JIMMY THE WEED

Inside the Quality Street Gang
My Life in the Manchester Underworld

by Jimmy Donnelly

JIMMY DONNELLY IS an underworld legend. Known to all as
Jimmy the Weed, he has mixed with the most notorious
gangsters in Britain and the Costa del Crime in a criminal career
spanning five decades. He has been arrested on suspicion of
serious crimes including murder, drug supply, violence and fraud,
has faced numerous court trials – and walked free from them all.

Most infamously, Jimmy was a key figure in the Quality Street
Gang, a mysterious group of ex-fighters, car dealers, scrap
merchants and businessmen. They socialised with the city's elite,
from footballers to rock stars and inspired the hit song,
'The Boys Are Back In Town.' They were also targeted by Greater
Manchester Police who suspected them of involvement in major
crime. In the mid-eighties they became embroiled in the
sensational Stalker Affair, which led to a national political scandal
and ultimately the resignation of the city's deputy chief constable.

In this explosive autobiography, Jimmy tells how he rose from
humble beginnings to own pubs, clubs, car pitches and massage
parlours, how he became the biggest illicit ticket agent in the
North, and his great friendship with numerous figures from the
worlds of crime, showbiz and sport, including the formidable
exboxer Jim Swords, the man the QSG grouped around.
He has seen and done it all: and tells it in unvarnished detail.

About the author:

JIMMY DONNELLY was born in Manchester in 1940 and worked
as a youth on Smithfield Market, where he made many of the
friends later dubbed the Quality Street Gang. He went on to own
numerous pubs, clubs and businesses and to be immortalised in
Thin Lizzy's 1976 rock anthem, 'Johnny the Fox Meets Jimmy the
Weed'. Now retired from crime, he lives quietly in the Ancoats
area of the city.

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