Essex Boy

Essex Boy

Last Man Standing

Summary

Two films and numerous books have attempted to tell the shocking story of two of Britain's most ruthless gangs. For 20 years, the Essex Boys firm and their successors, the New Generation, controlled a lucrative drugs empire in Essex and throughout the south east of England by using intimidation, gratuitous violence and murder. Rampaging through the streets and clubland, they destroyed anything and anybody that dared to get in their way.

Eventually torn apart by greed and paranoia, the gang members became victims of their own vile trade and hate-filled actions. Pat Tate, Tony Tucker and Craig Rolfe were all blasted repeatedly with a shotgun as they sat in their Range Rover down a remote farm track. Dean Boshell was lured to allotments, then beaten and shot execution-style three times through the head. Others, such as Darren Nicholls and Damon Alvin, turned Super Grass and disappeared into the witness protection scheme never to be seen again, while three other men are in prison serving life sentences.

Steve `Nipper` Ellis is the last man standing, the only member to have survived the bloody reign of both gangs. In Essex Boy, he tells his shocking story for the first time, and reveals just how close he came to being both murderer and murder victim.

Reviews

  • [Ellis's] story is terrifying and gripping in equal measure. It's a miracle he's here to tell the tale
    News of the World

About the authors

Steven Ellis

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Bernard O'Mahoney

Bernard O'Mahoney served in the army for three years and saw a tour of duty in Northern Ireland (described in his book Soldier of the Queen). He then travelled extensively and worked in the building and security industries. Renouncing a criminal past, he wrote about his experiences of the dark side of the nightclub world in the bestselling Essex Boys: A Terrifying Expos of the British Drugs Scene and has written numerous true-crime titles.
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