Essex Boys: The Final Word - Softcover

Bernard O'Mahoney took control of security at a local nightclub before becoming an author. His books include Fog on the Tyne, Trouble in Mind, and Wannabe in My Gang?

As you get older, graveyards are places that you find yourself visiting more often. I am always engulfed by a mixture of emotions whilst walking around them. I don’t know why; I guess it’s because they can be very thought provoking places. Names on headstones the same or similar to people I love or have loved gives rise to feelings of sadness. The ages of deceased people much younger than I, fill me with a sense of gratitude. The realisation that the cemetery is everybody’s final destination instils fear, dread and reflection. My problem lately, is too many headstones carry reminders of people and places I would much rather forget. For two decades I have been haunted by the faces of several dead people as I relive the events that led to their demise. In December 1995 a gangland feud that I had been reluctantly immersed in had ended with the deaths of three men who were threatening to kill me. Events after the gun smoke had cleared left me in an equally precarious position. I knew who had carried out the killings but I agreed to help them to try and evade justice. The first casualty of any war is always the truth. That was certainly the case when those three men, who were leading members of the Essex Boys firm, were gunned down. From the moment their blood soaked bodies were discovered, the lies, rumours and innuendo began. Both their victims and enemies emerged from their hiding places and boasted to the media that they knew who was responsible for the triple slaying. A knowing wink and suspicious looking grin became mandatory. When pressed for details of the crime and the perpetrators names each and every one of those being interviewed employed the underworld myth that they could never divulge the truth because it is wrong to grass. I am not going to criticise those people for being dishonest as I have been too. However, if their only reason to lie was to boost their ego, which was the motive in almost every case, then they should be ashamed as they are little more than egotistical fools. I am guilty of being dishonest about the murders but I believe my reasons for doing so were both reasonable and honourable. After twenty long years I do not believe that I can continue to plead that my deception remains reasonable, honourable or justified. Lives have been lost during the past two decades; many others have been ruined because the few had hoped that the truth would remain untold to the masses. It is time, I believe, for the uncertainty and misery to end. I know exactly what happened on the night of Wednesday 6 December 1995. I know whose idea it was to murder the three men, why their executions were deemed necessary, who was present when they died and who fired each shot. My name is Bernard O’Mahoney and this finally, is the true story of the rise and demise of Britain’s most infamous gang, the Essex Boys firm.