Jimmy Moody

Jimmy Moody
File:Big Jim-1 copy.jpg
Born	James Alfred Moody 27 February 1941 (1941-02-27) Looe, Cornwall, England
Died	1 June 1993 (1993-07) (aged 52) The Royal public house, Hackney, London, England
Other names	Big Jim
Occupation	Armed Robber, Reputed Contract Killer and Prison escapee

James Alfred 'Jimmy' Moody (27 February 1941, Looe, Cornwall – 1 June 1993, Hackney, London) was an English gangster and hitman whose career spanned more than four decades and included run-ins with Jack Spot, Billy Hill, "Mad" Frankie Fraser, the Krays, the Richardsons and the Provisional IRA.

Moody was born to a mother who was a wartime evacuee from Camberwell, London. His father was killed during WWII after his ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat. Moody was the number one enforcer for the Richardsons, did freelance "work" for the Krays. He was considered by many of his peers to be "the Hardest man in London". In the 1970s, he joined a team of criminals to form the Chainsaw Gang who went on to become that decade's most successful armed robbers.

Moody was convicted of manslaughter in 1967 for the killing of a young merchant navy steward. He was released in 1972, but sent in 1979 on remand to Brixton Prison to await trial for armed robbery. His cellmate was Provisional IRA member Gerard Tuite. In 1980 the two men escaped and went on the run.

The London he returned to was a very different place. By the early 1990s, Moody's list of enemies included the police, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British security services. He was shot dead in June 1993 in the Royal Hotel (now Royal Inn on the Park) in Hackney, east London by an unknown assailant.

Sources

• Clarkson, Wensley, Moody. Mainstream Publishing. London; ISBN 1-84018-744-1