Supergrasses PT4

Continuing on with the theme of "Supergrasses" and that being an informer is not always an automatic death sentence, here are some examples to ponder.  After the trial of the Krays, one main witness, Albert Donoghue, never went into hiding.  He continued to live in the East End, and seemingly never had any problems.  This was probably down to the fact that Donoghue was a very tough and dangerous man.  He never shied away from the fact that he could easily kill some person if he had to.  It was said in a book involving Fred Foreman and Tony "Gang Boss" Lambrianou, that Donoghue had been beaten up.  If so, then obviously, members of the fan club or whoever, had to wait until he had really aged, and as you get older, you are slower and more infirm. 

    However, we must not forget the actions of the "Gang Boss" and the image of the staunch hardman he has presented, over the years.  It was revealed years later, that AFTER the trial the "Gang Boss" and his brother had made statements to the authorities over the murder of Jack McVitie.  In this statement, Lambrianou said that he had only became closely involved with the Krays recently, and that after the murder, he and his brother were threatened by the Krays.  This flies in the face of his claim of how deeply involved he and his brother were for a few years, and the impression given that they were key players.  Not surprisingly, he continued on with his "tough guy" image until his death.  A point to ponder on is that Ronnie Kray hated him later on, calling him a "Lackey and a grass" obviously referring to his statement he made whilst in jail.  

    Over the recent years, a major scandal that erupted in Liverpool, over the very early release from prison of Liverpool gangsters John Haase and Paul Bennett.  Haase inexplicably offered to help the authorities recover an arsenal of illegally held weapons, all over Merseyside.  Subsequently, Police raided addresses all over the region and indeed, one was recovered from an address in Ellesmere Port.  Home Secretary Michael Howard authorised the release of both Haase and Bennett, citing their help had taken a huge number of weapons off the streets.  Upon their release, they went back to their usual stock in trade of drug pushing.  They were regarded as some kind of heroes for pulling one over the authorities.  Later, it emerged that the whole scenario was a complete scam.  Haase had paid for a large consignment of guns to be placed around the North West, ready to scam the authorities.  After it broke, Haase and Bennett found themselves back in prison for long sentences, yet again for drugs, and then it was revealed that both Haase and Bennett had been high level informers.  I wonder how the pair are regarded in Liverpool now?