The Monk

The Life and Crimes of Ireland's Most Enigmatic Gang Boss

Paul Williams

• Publisher: Allen & Unwin
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781911630807
• eBook ISBN: 9781760874254
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Irish History
• Index: History

On the streets of the tough Dublin inner-city neighbourhood where he grew up, Gerry Hutch was perceived as an ordinary decent criminal, a quintessential Robin Hood figure who fought the law - and won. To the rest of the world he was an elusive criminal godfather called the Monk: an enigmatic criminal mastermind and the hunted leader of one side in the deadliest gangland feud in Irish criminal history. The latest book from Ireland's leading crime writer Paul Williams reveals the inside story of Hutch's war with former allies the Kinahan cartel, and how the once untouchable crime boss became a fugitive on the run from the law and the mob - with a?1 million bounty on his head. The Monk is an enthralling account of the rise and fall of a modern-day gangster, charting the violent journey of an impoverished kid from the ghetto to the top tier of gangland - until it all went wrong.

CHAPTER ONE

CLASH OF THE CLANS

On New Year’s Day 2016 veteran criminal Gerry Hutch was facing the biggest single crisis of his fifty-two years. The two most powerful family-based gangs in Ireland – led by Irish godfathers Christopher Kinahan Senior and Gerard Hutch – were on a one-way collision course with disaster. The murder of the Monk’s nephew Gary Hutch in September 2015 and the New Year’s Eve attempt against Gerry Hutch himself had ruled out any prospect of reasoning with his one-time close allies. A line had been crossed and they were now deadly enemies.

Hutch, however, had no intention of breaking with his code of omerta to seek help from his old foes, the gardaí, or of instructing his lawyers to threaten legal action. He had no interest in the way disputes are settled in the civilized world beyond gangland’s cultural boundaries. The only law he would invoke was the primal law of vengeance: an eye for an eye. In the immediate aftermath of the failed execution attempt, he disappeared into the shadows to plot the manner and timing of his revenge, beyond the reach of the assassins the Kinahan cartel would surely keep sending until they finally succeeded in closing his eyes – permanently. He knew that when it came to the strike back it would have to be executed with the same meticulous planning and ruthless efficiency of his celebrated heists.

The sensational story of the Monk’s close call in Lanzarote was widely reported in the media back in Ireland. The news was greeted with genuine astonishment by experienced cops, criminals and reporters alike. As crime stories go it could not get any more sensational than that – or so we thought. If someone twelve months earlier had predicted such a confrontation they would, to paraphrase the comedian Billy Connolly, have been sent to the funny farm without getting home for their pyjamas.

Hutch and Kinahan Senior were two of the most devious and intelligent godfathers in Irish organized crime; traits which had helped them to prosper and survive. They had known each other since the early 1980s when they embarked on their respective career paths: Hutch as a street thief turned professional armed robber; Kinahan as a suave petty fraudster turned drug trafficker. Both criminals had been clever enough to learn from the mistakes of their contemporaries who had ended up dead or in prison.

One of the secrets to the Monk’s successful criminal career lay in his talent for self-preservation which involved strategically manipulating circumstances to ensure that he always maintained total control over events. These skills had been the hallmark of his multiple robberies. Losing control inevitably meant failure and the prospect of a long stint behind bars or worse – losing control was not an option. Another secret to his success was that Hutch adopted a pragmatic, methodical approach to solving problems, commenting: ‘When you are in trouble your first priority is to get out of it. Once you have done that you can worry about other things.’ On 1 January 2016 his priority was to regain control of the febrile situation before it was too late.

The master thief’s adherence to a reasoned, non-confrontational approach in business had successfully shielded him from the endemic volatility and treachery that characterized the psyche of the new breed of criminal on Dublin’s streets. It was a tragic irony that it was these same capricious traits in his hot-headed nephew which had ultimately engulfed the Monk’s peaceful world in flames.

