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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| Wiley wrote: | | I always watch material on the Essex Murders. I tried to solve it myself. Of course I failed, mainly becauuse I could not eliminate the 672 susprects I had accrued, all of who wanted Tony Tucker (38), Pat Tate (37), and Craig Rolfe (26) dead. |
I dabble a bit myself but I prefer The White House Farm Murders where the man languishing in gaol (I presume still, since he won't confess and hence the Parole Board won't let him out) is at least not a career criminal.
| Still there is something comforting about TV or films featuring giant (they all did steroids) diamond (hmm) old geezers recount their lives. Most graduated from gyms, to doormen, to selling drugs, to lives of violent crime in Essex, spells inside, and stints abroad, living along the Costa Del Crime. |
I can never tell how far into our nostalgic past any of this is.
| Of course these tales are in part post facto fiction, these guys, survived, by lying to the police, to other hoodlums, their enforcers, wives, families, girl friends and so on. Or to put it another way if they were not good at lying they could easily have ended up dead like Tucker, Tate and Rolfe, and they would not be now on a nice little earner recounting their earlier misdeeds, telling us what it was really like. Its just the stories have a few pork pies. |
Yes, Essex policemen are pretty awful, aren't they? I'd never ask them the time.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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| The Rettendon murders (also known as the Range Rover murders or the Essex Boys murders) occurred on 6 December 1995 in the village of Rettendon in Essex, England, when three drug dealers were shot dead inside a Range Rover on a farm track. The murders were the subject of a major police investigation and various special operations, including Operation Century. The murders have also been the subject of books and feature films |
Most folks around in 1995 can remember these murders, it was a bit shocking, you didnt normally get news images of a desolate lane, sprinkled in December snow, a Range Rover, and a taped off crime scene, as three geezers have been shot.
What was going on in Essex? we asked ourselves.
In November that year Leah Betts had died, of a drug incident, she had consumed too much water and ectasy, leading to a brain swelling. Leah was the daughter of a nurse and a police officer. Essex police were launching a determined, but not succesful operation, to get the person who they believed had supplied the "dodgy tab" , that had led to her death.
This had also shocked the nation, you now had, to consume your conflakes, with a helping of the dangers of young innocent girls, rave culture, clubs, dodgy ectasy, and a a triple murder. This is not our England.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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November 95. Death of Leah Bets
December 95. Death of Tony Tucker, Pat Tate and Craig Rolfe.
| A police investigation codenamed Operation Century produced no arrests or evidence leading to a criminal prosecution. A prosecution that was eventually brought in connection with the murders was based on police operations subsequent to the closure of Operation Century. |
We have gun laws.
Shootings are rare in UK.
Murders are rare in UK.
Triple murders are very rare.
Most murders are solved in the UK as we prioritise these.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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My theory, for what it's worth, is that it was fairly low level and local. One of them needed 'taking out' for some reason and the other two were collateral damage.
As for why the police investigation got nowhere, we are in 'Daniel Morgan/ Sydenham pub axe-murder' territory. The local CID were up to their elbows in the local 'organised crime/ drug supply scene and made sure the pitch was thoroughly queered as soon as they arrived.
If the crime books are cooked at an early stage, and everyone's part has been thoroughly rehearsed, it is virtually impossible for an outside force--even a county outside force--to get to the bottom of things.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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It's even reached Netflix's ears
Coming August 10
Murder of the Essex Boys: Blood & Betrayal
December, 1995. The murder of three gang members in Rettendon, U.K., sparks widespread speculation and a major investigation, as told in this documentary. More Info... | |
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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6 monthes on Operation century was not making progress, but in May 1996, Darren Nicholls is arrested on drug charges' and in a bid to get off, offers to tell the Police who did the Essex Boys murders.
The Police agree. Darren Nicholls turns supergrass.
Nicholls fingers Michael Steele and Jack Whomes. They have always pleaded innocence, even though this meant that they were banged up, instead of receiving early release. Three appeals have now failed against their conviction. 2006,2013, 2016.......although both are now out.
