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Gangster

1. Out of the Ashes

Gangster

BBC

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 β€’ 1.4K Ratings

πŸ—“οΈ 3 November 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

January 2, 2003: The senseless murders of two teenage girls thrust a vicious West Midlands gang into the national spotlight. The girls' deaths mark the culmination of the Burger Bar Boys' long-simmering feud with their rivals, the Johnson Crew - a conflict that threatens to engulf the city of Birmingham in an all-out gang war. But how did this hatred fester and grow, and what were the decades-long origins of this bloodshed in the city? In this podcast, Livvy Haydock will unravel the complicated history of violence, telling a story that traces back to the post-war arrival of the Caribbean Windrush generation and the often-betrayed promises made to them. In the 1960s, Enoch Powell delivered his incendiary "Rivers of Blood" speech in Birmingham, reflecting the racial tension in the area at the time. Two decades later, in the mid-1980s, the build-up of tension, along with friction between the police and Black and Asian communities, led to the Handworth Riots, resulting in parts of the city burning for two days. In this opening episode, you will hear from those who lived through these decades, those who lost loved ones in the turmoil, those who fought for peace, and those who have had close encounters with one of the most brutal gangs to have ever existed in the UK. This is the story of the rise and fall of the Burger Bar Boys... Presenter – Livvy Haydock Series Producer – Hayley Mortimer Technical Producer – Nicky Edwards Producer – Patrick Kiteley Researcher – Megan Jones Archive Researcher – Nicola Han Fixer in Jamaica – Nick Davies Journalism Assistant – Tim Fernley Commissioning Executive – Louise Kattenhorn Assistant Commissioners – Lorraine Okuefuna and Natasha Johansson Editor and Executive Producer – Carl Johnston

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.

0:04.7

You're about to listen to Gangster, the story of the Burger Bar Boys.

0:09.7

Episodes will be released on Fridays wherever you get your podcasts, but if you're in the UK,

0:15.6

you can listen to the latest episodes early, first on BBC Sounds.

0:20.5

A quick warning, this podcast contains strong language and some descriptions of violence.

0:26.4

From BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 5 Live, I'm Livy Haydock and this is Gangster, the story of the Burger Bar Boys.

0:36.4

Episode 1 Out of the Ashes. emergency, please, someone's in shock. Right, where do you need the emergency to do you. I saw the gun out of the gun out of the street.

0:53.0

I saw the gun outside the window.

0:55.0

I saw the gun outside the window.

0:58.0

Before you know it, I found myself to the ground. Get police, man. Get police,

1:13.0

get police.

1:14.0

There were a succession of gunshots that went off really quickly.

1:18.0

And then after that, another five or six,

1:20.0

then there were people that was screaming.

1:22.0

Mainly women screaming really historically and men shouting.

1:26.0

Now, but I'll score on.

1:30.0

65.

1:32.0

An indiscriminate drive-by-shooting. The gunman firing a powerful sub-machine gun designed for the battlefield.

1:41.0

I knew that I was shot because I was in agony. I thought it was just me at the time.

1:45.0

It escalated like a roaring kind of sound.

1:48.0

Everybody was just like waiting for something to happen.

1:50.0

Some kind of monsters to walk in the room and just finish everybody up.

...

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