Inside the web of lies that turned the The Essex Boys into legends of the underworld telegraph.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from telegraph.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Standing - onlookers watch as the Range Rover, where Patrick Tate, Anthony Tucker and Craig Rolfe were shot dead, is taken away from the scene of the crime A TRIPLE murder which took place in Rettendon more than 25 years ago has hit the headlines again after it was alleged the convicted killers have been wrongly jailed. Patrick Tate, Anthony Tucker and Craig Rolfe were all shot dead while sat in a Range Rover down a farm track just 300 yards away from the busy A130 on December 6, 1995. Michael Steele and Jack Whomes were convicted of murder thee years later and sentenced to life in prison, but former gangster Steve ‘Nipper’ Ellis has claimed the two men are innocent.
Speaking to this newspaper, Jack Whomes brother John Whomes, who lives in Mendlesham, near Stowmarket, said: It could have come out sooner. I know his dad s only been dead four years but it could have come out sooner so we could do something with it. Jack s at the end of his road now. The only thing I would say about it is that it s made all the books and the films look bad. I m glad it has made a mockery of those because some of them were quite damaging. Because all those books and all those films came out as the true story, well obviously the true story has now come out. Let s hope the rest of it does.
Drug dealers Pat Tate, Tony Tucker and Craig Rolfe were shot dead in Rettendon, Essex, in 1995.
Three years later, Michael Steele, now 76, and Jack Whomes, 57, were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
But former Essex gangster Steve Nipper Ellis, 55, has claimed the two men are innocent, and that his father, Sid, carried out the murders after threatening his family.
Steve Nipper Ellis claims his father Sid called to say he had carried shot Pat Tate, Tony Tucker and Craig Rolfe dead in Rettendon, Essex, in 1995
According to The Sun, Ellis served time behind bars with Tate, but later fell out with the gang after a comment was made about Tucker s mistress.