Gang Wars of the North

Viv Graham and Lee Duffy led parallel lives as pub and club enforcers, raging their gangland turf wars with a fierce frenzy of brutality and unremitting cruelty. This is a riverting double portrait of two of the North East's most feared men whose bloody rivalry was cut short when they each met horrifically violent ends.With a frightening capacity for extreme violence, Tyneside protection hardman Viv Graham struck fear into the hearts of his enemies, yet his benevolence to local charities and schemes to keep kids away from drugs and crime was well known. A legend in his own lifetime, he was the ultimate maverick troubleshooter whose size and ability to fight enabled him to live just as he wishes, never forgetting the deprived community he came from, who in times of need, considered him the fourth emergency service. Teeside drugs enforcer Lee Duffy had half his foot shot off in an assassination attempt and his skull beaten with a crowbar, yet his streetwise instinct remained unmatched. Proud to be known as Viv's arch enemy, Lee was feared and respected in equal measure and wanted to get out of the game for the sake of his family, but was so deeply involved that there was only one way he would ever leave...With unprecedented access to friends, family members and associates, Stephen Richards dispels many of the myths surrounding these legendary figures to create the ultimate biography of Britain's deadliest rivals.