The Essex Boys Murders: I Now Think They Got The Wrong Men

David McKelvey on contract killers, corrupt police, and why he believes two men are in prison for murders they did not commit.

In 2008, David McKelvey was interviewing an informant at Ilford Police Station when the man began describing a contract on three people. McKelvey was one of them. A known contract killer was parked outside with a machine gun at that moment. When he reported it, his own force investigated him instead. He was cleared, the Met apologized in writing, and he used the compensation to start two businesses.

He now runs TMI, Britain’s leading private prosecution firm, and My Local Bobby, which operates across 47 central London beats. He also believes Michael Steele and Jack Whomes did not commit the Rettendon murders. He spent five years investigating it, found two significant witnesses, and sent the material to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. They won’t speak to him.

This is a conversation about what happens when the institution you served turns against you. The opening story is one of the best this show has had. The Rettendon section is genuinely unsettling. And the 94% drop in pickpocketing in three months on his Leicester Square beat is the most concrete proof of concept in any episode this series.