The answer to this question, of course, is that it never will. Donald Neilson was a prime example of that. Another man was John Hinton, a career criminal. Hinton was part of a team that robbed a Co-op dairy in Mitcham, South London in 1962. A man was killed. Hinton was sentenced to life, but as in many fairy tales involving the Parole Board, he was released on strict licence in 1978. Did this curb his criminality? No!!! In March 1978, just weeks after being released, Hinton and a man called Alan Roberts, targeted a Hatton Garden jeweller, Leo Grunhut. They attacked him as he left his home in Golders Green. Hinton shot Roberts by mistake, in the thigh, badly wounding him. Mr Grunhut then made a break for it, to get back in his home. Hinton cold bloodedly shot him in the back. The haul came to £3000 cash, and over £250,000 in jewels. He took his wounded partner to a South London garage but Roberts died from loss of blood. Hinton buried him in an embankment in Dartford. Leo Grunhut died from his injuries four weeks later. Hinton was never caught for this.
Hinton was put on trial in 1981 and faced seven robbery, an attempted robbery plus two conspiracy charges for which he received fourteen years. He managed to escape from a prison in Portsmouth, Kingston, in October 1990 and went to Brighton and carried out a £90,000 jewellry raid. Then after the Brighton raid, he found himself a partner, and in December 1990, they robbed a jewellers in Burlington Gardens, Piccadilly, London. The haul came to £420,000, after they terrorised the shop owners. Hinton fired shots at them as the brothers chased him, but Police were quickly on the scene and they overpowered him. Hinton was jailed for life in 1991. He may have been in his early sixties, but this was a very dangerous man, who had no hesitation in committing murder. Strange how, despite a robbery involving a murder, 1963, did not come under a Capital charge - Murder in the furtherance of theft. One Bradford man was executed in 1959 on this charge, yet in 1962, two men killed a man in his home, in Cutler Heights, Bradford, as their intention was to rob it. Surely this was Murder in the furtherance of theft, but no, they were jailed for life. The crime was not a Capital crime. These are some of the examples of twisted legal wranglings since Sidney Silverman had the Homicide Act(1957) introduced as law.
Once again an interesting article my friend. I was actually an innocent bystander in a bank job in the 1990’s (the only customer who was in the small bank) trying to cash a cheque with a YTS apprentice behind the counter. It was a very quiet small village outside of London, and in came two armed blokes with shotguns wearing motorcycle helmets. Needless to say my arse-hole went, and I simply looked down. They told me to f-off out the place and I did. My pal who was in the car waiting for me suggested that we smash into their motorbikes as they leave and get a reward. I strongly told him to get the motor started and do one. Anyway, my experience of all this is that when I was interviewed by the CID they told me that these guys had been under surveillance, were known armed blaggers from South West London, and there guns were NOT for show. (the chase by the way was shown on national TV). Anyway, they tried to get me to go to court and point out the blokes, which I refused point blank, and left the country for a while as I was learning Italian and stayed in Italy for sometime. I’ll never forget how the CID told me that these guys had been tailed, and could have shot me, and yet they expected me to go to court for them and help put them away. The way I looked at it after their admission of all this, was that these robbers could have done what they had liked to me, but they didn’t, and let me live, so no way was I going to say anything against them. The police in general lose the public’s trust on a daily basis, and this is an example of how they lost mine years ago. As for the young lad on the YTS programme, I learnt years later at a house party in London that he had hanged himself, he was unable to work again and got in to some serious depression. What a crazy brutal world we live in.
ReplyDeleteHi Twister, in all honesty, I was expecting a response from you on this or the Roberts case. What you described, actually happened to my younger sister in Chester, outside the Midland Bank. She was debating whether to go into the bank first or go to the shops first. She chose to shop, but just before she walked off, a guy in a crash hat, wearing a bulky coat, stepped aside out of her way then went into the bank. She thought that he was going to get sweaty in a coat like that, on a very hot day! When she come back, the bank was taped off. She asked a policewoman on guard what had happened, as she was there only a short while ago. The woman asked her if she had seen anything, and told her the only person was a guy in a red skid lid with a heavy coat on.... She told them exactly what she saw, which was red hat, bulky coat. Don`t know if the perp was caught as she never gave evidence in court. On the case of Hinton, I have now discovered a man called George Thatcher was fitted up for the murder at the Co-op and ended up in the death cell, was reprieved but stayed inside for 18 years. Keep reading, warmest regards Daryl
DeleteHi Pal, seems your sisters choice saved her a lot of aggravation and being witness to a nasty incident that can shake the pants off anyone. As for Roberts, I cannot fathom out the judiciary in this country, or the do-gooders that have more regard for the perpetrator than the victim - under the banner of rehabilitation. People can turn their lives around, but the decision to release a cold blooded murder of three people simply doing their jobs is incredulous considering no remorse of any kind has been shown – unless I’ve missed something here. I remember going to football and hearing his name being sung around grounds, which I always found distasteful. No doubt his fan club and certain agencies will ensure he gets to enjoy his notoriety in his ripe old age, unlike the three men he killed and does anyone that makes decisions look into how the families must have suffered? Anyway, the George Thatcher case was something that an old pal of mine who has since passed away mentioned years ago. I just looked it up now, and the officer in charge of the case shot himself, and almost 500 other officers left the force under a cloud of corruption. Just goes to show, how easy it is to take someone’s life, either through a gun shot or through bent coppers and judiciary system handing out an 18 year stretch.
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