Billy Hill Gyp & Me
A Memoir
By Justin Hill & John Hunt
February 2013
Billy Hill Family Ltd.
Distributed by Trans-Atlantic Publications
ISBN: 9780956095817
292 pages, Illustrated
$39.95 Hardcover
This is the memoir of Billy and Gyp Hill - Britain's most successful criminal couple - and Justin, their only child. Billy was the Boss of Britain's underworld. He introduced 'project' crime to Britain and got clean away with the 1952 Eastcastle Street robbery even though the authorities knew that he did it. In 1956, he was at the centre of a phone tapping scandal that led to a Privy Council enquiry. When Billy published his memoir, the papers said there had been nothing like it since the days of Al Capone. Gyp was pure fire and beauty - she fought like a man and was the brains behind many of Billy's crime successes, including scams to fleece the upper classes at London's card tables. 'Mad' Frankie Fraser said she was 'the best thing that happened to Billy'. Glamorous Gyp travelled the globe in mink coats and diamonds, partied with celebrities (including the Rolling Stones) and ran a top nightclub in Tangier - with the chief of police as her minder - before retiring to become Justin's mother and raise him as a law-abiding citizen. She taught him many of her 'old school' values. Billy and Gyp's last fight with the law was to rescue Justin from an abusive children's home after his birth mother died. Justin saw a lot of his dad before he passed away in 1984 and Gyp told him many stories of their times together. Justin has combined these and his own memories with extensive research to bring you this story of his family.
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