When Kate Kray wrote" Pretty Boy, " she interviewed scores of people. Almost without exception, as she was leaving, they would say to her, "I'll tell you something about Roy--but don't tell him I told you..." These stories were too shocking and close to the bone to include without Roy's permission, and now that permission has been granted. "Roy Shaw Unleashed" is a collection of those stories, as told by Roy himself and those close to him. It includes true stories of murder and violence, a...

Roy Shaw is the ultimate hardman, he has a cult status and commands a respect that few, even in the violent world he moves in, can equal. He was the original Guv'nor, and the great rival of Lenny McLean. Roy's words speak for themselves: I'm Roy Shaw. Maybe my name means nothing to you. Why should it? I'm no actor, no showman, no wannabe celebrity. I'm not loud or brash and I don't huff or puff or growl at anyone, but I live by a merciless code. For me violence is simply an accepted part o...

With the reputation as the hardest and most dangerous female criminal in Britain, Gypsy Jane Lee was feared and respected throughout London's criminal underworld. This is her true story. During a terrifying journey that began as a 14-year-old armed robber, she has been shot four times, tasered three times by police and served three jail terms. Convicted for armed robbery she was released from prison only to go out and attempt to murder four people. Gypsy Jane has led a life packed with cri...

THIS IS THE CLASSIC BOOK THAT STARTED AN ENTIRE GENRE – THE STORY OF THE MOST ICONIC HARDMAN OF THEM ALL.Lenny McLean was one of the deadliest bareknuckle fighters Britain has ever seen. He had dear, powerful friends, but he also had terrible enemies. So much so that he had two bullet wounds in his back – each from a different attack. He was also stabbed repeatedly – always from behind. But Lenny was also a warm, big-hearted grizzly bear of a man, whose main weakness was an overwhel...

Ron and Reg. Violent men who brought a code of honour to the streets that is still observed today. Their deaths bring to an end the golden era of gangsters whose word was law and whose ferocity maintained the order of the streets...Nobody knew the twins like Kate Kray. Married to Ron before his death, she was granted unique access into the shadowy world they inhabited, and was entrusted with some of the darkest secrets they possessed - secrets that could never be revealed until they were b...

They know who they are and what they're capable of - cross them at your peril.No real hard bastard needs to brag or bully; most are modest, thoughtful and quiet. They have nothing to prove, as opposed to wannabe tough guys, who may pump themselves full of steroids or devote themselves to the study of a martial art, but can they handle themselves during an aggressive confrontation?It is the real hard bastard's absolute willingness to fight literally anyone, ...

Barlinnie is one of the most notorious prisons in the world and for a hundred years it has held Glasgow's toughest and most violent men, swept up from the city streets. Ten men died on its gallows in the infamous Hanging Shed, including serial killer Peter Manuel. It has sparked rooftop protests and cell block riots, and been home to godfathers of crime like Arthur Thompson Snr and Walter Norval. Barlinnie was also the scene of one of the most controversial experiments in penal history, th...

With a frightening capacity for extreme violence, Tyneside protection hardman Viv Graham struck fear into the hearts of his enemies, yet his benevolence to local charities and schemes to keep kids away from drugs and crime was well known. A legend in his own lifetime, he was the ultimate maverick troubleshooter whose size and ability to fight enabled him to live just as he wishes, never forgetting the deprived community he came from, who in times of need, considered him the fourth emergenc...

What does a football hooligan firm do outside football? In the case of Mark Chester and the infamous Stoke City Naughty Forty, the answer was: live off their wits and burn the candle at both ends. Chester left Stoke in the mid-Eighties in search of something more than the buzz of terrace violence. He lived in North Africa with a pickpocket gang called The Hawks and dealt hash and coke in the Spanish coastal resorts, fighting off rival Moroccan dealers. After returning to London as a down-a...

In his prime Mike Tyson was the most dominant fighter the sport of boxing had ever seen. At twenty he became the youngest heavyweight champion in history after winning his first nineteen fights by knockout, half of them inside the first round.This biography covers Tyson's life and professional career, beginning with his criminal childhood, through to his amateur career, his meteoric rise to heavyweight champion, his shock fall from grace and eventual retirement from boxing in 2005....

Two names reigned supreme in London's underworld in the sixties - Ronnie and Reggie Kray; and it wasn't until 1969 that the twins went down at Brixton Prison for murder. I was only seventeen, on remand up in Risley, Warrington, for nicking a furniture lorry. Most of the lads in there had newspaper photos of the Krays stuck up on their cell walls. They were the cream of the criminal crop, and that's why I took such an interest in 'em. Once I was put away, it wasn't long before I got to meet...

Walter Norval was a man marked by destiny to be a career criminal in one of Britain's hardest cities. As a boy he grew up in a world of illegal betting, violent canal bank pitch-and-toss schools, sleazy dance halls, brothels and bars where the denizens of the slums in the north side of Glasgow slaked gargantuan thirsts and plotted murder and mayhem. Before he had reached his teens, close relatives had died as blood was spilled in the streets. As a youngster he ran 'messages' for the toughe...