The Soho Don is the story of a shy south London boy from a respectable family who became a shadowy, but powerful figure in the Soho, Mayfair and Brighton underworlds.
Smartly dressed and well spoken, Billy Howard dominated the London crime scene for 30 years, a reign punctuated only by short stays in prison. The Krays said he feared no one and that Howard was the one man they truly respected.
Unlike many of the notorious figures that emerged from this era he was in many ways a loner, preferring to control his own operations and eschewing the leadership of a gang. In contrast to the Krays, he did not court publicity but on the occasions his name did hit the headlines, it was often with the tag ‘Laughing Boy’.
The Soho Don is a gripping account of Howard’s violent life and it exposes the links between the vicious gangland bosses, the police, and the celebrity hothouses of Mayfair clubs, high-class prostitution and international gambling. It portrays his slide from power and, finally, his pathetic death in 1984.
Smartly dressed and well spoken, Billy Howard dominated the London crime scene for 30 years, a reign punctuated only by short stays in prison. The Krays said he feared no one and that Howard was the one man they truly respected.
Unlike many of the notorious figures that emerged from this era he was in many ways a loner, preferring to control his own operations and eschewing the leadership of a gang. In contrast to the Krays, he did not court publicity but on the occasions his name did hit the headlines, it was often with the tag ‘Laughing Boy’.
The Soho Don is a gripping account of Howard’s violent life and it exposes the links between the vicious gangland bosses, the police, and the celebrity hothouses of Mayfair clubs, high-class prostitution and international gambling. It portrays his slide from power and, finally, his pathetic death in 1984.
