate for money, but I rode it out and managed to control my thoughts. I thought that if I return back to crime, then I've fall into the trap again. I felt that the system wanted me to reoffend, but I wasn't interested in robbing security vans anymore. I got sick of it!

Jason. Was there any emotional effect on you from committing armed robberies?

Vinnie. I don't think there was any emotional effect. I stayed calm before, during and after the robberies. Sometimes we would go for a few drinks after the robberies were done, just like normal people do after they've finished work. It can be quite stressful driving around and checking that we weren’t being followed constantly. We had seen the police following us on numerous occasions. We once found a tracking device attached to one of our cars, we then put it on the bus so that the old bill would follow it. So, the only emotional effect seemed to be one of joy as we'd been successful.

Jason. On a bus! Maybe they could help the old girls getting on and off the bus (laughing).

Vinnie. (Laughing)That's about all they're fit for.

Jason. Was there any pieces of work (crime) you were on, that resulted in a comical outcome or promote a laugh all these years later?

Vinnie. Yes, (laughing) There was a time we were about to run into a bank and as we approached it, I twisted my ankle. We quickly did a U-turn and got back into the car, we were roaring our heads off with laughter saying can you imagine if the old bill was watching it.

Jason. I bet the general public, you were weaving in and out of, were more confused than anything with your actions (laughing)?

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Vinnie. Most of the time the general public knew what was happening, we were already leaving with a bag full of cash. The robberies would be over within 20 or 30 seconds. Then we'd disappear in a stolen car or a motorbike. On one occasion we were listening in on a scanner and heard that the old bill had pulled over a couple of guys thinking they'd caught the robbers. That gave us a laugh as we drove back to a plot and split the proceeds

Jason. I’m sure the last thing you would want from any piece of work is an innocent being caught up in it (crime)

Vinnie. You're right, mate. That's why we moved with speed. We wanted to surprise them and before they're over it we would be gone. Usually about £10k up to £100k would be grabbed. We wouldn't want the public to get involved and thankfully they never did.

Jason. But everything at some stage comes to an end.

Vinnie. I got arrested in Feb 2001, four months after my brother, Sean. I had just left a friend's flat in Wembley, NW London. I was with a girlfriend. As we got into my car, I looked over the roof of the car towards an older looking man and woman. As soon as I clocked them, I knew that they were the old bill. We got into my car and slowly drove out into the traffic, the other car with the two cops came out behind me. I put my foot on the gas and floored it, flying along down the back roads of Wembley. The other car tried to keep up. I saw a gap in the traffic and quickly swerved my car into it, but little did I know that I had just pulled in front of the flying squad.

Two carloads of them overtook me, I looked to my right and I could see the copper with his black and white baseball cap. We were driving quite fast and it was a wet February night and the rain was lashing against my windscreen. The cops pulled sharply in front of my car, forcing me to stop and causing me to crash into the side of their car. My girlfriend was screaming as we crashed into them, the cops jumped out, pointing guns at me and screaming for me to,” open the door, open the door.” I thought, I'm not opening anything. If I put my hands down to open the door, they would've probably shot me in the head. They were banging on the car, screaming and shouting. Those voices seemed to be coming from everywhere. I wouldn’t open the door, so they smashed the window in on top of me, and tried to drag me out. I wouldn’t go out through the driver’s window for them.

They got my girlfriend to open the passenger door and they grabbed me out onto the ground and gave me a few kicks and belts with their batons. I was taken into custody and charged with a large amount of armed robberies that had been committed all over London. I denied the offences, but was found guilty along with my brother after a person we knew turned Queens Evidence against us. I received a sentence of 22 years and my brother received four life sentences, one for each charge. The snitch received eight years.

Jason. What did you think of the grass while you were being held?

Vinnie. I hoped he would've dropped dead - the no-good cunt he was. We think he was working for the old bill since 1995. The prosecution said there was 50 police on each one of us on any given day. That's why we said that they're our witnesses, because they'd (police) never witnessed us do anything in the 5 years they admitted following us.

Jason. The irony of a grass being used as a moral reference!

Vinnie. You're right, you don't turn grass just because you're going to jail. You do your time and get out again

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Jason. They had you bang to rights. The end of the road. but do you think if they didn’t catch you then, it was inevitable, and it was on the cards?

Vinnie. They never caught me doing anything, or with any firearms or money. I never thought that they would catch me in the act. They weren’t able to do it even though they were watching us for more than five years. The surveillance logs went back ten years. We weren’t silly at what we did. We took precautions, knew how to start and finish a bit of work. The only thing that stopped us was the grass.

Jason. What was your thoughts receiving sentencing, entering the prison and sitting in your cell?

Vinnie. Well, I was expecting a 30-year sentence so when he gave me 22, I just smiled. My barrister had tried to get me to plead guilty. He said they would give me a sentence of 15-20 years, if I pleaded guilty. I laughed and said, “that's not a deal.” After being sentenced, it was off to serve my time. I arrived at HMP Belmarsh high security jail and I remember the doctor asking me if I wanted a sleeping tablet. I was shocked. Why would I want a sleeping tablet, I thought? I was angry as my lawyers had told me it looked like I'd be going home. I was angry that my legal team hadn’t done their job properly. All I was thinking about from that time was appealing. I did appeal but got refused, time after time. The trial was a farce.

Jason. During this time, did you have what is commonly known as guilt or was you (at the time) fueled by anger?

Vinnie. I felt like a quiet anger had consumed me. I had been betrayed by a so-called friend and betrayed my own legal team. I realised that I couldn't stay angry as it was doing me no good, so I reframed it. When I finally realised that, I then accepted it was partly my own fault that I was in that position, then I felt better.

Jason. Prison and release - now after all those years behind the wall, does any of it seem real?

Vinnie. Yes, it does seem real. I won't forget it in hurry. The dirty, smelly holding room where they hold lots of prisoners together while awaiting to go into court or in the waiting rooms at different prisons. The small portions of food, like school dinners, the endless shouting and noise, the constant slamming of heavy doors, the rattle of keys, the broken people that I saw along the way, the bullying, the depressed, the suicides. The prison system is one almighty mess, but a person can use it to their advantage, by working or educating oneself.

Jason. Looking back

Vinnie. Well, I've been out of prison since February 2013 and I've changed my life around. I don't bother going to pubs anymore. My drinking mixed with my anti authority views caused me a lot of problems while growing up. I still work in construction, but I've also taken up Hypnotherapy successfully gaining a Diploma in 2018. I now look forward to the future. I've also got a Fire walk Instructor course booked for later in the year. Once I get that qualification, I'll be teaching people how to walk across red-hot coal, barefooted! My friend Noel Razor Smith is also writing a book called, ‘The Dirty Dozen’, about my life of crime and how my brother Sean and I and 10 others, became known as the most prolific gang of armed robbers ever to come out of London. This is due to be published in 2020. Being an armed robber was a good life, trouble is, they put you in jail for it.

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Vinnie Bradish today

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THINGS WILL BE OK!

GHQ

David Cruickshanks Things will be ok.

