Britain’s Underworld Part 1

National Geographic

Madman

R4 DVD

We tend to look at British crime based on what we see in their films. The Agatha Christie stories were genteel and there was no “organised” crime as such. Even later films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels had few “real” gangsters as such. There was the occasional darker film like Essex Boys but they were in the minority since their stories involved criminal gangs, drugs and guns. This just wasn’t seen as terribly British. Now with independent filmmakers making crime films the grittier side of British crime is being brought out into the open. Even so, some of the stories are just too farfetched to be credible. Or are they?

In this documentary series we follow the rise of crime gangs in three British cities – Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool. These gangs go back to the 1920s – 1930s and were usually a reaction to unemployment, underprivilege and social inequality. Money could lift you out of poverty and it was there for the taking from the rich. One early source of money for instance was by holding up the bookmakers – called “taxing”. In a plasticless society cash was plentiful if you had the guts to take it.

Arthur Johnson came to dominate Glasgow crime. He started with protection rackets but he was always willing to try something new like safecracking. When the huge profits of drugs were realised the gangs naturally moved into the new area. Glasgow had a major heroin problem by 1983, bigger than most of the rest of Britain. Glasgow gangs became known as the McMafia.

Liverpool had its share of small gangs. A young black man named Michael Showers developed Britain’s drug market by directly importing drugs from Africa and Central America through the docks of Liverpool. The city soon had a third of all drug arrests in Britain. The new pop culture was a ready market for marijuana, heroin and cocaine. The police, although aware of what had happened in other cities, did not form a Vice Squad to fight the problem until 1966.

Manchester gangs were so violent the city became known as “Gunchester”. It was the scene of gang wars that until recently had lasted through two decades of killings. A police officer recalls that his squad was investigating eight murders that were committed on just one weekend.

Once again the gangs grew from the overcrowding and poverty. Street gangs formed and as the Depression took hold robberies increased. Jimmy The Weed (so called because he grew on you) started his career by breaking into a chocolate factory while he was still at school. In his teens he graduated to stealing meat and fish from the markets. Gradually as the gang he ran with became more violent and more members spent time in prison it became known as the Quality Street Gang. It was named after a popular brand of chocolates advertised by a group of comedy villains. There was nothing comedic about the QSG, though. They were quite prepared to use violence if needed – knives, razors – but no guns as yet.

In an effort to get gambling off the streets the government licensed betting shops and casinos. These were a lucrative source of protection money and attracted the attention of London’s Kray Twins, two of Britain’s most vicious gangsters. The local club owners were more scared of the Krays than the local gangs, with whom they had reached a non-violent level of near-cooperation. They informed both the police and the local gangs of the Krays’ attempts to move in on a local club. The Krays were threatened by both the police and the gangs. Against the combination of cops and crims, the Krays knew they couldn’t get into Manchester.

The gangs moved into property, the car parts trade (stripping stolen cars) and rigged boxing matches. There was still violence between the gangs, though. Local silence made it almost impossible for the police to get convictions against the QSG. The gang started using guns for armed hold-ups of wages and security vans. From the 1980s drugs, as usual, became a main source of revenue. Their main area of influence was Moss Side, a two square km suburb with a 30% unemployment rate and 9,000 people. It became the main drug distribution centre for Britain with drugs being sold openly on street corners. The QSG gang was finally broken when one of the members turned informer on the gang.

For the remaining gangs and the new gangs guns came into wide use to protect territories and to fight a new group, the HillBillies, led by White Tony. White Tony was killed in a gang ambush – probably by his own gang who were concerned that he had no respect for others in the gang and that his behaviour was becoming irrationally violent.

The police were becoming more cunning in their operations. They set up in one building as disguised as homeless squatters and for five weeks they filmed gang members openly dealing heroin on the streets. Then they pounced and arrested a generation of Moss Side dealers in early dawn raids. Other gangs, as usual, sprang up to fill the void but the police were finally getting successes in court.

The series highlights the causes of the crime gangs as well as their leading figures. Surprisingly the producers have been able to get some of the criminals themselves to talk about their past and the history of their gangs Interviews with retired. police officers give us the other side of the story and show the quiet desperation of the police as they tried to deal with the unaccustomed gang problem. Newspapers of the day show how the gangs affected public confidence.

With this detailed examination of the problem we must now look at British crime stories from a better-informed point of view. The lessons to be learned and the problems to be addressed are still there.

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