Gangster (20 page)

The murder investigation found itself caught in a whirlwind of activity. They knew they were striking at the heart of the cartel although they didn’t realise just how close they were to cracking one of the murderers. They were informed that Warren had been summoned to meet Gilligan. He was under surveillance from the moment of his release from Lucan Station. The time had come to arrest Bowden. He was preparing to leave the State, taking his mistress with him. The gardaí arrived outside his home on Saturday at 7 a.m. He was barely awake when he was handcuffed and driven at speed to Lucan where Detective Inspector John O’Mahony and Detective Bernie Hanley began an interrogation. At the same time, gardaí knocked on the door of Bowden’s brother Michael’s home and started searching it. Back in Lucan, Bowden was cautioned and told his rights.

O’Mahony, a stout-looking detective, led the interrogation. ‘Will you tell us what you know about the shooting of Veronica Guerin?’

‘I know nothing about it, I had no involvement in it. You can ask Juliet. I was in the shop that day with her.’

‘Do you know Brian Meehan, Peter Mitchell, Shay Ward?’

‘I know Peter Mitchell. His mother Eileen gets her hair done in the shop,’ answered Bowden.

‘In the searches of your house and your brother’s house this morning, there was evidence of you having a lot of money, and there was a lot of money found which is connected to you.’

‘This money was savings I had from the business.’

‘What about the money found in Michael’s house?’

‘I know nothing about that,’ Bowden said.

‘Michael states that you handed him that money outside Joe Wong’s restaurant in Clontarf last Sunday night.’

‘That’s not correct.’

‘There was a hell of a lot of money found which we believe belongs to you, and which couldn’t be savings if, as you say, you get IR£150 a week out of the shop.’

‘It’s all savings.’

‘Your brother Michael is going to say that the envelope we found in his possession this morning, he got from you to mind.’

‘He’s right. I gave it to him to mind.’

‘I am putting it to you that you know Brian Meehan, Peter Mitchell and Shay Ward and that you were in contact with some of them by telephone on the day of Veronica Guerin’s shooting.’

‘Okay, I know them. I know them through Peter Mitchell. Look I want to tell you about the money, I know nothing about Guerin’s murder. I would have nothing to do with anything like that, it would scare me shitless. I have been working with Meehan, Shay Ward and Mitchell. That’s where the money is from. If I was talking to them on the day of the shooting it was only about business.’ Bowden, a master at the art of deceit, guessed the gardaí had followed him. He resorted to interspersing lies with truths.

‘What business do you mean?’

‘Selling drugs, that’s my only involvement with them.’

‘How long were you at this?’

‘About two years. I got to know Peter Mitchell first through his mother, Eileen. She gets her hair done in the shop. Peter helped me out with a spot of trouble I was having with a sign writer from Gardiner Street.’

‘What do you mean by this?’

‘The sign writer was threatening me, saying I owed him money for a job he had done for me. Peter talked to him and warned him off. After that I got involved in selling a bit of hash for Peter, through the hairdresser’s, just a bit—about a kilo a week.’

‘How do you know Brian Meehan and the Wards?’

‘They were involved with Peter, they were all working together. We would meet regularly in the POD and System. We would hang out together.’

‘How much money have you made altogether?’

‘I don’t know, a lot. Lately I couldn’t handle the amounts. It was getting in on top of me.’

‘Where is it all now?’

‘I will show you, I have it offside, it’s in a flat near Lesson Street Bridge. I don’t know the address, it’s a friend of a friend of mine who has it. He doesn’t know anything about it. He was just asked to mind a bag.’

Bowden made his first direct reference to the murder but attempted to give Meehan and Mitchell an alibi. He said he saw them outside Klips when Guerin was shot, but conveniently left out the details. ‘I was in the shop at the time, I wasn’t talking to them.’

‘Are you agreeable to bring us out and show us the flat where the money is?’

‘Yes.’

‘How much is there?’

‘I couldn’t tell you, there must be about IR£100,000. I haven’t counted it,’ he added. The cash was that week’s takings.

The suspect returned to the question of the murder. He explained where he was on the night of the killing.

‘Now I remember, when I was talking to them on the phone, I arranged to meet them that evening in the Hole in the Wall pub in Blackhorse Avenue, to see the football match between England and Germany. We all met there that evening. There was Brian Meehan, Peter Mitchell, my girlfriend Juliet.’ He also named others who attended the party.

