The Real Birmingham Boys and the Peaky Blinders | Gangs Of Britain | S1E01 | #truecrime | TCC

gangs in the early 20th century turned Britain's race tracks into Battlegrounds a Birmingham gang called the Brahma gems were the top dogs and built up a criminal Network reaching far beyond their City the Brahma gyms made fortunes from racetrack extortion and beat their Rivals mercilessly to protect their territory over 80 years later in 2003 another Birmingham gang kills innocent bystanders and shocks the nation but behind the guise of a random shooting lies a complicated Vendetta between two gowns where rivalry ego loyalty to the gang outweighs even the love of their own family we're going to be looking at The Gangs of Britain's Second City Birmingham old and new and see how gang crime has evolved and the steps taken to tackle it and we'll be following the stories of two Landmark gang attacks until courageous individuals who put their lives on the line to bring the culprits to Justice [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] Birmingham was known as the city of a thousand trades unlike Manchester based solely around cotton Goods Birmingham had a wide variety of specialized skills producing anything metal from buttons and buckles to jewelry steam engines and like most cities in the UK birmingham's gangs were territorial after being named after the areas they came from I'm walking in what was once the gun quarter in the 19th century that was a name of a gang from here others were called the White House Gang from Aston the garrisons lane ten archers Bishop Riders and then there were the peaky blinders [Music] during the 19th century the population of Birmingham swelled from 74 000 to over 630 000. there was overcrowding back-to-back housing filth and poverty gang fights were commonplace but then Birmingham underwent vast Redevelopment people moved out of the congested Center to newly built Estates in the suburbs [Music] early in the 20th century one of the Birmingham gangs known as the brahmajam Hammers began to spread from the streets of Birmingham to around the country and this was all because of one lucrative business horse racing [Music] the English have always had a passion for the sport only the wealthy could afford to buy racehorses to breed them and to race them but anyone could afford to bet on them after the first world war racecourses were the only legal gambling places with an annual turnover approaching 500 million pounds they became the playgrounds of choice for a liberated generation [Applause] thank you but the bulging satchels of the bookmakers attracted criminal gangs wanting the Peace of the action and the Brahma gyms wanted the biggest slice I've come to meet a former member of the Mets flying Squad police historian dick Kirby dick Gary delighted to meet you so I suppose the first question is you know what did the Brahma gyms see in racecourses what what why were they here well they saw an awful lot of money in those days before the first world war practically anybody could set up as a bookmaker there were no real rules and regulations and uh the bookmakers just paid out if they could afford it and if they didn't they hired bodyguards to protect them from enraged punters yeah race courses were prey to gangsters fraudsters pre-card tricksters but there was also pure hooliganism local historian Carl chin has made a study of the racetrack gangs blokes would go up to somebody and say hey to a bookie you're the bookie oh give us 10 Bob for poor old Freddy's just come out to Nick roll Alfred Adam come out to Nick Rob alf's just going into it give us 10 bomb or else even cruder if you don't give me a pound I'm going to turn you upside down right so a lot of bookmakers hired minders tough boxers it was night rules see and so whether you were bookmakers or punters if gangs came along and prayed upon you you were struggling and the Gang that posed the greatest danger and controlled the most race courses was the brother James according to a 1922 police report the Brahma gyms were mostly made up of convicted thieves of the worst type these men they're not your run-of-the-mill fighter who comes out the pub perhaps on a Saturday and always had a few too many and even it spoke down the road I've had a Fallout and they have a set to they were really violent nasty men who enjoyed violence [Music] [Applause] [Music] gang charged bookmakers as much as 50 of their profits for the privilege of being left unmolested in turn some of the bookies began to use the gang services to dissuade winning punters from pressing their claims for payment like many of these early gangs the groups centered round one strong individual for the Brahma gym hammers that man was Billy Kimber and he carried a fearsome reputation [Music] Billy Kimball was born in 1892 in Aston the son of a brass founder handsome well-built and charismatic he became the teenage member of the peaky blinders known for their Sharp Dress Kimber soon graduated to the Brahma gyms the largest gang throughout the 1920s and 30s he was a lion of a man he was Fearless he said but he wouldn't fight with knives he'd only fight with his fists so he had he was a violent man I'm not excusing that