A psychological approach and looking in A lot of my previous life was about ego and I hid behind that ego as a photographer. My camera acted as a kind of buffer between me and reality. Because of my childhood and the many times my dad disappointed me I had learned self-reliance; I took that into photography and didn’t want to ask anyone how to do anything that I didn’t know already. I didn’t want to appear vulnerable back then by asking some questions that may have made my career as a photographer even better, but it might have questioned why a professional photographer needed advice from another Pro. When I moved to London there was a great photographer I sometimes saw when I used his studio and I loved his fashion and beauty shots, but I never asked him to show me how he did it even though I know he would have been delighted to show me. I stuck to my own way of doing stuff, but it was about masking my fear of vulnerability. I saw not knowing as weakness and so I stayed silent.

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When I had my breakdown and after cognitive therapy, I began to realise that I had been depending too heavily on myself for things I didn’t have the answers to. It was much later on when I started working with veterans who had PTSD and anxiety I realised that they too didn’t want to appear vulnerable so in order to work better with them I had to admit to my own vulnerabilities. When I opened up to friends and strangers about my struggles with mental health, I found that I was spending more time in the company of people I actually wanted to be around. When I ran my own business, I would often go to networking events where people were always putting a gloss on their business you know that graceful swan floating on the water routine, but underneath their little legs are paddling like mad to stop them from drowning? After a few dozen of these bullshit business fests I stood up in a room full of people and asked why no one talked about the impact on their mental health of running a business and when I sat down, I felt embarrassed about opening myself up to their scrutiny. At the end of that night a queue of people formed waiting to talk to me. That’s when I knew talking about my own vulnerability was giving permission to others to stop bullshitting and talk about themselves openly and without judgement.

Recently, someone suggested I write my own eulogy! What a strange thing to ask for, some might think. But after meeting this request, it was only after reading it, I noticed there was so many things I’d accomplished. The irony being, a letter or page containing what would be typically the closing of a person’s life, was in fact a list of things I’d accomplished, and I was happily surprised to see there was plenty of room for me to accomplish a lot more.

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Eulogy for David Cruickshanks

David took on the world like a boxer. He always battled to be the best and, in that battle, he lost a few fights but most of the time he won. His childhood wasn’t the best, but he never blamed me although as his mother, I blamed myself.

David loved adventure. He was fearless. One day when he was just 12, he got on the bus and travelled 8 miles to Kirkcaldy to his favourite shop to buy an Airfix model. When they told him, they didn’t have it he just jumped on a train to Edinburgh. When he told me where he’d been, I couldn’t be angry at him. I was just so proud.

He was desperate to join the Navy and when he failed the first time it made him even more determined. Eventually, he joined up and 1 year later he marched up to the Admiral to receive the Captain’s prize for best recruit.

David didn’t know that a year later he’d be at war but luckily for us he came home.

He loved the Navy, but he injured his leg in a motorbike accident and after an operation he was medically discharged.

He struggled with depression until one day he answered a newspaper advert to become a press photographer. But he was never content to just be average and he went on to become one of the finest photographers in Scotland. Around this time, he met Becky and they became inseparable.

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I was so proud of him. He won loads of awards and David and Becky moved to London, but they still found time to travel back to see me.

During that time, he photographed the rich and famous, but he never took any nonsense from them and he even told me about the time he gave the singer from the band West Life a row for turning up late. I could just imagine him doing that. He laughed about asking Muhammad Ali’s wife what they were going to do for Christmas, and she replied, ‘We don’t do Christmas’. I think he was just nervous at meeting one of his heroes.

David had a hard time growing up, we never spoke about his dad but we both knew he had been difficult to live with. I tried my best when his dad got violent, but it wasn’t always easy, but David never blamed me. His love was unconditional, and he so reminds me of my own dad. David never got to meet his grandad or even see a photograph of him although I know he would have given anything just to see my dad’s face.

Just when I thought he couldn’t surprise me anymore he started doing stand-up comedy. He said it was because he feared embarrassment more than anything, so he wanted to fight it head on. He even had sketches on radio but then he started working in mental health doing peer support and that took up a bit more of his time although he still loved writing jokes. He said talking about mental health broke down the barriers and people talked to him; their deepest secrets were safe with him. He said, sometimes I feel like a cross between a hairdresser and a priest.

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I’ll miss him so much. You couldn’t have wished for a better son. He was so kind and caring. I know everyone says that, but he was. He had an instinct for when you were a bit down.

He would take me for a cup of tea and we’d just laugh about the good times. He was so protective towards me. I just needed to mention that something needed fixing or I needed plants for my garden, and he was there. I used to wait by the window when he said he’d be coming. He was always there when he said he would be. Now I’m going to look out that window every day and just wish I could see him one last time.

My plan and intentions Each month I’d like to look at different aspects of mental health and how it relates to men.

What we can do together to end the stigma of depression and anxiety and begin seeing it as just a part of life and not something to be feared or ignored. I’d like to teach you strategies and mechanisms for managing it before you hit crisis point. As someone with over 30 years of lived experience of several mental health conditions I’d like to share my stories: where I got it right, where I could have done better and where I really fucked up and more importantly what got me back on track. If you are reading this then you are already contributing to the debate about how men really deal with what’s going on inside their heads instead of what’s on their Insta or Facebook page. You’re going to discover strengths and skills along the way that you never knew you had and maybe you’re going to discover a bit more why taking care of yourself before others is one of the best ways to keep you sane.

Best - Davi

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GHQ

CARLTON LEACH FOR GHQ

Carlton's Column

Dateline, Essex, UK “This is my column, the editors have given me free reign to talk about anything I want here, and you know I won't be held back or censored, so revisit GHQ Magazine every month to have a read. I get a lot of questions through my website and Twitter, so this month I thought I'd answer a few of those in Carlton's Column.”

What do you think of this lockdown, Carlton and how are you coping?

“I think measures certainly needed to be taken, the Government have a balancing act to do and they'll never keep everyone happy, lots of people are scared to death at the thought of leaving the house or running into another human being, many people don't have the luxury to consider their options because they simply need to get to work else they can't feed their families and some are strolling about bold as brass claiming it’s all bollocks and there's no virus at all! I do believe that there is a virus and it is killing people, so we need to proceed with caution and respect each other’s right to stay healthy (and alive).

Of course, this in itself is a massive pain in the arse and we don't know how long these un-natural changes in our behaviour will be required for, but I'd urge everyone reading this to stick at it for as long as needed.

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That brings me nicely to another balancing act! We, the population, need to work together to get past this coronavirus pandemic, however, we must always protect and defend our civil liberties and our rights, we must not roll over and give up, allowing state control and mass state surveillance to hugely overstep, just because we're told it will keep us safe from the dreaded virus! My good friend Paul Ferris recently said, “Question Everything” and I tell you now, these are wise words! As for me, I get up fairly early every day, have breakfast and head out for a bit of a brisk walk, when I get back its time for some lunch. I try to eat healthy but still enjoy my meal, I'm not a rabbit! In the afternoon I make time to train in the garden, a mix of body weight exercises, resistance bands, kettle bells and dumbbells. I keep in touch with friends by phone and regularly video call family. Hopefully freedom will start to creep back into daily life very soon.”

If you could go anywhere on holiday right now, where would you go?

“Well, I miss the freedom of being able to jump on a plane as and when I fancy and going between the UK and my place in Spain. I recently caught up with a few old pals who live in Cyprus, but we have an interesting article coming up around this trip in my column in another issue, so I'll leave that there for now! On the bigger scale, a friend of mine has been to Panama a few times over the last 5 or 6 years and it looks amazing, what an 'outside the box' place to visit! I'd love to go too; the coffee is apparently amazing and the engineering aspect of the canal interests me too.”

