Word: lennons
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...though he spent last summer covering the closing of Navy bases in New England, among other places, he visited San Diego and Washington, D.C., where he cultivated a number of Government sources. "There were those of us who knew the tax story was there," says Journal-Bulletin Reporter Peter Lennon. "We knew he was working on it for a long period...
Eventually, Lennon helped form a unit with four I.R.A. sympathizers. "It was a unit of nothing specifically," Lennon said. "This was not an official branch of the military wing of the I.R.A. No one in Ireland was aware that there was a group of this nature in Luton. We had no real plan, although we decided to organize to get weapons. We managed to get some old shotguns. They were bloody antiques...
...reported regularly by phone to his contact, Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Ron Wicken. Said Lennon: "He was kept aware at every stage of the group's activities." One such activity was an abortive payroll heist at a sewage works, which went awry when the payroll messenger did not show up. Later the group planned to raise money for the cause by staging another payroll robbery at a construction site. One of the unit's members, Pat O'Brien, was on holiday in Ireland, and Lennon was ordered by Wicken to steer clear of the caper. The three...
...told to lie low for a couple of weeks and carry on as normal, which I did," Lennon related. When O'Brien, 18, returned from Ireland, he "said he was thinking about how he could get them out. He was only a young kid and a bit of a romantic." Inspector Wicken was taken with the idea, on the theory that this might widen the net: "He told me to play along with it." In January Lennon and O'Brien drove to Birmingham to reconnoiter the Winson Green prison, where one of the prisoners was held. "I told...
Good Show. Both were arrested on the spot and charged with plotting to arrange an escape from the prison. When Lennon made contact with the Special Branch, he was told: "Don't worry, the proper strings will be pulled." With the help of Lennon's evidence, which he said was doctored by the police to make a stronger government case, O'Brien was sentenced to three years hi prison. Lennon was acquitted-and he was publicly praised by the prosecutor for being "frank and honest" with the police. If the I.R.A. was not already onto Lennon, those...