The Notorious Irish Gangster Who Took on The IRA

Summary

The Underworld Podcast Episode Title: The Notorious Irish Gangster Who Took on The IRA
Release Date: February 24, 2026
Hosts: Danny Gold & Sean Williams

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the life and legend of Martin “The General” Cahill, one of Ireland’s most notorious criminals. From his beginnings in the slums of Dublin to orchestrating heists that embarrassed police and infuriated the IRA, Danny and Sean chart Cahill’s criminal career, his battles with paramilitaries and law enforcement, and his complex (and violent) moral code. Bringing in expert reporting, biography excerpts, and jokes about hot dogs and balaclavas, the hosts unpack how Cahill became simultaneously a folk hero and a feared gangster—until both the IRA and the INLA sought his end.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Martin Cahill’s Early Life & Criminal Origins

• Background:
  • Born 1949, raised in post-war Dublin slums (“Hell Street”), amidst poverty, hunger, and a large family (00:00–10:30).
  • “His family is poor, like, incredibly poor. And they live in the slums of Dublin, which are pretty gnarly in the post war era.” —Danny (08:30)
  • His father’s alcoholism and destitution drive Cahill to crime early.
• Petty Crime Escalates:
  • Begins stealing food as a child; quickly graduates to breaking into houses and ‘creeping’ (burglary) with siblings (10:30–15:30).
  • Sent to brutal reformatories and industrial schools notorious for abuse (13:00–14:00).
  • Early aptitude for theft—meticulous, always “buries the loot like a squirrel” (15:00).
  • First real prison stint for truck theft at age 21 (16:00).

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2. Rise of Organized Robbery in Dublin

• The Troubles & The Criminal Explosion:
  • Armed robberies skyrocket in the 1970s alongside the influx of weapons due to Northern Ireland conflict (15:30–17:00).
  • Teams up with the Dunne family, but splits over money—Cahill sticks to robbery, while the Dunnes branch into drugs.
• Cahill’s Crew and Methods:
  • Runs disciplined, loyal teams.
  • Not flashy: “He’s short, balding, overweight, doesn’t dress fancy, doesn’t like to party or buy nice things. Thomas Crown he is not.” —Danny (05:37)
  • “He’s a homebody. He just loves robbing.” —Danny (19:24)
  • Infamous for stonewalling and antagonizing police—his crew attacks police cars, robs in retaliation for raids.

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3. The General’s War with the State and the Paramilitaries

• Escalation:
  • Breaks into courthouses to destroy evidence.
  • Attempts to kill forensic expert Dr. James Donovan with a car bomb (successful; Donovan survives but is badly wounded) (21:00–23:00).
  • “Martin tries in early December 1981, but the first car bomb fizzles out and causes a tiny explosion…On January 6, 1982, Dr. James Donovan is driving to the police station when his car blows up.”—Danny (25:32)
• The O’Connor Jewelry Heist (Cold Open):
  • 1983: Cahill’s crew robs Thomas O'Connor Sons factory, stealing the equivalent of $10 million in gold and gems (03:47–06:00).
  • IRA demands a cut; Cahill refuses—outmaneuvering one of Ireland’s most feared groups.

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4. Feuds, Codes, and the Strange “Criminal Civil War”

• His Criminal Code:
  • Distinguishes between “ordinary decent criminals” (ODCs) and drug dealers, avoids drugs himself but some of his crew do not (33:00–35:00).
  • Concerned Parents Against Drugs (CPAD) vs. Concerned Criminals Action Committee (CCAC): wild public spats between anti-drug activists, IRA/INLA, and Cahill’s “anti-protest” criminal union, including intimidation and violence (35:00–36:30).
  • Notable quote:
    “Cahill’s front men declared that the concerned parents would not be allowed to jeopardize the, ‘livelihoods of local criminals engaged in legal activities which are not related to drugs.’” —Paul Williams, read by Danny (35:12)
• Paramilitary Feuds:
  • IRA and INLA kidnap his men; Cahill’s crew responds with marching, threats, paramilitary-style demonstrations.
  • Wild “standoff” with armed IRA cell foiled by police (36:30–37:40).
  • Cahill openly mocks IRA in the press, calling them “lower than someone who robs a robber” (38:27).

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5. High-Profile Heists, Public Persona, and Policing Fiascos

• Art Heist (1986):
  • Steals 11 priceless paintings from a lord-turned-museum, hides them in forest bunkers.
  • Fails to find buyers, gets involved in international intrigue with paramilitary groups (41:48–54:51).
• Tango Squad (Police Task Force):
  • Irish police form dedicated surveillance and harassment unit, leading to a prolonged cat-and-mouse game involving sabotage, confrontations, and counter-harassment tactics (46:33–47:19).
  • Cahill collects unemployment despite his crimes, creating public outrage (49:19).

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6. A Violent, Erratic Later Career

• Violence Escalates:
  • Responds to perceived betrayal or challenge with torture (nailing a crew member’s palms, crucifixion-style) (30:58–31:12).
  • Increasingly brutal home invasions, kidnappings, and attacks on even civil servants who threaten his benefits (54:48–56:10).
  • “His solution to everything is shooting somebody in the leg. He’s gonna do it again.” —Danny (62:30)
• Hot Dog Wars (1992):
  • Attempts to take over Dublin’s late-night hot dog market, extorts and attacks competitors; escalation includes leg-shootings, arson, and intimidation (57:45–59:12).

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7. The Endgame: Paramilitary Retribution and Cahill’s Death

• Loyalist Connections & Final Years:
  • Tries to sell stolen artwork to loyalist UVF for weapons, further enraging the IRA/INLA (53:48–54:51).
  • Investigation into supporting a sex offender friend by intimidating a child victim and her family, using monetary bribes and threats (60:21–62:27).
  • Crime-by-crime, his reputation sours, even among the underworld.
• Assassination:
  • Both IRA and INLA determine to end him in 1994.
  • On August 18, 1994, Martin is killed at a stop sign by a hitman posing as a city worker—shot with a .357 Magnum, “a gigantic gun if you’ve never seen one” (69:24–71:16).
  • IRA claims official credit, alleging he assisted pro-British loyalists; conflicting reports swirl about his actual role.

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8. Legacy and Culture

• Aftermath:
  • Giant, mafia-style funeral.
  • Becomes a subject of fascination in Irish pop culture; inspired multiple films, including “Ordinary Decent Criminal” (Kevin Spacey).
  • His life is both a cautionary tale and a legend—respected and reviled.
  • “He’s remembered…as a Dublin and Irish legend, even though he did some pretty awful things as we covered.” —Danny (73:08)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Cahill’s methods:

• “He’s set to have plans in his head for half a dozen robberies floating around at all times.” —Danny (06:13)

On Irish justice:

• “I don’t get how he gets off on that, but he does.” —Danny (39:15)

On Cahill’s criminal code:

• “There’s nothing lower than someone who robs a robber.” —Cahill (quoted by Danny, 38:27)

On the absurdity of crime in 1980s Ireland:

• “Ireland just doesn’t seem like a real country at this point.” —Danny (39:15)
• “I think Ireland is not real, actually.” —Sean (39:57)

On violence:

• “The solution he always has is shoot his friend or his enemy in the leg.” —Danny (66:57)

On Cahill’s (and Ireland’s) wild underworld:

• “This is really what was happening in northwest Britain and Ireland in the 50s—not anything good. Yeah, it’s crazy.” —Sean (59:38)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:53–03:47: Introduction, recap of recent events, and the O’Connor jewelry heist cold open
• 06:52–14:30: Cahill’s early years—family, poverty, reformatories
• 19:24–22:30: Cahill’s approach to crime, interactions with police, lack of political allegiance
• 25:32–28:41: Attempted car bomb killing of Dr. James Donovan; cementing Cahill’s reputation
• 35:00–36:30: Bizarre criminal “counter-movement” vs. anti-drug vigilantes
• 41:48–44:10: High-profile art heist and international police chase
• 46:33–47:19: Formation of “Tango Squad” and policing debacles
• 54:48–56:10: Turn to attacking civil servants after welfare benefits are threatened
• 57:45–59:12: “Hot Dog War” saga
• 60:21–62:27: Scandal over intimidation of a child sexual abuse victim
• 69:24–71:16: Cahill’s assassination by IRA hitmen

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Tone & Style

True to the Underworld Podcast, the tone is darkly amusing, journalistic, and irreverently detailed—balancing gritty crime reporting with witty banter and pop culture allusions. The hosts occasionally inject personal anecdotes, wild tangents (hot dog wars, Berlin “quintuples,” Dutch art crime), and pointed asides about Ireland’s legal system and criminal ineptitude.

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Useful for Listeners Who Haven’t Tuned In

• You’ll learn how Martin Cahill became a street legend, why (and how) he outwitted both police and paramilitaries for two decades, and how the myth both elevates and obscures the real violence and collateral damage at the heart of his story.
• The episode offers a unique window into Ireland’s late 20th-century underworld chaos—and how lawlessness, politics, and communities collided in strange ways.

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For Further Deep Dives

• See the companion Patreon episode for more on the “Hot Dog War.”
• “The General” by Paul Williams—definitive Cahill bio (main episode source).
• Research “Steak Knife” for British intelligence/IRA intrigue.

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Bottom line: This is the definitive underworld saga of a man who robbed, tortured, taunted the state, defied the IRA, and became legend—only to meet a violent end at the hands of the very paramilitaries he repeatedly outplayed.

Transcript

[Danny Gold]

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[Sean Williams]

You don't say.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah, they're even picking it up tomorrow. Talk about fast. Wow. Way to go. So about that picture frame. Ah, forget about it. Until Carvana makes one, I'm not interested. Car selling made easy on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply. Hey, it's Sterling K. Brown from the

[Sean Williams]

Hulu original series Paradise. The next chapter begins as Xavier's search

[Danny Gold]

for his wife takes him above ground. And what he finds will change everything. It was never just about the bunker. Tune in and discover the truth lies outside Paradise.