It may seem counter-intuitive in the eyes of law-abiding civilians, but Gerry Hutch was an ethical villain who observed a certain code of honour. He exemplified the qualities of a so-called Ordinary Decent Criminal (ODC) – an all but extinct criminal type these days – who played a straight game and kept his word. The ruthless capacity that lurked behind the benign, conciliatory image burnished his reputation as an ODC and a man of ‘respect’. But it was well-known this brutal reaction was only ever deployed when all other avenues of common sense and reason had failed. As a result, the elusive Monk straddled the razor wire fence between gangland and civilized society; he could walk freely on either side and never have to look over his shoulder.

Gardaí who have been trying to catch Gerard Hutch for decades share that view of his character. One veteran cop remarked: ‘He is undoubtedly a villain and one who is capable of vicious violence. But he is also honest, and I think that he was wise enough never to make the mistake of considering himself as being invincible. He is also very focused. He has always been able to compartmentalize problems, dealing with them separately, one at a time.’

In Hutch’s bible treachery was an unforgivable, mortal sin. It breached his strongly-held moral code, an approach he once explained in an interview with crime journalist Veronica Guerin: ‘My philosophy in life is simple enough. No betrayal. That means you don’t talk about others, you don’t grass and you never let people down.’

As far as the Monk was concerned the Kinahan gang had broken this code. Five months earlier, Christy Senior, the Dapper Don, and his son, Daniel, had made a solemn, inviolate pact with Gerry Hutch that in return for financial compensation and a promise of no further retaliation, his nephew Gary’s safety was guaranteed and there would be peace between the two families. The two godfathers had reportedly agreed that they would each keep control on the younger generation to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. It was easy to see why Gerry Hutch was confident that he had a deal and afterwards, according to a friend, warned Gary to stay out of trouble before his impetuous nephew returned to the Kinahan’s stronghold in Puerto Banus in Spain’s Costa del Sol.

And so, when the Kinahans broke the accord by executing Gary and then turning their hit men on the Monk, it was an unconscionable, devastating act of betrayal from which there was no going back. From Gerry Hutch’s point of view, extreme violence was the only option left open to him, with all the unavoidable bloody consequences that would surely follow.

A close friend of the Monk who spoke to him after the failed execution commented:

Gerard was not a guy to come out all guns blazing like the other hotheads because his instinct was to sort out potentially dangerous situations peacefully, talking the problem through with both sides in a calm collective way, a bit like a real-life Don Corleone. He didn’t want people blowing one another up because he was wise enough to know that one killing just leads to another and then another. That’s why he has only ever been connected to a few killings in his time and they were ones that couldn’t be avoided. Gerard always believed that there’s a way of solving problems other than ending up in a casket. But this situation changed everything.

After that [assassination bid] and Gary’s murder he knew he couldn’t trust the Kinahans and everyone around him all agreed with that. The Kinahans are treacherous vipers, especially Daniel, and he got that from his father Christy. Gary had told Gerard of all the people who had been double-crossed by Daniel and his father. Gerard said Christy was ‘a cheap, fuckin’ fraud man who’d do his own mother… you can’t trust him or any of his clan’. In the weeks after the thing in Spain Daniel and Christy denied that they had anything to do with the attempt on his life and they kept trying to arrange meetings with him to talk peace but he knew they only wanted to set him up. He was the one man they feared most because they knew what he was capable of. For Gerard there was no going back. He was in a corner and to protect himself and his family it was a case of kill or be killed. His old way of doing things wouldn’t help him this time. He had a big crew of very able lads around who were more than willing to back him up.

In the first weeks of the New Year, in the midst of much media speculation about the escalating tensions between the two tribes, an eerie calm descended. The Monk had ordered his gang to maintain a low profile while he plotted the next move. This total silence made Daniel Kinahan and his father nervous. Hutch escaping a bullet in Lanzarote was a disaster. They were well aware that he made for a lethal enemy. The wily gangster would never allow them to come so close to killing him again. The Kinahans continued to make overtures to Hutch but they had more immediate concerns.

