Daily Sport are pleased to be able to bring our readers the serialization of PAUL MASSEY – A Salford Heart a new book by Kelley Massey, Jack w Gregory and Steve Wraith which tells all on the Mancunian GANGSTERS life.
We kick off with 2 chapters of the MUST READ crime biography.
INTRODUCTION
On Sunday 26th of July 2015, at 7.28pm, 55 year old Paul Massey had just arrived outside his home on Manchester Road in Clifton, Salford and had parked up his silver BMW. On his way back home he had stopped off at Bargain Booze and bought a bottle of Bacardi. This had been captured on the shop’s CCTV. Paul’s Partner Louise Lydiate was at her mother’s birthday party that evening in the Church pub In Salford, an occasion Paul normally would not have missed as Paul would aways call in the pub to buy the person a drink, regardless of who it was, to wish them happy birthday.
At the same time another man had cycled to an area behind the com- munity centre opposite his home. He had dismounted with a bag and began to walk towards the Massey home. He was dressed from head to toe in military combat clothes and was carrying an ‘Uzi’ sub-machine gun. He was a contract killer with the job of killing Paul Massey, the man dubbed ‘Mr. Big’ by the local council and Greater Manchester Police. It was a nickname he despised. As Massey walked towards his front door the first shots were fired from the gates outside the house and he dived for cover behind his wheelie bins.
The father of five managed to phone his friend Tom Jefferys, telling him he had been shot as well as making four 999 calls before finally connecting to an operator:
Operator: “Do you need fire or ambulance?”
Paul Massey: “Ambulance. I have been shot.”
Operator: “Ambulance?”
Paul Massey: “(House number) Manchester Road Clifton. I’m outside the house.”
Operator: “Outside the address?”
Paul Massey: “(House number) Manchester Road. I’ve been shot.”
Operator: “OK, I will just find the address. Stay on the phone for me OK? Can you just repeat it for me in full?”
Paul Massey: “(House number) Manchester Road.”
Operator: “OK, what area is that in?”
Paul Massey: “Clifton.”
Operator: “In Preston?”
Paul Massey “Manchester (says postcode).”
Operator: “Is it Preston?”
Paul Massey: “Clifton. Clifton. Hurry up.”
Operator: “That postcode again for me.”
Paul Massey: “(says postcode)”
Operator: “OK, stay on the line for me yeah?”
Paul Massey: “Hurry up, he’s shot at (inaudible).”
The gunman calmly reloaded and walked up to the wheelie bins where 9
Paul Massey: A Salford Heart
his intended victim was trying to shelter and opened fire again. He suffered catastrophic injuries after being sprayed with further bullets. Eighteen rounds were fired at the unarmed Massey who suffered twenty separate injuries. The fatal shot entered his upper left arm, travelled into his chest then his heart sac which was full of blood. It caused extensive damage to his organs leading to the collapse of his right lung. He was also shot in his right forearm, breaking it whilst another bullet amputated three fingers on his right hand. His left shin was shattered and bone fragments from that injury were embedded in his right shin. He also suffered cuts to his legs, back and head.
With Massey lying dead on his doorstep armed police arrived to find friends Lee Taberer and Thomas Jeffreys at the scene in a state of shock saying “He’s gone.” The police acted quickly, closing off roads and sealing off the mur- der scene. Neighbours who had been peeping through their blinds, having been alerted by the noise, were now on the streets trying to get a look at the murder scene. Mrs Jones had seen a gunman leave the scene, calmly heading back towards the community centre and St. Anne’s church towards a path running alongside the railway line. She managed to give a fairly accurate description to police.
The police were quick to put the public’s mind at rest. Detective Chief Superintendent Russ Jackson issued a statement:
“People will understandably be alarmed when they hear about this incident which we believe was a targeted attack. I would like to reassure the public
that we have a heightened level of police officers in the area tonight while we establish the full circumstances of the incident and identify those responsible. We are actively following a number of lines of enquiry however, I would urge the local community to come forward if they saw or heard anything in the area this evening. I urge anybody with any information about what’s happened tonight to come forward. I want to stress that any information received will be treated in the strictest confidence.”
It seemed, however, that the police had a different view on the death of Paul Massey. It was claimed by ex-cop Helen Hignett that police officersordered “kebabs all round” to celebrate the death of the proud and caring family man.