[Sean Williams]

The official podcast is now streaming and stream. Paradise on Hulu and Hulu on Disney.

[Danny Gold]

What's up, everyone? Obviously, we've seen the news about what's happening in Mexico. With El Mencho Puerto Vallarta just across the country, and Jalisco New Generation now. It was too much of a quick turnaround to get an episode done for this week, but we did do an episode at an El Mencho back in 2022. I think we re upped it in 2025, so definitely go back and listen to that. And for next week, we're working on a big episode about all this. Sean is really reporting on it right now. And until then, you can listen to this week's episode, which is a banger, or go back and listen to the old episode on El Mencho. And next week, though, we got you guys. Tune in. July 26, 9pm at a pub in Dublin, Ireland. There's a group of men gathered, all holding duffel bags, talking about the match they just had. But they're not actually a soccer team. And inside those bags, there's no cleats, no sweaty uniforms. Instead, the bags are full of guns, hand grenades, smoke bombs, balaclavas, black gloves, walkie talkies, and sacks for loot. The men are part of a heist team led by Ireland's most notorious thief and arm robber, Martin the General Cahill. Born in the slums of Dublin, he starts off stealing food as a child to feed himself, and soon graduates to burglarizing houses. From there, it's bank robberies, hitting armored vehicles, and home invasions. His crew gets so notorious, so good at what they're doing, that they would hit multiple spots in a week, sometimes in a day. It was like the law didn't apply to them. The police don't exist. He's part of a new generation of gangsters that emerge when Ireland enters the Troubles and he quickly rises to the top. They call him the General, after General Douglas MacArthur, and it's a nod to his meticulous planning abilities. For this job, that means six months studying and working out a plot with the help of an inside man. Shortly before the pub closes, they head outside to a waiting blue van and hop in. The destination? The Thomas O' Connor Sons jewelry factory, chock full of gold and gems. The month before, he had gathered a team of 10 men, including two of his brothers, and put the final touches in place. This particular target had been cased by every criminal and paramilitary group in Ireland looking for a big score, but none had the ability or the audacity to pull it off. Even the IRA had decided it was too well protected, the security measures too high tech. But not the General. The General isn't what you expect for a man who ends up organizing some of the biggest robberies and heists Ireland has ever seen, including tens of millions of dollars of priceless artwork. He's short, balding, overweight, doesn't dress fancy, doesn't like to party or buy nice things. Thomas Crown he is not. But what he is is ruthless and fearless, with an addiction and brain for robbery. Like a savant, he's set to have plans in his head for half a dozen robberies floating around at all times. By the late 1980s, they'll call him the godfather of the Irish underworld, public enemy number one. Writes biographer Paul Williams of him quote, he's a devoted father, loyal friend, prolific lover, absurd joker, hated outlaw, feared gangster, sadistic fiend and meticulous planner. He'll go to war with the police, bomb the courts, try to take out a forensic scientist testifying against him with a car bomb, go after his enemies brutally with bombs, shootings and torture, do battle with multiple paramilitary groups and commit so many armed robberies, it's hard to keep track. Back outside the bar, the blue van drives to the compound and the team splits up, with some retrieving nearby stolen cars for the getaway and others scaling a wall. Those inside wait until 8am when a few high level employees arrive. The raiders pounce on them, grabbing the men, holding them hostage until a total of 25 employees arrive and are rounded up. They work with precision. They're calm. They tell the staff, we're not here to hurt you. They spend 35 minutes loading up gold bars, thousands of gold rings, gems, diamonds, something like $10 million worth in today's money. They quickly leave in A convoy of stolen vehicles splitting up with the General in the lead on one of his beloved motorbikes. The police, they've got nothing to go on, and they can't touch the General. But it's not them he has to worry about, because a few days later, he gets a message from the Irish Republican army. The ira. Two senior members invite him to a meeting. There, they congratulate the General on a job well done. Then they demand half the proceeds. This is 1983 in Ireland. The IRA at their most dangerous. But the General, he doesn't back down. He tells them if they want money, they gotta do their own robberies. Then they threaten him, telling him there'll be consequences. But in Dublin, in that city, the General might just be more powerful. He tells them to F off. And they back off. For now. But it's not over. This is the Underworld Podcast. Welcome back, everyone, to the Underworld Podcast, where every week we take you on a journey through the world of international organized crime, past, present and future. Brought to you by two journalists who have been on the ground all over the world covering this sort of stuff myself, my name is Danny Gold. I trade off hosting duties with my co host, friend, colleague, and sometimes nemesis, Sean Williams, who, as you're hearing this, you're still in New Zealand right now, but as they're hearing this, you moved your entire family and dog to Argentina this very week.

[Sean Williams]

That's correct. And hearing you describe me in those three ways, I think I'm probably this week, I'm probably a bit of all three, right?

[Danny Gold]

Yeah, yeah. No, not at all, dude. Just it's emotionally moving for. For. For all of us. You're physically moving. We're all emotionally moved. But we still put out an episode every week because. Because we love you guys. As always, you can find our bonus episodes at patreon.com/theworld podcast, or sign up right here in Spotify on your app or on itunes. Email us tips or general thoughts at the Underworld podcastmail.comt shirts and merch at UnderworldPod do and go watch our 60 second slop reels, whatever it is, on social media, Instagram, TikTok, whatever. Also, you may be noticing this amazing display that I have of. Of dried meat next to me. I think, what, four episodes ago, I was like, I love biltong, which is South African beef jerky. I just want to eat it all the time. Our friend Brendan, he, his little brother heard the thing, reached out to us. His Brendan runs this beef jerky company, right? His felons, they're Now a sponsor and dreams come true. You can just say things on a podcast and people will send you massive amounts of it sometimes, and, you know, it's delicious stuff. So thank you guys so much for doing that. All right, we should. We should get this going. Yeah. The main source of this book, by the way, I'm trying it without the shades, and I just. It's too bright, man. I gotta. I gotta do it.

[Sean Williams]

He's got beautiful.

[Danny Gold]

But I feel like, like Leon the Professional when I have the hat on and the sunglasses. And I think it's. It's a vibe. Okay. The main source of this episode is a book by Paul Williams called the General, which is a fantastic book. It is the most thorough biography of Martin Cahill. Cahill is how it's pronounced, actually. I thought it was Cahill. Cahill. Which is interesting. And a whole lot of Irish media reports over the years. In the late 80s and 90s, this guy was basically in the news like, every. Every other day. You'll see why. So, Marn Cahill, the General, is born in May 1949. He's the second kid of a dad who is a lighthouse keeper, which feels like very, very Irish. Right? And a stay at home mom. His family is poor, like, incredibly poor. And they live in the slums of Dublin, which are pretty gnarly in the post war era. Lots of, like, gigantic families. We're talking 10, 12 kids in crummy housing, not a lot of good jobs, packed tenements. The street they live on is known as Hell street. And it's a place full of, quote, drunken brawls, stone throwing, and filthy practices.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, it's Ireland in the 1940s. I think we would. I think, like English people of Irish descent would say Cahill. And then they say cahill. Yeah. And if any Irishman want to come at me, you know, I'm actually allowed to say this because my name is Sean. That's one. I don't have the little accent on the A, though. And I was once caught up in an IRA bomb attack. That is a real story. So that's just my lived experience.

[Danny Gold]

Where were you? Where was that?

[Sean Williams]

I was in London Docklands in 1996 when they bombed the arena. I was watching a basketball game with my school. We went out for, like, a school trip. And they blew the. They blew this, like, giant hole in the. I think it was a car bomb. They killed six people. And we had to, like, get out of the building. The whole building shook and all the windows blew in and there were people covered in Blood. And then we had to walk around the bomb site, and there was, like, bits of bodies and stuff. And that was one of my earliest memories.

[Danny Gold]

Wow.

[Sean Williams]

Being at school.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah. Yeah, Dude, I had no. How has this not come up in, like, 300 up? Yeah.

[Sean Williams]

I do not know, but it was, like, pretty insane. And my mum was with me as well, and we were talking about it quite recently. We're like, yeah, how'd you kind of, like, broach that with a kid walking around a giant crater in the middle of London with a bunch of, like, limbs everywhere? Anyway. Yeah, good times.

[Danny Gold]

Anyway, so are we going with Cahill or. Cahill, what do you want to call.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, yeah, Cahill.

[Danny Gold]

Okay. All right. His mom is pregnant a total of 18 times, six of which are miscarriages. And he loses a brother to a car accident when he's hit by an ice cream van. So, yeah, a lot of kids, not a lot of money. His dad's an alcoholic, so he drinks up a little money. They do have. There's food shortages at home. So it's a pretty classic, I think, origin story here. Seeing his dad broke and drunk convinces him, A, not to drink and B, to do crime. In 1960. In 1960, his family moves to new housing projects set in the suburbs. These are supposed to be, like, nice new homes that. That, like, alleviate the crush of. Of the inner city slums. And in yet another example, we've talked about this, a bunch of, like, good intentions with housing during. During this time period, really, that don't turn out the way they're. They're planned or they're supposed to. They end up being these, like, dreary, poor, sort of isolated places with no sense of community, and they turn into really, really rough spots. As a young kid, Martin is stealing food just to eat. Now, I don't. I don't know about Sean, but I personally don't mind stealing bread out of the mouth of decadence, do we? Do we pick up on that?

[Sean Williams]

That one's over my head.

[Danny Gold]

No, no, no. Really?

[Sean Williams]

Who's that?

