Is ‘Goldfinger’ killing linked to the Hatton Garden heist?
DETECTIVES investigating the murder of gangland figure John “Goldfinger” Palmer are probing whether his death could be connected with the £10 million Hatton Garden safe deposit heist.
The body of the 64-year-old, whose nickname came from an alleged link with the 1983 Brink’s-MAT bullion robbery, was found last week in the garden of his Essex mansion.
His death was initially thought to be not suspicious, but six days later police launched a murder investigation when a routine post mortem examination discovered the cause of death had been a gunshot wound to the chest.
Police sources said the murder bore all the hallmarks of a professional hit and detectives are now liaising with the Flying Squad to see if Palmer may have played a role in the dramatic raid on a Hatton Garden safe deposit vault over the Easter weekend.
A spokesman for the Essex force said: “We are liaising with other police forces and agencies who may have information pertinent to our inquiry.”
Essex Police has referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission following the failure to spot that he had been murdered. Officers who attended the scene were said to have been wrong-footed by post-operative injuries from recent surgery.
Palmer’s brother Malcolm, 68, said it was “too soon” to say if the family might take legal action against the police or paramedics because they still had few facts about what happened. He said it would be up to Palmer’s partner Christine Ketley and son James. Police were called to Palmer’s home by paramedics at 6.40pm on June 24. After attempting to restart his heart at the scene, he was declared dead and as it was considered to be non-suspicious, his body was moved to a mortuary for a low-priority post mortem.
Mr Palmer said: “It’s just ridiculous. I can’t understand how two paramedics were down there, and the police, and didn’t find anything. They have cocked up somewhere terrible. Meanwhile all the evidence is disappearing [because of the delay].” Essex Police said the police and paramedics had decided the death was “non-suspicious due to preexisting injuries due to recent surgery”, raising the possibility that they thought any blood on the body came from trauma to his post-operative wounds.
Mr Palmer said: “People have said he’d had heart surgery but the only thing he told me about was that he was having gall bladder surgery. Surely he would have told me if he was having heart surgery? And if he’d had a heart operation, he wouldn’t be up and about one week later. It seems very strange.”
Police said that because they did not initially suspect foul play, they did not order an urgent post-mortem, causing the six-day delay before a pathologist spotted the bullet wounds while preparing to carry out the autopsy.
One former detective said it was possible the killer knew Palmer had recently had surgery and used the operation injuries to disguise the bullet wound. He added: “By using a small- calibre weapon and avoiding causing an exit wound it is perfectly understandable to see how this was missed.”
Palmer – jailed in 2001 for swindling 20,000 people in Britain’s biggest timeshare fraud – was facing trial in Spain over another alleged timeshare con.
His brother said: “I’m baffled as to who has done this. It was the first time in years he had settled down, he was so happy and this has happened out of the blue. He has probably upset a lot of people but it just doesn’t add up to me.”