Hannington was an actual, infamous legal who lived in London within the ’80s and was even given the nickname “The Godmother.” Born in London in 1957, Joan left dwelling at 13 and ultimately married armed robber Ray Pavey (who turns into Gary within the present). After changing into pregnant at 17, Hannington left the abusive Pavey and put her daughter into care. She then met Benny Bosie, an older man who launched her to the world of crime. The pair married when she was 24. Hannington wound up in jail for 30 months after being discovered responsible of utilizing a stolen cheque e-book.
After her stint in jail, Hannington started working at a jewelry retailer. There, she continued her legal escapades, swallowed roughly 20 diamond rings and swapping quite a few diamond bracelets for fakes. “Finest financial institution on the planet is your tummy. Finest safety-deposit field invented,” she later wrote in her memoir. She and Bosie stole tens of millions of kilos value of jewelry and had been quickly residing a excessive life full of luxurious garments, vehicles and holidays.
“My marriage to Benny was supposedly what the ’80s had been all about,” Hannington advised The Solar in a current interview. “Quick vehicles, quick residing, Michael Jackson on the high of the charts, Dallas and Dynasty on the TV. I beloved the glamour of that interval.”
She went on, “We had a house that was like a palace to whoever got here there. Boisie had each room expertly adorned with Victorian and Edwardian gear, artwork deco, artwork nouveau. Our flat solely value £27,110 from the council, but we had about £1 million of substances in there. We by no means had a flooring protected or an alarm or perhaps a panic button — simply grilles on all of the doorways, window locks and a load of weapons hidden across the flat.”
The pair had a son, Benny, in 1987. Boisie died in a fireplace in 1990 after his plan to set hearth to their warehouse for an insurance coverage payout went fallacious.
Susie Allnutt/ITV
The place is Joan Hannington now?
After Bosie’s dying, Hannington determined to go away her lifetime of crime previously. She started a enterprise refurbishing council homes. “The cash by no means introduced me any pleasure,” she stated. “I made a decision to go straight. I had greater than sufficient cash to final for all times.”