the most powerful villain to emerge from the most notorious British crime of the twentieth century: the Great Train Robbery. Wilson's life story is one of greed, corruption and an eventual descent into a living hell when his rivals decided to wipe him off the face of the earth - with the tacit approval of Spanish, British and US drug enforcement agencies. Although he first made his name in the underworld at the time of the Great Train Robbery, it was during his reign as a drug emperor that Wilson's reputation as an all-powerful character capable of cold-blooded brutality on one hand and immense kindness on the other helped confirm his status as a legendary criminal. Killing Charlie takes us on a roller-coaster ride through five decades of the London underworld, including a long spell on the Costa del Crime and forays into the deadliest killing fields of all: South America.Meticulously researched, it uses a strong narrative to pull the reader into Wilson's bizarre, sordid, crime-filled world - one that took him from the mean streets of south London to even harsher prison corridors, and from a quiet life in small-town Canada to the heated, manic, cocaine-fuelled Costa del Sol. A complex web of killings, armed robberies and multi-million-pound drug deals lay behind the criminal life and times of Wilson. His story also provides a history of organised crime in Britain, starting when Jack Spot faded out in the '50s as the Krays came to prominence and ending with Wilson's own violent demise in the '90s. Containing interviews with many of Charlie Wilson's former associates, Killing Charlie reveals how Wilson struck fear into many other criminals; how his love of pretty women almost cost him his life; and how he desperately tried to 'retire', only to discover the inevitable - that gangsters never rest in peace.
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