Gangland killer goes back to mother as he fights to clear name
ONE of the country’s most notorious gangland killers is planning to move in with his mother when he is freed after more than 23 years in prison.
The Parole Board agreed on Monday to the release of Essex Boys murderer Jack Whomes, 59, after he was described as an “exemplary prisoner”.
The decision came despite him never admitting to the Rettendon Range Rover triple murders.
The release is still being finalised, but his brother John, 58, said Jack, described during his trial as a cold-blooded executioner, could not wait to get back to 82-year-old mother Pam’s Suffolk home.
John said: “We are at the end of a long struggle. He can now go home and be with his mum, which is what he wants.
“I am glad for my mother’s sake, because with Covid going on she could be the next one to go. Getting Jack home is what has been keeping her alive.”
Whomes was jailed in January 1998 with Michael Steele, now 78, for the shotgun murders
of gangsters Pat Tate, 37, Tony Tucker, 38, and Craig Rolfe, 26.
The killings have been the subject of a series of films, including the Essex Boys movie in 2000, starring Sean Bean as Tate.
The three drug dealers’ bulletriddled bodies were found in a Range Rover parked on a remote farm track at Rettendon, near Basildon, in December 1995.
The victims were suspected of supplying a batch of ecstasy pills that led to the highly publicised death of Leah Betts, 18.
Whomes and Steele have insisted on their innocence throughout. They were convicted on the evidence of supergrass Darren Nicholls who had told the Old Bailey he acted as their getaway driver.
No forensic evidence linked them to the murder and mobile phone evidence was relied upon. Whomes has worked in a mechanical workshop in Ipswich on day release from Hollesley Bay open prison in Suffolk since 2019 and is expected to continue in the job.
John said his brother had become institutionalised after so long inside and it will take him five years at least to readjust.
He said: “When you first go to prison the first couple of weeks are hard, but you soon become institutionalised and Jack just got his head down.
“He was attacked a few times by other prisoners, but didn’t overreact. When he went into prison he wasn’t educated and couldn’t read or write, but now he is fully educated and took all the courses there were.
“He has done hundreds of NVQS and exams in prison, carpentry, technical stuff, and ended up teaching the other prisoners.
“He is quite strong-minded and focused on educating himself and clearing his name.
“Because he was a model prisoner the screws treated him well.
“The worst point was when we thought we were going to win the appeal in 2006. We were convinced we had. He was devastated when it got turned down.”
John, who has campaigned to get his brother’s conviction overturned, said Jack will continue fighting to clear his name. He declared: “I think 100 per cent we will do it this time.”
The Criminal Case Review Commission has been considering the convictions of Whomes and Steele since May 2018.
John said one aspect under review was a mobile phone company employee saying documents attributed to him by the prosecution were not written by him.
And earlier this month, in a video released on Youtube, former Essex criminal Steve “Nipper” Ellis, said the wrong men had been jailed. He claimed his father Sid, who died four years ago, was the real killer.
Sid was the first person to be arrested by Essex Police after the deaths. He had been threatened by the gangsters and once had even shot Tate.
After a Parole Board hearing this month the panel saidwhomes was suitable for release subject to strict conditions, including reporting to a supervisor.
Its summary said: “The panel heard that Mr Whomes maintains that he did not commit the offences and as a result little or no work had been completed to address offending behaviour.
“Since being in an open prison, there had been no concerns reported about his behaviour, which the panel was told had been exemplary.”
Steele remains a category A prisoner. His last bid to be transferred to an open prison failed.