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In Cold Blood: A Brother’s Sworn Vengeance
Julie Shaw
Previously published as Our Vinnie.The infamous Canterbury Estate in Bradford, a hotbed of crime, drink and drugs, was a law unto itself in the ’70s. So when one of their own was wronged in any way, the community always had its own way of dealing with it.The first title in a series of gritty family sagas, In Cold Blood accounts the dramatic true story of a brother’s determination to avenge his younger sister’s rape. Josie was just 11 when her Vinnie, then 14, was taken away to a detention centre. Distraught by his absence and left alone with indifferent parents, when she escapes from one of their rows she naively enters the house of a neighbour, Melvin, who – horrifically – leads her upstairs and overpowers her.Convinced by her friend Carol, Josie tells her sister Lyndsey about the rape but, with Vinnie out of the picture, Lyndsey uses the information for her own ends. When Vinnie returns, hardened by years inside the system, his outrage on discovering the truth is severe. And with new abuses continually coming to light, a cataclysmic series of violent events begins to spiral out of control…Dramatic and shocking, In Cold Blood is an unbelievable page-turner, documenting a community forsaken by society, and one brother’s unrelenting determination to take justice into his own hands.
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Copyright (#u2997a235-37d3-5595-b688-3d9d4cf4f6b7)
All names and identities have been changed in this memoir, to protect both the living and the children of those who have died. Some changes have been made to historical facts for the same reason.
HarperElement
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
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London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published by HarperElement 2014 as Our Vinnie This edition 2018
© Julie Shaw and Lynne Barrett-Lee 2014
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018 Cover photographs © plainpicture/mb photo (woman); Mark Owen/Trevillion Images (man with gun)
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
Julie Shaw and Lynne Barrett-Lee assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Source ISBN: 9780007542246
Ebook Edition © February 2018 ISBN: 9780007542253
Version 2018-02-20
Contents
Cover (#ud0a1dd07-568f-536b-8cd3-db1d9aad25d7)
Title Page (#u39036fe0-ae0e-5066-9338-803628eab402)
Copyright (#ulink_8d269a2d-e847-5c8d-af88-844246746963)
The Canterbury Warriors (#ulink_c4e41b01-9178-5b24-b119-a5f2a1f5312f)
Note by the Author (#ulink_aaf1f967-4b29-5eda-b170-4ad6526cc465)
Hudson Family Tree (#ub03f427a-9e2c-567f-976a-1f2886d97005)
1970
Chapter 1 (#ulink_55c71a11-f522-56ef-899a-9beb44768916)
Chapter 2 (#ulink_7ae57ceb-cdf4-5039-89cc-ff587356a9de)
Chapter 3 (#ulink_d39428f4-ca86-51e6-a677-ae39a672cc8e)
Chapter 4 (#ulink_3fbab1a9-dbc9-5e6b-a86f-fa3cbbb2f756)
Chapter 5 (#ulink_247c5225-3747-51f9-b5ac-1c76f5f6dfa9)
Chapter 6 (#ulink_ab16cede-f4e6-5ac1-81c2-8653d00a2046)
Chapter 7 (#ulink_3e417df2-e604-5e0a-b896-0869dc10ea45)
Chapter 8 (#ulink_77c35d7f-38e0-5133-9537-e262eecd4f08)
1973
Chapter 9 (#ulink_f9cc03f4-19bd-583c-9ba0-4abecd04e68b)
Chapter 10 (#ulink_0dc426de-5626-57bd-9cd6-9ca906a05622)
Chapter 11 (#ulink_4b8546ce-fd7e-5762-b710-61384853b5d6)
Chapter 12 (#ulink_c34acb44-3881-5ae1-aa9c-e12af8e5e27e)
Chapter 13 (#ulink_67183999-2a66-5975-abfd-15d37f2f463d)
Chapter 14 (#ulink_aee8c412-28d1-55bd-94be-ec2f067e8d62)
Chapter 15 (#ulink_6ea5a9de-a1c7-5ea6-a301-2926def7f3f4)
Chapter 16 (#ulink_8064f6dc-6de1-5524-8ea6-1e7be818c5e9)
Chapter 17 (#ulink_474f3f9c-5cf9-5601-932f-caa158779e94)
Chapter 18 (#ulink_6731ff3a-660d-5bf2-a561-3e1c7d498342)
Chapter 19 (#ulink_cd10a499-80b5-59ea-9f39-28ca72c39862)
Chapter 20 (#ulink_548c12be-e81e-5b04-826d-d74bdcb3264a)
Chapter 21 (#ulink_7380f76e-c5a8-5cf4-85b6-e288f2a53ed8)
1974
Chapter 22 (#ulink_a484740d-0180-570e-ab21-e19ce1534f32)
Chapter 23 (#ulink_5f4fb97b-e19a-5ae0-8c92-375df2930c76)
Chapter 24 (#ulink_7569a633-9a4d-5ddc-89a7-82698fd7ec9e)
1979
Chapter 25 (#ulink_20d47a00-e335-5ea4-8d98-9d352c2502e9)
Chapter 26 (#ulink_ed110591-0f18-5f84-b704-82c83883b34e)
Chapter 27 (#ulink_6cb84195-c169-569a-83fb-4b4f6cb5a145)
Chapter 28 (#ulink_7c0bfddb-e5d9-5a35-b78f-c2c277d22fdb)
Chapter 29 (#ulink_e7ccaf8f-3f2b-51fe-afbd-895a21830247)
Epilogue (#ulink_16c0e6dd-3469-5867-a8bf-231211d11ffa)
Acknowledgements (#ulink_ada85810-ca7c-5847-bfc4-32867cfc6210)
Exclusive sample chapter (#u8c2277f0-9fbc-50a5-b2d7-cc1ccb66e187)
Further titles in this series (#u5e7991eb-2002-505b-8107-a9118085b338)
Moving Memoirs eNewsletter (#u80107f8e-0d09-551d-b88e-6ce9a5097040)
Write for Us (#uebb58352-e11a-53c2-bf3c-51e4f0f3c6eb)
About the Publisher (#uc27503d1-6d62-5057-98de-c3efa446f2b6)
The Canterbury Warriors (#u2997a235-37d3-5595-b688-3d9d4cf4f6b7)
We are the Canterbury Warriors
We stay out late at night
If anybody dare come near us
There’s sure to be a fight
Last night we were in trouble
Tonight we are in jail
We’re doing six months’ hard labour
For pulling a donkey’s tail
Way back whoa back
Come and get yer money back
Pea and pies for supper
Our old lass has plenty of brass
And we don’t give a bugger!
