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John McVicar, the bank robber turned journalist, recognises the hallmarks of a contract killing. 'If it wasn't connected with the score that had to be settled after Gerard, then it must be connected with drugs. It's unusual for two people to be killed like that for a purely personal vendetta.' Shaw never married but is survived by a son, daughter and grandchildren. He latterly lived in Waltham Abbey, Essex with two Rottweilers as pets. [ citation needed] Gerard himself was acquitted in 1980, along with Knight, of murdering Alfredo "Italian Tony" Zomparelli, who was gunned down in September 1974 as he played pinball in the Golden Goose amusement arcade in Soho. He said the Italian-born gangster was assassinated in revenge for the murder of Knight's brother, David, who died after a fight at the Latin Quarter nightclub in London's West End in 1970.
Shaw has been mentioned or discussed in numerous books, most notably in arch-rival Lenny McLean's 1998 autobiography The Guv'Nor. and Hard Bastards by Kate Kray. Shaw was something of a minor celebrity in the tabloids in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Shaw has also sometimes appeared in the press over the years, such as his attending of Ronnie Kray's funeral, or his 2009 court case (see 2009 court case section below). Roy Shaw has widely been described as the "hardest man in Britain", with legendary tales about his exploits. Court transcript, Regina -v- John Dennis Arthur Bindon, Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, 29 October 1979 Criminal robbery has one advantage: no one turns to the police. This was an easy deal - one where the risk of reprisal was countered by the magnitude of the payoff. Hole had chosen to make a statement of force that would make him a big enough face to leave Canning Town.Roy Shaw was celebrated in song in 2011 when a group called The Sharks released "The King Of London (aka The Ballad Of Pretty Boy Shaw)". The song was written by band member Alan Wilson who met and became friends with Roy Shaw via their mutual friend Ronnie Biggs. As a teenager, he served time in a borstal for possessing live ammunition. After jobs ranging from laying asphalt to dealing in antiques (his best friend for several years was the antiques dealer John Hobbs), [5] Bindon pursued a career in acting. Williamson, Nigel (2007). The Rough Guide to Led Zeppelin. Rough Guides Limited. p. 248. ISBN 978-1-84353-841-7. Clarkson, Wensley (2005). Bindon: Fighter, Gangster, Actor, Lover – the True Story of John Bindon, a Modern Legend. London: John Blake. ISBN 1-84454-116-9
John Dennis Arthur Bindon [1] [2] (4 October 1943 – 10 October 1993) was an English actor and bodyguard who had close links with the London underworld. The son of a London cab driver, Bindon was frequently in trouble as a youth for getting into fights, and spent two periods in borstal. He was spotted in a London pub by Ken Loach, who asked him to appear in his film Poor Cow (1967). Royston Henry Shaw (11 March 1936 – 14 July 2012), also known as Roy "Pretty Boy" Shaw, Roy "Mean Machine" Shaw and Roy West, was a property investor, author and businessman from the East End of London who was formerly a criminal and Category A prisoner. During the 1970s–1980s, Shaw was active in the criminal underworld of London and was associated with the Kray twins. Shaw is best remembered today for his career as a fighter on the unlicensed boxing scene, becoming an arch-rival of Lenny McLean. [ citation needed] Early life [ edit ] An underworld source who served time in prison with Hole told BBC News Online: "There could be so many reasons for him to be killed." Bindon was acquitted of Darke's murder in November 1979. It was reported that the "substantial appearance" of actor Bob Hoskins as a character witness at the trial helped sway the jury's verdict [2] and that the judge, Sir William Mars-Jones, "had been sympathetic towards Bindon in his summing-up and unhappy with the ragbag of witnesses produced by the prosecution". [13]A 31-year-old man was arrested in the early hours of Monday morning and released after questioning. He has been bailed to return at an unspecified date in January. In 2000, Shaw was one of the best known mourners to attend the funeral of Reggie Kray, a lifelong friend. Shaw said of Kray: "Kray came from an era before drugs became common currency, when there was honour among thieves and few criminals double-crossed their friends. In those days there was loyalty. Nowadays they are all having each other over all the time." [1] Gerard, a friend of "celebrity gangster" Ronnie Knight and the Kray twins, was gunned down on his daughter's 11th birthday as he got into his car near his home in Stratford, east London. I knew this lovely old boy when I was a kid, he had been a booth boxer in Scotland, received the cat in prison, been shot outside a club one night (he said they did him a right favour as they found a cancer when they got him on the operating table!!!).......this is how he lived his life, but he wound up totally institutionalised in the end he had done that much bird. He featured in Kate Kray's book and tv series, hard b******s, as well as starring in a number of YouTube videos.
In 2010, Bindon was the subject of Ten Men: The Lives of John Bindon, a one-man verse play written and directed by Franklyn McCabe, with Matthew Houghton playing Bindon. The play was performed at the Open House pub theatre as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival in 2010. [15]
About the Book
Shaw claims to have had ten fights in his twenties using the alias "Roy West". However information on these has proven difficult to trace. His early boxing career was cut short when he was incarcerated. A book written by Jamie Boyle & Gary Shaw, Roy’s son, called ‘Mean Machine. Roy Shaw’ was published by Warcrypress in 2019. It features many stories of Roy that had never been published. A passage from the book reads: "Roy bashed up one of the twins' so-called big minders and word on the street in the East End was there was going to be serious repercussions because the twins seen this as Roy “mugging them off” and they couldn’t be seen to let it go." It continues: "Although the Kray Twins were an extremely powerful mob, theye werem't the top firm in London at the time and whether or not they had been Roy Shaw didn't give a f*** about anyone anyway." Hole's rivals answered his call for recognition with one of their own. They chose to gun him down in a public place.
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