“When the news broke of his murder, to say some officers were elated is an understatement. It was kebabs all round to celebrate. They had done us favour was the police view. Sad but true.”
Chapter Eight: Get Massey
The police seemed determined to ‘Get Massey’ at all costs, whether
it be fair means or foul. On one occasion Paul had just come out of prison and he called around to see one of his mates. When he walked in he saw there was a lot of credit cards on a table and it was obvious that they did not all belong
to him. It was a scam that was going on and with Paul only just coming out of prison he wanted nothing to do with it and decided to leave. But the house was under observation and as he was about to leave the police burst through the door. They took the names of everyone there and Paul gave a false name so the officer let him leave. But as he stepped into the front garden another copper recognised him and shouted to the one who had let him go “What are you doing letting HIM go? Do you know who this is?” They had the house under obser- vation and clearly knew Paul had nothing to do with the crime but arrested him anyway just to get him locked up. He spent eight months on remand. Rumours were rife in Salford and Mike Adamou claims that ‘money and deals were on the table’ for those that gave evidence leading to his conviction. Mike was never offered a deal himself as they knew how close he was to Paul and that they would be wasting their breath.
Paul’s domestic life took a turn for the worse after a row with Louise saw him ‘bin linered’ and living at his good friend’s house Mike Adamou. Mike had given him the keys to his house as he was heading off to Mexico for a hol- iday. It meant that someone could look after his dogs too, so it killed two birds with one stone. Paul wasn’t the only one who had been chucked out. ‘Breezey’ and ‘Tizer,’ also found themselves out on their ear and crashing with Paul and the dogs. Mike got back on boxing day and was stopped by armed police as he stepped off the plane for allegedly smoking a spliff. He was eventually released with no charges and headed home. When he arrived he saw that his front door was wide open and his two dogs were sitting patiently on the step waiting. As he carried his cases in from the taxi he shouted to see if anyone was in. Silence. There was however a note on the coffee table saying ‘ Don’t come to town ‘cause I’ve barred everyone.’ It was signed Paul.
Mike dumped his stuff, jumped in his car and drove to town and whilst he was on his way he phoned Paul to ask him what had happened and why
he had barred everyone. Paul explained that he was sick of the lads kicking off in the clubs where he ran the doors and he was teaching them a lesson. Mike picked Paul up and they headed back to his house. Mike had bought a two litre bottle of Bacardi and along with his Mrs and Paul decided to make a night of it. Paul had still not sorted his issues out with Louise, according to Mike and he asked if it was okay to stay with him. The answer was never in doubt. On top of the Bacardi Mike took some Diazepam and ended up going upstairs, planted face down on the bed and out for the count. Paul carried on downstairs along with Mike’s missus.
In the morning when Mike woke up Paul wasn’t there – he’d gone. He’d got in his Range Rover and he had driven home to Louise’s in a right state and had scuffed all the rims on his car. Mike got a phone call from him later that day and he said “I thought I told you I wasn’t going home, so what did you bring me home for?” Mike told him that he hadn’t driven him back as he had been asleep. Paul had been lucky to get back without injuring himself or others.
Paul was always one to repay a favour and when Mike needed him he was there. Another close friend Constance Howard, better known as ‘Connie’ was on remand and her next door neighbours went running round to Mike Adamous’ house to tell him that they thought someone was trying to break in. Mike went straight round and found three lads. Two of them got away but Mike collared one in the house. He then phoned Paul and told him the situation and asked him to come round.
Paul arrived and the two men frogmarched the thief back to Mike’s house which was only 50 yards away. The lad was trying to talk his way out
of the situation he had found himself in and was saying that he was only there because he had heard kids in the house. Pull the other one mate it has bells on! There was a bit of street justice handed out to the lad that day by Paul, who was angered that he kept referring to ‘Connie’ as Constance and was claiming that he knew her. The chancer had seen her full name in the newspaper referring to her arrest and decided to burgle her home. Nobody called her ‘Constance’. Not even her nearest and dearest. Mike’s carpet had to be rolled up and put in a wheelie bin and set on fire and the settee had to be replaced too. The lad would think twice about thieving in Salford again that’s for certain.