but he had must have had Charisma to control all the [ __ ] when he was 18 he had a conviction for assault and served time in birmingham's Winston green prison it was here that Kimber met fellow gang man George brummy Sage who introduced Kimber to the idea of racetrack extortion this Union would transform the fortunes of Billy Kimber and the brahmajams turning the gang from a group of Ruffians into an organized money-making Enterprise was one of his principal lieutenants and between them had formed alliances with the Leeds mob and the uttoxeter boys so they became very very strong and what's more Kimber became very wealthy the expanding Railway Network enabled kimber's brummergens to travel to race meetings across the country Doncaster and York uttoxeter down to Newbury and across the new market indeed they brought in and organized protection racket instead as the kind of ad hoc Arrangements that have been there before when gangs have just come in willy-nilly held a Skelton and scare people yeah so I think for some of the bookmakers the controller Billy Kimber was welcome because they knew what they were getting and they would keep the other guys in the other yeah so they'd keep the others away and what it would be Billy Kimber then would say the five best pitches at Ascot or Epsom he would be in with a book on 10 Bob in the pound so for every 50 Quid the book is made Billy Kimber got 25 quid then he and these men would control all the other rackets so they would also like have the bucket of water so after each race when The Bookies got the sponge to clear the writing and chalk on their boards they would have to pay off the ground for the bucket of water after crown for the sponge after crown for the chore so you add it up that might be a bookie who is paying perhaps for each Race 10 Barber Race Six sevens eight races between three and four pound a day if the Third 30 or 40 bookies at a course it's a good few Bob coming in [Music] despite these huge the Brahma gyms set their sights on even more the goal was to expand their territory and take over the most lucrative racecourses of all the ones in the South [Applause] [Music] gang crime in Birmingham has changed since the 1920s and 30s instead of running a money-making Enterprise across the country like the brahmagens now gangs battle over respect and territory one of the oldest and bloodiest feuds in recent years has been between two black gangs the Johnson crew named after a cafe in Johnson Street and the Burger Bar boys its juvenile name taken from the from the female Zales districts Master gangs Menace its members carried out some of the most Savage incidents of gang violence in the city [Music] these are the areas they command the a34 is like The Unofficial boundary the front line between the two gangs the Johnson crew tend to be based in the Northeast around Aston the Burger Bar boys to the West laselles Winston green handsworth and the Burger Bar was right here I've come to meet crime reporter ahmadit Bassey a journalist who has reported on birmingham's gangs for many years this behind us is where the burger bar used to be from which the Burger Bar gang took their name right so it's been redeveloped yeah it's all become offices and apartments and stuff now but for a long time it was known as The Burger Bar just uh tell me a bit about why gang started in Birmingham well originally the the gang certainly the black and Asian gangs started off as you could say almost vigilante games there was a big problem with skinheads and the right wing it's certain parts of Birmingham and these gangs formed essentially to look after their own communities but in 1981 tensions exploded in this vicious race riots heavy-handed policing under inflamed the aggression on the streets as groups of young black youths began to take the law into their own hands it kind of empowered a lot of the young black kids and that they thought well hang on we've rioted we managed to put the police on the back foot you know we can show some Force when we want to eventually as the right wing threat dissipated they kept that organization together and it became more of a criminal Network as drugs died coming into the community they used those bonds and those links they had and directed towards criminal efforts instead right so they're making money out of drugs but along with drugs come profit and territory becoming a wedge which would split The Black Gang into two the Johnson crew and the Burger Bar boys when drugs came it became a case of a lot of you know who can make the money and make the most money and that's that's what caused the main split people who were friends originally became sworn enemies crack cocaine swept through the city's poorest neighborhoods money poured into the gangs the Rivalry escalated and so did the violence 2002 series of tit-for-tat shootings between the Johnsons and the Burger Bar boys began when Johan Martin was shot in the middle of West Bromwich High Street in broad daylight 24 year old Johann Martin was a leading member of the Burger Bar crew [Music] he happened to be spotted by two female members of a gang which is Affiliated to the Johnson crew now they not only let members of the Johnson crew gang