Crime World

MEET the man convicted of murdering his 14-year-old ex-girlfriend — who now wants to move to Ireland. Dempsey Lewis, formally known as Dempsey Hawkins, was convicted of murdering Susan Jacobson in New York in 1976, when he was just 16-years-old. During the time in which Susan's body was missing, he participated in searches with her family, leading them away from the area whenever they got close to...

MEET the man convicted of murdering his 14-year-old ex-girlfriend — who now wants to move to Ireland. Dempsey Lewis, formally known as Dempsey Hawkins, was convicted of murdering Susan Jacobson in New York in 1976, when he was just 16-years-old. During the time in which Susan's body was missing, he participated in searches with her family, leading them away from the area whenever they got close to...

He is the bareknuckle boxer from a long line of champions - but it will a lifetime before he gets back to fighting. Joe Joyce Jnr said he was only defending himself and his home when he took a slash-hook to a young neighbour, who would later die from his injuries. Despite his claims of self-defence, a jury convicted him of the murder of 18-year-old John Paul McDonagh. So, who is Joe Joyce Jnr and...

He's the world heavyweight boxing champ who has just been refused entry to the US as a result of sanctions levelled against the Kinahan Organised Crime Group. So, just what are Tyson Fury's links to mob boss Daniel Kinahan and how far back does the relationship go back? Will the travel ban against Fury and other associates of the Irish mafia chief affect their boxing careers and futures prospects?...

He’s one of Ireland’s most sinister and twisted killers who groomed his vulnerable victim and gave her take a starring role in her own murder. In this two-part Crime World special, written by Niamh O'Connor, we look back on the gruesome details of Graham Dwyer's relationship with Elaine O'Hara, and her tragic, brutal killing. We hear the text messages that passed between the pair in the days befor...

He’s one of Ireland’s most sinister and twisted killers who groomed his vulnerable victim and gave her take a starring role in her own murder. In this two-part Crime World special, written by Niamh O'Connor, we look back on the gruesome details of Graham Dwyer's relationship with Elaine O'Hara, and her tragic, brutal killing. We hear the text messages that passed between the pair in the days befor...

IT'S a Mecca for true crime super fans, where detectives, lawyers and even podcasters become celebrities for a weekend and the public mix and mingle with faces and voices they know so well. Created in America, where the genre has become a major multi-million dollar industry, Crime Con is relatively new to this side of the Atlantic but has already built up a cult following. This week we attended th...

He is one of the most notorious killers in the history of the North's Troubles, and when he staged a single-handed attack on a Provisional IRA funeral at Milltown Cemetery in 1988 his face became infamous across the world. Today, Michael Stone is wheelchair bound and poses for selfies with young loyalists who see him as a cult hero for one side of a bitter divide. But was Stone a true loyalist par...

The trial for two men charged with the murder of celebrity Dutch journalist Peter R. De Vries has heard of the text messages sent between the hit team and an un-named overlord who ordered the shooting in broad daylight on an Amsterdam Street. In court, journalist Jan Meeus, a colleague of mine from the Netherlands and someone who knew Peter personally, watched the harrowing scenes and today he con...

Retired detective Paul Holes knows just what it is like to immerse himself in a murder mystery. It was his work on the infamous 'Golden State Killer' case which led to the 2018 arrest and conviction of Joseph James DeAngelo Jnr, the man responsible for at least 10 murders and 50 sexual assaults. The case first came to Holes' attention in 1994 when he dusted down the files of the so-called 'East Ar...

They are the killers and rapists deemed so dangerous that they are serving life sentences behind bars. But what does life mean in Ireland, and while the sentence is mandatory in murder cases, how does a sex offender reach the maximum term lock-up? Nicola Tallant talks to journalist Eamon Dillon about the 350 prisoners doing life behind bars - about the gangland triggermen on the promise of blood m...

It is a story that reads like the plot from a Hollywood movie and punches right into the heart of one of the most secretive regimes in the world. Hackers from the so-called ‘Lazarus Group’ first shut down Sony Studios when it attempted to screen a movie about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and then went on to attempt a daring theft of $1billion dollars from a Bangladesh Bank. But who are the Laz...

She is the former Irish soldier who, a court heard, enveloped herself in the black flag of IS.Now, Lisa Smith awaits her fate in the Special Criminal Court, which heard the details of her journey into the dark heart of Islamic terrorism. During her trial, she was portrayed as a vulnerable, love-lorn woman who believed she was following her religion and beliefs when she travelled to Syria - but ins...

