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29/02/96 - 'Jealous drugs boss shot his own pal'
Evening Echo
By NEIL REEVE
MURDERED drug baron Tony Tucker has been blamed for shooting
his own friend Pat Tate and then supplying him with a gun and
drugs while he was recovering in hospital.
The fateful alleged shooting came a year before both men were
slaughtered. Tucker, who was slain alongside Tate and Craig
Rolfe on a deserted farm track in Rettendon last December, either
carried out the 1994 shooting himself or arranged it, and then
planted the gun on one of Tate's other pals, it is claimed.
A friend of Tate claims Tucker was jealous of Tate's friendship
with the other man. The shooting paints a picture of Tucker
as a jealous man, capable of doing anything to make sure he
got his own way. The incident happened in December 1994 as Pat
Tate was at home preparing to go to Tucker's party in London.
He was in his bathroom shaving when the glass was shattered
by a bullet which hit him in the arm. Tate's friend, a woman
who does not want to be identified for fear of reprisal, says
Tucker stoked Tate's fear and paranoia after the shooting by
giving him a gun to protect himself while he was in hospital.
She also claims that Tucker supplied Tate with drugs while he
was in his hospital bed. The gun which fired the bullet was
then allegedly planted at the home of a friend of Tate's. The
pal was allegedly questioned about the shooting, but no-one
was ever charged.
Tate had not long been out of prison when the bathroom shooting
occurred. He had been jailed in November 1990 for six years
for robbery and drugs charges, but was let out in July 1994
on licence. When the pistol and drugs were found Tate's licence
was revoked and he was sent back to prison to serve the remainder
of his sentence.
He was finally released on October 31 last year, weeks before
he and the two other men were shot dead, their bodies discovered
in a Range Rover. Police believe the Rettendon shooting was
part of a drugs turf war. Tate's mother Marie confirmed that
Tucker had supplied her son with drugs and the the gun which
was found under his hospital bed.
She said: "Pat could see no wrong in Tony. Even when Pat
was caught with the drugs and the gun Tony said he would own
up and take the blame to keep Pat out of prison, but he never
did." |
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