know that Johan Martin was there they also said that he was trying it on with them in effect right and within about 15 minutes of the phone call being made to Johan Martin's killers they were there on the scene in a car the car parked up next to johann's car and shot at the Johann way while he was sat in his park car on the High Street to be part of the gang and become the perpetrator that was a first in a lot of ways for them to actually take part actively in a murder because then you think people hadn't seen that before and now that girls were gang members they too could become targets for rival gangs on the night of January the 2nd 2003 the events with spiral out of control in one of the most callous slaves the city had ever seen in the 1920s and 30s the most powerful gang from Birmingham were called the Brahma gems they were led by a charismatic gangster called Billy the brahmajams took control over many of the country's lucrative race tracks they traveled to race meetings across the country coming south to the big events with the most money to ask at an Epson this is what they would have looked like at the time photograph was taken in 1919 shark suits buttonholes boaters but in contrast to their Elegance these are sort of weapons they would have used Hammers and Blades flick knives Cutthroats bottles and if all else fails revolver a pretty formidable Arsenal but keeping control of the race circuits far away from home turf was always going to be tricky South the Brahma gyms face tough competition from a major Italian crime family called the sabinis the race tracks in the South were run by the Italian mob and the Italian mob was run by Charles Darby sabini who had got four brothers George Joe Fred and Harry boy and they were all Chris and Harry boy was he was Chris and hurry boy yeah uh and they were all a very tasty Bunch Darby sabini had boxed as a middleweight and he always had a fully loaded automatic in his back pocket the Brahma gym boys came up against the sabinis many times this rare photograph shows both gangs posing for camera later they became locked in tit-for-tat scraps until the violence reached a peak when Derby Sabine shot at Billy Kimber Kimber decided to call her truce he went to meet sabini one of sabini's men killed a violent man called Alfie Solomon Kimber Billy Kemper was found outside sabini's flat with a bullet in his side and Alfie Sullivan's later stood trial for his attempted murder but was acquitted after everybody lost their memory oh including Kimber including Kimber who refused to give evidence anyway it was the code I guess and I guess he didn't want the police involved with anything no then just Weeks Later the Derby meeting in Epsom the sabinis attacked an associate of Kimbers with a mallet and bottle for Kimber and the Brahma Gym Boys this was a step too far their retaliation would be brutal on the first day of the Epsom Derby in 1921 the Birmingham boys decided to Ambush the sabinis they left the race meeting early in a sharabang and he didn't wait for them at Ewell a few miles from Epsom and this is where the attack took place all right so this is the London Road yes and our mob would have parked up here because they would have anyone coming from Epsom would have had to go back that way to London correct right what happened was a car was parked in this turning here yeah anticipating the arrival of the Italian mob and as soon as the car shot out to block the way the Birmingham boys jumped out and went to work [Music] that attack was incredibly vicious wasn't it it was a scene of Carnage the people in the houses around here were apparently screaming with Terror because the Birmingham boys were equipped with guns with hatchets house Bricks iron bars knives and they really went to work [Music] whole of the road here was littered with bodies there was no one who was left standing one of them had three fingers cut off on the gang that they thought were their adversaries the Italian mole but then they discovered all too late that it wasn't the Italian mob at all it was their own Associates from the north the Leeds gang one of the Leeds men heard somebody running behind him and this was one of the Birmingham boys holding a hammer and he looked to see if the Birmingham boy was gaining on him and suddenly realized that he was one of their allies and he said to to this chap you made a bloomer we're from Leeds and straight strangely enough the Birmingham boy replied my God I hope not anyway if you are getting to the bushes because there's no holding the slot and they'll be murdered under day and it was just by a gracious dispensation of Providence that there wasn't after their disastrous Ambush the Brahma gyms made off in a bright blue shower Bank not the most inconspicuous of vehicles if you've got the police after you [Music] and it wasn't long before police Sergeant Joseph Dawson spotted it parked up outside here which was then a pub known as the Georgian dragon why the gang of 28 after committing such a terrible crime and knowing that the police are after them decided to come in and have a drink here I have no idea I can only assume they were thirsty the attack at Ewell had been so violent and bloody that the