| Wannabe in my gang?
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01/04/04 - Is this the real face of 'Essex Boy' Bernard O'Mahoney
Kim Gandy
Enquirer
In his lastest book, Wannabe in My Gang? an ex-Essex Boy gang member reveals his connection with the Krays and the Rettendon murders. Is Bernard O'Mahoney a self-seeking self-publicist or a man desperate to atone for past misdemeanours, asks KIM GANDY
ON FIRST contact, the voice is quiet; a soft West Midlands accent that of a "regular bloke": a lorry driver perhaps, a gardener, a chippie - or the guy who comes to read your meter.
But this is Bernard O'Mahoney, ex-member of the infamous Essex Boy gangland group that were, during the 80s and 90s, the scourge of local police and responsible for numerous killings and maimings.
The 44-year-old is also a former friend of the Krays and the man behind Essex Boys: A Terrifying Expose of the British Drugs Scene (on which the Essex Boys film was based) among numerous other titles.
It was in 1986, following a short sentence for wounding, that he moved from Wolverhampton to Essex and set up home with his girlfriend and children.
He began working for a haulage company but in an attempt to supple- ment his income, took a job as a doorman at Raquel's nightclub, Basildon. Within two years O'Mahoney was in charge of security and had cleared the place of 'undesirables'.
A later change of management, however, brought about a downward spiral of scum elements that began to frequent the place, which soon earned its reputation as the most notorious nightclub in Britain.
It was during his reign as head doorman he became integrated into the dangerous Essex Boys set, which eventually culminated in the deaths of members Tony Tucker, Craig Rolfe and Patrick Tate, whose bodies were found in a Range Rover near Rettendon in December 1995.
Mr O'Mahoney still insists this event is steeped in police corruption, due to missing evidence. Later, he became implicated in the case of 16-year-old Leah Betts, from whose death,from the drug Ecstasy, he seems to disassociate himself.
"It was a tragic waste that the poor girl died. But no-one wanted to see the truth about the events leading up to her death. I am not a callous person but some people may not like the truth in my book," he told The Enquirer. But what exactly is the truth?
Countless questions have been asked about Leah's death and O'Mahoney remains adamant that his "turning a blind eye" was not a contributory factor.
Yet paradoxically, he puts over a convincing concern for the devastating effects on victims families of child murders and is currently writing another book on this subject, a taboo which he defends emphatically.
"I don't like people who kill children," he says quietly. "The next book is the result of 15 years' work in conjunction with a journalist who supplies me with information on infamous murderers. "I have corresponded with people accused of murdering children; normal, chatty letters, until some confessed.
"Sean Armstrong admitted to me, the murder of three-year-old Rosie Palmer. He asked me not to tell but I gave the letter to the police - then he sued me for breaching his confidence! However Ann Widdecombe stepped in and assisted me with that.
"David Copeland who embarked on a bombing campaign in London, including the gay bar (in which a pregnant Chelmsford woman was killed) wrote to me, laughing, saying he'd fooled doctors and the police by pleading guilty with diminished responsibility. He was sentenced to life.
"Normally I wouldn't speak to scum like that but I get tremendous satisfaction in helping get them locked up." He went to great pains to explain that the proceeds from his next book are going towards the Daily Mirror's campaign to help the family of Keith Bennett (child victim of Moors Murderers Myra Hyndley and Ian Brady) find Keith's body, which was never recovered.
"I did correspond with Ian Huntley for a while but he is clever: very evasive. I presented letters to the prosecution as evidence but they never got around to using them. "I am writing to Jessica Chapman's parents: I want their views on what can be done about this. Every summer, another child and still nothing gets done," he emphasised.
But isn't there a hint of hypocrisy about slagging off other ex-gangland members for publishing their books? His response was emphatic: "Everything in my book is backed by facts. I have never been successfully sued. The books are gory and brutal enough without making stuff up."
In the 240-page Wannabe in My Gang? O'Mahoney discusses his relationship with the Krays, which began when he was summoned to the presence of Ronnie Kray in November 1989. Kray had heard about a campaign Bernard had mounted to help save the life of a 10-year-old boy, who had incurred life threatening injuries as the result of a car accident O'Mahoney insists this was yet another of the brothers' constant desperation to cash in on publicity.
Although it's frequently mentioned in the book his dislike of the brothers and their hangers-on and his desire to get away from the rigours of the gangland and live a normal life, it took an indiscriminate amount of time before he actually made the break.
He was strangely reticent on this point: "It's not easy to just walk away." Despite this, O'Mahoney now resides elsewhere and claims to have begun a new life. He states: "The gangster lifestyle is glamorous when it's going well. Doors open and there are opportunities to make big money but when you get drawn in it turns into a nightmare quickly.
"And it's nothing to do with 'honour'. It's like one of those weird Victorian circuses of dysfunctional people." However, O'Mahoney himself is seemingly a mass of contradictions: a hard man turned campaigner and what the criminal elements would call a "grass": now outside the "scene" yet still preoccupied enough with the lifestyle to continue writing about it.
But O'Mahoney insists he is now well outside of the underworld, running a haulage business, writing books and enjoying his family. He still visits Essex but insists:"Clubs in Bas Vegas [Festival Leisure Park] are better controlled now.
"Although I never killed anyone, I have often felt like it. Thank god I didn't: it's not something I would be proud of. When you're wrapped up in all that, you don't think rationally. And he issued a grim warning: "If you're not comfortable with drugs, guns and knives, just don't do it."
He concludes somewhat flippantly: "The closest I get to the underworld nowadays is watching Mike Baldwin in his lingerie factory on Coronation Street." |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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