logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2021
4m 5s

Introducing Gangster: The Story of Paul ...

Bbc Radio 5 Live
About this episode

Gangster is the extraordinary story of Paul Massey - labelled Salford's Mr Big. It charts his rise and inevitable fall from a young tearaway on the streets of Salford to the head of an organised crime group controlling drugs, security and nightclub doors in Manchester.

It’s a story told not only by some of those close to him – but uniquely by Massey himself – though excerpts from an interview most of which has never been broadcast before.

Presenter Livvy Haydock enters the secretive underworld to speak to hardened criminals who reveal how Massey climbed his way to the top through violence and extortion.

But Massey was unlike many other gangland bosses. He wasn’t just in it for the money, he also saw himself as a community leader. To many in his neighbourhood, he was seen as a Robin Hood figure – looking after their interests, promising to keep hard drugs off the streets and enforcing his own style of street justice.

Up next
Aug 29
The Black Widow: 4. The Two Minute Rule
A partial fingerprint at the scene of a violent robbery puts the flying squad on Linda's trail. While they watch, she continues to live the high life funding by a spate of terrifying armed raids.A team of officers recall the day they caught Linda red handed at yet another Post Of ... Show More
28m 28s
Aug 22
The Black Widow: 3. Cops and Robbers
Linda discovers Ronnie's dark side as he lets slip a shocking secret about the day Mickey died.She can't leave Ronnie, because he's too dangerous. But luckily for Linda, the police solve that problem for her - catching Ronnie red handed trying to pull off a million pound heist.Wi ... Show More
30m 23s
Aug 15
The Black Widow: 2. A Widow's Vow
Linda, Mickey and the kids are living the high life when he agrees to take on a job with a new gang - a raid on a cash collection at a London supermarket just before Christmas.As Linda waits at home, armed police are lying in wait outside the supermarket. When the police rush tow ... Show More
28m 30s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2022
Episode 153: The life and crimes of Belfast's most notorious gangster 'Maxi' McAlorum
BANK robber and drug dealer Kevin 'Maxi' McAlorum had to dodge plenty of enemies during his long criminal career as Belfast’s most-notorious gangster.But in the end it was illness that got him, and he was laid to rest in true gangland style in a horse-drawn hearse pulled by plume ... Show More
44m 15s
Jun 2021
A Mob Boss Starts a Movement
June 28, 1971. It’s the second annual “Unity Day” rally at Columbus Circle in New York City, organized by the Italian American Civil Rights League. Joe Colombo is the very public face of the League, a group that actively fights discrimination and ugly stereotypes against the Ital ... Show More
30m 44s
Oct 2021
Crime World Extra: The life and crimes of Kinahan Cartel mobster Graham 'The Wig' Whelan
Convicted drug dealer Graham ‘The Wig’ Whelan is facing jail after pleading guilty to a number of offences relating to his arrest at a luxury Dublin hotel, when he was caught with cash in his pocket and an expensive watch on his arm by undercover officers investigating drug crime ... Show More
27m 20s
Jan 2022
Episode 61: Why the fallout from the murder of Keane Mulready Woods still threatens a community
It was a brutal gangland murder that made headlines across the world. Now, two years on from the murder of 17-year-old Keane Mulready Woods, it seems an uneasy peace has descended on Drogheda. With two men facing trial this year for the teenager's murder, a third man due to be se ... Show More
23m 29s
Mar 2018
S1 Ep5: John Gotti (Part 1)
In the 1980s, one man became the face of the Mafia. The most famous gangster since Al Capone. Through murder, deception, and pure luck, John Gotti worked his way up the mob ladder.  But Gotti was best known for flaunting his status, enticing the media, and attracting the attentio ... Show More
57m 55s
Nov 2021
Crime World Extra: The sorry end of once-powerful gangland 'fixer' John Traynor
He was the gangland fixer known as 'The Coach' and for decades he tried to play the criminal underworld, police and the media. Criminal John Traynor dreamed of wealth and women when he joined the ranks of Martin ‘The General’ Cahill's armed robbery gang, but he would later turn o ... Show More
37m 7s
Jul 2023
The Italian Squad: A Group of 1920s NYPD Immigrant Detectives Who Fought the Rise of the Mafia
The story begins in Sicily, on Friday, March 12th, 1909. Three gunshots thundered in the night, and then a fourth. Two men fled, and investigators soon discovered who they had killed: Giuseppe Petrosino, the legendary American detective whose exploits in New York were celebrated ... Show More
28m 5s
Jan 2024
An Insider's Guide to the Rise of the American Mafia
You're probably familiar with the American mafia, at least through its portrayal in popular culture. But how did this infamous secret society come to be?Louis Ferrante traces its origins in the first volume of his slated trilogy on the subject, entitled Borgata: Rise of Empire: A ... Show More
1h 1m
Jan 2022
The Punjabi Mafia and the Indian-Canadian Celeb Hitman Bindy Johal
In Vancouver and the little known city of Surrey, violent gang wars between rival factions in the Indo-Canadian Sikh community has seen upwards of 200 young men killed in the last 25 years, as bloody battles fought in nightclubs and bars have seen gunshots ring out as crews of co ... Show More
51m 52s
Apr 2022
Episode 95: My ordinary 'Old Man' - the UK super-criminal
AS a child Jason Wilson thought he had a regular dad, but by the time he was a teenager his 'Old Man' was well on the way to becoming one of the UK’s most wanted criminals. From his beginnings as a successful businessman, Tony Shipley, who later changed his name to Tony Spencer, ... Show More
1h 14m