police first thought it had been a shin Fein operation and issued Firearms to their officers so following the attack it was here to the Georgian dragon that the Birmingham boys came and it was in this Garden that they sat down to refresh themselves after their exertions celebrating absolutely and it was Sergeant Dawson who came walking in here and upon having heard that they had come from Birmingham and seeing the state of their clothing which was absolutely splattered with blood Sergeant Dawson courteously asked the the members of the Birmingham boys to consider themselves under arrest what do they think they they Rose as one all 28 of them and the Plucky Sergeant Dawson Drew out his revolver and said I shall shoot the first man who tries to escape right and immediately they uh they calm down so how long did Dawson hold them before he had reinforcements I should think it was quite quick but it must have seemed like an eternity it's okay Dawson was able to hold them at gunpoint until the flying Squad arrived and arrested them [Music] nowadays competition between the gangs in Birmingham forces them to stick to their own turf which they defend tooth and nail along with a juvenile notion of respect after the murder of Burger Bar Boy Johann Martin his brother Nathan street name 23 began planning his revenge against the Johnson crew he found a willing recruit in Marcus Ellis known as e-man Martin also recruited Michael Gregory another gang member known as chunk had the task of coordinating the hit he bought a pay as you go mobile and purchased the getaway car a red Ford Mondeo from a dealer in Northampton in the afternoon of New Year's Eve 2002 the car was brought back to Birmingham a window tintor was higher to darken the car's glass all the gang needed now was an opportunity and it arrived in the early hours of the 2nd of January 2003. [Music] one of the Burger Bar boys Sonny Sims was at a party at the uni 7 hair salon in Aston now a hardware store Sims spotted several of the Johnson crew at the party he relayed constant updates on his mobile to Gregory and the Burger Bar boys in the Mondeo and now made their way towards the salon [Music] the woman who ran the hair salon had had this New Year's Day party for the last few years it was well known so they tagged along you know and the Party by all accounts was you know a normal Affair there was nothing unusual about it until 30 hours of the morning when people reported that the atmosphere started getting very dark there was rumors around that there's going to be trouble something's going to happen [Music] according to position not far from the party [Music] inside was Marcus Ellis in the front passenger seat with a nine millimeter pistol behind him Nathan Martin had a Mac 10 machine gun Michael Gregory put the car into gear and set off Sims guided the attackers into position [Music] it was about four o'clock in the morning yeah the place was winding up people were piling out the back and basically just getting some fresh air [Music] so the party spills out onto the street the red Mondeo comes around the back here [Music] stops just over there by this salon [Music] Nathan Martin pulls out on Mac 10 and opens fire [Music] within a split second 23 empty cartridges are spewed out from the machine gun Charlie Nellis was the first to die she three times Leticia Shakespeare four times Charlene's twin sister Sophie their cousin Cheryl Shaw and friend Leon Harris were all injured you know what hits me here right he must have been four foot away when he opened up with the with the Mac he was so close that Witnesses actually could point you know in court they actually said the shape of the gun they saw his finger on the trigger it was that close you know they could make it there's not much space here you know the car comes through here there would have been people you know Milling around here there would have been you know only a little bit of space for that car to come through uh and on both sides there would have been people and it wasn't literally a case of stick sticking the gun out the window and pressing the trigger and they put their foot down and straight out that way which then gets them onto the sort of main routes in and out of Birmingham and then you're on to the motorway Junction so you know they seem to have made a clean gut away as far as they were concerned you know it was a job done yeah [Music] let's trace the car we were two hours away burnt out much of the DNA and forensic evidence destroyed but at the scene of the crime the police found 37 cartridge cases five from three weapons The Mach 10 a Spanish llama pistol and another weapon never recovered what at first appeared to be an indiscriminate Slaughter would unfold into one of the largest criminal investigations that the West Midlands police force had ever undertaken bodies of two young girls lay motionless on the ground innocent targets gunned down in the never-ending tit-for-tat war between birmingham's two major gangs the Burger Bar boys toasted the success of their attack with champagne to them it had been a huge success as it had been carried out on their rival gang's turf the callous and Casual nature of their drive-by shooting