Firm Magazine

Essex Boy Bill Frain-Bell
interviews former gangster Bernard O'Mahoney

"As Dave Thomkins was not known locally, I asked him if he would go into the pub, walk up to Draper, squirt him in the eyes with ammonia and then push him through a set of double doors into the street outside where he'd be beaten and then left. I told the other members of the firm that once he'd been beaten, I wanted them to walk away as there was something to do that I did not want them involved in. I had decided that I was going to shoot Draper through the head..."

Taken from Essex Boys by Bernard O'Mahoney

Essex Boys is the true story of the rise of one of the most violent, feared and successful criminal gangs of the 90s, whose reign of terror was finally terminated when the three leaders were brutally murdered in their Range Rover one winter's evening. On their way they had built the drug-dealing operation which supplied the pill that killed Leah Betts. They were responsible for a wave of intimidation, beatings and murder. Finally, overcome by a sense of invincibility they took on the wrong people and only Bernard O'Mahoney, a key member of the gang, survives to tell the tale. There is now compelling evidence that the men convicted of the killings are innocent - the real murderers it would appear are still at large.

Despite having read Essex Boys, a compelling and at times terrifying exposé of the British drugs scene, I was looking forward to meeting the author Bernard O'Mahoney - Bernie to his friends. FIRM magazine had been invited by Mainstream Publishing to meet with their latest best-selling author. Arriving one wet afternoon in Peterborough with that "scoop in the pipeline feeling" I was met by Bernie at the station. Softly spoken and dressed in a leather jacket with short hair, he drove me to a dimly lit Irish pub in the centre of town where over a couple of pints of John Smith's, I was quickly transported into the world of organised crime as Bernie regaled me with tales from his former life.

Bernie has been in and out of trouble since he was a teenager. As a young man he fled to Johannesburg in order to avoid facing charges for "glassing" somebody in a pub. In time he was also forced to jump bail in South Africa. He was wanted on firearms charges following a difference of opinion when, as part of a community response team in downtown Johannesburg, he pointed a shotgun at a plainclothes policeman. Knowing that he would end up in Johannesburg's notorious Deepcliff prison he convinced an official that he had lost his passport (his own one having been surrendered as part of the bail conditions) and was able to flee to Belgium only to be arrested when he arrived in Dover to face the very charges he had fled to South Africa to avoid. Emerging after a period in jail he came to live in Basildon, where he soon became one of the most feared and respected enforcers in Essex in the 1990s. His story, told mostly from his experiences as the "Head Doorman" at Raquels nightclub in Basildon, is one of excitement, fear, money, paranoia, violence on an unimaginable scale and beneath it all a desire for justice - his reason, Bernie told me, for writing the book.

Bernie decided who would sell drugs in several of the top clubs in Essex. Dealers paid his firm an upfront fee for the right to sell drugs in the various clubs. Clubbers were given money to try and root out unauthorised dealers who if discovered were "encouraged" not to deal again without permission.

Bernie, a one time confidant of the Kray twins, is now the manager of a fleet of lorries but by his own admission is "bored" and misses the high times of the 90s. As I was asking Bernie whether he would go back to it all we were joined by his wife Emma who answered the question for Bernie - in a word "no". Bernie shrugged his shoulders and grinned, giving the sort of look that a man who regularly counts his blessings might give.

I tried a different tack, asking him instead if he had his time again, whether he would do it over again, "If I thought I would live then yes - I am very lucky to be alive today". The majority of Bernie's friends are either dead, in prison or in hiding. His three former business partners, Tony Tucker (who will be played by Sean Bean in the film Essex Boys - soon to be released), Pat Tate and Craig Rolfe were found brutally murdered in December 1995 - they had been shot at point blank range in their Range Rover whilst waiting to steal a rival gang's drugs. Bernie is convinced that the police suppressed evidence and that the wrong men are in jail for the murders. Bernie has in his possession evidence, which he claims proves their innocence and also the failure of the police to disclose vital evidence to the defence. Bernie is determined to see justice being done, despite the fact that shortly before they met their deaths the three men in question were planning to kill Bernie. Bernie was himself a suspect for a short time. The men were jailed on the evidence of Supergrass Darren Nicholls, who Bernie claims is a born liar. "You know what Bill, he even told the police that he couldn't remember much about the day of the murders. If someone came into this bar and shot the barman you'd remember it for the rest of your life - wouldn't you?" I looked towards the bar expecting something to happen.

Despite his earlier career he is adamant that drugs should never be legalised. He told me emphatically, "who would enforce the quality? Would you have Trading Standards Officers going around measuring the quality of drugs? It seems immoral for the Government to legalise something produced by criminals. Legalising drugs wouldn't make an inch of difference. It's like if the Government started producing Armani shirts then criminals would just make fake ones and make them cheaper. Legalising drugs isn't the way forward. Why don't we impose sanctions against the countries where the drugs are made? Holland is a good example."

Bernie, despite his previous experiences, had some refreshing ideas on the subject of law and order. "The penal system is too soft. Young people should be jailed after one offence instead of being allowed countless opportunities to redeem themselves. That would sort things out. When you finally go to jail you know that you have exhausted the system. I had 13 convictions before I went to prison and I knew that it was inevitable as I had been through everything else."

"Juries are the only way. However not allowing people with minor convictions to sit on a jury doesn't give you a true reflection of society. Being judged by people who have no experience of living in run-down working class areas and who cannot comprehend a police officer hitting anybody is unfair. Modern approaches to justice are crazy. Kids just need a good slap sometimes to sort them out."

"I think the police are failing in all aspects of crime because of their attitude. There is no respect for the police and the police do not mix with the community. They have removed themselves from society. Twenty years ago, if you phoned the police following a domestic incident a mature 40 year-old Sergeant would turn up. Now days it is some 25 year-old Inspector who has never seen a man and woman fighting and just arrests everybody. He hasn't seen life properly. The police is all about promotion and is no longer a job but simply another career. The police have an attitude that everybody is guilty and as a result nobody has any respect for what they are trying to do."

"Now take Reggie Kray", Bernie continued, "it is totally unfair that he is still in prison but it is understandable. When you elevate yourself to the position where everybody is terrified of you, you are put on a pedestal and start believing in your own invincibility. That's what happened to Tate, Tucker and Rolfe. They don't want Reggie becoming a role model for the young."

Despite his realisation that he is lucky to be alive, Bernie is not happy to decay in a chair watching television. Whatever Emma allows him to do in the future it is unlikely to be in Essex, where he is banned not only from working as a bouncer but is also barred for life from all licensed premises. "I can't even get a TV licence", Bernie moaned, "they even banned me from the local festival leisure park, telling me it was for my own protection. I really pissed them off," he joked, his face lighting up as if remembering a good night out.

"What about lawyers," I asked him. "A good lawyer is one who does his job and does his best for his client - take from that what you like. I know some very good lawyers but I usually prefer to defend myself."

"I think I would have made a good policeman," he said as we finished our beers.

Essex Boys by Bernard O'Mahoney is published by Mainstream Publishing £7.99
Available from all good bookshops or from Mainstream at http://www.mainstreampublishing.com/
or 01206 255800