[Danny Gold]

Come on. Like, that's when. When Pearl Jam and who Was it and the other band, Chris Cornell, like, the other band from Seattle, formed, like, a super group in, like, the 90s.

[Sean Williams]

Soundgarden. Oh, yes.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah, they formed. No, no, before that. Before Audio Slave. I think in. I think it was Soundgarden. You don't know. That's. I don't want Stealing. Brett. You don't know that song.

[Sean Williams]

I do not.

[Danny Gold]

It's a classic.

[Sean Williams]

Damn it.

[Danny Gold]

Our older listeners, I think, will we'll,

[Sean Williams]

we'll, we'll remember we are, we are the older people.

[Danny Gold]

But yeah, later on when he's Ireland's most renowned thief, he has this habit, even when he's robbing like precious artworks and jewels, of going into people's fridges and stealing stuff, which is something that I, I respect as someone who obviously, you know, loves my premier meat products and things of that nature. By the time he's 10, he's already in trouble like all the time. He goes to a reformatory school, he has run ins with the cops. Him and his brothers are just like little hooligans, always getting in trouble. And at the age of 12 in 1961, he gets his first real criminal charge for stealing. He ends up getting arrested a few more times and at 16 he's sent away to an industrial school which is like a trade school boarding house for youthful offenders, which honestly seems like a pretty, pretty good idea. Shout out to Boces. In practice though, these schools are pretty horrific, right? It's where Ireland's so called undesirables, illegitimate orphans are dumped. It's run by a severely strict order of nuns and monks who beat the kids and pretty much abuse them. The people in charge also spend a lot of time like hunting for like any of the kids showing any sign of gay tendencies. There's also a bit of sexual abuse. So they're pretty horrific places.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I mean, do you think there are any people alive now who were sort of beaten into happiness and good honest living? Vulture, zealous monks and nuns. Like have you ever heard of somebody crediting their great life to being flogged by a 60 year old virgin called Seamus?

[Danny Gold]

I haven't, I don't know, maybe Shaolin monks. You know, I feel like they've done some good. Shaolinus, they've done some good helping people reevaluate their priorities and teaching them discipline and whatnot. Cahill keeps his head down and when he gets out, briefly considers going straight. He gets married and he gets to work in like these factories making boxes and clothing sacks. But it does not last because his family goes broke, owes a ton of rent and they're forced to move to an even worse housing project called Hollyfield. It's so notorious, the residents basically become social outcasts and Tarninsular, Dickensian if you would call it that. And it becomes a breeding ground for criminals, I guess.

[Sean Williams]

Joycean, right? So let's give the Irish credit. They've got plenty of their own turn of the century poverty porn to go

[Danny Gold]

For Yeah, Asbury and right. We talked about Monk Eastman before Herbert Asbury wrote up all the. In New York and in San Francisco. So Asbury and could be something you said for New York. We can make that a thing. Martin and a few of his brothers, they turn to robbing houses. They've sort of, you know, gone up a notch from the little, little kind of vandalism, little stealing that they used to do. Him and some of the other young guys in the neighborhood, they go out every single night, kind of, they call it like peeping Toms to see who's home. And they call it creeping. When they see a target that looks open, they break in and they just steal. Kind of your basic stuff right from the start. Martin is really good at it. There's something different about him, right. About the way he moves, about the way he plans. He's meticulous, he's thorough. He has a natural aptitude kind of stealing. The guy shows potential. And like a squirrel, he always buries what he steals. So if the police come knocking, he's got nothing on him. And this is going to be something he continues to do even when he's stealing gems and like works of art, he'll end up building like bunkers in the woods to hide priceless paintings in. So at this time, he's climbing up drain pipes, he's breaking into windows. They could have nicknamed the Cat, though of course, the General is a much cooler, more intimidating nickname. But in 1970, he gets caught with stolen cigarettes from a truckload that was robbed and he gets a four year prison term, which he serves three. And when he gets out, he emerges into a whole new Ireland. Armed robberies have exploded all over Dublin, in no small part due to the massive amounts of guns being trafficked into the country. Because the breakout of the troubles in the north. Do I need to really go into the troubles like you guys? You guys know what the troubles are, right? Fighting Northern Ireland, paramilitary groups, British troops. Like you guys. You guys get it, right?

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, that's the Troubles done and dusted. Moving on.

[Danny Gold]

I mean, that's like a whole other podcast, right? Fifteen podcasts, basically. So in 1969, there are five armed robberies in Dublin. In the mid-70s, there's around 150 of them a year. To show you how much this thing explodes, there's another family from the same area as Martin called the Duns. And they become the biggest gang of arm robbers in the country at that point, specializing in ripping off security vans carrying huge sums of cash. Martin and four of his brothers. They team up with the four Dunn brothers, and they kind of teach Martin their ways a bit and they form this sort of like super robbery crew. It only lasts a year though, and they split up over an argument on some profits from a jewelry robbery. The Duns decide to go into drug trafficking, but Martin and his brothers, they stick to robbing. And in 1974, they hit their first big score. A van with the equivalent of four to five million dollars in today's money. Martin gets wrapped up by the cops the next day, but he's eventually let go because they just don't have enough evidence. And this is going to be like a common occurrence for the next 30 years. He basically like, he, he seems like he's going to get caught dead to rights so many times, but the police just let him go because they either don't have enough evidence or they can't use it. Honestly, it gets to the point where it seems like with him and the police, like, it starts feeling like a farce, like some sort of Keystone Cops thing. I just, I don't get it so many times that I'm just kind of, kind of shocked. Like, he makes the Guardi seem like the most inept police force in the world. He also becomes infamous for the way he deals with police, which is that he just doesn't. Right. He never responds to any questions, any interrogation attempts or anything like that. And he gets famous for stonewalling them and eventually like messing with them to the point of you just think he's going to be arrested all the time for smashing out windows, messing up their golf courts. Like, it's really wild stuff. In these early days, whenever the cops come into the neighborhood to look into Martin or bother him, his people go on the roof and they throw cement blocks onto their cars, which back when I used to cover crime in New York City, that was called airmail. And it kind of went away. I mean, it was a big thing in the 90s, less so in the 2000s and 2010s. He would also send his people into nearby middle class neighborhoods to rob houses or to slash hundreds of tires whenever the police came to his neighborhood in a way to like, make them look bad and like they couldn't protect anyone in Ireland. Besides that, though, he's pretty low key. He doesn't like to party, doesn't drink, doesn't do drugs, doesn't like his men doing drugs. He's not getting wild in the streets. He doesn't hit up the nightclubs or anything. Like when his brothers Go into town, they will, they'll party, they'll go nuts. But he stays home. Like the guy is a homebody. He just loves robbing. He does, though, end up sleeping with his wife's sister and having kids with her and all three live together in a house for years. So, I mean, a little bit of a wild side there, you know, in his personal life, but. But to each their own, I think. Sean, you were involved in a bunch of throuples and quintuples, right, when you lived in Berlin in your wild days. What's that like? It seems. Seems very stressful.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I mean, Danny, I find that a little offensive. There's never any friction between myself, Ludmilla Vixen and Ethere Cyan hashtag. You would have known, like you would have known that if you'd ever accepted any of our invitations, that Congolese sweat lodge on a Donetsk front lines, but you never did. All right, so don't like go around making assertions. It's not really your place, Sean.

[Danny Gold]

Berlin days. Let me tell you guys, he lived, lived a wild life. Martin, at this point, he's becoming like a savant of the average robbery. He's got a crew, trust them. They're all good at what they do. They're doing these robberies all the time, sometimes two in one day. They're hitting bank branches, they're doing payroll robberies of factories and other businesses, even robbing the unemployment office where all of them collect unemployment. And then this is the 70s, right? So everything is mostly in cash. They'd run in with balaclavas on, they fire a few shots in the air and they make out like bandits because they basically are bandits. It's very wild west.

[Sean Williams]

Does he, does he have a dog in the political fight at this point? I feel like everyone does in Ireland, but I might be wrong. Is he just a full blooded crook then?

[Danny Gold]

That's a really interesting question because we're going to see like, he doesn't, right? He's a mercenary first and foremost. It's all about making money and doing all that. There are moments when they talk about how, like when the cops would come to his neighborhood, he would blast rebel music off like giant speakers just to kind of mess with them. But then he ends up doing deals with loyalist militia. It's pretty wild to see what ends up going or what he ends up doing and what he ends up getting in trouble for. At this point. He basically has like a personal relationship and vendettas with the police and various officers. They're on him all the time. They're following him, they're annoying him. He does the same thing back, right? They chase him. It's almost like a Looney Tunes cartoon in a way. Soon enough, though, he's back in jail for a brief stint. And he gets out in 1980. Sometimes he takes it a little too far. In 1981, him and a partner rob a computer company for tens of thousands of dollars. But they're caught after a chase. This time though, there's evidence. It's applying some of that evidence. It's a guy named Dr. James Donovan. He's the most important technical expert in the police force for forensics. In his first case in 1975, so six years earlier, he gives testimony on the murder of a man who was killed when he happens on his house being robbed, being burglarized. The perps are two of Martin's brothers. Then a couple years later, in 1978, Donovan testifies in another Martin brother kidnapping and robbery, where the manager of a pub and his wife are badly beaten. And I should add, you know, his brothers, there's a lot of them and they're all pretty much criminals. And they, Martin included, aren't doing just like fun gentleman robber bank things or heists, right? They're doing pretty brutal kidnapping and beating of private citizens in these home invasions that are just kind of like pretty, pretty ugly. So In January of 81, Donovan is in the process of linking lots of evidence to Martin and his armed robbery. And both him and his brother who did that kidnapping are facing serious time. Martin is not happy. He wants these trials stopped by any means necessary. So he actually breaks into the office of the senior clerk at the courthouse and sets his file, among others, on fire, causing extensive damage. He's trying and attempting everything to stall the case. When he settles finally on killing Donovan, he decides, inspired by the ira, to use the car bomb method, hoping one of Ireland's many paramilitary groups are going to be blamed for it. Instead, he even gets a guy from the Irish National Liberation army, the inla, to teach him. That's another, I think, smaller anti British paramilitary group. Just for everyone's information.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I think these are the Starry Plow guys, right? They're the ones who are explicitly socialist. They kill quite a lot of loyalist paramilitaries, but they're quite. I mean, I don't know how small they were back then, but I think they're still around. They're quite small today.

