More Tales From Liverpool

Today I relate some more tales from Scouseland that I have acquired over the years.  Back in the seventies, the main nightclubs there were the Grafton and the notorious She Club.  One friend related a story of a coach party going to Liverpool for a big night out, and ended up at the She Club.  Due to the size of the party wanting entrance, one small but very broad doorman, told this guy that they all could come in but they were going to be watched, and any hint of trouble, then they were all out instantly. "Well", he said, "we were having a great time but as usual there is always one that spoils it for everyone.  This bouncer grabs the lad starting trouble, and with one hand around his neck, he lifts him off the floor and says to me, "All of you out now or you`re fucking dead!"  They did not argue.  He also related another tale of nightlife in Liverpool, when he witnessed two huge doormen kicking the living daylights out of some fellow.  "One kicked him, he hit the wall immediately behind him, he rolled back from the wall, where he was met with a kick from the other.  This happened a number of times.  I did not hang about, and moved away quick!"

    Another tale is from a guy I worked with in the eighties, who was from a criminal family in Liverpool, though he was apparently the only one who was not an out and out villain.  He did "help out" his family in disputes with anybody.  One such touch of "help" involved a guy being held against a wall whilst he drove a car into his legs!  He also kept a sawn off in his home "just in case!"  He did have opinions about certain hard men.  "Eddie Bean?  Handy feller but there are guys smaller than him that can flatten him" (Bean was a hard nut doorman who ran into the "Stanley Boys")  "Eddie Palmer?  A very handy guy with his fists"  (Ricky Tomlinson remembered him being doorman at the Colombo Club and said Palmer was a knock out merchant)

    Getting more up to date, one mechanic I worked with told of running back to Liverpool, none other than Curtis Warrens` main man, Johnny Phillips, who casually opened the glove box to show off the gun he had in there.  This mechanic worked at the garage that Phillips took his car to.  He said he shit himself when he was shown the gun, as he then kept looking around for signs of an ambush as Phillips had had  a serious fall out with other Liverpool villains, and this was well known around Liverpool and Birkenhead.

    A great friend of mine, Keith died quite recently and he often spoke of a relative who worked on the door at the She club, and the night he saw him in action.  They were having a private do at some  club when seven lads wanted to come in but when told they could not, started some trouble.  This guy told Keith to hold his drink for him, went out and flattened all seven of them!  I will not put his name.

Jane Andrews - Murderess

Jane Andrews was a working class girl who craved an extravagant lifestyle but when that was threatened she exploded with violence.  One man was lucky; he walked away from her but another was not so lucky.  She viciously murdered him.  What made the story all the more headline grabbing was the fact that Jane Andrews worked for Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York.

    Jane Andrews was born in 1967 in Cleethorpes to a joiner and social worker, who did well at school, but suffered from depression, panic attacks and an eating disorder, leading to a suicide bid at 15.  The family moved to Grimsby, and at 17, Andrews had an abortion.  She entered Grimsby Art College, and later found a job as a childrens` clothes designer for Marks & Spencer.  It was in 1988 she answered an anonymous advert for a dresser and was interviewed by Sarah Ferguson, who immediately took her on.  Her job now found her making a new circle of wealthy and influential members of higher society.  She married in 1990 to Christopher Dunn-Butler, an executive for IBM, who was very much older than her.  This marriage ended five years later due to her very adulterous behaviour.  She then met Dimitri Horne, the son of a wealthy Greek businessman.  This relationship did not last, and Horne left her.  She reacted to him leaving her by smashing up their flat. She then took an overdose but supposedly did not require any medical treatment.   Another dream of marriage to riches had gone.

    She was introduced to a successful young businessman, Tom Cressman, in 1998, and very quickly moved into his Fulham home.  Now she lost her job at Buckingham Palace, officially to cost cutting, but it was alleged that Sarah had a fling with a Count, who had taken a shine to Andrews so she had to go.  Andrews now found a job at Claridges but she lasted just two months before she lost this job.  Everything now rested on Tom Cressman marrying her, but he refused to.  He was said to have met another woman, which Andrews found out about, which resulted in yet another row.  This one was so violent, Cressman phoned Police but in time honoured tradition, they did not respond.   This was fatal for Tom Cressman.  Whilst he slept, she smashed him over the head with a bat, then stabbed him several times.  She then fled, calling and texting various people, but was found in Cornwall, again having taken an overdose.  She received treatment and was charged with murder.

