Evil mob boss John Gilligan today confesses he pocketed €12 million from the drug empire that had Veronica Guerin murdered and says: “I’m going to hell.”
“I’ll more than likely die soon. I’ve wasted my life I think I’m going to hell,” the veteran gangster admits in an explosive new book, extracts of which are published today in The Irish Mirror.
When asked how much he made from importing cannabis into Ireland. He replies: “I made £10 million or more. I wasn’t counting because I was getting it and spending it.”
But now he claims he is skint and says: “I haven’t got ten bob. I have no money. That’s the truth.”
He also said he made several million pounds each year from changing money for other criminals - and a similar amount smuggling cigarettes into Ireland.
“I gave Brian Meehan £1 million as a thank you in 1995 for doing work for me, just normal work,’ he boasts.
Gilligan also says he lost a massive £20 million (€25.4 million) in gambling.
“I’d say from 1970 to 1996, I would have – and this just sounds far-fetched but the truth – gambled and lost very close to £20 million.
In ‘The Gilligan Tapes, Ireland’s most notorious crime boss in his own words’, by investigative journalist Jason O’Toole, he also claims that he knew he would never be convicted of the June 1996 murder of Veronica Guerin.
“I never thought I was ever going to be convicted, because I didn’t do it,” he says.
READ MORE:John Gilligan 'hopping mad' as old pal takes €100,000 from his Spanish bolthole
Ms Guerin was killed in west Dublin by a two-man hit team on a motorbike in June 1996 a day before Gilligan was due to stand trial for assaulting her outside his home in Jessbrook.
The 70 year-old mobster was tried for her murder, but later acquitted. His key ally Brian “the Tosser” Meehan was found guilty and caged for life. Gardai gave evidence that the now deceased hitman Patrick Holland was the shooter.
Detectives claimed that Gilligan (70) ordered the hit because Ms Guerin was to tell a court he subjected her to a brutal beating at his Jessbrook estate in Co Meath in late 1995. In the book he tries to pin the blame for giving the order on his dead criminal sidekick, John Traynor.
The veteran mobster freely admits that members of his cannabis importation gang killed Veronica – but will go to his grave insisting he had nothing do to with it.
His self serving version - dismissed by Gardai and Veronica’s friends and family - is that the killing was ordered by Traynor. He conveniently points at state supergrass Charlie Bowden - the man who gave evidence against him - as the gunman. He says Brian Meehan admitted to him he was the bike driver.
He claims Traynor ordered the hit because Ms Guerin was planning to expose him as a heroin dealer.
“John Traynor ordered the murder of Veronica Guerin and it was carried out by Charlie Bowden. And the man on the bike was Brian Meehan, 100,000,000 per cent. Without a shadow of a doubt,” he tells the author.
Gilligan, who is now living in Spain and facing fresh drugs charges that could see him locked up for more than eight years, also claims Bowden was offered £100,000 (€127,000) to carry out the murder.
“Charlie Bowden was to get £100,000. He got £50,000 up front and £50,000 after the job. I don’t know if he got the rest of the money after the job.
Gilligan admits in the book he earned more than €12 million smuggling cannabis into Ireland in the mid-1990s –
He says his own life is nearly over and calls on former soldier Bowden, who is now living abroad under the Witness Security Programme, to admit his role in the murder.
The fallen drug boss also spins his own version of the day Ms Guerin called to his door, claiming he didn’t assault her despite evidence to the contrary.
And he refuses to admit - despite supporting witnesses and trusted court testimony - that he rang Ms Guerin and threatened to rape her young son unless she dropped the assault complaint.
Our extract below opens with his self-serving account of what he says happened that day.
Q. Veronica Guerin doorstepped you in Jessbrook on the morning of 14 September 1995 [after he had a family party there the night before]. What happened next?
A. I actually said to Geraldine, ‘There’s a woman in a red car. Will you go out and see her.’
And she said, ‘Oh, that’s the woman from an equestrian centre. She’s supposed to be here today. Will you tell her we have a hangover?’
I went to the patio door to open it. The patio door was where you parked your car and you could get straight into the house. So, I looked and she wasn’t there. I went back into the sitting room. I looked at the cameras. She was at the back utility door.
I opened the door.
‘Hello?’ I said.
‘John Gilligan?’ she said.
I said, ‘Yeah’.
‘I’m Veronica Guerin.’
I knew who she was as soon as she said the name. I said, ‘Get outta here,’ and closed the door. She was after putting her foot to the door. She came in after me into the utility room.
‘John, I want to talk to you.'
I didn’t let her speak anymore. I just turned around and I said, ‘Get the f**k out of this house,’ and I grabbed a hold of her and I pushed her outside and slammed the back door. And the car went up the driveway a hundred miles an hour.
Q. Veronica later went to the Garda and made an official complaint about you allegedly assaulting her. She stated that you, ripped open her blouse because you were convinced she was wearing a wire.
