Product Description

Drug dealers beware. The Devil is coming to get you. Gangster Stephen French invented the perfect crime: robbing drug barons of their huge fortunes. In SAS-style swoops, French raided their fortified mansions and tortured them with horrifying violence until they paid up. Through 'taxing' the richest and most powerful crimelords in the UK, he netted over 20 million. French was no ordinary criminal. He was a world-champion fighter, he studied psychology at university to master mind-control techniques, and he used the teachings of Machiavelli and samurai warriors to outwit his enemies. "The Devil" also reveals French's complex relationship with Curtis Warren, the wealthiest criminal in British history. The two were childhood pals, then partners and finally bitter enemies. Now a legitimate businessman, French built up a multimillion-pound empire. Having eventually turned his back on his former life, he is now seeking to set the record straight.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2785 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

About the Author
Graham Johnson is the author of the bestselling Powder Wars, Football and Gangsters and Druglord. He is a former investigations editor at the Sunday Mirror and during ten years on Fleet Street covered subjects including child slavery, people smuggling, drugs and the Balkan wars.

Customer Reviews

Great read about Liverpool as a city
Great read very honest and a all the more disturbing because its true. Having been in the Grafton many times I know how real the book is. I read liverpool stories as often as they are published, and this is as entertaining as any I have read recently. The topic is a disturbing one, but a sad endightment of the society we live in to day. The Frenchman is a scary character indeed, but if you live in that world then there are scary people around every corner. This book doesnt glorify anything, its just the way it is. The more real, the more terrifying it becomes. If you like fiction try Liveroppl author Conrad Jones, and his thrillers,Soft Target, Soft Target 2, and three. They are all set in Liverpool, mostly in the city centre and around Anfield, excellent reading by a local author. Fantastic reading!!!

Facinating and Easy To Read Book
Graham Johnson writes this book from the perpective of the man who the book is based on - Stephen French. Having met with Stephen and done hundreds of hours of interviews, the book totaly feels like its being written from the man himself. The author writes the story from Stephens perspective to give a closer feel for the reader. The book reveals many incidents of the life some peopler called "The Devil". The book has so many stories to tell of extrmely dangerous conflict situations between rival gangs, feuds with fellow crew members and the author does not hold back. The author says in the first few pages how he really wanted to get the reader a feeling of Stephens perspective. I really felt I got a very strong sense of the man from this book and read it in 2 days. This guy had many wild encounters for decades. Many people would surely be dead or incarcerated if they were in the same situations. Find out how he survived and how Stephen was able to make changes to his life by turning his back on crime. A facinating read and well written book. Recommend highly especily if you would like to read about real life dangerous encounters or crime. Things thankfully can change

betty boop
Can I just say I have never really been into "True Crimes" but ordered this book for my hubby as I had heard him mention it.
I have just finished reading it and what a FANTASTIC read it is. After just reading the Preface and Prologue I didn`t want to put this book down.
Its hard to believe that these things really happen as they normally only happen in films.