    At her trial, she claimed she suffered abuse at Cressman's` hands, and that she suffered abuse as a child.  This did not sway the Jury; she was convicted and given life.  Incredibly, in 2009 she escaped from East Sutton Park Prison in Kent but was recaptured days later in a hotel with her family.  She was denied parole in 2012.  

    Let us look at the facts.  She saw wealthy men as her gateway to a life of luxury.  When they were ending it, it threatened her world of hoped for opulence.  She could not handle a man finishing with HER.  This was not love.  The man was a means to an end; luxury.  What would she be faced with?  The possibility of having to get a man who was not loaded.  Heaven forbid.  Was it murder?  Of course it was murder!  She stood over him with a cricket bat and proceeded to smash his head in.  That was not enough.  She then stabbed her helpless victim a number of times.  That is not manslaughter, it is cold blooded murder, but considering the couple of times she has already been denied parole, shows just how lightly she got off.  Many would have served fifteen years plus before that.  Is she a danger?  Think of her track record when it comes to men rejecting her.  It will take a brave bastard to brush all that aside and get cosy with her.

Michael & Suzan Carson

This murderous couple ended the lives of two men and a woman, simply because of the delusional "beliefs" and the goading and urging of Suzan Carson, to her lover, Michael.  They were not actually married but she adopted his surname.  Her name was Susan, but she changed the second "s" to a zee.  She had a warped view of the muslim faith and just made anything fit her beliefs, and the claim that she was psychic.  She had long dabbled in hallucinogenic and other drugs, which no doubt, did not alter her perception of the world, as they are harmless.  Right.  Her husband divorced her, fed up of her drug taking and lifestyle.

    James Carson had married young and had a daughter but his wife divorced him after nine years, unable to cope anymore with his personality and mood swings.  He then ran into Suzan who then told him he was now called Michael.  It was 1981.  They travelled around, taking drugs at every opportunity, staying at any place that they were welcomed.  A young woman called Keryn Barnes, who was taken with their philosophies and lifestyle.  A very tragic mistake.  Suzan convinced Michael that she could spot a witch anywhere and Keryn was one, so she had to die.  She was battered around the head and stabbed eleven times.  They fled the San Francisco area and went down to Southern California, and ended up staying at an illegal marijuana farm.  After a short time, they fell out with a friend of the owner, Clark Stevens.  Stevens was shot a couple of times in the head, later revealed, at Suzan`s urging.  They disappeared.  Much later, remains were discovered and the Police were brought in!  The person in charge wanted to grow marijuana, but not be involved in murder.

    The couple got a ride from a man called Hellier but they soon fell out with him, and when the car stopped, Carson shot him after much urging from her.  They took off in the car, and a chase ensued.  Suzan was driving and crashed but they escaped into dense woodland, staying in an old hut.  Carson travelled to Los Angeles to get more drugs but was arrested due to a resemblance to a wanted rapist.  Using a false identity, he managed to bluff his way out, and had managed to hide a gun in the Police car when arrested, due to a sloppy search.  He took off back to Suzan, but the gun was discovered in the car.  Pictures of Carson were circulated amongst Police departments down the West Coast, and San Francisco cops immediately recognised the man they were seeking for the murder of Keryn in 1981, two years previously.  A hunt ensued and eventually they were arrested, and charged with three murders in three different jurisdictions.  Carson would plead to Keryn`s murder if he could have a press conference.  They both freely admitted the other two. This they played up to with relish, loving the exposure, with her sickeningly grinning all the time.  They were both lifed off, believing that they had done no wrong.  She was a number of years older than Carson and it was believed that Keryn was murdered because she was young and attractive and Carson might have taken a serious liking to her.  He did whatever Suzan told him to.  I believe the victims were murdered simply for no reason; she deciding on the spot "They have to die!" and using her twisted beliefs and logic as an excuse.  Should have put the pair of them down.

TV Crime Shows - How Realistic Are They?

I just bought a dvd box set of the first series of "The Sweeney" the first real hard hitting crime series, and it brings to mind, just realistic was it?  First off, we have to accept that the criminal underworld is vast, especially in London.  People can be forgiven for thinking that the underworld centred around the Krays & the Richardsons, but they were only a part.  There were numerous other criminal families, and gangs, or associations of criminals, to make it absurd that one man or gang held total sway.  Journalist Andrew Jennings labelled Roy Garner, "Londons` top gangster" a claim ridiculed by journalist Martin Short, again, pointing out there has never been a sole overlord.  That tends to belong to the world of fiction.

