Marcus Redwood, reported to be the most infamous bouncer in Britain, has shared the terrifying story of when two hitmen arrived at his home after a nightclub altercation
Marcus Redwood has been involved in thousands of fights (Image: @redwoodmarcus/instagram)
A man believed to be Britain’s most notorious bouncer has revealed the spine-chilling tale of the night two hired assassins turned up at his front door — forcing him to keep a loaded weapon by his bedside.
Marcus Redwood claims to have been involved in 3,000 fights during his years working the doors across southern England.
The tough-as-nails hardman, who also reckons he has knocked out roughly 1,000 men, has written an autobiography entitled Big Guy: The True Story of Britain’s Most Notorious Bouncer.
Within its pages, the doorman recounts the harrowing moment a hitman fired a shot in his direction in a bid to end his life, following a dispute at work.
The book also sees Redwood, who provided security at Ronnie Kray’s funeral, recount his dealings with some of Britain’s most feared gangsters — among them Dave Courtney, Freddie Foreman, Frankie Fraser and the Kray twins.
Yet it was a full 10 years before Ronnie Kray’s funeral, back in 1990, that a then 28-year-old Redwood found himself with a target on his back.
It all kicked off at a club in Margate when two men, said to be the sons of some “rather naughty people”, rolled up for a night out.
After one of them allegedly consumed too much cocaine, he slipped out of the club without getting his hand stamped.
When he attempted to re-enter via a different door, a bouncer reportedly told him he would have to pay again.
Spotting the altercation from a distance, Redwood stepped in, introducing himself as head doorman and offering to sort things out. As for what unfolded next, Redwood recalled in his book: “He just punched me straight in the face. I punched him back and he went flying out of the door onto the pavement. He got up, ran at me, and wrapped himself around me, like a rugby tackle.
“I walked into the street with him, peeled him off me, picked him up above my head and threw him across the pavement. I didn’t mean to, but I broke his ankle. He got up and hobbled back to the door, charged up on drugs.”
The man screamed “you’re dead” at Redwood, who responded to the threat by delivering a kick to his stomach.
The bouncer noted that such death threats were commonplace and rarely amounted to anything more serious.
Yet his mate then emerged from the club, demanding to know who had hurt his friend.
Redwood told him it was him — and that he had simply wanted to talk things through.
The bloke, however, fired back with a chilling four-word warning: “I don’t want to hear it. I’ll be seeing you.”
Upon hearing those words, and clocking the man’s expression, Redwood had a gut feeling that trouble was brewing.
The two troublemakers departed in a taxi, before the man with the broken ankle later told his notorious London family that three bullying doormen had set upon him without provocation.
The incident occurred in August, and it wasn’t until November 5 that Redwood nearly lost his life as a consequence of that confrontation.
He had just stepped out of his front door to pick up some wine and cigarettes from the off-licence when he spotted two men heading towards his home.
The doorman sensed something was wrong and recalled: “The two guys looked at me, stopped and whispered something to each other. That seemed weird, because I live on a main road. If you’re walking down the main road, you don’t just stop; so, to me it was obvious that something wasn’t right. Then I saw one guy’s arm drop down and the silhouette of a gun appeared. I thought: ‘S**t.’
“I jumped in my car and reversed off my driveway. One of the guys ran across the road with a gun and started firing at me. I put the car into first gear, sped off and ducked down. The shots made holes in the back of the car and blew out the back tyres.
“I could tell that the shots were fired from a ‘nine mil’ gun from the castings all over the pavement outside my house, which a neighbour collected after the event.”
He managed to reach the off-licence and contacted the police, who Redwood claimed were doubtful that the incident was anything more than a dispute connected to his work on the doors.
Unhappy with their response, Redwood said he told them he would handle it himself.
Around this time, Redwood had struck up an acquaintance with “celebrity gangster” Dave Courtney, who had connections with the family involved.
Courtney reportedly stepped in and spoke to the family in order to bring the terrifying ordeal to an end.
Reflecting on the ordeal’s impact, Redwood said: “That period was a bit of a nightmare, not knowing if the gunmen were going to come back and try to kill me again. For the next three months, I carried a loaded gun with me everywhere I went, although thankfully I never had to use it.”
He also fitted cameras around his home and set up automated lights before revealing: “I loved my bedroom door and kept a loaded gun by my bedside. It was all very stressful. Eventually, I was reassured that the trouble had stopped.”
Redwood later found out that one of the hitmen who had attempted to murder him subsequently shot himself while playing Russian roulette, meaning there was one fewer gunman for him to worry about.
