Jimmy was a key figure in the so-called Quality Street Gang, who were reputedly behind organised crime in Manchester in the sixties, seventies and eighties.
Immortalised by Irish rock band Thin Lizzy’s 1976 song ‘Johnny the Fox meets Jimmy the Weed’, he has convictions for burglary, theft, assault and handling stolen goods and has been arrested on suspicion of both murder and attempted murder, although never charged.
The Quality Street Gang, started by John “LEGZ” Miller was a name given to a group of criminals operating in Manchester in the 1960s and 1970s/
Although the group was considered by some senior officers in the Greater Manchester Police to be the instigators of much of Manchester’s major crime, many others believed that the gang was nothing more than a social friendship between a group of men, most of whom had criminal records. Certainly in the 20 years that the group was supposedly organising the city’s crime, none of its alleged members was ever convicted of serious crimes.
The Quality Street Gang was reportedly named after an advertisement for Quality Street confectionery which featured a group of fashionably dressed people: as the “gang” walked into a pub, a wag supposedly shouted “It’s the Quality Street Gang” and the name stuck. Another story says the name came about because most of the gang members were overweight.
The gang was also at one point attached to a story about the Kray twins coming to Manchester to expand their turf, but being turned around at Manchester Piccadilly station and put back on the train to London. On his website however, the former gangster Frankie Fraser doubted that the incident ever happened, as the Krays travelled exclusively by car and were uninterested in expanding their territory outside London.
Happy birthday Jimmy! in Manchester on this day 81 years ago.
Jimmy was a key figure in the so-called Quality Street Gang, who were reputedly behind organised crime in Manchester in the sixties, seventies and eighties.
Immortalised by Irish rock band Thin Lizzy’s 1976 song ‘Johnny the Fox meets Jimmy the Weed’, he has convictions for burglary, theft, assault and handling stolen goods and has been arrested on suspicion of both murder and attempted murder, although never charged.
The Quality Street Gang, started by John “LEGZ” Miller was a name given to a group of criminals operating in Manchester in the 1960s and 1970s/
Although the group was considered by some senior officers in the Greater Manchester Police to be the instigators of much of Manchester’s major crime, many others believed that the gang was nothing more than a social friendship between a group of men, most of whom had criminal records. Certainly in the 20 years that the group was supposedly organising the city’s crime, none of its alleged members was ever convicted of serious crimes.
The Quality Street Gang was reportedly named after an advertisement for Quality Street confectionery which featured a group of fashionably dressed people: as the “gang” walked into a pub, a wag supposedly shouted “It’s the Quality Street Gang” and the name stuck. Another story says the name came about because most of the gang members were overweight.
The gang was also at one point attached to a story about the Kray twins coming to Manchester to expand their turf, but being turned around at Manchester Piccadilly station and put back on the train to London. On his website however, the former gangster Frankie Fraser doubted that the incident ever happened, as the Krays travelled exclusively by car and were uninterested in expanding their territory outside London.
Happy birthday Jimmy!
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