GANGLAND

The Adams Gang

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George and Florence Adams were Irish Catholics who during the 1950s and 1960s raised eleven children in Barnsbury, which at the time was an area of extreme deprivation. The three eldest boys became criminals, starting out in sectors such as demanding protection money from stallholders. With time, they became major players in London's underworld. Their operation was given financial sophistication by Saul Solomon The Little Fella Nahome, a Hatton Garden-based jeweller. The names by which the brothers and their gang were known included The A Team and The Clerkenwell Syndicate . In the mid-1980s the Adams moved into the drugs trade, importing cocaine and ecstasy. Rival gangs, such as the Reillys, who were also based in Islington, were neutralised by means of extreme violence. The Adamses reputation became such that they were able to franchise out their name to other criminals.

In 1995 the Inland Revenue's Special Compliance Office launched an investigation of how Terry Adams was able to financially support his multi-million pound lifestyle. Nahome and others helped him regularise aspects of his wealth. He was able to cut a deal with Inland Revenue under which he paid only 95,000.

In late 1998 Nahome was shot dead outside his home by a gunman who was riding his motorbike. Tapes of the Adamses revealed that they were taken aback by this, not least because Nahome knew where much of their wealth was and they did not.

The Elephant Boys

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Charles Wagg-McDonald was a leading South London criminal during the 1920s. His gang and the Sabini gang fought one another in Waterloo. An incident between the two gangs occurred in The Duke of Wellington pub in 1927; eight people were killed. As a result he fled to the United States where at one point he worked as Charlie Chaplin s bodyguard in Los Angeles.

The Titanic gang in Hoxton were a rival gang.

David Hunt

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In 2010 a newspaper article referred to an allegation that Scotland Yard regarded David Long Fella Hunt as controlling a criminal network that was so large that it was too big to tackle. Mr Hunt had legitimate business interests that included entertainment venues, waste management, and a golf club in Epping.

The Krays

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Charlie Kray

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Charlie Kray (1927-2000) was convicted of helping to dispose of Jack The Hat McVitie's body. He claimed that he did not help to get rid of the corpse.

The Mafia

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In 2009 a number of Mafia gangs were active in London: the Sicilian ones were the Altofonte, the Bontempo-Scavo, and Brancaccio families; the Neapolitan ones were La Torre and Mazzarella clans and the Secondigliano Alliance; and the Calabrian one was the Fazzari family.

The Odessans

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In the late 19^thC London there was a criminal gang called the Odessans. It had grown out of the Jewish criminal underworld of Odessa, the Black Sea port.

Joey Pyle

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Joey Pyle (1935-2007) was an East Ender who dabbled on boxing. He came to know the Kray twins with whom he was able to maintain cordial relations while establishing his own independent criminal career. He developed an association with the Richardson brothers without alienating the Krays. Following the convictions of the two sets of sibs, his leading role in gangland was more prominent.

Pyle developed legitimate business interests. In the mid-1980s He involved himself in the British music industry. He developed connections to its American counterpart through the offices of Wilf Pile, who was a close friend of Joe Pagano, a capo in the Genovese mafia group.

Despite, Pyle's shift in his activities, his criminality led to his serving a six-year prison sentence.

The Richardsons

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Peckford Scrap Metal Company was the Richardsons scrap metal business. They came to be regarded as the South London counterparts to the Krays.

Charlie Richardson (1934-2012) became politicised while in prison and took an Open University Sociology degree.

Location: 33 Addington Square, SE5 7LB. The Richardsons' base.

50 New Church Road, SE5 7JQ. The premises of Peckford Scrap Metal Company.

Mr Smith's Nightclub, 75 Rushey Green, Catford SE6 4AF

The Sabini Gang

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The Sabini gang used to drink in The Griffin.

The ways in which Derby Sabini extracted money from bookies was by requiring them to buy goods and services. As a child, Frankie Fraser (1923-2014) was employed by the Sabini gang to wipe down bookies blackboards after each race.

Location: The Griffin, 125 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DB (blue, yellow)

See Also: ITALIANS Clerkenwell

Website: www.thegriffinstripclub.co.uk

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Bert Rossi

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Bert Rossi was a second generation Clerkenwell Italian. In the 1960s he was associated with both the Mafia-backed Colony Club casino and the Krays.

Soho Crime

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See Also: SOHO

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Albert Dimes

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Albert Dimes (1914-1972) was an Italian Scot whose family moved to Clarkenwell. Dimes allowed the Richardsons to operate slot machines in Soho. The actor Stanley Baker (1928-1976) may have based his performance in the movie The Criminal (1960) upon Dimes.

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Billy Hill

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Hill was born into an Irish family that had twenty children. The family moved to Camden Town. He was running gangs before he had reached his teens.

After his early twenties he never went to prison. He became a financier of crime.

He would switch crimes in order not to have a pattern.

He bought off not just policemen but also politicians. He had good social connections and was able to use blackmail.

By the early fifties he was running Soho. He allowed the Krays to learn from him and then take over his operation. He remained on good terms with them.

He took to spending time overseas in Spain, Morocco, South Africa, and Australia

The corner Dean Street and Old Compton Street was the site where Hill and Spot had their fight. It became known as the fight that never was because both men denied it had occurred. Thereafter, it became less common for criminals to use knives.

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Soho Rangers

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Bruce Reynolds, Eddie Richardson and Frankie Fraser played for Soho Rangers. The team played charity matches. Many of them against prison wardens.

Turkish Gangs

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In 2009 a gang war was waged between the Tottenham Boys and the Bombers (the Bombacilar). There were murders in Clapton, Green Lanes, Holloway, and Tottenham. This was believed to have been prompted by the jailing of Abdullah Baybasin, which had caused a power vacuum to emerge. The contending gangs were regarded as being less organised and disciplined than Baybasin's organisation.

David Backhouse 2024