John Gilligan is no altar boy, by his own admission. One of Ireland’s most infamous criminals and drug lords, and widely believed in the court of public opinion to have ordered the cold-blooded murder of crime reporter Veronica Guerin, he remains a defiant figure.
In this remarkable book – the first of its kind – journalist Jason O’Toole distills hours of sensational face-to-face, no-holds-barred interviews with the feared criminal into a fast-paced and jaw-dropping account of the Irish gangland scene. And Gilligan doesn’t mince his words. ‘I didn’t believe in God, but I know I’m going to hell.’
Starting out as a petty thief in Dublin, Gilligan rose to the status of crime lord earning £10 million from drugs within his first two years. He mixed with ‘the General’ Martin Cahill, with Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch and with John Traynor. He was deeply involved with money laundering, miraculously survived an assassination attempt, and it is said he has millions of euro stashed away at a secret location, for future use. O’Toole demands answers from Gilligan for all the hard questions; some of his responses will make readers shiver.
Gilligan knew that laying all his cards on the table could mean signing his own death warrant. But he has done it here. And with a cast of all the country’s deadliest underworld figures, this exposé is nothing short of explosive.