[Danny Gold]

The Marxists, I think, right?

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, yeah, they say some pretty. I mean, they Say all the same stuff that any of those groups say. Yeah, yeah, they're kind of interesting.

[Danny Gold]

All right, guys, a quick break from smugglers, kingpins and highly organized crime to tell you about a different type of underground culinary contraband of Righteous Felon Crafter. You guys may have remembered a couple weeks ago on the show I was talking about how much, how much I love like Bill Tong, which is driving I need and beef jerky and all that. These guys reached out. I don't know how we weren't dealing with them earlier. The, the stuff is amazing. The stuff they sent me. And they are criminal kindred spirits with Honda Pod. This is jerky and meat sticks for people who prefer their snacks paired with a bit of rebellion. High protein, low sugar, gluten free and legendary flavor so you can make a clean getaway while channeling your inner outlaw. We are talking 17 different flavors with a cast of outlaw characters. We got the, the anchovia biltong, which is pretty dope. There's a one named after Nelson Mandela I had before. We got the beef jerky soul survivor Korean barbecue inspired OG Hickory and they got all these really great meat sneaks too. We got the OG Hickory here. There's a honey heist barbecue one right here. There's a beef and cheese one that I've been eating. That's fantastic. Their flavor lineup reads like a wanted poster. Favorite felons and criminal masterminds. Papanero, Escobar, Teriyaki, Balboa, the turkey jerky. Like I said, fal, Capone. They got something for any crime junkie that's jonesing for a hit of the good stuff. And like I said, I've been, I've been eating this since they sent me a large amount after I just talked about on the show. If you want to get in on the heist, throw on your ski mask and head over to righteous felon.com to grab a sampler pack with code Underworld25 for 25 off. That's code Underworld25 for 25 off. Follow them on Instagram at Righteous fan. Guys, let's talk about Rula. R U L A. We are talking online therapy that actually works. I know that taking care of yourself can really feel complicated, like a hassle. It can be really expensive. But Rula can really become part of your self care. They make that so much easier. And this year you can take care of yourself with Rula. Right? They partner with more than 100 insurance plans, bringing the average cost down to only $15 per session for therapy. I mean Most places you're looking at like $250. So that's, that's incredible. And it makes therapy feel realistic and sustainable. They, you know, they give you personalized recommendations, they take your goals and your background and they make a list for you after finding out your preferences of therapists that actually fit the work you want to do. They've got providers accepting new clients right now. Sometimes you can get, I mean usually you can get an appointment as available as soon as the next day. They also offer ongoing check ins to support continuity of care. So we're talking in network care, personalized matching ongoing support quality standards, which is important and comprehensive care options. So we're talking Rula offering therapy and medication management through its network of licensed professionals. So that's, I mean I, I think that's huge. This year make one change you can actually stick with. Visit rula.comworld to get started. That's R U L A.com Underworld Mental Healthcare that's actually built to last. Rula. So Martin tries in early December of 1981, but the first car bomb fizzles out and causes a tiny explosion and it so small no one even suspects foul play. They switch up Methods and on January 6th, 1982, Dr. James Donovan is driving to the police station he works at when his car blows up and he's seriously injured. The crime shocks Ireland. I mean sure they had terrorism at this point with the troubles, but this guy is like a state employee, not a member of the security services. According to Paul Williams, the author of the General this hadn't happened before. It's a gigantic controversy and most people point their fingers immediately at the IRA and the INLA as Donovan had also been involved in putting some of them away. Right. But both groups deny responsibility. Eventually the police seize on it being organized crime and it serves as a wake up call for the Irish police who have been spending all their time and resources focused on the paramilitaries. As these sort of criminal gangs in bank robberies and in drug dealing were sort of exploding all over Dublin. A major task force to set up police are rounding up anyone who Donovan had testified against. Martin's name starts emerging and he's soon arrested. He puts up a fight like every step of the way. By that point he's always wearing balaclava's to court at a police station so no one could see his face.

[Sean Williams]

Wait, what? How is he getting away with that?

[Danny Gold]

Yeah dude, he just, I don't understand, right? He just wears balaclavas when he goes to court. He's always, like, doing this in front of his face. Like the. Like the Tony Yayo dance, Remember? Like this or like, what's it called? Anorak, Like a hoodie up. Sometimes he gets desperate enough that he uses the fingerprint stuff in the station or shoe polish to like, you know, basically give himself blackface, which is not. Not PC dude. And coincidentally, that is the same thing that a young Sean Williams used to do for all his Halloween costumes from, I think, 2007 through 2012. And the crazy thing is, he wasn't even going to a Halloween party. He wasn't in a country where Halloween was celebrated. He just liked the excuse to. To do that.

[Sean Williams]

Oh, okay. Yeah, we've gone. We've gone there. Jesus Christ.

[Danny Gold]

That might be a little. Maybe a little too far. That might not be good for your law. That might be a little too far. I might pull back on that.

[Sean Williams]

Have to run that one past the. The New Zealand Forest Service.

[Danny Gold]

I'll stick to weird Berlin, like degenerate sex parties and drugs. Like, doing that as, like, your background as opposed to. Yeah, to highly charged racial Halloween costumes. That might be me.

[Sean Williams]

Okay. Blackface, not okay.

[Danny Gold]

Exactly, Exactly. All right, I'll pull back from now on. Martin, though, he covers his track super well. Everyone pretty much knows he did it, but the cops can't prove anything. And this solidifies him as a major threat in Ireland's underworld, where he's becoming this. This, like, growing legend. And the underworld itself is growing rapidly at the time, especially when it comes to drug gangs. His next move, though, that's going to put him at the top. And that's when we get to the cold open. The Oconnors and Sons jewelry heist. That's also where he tells the IRA for the first time, basically, to f off. Right? And you guys have to understand, the IRA are killers at this point, right? They are not to be trifled with. In Ireland, they're at their most powerful. Assassination attempts on Margaret Thatcher. Right? They're international. They're smuggling weapons in from Libya. For someone in Ireland like Martin to not back down and to antagonize them as well, that shows you how powerful he really is. The police, obviously, they suspect him right away. Nine of his people are arrested and questioned within the week. They hide the gems and the diamonds in the loot. They bury it. They sell the gems, I think, for something like £100,000 to a fence to split. And each man gets £40,000 of gold to do what he wished. And this is what, 19, mid-19 no early 1980s number. I've stopped doing like the inflation calculator stuff. But just know it's. It's a lot of money, guys, they're doing well for themselves. In a weird story, at one point, when some of the stolen gold is sent to London with a gang member courier to sort of be fenced, it disappears. Martin blames the gang member. Him and his crew kidnap the guy. They staple his fingers. They eventually nail six inch nails into his palms, like crucifying him, essentially. The man denies he had anything to do with the thievery. And finally, after the crucifixion, Martin ends up believing him and even drives him to the hospital afterwards. But like, you know, if you're gonna nail nails into somebody, like, that's pretty. It's pretty gnarly. Like I said, the more you learn, the more you're gonna realize, like, it's not. This guy has like a very solid lore and legend as this Robin Hood. He stole from a lot of rich people, but some pretty, pretty awful things in his background. Not good at this point. He's got a pretty solid crew.

[Sean Williams]

A so solid crew, you could say

[Danny Gold]

that's like a 90s English rap reference, right?

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, yeah, it is. We're really going for it with this one. Yeah, yeah.

[Danny Gold]

I'm sure there'll be seven fans or so. I know we have English listeners. I'm sure they'll appreciate that.

[Sean Williams]

They'll get it.

[Danny Gold]

Some relatives, some are relatives like his brothers. Some he grew up with. Some are just like really noted thieves. He's meticulous in his planning. He's known for taking months and months to orchestrate a big job, thinking of every angle, everything that could go wrong. He inspires his fierce loyalty. And he's a neighborhood and underworld legend at this point. They say he has like six robberies being planned in his head at all times. He didn't just commit these crimes, right? He planned campaigns. He studies the targets, spends months on surveillance before executing a job. He recruits specialists for specific roles. He maintains, like iron discipline among his crew, demands loyalty and punishes betrayal with this ruthless efficiency. Meanwhile, in the mid-80s, heroin is becoming a gigantic thing in Ireland, in Dublin especially. And this is going to lead to one of the strangest incidents I think we've ever. We've ever really talked about sometime. So he's not involved in the drug game, but some of his crew dabbles, right? They flip their golden jewelry for heroin to sell, make even more profit. And meanwhile, you've got the paramilitary groups, the ira and the inla, who are adamantly opposed to drugs at that point. But I think eventually some of them get involved, like some of the breakaway factors, right? Like in the 90s, 2000s, that becomes a thing. But at this point, they're adamantly against it. And the people in the slums where Martin and his crew live, they're also getting fired up about pushing out the drug dealers. They hate it, too. Rumors start spreading that Martin is involved in the game. The IRA and the INLA are gathering info on him. It doesn't help that he's actually said to be really close with a heroin dealer named Ma Baker, who's an infamous Granny Queen pin that we should probably look more into, because that sounds like a fascinating episode. With all that going on, a citizens movement called Concern Parents Against Drugs, or cpad, springs up. But it's not like dare, right? These aren't. These aren't like do gooders trying to get you to not do drugs, right? These are serious people. Some are former gangsters, proper hard lads, with some saying the IRA has infiltrated it and are running things, some saying the INLA is. They patrol the streets, they keep pushers out, they even evict suspected drug dealers. They set up roadblocks. At night, they go picket outside the houses of drug dealers, some of which include members of Martin's crew, who, like I said earlier, had gotten involved in the game. And fights start breaking out. Things are starting to look violent. Martin, though, he says most of these guys are what he calls ODCs, or ordinary decent criminals, which is a great name for a band, but he means that they're like proper villains, right? They're robbers. They don't. They've got a code. They're not dealing drugs. After a while, the member of his crews that are being picketed and fought with, they get worried. CPAT is getting really aggressive, so they reach out to Martin to figure out what to do. And he says, okay, we're going to form a group to counteract them. And they do. And they call it the ccac, the Concerned Criminals Action Committee. This is like. This is a real thing that happened, which is, like I said, I'm not making this up. And like I said, like, they were just being like, we're criminals and we do crime and the police just can't get any evidence. It's. This is, I don't know.