What do you think of Bernard O'Mahoney's latest YouTube video?

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“I'll make this one short: I haven't answered these tweets because the subject is not worth my time or energy. If someone comes for me or is looking to cause a problem for me, I'll deal with it accordingly, but I'm not interested in online arguments just for attention's sake.”

C, you tweeted about the plane of Romanian pickers and #clapformenow & were a bit negative about the topics; why?

“Let’s start with this #clapformenow lark; I find the video very divisive, because they've now created 2 sides to this, those in favour of the video and those not in favour. This division comes at a time when the Country needs to be pulling together. I've spoken to loads of people who are foreign nationals, living in the UK, about this topic and they all expressed their dismay at this for the same reasons, which I'll summarise as “I came here for a better life, not because I consider myself a gift to the UK” and “We need to be thought of as people, not as foreign workers”. The postman, who happens not to have been born in the UK, wants to be known as the postie, he's happy for you to thank him for continuing to bring your mail during coronavirus, but he doesn't need you to entitle him The Foreign Postman...I hope you see my point.

As for the British Government allowing international chartered flights from various European Countries to bring in 'seasonal workers', I will say that I'm outraged! At a time when we can't travel, can't see our relatives, can't bury our dead or hold a wake, I find this to be a middle finger from the elitists to the rest of us. “But British people don't want those jobs Carlton, they're too lazy!” I hear some of you say to me...I don't buy that line at all! Right now, there are families literally going hungry because they can't work, they've run out of money to shop and food banks are running empty, are you telling me that if the main bread

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winner in those families was going to be paid National Minimum Wage to do the fruit picking, he'd say no and let his kids go hungry? Is there a greater problem here, in that the government are allowing some kind of loophole whereby farmers charge these workers for 'accommodation' out of their pay, thus, not actually having to pay Nat. Min. Wage at all? Think about it. I'd like to also draw attention to one way our nation got through another global crisis; it was called the World War! Did we fly people in to pick our fruit during the war, or did the nation pull together, allocate jobs to those that were available to carry them out, while others battled the cause of the crisis? Where did this concept disappear to and why is it not applicable today?”

What's your favourite track that's out right now Carlton?

“I'm not blown away by anything right this minute, but that Tequila one is pretty good, we all need something up-beat at the moment don't we!

I hope you've found this month's article interesting and thought provoking. In closing, I'd like to mention Captain Tom, who is a real hero! He isn't moaning, he's fucking marching on and doing his bit to help in a time of crisis (although I'm not sure about that song they've released? -but it’s for a great cause, of course). Find ways to stay positive and we will get to the other side.”

If you have any questions for Carlton, or topics that you'd like him to expand on, get on Twitter and DM or tweet us both! We are @GHQMAGAZINE and of course Carlton is @TheCarltonLeach.

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GHQ

THE BOSS OF

HOLLYWOOD Orlando ‘Ori’ Spado with GHQ Orlando (Ori) Spado was born on December 17,1944 in Rome New York where he attended high school at Rome Free Academy and at the age of 18, he joined the U.S. Army and served his country proudly and was discharged honorably in 1966. He returned to Rome and had various jobs until he sold insurance for the Prudential Ins Company and was a leading agent. After a marriage and three children Ori moved to San Francisco where he married his second wife and then after another divorce he moved to Beverly Hills, California where he became known as a Hollywood fixer doing favors for A list celebrities and others.

As well as several other activities and then people referred to him as the Hollywood Mob Boss.

Jason. Ori Spado - AKA The Mob Boss of Hollywood - is that the title you like? What else would you like to be known or introduced as?

Ori. I’ve been referred to as the Hollywood fixer, as the Mob Boss of Hollywood, you can call me Ori or Ori Spado.

Meyer Lansky was born in 1902 in Grodno, Russia (present day Belarus), immigrating to America as a child. Growing up on tough streets, he eventually became an organised crime figure instrumental in the development of a national crime syndicate in the United States. For decades he was considered one of the most powerful men in the country and also ran gambling operations both domestically and abroad in Cuba. Myer was also known as the ‘Mob's Accountant’.

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Orlando (Ori) Spado was born on December 17, 1944 in Rome, New York where he attended high school at Rome Free Academy. At the age of 18, Ori joined the U.S. Army and served his country proudly and was discharged honorably in 1966. He returned to Rome and had various jobs until he sold insurance for the Prudential Insurance Company where he was a leading agent. After his first marriage and three children, Ori moved to San Francisco where he married his second wife and then after another divorce he moved to Beverly Hills, California where he became known as a Hollywood fixer doing favors for A-list celebrities and others. People referred to him as the Hollywood Mob Boss.

In 2008 he was arrested at his home in Beverly Hills and brought to Brooklyn on a Colombo crime family RICO indictment. He has enjoyed a friendship with the legendary underboss Sonny Franzese of the Colombo family for over 40 years and remains friends to this day. In addition, he has known the bosses of several mafia families throughout the U.S., having known Frank Costello, Meyer Lansky, Russell Bufalino, Carlo Marcello and Joey Pyle from London.

Ori finished his time at the U.S. Federal prison in Lompoc and returned to Beverly

Ori finished his time at the U.S. Federal prison in Lompoc and returned to Beverly Hills, where he is involved in a few film projects and other legitimate business.This is the true story of his life, he lived it, he owns it and takes full responsibility for his actions of the past.Ori hopes that with releasing his book that if he can keep just one person from entering the life of crime, it was well worth it.

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Jason. Can you talk about Meyer Lanksy?

Ori. Meyer Lanksy, I met in New York. I first met Myer around the time gambling was being approved in New Jersey. Myer would be in New York, where I maintained a suite at the Warwick hotel on 54th and 6th. So, I got to know Myer through being there. We would discuss various projects and the way we would do it, Myer would walk his dog and we would walk in the evenings down 54th to 5th over to 57th, back down to 6th Ave. I always found Myer to be a gentleman, a highly intelligent individual. We used to have some great highly educated conversations.

Jason. Another name that can’t go without being talked about is Nicholas Pileggi. Obviously known for writing the book, ‘Wiseguy’, which he adapted into the movie Goodfellas, and for writing the book and screenplay Casino. A huge name in crime films.

Ori. Nicholas is a true gentleman right to the core, he’s one of the nicest men you’d ever meet in your entire life, probably knows more about mob history than anyone walking the earth. An excellent writer and a good friend. Nick and I have a very good friendship, we speak once or twice a week. As you know I know Frank Costello and Nicholas has written a script for one of the studious about Frank Costello and that script is being reviewed

Jason. You have said publicly that you have a strong disdained opinion on Informants. You align and believe in old fashioned honour - do you think this is as a result of a breakdown of morals in society?

Ori. There’s not a breakdown of morals in society, but if you get to listen or read about what I have to say about this very subject, as it’s become a focus of mine lately. They always show the scales of justice being equal - those scales of justice are not equal! The defendant is right down at the bottom, the prosecution goes right up to the top. The reason behind this was in 1970 Senator John McClellan got Robert Blakey to draft what is known as the RICO Act.

