Product Description

Moody is the gripping biography of a criminal whose career spanned more than four decades and included encounters with Jack Spot, Billy Hill, Mad Frankie Fraser, the Krays, the Richardsons and the IRA. Jimmy Moody became the number-one enforcer for the Richardsons and tasted his first 'kill' - all before he'd reached 30 years of age. In the 1970s, he joined a team of criminals to form the Chainsaw Gang, who went on to become that decade's most successful armed robbers. In 1980, Moody was in Brixton Prison awaiting trial for his pivotal role with the gang, when his life took its next dramatic twist. One of his fellow inmates was Provisional IRA hero Gerard Tuite and the two men joined forces with a third inmate to pull off a dramatic jailbreak. Moody was never recaptured. While on the run, he became intrigued by Tuite's stories of brutality and torture inflicted on the Irish by the British. Soon, Moody's murderous skills were being put to use in Northern Ireland. His secretive freelance hits on behalf of the Provos struck so much fear into the province's security services that the Thatcher government put a three-man SAS hit squad on his tail. Moody's victims were chillingly referred to as having been awarded an O.B.E. (One Behind the Ear). But while security forces in Northern Ireland searched for Moody, he'd actually set himself up in a flat in South London with a new identity. Moody believed his reputation as a hired killer would keep him one step ahead of trouble - and the law. But the London he'd returned to was a very different place. Huge drug deals - mainly involving Ecstasy and cocaine - rather than armed robbery were financing many criminals' lavish lifestyles. The stakes were higher and so were the profits. By the early 1990s, Jimmy Moody's list of enemies read like a who's who of criminals from both sides of the water. Then there were the police, the RUC and the British security services, making it only a matter of time until he was awarded his own O.B.E. Enhanced by exclusive contributions from Moody's family and the IRA's Gerard Tuite, this sensational story expertly documents each chapter of Moody's violent, crime-filled life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40957 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

About the Author
Wensley Clarkson is a journalist and the author of many other crimebooks, including Public Enemy No. 1, Doctors of Death, Whatever Mother Says, Hit 'em Hard, Killer On The Road and, most recently, Killing Charlie, which details the bloody hunt for Charlie Wilson, the infamous Great Train Robber.

Customer Reviews

Interesting but inevitably sketchy in places
Jimmy Moody was an aristrocrat of London crime from the sixties until his murder in the nineties.

He was part of the Richardson torture gang, took part in a famous shoot-out with the Kray firm, joined a Wages snatch gang which netted hundreds of thousands, escaped from Brixton prison with a dangerous IRA terrorist, oh, and was widely reputed to be the most profilic underworld hitman there has ever been in this country.

Wensley Clarkson's book traces Moody's varied career with the notable help of the man's son, brother and IRA friend Gerard Tuite. Some parts of the book read with great authenticity - notably his earlier criminal career - but the 'hits', which are used as the book's main selling point - are vague. Clarkson lists a number of killings that Moody's name has been linked with, but he also points out that Moody's name tended to get linked with everything.

After his spectacular break-out from Brixton prison when he was serving a long sentence for armed robbery, Moody was never recaptured. He ended up living a fairly miserable existence in a couple of tiny flats in south and east London. One wonders why. He seemed to have connections and opportunities to make real cash, but instead went round on his bike and drank in a local. He hated leaving the country (and dogs and smoking) and was almost a cliche of a gangster who loved his Mum and his kids.

Strangely I found Jimmy Moody quite a small character - violent, savage even (at least two men in their early twenties met their death at his hands) - but almost banal in his lifestyle and attitudes. None of the flamboyance of, say, Kenneth Noye, another Clarkson biography subject.

It's a short book, quickly read, and offers an insight into how miserable being a gangster can be, trapped in a world of suspicion and 'codes' that only make sense to the small milieu that men like Moody live in.

Don't expect breathtaking character or action; this is a study in how mundane murder can be.

(Also don't buy Wensley Clarkson's 'Hitman' novel, that tends to get put in True crime rather than fiction sections, while looking for this, like I did. That work shows that Clarkson is no fiction writer. Seriously bad.)

nothing wrong with the book....
but as mr clarkson has obviously been in close co-operation with the family he continuously tries to paint a human face to a beast

in the end what goes around came around...

Such a fantastic read I did not expect
I have read many true crime stories and had honestly not known much about Jimmy Moody before reading this book, but from the moment I picked this book up I could not put it down.
Wensley Clarkson is a brilliant author and he has bought this amazing character to life again. I felt the difficulties the family must of experienced with their loved one on the run,they had obviously contributed a large amount to the book.
A very interesting story, which makes you think very much about the family and people behind the crime,I am sure Mr Moody was a gentleman and caring family man. I only wish he could of contributed to his story. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a rollercoaster ride of emotions.