A. The police interviewed me and they let me go in three or four hours. I didn’t even have to apply for bail. It would have been a golden opportunity to have me in custody for about two years.
They wouldn’t have missed this opportunity to come down and arrest me and bring me to court and charge me. Instead, five months later, a different police inspector rang me and asked me to come home to be interviewed.
And they want people to believe that. You beat up a woman, you leave her black and blue and they don’t even come to arrest you? They didn’t even call to the house.
No person on the planet, especially in Ireland, can go into a police station battered and bruised, and say, ‘Somebody’s done this to me.’ And the police go, ‘Ah, well, we’ll think about it, we might interview them in six months’ time.’
Q. You then allegedly phoned Veronica Guerin when she was in the presence of a barrister on 15 September 1995 and told her, ‘If you do one thing on me, or if you write about me, I will kidnap your son and r**e him. I will shoot you. Do you understand what I’m saying? I will kidnap your fu**ing son and r**e him. I will fu**ing shoot you. I will kill you.’ Is that true?
A. It’s filth. Filth. I did not say it. A man should be put to death for saying such a thing like that. And I believe that.
And if a man kicked my head and left me in hospital, because he believed that I said that, sure, I wouldn’t fall out with the man, because it’s a horrible, horrible thing to say. Only a dirt of a person would say that.
Q. You have repeatedly denied ordering the murder of Veronica Guerin. So who do you believe actually killed Veronica Guerin?
A. John Traynor ordered the murder of Veronica Guerin and it was carried out by Charlie Bowden. And the man on the bike was Brian Meehan, 100,000,000 per cent. Without a shadow of a doubt.
Brian Meehan never shut up in the prison. He told everybody in the prison.
I was in prison when Brian Meehan told me. He told me he was on the bike. And he told me the reason why they done it: Traynor wanted it to be done because she was going to print a story that he was dealing in heroin.
They’re dogs, they’re dogs. They’re low lifes. They’re the lowest form of life going. There was no need to do any of that. Even on the day they killed Veronica, they were drinking in The Hole in the Wall [pub in north Dublin], bragging as they watched England play against Germany in the football. He told a few people what he and Charlie had done but none of them would give evidence.
Q. According to Brian Meehan, Bowden certainly knew how to handle a gun. He had learnt how to become an excellent marksman during his time in the Irish Army. He won all the competitions for marksman [there].
A. Brian Meehan told me that Bowden was going to take her out for Traynor for £50,000 – a rifle shot.
Charlie Bowden was to get £100,000. He got £50,000 up front and £50,000 after the job. I don’t know if he got the rest of the money after the job. Brian Meehan would tell different versions. I don’t know, to tell you the truth, if Meehan got anything.
Q. What do you think happened to the (murder) gun?
A. Well, whatever Charlie Bowden and Brian Meehan done with it, they done with it. I don’t know. I asked Meener many times, ‘Where’s the gun?’
He said, ‘It’s gone. It’ll never be found.’ They wouldn’t answer you. I always thought they had it hid somewhere and they were afraid I’d say it to somebody and somebody else would say to somebody else and somebody else would tell the police. Well, how long ago is that now, 1996? And it hasn’t been found. So it makes me think it must have gone into the sea. If it has been buried in the ground, I think with buildings going up and down, there’s a good chance it would’ve been found. So I think that went into the water somewhere, deep water. That’s an educated guess.
Q. What would you say to Charlie Bowden if he was reading this?
Charlie, come clean. Tell what you done. If you have any remorse, or even if you haven’t got remorse, say it. Say it, for the sake of all the hurt that my family [are] after getting out of this. You’ve got that immunity for anything you say. You won’t be charged. Admit it, Charlie, say it. I’m only telling the truth because all the cases are over and I’ll more than likely die soon, and for my family and friends, as I said. There’s no money in this for me. I’m not getting any money. So the truth is the truth.
Q. Why was John Traynor never even questioned by the Irish police?
A. John Traynor has told loads of people he done it, but John Traynor couldn’t be arrested. Traynor was arrested in Holland with Brian Meehan, but they couldn’t bring him back because he had a file, with judges and priests, all having bondage sex and somebody died, they were strangled.
He was a suspect. One hundred per cent he was a suspect, but because he had the file robbed from the Department of Justice, they were terrified to come near him. But they still should have … the file would have been the truth. Why were they afraid of the truth coming out? So what if a few judges and clergy were involved in it? And politicians. If they done something wrong, they done something wrong. They’re no better than me.
Traynor had them over a barrel because he had the files out of the DPP’s office up in Stephen’s Green – that’s why they didn’t come after Traynor. As I said before, he was arrested with Brian Meehan in Holland and they held Brian and let Traynor go. So, Traynor had that file. Martin Cahill got that file and he said, ‘If you try ever to take us in and stitch us up we’ll produce this.’
Why was he not brought back when the police had him? They could have extradited him on the backs of the warrants. They just let Traynor do what he wanted. So they had to have a fall guy – so that was me.
