Gypsy Jane - I've Been Shot Four Times and Served Three Prison Terms?This is the Incredible Story of (18 page)

‘You’re not going to see Ken. He killed Matt,’ Sharon said, concern written all over her face.

‘I know,’ I said. ‘But I need to know what went on.’ I didn’t tell them I was planning to take the blame for Matt’s death. But something didn’t feel right. They had a hatred for Ken in their eyes that didn’t match the intensity of my own feeling. Clint said he would only tell me where Ken was if he could come with me. ‘No,’ I said. ‘I need you to drop me off. I have to see him alone. Listen – and listen good. This is not about you being worried and protective over me. I need to see him and I’m going alone. Don’t forget that I’m the Gran and Ken’s the one who’s hurting.’ I persuaded them that
there was nothing to worry about. Clint drove me to Ken’s yard and then, reluctantly, drove away.

I knew something wasn’t right as soon as I hit the yard. The feeling of sadness was no longer inside me. It had been replaced with a sensation that something here was very wrong. I must have known in my subconscious that things weren’t right, as I was in full combat gear. I’d never met Ken. I’d only spoken to him on the phone. Matt had often phoned Ken for advice. They were best friends and, when me and Matt argued, he would always phone Ken for backup. Ken would always make Matt right and me wrong. Now I was to come face to face with him. I didn’t like what I felt as I met him at the garage itself. I had come down here to meet this man as Jane but the Gran had already taken over.

He said, ‘Can I help you?’

I said, ‘Yes. I’m the Gran and we need to talk.’ He took me into his office and I could see the fear and panic in his eyes. I told him to make me a cup of tea and explain what went on between him and Matt. ‘I’m not going to be around very long and what you say now, Ken, will decide your destiny,’ I told him, keeping my eyes on his. He started stuttering. I was calm and listened to what he had to say and he let down his guard. It was the biggest mistake of his life. He said Matt had deserved what he got. He started to act flash. It felt like he thought he was somebody special because he had killed Matt. I hated him for it.

‘I came here knowing I’m going to kill three people,
Ken,’ I told him in an icy voice. ‘Then I’m going to die myself. Now I’m going to kill four people because you have just gone to the top of my list.’ He didn’t say a word.

One of his mates, also a friend of Matt’s, was in the yard. He drove me back to the gypsy site and, on the way, he told me what had happened the night Matt died. Ken had shot Matt in self-defence. I said I didn’t like the way Ken had talked about Matt and that he had got a reputation out of his death. I said all he had left was time, the same as the rest.

There was relief all around back at the site that I hadn’t got into it with Ken. I put their minds at rest and I just told them that Ken was no friend of mine. They didn’t know I had gone there to take the murder charge from him and had come back with another murder on my to-do list because of the way he had talked about Matt. Now there were four people who were going to hell before I went to heaven to be with my Matt.

I felt good. Now I knew what I was going to do. I had given Ken the chance to feel remorse but he had blown it and now I would regain Matt’s honour and take down the man who had blown him away. A man he loved and trusted. I also found out that Ken had already faced a charge of murder over Matt’s death and had been cleared. So my plan to take the blame for Ken would never have gone anywhere. He had walked free after being tried at Maidstone crown court in March, 2009 and I had just never got to hear about it. He admitted
accidentally shooting Matt after Matt phoned him demanding money he claimed he was owed. The court had heard how Ken was worried that Matt was going to turn up so he armed himself with a legally owned shotgun just in case. When Matt did turn up and confronted Ken, the gun went off by accident, the court was told, and Ken was acquitted of murder. But I was judge, jury and executioner now.

I went to see Matt’s other woman, Tracey. I hadn’t seen her since the funeral and I said my goodbyes to her too. I had to get Matt’s ashes from Phoebe as well so Sharon and I went back to her house. When we got there, she looked worried. I asked for the ashes and she started to cry and told me she no longer had them. She had buried them in the cemetery and had placed a plaque on the ground. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I told her Matt’s wishes were that they were scattered on a race track.