[Sean Williams]

I don't know, bonkers.

[Danny Gold]

It counts as, like, Instagramming your crimes. It's like. It's basically like drill rap, essentially. Like, they just admit to Their crimes but get away with it isn't, I

[Sean Williams]

mean, isn't CPAD correct? Like these guys are actually dealing heroin, they're robbing pensioners, they're kidnapping people, they're like, like driving nails into guys hands and crucifying them. Like what, what code is Kyle trying to say he's living by? Exactly what is, what's the red line?

[Danny Gold]

Not selling drugs, I guess. Although I guess some of his guys do. Either way, he orders every criminal nearby to join a protest march at 3pm Then they go outside some of the high up CPAD activists homes. And then later that night, masked men return to some of those homes and vandalize them. They even shoot two members in the leg. And then we have this back and forth with the CPAD and the ccac, each doing their marches, calling on the others at their houses, threats being issued, brawls breaking out. There's amazing quote here from author Paul Williams. Cahill's front men declared that the concerned parents would not be allowed to jeopardize the, quote, livelihoods of local criminals engaged in legal activities which are not related to drugs.

[Sean Williams]

Wow, these guys have got the longest brass necks in history. It's also like quite funny that whatever movement and counter movement you set up in Dublin, you are gonna get eventually a march off probably with a guy banging a drum at the front of them as well. So yeah, this is, this is mad, man. I cannot believe that he did this.

[Danny Gold]

I mean it's kind of a journalist's dream. Can you imagine being a video reporter just going to these different marches with these proper kind of hard lads on each side admitting things and saying out loud and picking fights with each other like what a dream to spend a week doing that. Be incredible. Eventually meetings are held and a truce is declared. But the IRA is pissed. And a few weeks later they kidnap one of the head CCAC guys, a friend of Martin's, from a pub. They hold him for 12 days, they beat him, they interrogate him about drug dealing links, but really they're after info on Martin. Right away he realizes who is behind the kidnapping. Right, the ira, they're formidable. But in Dublin, Martin might be more powerful. He's got an army of gangsters and more guns. He had recently robbed an Irish police armory where they kept confiscated weapons. Which is again like what a move guys. Breaking into the courthouse, robbing police armories. Like he gets away with a lot. There's a reason he's like kind of a legend. He at this point is said to be the most powerful criminal in Dublin, the Godfather. Dozens of his men march the neighborhood in balaclavas. They threaten reprisals unless their man is returned. All sorts of contacts and, like, peace talks are trying to be held and made. He even sends some of his men to do surveillance. Unknown IRA guys waiting to make a move.

[Sean Williams]

I mean, I feel like the real money here is in those balaclavas. It's like selling shovels in a gold rush, man. It's like, where are they? Not in balaclavas, dude.

[Danny Gold]

That's the move. You set up a stand in those neighborhoods, selling balaclavas on the street, you know, you'd be just making a killing. Why rob and sell drugs when you could just be pushing balaclavas legally? You know, the IRA strike first. Well, strike second, I guess. Again, they kidnap one of Martin's men, but a neighbor hears the commotion and calls the police, who get into, like a wild movie like car chase. There's, I think, dozens of cops chasing these guys. There's a standoff, shots are fired, and the police end up arresting a four man active IRA cell and free Martin's man. Had they gotten away with it, it's likely it would have been all that war between the two groups, like a bloodbath. The next day, though, the original guy, the original kidnap guy, he's released.

[Sean Williams]

I just want to have a shout out for the phrase, strike second twice. Strike second. Was this strike second, first or something like that you just said, right?

[Danny Gold]

Did I say that?

[Sean Williams]

Yeah. You guys know strike second, twice.

[Danny Gold]

Look, we're, we, we, we. We're colloquial here, you know, like, there's not gonna. Grammar's not gonna be perfect. I'm gonna mispronounce. I'm gonna mispronounce things, like, just the way we do it. The whole thing is insane. And even more insane, Martin decides afterward to give his first interview with the press, where he talks about the kidnappings and how the IRA threatened him over the o' Connor jewelry robbery and even mocks them saying, quote, they can't even go out and rob for themselves any longer. They have to rob ordinary criminals who have done the work and taken the chances. There's nothing lower than someone who robs a robber.

[Sean Williams]

What?

[Danny Gold]

Great, right? Yeah, this is.

[Sean Williams]

Oh, my God.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah. Through it all, though, he kind of comes across looking like the victor, right? The IRA back off again for the time being. He also wins his next battle. When the trial he tried to sabotage with car bombing, the forensic analyst gets going. Finally, things look disastrous. But his counsel eventually makes the case that the state hadn't properly proven that the person they robbed of the money, I think it was, was a. Was a clerk at a bank or unemployment, whatever it was, have been put in fear of her life. And somehow this, this works with the. The main robbery charge. Right. So they have to. The judge instructs the jury to acquit both men. And I don't like Ireland just doesn't seem like a real country at this point. Like, I, I just don't. I don't get how he gets off on that, but he does.

[Sean Williams]

Wait, so she's not in fear of her life as they. Let's. Let's just say that they've proven that. I don't know how. And then you not only what, get off the threat to life charge, but you get off the robbery.

[Danny Gold]

I think the main charge. I think that they did one charge which was like robbery with a threat to life or something like that. Robbery with something along those lines. I don't know what the Irish penal code is. Oh, legal code, not penal code, but yeah.

[Sean Williams]

And all the while he's setting up this kind of like almost criminal union and he's complaining in public that his robbers are being ripped off and he's stealing guns from the cops and they're not getting him. I agree with.

[Danny Gold]

Guy's a character.

[Sean Williams]

I think Ireland is. Is not real, actually.

[Danny Gold]

He's a great. I don't know if. I don't know if you're allowed to say that.

[Sean Williams]

Like I said, I am. So.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah. This is the 80s, though, we're talking about. We're talking about the 80s here. In 1986, he pulls off an astonishing heist that sees him go from bank robbery, armed like balaclava type guy, to something more akin to like suave, international Thomas Crown type of thievery. When he steals 11 priceless paintings from an Irish lord, a guy by the name of Alfred Bates. His paintings, well, some of them are actually robbed by the IRA 12 years earlier in 1974. All of them are recovered that time. And then after the Martin heist, they're robbed Twice More in 2001, 20, 1002, I think, different paintings. But like, at this point, you gotta. You gotta figure something out with that security system, right? Get a bunch of Malinois or something. Cause it's not working. You're just not good at keeping paintings. Like if it happens four times, the guy, the Lord, I think he was a British lord that moved to Ireland and got. Ireland. Yeah. Irish citizenship. So on that one, he actually Donates his paintings. I think after the first robbery, it was our collection to the Irish state, which, as anything, persuades Martin to go even harder. Because, like I said, he loves the idea of just messing with the state, robbing from them in any way possible. But yeah, these are real deal paintings. Like, real art, you know, like people you. You would know. If you have any sort of, you know, sophistication, Sean, we're talking like Goya, Vermeer. Personally, I'm a. I'm a Van Gogh guy. Had a very moving experience at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, my early 20s. Was I on mushrooms at the time? Yes, yes, I was. But that's besides the point. The thing is that priceless works of art, they are a lot cooler when the people in the paintings are moving, when you stare at them. That's just a fact.

[Sean Williams]

Have you ever tried? Let me introduce you to this crazy thing called television. It's gonna blow your mind. Also, I think we'll wait for the next Dutch episode. We do. But I also have quite a fun Amsterdam mushroom story that. It doesn't make me come out looking very cool, but it was pretty weird anyway.

[Danny Gold]

No, they never do. They never actually do. But yeah, I mean, you know, paintings, people are moving. It's very spiritual. Gets you. Gets you right in the heart. Anyway, these paintings, the ones that are stolen, they're valued at like, I don't know, fucking kajillion dollars, Whatever it is, big money. Martin really is a planner, though. The type of guy who builds bunkers in the forest months ahead of time to hide his stolen artwork, which he does for this heist. He recruits a dozen men for this one, and on May 21, 1986, they hit the museum where the paintings are held. They pull off the heist, or, I don't know if it's a museum or like some sort of estate, but it's like, it's state run, right? They pull off the heist without a hitch. The crazy thing is he doesn't have buyers lined up for them, which seems like a wild risk to take for this sort of operation when you're stealing priceless works of art that are actually not worth anything if no one's willing to. I guess nothing's worth anything if no one's willing to pay for it. But harder to line up buyers, I think, for. For selling our work than. Than regular goods. If you're the purchasing manager at a manufacturing plant. You know, having a trusted partner makes all the difference. That's why, hands down, you count on grainger for auto reordering with on time restocks. Your team will have the cut resistant gloves they need at the start of their shift and you can end your day day knowing they've got safety well in hand. Call 1-800-granger. Click granger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.