I believe he was setting me up all the time. He was saying I was doing this and doing that, and winding Veronica Guerin up.
Q. What ran through your mind when you were found not guilty of the murder of Veronica Guerin?
A. I never thought I was ever going to be convicted, because I didn’t do it. The way the case went, the police drip-fed the media evidence and they exaggerated the thing. It was all about phone records. There were only mobile phones attached to the landline, there was no texts in them days; it was a bill phone. Every phone call could be traced.
Q. Theoretically, you could now confess to having organised the murder if you wanted to.
A. Yes, there’s no double jeopardy. I didn’t, but if I did do it, I could say: ‘Yes, I ordered the murder of Veronica Guerin.’ I could even go further; I could say: ‘I was actually on the motorbike. And there’s nothing the State could do. But I wasn’t there. I didn’t know anything about it. Nothing.
Q. What would you say to the readers who believe you were involved in the murder of Veronica Guerin?
A. Well, this is the way I can explain myself: a lot of readers will believe and do believe and kind of have to believe I was involved. Because the majority of the general public, the good people, the working-class people, they actually believe. They’re naive in a sense, but I don’t say that in a bad way: they just think that if it’s in the newspaper it should be true.
And, if youse know I done something – charge me. If youse want me to come back to Ireland I’ll come back to Ireland as soon as I’m able. I wouldn’t run.
It must be difficult being in your seventies, based in a foreign country and not speaking the local tongue?
My life is, for the want of a better word, over. And I’m not going to cry. I lost about thirty years of my life through my own stupidity. I wasted my life, but I can’t cry over that now. It’s not gonna make a difference to me. And believe me, if I thought crying or spending two hours on television would change my whole past I’d cry for hours.
Q. Do you believe in heaven and hell?
A. I think I’m going to hell. But, no, I don’t believe in it. Some days I do and some days I don’t. You know, I suppose a lot of people are of the same mind as myself. Some days, they will believe it, and some weeks they wouldn’t. Sometimes, when a member of my family is sick or anything, I pray to God to please help them. And then when there’ll be no crisis, so to speak, I probably say, ‘Ah, fuck that!’ That’s me being totally honest. I don’t know if there’s a purgatory or not. I know when you sin, rumour has it that you’re going to hell. I still say you have to do something wrong to sin against our Lord Jesus Christ – but selling drugs is not against Lord Jesus Christ, in my book.
TOMORROW: “When hitman took the last shot he stood over me. I smacked my face against the floor like I was dead...”
The Gilligan Tapes, Ireland’s most notorious crime boss in his own words, by Jason O’Toole is available in all good book shops from Monday, September 4. It is published by Merrion Press and is priced €18.99.
‘Confessions of a Crime Boss’ airs on Virgin Media this Monday at 10pm.
FACT CHECKS
John Gilligan was acquitted by the Special Criminal Court on March 15, 2001 of the June 1996 murder of Veronica Guerin.
He was convicted of cannabis importation and jailed for 28 years which was reduced to 20 years on appeal.
Although the court did not accept the evidence of state witnesses including Charlie Bowden that Gilligan was involved in the murder. Presiding judge Mr Diarmuid O’Donovan said it had grave suspicions about his role.
The judge said: “While this court has grave suspicions that John Gilligan was complicit in the murder of the late Veronica Guerin, the court has not been persuaded beyond all reasonable doubt by the evidence which has been adduced by the prosecution that this is so and, therefore, the court is required by law to acquit the accused on that charge.”
The trial also heard supported evidence that Gilligan rang Ms Guerin after he was being investigated for assaulting her and threatened to rape her young child if she did not drop the charges.
The court heard Ms Guerin received the call when she was meeting an eminent and respected barrister, Mr Felix McEnroy SC.
He clearly remembered the rape threat – as well as one to kill Ms Guerin.
Mr McEnroy said he remembered “clear and well” what had happened during Ms Guerin’s visit to his office on September 15, 1995.
He added: “I’ll never forget it. I remember hook, line and sinker what happened Especially the reference to the child. No one in their right mind could forget it. The imprint is still on my mind.”
Charlie Bowden was a key member of the Gilligan gang and agreed to give evidence against him in the Veronica Guerin trial.
There was no evidence presented to the court that Bowden was involved in the murder of Ms Guerin in any way. Nor was any evidence presented that John Traynor was involved in the murder.
The reporter’s account of the assault by Gilligan outside his Jessbrook home was fully accepted by investigators who were to prosecute a case against Gilligan the day after she was murdered by his gang.
Even the mobster accepts he was the leader of a drug empire that the court accepted murdered Veronica to protect itself.
Thirteen days after her death - On July 9, 1996 at Kilcock District Court in Co Kildare Gilligan’s assault charges were struck out.
The court heard this was because of the reporter’s “untimely death”. Gilligan was not in court nor was he represented.
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