I placed the hit on the Essex Boys in notorious gangland shooting – they owed me cash & the wrong men were sent to jail | The Sun
IN a hotel room, a hooded anonymous figure makes a stunning admission to investigators over the 30-year-old Essex Boys murders.
The man confessed to the 1995 killings: “It was my job. I organised it."
The infamous case saw three drug dealers shot in the remote countryside near Rettendon, Essex in what looked like a professional hit.
Two Essex criminals Jack Whomes and Michael Steele were later jailed for the killings but a new three-part Sky documentary The Essex Murders questions whether cops had the right men.
Investigator and former Det Supt Dave McKelvey told The Sun: “I strongly believe there has been a miscarriage of justice.
“In the years that have passed, Whomes missed seeing his young children grow up while Steele is an old man who has become almost institutionalised.
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“Times have moved on so much from when they were first jailed that when I mention social media to Steele he has no idea what I’m talking about.”
Violent cocaine addict Craig Rolfe, 26, his bodybuilder ‘enforcer’ Pat Tate, 36, and drug crime boss Tony Tucker, 38, had half their faces blown away in the triple shooting.
The killings became known as the Essex Boy murders and even inspired a film starring Game of Thrones actor Sean Bean in 2000.
The three victims had controlled the supply of ecstasy in the Basildon nightclub Raquels where tragic Leah Betts had fallen ill – sparking a national crackdown on drug dealers.
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The teen was left in a coma after taking an ecstasy pill at her 18th birthday party and died 15 days later in hospital.
Pictures of her lying on a life support machine shocked the nation and sparked outrage over the out-of-control drugs scene in British clubs.
Five months after the Essex Boys were killed in cold-blood, police caught ex-BT engineer Darren Nicholls with 10kg of cannabis in his van.
Cops discovered he had worked with the dead men and when they accused him of being part of the murder, he pointed the finger at car mechanic Whomes and his pal Steele.
Nicholls said Steele, now 78, lured the trio to the lonely path as on the promise of a drugs deal before Whomes, 61, leapt out of bushes and the pair opened fire.
Nicholls said that following the murders Steele told him: “They won’t f*** with us again.”
The pair were jailed for life in January 1998 and Nicholls was later given a whole new identity and placed in a safe house. Whomes was released on parole two years ago.
But now investigators probing the case on TV say Essex Police dismissed the taped evidence which tells a very different story.
The lead initially comes from a police informant known as 'Witness A' who claims he drove a hitman to the scene of the crime, as revealed by The Sun.
The informant watched as hired killer blasted three men to death with a pump-action shotgun.
The tapes – heard for the first time in public – outline a sinister plot to take out violent cocaine addict Craig Rolfe, 26, his bodybuilder ‘enforcer’ Pat Tate, 36, and Tucker, a close pal of champion boxer Nigel Benn.
The witness claims he was at a meeting of organised crime bosses who wanted to take out the trio, who were ripping off other drug dealers and stole cash they were entrusted to look after following a £495,000 robbery.
He is heard saying: “We’re talking here about people who will shoot someone and think nothing of it.”
The witness says he was paid to drop off the hit man at a farm gate on the lane where the dead men were found.
He says: “He had a sports bag with him. In the bag was a pump action shotgun.”
Essex police are convinced the right men were jailed but McKelvey and Patrick spoke to a shadowy underworld figure who appeared to corroborate witness A’s story.
In a hotel room meeting, the anonymous figure said: “There was an armed robbery. The robbery is the key to it all really.
"It was a van full of cash, £495,000 got stolen.
Fresh confession
“The whole thing was a balls up, if you like, because shortly after some of the robbers went splashing the money. It wasn’t long before everyone knew what happened.
“We got arrested and while we were in jail some of the money was given to Tony Tucker. It was given to him for safe-keeping.
“When we got out we asked for the money back but it wasn’t forthcoming and excuses were made, it’s tied up, this sort of thing, he couldn’t get it. Just b******t excuses really.
“By then he was drugged up, steroid upped, running around doing all sorts of business and in the end we knew it (the money) just wasn't coming back.
“He thought he was bigger than anyone. He thought there was nothing anyone could do. But he was wrong.
“A meeting was held and the problem solved.”
The fixer goes on to admit he paid the money to have them shot, adding: “I wasn’t bothered about the money, the money was irrelevant. It was the principal. Tucker was the target, the other two were collateral damage.”
He said he’d never been told who pulled the trigger and only “knew it was done when I read about it.”
Detective superintendent Ivan Dibley, head of the Essex boys investigation, is utterly convinced cops made sure the right men were jailed.
He said he did not specifically recall ‘Witness A’ claims about the hitman but added: “It’s not unusual for a member of the public to come forward and sometimes say they are the killer, or as in this case, they were linked.
“Various people have various reasons for doing that, sometimes to muddy the waters of the inquiry, or whatever, and they are looked at seriously.
“Sometimes you can eliminate them as people who are looking for publicity, if you like, and this person may have been one of those.”
But an ex-Met cop, Roly Baker, tells Sky he used witness A as a reliable informant in the 90s.
He said: “It was quite clear to me from an early stage he had a good knowledge of east London criminals at the time.
“I was able to verify much of the intelligence (given).
“I would have anticipated that there would be a whole raft of actions emanating from what witness A said. It’s an avenue of inquiry you just can’t ignore.”
To complicate the story further, an Essex boys associate called Steve ‘Nipper’ Ellis says his late dad killed the trio after they threatened the family.
Nipper, 57, says his dad admitted the slayings after the gang threatened to sever Nipper’s little sister’s fingers.
He claims Rolf, Tucker and Tate had threatened to harm him after he made a remark about Tucker’s girlfriend.
Essex Police stand by the convictions.
A spokesman said: “There has been an exhaustive police investigation into the murders of Pat Tate, Tony Tucker and Craig Rolfe in Rettendon on 6 December 1995, which resulted in the conviction of Michael Steele and Jack Whomes for their murder.
“Since then, this case has been back before the Court of Appeal twice, in 1999 and 2006. These appeals have included focus upon key evidential aspects of the case.
"Both appeals were rejected and in 2006 Lord Justice Kay commented that there was no “element of unsafety” relating to the original convictions of both defendants.
“This case has also been reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission who, as recently as January 2023, took the decision not to refer this case back to the Court of Appeal.
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“We welcome this decision as this case has been exhaustively examined over the last 27-years and there is no fresh evidence identified which would call the original verdicts into question.”
The Essex Murders starts on Sky on Saturday 15th April at 9:25pm.
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