It wasn’t all serious with Paul. He was always having a laugh and play- ing jokes at his mates expense. Mike Adamou explains one such occasion:
“Our mate Ricky went to jail for a short period of time and me and Paul got a bottle of Head and Shoulders, that’s when you could send parcels into jail. We emptied out the contents of the bottle and filled it up with Imac for hair removal. We called Ricky ‘baldilocks’ because he only had about three hairs
on his head, he was very thin on top so a little blob and they would have been gone! I think the orderlies in reception must have nicked it because he never got it sadly. We just had visions of some kid in there losing all his hair and not knowing why! Wouldn’t have been hard to find him, just look for someone who had quickly lost their hair. Paul was a great one for playing jokes on people.”
Boxing Day 1997 was the start of a run of bad luck which would eventually see Paul Massey off the streets of Salford for a long stretch. He was driving through Manchester in his Rolls Royce that morning when he was pulled over by the police for a routine breath test, which he ultimately failed. He was arrested by PC’s Mark Rust, Robert Longman and Neil Pike and started getting abusive and according to their statements made threats to kill them. Peter Walsh in ‘Gang War’ claims that Massey said, “This is what I like about having money – I’ll get you sorted out. I will get you all shot. Remember the riots?
I told you then, wait till the fog comes down, some bobby will get it. It will be your fault. You will have to watch your backs. I don’t need to do it now, I will wear a balaclava on a dark night”
Of course this was their word against his. Paul was brethalysed, bailed and would have to wait to have his day in court. He was two times over the legal limit.
Paul had also been approached by a documentary team called ‘Amber Valley Productions’, who were based in Derby. They had been given a substan- tial financial commission to produce a show for BBC2, which had a working
title of ‘Salford Lads.’ Paul was in his element and recorded a few interviews. Some in Manchester and two others in Scotland whilst he was away on a family holiday and another in Amsterdam. Like all documentaries, hours and hours of footage were recorded and it is then all edited down to create the programme. Paul was charismatic and entertaining throughout. He was well rehearsed in telling his life story and smart enough not to incriminate himself or his asso- ciates. During one interview he revealed his plans to put forward representa- tives at the next election in Salford as he felt that the council were ‘letting the people down.’ Sadly this documentary would never be aired because events on Saturday the 4th July 1998 would change the course of some of those people involved forever.
It was a hot summer evening in Manchester and Paul and close friend Mike Adamou were driving through the busy streets in a silver Audi with a film crew in close pursuit, capturing raw footage of the ‘Salford Lads’ on a night out. Paul is in a good mood in the clips that I have seen and is ready to paint the town red with his friends. I will let Mike Adamou set the scene:
“At first there was just me, Paul and the film crew. Paul had rung around the lads to tell them what was going on that night but most of the lads didn’t want to come out and take the limelight off Paul. Gradually though they all started to appear and hijack Paul’s documentary.”
After stopping off at PMS security’s office and then for food they meet up with another car full of people which includes Paul Flannery and Mark Boom- er, who are both in high spirits. The convoy of cars then sets off with music blaring from both vehicles and occupants of both cars shouting at passers by. Once they hit the main drag of bars and clubs they pull into a selection of bars and clubs and get out of the cars to speak to various doormen and managers of the venues. The film crew are lapping it up as various scantily clad women approach them, desperate for their five minutes of fame. Not every set of doormen is pleased to see the occupants of the cars and at one point at a bar in the Gay village, Flannery throws a bottle and then a glass at a security camera outside. The policemen passing in a van see this, but choose to ignore it.
Even watching the footage now you can sense a change in atmo- sphere. It feels like there is going to be trouble. Paul changes cars at this pointand is now in the back of Flannery’s car. He now has a traffic cone which he has picked up and he is holding it onto the front of the car on the windscreen. The film crew are getting hyped up too and are taking risks with the cameraman standing up in the car and filming Massey and Co. through the sunroof. The police who have been keeping an eye on the cars on CCTV choose this moment to intervene. They pull over the film crew in a Peugeot 306 and fine the cameraman for not wearing his seatbelt.
With the ticket in his pocket, the cameraman belts up and the convoy is off again, pulling up this time at a club called the ‘Beat N’ Track’. By now Paul was swigging champagne from a bottle that he had bought for Flannery. This was out of character for Paul who was normally so reserved and in control.
This is where the mood changes again and where the film footage mysteriously changes from outside the club to the inside of someone’s house. Whatever took place outside the venue was clearly filmed and then recorded over.