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) Passed in 1970, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) is a federal law designed to combat organized crime in the United States. It allows prosecution and civil penalties for racketeering activity performed as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise. Richard Nixon passed that bill.

The reason they passed that bill was to stop and clean up big drugs. We know that the RICO act didn’t stop or clean up drugs. It didn’t stop drugs then, and it didn’t stop drugs now- and it never will happen. As far as cleaning up drugs, the only way that’s going to stop is when

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the demand stops. Like any other commodity - and the demand increases every day; it never decreases. The RICO Act allowed the FBI, Justice department and judges to do what they wanted. When a defended is fighting against a RICO Act charge and they (Government) pay the informants it became very easy. They essentially began getting more informants.

The RICO Act is another conspiracy charge and it’s unlawful. The RICO act was the reason for the increase in informants. It’s an unconstitutional law, but because of it, it gave the prosecutors a way to give long prison terms for conspiracy crimes that never happened. Then in 1994 Joe Biden introduced the worst crime bill in history. It was Sponsored by Representative Jack Brooks of Texas, the bill was originally written by Senator Joe Biden of Delaware and then was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. In that bill it included the minimum mandatory sentencing.

Jason. Joe Biden drafted the 1994 Crime Bill that imposed mandatory minimums, created tough new criminal sentences, incentivised states to build new prisons, and instituted the death penalty for nearly 60 more crimes. The crime bill led to an astronomical increase in the number of nonviolent inmates in prison between 1994 and 2004. This was partially due to unduly harsh sentences for small quantities of crack cocaine. The crime bill also sentenced juveniles as adults, thus separating them from their families and disrupting their education. The crime bill also disproportionately affected minorities and those in the lower socioeconomic classes, and as some have said, it’s been seen to discriminate with the Italian American community.

Ori. Now there is only one way to beat a minimum mandatory sentence and that is to become an informant. What this has now done has tied the hands of the judges from sentencing. Judges are appointed to a lifetime position. So why do we have a bunch of congressmen telling the judges what they have to do? I ended up with a 924 (c) charge. In 2008, I was arrested at my home in Beverly Hills and was brought to Brooklyn on a Colombo crime family RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) indictment. I was eventually convicted and as I said, I served over five years in a federal prison.

Jason. A 924(c) charge are offenses involve possessing, brandishing, or discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence or drug trafficking crime.

Ori. Correct! Which is essentially a gun charge, with a minimum mandatory charge of 60 months - I served a total of 62 months! With an additional 4 years of supervised release. But here’s the thing - I never had a gun! They had an informant that said they saw me give a gun to someone else. That informant, not in a million years saw me give anyone a gun. A real or a fake gun - I was never found in possession of a gun - fact! Last year in June, the US supreme found that 924 (c) is both illegal and unconstitutional and should therefore be vacated from everybody’s record. But as I found out if I have the 924 (c) removed they’ll bring

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back other charges. So, I’m doing a lot of work looking into this and the unconstitutional laws that are in place. The scales of justice have to be equal; the RICO act removes the presumption of innocence.

Jason. John "Sonny" Franzese Sr. you had a lifelong friendship with him.

Ori. Sonny was a dear friend of mine for over 40 years. I would speak with Sonny at least once a week, right up until his recent passing. I met Sonny in 1978 or ’79, and that was shortly after he was released from federal prison. Sonny was a very intelligent man, a tough guy and he could differentiate between right from wrong. A saying comes to mind, ‘a boss of organised crime could be the president of a company’ - and here that’s absolutely correct. I’ve known most of the big boss’s throughout the country and have had the ability to speak with them - I mean direct communication, and they were all intelligent men. They can call us mobsters, gangsters they can call us what they want, but the fact remains, were very intelligent men.

Jason. Who would you say has been a bigger influence in your life of mob bosses and soldiers within the families?

Ori. In my book I speak about each of them in a certain way, but one individual, that in my opinion was one of the smartest men. A person that thought like me and was a closer friend to me than anyone in this country. That gentleman’s name was Joey Pyle Snr from London, England. Joey and I would talk not once a day, but several times a day. Joey’s son is a spitting image of his dad. I remember Frank Costello once told me, “always be a gentleman.”

There are little things that I learned from each and every one of them. But Joey Pyle was an exceptional man. As for a ‘soldier’, one that not a lot of people have heard of is Jimmy Caci, he also become a Capo. He came from Buffalo, New York to Los Angeles. Jimmy was another guy that spent a lot of time in prison. He was one of the few real guys out here in Los Angeles. There were times that Jimmy and I would spend weeks together.

Jason. Old school.

Ori. That’s a lot of the old timers, back in the day and it was called, ‘the life’. But again, you have to remember this was a time, if or when you got caught, you got your sentence, you did your time. The justice department changed a lot of that with the RICO Act and the involvement of drugs in organised crime. I was never answerable to nobody. Sonny Franzese was the under boss and my friend, we were never partner’s in, or did we conspire to go into business, it never happened. The conspiracy of supplying can get you put in federal prison.

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Jason. You can be guilty of your reputation and not of an actual crime?

Ori. Exactly!

Jason. As for entertainers, who would you say was an inspiration?

Ori. Well as you know I was friends with Dino De Laurentiis, Ralph Serpe and Jack Gilardi Jack was a legendary agent for ICM and worked for them for over 60 years. A very loyal man who would pick up or return every call he ever got, also John Daly, the British-born producer of 13 Oscar-winning movies including, Platoon and The Last Emperor who helped launch the careers of many A-list directors and actors. There’s been a lot of good people.

Ori. I authored the book, ‘The Accidental gangster’ - This is my true story of my life, I lived it, I own it and take full responsibility for my actions of the past. My hope is that if I can keep one young man from entering the life of crime through my book then it was well worth it.

The book is co-authored by Dennis N. Griffin, who is a well-known author of crime books and gangster novels, such as “A ‘Family’ Business” and “The Battle for Las Vegas.”

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GHQ

TAYAH KANSIK STUNT WOMAN

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Crash, bang.... WOW! The obvious opening question would be, what got a lady interested in being a stuntwoman? This is not to take away from the fact that there’s women that play a role in equally as many jobs, that could surpass many a man, including government’s secret service, the FBI, counterintelligence, first responders and of course, jumping both in and out of burning buildings.

Such a reply was once given to such a specific question, “Having a great stuntwoman perform a scene with power and elegance, can really help your audience believe what they are seeing.”

GHQ wanted to know more and find out firsthand, what and why?

Tayah Kansik is one such young lady who was willing to share her back story and explain why this dangerous and life-threatening job is what defines who she is.

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GHQ

Tayah Kansik From a very young age I always excelled in Sport and Art, from Dancing-Ballet, Tap, Disco and Modern then onto the usual team sports at school. Athletics is something I literally threw myself into anything and everything. Art was the only thing that calmed me from having so much energy and this continued as I got older, I never seemed to do just "the one job."

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From the age of 15 whilst training, I was drawn to a noisy ‘spit and sawdust’ style gym downstairs of a multi-story building. One day I looked through the window to see what the noise was about with the banging of the pads and bags – that got me glued. Back then there were very few Muay Thai clubs in the UK. I was invited in and to this day have never looked back as it’s taken me down many different paths and avenues.

