The brutal shotgun killings that uncovered ruthless medicine turf struggle behind the tragic dying of Leah Betts: How the infamous Essex Boys murders unfolded – and why thriller nonetheless stays to today
In a quiet corner of Essex, a crime boss meets with a Metropolitan Police officer to offer him ‘the hand of friendship’.
The secret summit took place on November 16, 1995 – the same day that Leah Betts, the daughter of a retired policeman, had died after taking a contaminated ecstasy pill.
Leah’s death – and the harrowing photo released by her family showing her clinging to life in hospital – sent shockwaves through Britain and changed the national debate about drugs.
Her case also led a police crackdown on drug dealers and to a more sinister debate in the criminal underworld in the hours after her life support was removed: whether those suspected of selling Leah the pill that killed her should also die.
The conversation 30 years ago between one of Britain’s most feared gangsters and a corrupt policeman was secretly recorded and later revealed how the mob boss had told the officer he would be willing to ‘take out’ the drug suppliers as a favour.
Three weeks later Anthony Tucker, 38, Patrick Tate, 37 and Craig Rolfe, 26, who had controlled the supply of ecstasy and security in the Basildon nightclub where the tablet was bought, were murdered in a Range Rover south of Chelmsford.
The ecstasy death of teenager Leah Betts shook the nation and changed the debate about drugs. An undercover operation later revealed theories that the murders of three men in an Essex field, known as the ‘Range Rover murders’, were offered as retribution
Police officers with the Range Rover on the farm track in Rettendon where the three men were found dead
Michael Steele (left) was convicted alongside Whomes (right) for the same triple murder. Steele will now be freed. They are pictured in 2006
Patrick Tate, Anthony Tucker and Craig Rolfe (from left to right) were all found shot dead in a Range Rover on an isolated farm track at Rettendon, Essex in December 1995
Their bodies were discovered on the snowy morning on isolated farmland in Rettendon on 7 December 1995 by a farmer and his friend who believed were poachers.
To their horror they looked into the 4×4 and found all three men had been murdered with a pump action shotgun.
The murders inspired the 2000 movie Essex Boys, starring actor Sean Bean, and also Rise of the Footsoldier – but also revealed a bitter and violent war between rival firms.
Yesterday it was revealed that Essex Boys convicted triple killer Michael Steele has been recommended for release – despite refusing to admit his guilt.
Steele, 82, was jailed for life in 1998 for the triple execution of three men in Rettendon, Essex.
Both Steele and his accomplice alongside Jack Whomes, 63, have continued to insist that they had nothing to do with the murders. Whomes was released in 2021 after serving a reduced sentence of 22 years.
The killers were convicted in part thanks to the evidence of police ‘supergrass’ Darren Nicholls, who said he had been the getaway driver.
Steele, who has served much of his sentence at Category A Wakefield Prison, West Yorkshire, was told of the Parole Board’s decision yesterday.
The three – members of the ‘Essex Boys’ drug gang – were slain on an isolated lane near a farm in a row over drugs. They were all linked to the nightclub where Leah Betts had died.
The gangster’s talk of killing the men in retribution for Leah Betts’ death linked ruthless drug dealers to her case.
But there are also other theories.
Former Met Police detective David McKelvey said in 2023 that ‘credible lines of investigation were not followed’ and that the three men were murdered in relation to an armed robbery, not drug dealing operations.
Sean Bean starred as Jason Locke in the 2000 film ‘Essex Boys’
Leah collapsed on November 1, 1995 during her 18th birthday party after taking an ecstasy tablet. She died 15 days later in hospital.
Her death was thought to have been caused by a contaminated batch of drugs but an autopsy found she had consumed 12 pints of water, which caused swelling on the brain.
Paul Betts, Leah’s father, who was a retired police officer, released a photograph of her in a coma to show the dangers of illegal drugs.
The revelations that the ‘Range Rover murders’ and the death of Leah Betts may have been connected appeared in a secret 2002 Scotland Yard draft intelligence report called ‘Operation Tiberius’.
The report is said to claim that organised criminals infiltrated the Met ‘at will’.
An extract of the report, seen by the Sunday Mirror, read: ‘On 16th November 1995 [ex-officer named]… met [crime lord named] who offered the hand of friendship, by offering to take out the supplier of the drugs to Leah Betts, who died of an overdose.’
The men who carried out the murders are likely to be the only ones who know the truth.
While Steele is due to walk free in his 80s, Whomes was released in 2021 after serving a reduced sentence of 22-years.
Both Whomes and Steele have continued to insist that they had nothing to do with the murders.
The triple shooting occurred on December 6 1995 on a small farm track in Rettendon. The bodies of the three men were found the following morning by farmer Peter Theobald and his friend Ken Jiggins.
All the victims were shot with a pump-action shotgun. Tate sustained injuries to the head and body, while Rolfe and Tucker died from head wounds.
Essex Police were soon alerted by the witnesses and launched an investigation, led by Detective superintendent Ian Dibley.
At the time, Det supt Dibley said: ‘This is not an ordinary murder. It looks as if they were enticed down there.
‘As far as murders go, you don’t get any more serious than this.’
Whomes and Steele were found guilty at London’s Old Bailey of the killings two years later and received three life sentences with a minimum of 15 years.
The key witness was police informer Darren Nicholls from Braintree, Essex, who claimed he was the get-away driver for the murders.
Evidence given at the trial, including disputed mobile phone data, was subsequently lost. This included much of the tape recordings of Nicholls’ interrogation.
Sentencing the pair Mr Justice Hidden said: ‘There is little that can be said usefully to either of you at this stage. You two men were responsible, in my view, for taking away their lives in a violent and summary way.
‘You lured them to a quiet farm track and summarily executed them.’
Police search a remote lane in Rettendon, Essex off the A130 between Chelmsford and Southend, in November 1995 where a Range Rover car was found with three bodies inside
Police remove the Range Rover car, in which three bodies were found by a farmer on the back of low loader
Mr McKelvey arrested Darren Nicholls in May 1996 for drugs offences, before he became the so-called ‘supergrass’ and says evidence sent to him four years ago by defence lawyers ‘raised doubts.’
He said in the documentary, along with former Met Det Supt Albert Patrick, that they believe the assassination surrounds the proceeds of an armed robbery, rather than drug dealing.
He said: ‘We believe that we have a credible and compelling alternative account of what happened and if you go on the basis that the test in the UK justice system is beyond reasonable doubt, we believe now there is sufficient material to show not just reasonable doubt, but significant doubt.’
Lawyers for both Steele and Whomes have claimed the get-away story was fabricated.
The Court of Appeal rejected applications brought by the defendants in 2006, 2013 and 2016, and the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) decided as recently as January not to refer an appeal back to the courts.
Essex Police said the case was ‘exhaustively examined’ and there was ‘no fresh evidence’ to dispute the ‘original verdicts’.
In 2021, Whomes was released on licence and returned to his mother’s Suffolk home.
