Villains' Paradise: Britain's Underworld from the Spivs to the Krays

by Donald Thomas (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2005

  $4.38

  With the war over, the forties and the fifties in Britain have the aura of a golden age. But nostalgia is deceptive: to contemporaries, the battlefront seemed only to have moved closer to home, as anxiety about armed robberies and psychopaths spread. Teenage Teddy Boy razor gangs proliferated and youths casually stabbed each other at dance halls. Newspapers revelled in headlines about the slashing of Jack Spot; Ronnie Biggs and his accomplices prototyped the gang of the future with the famous Great Train Robbery of 1963. Britain had lost the Ashes, exports had nose-dived and all of its secrets had probably been given to the Russians, but when it came to safe-blowing, it led the world.With the narrative sweep and eye for telling detail that was a hallmark of his previous 'underworld' accounts, Donald Thomas chronicles a history we might rather forget, through compelling stories we can't live without.

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $4.25

  With the war over, the forties, fifties and sixties have the aura of a golden age. But nostalgia is deceptive. From teenage Teddy Boy razor gangs and casual stabbings at dance halls to the psychopathic Krays, Mad Frankie Fraser and Ronnie Biggs, Villain's Paradise reveals the chilling true story of the crimes of post-war Britain. With the narrative pace of the best detective fiction, Donald Thomas explores the most compelling cases of the era from the GBP2.5 million Great Train Robbery of 1963 to the Brighton police corruption scandal. The villains include gangland boss Jack Spot, Acid Bath Murderer Haigh (who liked to drink his victims' blood), sexual predator Neville Heath and the Messina brothers, who controlled international prostitution in London.