I still now practice and train 22 years later as a Red Arm Band (Instructor Level) and have added many other skills to my skillset that is continuously growing. I took up boxing 2 years later and trained at one of the best Boxing gyms in the area. I trained most nights of the week in both Muay Thai and Boxing sparring with Amateurs and Professionals - some of the best guys in the UK and often climbed through the ropes with the British and Commonwealth Boxing Champion and super flyweight Lonsdale belt holder, the late Chris Edwards and 2 times English Lightweight Champion Scott Lawton. Even though I have learnt ground work to become a better all-round fighter I am predominantly more of a striker. Aside from my Martial Arts training I also did various promotions and modelling, including being a Pit/ Grid Girl for the likes of MCN, representing top brands such as Honda, Kawasaki, Ducati...along with being placed second place in the Miss Met RX Fitness Bikini Model Competition.

During my college years I also did numerous extra TV and film work for Hollyoaks, Coronation Street, Doctors...

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For my love and passion for fitness, I gained my qualifications 16 years ago in fitness as a personal trainer, something I still enjoy doing.

From the age of 25, I was an OPST (Operational, Personal, Safety, Trainer) for Staffordshire Police here in the UK. Teaching them defense as a civilian trainer - the only female in the team. We taught both the theory of fight analysis, analysing CCTV footage of drunken fights happening on a night out in the local City's and looking at the predictable behaviour and the practical aspects which are – cuffing front, rear-baton training, strikes, take downs, cell tactics and pressure points.

Around the sametime I was spotted boxing with a friend of mine on Myspace by a company in New York to choreograph and present my own self defense DVD for women. This went on to become a best seller in Barnes and Noble and my first time talking in front of a camera live that wasn't a fitness class.

When I left the police, I was offered a security consultant job and assisted on all of the security courses Level 2 and 3. Then I did my CP Level 3 close protection qualification along with surveillance training. A year later with the same company I completed a 2-week firearms course with various stress drills/ scenarios over in the U.S.A.

I have been fortunate enough to look after Saudi Royalty, dignitaries including assisting the deputy prime minister at the time and some of the world’s wealthiest families in some

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beautiful locations around the world. Being a close protection officer and personal trainer and self employed it has allowed me to follow my dream of becoming a stunt fighter and action actress, as you can imagine it’s not really a ‘9 to 5’ kind of job which suits me just fine as I’m not a’9 to 5’ kind of gal.

From watching so many action films growing up in the 80's it made me want to be a female Jean Claude or Female Rocky and everything I was doing career wise seemed to all be gearing around and towards action and high adrenaline. Even at 18, I jumped out of a plane solo and wanted to go straight back up for another go. I was sparring most days with men much heavier and stronger than me, but I loved it - I felt it gave me a different confidence without being arrogant of course. I had the usual jokes in the gyms of, ‘Tayah's here put the hoover on’, with me being the only female at the time, but to be honest I enjoyed the banter as much as the training. I felt like one of the ‘lads’ but I would always get my chance to even the score once we stepped foot inside the ring.

In my mid 20's I started to look at what it takes to be a stunt woman, at the time and it still maybe the case you needed 5 disciplines. I started to train for the register, already knowing I had Martial Arts, as you couldn't include Boxing as a second event, it was one or the other.

I got offered a role as a lead assassin, it was to be my first real go at action acting, as now I was fighting and acting for indie film director and friend, Dean Meadows. Unfortunately, the film didn't get the crowd funding at the time, but this is where I felt like I wanted to do more in front of the camera. So, I had the choice to rain in new disciplines full time or stick to

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what I know - fight Stunts and develop as an action actress and that personally was the best avenue for me.

One of my favourite stunt fighting experiences was for Redcon-1, where I was Zombified and got to fight against the lead actress and ex Pro wrestler for WWE, Katarina Waters. This film is available to watch now on Netflix. I was recommended by a friend, Dean Williams to work on this which is where I met action actor, Mark Strange who has featured in many films with Scott Adkins including Donnie Yen’s, 'Ipman 4' (about to be released here in the UK). From this project I was asked to play the role of Marks wife as Emily in Director Danny Darren’s Feature Film, ‘B.R.I.’ This should be released later this year and sees me not only doing my own fight scenes, which will be the best to date but as an action actress. Also, Dean Meadows Indie Film, 'Scarlett Cross' is also in its final stages and should be available to watch later this year. Also, where I funnily enough play the kick ass role of, 'The Bodyguard'

Projects coming up: Johnny Ray Gibbs - Mr. Blue', playing the role of, 'Nadia' and Adolfo Riveras, 'Scorpion Girl’ – ‘The Awakening' began filming early this year, where I play the role of 'Jane The Punisher' obviously filming is on hold due to the current situation.

One of my scariest stunt jobs, so far would have to be for Bollywood film, 'Cobra'. I was the body-double to the lead actress, where I had to climb a ladder as fast as I could to the top of a multistory building and fight on top of it. However, this day there were particularly bad winds but we managed to get it done pretty sharpish.

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I would love to work on 'Vikings’, as it would be good to do more weaponry work, as it’s a fairly new skill I’ve been practicing. Aside from Stunt Fighting I do get asked to Choreograph which I did for Indie film 'Brothers' and more recently for a music video as a Ninja Nun doing blade work (Kali).

It’s very interesting for me to switch between years of training, how to fight/ defend and not be predictable at all to reversing for Stunt fighting and literally exaggerating all of the movements and cocking the shots to make the audience believe the shots are connecting .

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ROY SHAW

By Ryan Simms Simms

Roy Shaw’s story told by Family shines through in the book Mean Machine A nice accidental read. – Ryan Simms For the past 4 years I have been gathering as much detail on my Father’s life of crime as possible Within that Time I have played my Dad on stage and have even gone on to partner up with a director and writer to get the insight I have on screen. Before I ever took anything to the stage, I had to get permission from the families connected to him and his stories. When-ever you do anything involving some one’s family it’s only right to reach out to them first and this doesn’t just go for crime families either. You ask permission and try to do things the right way with respect.

When I wrote about my dad’s life the only person close to my dad, I left out was Roy Shaw. Basically, I didn’t get in touch with his family in time.

Most People know the name Roy Shaw through legendary Fights with Lenny Mclean but Me and my Family Knew Roy as much more. A lot of people connected to that life hate the word Gangster and find it cringey I understand why, a few people and films have made it that way, but I say this purely as a short Explanation. It is what it is.

To be a gangster you need a gang by definition. Roy had one and that Gang included men such as my father and Most of their jobs together were Bank Robbery’s Something impossible to get away with today.

Roy also made his fortune in legitimate ways which wouldn’t be most people’s first guess. I recently had a family friend tell me something about Roy and my dad I didn’t know.

I’d missed out looking at Roy’s involvement with my dad. So, I looked at the books out there and found out Gary Shaw had one Called Mean Machine.

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Now there were others by well-known names name’s like Katie Kray but Picking Gary Shaw’s above the rest is just simple Logic Only Roy’s Family would possibly know the story I was told.

This only started as research but at the same time I was so taken with how good it was and how quickly I got through and digested all at once.

I had to ask myself why was that so good and so easy to get through ? which has led to this accidental book review. Eventually through a mutual connection I got Gary’s number. So, this isn’t a case of me reviewing a close mate’s book or helping out my dad’s mates Son. Our dads were very close but me and Gary didn’t grow up with each other just the same people .

