The Murders of George & Terry Brett

A notorious multiple murder trial was told of the horrifying tale of how a young boy was ruthlessly shot to death by "hitmen".  One of the killers is on a whole life sentence, whilst two others he accused of complicity in the killings, were freed by a Court of Appeal 23 years later.  The killings of the Bretts was more horrific because the alleged "Code of honour" was violated.  This is the old adage that women & children were safe.  Yeah right.  The story went that George Brett, an East End lorry driver, had battered somebody in a fight and so the loser decided to have Brett taught a lesson.  A permanent lesson.  £1,800 was the sum allegedly paid to Harry McKenny.  A man calling himself "Jennings" paid a visit to Brett, offering some work, on Saturday January 4th 1975.  He was to follow the pin stripe suited man and he would show him the what he wanted him to do.  Brett took along his son Terry, who was 10 years old.  At the old church hall that this man was supposedly using his business for, when Brett was shot with a sten gun.  His son, who had just been handed a teddy bear, was then shot through the head.  This was the story of John Childs, the man in the suit, and he claimed (naturally) that the shooter was big Harry McKenny.  McKenny & Terry Pinfold were convicted solely on the word of Childs, but were freed 23 years later on appeal.

    Childs claimed that the bodies were taken to his flat in Poplar, dismembered and then burned in the fireplace.  A Professor of Medicine, along with forensics specialists, conducted a test with a pig to see if it was possible.  They succeeded.  But just exactly who carried out the murders?  Childs` evidence these days, would have been thrown out as it was contradictory, and he has kept changing the story over the years.  One tale about George Brett was that at one time he was knocked down by a car, in mistake for Ronnie Kray.  The stand out feature here is the ineptitude of the driver.  George Brett was a lorry driver.  How does a lorry driver dress?  Does he walk about at all times in expensive suits like Kray did? Would he have walked about without minders around him or being shadowed by adoring photographers? The truth about the murders of the Bretts will probably never be know, and it serves as a warning never to think children will never be harmed by villains.