In a joint venture with UK boxing promoter Frank Warren, Daniel was involved in organizing the WBO European Lightweight title fight which was scheduled to take place in Dublin in early February. Over the years Daniel had been using his dirty money to pursue an ambition of becoming a legitimate international boxing promoter. He had entered a partnership with British-Irish champion boxer Matthew Macklin and set up the MGM gym – Macklin Gym Marbella – from his base in Puerto Banus. Kinahan also managed a stable of boxers. The last thing Daniel wanted was for the highly lucrative venture to be marred by a member of the Hutch gang taking a pot shot at him. There had been much coverage and speculation in the media that the expected escalation in the feud might coincide with the timing of the big fight when the cartel leadership would be together in one place.

In the weeks before the event Kinahan sent two of his closest associates, who had once been close friends of Gary Hutch, to talk with Eddie, the Monk’s elder brother. Eddie ‘Neddie’ Hutch was six years older than the Monk and had been one of his criminal mentors growing up. He brought his younger brother on his first armed robberies when he was still a teenager. Although long since retired, and no longer involved in organized crime, Neddie was still his infamous brother’s eyes and ears. He was the only line of communication the Kinahans had to Gerry who had gone to ground. The young boxing promoter wanted to convince Gerry Hutch that the cartel had nothing to do with the attempt on his life and that they were seeking a truce. Christy and Daniel Kinahan also spoke to Eddie on the phone in an effort to de-escalate the situation and seek assurances that there would be no trouble at the forthcoming boxing title fight. Eddie Hutch agreed to pass the message on to his younger brother who rebuffed the offer because he said the Kinahans could not be trusted. At the same time, the Monk was secretly preparing for vengeance.

When Gerry Hutch made his move a few weeks later, it was unprecedented and ferocious. Just before 2.30 p.m. on a storm-lashed, gloomy Friday afternoon on 5 February 2016 – thirty-six days after the botched hit in Lanzarote – a five-man assassination squad stormed the Regency Hotel in Dublin’s northside. In the ballroom about 200 spectators had gathered to attend the much publicized weigh-in for the big fight, billed as the ‘Clash of the Clans’, which was due to take place the following night in the National Stadium, in Dublin’s south inner city. Kinahan and his top lieutenants, including Liam Byrne who ran the cartel’s Irish operation, were there for the big event. The Monk, however, had orchestrated an alternative clash of the clans which wouldn’t conform to boxing’s Queensberry rules.

Three of the killers were kitted out as members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit (ERU), complete with paramilitary-style fatigues, balaclavas, Kevlar helmets and bullet-proof vests emblazoned with the word ‘Garda’. The only difference was that these guys were brandishing AK-47 military assault rifles, the weapon of choice of the IRA. The other two hit men were armed with handguns and posed as a couple, with one of them dressed as a woman.

The ‘Garda’ squad burst into the front lobby of the busy hotel while the ‘couple’ came through a back door into the ballroom. The plan was to trap Daniel Kinahan and his sidekicks by forcing them to flee from the ballroom straight into the path of the waiting ‘ERU’ team who would riddle them with high velocity bullets. Gerry Hutch intended it to be the Irish equivalent of Al Capone’s infamous St Valentine’s Day massacre. Like the fictional Don Corleone in The Godfather, a movie Daniel Kinahan was obsessed with, Gerry Hutch was determined to sort ‘all family business’ in a single devastating blow.

The attack was designed to cause maximum shock and use brutal, overwhelming force to wipe out the cartel’s top management tier in Ireland. With them out of the way the organization would be left powerless and in complete disarray. The Kinahan cartel would be no more. Equilibrium could be restored and peace would prevail.

The ‘couple’ fired a series of shots in the air, creating pandemonium in the ballroom as panicked men, women and children scrambled for the exit doors. On the other side of them, the sight of the fake ‘ERU’ team added to the confusion, giving the spectators the impression that the gardaí had arrived to restore order. But even the best laid plans by successful criminal brains are susceptible to going awry. Daniel Kinahan and his associates fled through an emergency door and got away as the gunman in drag could be heard shouting: ‘He’s not fuckin’ here…I can’t fuckin’ find him.’