‘Why didn’t you tell me before that you had already buried him?’ I asked. She said she had been too scared to keep him at her place because young Matt was talking to his ghost. I understood what she meant. She was young, she didn’t really know Matt and she was thinking about what was best for her baby. I told her we had to fulfil Matt’s wishes and that we would get him back. She asked how and I told her we were going to dig him back up. She nearly passed out. I could see the fear in her eyes. She was crying and saying she couldn’t do it.

‘This is what Matt wanted,’ I told her. ‘This was his
wish and, if you loved him, you would do it for him. He would hate to be buried in a cemetery.’

She agreed and I said we would go to the cemetery at midnight. I could see she was scared that someone might see us. ‘Don’t worry. I’ve got a plan. We will wear white sheets and, if anyone sees us, they’ll just think we’re ghosts and take no notice,’ I said. I was trying to make her laugh and lighten the situation. It made Sharon amd I laugh and it did make her smile a bit – but not much.

The cemetery was pitch black that night. I lifted off the plaque and removed the earth underneath it. Phoebe said she hadn’t put Matt’s ashes in an urn but just poured them into the soil so I don’t know if what I took was Matt but I had done my best. I put him in a 17
th-century
Minton china dish, ready to take him home and fulfil his wishes. I carefully replaced the plaque so nobody would know what we had done.

I had to return home then to sort out a few more things, as time was running out. I told the gypsies I’d be back, as I still needed them to arrange my funeral. I had explained what I wanted and left Sharon to prepare it. I knew she would make me proud.

It felt so good to have Matt back with me, although you might think I was mad, and, when I went to bed that night, I put the dish in the bed next to me and took off the lid, and I felt Matt come to me. I felt a connection like I told my John he would feel when he met his dad. Harry Potter getting his wand was just a fairy tale but Matt coming back to me was so real that I felt his
presence with me. That night Matt and I became one. Matt was with me, protecting me and loving me. I felt so at peace wrapped up in his presence. Oh, how I had needed him and now I had him and we were soon to be together for all eternity. As I drifted off to sleep, I felt like I was wrapped in his arms again.

The next day I booked a photo shoot for John and me so that he would have some nice photos to remind him of me. We got all dressed up and the photos were beautiful. We had 45 pictures done all together and they were very professional. It was another lovely day I spent with my son and he now had a collection of the most beautiful photos of us together.

I knew that the police were getting worried because I’d heard that people were telling them what I was plotting but I didn’t care anymore. I had a policeman come to my home saying he was doing a survey. A likely story! I mean, have you ever heard of that happening? I just welcomed him in and answered his questions. He gave himself away by what he said but I was just polite and played his game. I got the impression he was trying to find out what sort of mental state I was in.

I listened to the radio station Kiss every day, as I had done for the last ten years. But now I noticed they were asking every day for people to come forward if they knew anything about a murder that was about to be committed. It seemed mad that, all of a sudden, they were airing this. It was some sort of police appeal. But again, I just ignored it. It was time to plan how I was
going to carry out the killings. I was going to do them all on the same day. One was to happen in Kent, one in the East End and the other two in Essex. I was going to do Ken first and I was going as the Gran in full combat. Then I’d go straight to the East End and do Frank.

I bought a burqa, the Muslim clothing worn by women to cover themselves from head to toe. I would wear it after I had done Ken because I would blend in perfectly in the East End, which was full of Muslims. I would just fit in and nobody would recognise me. All that would show would be my two eyes. Then I would go on to do Bob and Toni.

I bought a wig, contact lenses and a businesswoman’s suit to disguise myself. I looked totally different in that get-up. I was going to get close to Bob and Toni’s flat without being recognised, then I was going to stab them both through the heart, just as they had done to me. Toni lived on the ground floor and you could look out to the road from her front window. I was going to tie them to chairs, barricade us in and then phone the police. I would open the curtains and wait for the law to come. And when they did, I planned to stab both Bob and Toni. The police would have to shoot me to try and save them and we would all be gone.

I’d got everything I needed and I’d planned it all. But time was running out. The date of 25 August, my court appearance, came and went but I didn’t attend. I got a letter from Essex police telling me to hand myself into a police station. It said I had broken the terms of my bail
by not appearing. It was time to leave my house and get out of Essex. I couldn’t risk getting nicked so I left for Kent and the gypsies. On the way I went to see my son. I knew I was never coming home again. By the end of the month I’d be dead and so would the others. I’d done everything I could to make John’s life easier and it was time to go. I grabbed hold of him and, as the tears filled both our eyes, he said, ‘Goodbye,’ to me. It was the saddest thing I’d ever had to do, waving my boy goodbye and knowing I would never see him again. It broke my heart.

