A congregation of murderers and assorted villains
The guest list at St Bartholomew read like a Who’s Who of violent crime in the Fifties and Sixties. Among them were...
THE MEAT CLEAVER MAN
DAVE Courtney, 54, claims to have been shot, stabbed and had his nose bitten off. He also says he’s had to kill to stay alive.
The underworld hardman, who was jailed in the Eighties for attacking five men with a meat cleaver, is said to have been a debt collector for the Kray twins. In this role, he cultivated a reputation for using the knuckleduster. He claims he was the model for Vinnie Jones’s character in the 1998 film Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. However, it’s been suggested that he’s embellished his past so his books sell better.
THE KILLER TURNED CHRISTIAN
CHRIS Lambrianou, 75, was involved in the attempt by the Krays to muscle in on Birmingham in the 1960s – but failed to wrest control of the city’s bars. He was handed 15 years in prison for his part in the 1967 murder of Jack ‘the Hat’ McVitie. Lambrianou later turned to religion and after his release he moved to Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, to live a quiet life.
BROWN BREAD FRED
FREDDIE Foreman – aka ‘Brown Bread Fred’ – was a key associate of the Krays. Now 80, he was linked to the 1960s killings of ‘Mad Axeman’ Frank Mitchell and Tommy ‘Ginger’ Marks. Foreman (right) has admitted he was asked by the Krays to kill Mitchell. He shot him in the back of a van and had his body dumped at sea.
Marks was killed for arranging the shooting of Foreman’s brother George. Foreman was jailed for ten years in 1975 as an accessory to the killing of McVitie and served six years from 1989 for his role in the 1983 £7million Security Express robbery.