Gang Wars of the North - The Inside Story of the Deadly Battle Between Viv Graham and Lee Duffy. Stephen Richards
and have one held up to his ear and it wasn’t even switched on! I gave our Lee a mobile phone. The bill in the first month was £1,100. I said, “Give me it here.” They thought it was a trend, the pair of them.
‘There were never enough hours in the day for him, cars here and there, going all over. They went to the Hacienda club [in Manchester] and knocked the doors open.
‘They were all running around looking for him in Manchester. He was hid in the boot of a car. He goes up to the doormen. BOOM! BOOM! He knocked them out. Lee wasn’t bothered about doormen; it was like going for the title, you go through the ranks. BANG! BANG! BANG! Just knocking them out!
‘Lee was a good conversationalist but, if he were going to be involved in a fight, then he wouldn’t talk his way out of it, no, no! There’s a story about Lee holding a gun to a taxi driver’s head in a game of Russian roulette. He never held it up to the man’s head; it was a lie, whoever said it. He just shot a hole in the roof of the taxi before he got out and the man said, “What have you done to my taxi?”
‘Lee could drive, but he was lethal! Straight through traffic lights! We lost count of the amount of wing mirrors he broke. He once asked, “Can I have a drive of your Rolls-Royce?”
‘I said, “No, you cannot! Sit in the back.”
‘He should have had one of those little DAF cars where you put the stick forward to go forward and back to go back.
‘Lee went to Tenerife with our Lee and they also went to Ibiza. Lee Duffy was like a volcano. He needed a rest.
‘When Lee was with Lisa, he was a different Lee Duffy altogether, sitting having a beer, watching telly and having a laugh and then he’d say, “Right, I’m off to bed now.”
‘When Lee was in company, though, he could take four or five on and, when you’re young, you’re buzzing.
‘I was in Johannesburg and was having a meet with a princess from Kuala Lumpur and there’s a big bodyguard about six foot five, Greco wrestling champ, the lot, and even he asked me if I knew Lee Duffy!’
At one time respect played a big part in the underworld. In the days before smack and crack hit the streets there was an unwritten code of conduct. This ethos of respect has almost died out, but it still lingers on among the last members of the old school.
In order to understand Viv Graham’s development as a hard man, we need to mention another old-school underworld character, Ernie Bewick from Sunderland, because Ernie was a role model for Viv. Ernie has been called one of the hardest men in the north, but if you were to meet him you would find him one of the most forgiving men you could ever come across.
Ernie Bewick, not a man to underestimate, was fully aware that he could make all the difference between Sunderland being flooded with drugs and staying relatively free of them. So long as he was in charge of the doors of certain pubs and clubs, he would keep drugs out.
Although Ernie and Viv had a lot in common, I would give Ernie the slight edge over Viv in his handling of trouble and his ability to sense danger.
Ernie gives his account of the two fights he had with another northern hard man, Billy Robinson from Gateshead:
‘That night I was called to the door [of the Blue Monkey – rumour has it that Ernie started working there because of trouble with a well-known drug dealer selling drugs and because someone had been murdered outside the club]. I was told that Billy Robinson was at the door and he wanted to come in.
‘On that particular evening, it was the type where everybody had to pay when they came in, so I went up, and I really didn’t know Billy at the time, and I explained that everybody had to pay to get in. His henchman standing beside him said, “Do you know who you’re talking to?”
‘I said, “I’m sorry, you know, but you’ve got to pay to get in.”
‘If anybody had asked me the same thing, I’d have said, “Fair enough.” So then I was being called a “little shit” type of thing and there was other abuse like that thrown at me, so I said, “Look, you can’t come in.”
‘Billy said, “Right, you little thing, get round the corner, you little shit.”
‘I said, “Well, fair enough.”
‘So then Billy slapped me across the face and I went forward to go into him. He tried to punch me, I ducked over the punch and gave him a right cross and an uppercut and knocked him out.
‘Billy’s friends were there, his big henchmen suddenly seemed to deflate, and I said, “Right, get him up and fuck off and don’t ever come back here any more!”
‘Months later I heard rumours that I was going to be set up and different things. One day Keith Bell [who changed his name to Keith Collins] came knocking on my door, trying to go on as if he was a friend and he says, “Look, Billy wants to have a go at you and he wants to see you as soon as possible for a one-to-one.”
‘I said, “Fair enough, I’ll come now.”
‘He replied, “Well, can you not make it later on tonight? You know where I live, you’ve been to mine before. Can you come through [to Newcastle]?”
‘We went through and for a couple of hours they were talking, so I got something to eat at Keith’s.
‘Later on the fight was arranged at a gym in Jesmond, Newcastle, which was owned by [former Mr Great Britain body-builder] Andy Webb. Andy was a gentleman, Viv was a gentleman, they were all nice and friendly. I went through to the gym by myself.
[Staggering to think that Ernie was fearless in turning up to such a venue on his own, but he did.]
‘I never brought anyone with me. I walked into their camp on my own; there were a good few of them there. Viv got on the phone to tell Billy I had arrived. I was kept waiting a further hour and half to two hours before Billy came.
‘I remember feeling cold [owing to the lengthy wait] and Andy Webb was very good towards me; he gave me a cup of tea to warm me because by the time Billy had arrived they’d been talking for about 20 minutes around the corner. I more or less explained to Viv that, if I could sort it out over a cup of tea without any trouble, then that’s the way I preferred it. [Again, staggering to think that Ernie was as a calm as a cucumber wanting to talk things out over a cup of tea. Obviously the others there might have seen this as a sign of weakness. Ernie is just that sort of person. Not for one minute, though, should he have been underestimated – it was not without good reason that his fists were called the ‘peacemakers’.]
‘I didn’t want any trouble, but at the same time I went through because, if that was the only way to solve it, then fair enough, and Billy obviously wanted the fight on.
‘I went through to where they had the fight arranged. It was a small compartment and there was a little bank that went up. I realised then that this was suited more for Billy’s needs than mine. With me being a lot lighter, he could get me into the corner or, if I ran up the bank, I would slip or fall over, which I did at one point when I was fighting, but I got out of that anyhow.
‘Billy came up to me, and he was a gentleman when he approached me. The first thing he said to me was, “Ernie, I want to shake your hand now, before we have this fight and afterwards I’m going to shake your hand as well.” I shook his hand and then we got on with the fight.
‘Billy sort of stood in a boxer’s stance. I didn’t underestimate him because he’s got such a powerful punch, and later on, as we became friends, we had a bit of trouble with someone and his powerful punch proved to be awesome!
‘My strategy