At 10 p.m. Bowden was driven into Dublin city by O’Mahony and Hanley. They pulled up outside Klips before heading across the Liffey to the financial district where Bowden directed them towards to a flat off Mespil Road. On the way he engaged O’Mahony in conversation. He said he lied about how he first met Mitchell. It was a conversation of half-truths. The pressure was on and Bowden knew it. He could take a fall or save his own skin. He chose the latter.

Unknown to him, the investigation team had discovered Greenmount through surveillance on Meehan and Mitchell. The investigation team procured a search warrant and went into the office unit Bowden had rented at Harold’s Cross the next morning. It was a Sunday. Inside they found 25 cardboard boxes of hashish. There were seven bags of white powder and an electric weighing scales. The workspace was littered with cannabis. There were drugs everywhere—wooden boxes full of hashish slabs. There was a black Nike sports bag containing 115 bars of vacuum-packed dope ready for delivery. Bars of cannabis sat neatly beside the claw hammers and jemmy bars used to prise open the wooden crates the drugs arrived in. There was rubbish strewn everywhere. Amongst the debris was a green, covered file containing the tenancy agreement. A list of names was found pinned to a partition wall.

Bowden was blissfully unaware of the find, not that his interrogators knew he was stringing them along. He had slept well the night before. He was brought back to the interview room at 1.55 p.m.

O’Mahony asked him to be honest. ‘Tell us the full truth about Veronica Guerin’s murder.’

‘I am not involved in the murder. I am not a heavy. I just do the drugs for Meehan and Mitchell, for the money.’

‘Where do you get these drugs from?’

‘They are delivered to me or else I meet Meehan or Mitchell and they give the drugs.’

‘Do you know where the drugs are stored?’

‘No.’

‘Do you know where they come from?’

‘No, I don’t ask any questions, I just deliver the hash to the list of customers given to me by Meehan or Mitchell.’

‘Charlie, the gardaí have located a warehouse at Greenmount Industrial Estate, Harold’s Cross, and they are searching it. They have discovered a large quantity of cannabis and other suspected drugs there.’

‘Have ye found it? I should have told ye last night. Fuck it, I was going to tell ye when we were stopped at Harold’s Cross lights. Now ye have found it I will tell you everything. I am sorry for not telling ye about it already.’

‘Charlie, all we want is the full truth, we want you to tell us all you know about the drugs operation and give us whatever information you have regarding the murder of Veronica Guerin.’

‘I will tell the full truth now. It is not true to say that Brian Meehan and Peter Mitchell deliver the drugs to me for delivery. I have over the years organised a few lock-ups where we store the drugs when we get them.’

‘Where do you get the drugs from?’

‘I will tell you that too. I am scared if Gilligan hears that I have ratted, I am dead. I rented the lock-up in Greenmount about a year ago.’

‘How much did you lease it for?’

‘IR£500 a month.’

‘How did you pay for it?’

‘By cash. I have the key for it on my keyring. Shay Ward and I delivered the drugs from there. We had a blue Kadett van which we used for the delivery. It is parked up on St Peter’s Road, Walkinstown. I was making up to IR£3,000 a week on the drugs. Brian Meehan and Peter Mitchell were in charge of the drug operation, but I know that John Gilligan was in overall charge.’

Bowden said that the drug consignment found in the warehouse was hash that had been returned because it was poor quality.

‘The last supply was delivered to the lock-up on the previous Monday. Drugs came in from Cork. They were imported as a legitimate cargo by Seabridge Freight, Little Island, Cork. The fellow involved was a John Dunne who was originally from Dublin but now lived in Cork. Gilligan knew him from way back. It was Gilligan who arranged the importing of the hash.’

‘Tell us how the drugs are taken from Cork to Dublin?’

‘It is delivered by a courier in a white van. Shay and I meet them at the Ambassador Hotel and drive the van to Greenmount where we unload the drugs and then bring the van back to the Ambassador. The driver used to stay in the Ambassador. I know that the boxes of drugs were addressed to a company in Little Island, Cork. I used to take the labels off the boxes in Greenmount.