When drug dealer James Whelan was gunned down in Finglas, north Dublin, two months ago gardai braced themselves for an explosion of violence and tit-for-tat attacks. In recent weeks, the home of Whelan’s mother, Sonya, has been firebombed amidst 70 violent incidents linked to the feuding gangs, many of which are flagged on social media postings. But is this Finglas feud the future of gangland wars...

When the Criminal Assets Bureau was set up in 1996 after the brutal murder of journalist Veronica Guerin, Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh was its first target. A known drug dealer and with a string of convictions, Bomber was then running a lucrative business along with his cousin Gerard ‘Hatchet’ Kavanagh. They were dealing whatever they could get their hands on and making a pretty penny as a result. Hat...

When the Criminal Assets Bureau was set up in 1996 after the brutal murder of journalist Veronica Guerin, Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh was its first target. A known drug dealer and with a string of convictions, Bomber was then running a lucrative business along with his cousin Gerard ‘Hatchet’ Kavanagh. They were dealing whatever they could get their hands on and making a pretty penny as a result. Hat...

When the Criminal Assets Bureau was set up in 1996 after the brutal murder of journalist Veronica Guerin, Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh was its first target. A known drug dealer and with a string of convictions, Bomber was then running a lucrative business along with his cousin Gerard ‘Hatchet’ Kavanagh. They were dealing whatever they could get their hands on and making a pretty penny as a result. Hat...

Emer O'Loughlin (23) had her whole life ahead of her when she was brutally murdered in a mobile home in Galway in 2005. She had just finished a year-long trip across the world with her boyfriend Shane and they were living in caravan site while they saved money. But on April 8 2005, Shane received a call to say that the mobile home next to theirs, owned by a man named John Griffin, was on fire. Hum...

Keeping the peace inside Ireland's prison system has never been easy - but the fall of the Kinahan cartel has made life behind bars more dangerous than ever. According to prison officials, there are currently a total of 166 inmates from 14 separate criminal mobs jailed in prisons across the country. However, prison insiders claim that the lines between the different gangs have become so blurred, w...

THE American government has KO’d the Kinahan Cartel with a raft of sanctions that have caused chaos for the mob. But when did the name Kinahan start coming on the radar in the United States and was it the mob's brazen move into top-end boxing that sealed their fate? As Tyson Fury prepares to step into the ring at Wembley Stadium to defend his WBC heavyweight title amid a storm of controversy, Nico...

The 'Dead Zoo' is the name the famous Dublin ‘wits’ came up with for the Natural History Museum in the capital. The quirky Victorian-era institution is packed with stuffed exotic animals from around the world – a moose, a hippo, a giraffe, a rhinoceros and a lot more. The 'Dead Zoo Gang' is the name the Sunday World gave the Irish criminals who started buying or stealing rhino horns all over the w...

He was Crime World’s first guest, when the former Scotland Yard detective told us about two gangland murders, a missing fugitive and his quest to find the elusive Kevin Parle. Now, Peter Bleksley reveals the details of his ongoing hunt for Parle and how he now believes he may have been in Ireland and could have an Irish girlfriend. The celebrated podcaster, whose 'Manhunt' series is one of the BBC...

He is the Scottish politician who says football is contaminated with drug money and that the tentacles of the Kinahan organisation run deep into the heart of the Glasgow underworld. And Russell Findlay knows more than the regular politician about such issues, because for years he worked as an investigative crime reporter who himself became headline news when he was targeted in an acid attack at hi...

In 2010, Spanish police announced that they had dismantled the Irish Mafia by shutting down the Kinahan Organised Crime Group. Headed by Christopher Kinahan Snr and managed by his sons Daniel and Christopher Jnr the so-called ‘Cartel’ was estimated to be worth €100 million when it was hit with the killer blow by cops who had spent two years wire-tapping the gang and keeping them under close survei...

Two gangsters have been convicted in the first murder plot trial involving EncroChat phones, a system described in court as ‘an Amazon for organised criminals’.Despite no DNA evidence, no fingerprints and no weapon, the court found that Paul Fontaine and Frankie Sinclair tried to organise a 'hit' by text. At least 260 other cases in the UK have been successfully convicted since the 'hack' by Frenc...