Party Vibe

TBH its most likely to be the Serbians.

The “gun” Barry George had was a replica that may or may not have been capable of firing live rounds – however most of these “rebores” will only handle .22 LR rounds or home-made (and unreliable) rounds based on the various rim-fire blanks.

Dando was killed with a altered 9mm Parabellum round, with some of the powder taken out from the cartridge to reduce noise. These sorts of cartridges would be more commonly used by a specialist with proper military training, particularly from a European military.

Barry George also suffered from a ton of health and mental problems, even if he had a gun I doubt he could have shot straight and effectively enough for an assasination.

However Dando was killed just days after NATO troops bombed the Serbian TV main studio with 17 people killed…

Yes there were and to some extent still are (though many people have been busted in recent years due to trigger happy youths) – but I was thinking more of the actual “weapon” that Barry George had, which clearly wouldn’t have been the “best of breed” if he got it for £55 as alleged.

Even what the cops/media say about this gun (or even George himself!) can hardly be trusted as accurate (unless you have access the full documents including exhibit pictures), which cops/media seem to have have an “agreement” not to publish on line or in detail. it also appears he had disposed of it as its never mentioned as an exhibit (unlike other cases where cops often manage to recover better forensic evidence including actual weapons).

Whatever it was, it was certainly not good enough for an assasination, nor the mans own planning/memory skills!

there was a serious darkside to the rave scene in SE England and London during the 1990s – guns were not uncommon on the sidelines and easy enough to get hold of. indeed one of our main record label owners/promoters was shot up a few years back in Reading. It got worse when UK garage, grime and crack became popular..

Thankfully most “guns” held by youths in Reading were only BB guns although occasionaly more effective ones (but still rebores) were used by Londoners to shoot up the local nightclubs. was worse for the victims as many wouldn’t die cleanly but suffer brain damage instead….

Ironically most of the real guns I’ve encountered were legally held by former work colleagues in the Civil Service – either their own or as part of their job function (and they are even prepared to defend themselves and their property and even do the time if need be!)

true, and one reason why lads regularly present to Homerton and Whittington hospitals with “unexplained injuries”….

But even if someone can get access to a decent gun and ammo, opportunities for range practice are limited unless they can afford to make regular foreign travel or find a secluded and secure area.

Most recent “gangland” shootings in London are fairly messy affairs with multiple rounds discharged, not this kind of professional hit. Even the Reading one didn’t kill its intended target but only his minder, the target survived but his enemies “won” as they permanently disabled him and cost him his business (the banks pulled out all their funding and bankrupted him due to his “involvement in crime”).

I suspect not just “gangs” but actual soldiers – the élite forces from a country we went to war with. Like whatever Serbia calls its version of the Spetnatz. Some trails point back to a serbian fighter who was killed in combat in 2000…

People have short memories (OK some here are young) and have forgotten how close the Yugoslavia breakup was “to home” – and some issues there remain unresolved.

Strange though how little was said about this “terrorist threat” back then (or for that matter slow escalations of gun violence, indeed both were linked as many guns were coming in from Eastern Europe via refugees from YU…) but the economy was booming so no-one cared…

just a few days before, UK forces had blasted the fuck out of the main Serbian TV station! (or one partly state owned, not unlike the BBC). Our planes along with US aircraft bombed the Radio-Television Serbia building in Belgrade, with 16-17 casualties.. the aircraft deployed were from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire… and previous to that, Dando had also launched an appeal for Kosovo Albanians, the bitter rivals of the Serbians..

Unlike Britain “special forces” in a ex-Soviet Country tend to be much larger in number and less well trained, as they are used more regularly to back up the normal Police, particularly dealing with dissent. more “intimidation/brawn” then brains, although maybe “smarter than the average soldier” (i.e A-level sort of education)

A hit like this doesn’t need much training or major “conspiracies” – just the balls to do it and the resources (such as the converted gun), same as how the Résistance in WW II occasionally assassinated captains of industry in Nazi-led nations.

It could just as easily been soldiers whose friends were working in the television station – in those countrys there is conscription/national service and although many hate it there is a lot of camaraderie amongst the conscripts (an old mate of mine from one of these countries who came to the UK would occasionally still wear his uniform! ).

The rest of the East Europeans then in our country who weren’t from Serbia wouldn’t have had as much beef with Dando, and rarely turned up on Crimewatch in those days.

TBH I suspect if British criminals had had her bumped off they would have done a messier job of this, maybe using blades or blunt weapons rather than bullets – or would have more likely gone for someone like Roger Cook or any of the lot at ITV what were then far worse for sting operations on people like drug dealers etc – CW tended to concentrate on the sort of crimes even “criminals” would find abhorrent such as rape, murder of “normal” people etc

or they would simply have just considered something like this as counterproductive – it would only raise the hackles of the Met and Crimewatch would continue with even more of a vengeance. unlike the 60s/70s most British based criminals loathe any sort of publicity..

Otherwise CW reporters would have been targeted in the mid 90s as a reprisal for cops actually starting to enforce things like drugs laws a bit harder after the Leah Betts scandal..

Actually the last major attack I remember on any British crime reporter was when Desmond Wilcox got his head caved in with a iron bar in the 1970s/1980s for getting some scum caught what were nicking pets for vivisection..

I don’t mean to sound racist but assassinating journos (as opposed to just intimidating them and/or their families) is more a foreign than British thing and tends to happen amongst communities where their Governments are complicit in such incidents (particularly ex-USSR and Africa).

The Met don’t want to admit foreign criminals could could come here do this so easily – and the BBC don’t want to admit they can’t protect their staff that well (around the same time a senior manager of the BBC was put under “close protection” due to threats from Serbia!)

And Barry George should have been dealt with a lot earlier in his life by the NHS rather than the criminal justice system.

yep, I remember how some of the footy hooligans from Reading were involved in this…was also how a lot of guns came to that town in the 90s..

plenty of people would have wanted her brown bread, its perfectly possible both could have been involved as there were loads of Serb “refugees” (many with military training) in London around that time with the resources and it was also when crime/terrorism was becoming a lot more multicultural ..

After all the 2002 Madrid bombing was done by a combination of Muslim terrorists, ETA and local Spanish criminals, all putting their bit in to make it happen..