The gypsy queen had done me proud and my funeral had been planned to perfection. My coffin was to be carried from the house in Essex I had shared with Bob to my son’s home. Then it would be put into a car and driven to my dad’s house in Silvertown, where it would be transferred to a horse-drawn carriage to make the final leg of the journey to the East London cemetery in Plaistow where I would be cremated. All the flowers had been arranged. I’d picked them all. I was to have two swords, two guns and a framed photo of me and Matt placed on my coffin. Oh, it would be beautiful!

I went to say my goodbyes to young Matt and Phoebe. Little Matt didn’t want me to go but I had to. I waited for them to fall asleep and I kissed them both goodbye as they slept.

At 6am on 30 August I put all my disguises in Phoebe’s car, along with my sword and a combat knife. The blades were razor sharp. I got to Ken’s place in
Chilham at about 7am but his garage was shut so I went into a cemetery nearby and read the memorials while I waited. Around 9am I turned my phone on to check for any last messages. I immediately heard interference, followed by the sound of an approaching helicopter. I turned the phone off. It had to be the cops. I knew they were on to me but I didn’t care. It looked like they had only sent the helicopter so I stuck to my plan. I could still get Ken, I thought. His garage was on a main road and there wasn’t anywhere to park so I planned to use the train station’s car park next door. But no sooner had I driven into the car park than loads of police appeared behind me.

‘Stop, armed police!’ they shouted. I looked round and they were pointing their guns at me. ‘Get out of the car. Get out of the car with your hands up.’

I stuck the car into reverse, took off around the police car trying to block me off and out of the station. The chase was on. I was going as fast as I could but I was not familiar with the lanes in Kent and it was not long before I lost control of the car and smashed into a tree. I was unhurt but I couldn’t believe what had happened. I was surrounded by police. It had all gone wrong. Matt was waiting for me. But there was no way out of this now, even though I just wanted to be with him.

An officer with a gun approached the front of the car. I grabbed the combat knife, jumped from the car and went for him. ‘Shoot me, shoot me!’ I screamed like a mad woman as I ran at him brandishing the blade. I
wouldn’t have hurt him. I don’t hurt the innocent. I was just trying to provoke him but then I felt a massive impact from behind. It was like an electric shock. I was losing balance now.

‘Shoot me!’ I screamed again, still waving the knife but staggering. I just wanted to get with Matt. I was still standing when I felt a second massive hammering sensation in my back. I was lurching like a drunkard, trying to see what had hit me. I was weak now, almost falling but still pleading, ‘Shoot me, please shoot…’ Then a third hammer blow battered my body. It was like being hit by a lightning strike. That third one did me and I finally slumped and sank to the ground. I was down and I couldn’t move. ‘Why don’t you shoot me?’ I asked as they stood over me with their guns. ‘Matt’s waiting for me and you have ruined everything. What are those stupid things you done me with?’

‘Tasers,’ one of the officers replied. And he added, ‘Jane, it’s been ten years since we shot you. Why have you still got the hump with us?’

‘I haven’t got the hump with yous,’ I said. They got me up and cuffed me. ‘I’m here to do Ken. He killed Matt. My problem’s not with yous.’

I was arrested and taken to Folkstone police station, where I was charged with carrying two offensive weapons, aggravated car theft and affray with the police. I later pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to 18 months at Canterbury crown court. Thanks to my solicitor, Donald Worsley, who was the
best in the land in my book as he went that extra mile for me.

I’m glad now that I didn’t kill anyone and I’m glad I’m still alive. I believe in my heart and soul that I regained my honour and Matt’s honour. It turned out that Ken and his wife had received police protection after he told them what I’d said on my previous little visit. The police had already received tip-offs that I was after Ken. And he ended up needing protection from a woman. I ask you, does it say a lot for him? The police put him into a safe house that morning and he could hardly say he was the man people thought he was.