Our local gangster sounds similar to others mentioned.
He ran a security company, mostly pubs and clubs, but offered his services in other areas.
One incident I have personal knowledge of is a mate's elderly mother who had trouble with drug dealing yobbos in the flat below.
All official avenues failed to sort the problem, so mate called the gangster.
He went round and told the yobbos if they didn't behave he would put each of them in hospital.
The point being, justified or not, the gangster had such a fearsome reputation the yobbos believed what he said so they behaved from that day onwards.
As more of a drinker in those days, I was on nodding acquaintance terms with the gangster and once saw him in operation.
I was drinking with the owner of a pub who told me he had called the gangster to sort out a nasty young man.
Sure enough, the gangster walks in, acknowledges me, speaks to the publican, and then goes to have a word with the young man.
Next thing the gangster and young man walk back across the pub to us and the gangster tells the young man to apologise to the publican, which he does.
Gangster then tells the young man: "if you misbehave again, you won't have Kevin (the publican) to deal with, you will have me, and you know what that means, don't you?"
Young man, by this time close to tears, mumbles 'yes Mr Gangster' and legs it.
Once again, no violence was needed, the gangster's reputation was enough.
The police had a mixed view of the gangster, i got the impression some thought him useful because he could sort problems they could not/would not.
But some coppers were a bit sniffy about him, almost as if they didn't like him interfering with their job.
Predictably, it ended in tears when the gangster murdered a nasty pasty in a single punch killing.
Witnesses at the trial said the upper cut to the chin took the victim off his feet and slammed his head into a wall.
This was supported by the hole the back of his head made in the wall, which was measured as being a few inches higher than the victim, so his feet must have been off the pub's floor at the moment of impact.