    Watching Regan & Carter, you see that the Police tackle all types of crime, armed robberies, extortion rackets, drugs, smuggling, fraud, counterfeiting, stolen cars, pornography; anything that turns out money.  There is so much variation and the people involved, ridicules the sharp suited overlord.  One claim made to me was that when the Sweeney was being filmed, "They did not have a clue how armed robberies were carried out, so they had to come to us to be shown how".  This was from a man who has long thought of himself as a gangland figure, but in reality was a small time thief and brawler, in and out of prison for fighting , mainly with Police.  Did writer and creator Ian Kennedy Martin approach the TV network saying, "I have a great idea for a show but we will have to approach the underworld for lessons in how to stage a robbery?"  Pause for laughter.

    Obviously villains would have had to learn going to armed robbery school,.  Could you imagine a villain walking into a room "Right, balaclavas or stocking masks on, lads.  What I am holding is a sawn off shotgun, the tool of use for blaggers!"  Absurd isn't it?  The reality was that the film crew and cast used a nearby pub that was a drinking hole for cops and villains, and somebody would say, "a security van would never have gone down a street like that" or "you have to be extremely careful getting an illegal wiretap".  That was the extent to participation of the underworld and it was also revealed that stunt co-ordinator Peter Brayham knew some villains who gave him tips.  Villains have hung around some film sets.  Bob Hoskins told of getting tips from villains filming "The Long Good Friday" and Robert Mitchum spoke of Boston villains hanging around the set of "The Friends of Eddie Coyle", to me, one of the best American crime films.  There was no loyalty in this one.  Reality is so much different from fantasy.

Other British Subcultures

After the Teds, we had numerous subcultures built around music, although before the others arrived, one era that was producing "Shock" newspaper stories was in the early sixties, and the young who listened to trad jazz - don`t laugh - and scenes of destruction followed some concerts.  Personally, I think it was people who got a bit pissed up - what`s new there?  Towards the mid sixties we had the Mods and Rockers, with the full scale pitched battles at seaside resorts that generally never happened.  Some reporters were even paying Mods and Rockers to fight each other, to get a scoop!  

    The "hippie" era arrived with wankers like Timothy Leary wanting to look cool to youngsters with the "turn on, tune in, drop out" bollocks he liked to promote.  The Rockers had now turned to serious biking and forming clubs in the American style.  Many of these bikers were called "Hells Angels" but the truth was, until 1973, Britain only had two official Angel Chapters; London & Wessex.  The hippie era carried on to the mid seventies, and then the biggest shock to hit Britain since the Teds, arrived; the Punk era.  Many jumped on the bandwagon but it did produce many bands that did and do, live on.  It was also when we really first started seeing body piercing such as safety pins through the lips and noses.  Nowadays, nobody notices.  But this era did bring other cultures, a Mod revival, Soul Boys, skinheads - reviving the skinheads and bootboys of the late sixties, early seventies.  New Romantics, heavies.  In the late seventies, I had let my hair grow and it was over my shoulders, and one day in my local, I ran into a lad I had worked with about a year or so before.  "You've become a heavy" he said on seeing my long hair.  To which I said that no, I let my hair grow because I felt like it.  I did and still do, love heavy rock.  For a number of years now, people involved in doorwork or thuggery go around with shaven heads, so it is not really a subculture but it is taken as a "uniform" for a thug, somebody sending out the message "don`t fuck with me".  What will come next?

The Teddy Boys

We have always had young and violent subcultures, such as The Hooligans in London, the Cornermen in Liverpool, the Scuttlers in Manchester and the Sloggers/Peaky Blinders in Birmingham.  It was at the beginning of the 1950`s that another "danger to the public" emerged, initially down in London, which quickly spread throughout Great Britain, and that was the "Teddy Boy".  This was somebody who wore a long coat, or drape suit that was of Edwardian style of forty plus years previously.  They created their own look by wearing drainpipe trousers and shoes, often suede that were known as Brothel Creepers, lace ties from the American west, and hair shaped with brylcreem into what was known as a "Ducks Arse".  The teddy boy monicker was not coined until a notorious murder trial in September 1953.