(Anon.)
Note by the Author (#u2997a235-37d3-5595-b688-3d9d4cf4f6b7)
My name is Julie Shaw, and my father, Keith, is the only surviving member of the 13 Hudson siblings, born to Annie and Reggie Hudson on the infamous Canterbury Estate in Bradford. We were and are a very close family, even though there were so many of us, and those of us who are left always will be.
I wanted to write these stories as a tribute to my parents and family. The stories are all based on the truth but, as I’m sure you’ll understand, I’ve had to disguise some identities and facts to protect the innocent. Those of you who still live on the Canterbury Estate will appreciate the folklore that we all grew up with: the stories of our predecessors, good and bad, and the names that can still strike fear or respect into our hearts – the stories of the Canterbury Warriors.
1970 (#u2997a235-37d3-5595-b688-3d9d4cf4f6b7)
Chapter 1 (#u2997a235-37d3-5595-b688-3d9d4cf4f6b7)
Bradford, October
June McKellan was standing in front of her chipped-tile fireplace, skirt hitched up slightly at the back. She was warming her backside from the last of the embers that were sizzling out on the coal fire. Her husband, Jock, was slouched across the brown moquette settee in his favourite position – bottle of cider in one hand, cigarette in the other. His eyes were glued to the television as he squinted through a cloud of fag smoke to watch the last race of the day. June stared at the sight she had married. ‘Are you gonna fucking move today, or what?’ she asked him. ‘And if you’ve won fuck all on the horses again, you better get yourself out on the tap. We’ve no coal, and I’m off out tonight!’
Jock dragged his gaze from the TV and looked up at her. ‘Shut your cake-hole, June,’ he said. ‘You’re going no-fucking-where till you’ve got me another bottle of Joe Rider and some twifters.’ Jock turned his attention to his wife then, his gaze full of animosity as he looked her up and down, and she could tell exactly what he was thinking. And knowing none of the thoughts were nice – the contents of his head rarely were – she jabbed him in the shoulder to reinforce her orders.
‘I’ve got your cider and your fags, gob shite,’ she snapped. ‘Now move your arse off that couch before our Vinnie gets in for his tea. Fucking social worker’s coming at half five.’
‘What?’ Jock said, alert now. ‘What the fuck for?’
‘Been to see Moira,’ June told him irritably. ‘Needs to talk about something apparently. And, no, I don’t know what, because I haven’t spoken to her yet, have I?’
‘Moira?’ he said again. ‘Why Moira?’
‘Because I was fucking asleep, okay?’ And hungover, same as you were, she thought but didn’t add. ‘Anyway, get up and get out, will you? I don’t want you sitting here pissed as a fart when she gets here. Go on – go round your Maureen’s and borrow some coal and a few quid till we get your dole.’
Jock dragged himself up and pulled his woollen cardigan closer round his bloated stomach. ‘I’m getting a bit sick of this, June,’ he said, crushing out his cigarette. ‘Our Maureen thinks I should give you a fucking slap and make you stay in.’
June threw her head back and laughed at him. ‘Your Maureen’s coming out with me, idiot! And I’d like to see the day you give me a fucking slap!’
Jock slammed the door as he stumbled out of the house, and into the sooty late afternoon light. Little twat! He was a good foot and a half bigger than her, and one of these days he would knock her out, never mind the slap. What a fucking cow bag she was, stood there like that, all bleached hair and lippy. Oh, all his mates had thought he’d cracked it when he copped for June – five foot fuck all, and a waist you could get your hand around. Well, they didn’t know what he had to put up with, did they? Gobby little cow that she was.
He meandered down the path and into the street, scowling as he dodged the dog shit on the pavement. He could do nothing right in her eyes. Not these days, at any rate. The three kids, on the other hand, could do no wrong. Fucking twat. He’d slap her proper, one of these days.