Leticia Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis horrified Birmingham and shocked the nation I went to see leticia's mother Marcia who had to go and identify her daughter only hours after the shooting as soon as I went into the room I could see Leticia she had a hairpiece on that day and I could see that was like cinched to one side I thought well this is this this teacher so I came around to have a look and she was there on the bed but her eyes were wide open really I've never seen her eyes that wide open yeah um and I still couldn't absorb that she was dead I still thought she was alive I said no she's alive her eyes are open she's got to be alive and when I was walking around and looking and when I looked because the eyes were so open you could see like where like the bloodshot like this shop yeah initially just just killed her she didn't have time to even close her eyes [Music] um that aura stopped with me for about four weeks I kept having nightmares um panic attacks um just couldn't for no that hasn't happened I didn't really think it happened you can't believe it you just can't take it in when something like that happens can you no I couldn't it appeared that the two girls had become accidental victims because the gun used in the attack was notoriously inaccurate very rare to have been found on the street it's a military issue machine gun fires off more than you know 200 rounds a minute it's known on the streets actually as the spray and prey because it's so hard to control I mean even proper marksmen find it difficult to control the back ten so to imagine that in the hands of uh you know a young kid who's probably never fired a gun before it would have been all over the place [Music] although the murders of Charlene Ellis and Leticia Shakespeare had all the appearance of an indiscriminate shooting the girls were not shot entirely by accident so they came down here expecting to shoot whoever belonged to the Johnson crew exactly yeah so were the girls part of that crew they weren't part of the crew but it's it's it's it's very difficult for anybody who lives in a particular area not to associate with gang members um you know gang members may be people that you went to school with people that you grew up with people that you know you may even like doesn't they say you know doesn't mean you're a part of that gang or condone what they do yeah I know as I was growing up it was if you walked with the prostitute you were classed as a prostitute if you walk with someone who was stealing you was classed as a still so it's about knowing that if you're going to walk around with that type of person you can have that same label they probably didn't care if they did shoot women in that Johan Martin's murder involved women it's actually he was set up by women yeah and that even subconsciously kind of changed the rules it made women a fair game that night a fundamental shift had taken place in the Birmingham underworld women had become legitimate Targets in the turf war between the two main gangs even though let's know that Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis were innocent just to be associated with a gang was enough to make them a Target the submachine gun The Killers used in the attack they now called the unisex weapon young women seem to be key roles in violent crime a lot of them are being used to carry weapons bullets a lot of gang members are using them as debts for other gangs of drugs rape a lot of women have been involved the murder of the innocent girl shocked everyone Witnesses could point the finger of guilt but no one would talk it didn't take too long to identify the culprits yeah it must have had an idea who was they would have had a very fair idea around the word on the street it was such a outrageous murder you know of girls innocent girls that people who wouldn't maybe talk to the police wouldn't go to the police but would find a channel to let the police know you know as a journalist people were telling me who was there and within about you know 48 Hours people like myself had a fair idea who the killers were but of course the problem for the police was well how do we prove it where's the evidence the inquiry into the New Year's Day party shooting the West Midlands they had to penetrate the wall of Silence Witnesses were just too scared to come forward it would take some extraordinary courage from some extraordinary individuals to bring it down [Music] the case of the brummergens was much easier to handle having fled the scene of the botched attack the gang stopped off here at what was known as The George and the Dragon only to be apprehended by Sergeant Dawson he held the entire group at gunpoint until the flying Squad arrived 26 of the 28th stood trial at gilberta sizes but they were so boisterous they had to be Shackled uh wrist and ankle and to each other as well because they were issuing threats to everybody in the cult anyway 23 of the uh the gang were convicted I did they reward Dawson they did the commissioner highly commended Sergeant Dawson and also rewarded Sergeant Dawson with a sum of five pounds which when you consider that a police Constable's wages at that time was about four quid a week a