Paying the price of knife crime 50 years on by Wensley Clarkson

Crime writer Wensley Clarkson compares the current wave of knife crime with a similar spate of violence in London more than 50 years ago. Interviewing ex-gangster Gordon McShane, Clarkson finds that although children today have similar reasons for joining gangs, young knife carriers in our current society don't know where to draw the line when it comes to violence.

The nation's terrifying knife crime fatalities continues to dominate the headlines. Yet more than 50 years ago, a virtually identical outbreak of violence struck the capital.

Gangs of street criminals first began using the knife as a “tool of their trade” in the mid-1950s. A new book published this year details the attacks, which are chillingly similar to today's tide of blood.

Billy Hill – London's Godfather back in those bad old days - virtually single handedly brought knives onto the streets of London.

Many of the stabbings that have taken place this year in London have centred around the capital's so-called “Gang Culture”. Youngsters are often being pressurised by their peers to use knives to prove they are tough enough to be in a gang.

But 1950s villain, Hill – who later encouraged The Krays to take over the capital's underworld – got his gang members to use knives to maim, kill and terrify opponents and members of the public in a very similar way. These attacks soon spiralled out of control and sparked bigger and bigger knifing incidents, which uncannily mirror today's street violence.

On many occasions, Billy Hill personally “sliced up” criminal opponents for not paying back debts and encouraged his gang to attack people with knives. And just like today's thugs, Hill and his team used knife attacks as part of their initiation process as well as a deadly weapon of fear.

Wherever Billy Hill went, trouble soon followed. One night Hill, in his early 40s, was in a pub on his “manor” of Camden Town, in north London, when a huge fight broke out. “Glasses, broken bottles, chairs, pieces of furniture, razors and knives were flying about like paper in the wind,” Hill himself later admitted. Hill then used a knife to cut the length of a man's face and even accidently stabbed one of his own gang members in the confusion that followed.

On 2 May, 1956, Hill ordered his gang of hoods – who included the legendary Mad Frankie Fraser - to attack Hill's number one criminal rival, ‘Spot'. Fraser later confessed to using a knife to repeatedly stab Spot as he laid into him outside his flat off the Edgware Road. Then another member of Hill's gang attacked Spot with a butcher's chopper. Spot said later he was lucky to get away with his life after the attack.

Fraser later said that he didn't even expect to be paid for the attack on Spot because he believed – just like today's young gangsters – that stabbing such a high profile target would earn him an unrivalled, almost priceless, reputation on the streets of London.

Fraser and other members of Hill's gang were sentenced to seven years each for their part in the attack.

But unlike today, London's criminals back in the 1950s rarely used knives in fatal attacks. “There was an unwritten rule back then that you marked your opponent but you didn't want him to die,” explained old time London gangster Gordon McShane. “We was even told to slice up the arm rather than across it just in case we nipped an artery and our opponent then might end up bleeding to death.”

McShane believes that the one big difference between today's knifing epidemic and the attacks of 50 years ago is what makes the current tide of blood so dangerous. “These kids are arming themselves with knives for protection as well as intimidation, but they just don't seem to know how lethal blades can be when they get into the wrong hands.”

McShane warned: “A lot more kids are going to get killed on the streets of our cities unless we do something as a society to stop these youngsters feeling they need to belong to a gang. It was the same to a certain degree back in my day. We all felt a bit cut off from ‘normal' society so it made sense to join a gang, which then become almost more important to us than our families. But we need as a society to address the problems facing these kids before they are even old enough to join the gangs in the first place.”

McShane added: “Back in my day we had certain rules but kids these days don't seem to know where to draw the line. A lot more blood is going to be spilt yet I am afraid.”

Author note

Wensley Clarkson has written more than 50 non-fiction books, two novels, screenplays and TV documentaries. Some of his true crime classics about the world's most notorious criminals have sold more than a million copies. His latest book, 'Billy Hill - Godfather of London', covers the life story of Britain's first-ever underworld boss.

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