Introducing Gangster: The Story of the Burger Bar Boys

Gangster

BBC

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2023

⏱️ 4 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A brand new series of Gangster tells the story of Birmingham’s notorious Burger Bar Boys - a gang born out of the Handsworth riots in 1985.

Named after the fast food joint where they met, they were described as more ruthless than the Jamaican Yardies. They fought a bitter and bloody war with their rivals the Johnson Crew for control of the crack cocaine trade in the West Midlands. They controlled their turf in the suburb of Handsworth with threats, intimidation and sub machine guns. But when they killed two innocent girls in a drive-by shooting, they were brought down by their own community and a team of fearless detectives determined to stem the body count.

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

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:05.0	A quick warning.
0:06.4	This podcast contains strong language
0:08.9	and some descriptions of violence.
0:11.1	From BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 5 Live, I'm Livy Haydock and this is Gangster, the story of the
0:19.2	Burger Bar boys.
0:20.7	In terms of other gangs that you've worked with, where did the burgers sit?
0:27.0	The Burger Bar Boys were more dangerous than any of the gangs at that time.
0:33.0	The shot at May, Miss May, and then another shot went off,
0:37.0	then an axe got pulled out.
0:39.0	If the Burg of our boys were going to get you, you would come.
0:45.0	This is the story of the Burger Bar boys and their deadly reign of terror.
0:51.0	I was literally scared. I've got children and it was like what have I done? I love
0:55.8	my hands worth. Two rival gangs. They fight over the drugs trade have automatic weapons and the residents live in fear.
1:04.4	My son was shot because he would not join the Burger Bar gang because they says if he's not
1:10.0	weapon then he's against them. And a spirilling body count.
1:14.3	I still remember sitting in the medical centre and hearing three gunshots.
1:18.4	It wasn't safe for us to go in and deal with the police would bring the casualties to us.
1:24.5	There was more of them than us.
1:26.5	We had a revolver, they had a machine gun.
1:28.0	I got shot in both legs, my peeing, my testicle, my bullets in the right leg. I went to go murder somebody and obviously a back fight.
1:36.4	Two innocent teenage girls shot dead. I knew that I was shot because I was in agony.
	...

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