Fiverr was well worth having not too bad all received sentences between nine months hard labor and three years imprisonment but they would soon be back to their old tricks and racetrack violence would reach such a pitch that the authorities had no choice but to drive the gangs out of horse racing for good the New Year's Day Murders of 2003 cost a two-year long shadow of Silence across the city the police knew who the four gang members were but now they had to find the evidence to convict them Witnesses were too scared to come forward you know there was probably about 100 people here at that party and yet nobody not not a single person came forward to give a written statement which shows you know the kind of extent of the distrust here we've got a major murder people are shocked and good yet they still find it very difficult to actually make that step and go to the police after tens of thousands of men out hours having collected 1 300 statements recovered 40 vehicles for forensic analysis the police managed to find enough evidence to bring the four gang members to cool what happened in the trial what was the atmosphere like in the courtroom it was a very intense atmosphere and a very intimidating atmosphere gang members particularly from the Burger Bar whose members were in The Dock would would turn up at court and quite blatantly Embrace of the intimidate Witnesses I mean it got to the point where people would shout things out while a witness was giving evidence and you could see the visible effect on the witness you know the witness would climb up after being spoken to people who in fact were prepared to be sent down for contempt of court rather than yeah rather than talk to uh you know to the jury yeah people were being you know followed as they left a courtroom including myself and uh I was followed a couple times back to my car I mean by that stage I'd written so so much about the gangs that they were probably aware that you know there's a reporter in there who seems to know a lot about us and it got to the stage where I was you know being going back to my car with a police officer but there was one witness who had the courage to speak out his name wasn't given he gave his evidence behind a curse and his voice was electronically distorted and there was a bit of a delay from what he said to be it being relayed out to the courtroom I mean the whole courtroom was cleared nobody was allowed in there the defendants couldn't see who this witness was uh you know they weren't too unprecedented lens to protect this witness I think there were a lot of the measures they introduced had never been seen in the British court before right and it was on this Witnesses testimony really that the whole case hinged because he was the only guy who named names as in he said I saw him in the car I saw him in the car I saw him shoot the gun and I saw him in the car not only did the witness give a detailed description of the killers he also saw Sims outside on his mobile but would he be believed one of the unique things about this witness was he was a gangster himself and he made no bones about it he told the court I am a member or have been a member of the Johnson crew I am a criminal I you know he was currently in jail when he was giving evidence um which brought up all kind of legal problems you know the defense were claiming well how can we believe the words of a gangster uh but the CPS and the police I suppose were desperate you know this was all they had yeah his testimony was strong you know albeit it came from the mouth of a convicted gangster yeah clearly the jury believed it Mr Justice Goldring convicted Marcus Ellis Nathan Martin and Michael Gregory of killing Charlene Ellis and Leticia Shakespeare they were jailed for 35 years Rodrigo Sims was given 27 years thank you [Music] while the Brahma gyms were away in jail the sabinis stayed in control and had many violent fights with other London gangs but soon the Brahma gyms were out again terrorizing the race tracks in 1925 the Home Secretary declared that something had to be done to break the gangs under Chief Inspector Frederick nutty sharp the flying Squad began to Target race meetings with just 12 officers the flying Squad Personnel had to be pretty tough to to deal with the various gangs you have people like Fred Sharp who joined the police in 1911 who was extraordinarily brave because on one occasion about 40 of some of the worst thugs from the Italian mob all surged onto the racetrack and sharp walked onto the racetrack completely single-handedly and said clear off and just one of them demured and collected a right hand of from sharp put him on his back and the rest of them fled and that was happening all the time didn't the flying Squad have these rather Grand armored cars in arriving as well well these were old tenders which had been purchased from the Royal flying Corps after the first world war and they were enormous and ungainly they had these bedstead period yes that's why they became known as the bedsteads because of the aerial that could be raised or lowered they were very conspicious they were extremely conspicuous I mean after the the first time they made a arrest all of the underworld knew