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he had had enough. He broke into the couple’s Linford Drive home, crept up to the main bedroom and as Brian lay asleep next to his wife, smashed his skull to pieces with three blows from a ten-pin bowling skittle that weighed nearly four pounds. Brian’s skull was crushed like an eggshell.
    When Lorraine Rolfe was charged, it is reported she replied, ‘I never touched him, honest, on my baby’s life.’
    Lorraine was at that time the mother of three children and was expecting a fourth – Craig. When the case came to trial at Maidstone in March 1969, the prosecution alleged that Lorraine and Kennedy murdered Brian Rolfe and tried to fake a roadside robbery. Both pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. Kennedy was found guilty of murder and jailed for life. He was also given a concurrent sentence of seven years for breaking and entering the Rolfe family home and stealing £597. During this episode, Lorraine gave birth to Craig in Holloway Prison. Not surprising, then, that he had a chip on his shoulder, or that he’d chosen a life of crime.
    By the age of 16, Rolfe had grown into a classic juvenile delinquent: at odds with everything that society had to offer and accumulating several minor criminal convictions along the way. He worked for a short time as a tyre fitter and then as a plasterer, but the only trade in which he ever excelled himself was drugs. Whatever was on offer, Rolfe would sample or sell it.
    Rolfe met Diane Evans after her family had moved to the Basildon area. The couple started seeing each other on a casual basis when Diane was 18. The relationship went from strength to strength and shortly after Diane’s 19th birthday the couple moved into Rolfe’s mother’s home. Keen to impress his attractive girlfriend, Rolfe stepped up his drug-dealing operation in nightclubs around Essex to fund a better lifestyle for them both. The relationship was turbulent, to say the least, but regardless of how much the couple fought and argued they remained hopelessly devoted to each other.
    Rolfe was far from intelligent, but it didn’t take him long to realise that selling pills to nightclub revellers was never going to make him rich. If you wanted to make serious money, the quickest but most dangerous way was to order large amounts from suppliers and simply not pay them. Stupid or fearless, I’m not sure which, but Rolfe became very proficient at it.
    Rolfe and Diane’s daughter, Georgie, was born in the autumn of 1990. A few weeks later, Rolfe made a drugs sale which would dictate the path the rest of his life was to follow. A man turned up at Rolfe’s home, having been told by friends that he had good quality cocaine for sale. As is the norm, a small test sample was given to the man to try. ‘This is fucking good gear,’ he said. ‘Where did you get it?’
    Rolfe, high on his own supply, replied, ‘Fuck knows, I ripped off some idiot for it in Southend.’
    The pair fell about laughing and spent the day snorting the rest of the cocaine together. The man was Tony Tucker – Rolfe had found his kindred spirit.
    Rolfe and I never really did see eye to eye after our first meeting. Our views clashed on most things. However my association with Tucker was business, Rolfe’s was personal, so like and dislike didn’t really come into it. Rolfe had a fairly serious cocaine problem and hanging around with Tucker helped because there was a constant supply at a discount price, if not for free.
    Merging with anyone in business is always potentially hazardous, but particularly so if you’re involved in our line of work. When I had taken over Raquels from Venables I had, in the eyes of those concerned, become top of that particular heap. However, when I merged with Tucker, who ran a much larger door firm, I was seen as the new boy in his organisation. Long-standing members of his firm resented me. They felt threatened by a newcomer who had a degree of clout. The fact that I was also introducing people like Steve,