Roy Shaw Unleashed - He's a one man killing machine. This is his story by those who know him best. Roy Shaw
he is a bringer of fear and death. Consequence and regret are words that mean nothing to him.
But let’s take another look at Roy Shaw now. There’s a mansion in millionaire’s row, a shiny red Bentley parked up in the drive and enough money in the bank to enable him to buy anything he wants.
Has he left his past behind? How come he’s made it – swapped clanging cell doors and cold bare walls for winters in the sun, top-marque motors, expensive real estate, fine wines and beautiful women.
He’s a wealthy businessman, a connoisseur, a property entrepreneur.
After ten years inside the toughest prisons in the country, Roy has reinvented himself, changed from hardened con into the man with the Midas touch. A change of life so dramatic that it brings more questions than answers.
How could a man so violent, so ingrained in crime become this geezer parking his Bentley outside a posh restaurant and dining out with Miss Supermodel draped all over his arm like a cashmere overcoat?
Rich, civilised, successful? How come?
Roy started out as one of the most promising professional boxers of his day, an iron-fisted opponent who slugged it out to win fight after fight. They couldn’t put him down. The glittering prizes of a fabulous boxing career were on the horizon – he was set for the big time … except for one or two little problems. Roy can sort out most things but he couldn’t change his past. Roy had been living in a hard knocks world where crime was the name of the game and villainy was a way of life. Boxing was the escape ticket, and Roy was becoming well known, well paid and seriously ambitious … until his little bouts of naughtiness caught up with him, and his periods of board and lodging in Wormwood Scrubs and a few others of Her Majesty’s prisons came to the knowledge of the British Boxing Board of Control.
Fate can be a ruthless bastard, too, and suddenly intervened and kicked him back to where he’d come from – Roy was devastated when he was refused a licence to box, when his brilliant career bounced off the ropes – eight, nine, ten … you can’t box again … you’re out … it was a knockout blow even he couldn’t get up from.
It took a long time to get over this devastating decision.
A tiny kernel of pain is still there. What if …?
Roy might have been down but he wasn’t out and if he couldn’t fight within the rules, he’d fight outside them – like a volcano about to spew molten lava – all the pent-up aggression had to go somewhere and the brutal unlicensed fight game became his new explosive territory. Roy became one of the most feared fist-fighters ever. His raw punch-ups culminated in the famous match between him and Lenny McLean – a fight that is still talked about today as one of the bloodiest ever. No one could go the distance with Lenny, who was a giant of a man and as tough as they come. Roy did. No one could put Lenny down. Roy did. Lenny couldn’t be beaten. But Roy beat him and smashed him to a pulp until the ring was slippery with blood – and Roy was the undisputed British Unlicensed Boxing Champion. No matter what their reputation – the reality is that he chews them up and spits them out.
How does he do it? Is it the look – the way he stares you down? Those piercing and unblinking shark-blue eyes never flinch. Is it an attitude of mind? Does anyone know what Roy Shaw is really about? Does anyone understand him? How can you tell what he’s thinking?
The simple answer is – you can’t. The mask never slips, he’s weighing you up and counting the odds – it’s not until his face cracks into a smile that you can relax with a sigh of relief.
Almost everyone I spoke to about Roy said the same – if you get on the wrong side of him you can expect trouble. Watch you don’t ever cross him. Why? Because everyone who has done
…
I knew that, all through his life of crime, Roy has been respected by every top gangster in the country – the twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray, Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie, Frank ‘Mad Axe’ Mitchell and Harry Roberts, the cop killer. The list is endless. Roy is completely without fear and, in the dark, shadowy underworld, Roy is a legend. His ability to take punishment and come back is without equal. His whole life has been based on fight, fight, fight – this man doesn’t know what it means to back off or step aside. Roy became so aggressive and dangerous that no prison in the country could handle him, not even Broadmoor Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
* * *
I was on my way to see him and wondering if he’d changed since we last met when I interviewed him for his bestselling autobiography Pretty Boy. Roy was one of the toughest guys I’d ever come across. Although he’d always behaved like a perfect gentleman towards me, I could always sense the anger and hostility bubbling away beneath the surface. I was curious to know what Roy had been up to since he was released from prison. Had ‘Pretty Boy’ learned his lesson? Was he still dabbling in lots of naughty things that he didn’t really want to talk about?
I knew he was as vengeful as ever. One of the first things he did when he came out was to sort out his ex-wife’s boyfriend. A quiet chat over a pint? I don’t think so. He chucked the bloke over the balcony. Three floors up. After the life he’s lived, the villainy, the prison, the years in Broadmoor, how could anything change?
Or could it? When he was finally released after a lifetime of crime, Roy set about becoming a successful businessman. Against all the odds, he succeeded.
You can take the man out of the fight but you can’t take the fight out of the man and his reputation as a hardened enforcer and man to respect was well established.
Nearly every gangster or villain I’ve met when I’ve been writing my books would, at some stage, mention him. They all had a different story to tell. Mention the name Roy Shaw and geezers who’d eat their granny for breakfast would go pale, their eyes would glaze and they’d lower their voice – ‘I could tell you a thing or two about Roy …’ – then they’d turn their heads and look round after they’d whispered their stories. It was always the same … ‘Don’t tell Roy I told you.’
I had the feeling that if he’d walked through the door, they’d have jumped out of their boots. I began to hear stories about Roy that intrigued and astonished me. I didn’t think that I could be shocked any more, but I discovered that Roy had a darker, more chilling side than I could ever have imagined. And the reverse was true; I heard about his kindness, his willingness to lend a hand to guys who were on their uppers and his work for charity … he could be thoughtful, kind and considerate.
So had this wealthy entrepreneur with fire in his eye and a murderous background really mellowed? ‘I’m a good boy now,’ he says, in a voice that would melt marshmallows. And his violent profession? ‘It’s all in the past,’ he told me with a barracuda smile. It’s true that he’s a millionaire, a high-level wheeler-dealer. But, although he smiles, his eyes are still as cold and expressionless as a pit viper. So who is the real Roy Shaw? What’s he been up to since coming out of chokey? Is there a softer side to him? A woman in his life maybe? Are the chiller-killer stories true?
I wondered if Roy stills goes on the rampage even though now he has the financial clout not to bother? There’s enough wealth and power rolling around him to hide a lot of sins and cover the bloodiest of tracks. Maybe he’s mellowed, living the quiet life in his big house in the stockbroker belt and pottering about with his dogs in his garden? Somehow I didn’t think so.
The crowds still melt away when he comes into a room. Tough, hard-bastard geezers get suddenly light on their feet and step out of his way when he walks across to the bar. Is it reputation? His awesome presence? Or do we put it down to animal instinct? Something we can sense, that Alpha Male, Leader of the Pack, Top Dog aura – he’s the one who’s going to lash out first and think afterwards, the man who has the fire in his belly to fight off all the others. Mr Nice or Mr Nasty? My gut feeling was that Roy Shaw was still as dangerous as ever.
I set off to drive to Roy’s luxury home. Saint or sinner?
I was about to find out.