Five unanswered questions in murder of Brink’s-Mat gangster John ‘Goldfinger’ Palmer – including shocking missed detail
FROM a wheeler dealer jeweller who couldn’t read or write to being richer than the Queen, John ‘Goldfinger’ Palmer’s life is a real rags to riches story.
He enjoyed a Champagne lifestyle – with a glamorous wife on his arm, a string of mistresses, a £3.5m private jet, £6m yacht, two helicopters and a collection of classic cars.
But behind his lavish wealth lay a dark underbelly.
Palmer – played by actor Tom Cullen in new BBC drama The Gold – acquired his Bond villain nickname after he was accused of melting down gold from the notorious £26million Brink’s-Mat robbery in 1983.
Palmer was controversially cleared in 1987, and went on to mastermind a multi-million pound timeshare fraud on Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
There he conned thousands of British holidaymakers into parting with their life savings.
But the Costa del Crime playboy met a grisly end when he was shot dead in the garden of his home in South Weald, Essex, by a mystery assassin in 2015.
Here investigative journalist Livvy Haydock – host of BBC Sounds podcast Gangster: The story of John Palmer – delves into the five unanswered questions that haunt the case.
How did cops miss he’d been murdered?
Palmer had been under surveillance by the secret service for 16 years and was one of Britain’s most wanted criminals before he was assassinated on June 24, 2015.
But when paramedics and police arrived it was thought Palmer’s death was not suspicious – a possible cardiac arrest given he’d recently undergone keyhole surgery to his chest.
It was not until six days later, during a post-mortem examination, that a pathologist revealed Palmer had in fact been shot six times.
Former Met Police Commander for Special Operations, Roy Ramm, who retired in 1996 and is now a consultant on crime and investigations, points out: “That golden hour when you’re looking at witnesses, forensics, CCTV, all the stuff that can help you solve a crime quickly, was wasted.”
Two officers from Essex Police who were first on the scene were later disciplined for failing to spot he had been shot.
How did the killer know about a CCTV blind spot?
Palmer’s murder has all the hallmarks of a professional hitman – and occurred in the only part of the garden not covered by CCTV.
His partner and former mistress, Christina Ketley, claims Palmer was stalked in the days leading up to his death, with the killer watching him through a spyhole in the 5ft garden fence of his remote woodland home.
Police released crime scene photos of the hole in panel, believed to have been scratched with a nail or other sharp object, plus a bullet recovered from the scene.
Speaking in 2018, Christina said: “It haunts us every day to think that whoever was responsible was clearly watching John, stalking him like an animal before so brutally and callously ending his life.
“Losing a loved one is hard enough but in this case we have the added stress of not only not knowing who did it, but why.”
The dad-of-four was last seen on CCTV at 5.18pm burning some old documents on a bonfire before jumping over the fence.
He was found dead shortly after by the girlfriend of his son, James Ketley.
The pair were inside the house but didn’t hear gunshots, suggesting a silencer was used.
Was it a revenge killing?
Despite Palmer admitting to melting down gold bars from the robbery in his garden, he was acquitted after claiming he didn’t know they were stolen.
He was free to focus on his timeshare empire, and with planners, politicians and even police in his pocket in Tenerife, it boomed.
At his peak, Palmer was living the playboy lifestyle with an estimated fortune of £300m. Journalist Felix Rojas said he was known by locals as “the mafia godfather”.
Palmer became so powerful that people feared him – even his own staff.
Former employee Fleming Rasmussen told me: “Nobody leaves him. He won’t let anybody leave.”
Police noted that Palmer’s victims on Tenerife potentially had a motive to want him dead – all 16,000 of them.
Sources also told us they thought the unrecovered gold from the Brink’s-Mat robbery could have been a motive.
One said: “Some people in the end, you know, want revenge. They want payback.”
Was it over Hatton Garden safety deposit box?
One theory is that his murder is linked to the Hatton Garden raid, which happened two months before he was shot dead.
Some believe he could have been killed by a hitman in a bid to stop him revealing the identity of a man known only as Basil, who was a leading figure in the now infamous safe deposit box burglary.
Basil was said to have been linked to the Adams family – one of the most feared criminal gangs in Britain.
They are said to have wanted to access a safe deposit box belonging to Palmer because it contained vital evidence that could implicate them in the killing of a top gangland figure.
He used it as a type of insurance to ensure he came to no harm.
The box was said to have been taken in the raid, meaning Palmer no longer had protection.
Was it to shut him up?
In May 2015, just a month before his death, Palmer was charged in Spain with fraud, firearms possession and money laundering.
Then 65 and suffering ill health, he faced up to 15 years in prison.
Generous bail conditions allowed him to return to the UK, with some suggesting he had done a deal with the authorities.
One source told us: “It was the fear from the underworld that he was going to sing like a canary.”
Roy Ramm said: “Whether it’s audacity or stupidity, if you’re involved in serious organised crime, and that’s the source of your wealth, boasting about it and getting yourself on the Sunday Times Rich List – I think he was worth more than the Queen – and living that kind of lifestyle, that is a pretty foolish thing to do.
“Apart from the fact that it attracts police attention, it also angers other criminals who feel that the spotlight might be on him and they could get caught in the middle.”
Roy says it’s now “very unlikely” Palmer’s killer will ever be caught: “For him to be found, it would require an informant who would have knowledge of the assassin and who put the contract out on him.
“Passing on information like that could be fatal.”
Gangster: The Story of John Palmer is available now as a box set on BBC Sounds. The Gold continues on BBC One on Sunday at 9pm.