The hit team did find David Byrne, the younger brother of Liam Byrne, who was a major player in the cartel. One of the ‘Garda’ team shot David Byrne as he ran with the panicked crowd through the reception area in the lobby. He fell to the ground and tried to crawl for cover. Two of Byrne’s associates were also shot and injured. A second fake ‘Garda’ fired more rounds into Byrne as the other gunmen could be seen on CCTV searching the bar, adjoining rooms and the rear exits for their targets amongst the chaos of the terrified crowd. Reviewing the footage afterwards the shooters seemed calm and completely focused on their task – it was clear they knew who they were looking for.

One of the garda imposters was shown jumping onto the reception desk and pointing his rifle at a journalist who had sought refuge behind it. Satisfied that the terrified man wasn’t a member of the cartel, the gunman casually turned and fired again into David Byrne’s prone body. The thirty-three-year-old criminal was shot a total of six times in the face, stomach, hand and legs. He was so badly disfigured that his family were unable to have an open casket at his funeral.

Realizing that the main targets had escaped, and time had run out, the killing squad retreated to a waiting van outside the front entrance and sped away. The blitz attack was over in six minutes.

Gerry Hutch had established a new inauspicious record for the most audacious attack ever seen in Irish gangland history. His terrorist-style offensive elevated him to a higher level of notoriety. The killers had avoided shooting or injuring any innocent people which illustrated their level of focus and discipline. When examined from the cold-blooded perspective of a terrorist or hired assassin, the attack had been a top-notch professional job.

But after the chaos had subsided and the cordite fumes had dissipated from the lobby of the Regency Hotel, the Monk had to face the realization that it had been a spectacular failure. The senior members of the Kinahan cartel had been left untouched and were already gearing up for a merciless backlash. And Gerry Hutch knew that they had the money, weaponry and soldiers to wage war. He had lost the biggest gamble of his life and the world as he knew it was about to implode.

The attack seemed a reckless escapade given the fact that the links between the pre-fight weigh-in and the Kinahan organization had been so widely publicized. The Monk and his crew would have had to factor in the distinct possibility that armed gardaí would be monitoring the patrons at the Regency Hotel, heightening the risk of a shoot-out. Strangely, however, despite being an obvious public security risk, no gardaí were assigned to monitor the event. It was later deemed an embarrassing and inexplicable oversight. Garda chiefs had planned a major security operation around the National Stadium for the big fight but had not considered the weigh-in a likely flashpoint. It was the only bit of luck the Hutch gang had that day.

While garda management had not considered it necessary to keep an eye on the country’s biggest drug trafficking gang at a major public spectacle in the midst of a simmering feud, photographers and reporters from the Irish Independent and the Sun...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Prologue
• Chapter One: Clash of the Clans
• Chapter Two: Carnival of Crime
• Chapter Three: Learning the Trade
• Chapter Four: Power Base
• Chapter Five: First Blood
• Chapter Six: The First Big Job
• Chapter Seven: Dirty Money and Murder
• Chapter Eight: A Man of Property
• Chapter Nine: A New Record
• Chapter Ten: The Brinks-Allied Job
• Chapter Eleven: Family Business
• Chapter Twelve: Operation Alpha
• Chapter Thirteen: The Nephews
• Chapter Fourteen: Stepping into the Limelight
• Chapter Fifteen: A Threat to National Security
• Chapter Sixteen: Dangerous World
• Chapter Seventeen: Operation Shovel
• Chapter Eighteen: Treachery And Betrayal
• Chapter Nineteen: Countdown to War
• Chapter Twenty: The Dogs of War
• Chapter Twenty-One: The Tapes
• Chapter Twenty-Two: Breakthroughs, Betrayal and Bloodshed
• Chapter Twenty-Three: The Gangland Trial of the Century
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments
• Index
• Plates Section