Author: Wensley Clarkson
ISBN No: 9781784298982
Review date: 14/06/2026
No of pages: 352
Publisher: Quercus
Publisher URL:
https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/
Year of publication: 07/06/2017
Brief:
price
£14.99
Sexy Beasts: The Inside Story of the Hatton Garden Heist by Wensley Clarkson.
Despite the title, this book offers more; a story of crime and law enforcement in living memory, writes Mark Rowe.
A good third of the book is given over to โthe historyโ; of the London underworld, including the man behind the robbery, Brian Reader, and what Clarkson calls โa series of cat and mouse games between Reader and Flying Squad detective that would go on for decadesโ. As Clarkson shows, the criminals are only one side of the story; the other is the police. While some readers might feel that the history is getting in the way of the actual โinside storyโ, Clarkson does point out how the roots of the 2015 theft date as far back at the 1960s. and in September 1971 for instance, London criminals stole millions from a Lloyds Bank in Baker Street, a case with similarities with Hatton Garden; the work over a bank holiday weekend, the faulty security and police response; the rounding up of most of the robbers.
Besides giving background in the sense of time, Clarkson also shows the geographical spread of criminals; London and the south east he describes early on in an almost off-hand manner as โthe Wild West of Europe; a frontier zone full of deadly mavericks from all four corners of the globe; one of the fastest-growing countries in the world, where black money still rulesโ. While foreigners have come to London to do crime, the native London crooks have gone to northern Turkey; Spain and Thailand. Clarkson also sets out how this underworld is one for gossip, and has a relationship with showbusiness and film; towards the end, he likens the not-caught criminal โBasilโ to Keyser Soze of the movie The Usual Suspects. Clarkson closes by suggesting that โa so-called Curse of Hatton Garden will emergeโ as the crime casts a shadow โ people are hurt and die because of what they know or are suspected of knowing about the takings.
Clarkson describes the Hatton Garden gang as veterans, even โold codgersโ, now โlegendary charactersโ. While this may all run the risk of romanticising the criminals, Clarkson makes plain the drastic and ruthless violence. Times have changed. Instead of pitting themselves against cash in transit guards with truncheons, โsecurity systems are far more sophisticated todayโ, and the thieves were undone by tech, such as tracings on their mobile phones and laptop contents. Quoting the social scientist Dick Hobbs, Clarkson compares the gang to โa business syndicateโโ: โThey saw themselves as the old executive of crime trying to make one more big bonus before retiring for good.โ Clarkson makes the case for the โHatton Garden Jobโ as a โquintessentially English crimeโ and a โthrowback to the days when gangs of โblaggersโ ruled the streets of Londonโ. While robbery appears not worth the effort, as itโs so detectable โ doing the actual crime is only half the work, staying clear of justice is the harder part – Clarkson shows the โcriminal netherworldโ is a way of life, a mentality that dates from the dislocation of the 1939-45 war.
Clarkson has written numerous books on crime, or rather criminals โ for his work is always people-led, and their stories โ such as about the โhit manโ Jimmy Moody.
Visit https://professionalsecurity.co.uk/reviews/moody/.
