Jimmy Moody

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James "Big Jim" Moody

James Alfred 'Jimmy' Moody (- March 1993) was a British gangster and hitman whose career spanned more than four decades and included run-ins with Jack Spot, Billy Hill, "Mad" Frankie Fraser, the Krays, the Richardsons and the IRA.

Moody was the number one enforcer for the Richardsons, did freelance "work" for the Krays and became one of the most feared criminals to emerge from the London underworld - all before he reached the age of 30. In the 1970s, Moody joined a team of criminals to form the Chainsaw Gang, who went on to become that decade's most successful armed robbers.

Moody was convicted of manslaughter in 1967 for the killing of a young merchant navy steward. He was released in 1972, however he was sent in 1979 on remand to Brixton Prison to await trial for armed robbery.^[1] His cellmate was Provisional IRA member Gerard Tuite. In 1980 the two men escaped and went on the run - Moody was never recaptured. While in hiding, Tuite indoctrinated Moody with stories of brutality and torture inflicted on the Irish by the British and convinced him to join the IRA. Soon, his murderous skills were being put to use as he became the Provos' secret deadly assassin - a man who struck so much fear into Northern Ireland's security services that the Thatcher government put a three-man SAS hit squad on his tail in the mid 1980s.

By the late 1980s, Moody realised he was in danger of overstaying his welcome in Ireland and, inevitably, the lure of the East End persuaded the new-found Irish "hero" to return home. He believed his reputation as a hired killer would keep him one step ahead of trouble - and the law. But the London he 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, 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 Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British security services. Moody was shot dead in March 1993 in the Royal Hotel in Hackney East London by an unknown assassin.