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In their daily battle against a remorseless tide of crime, officers of London’s Metropolitan Police routinely risk their lives protecting the Capital. In The Brave Blue Line Dick Kirby, the former Scotland Yard detective turned popular-crime author, has brought together a superb collection of inspiring stories of police gallantry over the last hundred years.
Officers to be honoured with the George Cross, the highest civilian award, have their stories...
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In the late 1960s the Richardson Torture Gang and the Kray Twins were removed from the London scene by ACC Gerry McArthur and DS Nipper Read respectively.
Predictably it was not long before the vacuum this left was being filled. With McArthur retired and Read moved on, who was to sort out the new gangland threat.
Step forward Detective Chief Superintendent Bert Wickstead. Having cut his teeth on young desperadoes and neo-Nazis in North London and...
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In the summer of 1978, rumors emerged from the underworld that huge sums of money had been paid to the City of London Police to water-down evidence and arrange bail in cases of armed robbery. Then it was suggested that Scotland Yards Flying Squad was also involved.
The Home Secretary appointed the Dorset Police to investigate but it became clear to the criminals upon whom they relied to provide evidence that they were completely out of their depth....
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It is little known today that, in January 1939, the IRA launched a bombing campaign, codenamed The S-or Sabotage-Plan on mainland England. With cynical self-justification, they announced that it was not their intention to harm human life but in just over a year, more than 300 explosive devices resulted in 10 deaths, 96 injuries and widespread devastation. London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and many other towns and cities were targeted. On 25...
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The 1950s and 1960s saw a changing of the guard in London's gangland. A new and even more ruthless breed of criminal emerged to replace the aging generation of likes of Sabini, Mullins and Hayes.
Protection rackets on bookies, club owners and shops were commonplace. Prostitution and drugs offered rich pickings. Police corruption was all too commonplace.
Thanks to media interest the names of Charlie Richardson, Mad Frankie Fraser, Scarface Smithson...
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A former member of London's MP Flying Squad pays tribute to his fellow officers in a gripping and emotional true crime chronicle of duty and sacrifice. Dick Kirby of London's Serious Crime Squad shares ten stories of courage spanning fifty years of crime enforcement in the Metropolitan Police. In honoring the selfless men and women who gave their lives, Kirby sheds light on the ever-present dangers of street patrol-from confrontations at public protests...
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It is a little known fact that one immigrant Italian family ran London's thriving vice trade unchecked from the mid-1930s for some twenty years. The five Messina brothers imported prostitutes from the Continent on an industrial scale, acquiring the women British citizenship by phony marriages. Demanding 80% of earnings, the Messina family became fabulously wealthy, purchasing expensive properties, cars and influence. As this revealing and absorbing...
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Get a behind-the-scenes look at fourteen historic cases from the Murder Squad of Scotland Yard in this collection perfect for true crime fans.
In 1906 the Metropolitan Police Commissioner was asked by the Home Office to make available skilled investigators for murder inquiries nationwide as few constabularies had sufficiently skilled-or indeed, any-detectives.
Thus was born the Reserve Squad, or Murder Squad, as it later became known. Despite...
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Between the two World Wars, there was a dramatic upsurge of violence as rival criminal gangs vied for rich pickings from bookmakers at racetracks throughout England.
With ready access to cash, "bookies" were a magnet for mobsters' blackmailing demands. Refusal to pay resulted in severe punishment. Their justified fears spawned a ready "protection" market.
Conflict between rival gangs were frequent and increasingly violent. Charles "Darby" Sabini...
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Since 1919, Scotland Yard's Flying Squad has been in the forefront of the war against crime. From patrolling London's streets in horse-drawn wagons, it has progressed to the use of the most sophisticated surveillance and crime-fighting equipment. The Squad targeted protection gangs who infested British racecourses and greyhound tracks, and later the highly effective Ghost Squad was formed to tackle black-marketeering in the aftermath of the Second...
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