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Killing Goldfinger

The Secret, Bullet-Riddled Life and Death of Britain's Gangster Number One

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 Killing Goldfinger charts the extraordinary rise and spectacular bullet-riddled fall of John Palmer, the richest, most powerful criminal ever to have emerged from the modern British underworld. During the late 1990s, Palmer was rated as rich as The Queen by the Sunday Times Rich List.
Palmer earned his nickname Goldfinger after smelting (in his back garden) tens of millions of pounds worth of stolen gold bullion from the 20th century's most lucrative heist; the Brink's-Mat robbery. Palmer then used his share of the millions to become the vicious overlord of a vast illegal timeshare property empire in Tenerife. At the same time, Goldfinger financed huge international drugs shipments as well as some of the most notorious UK robberies of the past 30 years, including the £50m Securitas heist in Kent in 2006 and, many believe, the Hatton Garden heist in 2015.
Palmer vowed to hunt down all his underworld enemies. But in the end it was those same criminals who decided to bring his life to an end. Murdered in June 2015, with charges of fraud, money laundering and worse pending, this book tells his murky story for the first time.
As outrageous and bullet-riddled as the hit Netflix series Narcos, Killing Goldfinger tells the true story of Britain's underworld kingpin, who turned the sunshine holiday island of Tenerife into his very own Crime Incorporated and then paid the ultimate price.©2017 Wensley Clarkson (P)2023 W. F. Howes Ltd Crime Murder Organized Crime True Crime Robbery
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A really good story of this infamous gangster and his world. Sometimes portrayed as a ‘nice’ guy, this puts him in perspective and leaves the reader in no doubt as to his real personality and motives. I found the narrator annoying with his emphasis on words like ‘the’ and ‘a’ and there some errors in pronunciation. Factually, there were flaws in the Millennium Dome part (I know - I was involved) that made me doubt if there were other factual errors in the script, but overall I’d recommend this book.

Fascinating but flawed

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This is disturbing account of lawlesness in the world. The fact that Palmer was able to make so much money,and get away with it for much of his criminal career does not leave you with much confidence in those charged with preventing this sort of thing. Well narrated.

Excellent book.

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Compelling true tale. Only one conclusion!.
Death or life imprisonment!
Sad really. Crime just doesn’t pay….in the end.

Gripping true tale!

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The JP portrayed in BBC1 drama ‘Gold’ is a tiny tiny glimpse of a much larger gangster!

Interesting story and if you like British crime, it’s definitely worth a listen.

Very interesting

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well written, told very well and clearly very well researched. The description of the characters brought this true story to life

one of the best

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