Apart from me asking he minded me writing about his book we were swapping stories about our Dads. My search was now over He knew what I needed to know which wasn’t in his book.

I also found out the Shaw Family Wasn’t consulted by any of the other writer’s which makes me think how many of these books out there are written by people who don’t really know who they were talking about?

We both Agreed there would be only one person outside of Gary’s family to know enough to write a book about Roy Shaw. Her name was Rosie Enever and no one will ever know that name and it’s possibly the only person who knew Roy better than anyone. It’s always the way, it’s always people you’ve never heard of that know the famous best.

I was glad I didn’t start with any of the other books this was genuinely interesting and had so many details which I knew was connected to my dad without his name ever being mentioned. It just confirmed everything I knew and more.

The detail you get from family members will always trump anyone else’s and it becomes apparent this book has all the details other people other than Roy’s family would miss.

Roy was a prize fighter, so you don’t need to know him to associate his name with fighting. I was more interested in reading that he lost his father in a motorbike accident when he was only 10 and threw himself on his dad’s coffin to boot.

As he boy he was Bullied I always like hearing about the day someone stops being bullied.

Now you could assume that’s why Roy Got into training and fighting, but he never went looking to be a bare-knuckle fighter or even a Villain. He wanted to be a pro Pro Boxer and a

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world champion in his weight. But, one silly mistake and criminal Record would see to it that would never happen.

It doesn’t stop big names like Mike Tyson coming back to boxing with a record but as always the little man’s not as important. Roy might have started out in life as little man who was bullied but ended up tough enough to fight and win one of his fights with Lenny Mclean. A man so different in size they would have never faced each other professionally and would have been in completely different weights.

What I found quite sad was reading how bad he suffered with his dementia. I never this and why would I or anyone else ? That is something only a family goes through and knows about. I’m glad I have good last memories of Roy. The last Time I was with him was at my dads funeral and even when we was drunk I could see he still had his humour and could recount Stories about my dad. It was nice to listen to someone who knew my father long before I was born. I think Roy knew that. He was that old fashioned description of a Man’s Man and wasn’t the sensitive type but could show his compassion in his own way and I felt that was one of them this day.

What was a surprise to me was when his mind started to go he met this woman who was fleecing him for all she could. None of Roy’s family knew this was going at the time and to quote Gary on what his dad said “ Son She was the most expensive fuck I never had “ . Now this sort of thing was more interesting than bare knuckle violence. It’s obvious Gary wasn’t trying to glorify his dad in this book Just telling it like it is, Everyone has flaws and no one’s perfect so we don’t believe anyone who tries to portray that in someone.

This book was familiar to me as someone who hasn’t written about their father. The family life is what I found people wanted to know about more. Not the violence or to hear a list of villain’s names. A very good insight into the mind and life of Roy won’t be told like this.

I was glad this was my first go to book on Roy and I’m sure anyone else who picks this book up will see this is not a book trying to glorify the underworld just telling it as it as from the eyes of Family. His book. I also found out the Shaw Family Wasn’t consulted by any of the other writer’s which makes me think how many of these books out there are written by people who don’t really know who they were talking about ?

We both Agreed there would be only one person outside of Gary’s family to know enough to write a book about Roy Shaw. Her name was Rosie Enever and no one will ever know that name and it’s possibly the only person who knew Roy better than anyone. It’s always the way, it’s always people you’ve never heard of that know the famous best.

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I was glad I didn’t start with any of the other books this was genuinely interesting and had so many details which I knew was connected to my dad with his name ever being mentioned. It just confirmed everything I knew and more.

The detail you get from family members will always trump anyone else’s and it becomes apparent this book has all the details other people non-related would miss.

Roy was a prize fighter, so you don’t need to know him to associate his name with fighting. I was more interested in reading that he lost his father in a motorbike accident when he was only 10 and threw himself on his dad’s coffin to boot.

As he boy he was Bullied I always like hearing about the day someone stops being bullied now you could assume that’s why Roy Got into training and fighting he never went looking to be a bare-knuckle fighter or even a Villain. He wanted to be a pro Pro Boxer and a world champion in his weight. But, one silly mistake and criminal Record would see to it that would never happen.

It doesn’t stop big names like Mike Tyson coming back to boxing with a record but as always, the little man’s not as important. Roy might have started out in life as little man who was bullied but ended up tough enough to fight and win one of his fights with Lenny Mclean. A man so different in size they would have never faced each other professionally and would have been in completely different weights.

What I found quite sad was reading how bad he suffered with his dementia. I never saw it and why would I or anyone else. that is something only a family goes through and knows about. I’m glad I have good last memories of Roy. The last Time I was with him was at my dads’ funeral and even when we was drunk I could see he still had his humour and could recount Stories about my dad. It was nice to listen to someone who knew my father long before I was born. I think Roy knew that. He was that old fashioned description of a Man’s Man and wasn’t the sensitive type but could show his compassion in his own way and I felt that was one of them that day.

What was a surprise to me was when his mind started to go he met this woman who was fleecing him for all she could. None of Roy’s family knew this was going at the time and to quote Gary on what his dad said “ Son She was the most expensive fuck I never had “ . Now this sort of thing was more interesting than bare knuckle violence. It’s obvious Gary wasn’t trying to glorify his dad in this book Just telling it like it Everyone has flaws and no one’s perfect so we don’t believe anyone who tries to portray that in someone.

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This book was familiar to me as I style of view. During my one man show we had a Q an A after and found out the family life is what people wanted to know about more. Not the violence or to hear a list of villain’s names. A very good insight into the mind and life of Roy won’t be told like this from anyone else no matter how famous their name is.

I was glad this was my first go to book on Roy and I’m sure anyone else who picks this book up will see this is not a book trying to glorify the underworld just telling it as it as from the eyes of Family which everyone can relate too. We all have Family and what we know of our loved ones can’t be found anywhere else but home.

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SIT DOWN WITH THE LAST OF THE JEWISH TOUGH GUYS: RONNIE “THE ROTTWEILER” KERNER

by Nick Christophers Ronnie is one of the few survivors of his past exploits to discuss them openly. He literally traveled from hell and back from being boxer, gangster to battling with drugs. Ronnie has been around some of the most powerful movers and shakers of the mob and boxing business personal than most. He does no mince his words and tells it like it is and was.

When did boxing become a passion?

It all started when I was about nine years old. I had a lot of anger and aggression in me. So, my Dad got me a speed bag. Throughout the years that wasn’t enough so he got me a heavy bag as well. He had our landscaper who was a golden glover teach me the way to use them and the rest of the sweet science. I fell in love with the sport. I used to have boxers’ posters all over my bedroom along with rap artists when I was a kid and in my teens.

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MAFIA BOSS SONNY FRANZESE

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Were there any boxing legends that you have either trained with or collaborated with?

Many! When I went into the world of professional boxing I was trained by Gerry Cooney, Tommy Gallagher and Vito Antuofermo. I had also befriended almost all legendary and current boxers, trainers, commentators and promoters of my time. I have a bevy of pictures with all of them. It was amazing though. Guys I had posters of and I watched as superstars on my TV had now become my ACTUAL friends. Then I became a partner of the late Cedric Kushner in ownership of “Gotham Boxing Promotions.”

You seemed to have turned your life around after many obstacles does “the life” still call out to you?

