Shooters: Guns and Gangs in Manchester in the Twenty-first Century

by Ben Black

The last days of the 20th Century saw a major crackdown on Manchester's warring gangs. But soon new groups emerged, with names like the Young Gooch Crew, the Moss Side Bloods, the Old Trafford Crips, the Longsight Street Soldiers and the Fallowfield Mad Dogs. Younger and even more violent than their predecessors, they baited their rivals with explicit grime tracks and internet videos and unleashed a wave of bloodshed. SHOOTERS tells the story of these gangs and their various alliances, feuds and crimes. Using detailed court testimony and inside accounts, it gives a rare insight into the lethal conflict between the Pitt Bulls and the Longsight Crew; tells how two underworld armourers dubbed Bobby the Gun and the Merchant of Death supplied the gunmen with reactivated weapons; chronicles the infamous bloodbath at the Brass Handles pub in Salford, when two would-be assassins were themselves executed; and reveals the inner workings of the drug-dealing L$$ posse. It also recounts the story of Gooch leaders Colin Joyce and Stephen Amos, whose arrest for murder led to one of Britain’s biggest-ever trials; pieces together the events behind the notorious killings of teenagers such as Jessie James, Giuseppe Gregory and Louis Brathwaite; examines the methods of the audacious armed robbers of Salford; and describes the rise of lethal Asian gangs and their influence in the neighbouring towns of Bolton and Oldham. SHOOTERS is a powerful account of one city’s ongoing struggle with the law of the gun.

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 24, 2012

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shooters is about gang-related gun crime in Manchester. The author's style is very colloquial, and sometimes has the feel of a rambling story told by a friend in a pub - it was interesting but a bit baffling at times. The names and nicknames of gang members, and the names of the gangs themselves, are jumbled together in anecdotal segments that I found quite hard to keep track of. It is also a non-fiction book that has an odd kind of omniscient narrator that describes in minute detail the thoughts of the victims and gang members. These must be taken from statements or eye-witness accounts, but none of it is referenced or sourced so it often felt like more of a novelisation than a factual piece of writing to me.

That said, I found Shooters really engaging (and sad and horrible), and I think the down-to-earth style suits the subject matter. The author did a good job of setting the scene, and showing how and why gang culture is so prevalent in more deprived areas. The descriptions of the major players and their crimes were often chilling, and this read was definitely way out of my comfort zone.

Also, I loved reading about the police trying to disband a gang named after a particular street by...er...renaming the street.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must admit my initial reaction was quite negative. It's very colloquially written: to the annoying way everyone gets 'blasted' instead of 'shot' to the slightly distasteful way the author refers to prostitutes as 'whores' in one instance.

Nonetheless it's an entertaining and easy read which I ripped through. I live in Manchester so it is interesting to see how much the city has changed in only a few years. I wonder what the writer would have to say about the recent killing of Paul Massey?