On the early morning of December 16, 2003, John ‘Fat Jackie’ Thompson entered his red Ford Escort and set off for work. A couple of minutes later on, after driving over a speed bump near his home in Halliwell in Bolton, he heard a rattle then a loud bang.
A block of explosives fell to the floor together with the magnets that had actually been utilized to connect it. The detonator had actually taken off, however not with adequate force to trigger the bomb that had actually been planted straight under the driver’s seat.
It was the best indication yet that a fight which had actually torn apart the biggest loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland had actually landed in the the peaceful suburban areas of Greater Manchester. Thompson was a close partner of Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair, leader of the Ulster Defence Association’s infamous C business.
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Adair had actually increased through the ranks of the Ulster Freedom Fighters in the 1990s developing a power base on Belfast’s Lower Shankill estate to turn into one of its most feared gang leaders. In 1993 he left an individual retirement account assassination quote which led to the death of 9 individuals in a fish and chip shop.
A couple of months later on he was imprisoned for 16 years after ending up being the very first individual in Northern Ireland to be founded guilty of directing terrorism. But, after simply 3 years he was back on the streets, having actually been launched under the Good Friday contract.
He utilized his liberty to launch a quote to take overall control of the UDA. It stopped working marvelously and saw him expelled from the cause, starting a bitter and bloody fight.
The mainstream UDA released a callous vendetta versus Adair. A pipeline bomb was tossed at his house, there was an assassination effort as he dropped his kids off at school.
In overall 15 efforts were made on Adair’s life. It was thought the man behind them was fellow loyalist leader John ‘Grug’ Gregg.
After simply 8 months of liberty, Adair go back to jail was bought after Special Branch intelligence files were examined by the then-Secretary of State Peter Paul Murphy. Security forces hoped his imprisonment in Mughaberry jail would quieten the streets.
They were incorrect. On Saturday February 1, 2003, Gregg was assassinated as he beinged in a red Toyota taxi, minutes after disembarking from a cross channel ferryboat.
He was returning from Scotland, having actually been to see his cherished Glasgow Rangers dip into Ibrox. His UDA partner and friend Robert ‘Rab’ Carson passed away together with him.
Retribution was quick. Around 30 C Company die-hards were required to leave the Shankill at gunpoint.
With safe houses rare they looked for haven with neo-Nazis they had actually created relate to in Bolton. Those who got away consisted of Adair’s spouse, Gina, his oldest kid, Jonathan, referred to as ‘Mad Pup’, and a number of relied on lieutenants.
And the group, called the ‘Bolton Wanderers’ brought problem from the start. In April 2003, while Adair was still secured, a plot was hatched to target his family.
In the early hours 5 shots were fired through a window at the back of their brand-new home on Chorley New Road in Horwich. “Luckily the designated targets were all in another room,” Adair later on composed in his autobiography, Mad Dog. “The word was the shooter was from the north Belfast UDA and utilized a 9mm that came from C Company.”
The next day the UDA provided a declaration declaring duty for the attack. “Action will be taken versus anybody supplying weapons or safe house for these castaways,” it said.
The following month C Company infantryman and fellow exile Alan McCullough was killed in Belfast. Homesick, he had actually been enticed back to Shankill by UDA members who didn’t like Adair, and had actually created an alliance with a competing loyalist faction.
His body was discovered disposed in a shallow tomb on the borders of Glengormley. The 21-year-old had actually been shot in the head two times.
His killing put paid to any hopes the ‘Bolton Wanderers’ might have had about making deals to return home. And from there Adair’s concerns just deepened.
His kid Jonathan, then simply 19, was captured offering heroin, fracture and drug to undercover police officers at a hotel on the M61. He was later on imprisoned for 5 years together with 2 accomplices.
His spouse Gina was detected with ovarian cancer. Adair’s demand to be permitted to visit her in England was ‘point blank declined’. Depressed, he was placed on suicide watch.
But, after 2 years in seclusion Adair, then 39, was ultimately launched from jail. He was flown to Manchester by military helicopter, then travelled to Bolton, accompanied by cops, to be reunited with his spouse.
He was complimentary man, however stayed a detainee to his bloody past. “Greater Manchester Police were awaiting me when we touched down, with blacked-out cars and trucks and a hood to hide my identity,” he composed.
“I was required to Horwich where the police officers took a mugshot of me and made it plain they weren’t happy with me existing. If I stepped over the line, they were going to be waiting to mark down on me as tough as they could.”
Under close monitoring, with his every relocation kept an eye on by cops, Adair quickly understood life in his brand-new home was going to be no cake walk. “It didn’t take me long to understand I’d switched HMP Maghaberry for HMP Bolton,” he later on composed. “It was a headache.”
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Adair was already well-aware his life was under near continuous risk. But the lawsuit into the tried battle of John Thompson’s car revealed simply how close the Troubles had actually become gone to on the streets of Bolton.
Train driver Stanley Curry, then 47, of Birmingham, was imprisoned for twenty years for his part in the plot. A court heard he blamed ‘Adair’s lot’ for the killings of John Gregg and Robert Carson.
“It was just technical failure, plainly we recommend entirely unintentional by those planning to blow him up, that allowed him to walk far from what would have been extremely major injuries or death,” district attorney Mark Ellison informed the trial.
But if Adair was stressed, he did his finest not to reveal it. One night armed cops in bulletproof vests showed up at his door informing him your home needed to be left right away. The authorities had actually received intelligence an effort on his life impended.
“I sent them away,” Adair composed. “I had more experience of dangers than they did and, more notably, I understood what the UDA can.
“The just method they were going to get anybody near adequate to eliminate me was if I was betrayed by somebody near to me and I made certain that had not occurred.”
But, with his power base falling apart, Adair’s marital relationship to Gina, whom he wed at the Maze jail, likewise struck the rocks. He attacked her as they walked home from a pub in Bolton.
He later on confessed attack and was fined. “I do not pretend I feel anything besides embarassment about what took place,” he composed. “Drunk or not my behaviour was undesirable.”
With his marital relationship over, Adair’s time in Bolton was likewise concerning an end. He left town and relocated to Scotland, where he supposedly stays to this day, residing on the Ayrshire coast.
Police, neighbours and pub proprietors might breathe a sigh of relief. Bolton’s short brush with Ulster’s paramilitary underworld was over.