It was alleged that Massey had relieved himself against the wheels of a coach outside the club and that some of the lads on the bus, who were a stag party from Leeds, had started shouting and balling at him to stop. It was claimed by witnesses that he reacted by smashing the bus window with the champagne bottle and that he then swiped two bags from inside the coach. The driver, Andrew Smith, hearing the commotion decided to start the coach and drive off without some of his passengers. Massey and Co. allegedly followed the coach and you can read more about that in the following chapter.
The passengers on the coach were concerned about the friends that they had left behind at the club and they forced the driver to return. As they pulled back up outside the club there was an argument taking place between two factions and as a result Wayne Wisdom was stabbed in the groin. A British Transport Police officer seeing the commotion apprehended the knifeman but was attacked by another man and the knifeman got away. Wisdom was blue lighted to hospital by ambulance after losing a lot of blood at the scene. The paramedics worked frantically to save him, which they duly did. The police sealed off the scene of the crime Various statements were taken and they were told of a film crew that had been in the vicinity at the time. Their investigations led to the ‘Salford Lads’ crew, but they would need an injunction to seize any footage. The police were also keen to speak to Paul Massey but despite inten- sive enquiries they drew a blank. He had disappeared.
Mike Adamou was there that night and for the first time gives his version of events:
“Paul’s troubles all started when the kid got stabbed at the ‘Beat N’ Track.’ The lad actually lost his pulse but the paramedics brought him back to life. He was on a life support machine for a few days so I went to see his father at his taxi office in Chapel Town, Leeds. His son was not the intended target of anger and aggression on that night, so I really apologised to the father hoping and praying that his boy pulled through. They had every right at that time to cut my throat there and then if they wanted to as his son was fighting for his life. Thankfully his son recovered.
So what caused the aggression that night? Well there was a lot of people who wanted to big themselves up in front of the television cameras that night. A film crew was with Paul recording a documentary called ‘A Salford Lad’ and people were following us and jumping in front of the camera and bigging themselves up. Some were even throwing bottles at the cameras. Paul was in my car early on but then he jumped in the BMW. When he was in my car I had his back and things were under control up to a point, but then he got out of the Audi into the BMW and it all went wrong. The documentary was supposed to be about Paul but these others saw an opportunity to get themselves on Television. They were flashing bottles of champagne and drinking out of the bottle and stuff. This was not what Paul was about at all.
They were hijacking the filming and mugging themselves off. The police were following us all over too, which was to be expected. They were handing out producers as if they were going out of fashion, even a member of the film crew got a producer for hanging out the sun roof of a car. I was the only one who didn’t get a producer that night. I got a couple of chases but I managed to sneak down a couple of back streets and get away. I parked up in the Gay Village and made myself a joint whilst the BMW was chasing around Manches- ter. I bumped into them again later in the evening and that’s when it all kicked off in the ‘Beat N’ Track.’
We were never meant to go to the ‘Beat N’ Track’ that night. I was begging Paul just to go to the ‘Alexander Club’ but he insisted on going to the other place. We walked into the club and one guy was staggering about as if he had been punched but he was trying to get on camera. Shouting “Paul, Paul.” He told him to go away as he was a grass. The lad then started playing dead on the floor. It was a wonder he didn’t get a few kicks. Someone threw a cup
of water over him and he got up and wobbled out of the club and off down the street. That was the comical bit of the night, but tragedy was to follow later in the evening.
There had been a couple of little police chases through town involving us and I had just managed to slip the net and was the only one who didn’t get a ticket that night. I didn’t get a producer, all the others got producers but I avoid- ed it by taking back roads around town. When I got back to the club (I can’t remember if it was just before or just after the stabbing) when the stabbing had taken place, the transport coppers had got Paul pinned against the wall then Boomer has distracted him enough for Paul to make his escape then Boomer had made his escape and I ended up taking Boomer home. If you watch the vid- eo, Boomer was the one doing all the hijinks in the BMW in the back of the car loud as life, all the bravado was coming from him. I ended up taking him home but I didn’t know he had been involved in assaulting the police officer who was holding Paul. By the time I returned somebody else had already got Paul offside and that’s when we met up again we went back to my house and phoned the film crew to see what the night’s filming had been all about.”