For me it’s almost like Al Pacino’s famous line in “The Godfather part 3.” “JUST WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS OUT; THEY PULL ME BACK IN!” Lol! It’s always there in the shadows. However, I truly am going in my own direction. I’m not interested in that life anymore. It’s really changed as well. Not for the better I may add. Nothing good can come from it. I’m a survivor and have been through major obstacles as you stated.

You dabbled a bit in acting. Have you worked on anything recently?

I have dabbled in it. But I’d like to explore it further. Aside from being on TV in documentaries, ESPN radio and ringside commentary I was in a few independent movies. I truly enjoyed it. I’ve been in “Night Bird”, “Second Chances”, “A Mourning Street” and recently just finished a role as an NYPD captain in “The Operation.” We are currently working on a television series based off of my life story. It’s working title is “The Rottweiler”. It’s home looks like it will be on a major streaming channel. I also have a podcast in the works called “Rottweiler Radio.” It’s a show featuring law enforcement, criminals of all backgrounds and the history of it all. We already have three shows finished. There are book deals on my story in the works. If anyone would like to discuss anything with me please contact my agent Roger Paul. Owner of Roger Paul Inc. They can find his information on line.

https://rogerpaulinc.com/gallery/ronnie-kerner/ We know you were close with the late John “Sonny” Franzese (Colombo Family capo) and unfortunately had to miss his wake. That must have been difficult?

It bothers me every day. Not just having to miss his wake and funeral but missing him all together. Not a day goes by where I don’t think about him. It’s a tough subject for me. There were too many eyes out there watching the wake and funeral. I had got off probation and was advised by my criminal attorneys it was not a good idea. His passing changed a lot of things. It was a good opportunity to back out of the life. That’s what he always wanted for me anyway. I have a lot of naysayers, haters and enemies out there. It’s just not worth it. I have a family and I don’t intend on going back to prison again or have any trouble with anybody.

What projects are on the table currently for Ronnie Kerner?

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As I stated before. A television series, a book or two (both on my life story), more acting, a documentary or two on my life and possibly a movie on my life as well. Plus hosting a podcast.

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Mob Legend Sonny Franzese

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Frank McAvennie with GHQ Frank Macca We’re stuck in doors... pondering what to watch on the telly – deciding whether it’s a repeat of a jolly Christmas film or highlights of a previous match game? So, what do we do … we call our mate, Frank McAvennie!

Jason: What can we do…we’re all starting to lose it…. people are getting bored…. what have you been doing to keep occupied?

Frank: I’m lucky, I’ve got a big dog, I mean a really big dog that needs a lot of exercise and I do mean a real dog (laughing) - that’s the highlight of my day really, getting out, fresh air and some exercise, I really enjoy that. And much like everyone, I’m stuck indoors, I can’t get out and go to the gym, so I’m doing the same as everyone, watching a lot of telly too. Boxsets and watching all of the footballers making a fool of themselves on TickTok - that’s always good fun.

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Jason: I always struggle watching football on the telly - there’s no place like being there live.

Frank: You can’t ever beat going to a game live; it’s a day out. It’s not that often I get to go out (before the lockdown)with my work schedule. But I’d always go mid-week and on a Sunday. Now being in Glasgow all the time, I love going to Celtic - that’s always a great day out, I simply love it! But we’ve got two sides of the coin at the moment, West Ham not being able to play games unless they get the people through the door and that’s the money for the club and then there’s the relegation battle. And then with Celtic, all they’ve got to do is be handed the league and there’s a big controversy about that, but we’re being kept in the loop with a lot of ‘arguments’ so that’s good.

Jason: For you, what was the best or most memorable games at Celtic?

Frank: If I was to say one of my most memorable, it would have to be my first game against Rangers. There was a lot in it, I only lasted 14 minutes. The manager at the time had told me, “not to get involved”, then 14 minutes later I got sent off! That was the game in November 1987 at the Ibrox Stadium, known as, ‘Goldilocks and the three bears’ incident, I got charged with inciting a riot and breach of the peace. That I think was the first-time police ever got involved with footballers. It was horrible and it had to be me didn’t it! Chris Woods, Terry Butcher and Graham Roberts, we’re all pals, but you know what it’s like with football.

But the press get involved and that didn’t help. As you know, we all went to court, but had lunch beforehand, so that shows you really doesn’t it, and again, we’re all mates. So that was a memorable one for me, but I felt I’d let everyone down, as that was only my fourth game for Celtic. The next game was the start of the Centenary year, and to be honest I’ve never focused on one game so much in all my life. That was our win over Rangers in January 1988 at Celtic Park. A great record for us too, as that season, we won 3 and drew 1.

Jason: For you, what were the Best games at West Ham? Frank: A lot of people say my best game was when we played Chelsea and we beat them 4 nil, and that was a great item, but for me personally, I would say when I first started at Upton Park and scored 2 goals and my last game at Upton Park when I scored 3. That’s a gapped way to start and finish at a club.

Jason: There’s an appreciation for the underdog in most - what club doesn’t get enough recognition?

Frank: Listen, we both love West Ham they’ve always been the underdog, but at the moment they deserve it! I’d love to put a positive spin on West Ham at the moment. There’s some of the boys running their socks off and I like that, we all do we all like to see that. Moyes will sort something out. I’d like to them see challenged, not so much for the league, but for the Cup. Jason: There’s been a lot of talk how this covid 19 will change our lives and how we watch sports - will football return to the beautiful game it once was?

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Frank: I think when it all goes back to normal, yes! But, right now there’s talk in the papers of no football for the rest of the year. I don’t think people, or the economy will be able to handle it. Once people have had a couple of beers and we score a goal all this will be forgotten about.

Jason: Adidas recently signed a deal with Celtic, but what do you think of the new Celtic kit and do you have a favourite?

Frank: The yellow Centenary away jersey was a favourite, but any Celtic kit will always be fine with me. The jersey I wore when I first went to Celtic. That was the best ever, even now people are saying that. It was the start of the centenary year and it meant so much to everyone. It had a cross on the badge - it was magnificent. West Ham still send me one. Each time a new kit comes out, it’s there, sent straight to me, has my name and the number across the back, and that’s really appreciated.

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JIMMY TIPPETT JNR

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"Gangster to Gourmet " (incidentally the title of my newest forthcoming book) With the current situation with the covid - 19 pandemic and current lockdown I am unfortunately unable to give you any restaurant reviews for the moment !

So let’s talk about food in prison ,there are always rumours so let's put those to bed .

Imagine being on death row, you can order anything you like for your last meal providing you are not unfortunate to be sentenced in Texas, the last meal programme no longer exists in that state due to the last meal one inmate ordered being somewhat a tad extravagant !

For instance the sadistic sociopath Ted Bundy one of America’s most infamous killers who in the 1970’s raped and murdered at least 36 young women in seven US states and often kept their heads as trophies! When he died in the electric chair at Raiford Prison Starke, Florida on January 24 1989 at the age of 43. Bundy declined a ‘special meal, so he was given the traditional serving of steak ( medium rare ) , eggs, hash browns, toast with butter and jelly, milk and juice.

Here are some interesting last meals infamous death row inmates ordered :

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Here are the last meals of 17 infamous death-row inmates who died either by lethal injection or the electric chair .

As you can see ,they vary from extravagant to plain simple KFC ,perhaps clearly illustrating the mindset of some criminals who had committed the most heinous of crimes possible.Some may even say their minds were so unstable that their food choices might be akin to that of an 8 year old.