about them so they were used more as a preventative exercise where they were expecting trouble in 1932 the National bookmakers Protection Association was set up to make pitch allocation fairer and to finally eradicate the intimidation of bookmakers only a bookmaker approved by the BPA locally and by the Jockey Club can have a pitch and that pitch cannot be sold it has to be passed on that cuts out people like Kimber coming and saying that's my pitch the Brahma gyms were once the greatest gang of their era but after the flying Squad clamped down on Racetrack gangs they moved off into more lucrative scams like nightclubs and casinos the now aging Brahma gems were passed their Prime and losing their appetite for violence Billy Kimber their charismatic leader took one last shot at the sabini gang before fleeing to America gang violence at race courses has never returned [Music] in Birmingham 70 years later the murder of Charlene Ellis and Leticia Shakespeare was so shocking he created a standoff between the city's gangs [Music] so this was between the two games you could say so it certainly it's certainly awakened a lot of people in both gangs to think well hang on where is this going what's this leading to where we're killing innocent innocent girls you know we're exposing ourselves to the whole country to the whole world the alarming aspects the case highlighted was to relationships between who had shot one of them was Marcus Ellis who was actually the half brother of Charlie Dennis so they were related they were related they were a strange you could say they weren't you know they hadn't been brought up together but they were certainly aware of each other in fact Charlene had bumped into Marcus literally three two or three weeks earlier after about after about 10 years having not seen each other how they exchange phone numbers but despite this Marcus Ellis shot his half-sister Charlene at point-blank range perhaps he was unable to see who she was or perhaps his loyalty to the gang far outweighed any feelings of love he had for a member of his own family how can we disentangle young lives a ganglang culture one way is education since the death of her daughter Marcia visits schools to teach young children that they can choose to walk away from gangs so what is your approach with the kids well my approach to the kids is basically I'm here to give you as much information around violent crime so once I've given you the information it's down to you as an individual to make the right choice because you've got the information okay we might have all went to the same school but that doesn't mean that oh let's all go out and get a Mac 10 machine gun and start going shooting who we want to so it's about moving yourself away and you know making the right choices in where you actually go yeah so what I do is basically have an education strategy in place to help young women to exit out of grounds because a lot of people get caught up in the crossfire because it's the mums the dads or brothers but it's once you're in it's difficult to get out very hard because for the boys and the girls both um it's like the thing what's hard is that there's consequences once you've joined obviously you've seen a lot of things of course which can make a lot of people be put behind bars yeah so knowing that you can't just walk away and say okay I'm gonna live a normal life you're a threat to them a lot of people who I know have been injured in actually trying to exit out against and if you look behind us this is a presentation what we did today this is what the pupils have absorbed because this is how they've responded in what they've heard just from today so they're very passionate so you know the messages being put out there you hit the kids quite hard don't you you've got two it's not a soft message no over here no it isn't because it's not a soft Society what we're living in what age are the kids um the kids today was between year seven eight and ten but we've gone as low as year six which is primary school this is secondary so is the future good um the future is better with the right support and the right things in place you can clamp down some of it you can't do that a lot but some of it [Music] since 2005 there's been a fall in the number of murders and Firearm offenses amongst gangs in Birmingham the deaths of Charlene Ellis and Leticia Shakespeare brought it home to everyone in Britain the problems caused by gang feuds and the danger they pose when this level of violence spills out into everyday life foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: True Crime Central

Views: 38,028

Keywords: Australian Crime, Crime Stories, Jeffrey Dahmer, Serial Killers, Ted Bundy, True Crime, True Crime Central, asmr, cases, cinema, cold cases, community, crim, crime, crime recaps, doco, documentary, full episodes, gangsters, murder, murder mystery, podcast, podcasts, recap, treu crime, true crime, true crime addict, true crime asmr, true crime podcast, true crime recaps, peaky blinders, real peaky blinders, thomas shelby, cillian murphy, the real peaky blinders, billy kimber

Id: NX9Cv2pt2pk

Length: 45min 30sec (2730 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 07 2023