MASSEY’S LINKS TO MURDERED GANG ENFORCER
Gun victim carried ‘Mr Big’s’ coffin at funeral
PICTURED at Paul Massey’s funeral as a pallbearer, carefully lifting his white casket, is John Kinsella.
He was helping to lay his close friend to rest, having contributed towards the cost of the service and the horse-drawn carriage that contained his coffin.
Salford’s ‘Mr Big’ was shot five times outside his home in 2015.
Just weeks ago, Mr Kinsella was executed on a woodland path in Merseyside.
Known to the Massey family as ‘Scouse John,’ he was murdered in a hit at 7am on Saturday, May 5.
Police have made six arrests in connection with the two murders in recent days.
The investigation into Mr Massey’s killing has rumbled on for three years.
Within weeks of his murder, the names of possible suspects were circulating the streets of Salford.
But it was not surprising that almost three years after an assassin in camouflage shot Mr Massey five times with a sub machine gun, no one had been arrested, never mind charged. Greater Manchester Police faced the complexities of breaking the city’s underworld code of silence in order to get enough intelligence to identify the killer – or killers.
At one time Mr Massey, a fatherof-five who had eight grandchildren at the time of his death, was allegedly a ‘target’ criminal for GMP and MI5.
In 1999, Mr Massey was sentenced to 14 years in prison after he stabbed a man in the groin, severing an artery. But he had a reputation as a mediator in gang feuds in Salford and beyond.
He predicted that he might be shot himself. In an interview, Mr Massey said: “I could be shot any time.
“I have realised that for years. But if it is meant to happen, it is meant to happen, and that’s the end of it.
“I pity the ******* who did it afterwards though. That’s the only thing that has kept me alive, because the person who fires that shot has got to fly the flag and handle the pressure afterwards.
“They are getting it. Because too many people around me are friends.”
Nevertheless, when Mr Massey was killed, at the age of 55, it was still a huge shock. He was gunned down outside his home on July 26, 2015.
He was blasted five times seconds after getting out of his BMW.
In the aftermath of Mr Massey’s death, things took another twist.
In February 2016, an alleged ‘hit squad,’ suspected of being out to avenge the killing, was intercepted in Marbella by Spanish police, GMP and the National Crime Agency.
In November last year, GMP passed a file on the murder of Mr Massey to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to decided if there was sufficient evidence to bring prosecutions. The expectation was that it would take months of forensic scrutiny by Crown lawyers before a decision was made.
The murder of Mr Massey’s close friend, John Kinsella, 53, resulted in dramatic arrests by GMP and Merseyside.
Mr Kinsella’s murder also had the hallmarks of a ruthless professional hit. He was shot multiple times while he and his partner were walking their dog on a woodland path in Rainhill near the M62.
Mr Kinsella had once had a reputation as a gangland enforcer in Merseyside. He was with Mr Massey on holiday in north Wales in the days leading up to his murder.
At the time of his death, Mr Massey was under investigation for money laundering allegations, which he strongly denied.
The investigation, launched in August 2011 by the regional organised crime unit Titan and codenamed ‘Holly,’ involved Salford firm 21st Security.
In July last year, it was revealed by the M.E.N. that no-one was to be charged following the six year investigation.
In total, six people have been arrested in relation to the two cases in recent days.
A 37-year-old man was arrested at Manchester Airport on suspicion of the murders of Mr Massey and Mr Kinsella on Wednesday.
The same day, a 39-year old woman was arrested at the airport on suspicion of assisting an offender in relation to Mr Kinsella’s murder.
A 48-year-old man was also arrested in Salford on suspicion of conspiracy to murder in relation to Mr Massey’s murder investigation.
Yesterday, police arrested a 49-year-old man in Rochdale and a 30-year-old woman in Salford on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder. Another woman, aged 35, was also arrested in Salford on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. They remain in custody for questioning.