Below is a list of infamous Americans whose crimes led to death row and the ultimate last meal experience.

Sarah Jacobs Jan 11, 2017, 11:02 AM Steak, pasta, fruit plate, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, chocolate cake and milk.

This week, Dylann Roof was sentenced to death by a South Carolina jury for fatally shooting nine black church members during a Bible study session in 2015.

Roof is the very first person in American history ordered to be executed for a federal hate crime.

While the number of death sentences has dropped in the last 20 years, it's still legal in 31 US states.

In most states and various countries where the death penalty is legal, it's customary to give sentenced prisoners a special last meal at their request.

However , restrictions still apply ! — for example, in Florida the final meal can only cost up to $40, and it must be able to be prepared locally.

Food photographer Henry Hargreaves has never agreed with the practice of the death penalty, so when he heard in 2011 that Texas was abolishing the special last-meal request for death-row inmates, he became fascinated by the tradition.

I dug into it and did much research and actually found a public record of the meals that been requested.

For the first time, these people had become humanised Business Insider was told.

His series "No Seconds" and "A Year of Killing" explore the inmates' requested last meals through staged photographs.

You simply don't know if they're being served on china plates, or plastic, or eating on their laps, or at a wooden table, so I tried to explore all of these variations.

Victor Feguer -28 years old, Iowa — kidnap and murder, death by lethal injection in 1963 One prisoner remarkably requested only a single olive with the pit still in it !

John Wayne Gacy, 52 years old, Illinois - rape and 33 counts of murder, death by lethal injection in 1994 ate 12 fried shrimp, a bucket of original recipe KFC, french fries, a pound of strawberries.

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Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy

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Serial Killer Ted Bundy

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Timothy McVeigh, 33 years old, Indiana - 168 counts of murder, death by lethal injection in 2001 had two pints of mint and chocolate-chip ice cream.

Ricky Ray Rector, 42 years old, Arkansas - two counts of murder, death by lethal injection in 1992 ate Steak, fried chicken, cherry Kool-Aid, and pecan pie.

Earl Forrest, 66 years old, Missouri — triple homicide, death by lethal injection in 2016 requested and ate Steak, pasta, fruit plate, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, chocolate cake and milk.Henry Hargreaves/IMP Features Stephen Anderson, 49 years old, California — burglary and assault, escaping prison, seven counts of murder, death by lethal injection in 2002 chose two grilled cheese sandwiches, pint of cottage cheese, Hominy/corn mixture, peach pie, chocolate-chip ice cream, radishes.Henry Hargreaves Ted Bundy,one of the most notorious ever criminals , 43 years old, Florida - rape, necrophilia, prison escape, 35+ counts of murder, death by electric chair in 1989 declined a "special" meal, so was given the traditional last meal: steak (medium rare), eggs (over easy), hash browns, toast with butter and jelly, milk, juice.

Oscar Ray Bolin Jr., 53 years old, Florida — three counts of murder, death by lethal injection in 2016 chose for his last meal, Rib eye steak, medium rare; a baked potato with butter and sour cream; a salad made of iceberg lettuce, cucumber and tomato; baked garlic bread; lemon meringue pie; and a bottle of Coca-Cola.

Steven Frederick Spears, 54 years old, Georgia — murder, death by lethal injection in 2016 requested a simple large meat pizza. Ángel Nieves Díaz, 55 years old, Florida — murder, kidnapping, robbery, death by lethal injection in 2006 chose to declined a meal, but was served the regular prison meal instead, but he also declined this.

Ronnie Lee Gardner, 49 years old, Utah — burglary, robbery, two counts of murder, death by firing squad in 2010 - Lobster tail, steak, apple pie, vanilla ice cream, eaten whilst watching the "Lord of the Rings" Christopher Brooks, 43 years old, Alabama — murder and rape, death by lethal injection in

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2016 chose two peanut butter cups and a Dr. Pepper drink.

Brandon Jones, 72 years old, Georgia — murder, death by lethal injection in 2016 refused

CHRISTOPHER BROOKS

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TOTAL FOOTBALL

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TOTAL FOOTBALL BY SEAN THOMAS GRAHAM Celtic Crowned 9 in a row Champions By Sean Graham Neil Lennon and his Celtic team have been confirmed as Scottish Champions for the ninth season in a row and Hearts have been relegated after the SPFL ended the season. The decision was taken at a board meeting on Monday after the 12 clubs agreed at the end of last week that completing the campaign was unfeasible.

Average points per game played has been used to determine final placings and the decision was made after football came to a halt on the 13th March. Celtic were 13 points ahead of nearest challengers Rangers - hav-ing played a game more - when the season was put into abeyance.

Like most teams in the division, Neil Lennon's side still had eight games to play. SPFL chairman Murdoch MacLennan congratulated Celtic commiserated with Hearts and said the league were left with "no realistic option but to call" the season. SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster added the "clear and unanimous view" of the club was that the games could not be played and that the league can now pay out around ÂŁ7m of prize money immediately.

Football at all levels in Scotland is suspended until at least 10 June and Uefa had asked associations to either declare their season or lay out their resumption plans by 25 May. Doncaster reiterated that the League Cup is scheduled to begin in mid-July, with the new league season due to begin on 1 August.

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Jock Stein. The Celtic gaffer and many others knew all Stein’s fantastic Celtic side. "I grew up on stories of that [Jock Stein's Celtic] team. So to be here as the manager when we've won our ninth title in a row is very special. "When I got the job a second time I was under a lot of scrutiny. It has taken a lot of hard work, a lot of pain at times, a lot of pressure, but it's all worth it. The current circumstances with the pandemic means that Celtic cannot properly celebrate their title win but there will be a time for that and that will be some party. Others may look on this as a tainted title but the stats show that Celtic looked a side worthy of being champions once again. Celtic had eight matches left and a 13-point lead over secondplace Rangers, who had played a game fewer, when play was halted in March.

That gap had been just two points at the turn of the year following Old Firm defeat by an Ibrox side who held a game in hand. But with Rangers stuttering form after the winter break, Celtic surged clear with 28 points from 30. "Of course it's fully deserved," he said. "We won 26 out of 30 games, scored 89 goals, we were absolutely rampant throughout the season.

"We were so consistent, played brilliant football. Even at the turn of the year when questions were being asked, they found the answers and smashed the second half of the season.

As a squad they've been magnificent." The club had set targets to go for and they had two of them in the bag. Chief executive Peter Lawwell , was delighted with the decision to end the season and knows the de-cision of the Celtic board to bring Neil Lennon back to Celtic Park has paid dividends as he extended the club's domestic winning run to 11 consecutive trophies after also winning the League Cup this season and delivered nine in a row.

These are unprecedented times and Celtic lucky that the decision has been taken out of their hands to win the league on the pitch and make sure there was no case for arguments, that is no fault of theirs, you could not call this title tainted, no cheating was involved, it was just the situation which no one could have foreseen, which has stopped football being played on a global front, until Germany started again at the weekend. Celtic are the champions, Hearts have been relegated, Celtic have won nine in a row and going for ten next season, if Scottish Football can get on the same page for next season and improve our game and helps those who need it most, it promises to be a cracker!

LEIGHT GRIFFITHS

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