[Sean Williams]

Hey guys, it's Andrew from the Scary Mysteries podcast where every single week we dive into insane and creepy true crime compilations as well as cover the most terrifying and strange news stories currently happening all around the world world. We go into all the topics you want to hear about, missing persons, killers, UFOs and more. Best of all, we don't waste your time with any fluff or fillers, just straight and all the dark details. If you like true crime then you're going to love us. So go check out the Scary Mysteries podcast right now.

[Danny Gold]

It ends up not being a smart move because what follows is years of having a fence try to unload the paintings in different European countries to different buyers. Sometimes there's Dutch mobsters involved, there's an undercover law enforcement sting, things like that. The police think the IRA could have been involved initially, but eventually they come around to realizing that Martin is of course the one who did it. A joint op with Interpol and the Dutch police almost snag him, but he's just really too sharp. He has like a, like a sixth sense about these things. He always seems to get out at the last possible second. Or the Irish police are just too inept, right? He gets spooked in one incident by a fake art inspector who's actually an undercover Interpol agent. He flees with the paintings at the last second from a meet up in like the middle of a forest, and the backup unit that's supposed to be like covering them loses track of him and he gets away by the skin of his teeth. Dashing through the forest, the Dutch police get super pissed off at the Gardai for their incompetence and Martin lives to steal another day. At one point, soon after, he actually breaks into the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and steals a whole bunch of files. Doesn't set them on fire this time, steals them on the biggest criminal cases in the courthouse at the time, which is just gigantically embarrassing for the police and prosecutors. Apparently these files become like currency in the underworld. Like they're traded, they're sold, sometimes they're given back to the police, like when deals are arranged to get people off, which is just, you know, again, whole thing insane. In 1987. There's 500 armed robberies in Dublin alone and only 100 solved. Martin is at the top of that list, writes Williams. Quote, his gang were by far the most active in the country, robbing with apparent impunity, sometimes at the rate of three or more big heists a week. Terror threats and kidnapping were the trademarks of the General's gang. In October of 1987, there was a big article published on Martin, who finds himself in the public eye like never before. And then in December, he robs a post office, first kidnapping a woman who worked there and holding her for days, making her steal cash and stamps. Tens of thousands of dollars worth. The police at this point are entirely fed up. They can't seem to get anything going, and they decide it's time to assign a large amount of detectives to surveil and follow him and his guys 24 hours a day. They recruit for it, the officers undergo intensive training, and they launched the Tango Squad, with Martin being known as Tango one.

[Sean Williams]

I mean, surely you need Tango two to do that operation properly, right? Yeah. I mean, I could have made a joke about come out, you blackened Tangos, but which. Which I guess I just have as well. I mean, I was trying to. I was sitting there at night last night, and my. My girlfriend was begging me to come to bed, and I was like, no, no, darling, I'm trying to make a joke about an Irish police operation in the 1980s. And she said, wow, you'. Call. I want to spend my life with you. And that's just another freewheeling day in my life. Isn't it cool?

[Danny Gold]

Yeah. I mean, that's how unfunny we are. Like, we put time into these jokes, and they're just. They're terrible. But to be fair, I listen to, like, a lot of comedian podcasts, and there aren't that many jokes on them either, so I feel like we're doing okay.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, yeah. You don't. You don't want to know subjects anyway.

[Danny Gold]

No, no, no, no. So this group, this. This. This task force that forms, it's kind of like the Untouchables, right? These guys start playing by Martin's rules. They start playing games back. They're slashing their tires, they're jeering at them in public. You know, they follow him as gang. Gang mates everywhere. They'll roll up to the pub and sit next to them. There's three squad cars on every member of his crew. Wherever they go, 24 hours a day, Martin and his squad, they hit back, right? They threaten some of the more aggressive members of the Tango squad. They let them know, they know their wives schedules, where their kids go to school. They hit them with counter surveillance. Sometimes they have a car ram them. After they lure a squad car by itself to certain like kind of dead end street areas in the slums. They drive by their houses. They're shining heavy flashlights and just harassing them. Some of the families of the officers move out of their homes and a hit team is actually hired for one of the top officers. But they back off. Eventually the tango squad, they ratchet it up a bit. There's a fist fight with one of his lieutenant Martin's lieutenants. Someone in his crew destroy, then destroys the golf course where all the police officers play. They slash all the tires of the cars in the parking lot. Then Martin's car is attacked and destroyed, as are the cars of some of his men. I mean, it's, it's a wild tit for tat thing with the police. Martin then does some interviews with local journalists. He's telling them, quote, now the guardi are coming down to my level. They are now breaking the law. And he's thrilled. He's caused them to kind of like go into this chaos, though it's definitely affecting his business and his privacy. Then there's a big news documentary that comes out on Martin. A reporter had been following the Tango squad and actually run up on Martin and got him to talk of it, Even though he first does the wow, you know, the Tony Ayo thing and all that. One of the big things that comes out out of this is that Martin is collecting unemployment and has a second nice private house in addition to his project's house. And this causes a major backlash. Backlash. Politicians are starting to get involved and this is going to come back later and lead to a major controversy.

[Sean Williams]

I mean, I'm incredibly on board with this becoming a story about benefits cheating. To be honest, this is quite funny. How is he not incredibly rich? Like what, what, what is going on? How much money does this guy have at this point? I mean, I know it doesn't matter if he's cheating on his housing, but

[Danny Gold]

he, he just likes, like, he likes to scan the state and, and, and, and in any way possible. You know, it's almost like, you know, we've talked about the Zako and the sort of Russian mafia where they have like, not the ones now in the 70s and 90s, the ones back in the day when they formed the Gulags. They had a whole thing where like, you could not do anything for the state, like you were supposed to be off the grid, you couldn't get a job. They were not allowed to probably collect unemployment. Like they couldn't, they just had to not acknowledge this. They were the state within the state, they couldn't acknowledge existed. And Martin has that in a way. Obviously he's collecting dole, he's living in the public housing, but he has this sort of mentality where like he just wants to screw them over as much as he possibly can, even to his own detriment, you know. And the Irish dole system sounds pretty easy to like. I mean, I remember when I was backpacking in Southeast Asia, this is like 15 years ago, you know, you had kids there that were like, had someone back home filling out all the stuff and they were living in like Thailand off the checks that they were getting because you could live back then for like, what was it, like a thousand euros a month pretty well. Which was like well played, you know. Definitely, definitely well played. In the midst of all this, Martin plans to hit a security van carrying something close to $100,000. But things go wrong. There's a shootout with the police. Two of his main guys get busted, though he again somehow like always gets away. That night, 200 cars in the vicinity in this middle class neighborhood have their tires slashed. And the next day Martin's apartment is raided and there's a heap of evidence found that we somehow released 24 hours. We're in the mid to late 80s now and this starts a period of just like constant news stories about him. He's arguing with the police, there's back and forth to the courts, shouting to the press, how the cops are child abusers and pervs. He's handing out leaflets he makes to the public with write ups with this sort of stuff detailed. He's wearing disguises to court with the fake glasses and wigs. A bunch of his guys are getting locked up. They're all in court too in the meantime. And when you look at photos of him from this time, he's either wearing a balaclava and an anorak, kind of covering up everything, or he's dressed like, like a, kind of a goof, right in, in these like Mickey Mouse T shirts or ill fitting suits. Like he's not what you imagine, he's not a slick looking guy. Like he looks like kind of a doofus, right? He ends up at this time getting hit with a three month jail sentence. But a whole bunch of his crew, they end up getting locked up for much lengthier terms. We're in 1988. Now Martin gets released from jail and he starts planning another big heist targeting the home of a deceased judge who had a lot of jewels in an art collection. This time though, he's got a buyer lined up. He still has the paintings from before, by the way. He never does offload them. We'll get back to that. In this escapade, he ends up holding the 92 year old widow hostage in the robbery. Then over October and November they do a few more tie ups as they're called. He almost gets caught a few times, especially when it comes to handing over stolen goods to fences. But he has this uncanny sixth sense, right? He can always sense trouble and escape just in the nick of time. He also keeps trying to sell the stolen paintings. The first batch he took to no avail. But even when his interlopers slash middlemen get caught, he just doesn't.

[Sean Williams]

I mean one thing I've done, I mean there's a lot stuff I don't understand here. But Dublin isn't exactly like New York, right? It's not a huge place. How did the Guardi not surveil? I mean there can only be what, two, three guys who know their way around, like Vermeers and Goyas and are going to fence it on the black market. Like how, how are they not on top of all of these guys? It's nuts.

[Danny Gold]

Well, he's not fencing them in Ireland, you know, he's got, he's got, he's got like. Yeah, he's got, I mean we're going to talk about it. There's, he tries in Turkey, there's stuff in, like in with the Dutch. There's stuff in, in England, I think there's a, there's a gang in Manchester, he works a lot called the Quality Street Gang. Does that sound familiar to you?

[Sean Williams]

No, no, that's pretty cool.

[Danny Gold]

So he, so he's, he's not fencing it in in Ireland. A lot of times it's elsewhere though. I think in that one bus in the forest, that was in Dublin. But it was a guy who had traveled from Holland. He was going to show him, I think some of the paintings. At the end of 1988 he makes a wild call for a guy based in Dublin, right. He's so desperate to unload those initial paintings, he strikes up a deal with the uvf, the Ulster Volunteer Force.

[Sean Williams]

Wow.