‘I also want to say that there is a cover for a machine gun in the lock-up. That was a cover that was on a gun that came in with the hash. We got a good few guns in on different times. Firstly, the sub-machine guns and ammo for them. I put these guns in an old graveyard up near Bridget Burke’s pub. Brian Meehan and Peter Mitchell told me where to put them. I will show you the place.’

‘Are those two guns in the cemetery still?’

‘Yes, one of them was used to shoot Martin Foley. I took the gun back up to the graveyard after the shooting. Meehan did the shooting.’

Neither O’Mahony nor Hanley could believe their ears. ‘Martin Foley was shot at twice—which one are we talking about?’

‘The one in Cashel Avenue. They made a bollocks of it. They allowed him to reverse the car and he got away. Meehan couldn’t handle the gun. I had shown him how to fire it in a field out at the back of the graveyard. I got the gun ready for them and collected it afterwards.’

‘Why was Foley shot?’

‘Because Foley mouthed to all the politicals that Gilligan and Meehan were selling heroin.’

‘Does Foley know it was Meehan who shot him?’

‘He does. They have patched it up.’

‘What other gun did you get?’

‘I remember another time when Meehan, Mitchell and [named another man] were on holidays, a box with five 9mm semi-autos came in with the hash. I put those in the graveyard too. John Gilligan told me that these were coming in and he asked afterwards if I had got them. In January of this year another sub-machine gun and a .357 Magnum and 12 rounds came in.’

‘Where is the .357 gun now?’

‘I know that is the gun you are looking for for Veronica Guerin’s murder.’

‘How do you know what type of gun we are looking for?’

‘I got it wrapped up and put it up in the graveyard too. Right. I might as well tell you everything. There is a name you haven’t mentioned at all, the person who shot Veronica Guerin. Can I trust you? I have told you so much now I might as well tell you all. Pat the Hat, do you know him?’

‘No, I never heard of that name for any criminal.’

‘You must know him, he has done a few hits around town.’

‘Do you know his correct name?’

‘He is called Pat the Hat but we call him The Wig. Be careful of that, there is only a few of us that know him by that name, only five of us.’

‘What is the correct name?’

‘Don’t know it, call him The Wig.’

‘Give us a description of him.’

‘He might be called Paddy too. I am not sure.’

‘What’s his description?’

‘Forty-five years approximately, maybe more. Bald on top, sandy kind of hair, about 5 foot 8 inches or 5 foot 9 inches. He has a bent nose. I met him often. I used to give him some hash.’

‘How can you be so sure that the .357 Magnum was used for the murder of Veronica Guerin?’

‘Because I cleaned it and got it ready before the murder. There were refill bullets in it. Brass with silver heads, the tops were turned in, rather than coming to a point.’

‘Where did you get this gun when you cleaned it?’

‘Shay Ward brought it down from the graveyard.’

‘Who did you give it to?’

‘I left it in the lock-up with Brian Meehan, Peter Mitchell and Shay Ward. They had been talking about shooting Veronica Guerin. Traynor had told them that she was up in court in Kildare.’

‘Tell us everything you know about Veronica’s murder.’

‘Well, I knew they had planned to shoot her, and when I cleaned the gun I knew that that was the gun that was to be used in the shooting.’

‘Why was she shot?’

‘John Gilligan wanted her shot. I often heard Meehan and Mitchell talk about her and how upset Gilligan was about her charging him for assault. I didn’t know where she was to be shot, I had nothing to do with it. I am telling the truth about that day. I was at work, they wouldn’t involve me in it. I am not into heavy stuff, they never asked me to do anything else in the murder. I met Brian Meehan and Peter Mitchell that night of the murder in The Hole in the Wall pub. Meehan told me about the murder, he said that he drove the bike on the job and The Wig did the shooting. Meehan changed into his clothes in the Greenmount lock-up. The Wig was real cool. Shay said that he said something about his fine house. Shay didn’t tell him how The Wig went away. I heard that Russell Warren got the bike for them.’

‘Do you know if John Traynor was involved in the murder?’

‘The only thing I heard about him was that it was he who told them that she was in the court in Kildare. I don’t know anything else about him. I gave him two guns—this was before the murder. Traynor wanted to give the guns to politicals as a sweetener for something. I gave him a .38 snub-nosed and a Browning semi-automatic. I was told to give these guns. I left them on the roadside near the graveyard.’