Nicholls remains hidden, though he has managed to get over his side of the story in a book Bloggs 19: the story of the Essex Ranger Rover triple murders written by Tony Thompson.....
How did Nicholls know about the murders?
He was the driver, for the two killers. So he says.
Did he know the killers intention?
Nicholls says he suspected, but could not beleive that they would go through with it.
Thompson summarises all this in a Guardian piece helping to sell the book.
| Seconds later, Whomes called Nicholls on his mobile and asked him to pick the pair up. It was only when they climbed into the back of his car, spattered in blood, he realised what had happened. |
| 'I think I knew all along that they were going to do it. Six weeks before the murder, Steele had asked me to get him a gun. He said Jack had a couple but they didn't want to use them. I asked a few people but didn't come up with anything. Then, as soon as it happened, I said to myself: "You stupid bastard, that was really fucking obvious." I know if I hadn't turned up that evening, it would probably not have happened. I suppose I just didn't want to believe they were capable of that.' |
Ballistics and evidence from the murders established that a single pump-action shotgun was used to kill Pat Tate, Tony Tucker, and Craig Rolfe.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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This is similar to my version of the Croydon Playboy murder (which took place around the same time).
If the the local CID are claiming they can't solve a crime that is rocking the country because they know who did it but have to protect the killers because of their own links with them, the investigation will quickly be taken out of their hands. First at the county level then, if that fails, Scotland Yard will be called in.
This is perilous for the local CID since, even if these supercops can't solve the murders, they are pretty sure to uncover the unsavoury links between the CID and the local crime lords. So a patsy is charged. He will always be a career criminal because then there won't be do-gooders campaigning for his freedom.
But some crimes just won't lie down.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Lets take a look. According to Thompson in the Guardian
| The victims, Patrick Tate, 37, Tony Tucker, 38, and Craig Rolfe, 26, were found in a Range Rover in a country lane in the village of Rettendon, Essex, in December 1995. Each had been shot in the head with a shotgun at point-blank range, leaving their faces so badly pulped they could be identified only by their fingerprints. All three were well-known Essex 'faces': Tucker ran security for pubs and clubs, including Raquels, where the Ecstasy tablet that killed Leah Betts had been obtained a month before the murder. Tate had been released from prison six weeks before he was killed, having narrowly survived an assassination attempt the previous year. Rolfe, a small-time drug dealer and thug, featured regularly on local police intelligence reports. |
Leah Betts (daughter aof a police officer) had died the previous month, Tucker and Company must have been persons of interest, to the police, they surely must have known that.
| The trio had fallen out with Michael Steele, a sophisticated Essex drug smuggler, whom they had paid £70,000 for a consignment of cannabis. When the drugs arrived, the quality was so bad they could not even be given away. A furious Tate boasted he would kill the smuggler in revenge, but Steele, who had developed a close friendship with Tate's ex-girlfriend, heard of the threats and decided attack was the best form of defence. |
Tate has fallen out with Steele.
| On the pretence of making amends, Steele offered Tate a share in a massive cocaine deal. Tate, along with Tucker and Rolfe, were invited to look at the farmer's field where the drug plane would land. As Rolfe's Range Rover reached a locked gate at the bottom of Workhouse Lane, Steele jumped out to open it and at the same instant Jack Whomes, Steele's right-hand man, leant in with a pump-action shotgun and began blasting. |
So they drive out, already 70K down, on a snowy December evening, to a remote lane, expected to meet up with a helicopter, in a farmers field, to hopefully collect some more drugs. This is on the basis that they think that Steele has now kissed and a made up with Tate.
They were so confident nothing could wrong, they had a restaurant booked that evening with wives and girlfiends for 8.00 PM.......
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| Tate, along with Tucker and Rolfe, were invited to look at the farmer's field where the drug plane would land. |
So the farmer was involved in drug-smuggling? I've never heard that before. Can you dig up anything about him? This is on AE grounds:
* You can be part of one word record (biggest purported cocaine import into Essex, 1995)
* You can be part of another world record (biggest multiple murder in Essex, 1995)
* You can't be part of two world records unless in reality it's all part of one world record.
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