[Danny Gold]

A loyalist paramilitary group that is the IRA. And the INLA's hated enemies. The IRA have been smuggling a heavy weaponry sent by Gaddafi from Libya. And the UVF desperate to catch up, figures they can buy the paintings at a low rate and trade them for weapons. Paintings for shouldered fired rockets, I feel like is a pretty, pretty good deal. Martin, like we said, he's not political when it comes down to doing crime. So I guess that answers your question, right?

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, yeah.

[Danny Gold]

So he, he does work with, he's worked with INLA before, but he'll also do a deal with the uvf. Alas, the UVF guys get busted in Turkey trying to move just one of the paintings to some businessman that they claimed that claimed he was working for a Sheikh who wanted to buy like the whole allotment of paintings. The businessman though, he's an undercover Turkish policeman. And I mean, look, if you're doing a deal on anything, podcast ads, whatever it is, and there's a guy telling you that it's Firsam sheikh, like that's 90% gonna be a scam, right? It is the oldest trick in the book. Do not fall for that.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, the Sheikh's fake, baby. The Sheikh's fake.

[Danny Gold]

So this does lead to the first of the paintings being recovered. And it's a big deal. It's also a big deal that a loyalist paramilitary group is involved. And since everyone rightly assumes that Martin holds all the paintings, the fact that he's doing this in Dublin, dealing with the ubf, that's a real bad look for him. He's no longer seen by some as this sort of fun loving criminal. I mean, keep in mind, he's been doing tons of these brutal break ins and like abusing and torturing people all the time. But yeah, this is the kind of thing that gets you branded as a trader. And the Iraq who already hate him, now they're really pissed. And then to make matters worse, he attacks a civil servant, A guy who is some nameless mid level official that signs off on stopping his unemployment checks. When Martin appeals, the guy testifies against him in court and the general is not happy. In May of that year, hooded armed men break into the civil servant's home. They tie him up, they put a hood on him, they put him face down on the kitchen floor. They also grab his pregnant wife and tie her up. Then they take the guy to an abandoned rail station and Martin shoots him once in each leg. They leave him there, but by a spate of luck, he's able to get the pillowcase off his head. Call out to the people nearby, call the police. And he's saved. This of course, causes another gigantic outcry among the general public and the General I mean, he's getting less and less popular.

[Sean Williams]

I mean, who actually likes him at this point? Does he have some Robin Hood rep? He sounds like a the streets dude.

[Danny Gold]

You know, he's. He robs from the rich and, and you know, gets away with it. He gives to himself and, but and his crew. He's got a sizable crew. Like, you know, he's a legend, legend in the streets. He's doing this stuff. He's getting the better of the police. So I think people tend to overlook that other stuff. Right. That same year, 1990 is a particularly bloody one in Dublin's underworld, which really kind of, you know, sends the country on a spiral. Lot of cops and robbers drama. There's shootouts in the first six months of the year. Three criminals are shot dead in these shootouts. Martin himself gets into a shootout, narrowly gets away from a cop after he shoots him. And again, he's suspected, but police have no evidence. And I don't understand how they keep coming up empty. Then in 1992, we get to the hot dog war. Yeah, the hot dog war. And let me tell you something, there's a lot of things, horrible things that people that we cover can do. And I get that there's a different code with criminals, but attacking hot dog vendors, right, Especially late night hot dog vendors that feed drunks like delicious, delicious hot dogs, it's just a bridge too far for me personally.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah. Danny is a devil for the dogs. It's true. I saw him Polish off 13 in Lower east side one time. It was pretty nuts.

[Danny Gold]

I might get some tonight, now that we're talking about it.

[Sean Williams]

So the General meat by you, have you?

[Danny Gold]

Yeah, dude, let's. There we go, baby.

[Sean Williams]

That's precious.

[Danny Gold]

What is this flavor? Soul Survivor. I mean, Korean barbecue inspired beef jerky. What more do you need in life? Nothing.

[Sean Williams]

A hot dog apparently on top of that. Yeah.

[Danny Gold]

So the General at this time, he's in his early 40s, and he finally decides that he needs a legitimate business to hand down to his children.

[Sean Williams]

I know that feeling.

[Danny Gold]

So instead of going the normal retiring gangster route like real estate, this absolute madman decides hot dogs are his ticket. Specifically targeting the drunk crowd stumbling out of Dublin's late night club scene on Leeson Street. There's already this guy Wolfie, who started running a successful hot dog operation there, and a bunch of under other vendors, they're. They're making serious cash every night. So Martin shows up in May with his own stall, four of his goons, and immediately starts threatening all the other vendors that if they cooperate with the police or try to move him, there's going to be problems. The cops catch wind of it, they start impounding his stalls. So naturally, Wolfie's hot dog cart gets torched. All the other vendors get, get threatened. He goes the traditional mafia route, extorts all the other guys, you know, charges protection fees. Wolfie, who was the first guy to set up a hot dog card, and also kind of, kind of brave. And he runs a nearby restaurant. He puts up a bit of a fight. And the whole thing culminates with Martin sending two of his most vicious proteges, nicknamed the Rottweilers, to Wolfie's house, where they tie him up and they type his girlfriend and they shoot him or else in the leg. And get this, while his guys are doing the shooting, Martin walks into a police station just to stand at the desk and create an alibi. The cops know exactly who did it. Wolfie screams as much when they're loading him into the ambulance after he's shot. But like usual, he skates.

[Sean Williams]

I feel like so much of this is reminiscent of the Glasgow Ice Cream wars episode that we did like a million years ago. I mean, from the tenement buildings that were built to sort of alleviate poverty that ended up becoming havens of drugs to, I mean, you know, hot dogs, ice cream vans, that kind of stuff. This is really what, what was happening in northwest Britain and Ireland in the 50s. Not anything good. Yeah, it's crazy.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah. What a, what a wild chapter. Seriously. Anyway, there's a lot more insane details to the hot dog war and we're gonna put up a bonus episode going into depth about them on the Patreon. Sign up on Spotify, iTunes or patreon.com the Worldpodcast for more. We're trying to do these bonuses as much as possible. We've definitely been slacking off, but we will get on it. And I mean, who doesn't want to know more about a hot dog. The hot dog war. If the hot dog war itself has to convince you to lose respect for Martin as this Robin Hood criminal type. Yeah, this, this next chapter, this might. In 1993, one of his associates gets arrested for sex crimes against his 14 year old daughter.

[Sean Williams]

Oh, dear.

[Danny Gold]

Martin is worried the man might turn on him and snitch to avoid his jail sentence. One would think based on the way that he kind of operates, this decision he would make would be to off the guy. But instead he chooses to support the guy and do everything he can to stop the case from going to court. Don't know why. Doesn't really make sense. One would figure that he would, you know, handle it in a different way, writes Paul Williams, Quote, in his world, the police had no role whatsoever in the administration of justice. No matter what a criminal did, no one had a right to call the cops. If anyone was to be punished, then it would be done gangland style. The general was to embark on a sinister campaign of intimidation against the terrified victim, a 14 year old girl, in a bid to stop her cooperating with the Guardi. Again just doesn't make sense to me. I guess he does have, like I said, the old school Russian thieves and law thing we talked about to a degree, but like makes more sense the whole thing to, to dispense the justice himself. He ends up tracking the girl down on the street and offering her $20,000 to go away and start a new life. He says he could punish her dad for her, but she needs to not cooperate with the police. He later ups it to 35k. When she says no, she still refuses. Soon the house she's staying at with her grandmother starts getting harassed. Then her uncle, who has a bit of a criminal history, he gets approached by Martin and he refuses to get the girl to stop moving forward with the case. Martin refers to the girl as a tout, a snitch, and then tells the uncle he'll kill his whole family if he needs to. Martin and his people then start spray painting all over town, calling the uncle and the niece a rat. Whoa. At some point, the uncle ghosts the inla, those paramilitaries who then tell Martin to back off the uncle and niece. Martin kind of shrugs it off, but he stops harassing the family. Finally after that, he sets it up with the perp, the, you know, his friend, to shoot him in the leg so the trial would be canceled. They do it, but the courts see through the plot and he still goes to trial. The girl gives evidence, the guy gets found guilty and gets 10 years. I mean, there's no really joke to be made here. It's just not, not really his finest moment. Why, why, why did he, why did

[Sean Williams]

he think that shooting his friend in the leg was gonna stop a criminal trial?

[Danny Gold]

I don't, I don't know. His solution to everything is shooting somebody in the leg. He's gonna do it again. It's a very.

[Sean Williams]

Oh my God.

[Danny Gold]

He just always thinks, I, I think they thought that he would be, get threatened, they mistrial whatever it was, but it just doesn't work. But he just keeps shooting people. Sometimes his Enemies, sometimes his friends in the leg. He's gonna do it again. Close your eyes. Exhale. Feel your body relax and let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh my gosh, they're so fast. And breathe. Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order. 1-800-contacts. My dad taught me a lot, including how easy it is to forget to cancel things. So I downloaded Experian, my bff. Big Financial Friend. Experian could help me cancel my unused subscriptions and lower my bills, saving me hundreds a year. Get started with the Experian app today. Your big financial friends here to help you save smarter. Results will vary. Not all bills are subscriptions eligible. Savings not guaranteed. $631 a year average savings with one plus negotiations and one plus cancellations paid. Membership with connected payment account required. See experian.com for details. Experian A KFC Tale in the Pursuit of Flavor the greatest insult the Colonel ever suffered was being served a wrap that was just a snack by a friend. So he took two crispy tenders, lettuce, tomatoes and pepper mayo and wrapped them in a soft tortilla. It wasn't a snack, it was a meal. He called it a Twister and never called that friend again. The Colonel lived so we could chicken the Twister. Now back at kfc Classic or with bacon. Also try it spicy. It's finger licking Good prices and participation may vary. That same year, he's actually feeling the itch once again. He's watched like a hawk, but he wants to figure out a way to do a big heist. And he does, with the infamous Jim Lacy kidnapping. Lacy is a big bank executive, and Martin has this plan. He's going to kidnap Laci, his wife, and their four kids, and while holding the family hostage, force Lacy to go into the bank himself and take out a supposed $7 million he's heard about. That is if he wants to see his family again. But to make the kidnapping seem more credible and to have the money withdrawal go smoother, Martin decides they're going to use a known criminal associate, fake kidnap him, bring him to the same house as Lacy, and have him pretend that one of his relatives has already been hurt. To sort of convince Lacy to cooperate. He's also going to go to the bank with Lacy and kind of ensure the withdrawal goes smoothly while pretending that he's doing it because he's being forced to. Is this making sense like this idea? Because to me it is very dumb, extremely convoluted. He's supposed to be this criminal mastermind and I guess he has been to this point, but the whole plot is like something out of a very bad B movie. Anyway, they go through with it, but the bank executive kind of pulls this slick move and only gets a few hundred thousand dollars out.

