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William Charles "Billy" Hill (13 December 1911 – 1 January 1984) was one of the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in London from the 1920s through to the 1960s. He was a smuggler, operated protection rackets and used extreme violence. His project managed cash robberies and, in a clever scam, defrauded London's High Society of millions at the card tables of John Aspinall's Clermont Club. ==Biography== Hill was born into a London criminal family and committed his first stabbing at age fourteen.〔Hiscock, John. ''Gangsters in a class of their own ...'', ''The Daily Telegraph'', 21 February 2009; accessed 9 December 2014.〕 He began as a house burglar in the late 1920s and then specialized in "smash-and-grab" raids targeting furriers and jewellers in the 1930s. During World War II, he moved into the black market, specializing in foods and petrol. He also supplied forged documents for deserting servicemen and was involved in West End protection rackets with fellow gangster Jack Spot. In the late 1940s, he was charged with burgling a warehouse and fled to South Africa. Following an arrest there for assault, he was extradited back to Britain, where he was convicted for the warehouse robbery and served time in prison. This was his last jail term. After his release he met Gypsy Riley, better known as "Gyp Hill", who became his common-law wife. In 1952, he planned the Eastcastle St. postal van robbery netting £287,000 (''2010: £''),〔The Guardian; 26 January 1995; ''Final curtain for robber who got away''.〕 and in 1954 he organised a £40,000 bullion heist. No one was ever convicted for these robberies. He also ran smuggling operations from Morocco during this period. In 1955, Hill wrote his memoir ''Boss of Britain's Underworld''. In it he described his use of the shiv: ''I was always careful to draw my knife down on the face, never across or upwards. Always down. So that if the knife slips you don't cut an artery. After all, chivving is chivving, but cutting an artery is usually murder. Only mugs do murder.''〔Duncan Campbell, ''When crime grabbed the limelight'', theguardian.co.uk, 30 July 2008; retrieved 29 January 2012.〕 Hill was mentor to twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray, advising them in their early criminal careers.〔Richard Hobbs, "Kray brothers (act. 1926–2000)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Billy Hill (gangster)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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