Abstract
This chapter explores the nebulous concept of hitmen and their position in the criminal underworld. It does this by investigating the 2002 assassination of Gary Morgan, who was murdered by prolific hitman Peter O’Toole. O’Toole, at the height of his criminal exploits, was regarded as one of Britain’s most feared hired killers, and in court was once described as a ‘professional hitman’. In this chapter, I argue that O’Toole was by no means a professional hitman. Rather, O’Toole, at the most, should be considered a ‘Journeyman’ hitman (MacIntyre et al. in The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice 53: 325–340, 2014). To offer a comprehensive account of the ambiguous position that O’Toole held in the underworld, his role as a hitman is triangulated with the critical biographical analysis of a notorious British hitman, and the understanding of ‘glocal’ organised crime (Hobbs in Lush Life: Constructing Organized Crime in the UK, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013).
O’Toole was a right little bastard. That fucker was born to simply raise hell.
—John
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Rahman, M. (2019). Contract Killers and Glocal Organised Crime: A Case Study of the ‘Baby-Faced’ Assassin. In: Homicide and Organised Crime. Palgrave Studies in Risk, Crime and Society. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16253-5_3
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