Paul was keeping his head down but had splashed out on a brand
new Range Rover. He decided to go off roading where the motorbikes would
go down near the seven arches in Salford. That is now where Forest Bank
Jail is, but before the jail was built there used to be open fields and you could only really get to it with motor bikes, not with a car because of the terrain being rough. Paul decided to take his brand new ‘P’ registration Range Rover down there and by the time he came back, it needed a respray because he had to go through the bushes, pushing trees down to make a way with the car down to the scrambling track. When it was in the garage getting prepared for the respray the police, who must have been tipped off, came and seized it. They wanted
the vehicle to test for forensics after the incident at the ‘Beat N’Track.’ They had missed Massey by minutes.
Paul was due to appear at Liverpool Crown court in August over the Boxing Day incident in 1997 but he was a no show, with his solicitor claiming that he had bigger issues to sort out at that time. Paul had managed to leave the UK with Adamou and made his way to Amsterdam as he explains here:
“After the stabbing Paul went on his toes on a European tour and I went with him. I said to him at the time that he had two choices, either to stay and wait for his door to go in or to go on the run. Why would he want to stay
in Manchester with the police after him? His mind was made up. My mind was made up too. I wouldn’t want him to go to Amsterdam or Barcelona on his own.
The next day we arranged to sneak out of Manchester in the sleep- ing quarters of a truck. We got the ferry from the UK to France. Once we got through security in France we knew we could relax. We had been travelling a few hours and were on the motorway when the driver started shutting his eyes and falling asleep at the wheel. I was nudging Paul saying “This guy’s nodding off.” I gave the driver a nudge to say “You’re nodding off, do you want me
to take over?” He declined the offer but five minutes later started nodding off again. I then insisted he needed a rest and I would drive. He showed me the basics and next thing I know I’m driving through France in an articulated lorry – it was quite a funny situation to be in, overtaking other wagons when I had no experience at all. The next part of the journey was by train and we headed to Paris. We spent a little bit of time in France before heading to Amsterdam and then spent about ten days there. The ‘Gay Olympics’ were on at the time. We then headed to Spain.
On the way there we had a laugh about the last trip abroad we had when we had been with my missus and a good friend called Barney. The inten- tion then had been to drive to Spain, where Barney had buried some money years ago. He had buried it in some woods and he wanted to go and find it as he was struggling financially at the time. We ended up getting him in the car, driving him all the way down to Dover which was like a five or six hour trip. We got the ferry, getting off at Calais and we got the maps out and looked at them to see how far Spain was and how far Amsterdam was. It was a shorter trip to the ‘Dam so we decided to go to there instead!
A mate of mine at a hotel leant me his car, a Vauxhall Frontera, and we ended up ‘off roading’ and spending time smoking spliffs on the beach. We smoked that much weed that Barney’s taken a knock in the back of the car, hit- ting his head on the car roof going over the sand dunes. It was comical because after spending four days in Amsterdam we drove back and pulled up outside his house. We never got to Spain and he had been stoned from the moment he left his house until the moment we brought him back home. He got out of the car, knocked on the door of his house, and we took off so we didn’t have to explain to his missus what had happened. I’ve no idea if he ever did get back to Spain to get his money!
We had ten great weeks on our toes which started and finished in Amsterdam. This included staying in a villa which used to belong to Genesis, where all sorts of nonsense and fun happened. There was about ten or fifteen of us in the villa. It was luxury after staying in hotels. During those ten weeks the girlfriends would be flying in and out a lot and other friends would turn up. I have a lot of memories and some funny stories. Then it all went pear shaped.
We were staying at a campsite in Schipol which was about ten miles from Amsterdam Central and every few minutes there would be an aircraft flying over at about 100 – 150 feet above the campsite as we were quite close to the airport. One day it was really quiet. It turned out that they had diverted all the planes so they could fly a helicopter over the campsite. Paul wasn’t comfortable at all and said it was time for us to go. He headed off to get a bite to eat with Louise and I agreed to babysit for them. At about 1.00a.m. there was a commo- tion at the campsite. Paul had been nicked in the red light area of Amsterdam with Louise and other friends. There had been English and Dutch police follow- ing him and they had grabbed him and put a hood over his head. A Mercedes then pulled up and they threw him inside. There was another lad who was with him and they thought that was me, so they put a gun to his head. They checked his ID and once they realised it wasn’t me they let him go and just put Paul into the car and it drove off at high speed. The others then made their own way back to the campsite. All good things come to an end!”
So Greater Manchester Police finally had ‘Mr. Big’ behind bars and they were determined to get their pound of flesh.
