CAREER criminal John 'Goldfinger' Palmer was assassinated at his home near Brentwood because the gang behind the Hatton Garden raid feared he would reveal the identity of Britain's most wanted man, it has been said.
Crime author Wensley Clarkson makes the claim in his new book on the raid, which was Britain's biggest ever burglary and was committed over the Easter weekend in 2015.
A total of nine men have been convicted of, or admitted charges in connection with, the burglary.
The raid is said to have netted jewellery and cash worth £200 million.
Much of the money and jewellery has not been recovered and is thought to be with the only member of the gang who was never caught – a shadowy figure known only as "Basil", who is still on the run and the subject of a major police manhunt.
Much of the money and jewellery has not been recovered and is thought to be with the only member of the gang who was never caught – a shadowy figure known only as "Basil", who is still on the run and the subject of a major police manhunt.
In an astonishing series of claims and revelations, Clarkson says Palmer knew the identity of Basil and was killed on the orders of a notorious crime family.
Palmer was found dead at his home in Sandpit Lane in South Weald on the evening of June 24 last year.
The 64-year-old, who was once the UK's richest villain, was one of Britain's most notorious criminals after he was prosecuted, but later cleared, of his involvement in the Brink's-Mat bullion raid at Heathrow in 1983.
He melted down the millions of pounds' worth of stolen gold in an outbuilding in the garden of his luxury home at Lansdown, near Bath, and arranged for it to be dealt with at a goldsmiths in Bristol.
Palmer was found not guilty of the charges after successfully claiming he did not know the gold was stolen. He was later jailed for timeshare frauds.
The fatal single gunshot wound to the chest was only spotted at a post mortem examination days after his death.
Mr Clarkson claims Palmer was murdered to ensure he stayed silent about the identity of Basil and who was really behind the Hatton Garden raid.
Mr Clarkson said: "My source tells me Palmer was playing everyone off against each other, but in the end the Hatton Garden job played a part in his murder.
"The Hatton Garden mob have been presented as a bunch of amiable, bumbling old lags who attempted to pull off one last 'Big Job' before finally retiring to the Costa del Crime.
"But in researching a new book on the raid, the evidence I have uncovered suggests the real story is rather more chilling.
"My sources tell me the raid went ahead because the Adams family, the most feared criminal gang in North London who once operated from a headquarters just yards away from the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit building, wanted to get their hands on a box locked inside the vault.
"That box, containing crucial evidence that could have implicated them in a murder of a gangland figure, belonged to John Palmer, who used it as 'insurance', threatening to hand the keys to police if he was harmed.
"Palmer and the family had been engaged in a 30-year feud, dating back to the Brink's-Mat bullion robbery."