    Their brand of music after 1954 was rock n`roll that was popularised by Bill Haley & the Comets and Elvis Presley and the release of two films that shaped the moral degeneracy of the young; "Rock Around The Clock" and "The Blackboard Jungle".  Both films caused riots in cinemas throughout Britain as teds destroyed seats and - gasp! - "danced in the aisles".  What was true that it did spurn a violent culture where no reason was needed to attack and seriously harm somebody, cause mayhem, and basically do as you pleased.  This was not true of many teds, who simply wanted to be part of the culture, but there were a great many who revelled in it.  
    Many towns and areas had what was known as their own "King of The Teddy Boys" who had plenty of fights with people looking to take their crown.  As time went on, many teds did not wear the drape coats but made their stand by simply having their hair done in the appropriate DA, and the willingness to fight.  The style generally faded after the mid sixties as society entered the "Counter Culture" of West Coast America.  

    The name "Teddy Boys" was coined by the Daily Express on 23rd September 1953 after the trial of six young men for the murder of John Beckley aged 17.  They shortened the word "Edwardian to "Teddy" and the phrase stuck.  They were originally known as "Cosh Boys" - a 1952 film of the same title featured a young Joan Collins - but the "Ted" label stuck and newspapers filled with horror stories about this new youth cult, though some stories were greatly exaggerated.  Michael Davies aged 20 and Ronald Coleman, 15 were charged with the murder of John Beckley, who died from stab wounds.  Four others were charged alongside them.  The jury could not agree on a verdict, so the four were acquitted but held for assault, for which they were punished.  They could not agree on a verdict for Coleman, who was acquitted but, like the others, held on assault charges.  Michael Davies was retried again at the Old Bailey on 19th October 1953, and after a four day trial, was convicted and sentenced to death.  He put in appeal after appeal and finally after 92 days in the Condemned Cell, was reprieved by Home Secretary David Maxwell-Fyfe, who earlier in that year had no hesitation in refusing a reprieve for a young man who it was openly admitted, had not committed murder.  That man was Derek Bentley.  Davies was released from prison in October 1960.  One of the others originally arrested, stated that Davies had NOT stabbed John Beckley, but said Davies seemed to enjoy the notoriety so they all thought he may as well carry the can for what one of his friends had done.  An echo of the case was a 1962 film entitled "The Boys" starring Richard Todd, Dudley Sutton(who was sentenced to death) and Ronald Lacey.

The Peanut Gang

The Peanut Gang was a notorious street gang that operated in South Liverpool from the thirties to just after the war.  At that time, Liverpool was awash with juvenile gangs, ranging from three youths up to a dozen plus, but the Peanut Gang had many members, though it was never established that they had any leaders.  They were also known as the Park Lane Gang, owing to the area they lived in.  This area included Caryl Gardens, Brassey Street, Dombey Street, and others.  Their ages ran from young teens to their early twenties.  Their name came from one of their leading members "Peanut" McGlynn.

    Their crimes ran the gauntlet of a crime sheet; assault, intimidation, street robberies, burglaries, stolen cars, and a particular form of income was from attacking and robbing sailors and soldiers.  Liverpool was the second busiest port in Britain, and a stopping off point for troops being brought from the USA and Canada.  This was known as "Rolling".  Once when a number of them were in court and they were facing jail terms, one of their defence lawyers was none other than Sydney Silverman, the MP who managed to get the Death Penalty suspended, then had the criteria for a Capital Offence changed to five certain offences. Rose Heilbron, one of the first, if not the first, female Barrister, defended some of the others.  She later defended George Kelly, but failed to save him from the gallows, and became a High Court Judge.

    Their reign of terror continued throughout the War years, with numerous complaints from the public for the Police and the courts to stamp them out once and for all.  Some were barely teenagers and magistrates complained that they were legally too young to receive a flogging, and despite being sent to approved schools, this did not deter them.  In fact it was a badge of honour for them, making their mark for the elders of the gang to see and appreciate.  Youngsters going to school were particular targets, mugging them, and some were unfortunate enough to see their assailant smash a bottle, and then sadistically, stick it in their faces.  But as the war came to an end, as they had gotten older, some dropped out, due to working properly, raising families, but it was the thought that many, many men whom had fought in the war, and had a taste for real combat, returning to Liverpool, were just too much for the Peanut Gang to face, and so they fizzled out.  But gang violence has continued to ravage the city right up to the present day.