Carlton Leach is an author, occasional actor, and a former criminal.

Early life

Leach was born in

Canning Town Canning Town is a district in the London Borough of Newham, East London. The district is located to the north of the Royal Victoria Dock, and has been described as the "Child of the Victoria Docks" as the timing and nature of its urbanisation ...

. A fan of

West Ham United F.C. West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, h ...

, he became involved in the Inter City Firm, a gang of hooligans who followed the East London club. Leach was the original model for the cover of the ''

Strength Thru Oi! ''Strength Thru Oi!'' is a 1981 Oi! compilation album, featuring various artists and released by Decca Records, released in collaboration with ''Sounds'' magazine. The album was the sequel to ''Oi! The Album'' (1980), and itself was followed by ...

'' album.

Criminal career

Leach started work as a

bouncer A bouncer (also known as a doorman or door supervisor) is a type of security guard, employed at venues such as bars, nightclubs, cabaret clubs, stripclubs, casinos, hotels, billiard halls, restaurants, sporting events, schools, concerts, or m ...

in East London, where he became involved with Tony Tucker, then Pat Tate, both of whom worked as large scale dealers in ecstasy during the rave era in the late 1980s. Tate, Tucker and Craig Rolfe were shot dead in December 1995 in a

Range Rover Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...

on a farm track in Rettendon, in the

Rettendon murders The Rettendon murders (also known as the Range Rover murders or Essex murders) occurred on 6 December 1995 in the village of Rettendon in Essex, England, when three drug dealers were shot dead in a Range Rover on a small farm track. The murders w ...

Later career

In 2003 Carlton Leach wrote a memoir about his criminal exploits, entitled ''Muscle''. In 2007 a film based on the book was released, entitled ''

Rise of the Footsoldier ''Rise of the Footsoldier'' is a British crime and gangster film franchise written and directed by Julian Gilbey, Will Gilbey, Ricci Harnett, Zackary Adler, Andrew Loveday and Nick Nevern, distributed by Optimum Releasing. The franchise and i ...

'' and starring

Ricci Harnett Ricci Harnett (born 20 March 1975) is an English actor, best known for his role as Carlton Leach In the film ''Rise of the Footsoldier''. He was born in London. He made his screen debut in ''The Object of Beauty'' alongside John Malkovich. He al ...

as Leach. In 2015, Leach worked with Harnett to organise another film about his life, ''Reign of the General'', but after losing a legal battle over copyright, the film was taken over by the owners of ''Rise of the Footsoldier'' and released. The same people went on to make a third film in the franchise in 2017. Leach claimed to have no part in the film, and commented on Twitter that it was fictional and no longer his story. In 2021, Carlton decided to release what he called his last (autobiographical) book. Co authored with Jason Allday, the book Titled,"The Final Say" went to number 1 on Amazon's best seller list within 24 hours of release. It has been said that the book is, "more than Essex and the same old......" as it covers Carlton's life from childhood until now; including references and contributions from his family and friends.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leach, Carlton Living people English memoirists Organized crime memoirists People from Canning Town English criminals Association football supporters Former hooligans Year of birth missing (living people)