Carlton Leach

Carlton Leach is an author, occasional actor, and a former criminal.^[1]

Early life[]

Leach was born in Canning Town. A fan of West Ham United F.C., 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! album.^[2]

Criminal career[]

Leach started work as a bouncer 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 on a farm track in Rettendon, in the Rettendon murders.

Later career[]

In 2003 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 and starring Ricci Harnett as Leach.^[3] In 2015, Leach worked with Harnet to organise another film about his life, Reign of the General,^{[citation needed]} but after losing a legal battle over copyright, the film was taken over by the owners of Rise of the Footsoldier and released.^{[citation needed]} The same people went on to make a third film in the franchise in 2017.^[4] Leach claimed to have no part in the film, and commented on Twitter that it was fictional and no longer his story.^[5]

References[]