[Sean Williams]

Ah, man. So he's kid. Wait. He fake kidnaps one of his criminal associates, pops him down at Lacy's house, and then through that, kidnaps Lacy in order to get the bank's money. Am I, am I getting that right?

[Danny Gold]

You are getting it right. He even stages like a fake, fake kidnapping of that guy on the street and holds him for a week. The friend or their known associate, it's, it's. I don't know, man. I reread it like four times and was like, how do I explain this to people?

[Sean Williams]

That is insane. I'm not sure. Is this guy intelligent or is he just incredibly dumb? But the police are dumber.

[Danny Gold]

I think he's, I think he's. He's a sharp, sharp criminal. Like, he's good, very good at what he does. The police are a bit inept at this time. I think they get their. They get together I think in the mid-90s, but I think, you know, this is in his early 40s and I think he's kind of losing it a bit. So maybe, maybe, I don't know, the whole thing just seems silly to me. A few days after it's done, the fake kidnapped guy even turns himself into the police. He's supposed to convince them, like, it's real. The police are immediately suspicious of the criminal associate. So to make things seem more realistic, Martin has his crew stage a break in of the guy's house and shoot him in the leg as sort of a, like the actual robbery cruise, threatening this guy to keep quiet. And like I said, the solution he always has is shoot his friend or his enemy in the leg.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, that's not very clever. Okay. I mean, I just don't know where I stand on this guy. I guess he doesn't stop. Going to give him credit, but that's possibly the only credit I'm going to give him now.

[Danny Gold]

Eventually, the criminal associate is going to be found guilty for the robbery and sentenced to 12 years. Martin is arrested for it. But he doesn't go down for it. And that's because he goes down for something else. In late 1993, he throws a massive 25th wedding anniversary. But it's more like a gangster party. And there ain't nothing like a gangster party. His crew get him gifts commemorating some of his biggest scores, and they get him a police woman stripper gram, which, you know, is funny, but it's an interesting call for a 25th wedding anniversary. Also, I mentioned earlier, he's not only living and sleeping with his wife, but also his wife's sister. And I think I saw something. I didn't see if it was verified, but there's reports that there was a third sister too, which.

[Sean Williams]

Oh, my God.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, yeah. The guy is basically a Mafia don at this point in his life, but his health is suffering. He's contract. He's contracted diabetes from an unhealthy diet. It's making him irritable. The police also recover some of those paintings initially, that from the initial robbery. And he has some other business deals go bad. He loses some investments. On the other hand, things are actually going good for Ireland in 1994. Peace looks like a real possibility. In the north, the IRA are having peace talks. There's plans for a ceasefire, which of course, as it always does in conflict, leads to a dramatic escalation of violence. As scores are settled, the UVF does some attacks in Dublin. There's thoughts that the Dublin underworld may have been involved. Martin's name is thrown around as having been involved somewhat. He's not worried, though. Apparently he actually had nothing to do with it. He doesn't fear the IRA looking into it. At one point, the IRA arrange a meeting to talk to Martin about his activities. He doesn't even bother to show. Then something happens with the other paramilitary group, the inla. They kill a guy who used to be an associate of Martin's. Though Martin and him kind of had stopped being friendly years ago. Somehow Martin's name gets thrown in the mix with the situation and then there's some bad blood. There's some apartment that the general burns down. And I think the INLA was involved with it somehow. They get pissed off. Both the INLA and the IRA decide around the same time. It's time he gets taken out and being hunted by two paramilitary groups with a lot of experience killing people, it is not a good place to be.

[Sean Williams]

A side note, this is. I just like, read this. It was quite funny. This is when the INLA magazine calls to, quote, break away from Left Republicanism and embrace the scientific socialism of Marx and Engels in order to analyze and thus formulate a political program for the Irish revolution and move beyond republicanism and militarism. Guys, like, get rid of the English. That's. That's. That's your goal. Job done. Like, forget the Comintern and the bushy mustaches. Just get rid of the English, all right?

[Danny Gold]

Martin is also. I mean, I guess you're making up for what you're saying in the beginning of the episode, Martin is also slipping a bit. He's not his usual self. Then on August 18, 3pm in the afternoon, he leaves his house to return a VHS copy of no Joke. Bronx Tale, one of the best. Can't recommend it enough. He drives a few blocks and while waiting at a stop sign, a hitman pretending to be a city worker doing a driving census drops his clipboard and pulls out a.357 Magnum, which is a gigantic gun if you've never seen one, and shoots him. He runs up to the window to make sure Martin's dead. Puts another bullet in him, this one in his brain. He hops on a waiting motorbike to make his escape. Both the IRA and the INLA claim credit at first. But eventually the ira, wanting all the credit, releases a statement with close details of how it was done. And it reads, quote, it was his involvement with and assistance to pro British death squads which forced us to act. Martin's gang was involved closely with the Portadown UVF gang, which, apart from countless sectarian murders in the 26 counties, was responsible for the gun and bomb attack on the Widow Scallons pub. That was a UVF attack on Dublin pub. I think it was right around that time, maybe a little earlier, where they planned to plant a bomb at a bar where friends and relatives of Republican prisoners were attending a fundraiser. And I think they didn't get away with it because the bouncer wise up to it. They end up shooting and killing the bouncer and one other guy, but the bombing did not go forward.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, and if you want to know more about that, I think Google Steak Knife and you'll find some pretty insane stuff. Stuff about the British intelligence services and their involvement in that.

[Danny Gold]

Really?

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, it came out pretty recently. So I think there was a big bruja in the UK last year about the outing of this informant or like agent operative known as Steak Knife and how he had been.

[Danny Gold]

Oh, yeah, I remember this.

[Sean Williams]

Essentially a terrorist.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah, I remember that in the news for sure.

[Sean Williams]

Super interesting.

[Danny Gold]

So some People say that Martin had nothing to do with that. In 2021, the Daily Mirror claimed a top level IRA source said that he organized a safe house for the EVF force the night before the bombing. Again, I would take that with a grain of salt. Of course, like the ira, they made that in the statement initially. They're gonna say that there's also claims over him trying to extort a hash ring and this leading to the dealers lying to the IRA and saying that Martin was dealing heroin, which was a capital offense for them. And Paul Williams, the author of Like We Said this book, the book on the General, later claims that despite most reports to the contrary, Martin was involved in importing hash into Ireland, like big amounts. He also allegedly gave a massive loan to an underling who used it to start a massive drug ring. Whatever the case, the ira, they kill Martin and it's the last murder they do before the ceasefire takes effect in 1994. Of course, I think that only lasts two years, right? Then there's like another outbreak and then it's signed again maybe a year.

[Sean Williams]

1997. Good Friday, Dylan.

[Danny Gold]

Right, right, right, right. Martin has this giant mafia don funeral and he's remembered, like we said, as a Dublin and Irish legend, even though he did some pretty awful things as we covered. He's the subject of a few movies, even one where a character based on him, I think the movie is called Ordinary Decent Criminal, is played by Sean's absolute favorite actor, Kevin Spacey.

[Sean Williams]

I think.

[Danny Gold]

What's the thing you always say about him, right? You don't really care about him as an actor, but he really appreciate the way he lived his life.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I mean, you can try to separate the artist from the art, but in Spacey's case, why would you. Both are great. Actually, I've got a pretty interesting story about Kevin Spacey from someone in London, which I definitely cannot say on the pod, but maybe I'll tell you.

[Danny Gold]

Can we say it. Can we say it on the Patreon?

[Sean Williams]

No, it's that bad.

[Danny Gold]

So what about a higher tier of the. Of the.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, yeah. What if you pay over like 50 bucks a month? You. I'll tell you every single sorted story about everyone I know.

[Danny Gold]

By the way, we did have a guy sign up. We put up like $500 a month as. As like a lark, just to be like, see if someone will do it. Maybe someone will try to launder money through us. One guy did it last month. This month. Credit card does not go through. Was it a stolen credit card? I don't know, maybe. Who knows? But I was going to refund it. I thought he, like, made a mistake, but, yeah. So definitely we can't. You know, I'm gonna leave it at that. I'm gonna leave it at that.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, let's leave it at that. Yeah.

[Danny Gold]

That is all from us for today. Sign [e-mail] for the bonus episode on the Hot dog Wars. And remember, if you want good beef jerky or biltong. Righteous felons. Like, how could you not love that name? And their interaction with us.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah. And actually, if you do want to sign up to that $500 bracket, we will live stream Danny doing a hot dog eating contest as well, which will be quite fun.

[Danny Gold]

I will 100% sit there for however long it takes and see how many hot dogs I can eat in 15 minutes. It.