In the late 1960s the Richardson Torture Gang and the Kray Twins were removed from the London scene by ACC Gerry McArthur and Det. Supt. Nipper Read respectively. Predictably it was not long before the vacuum this left was being filled. With McArthur retired and Read moved on, who was to sort out the new gangland threat? Step forward Detective Chief Superintendent Bert Wickstead. Having cut his teeth on young desperadoes and neo-Nazis in North London and solved London's biggest post war bank robbery, Wickstead was well qualified to head up the Yard's Serious Crime Squad. First to fall were the Dixon brothers, followed by the Tibbs family. As his fame spread he took on the West End Maltese Syndicate specialising in prostitution and extortion. When he broke up the Norma Levy call-girl ring, two cabinet peers had to resign. Inevitably Wickstead's career was dogged by unproved allegations of malpractice but, as this riveting insider' account conclusively proves, he more than earned his sobriquet The Gangbuster'. AUTHOR: Dick Kirby was born in the East End of London and joined the Metropolitan Police in 1967. Half of his twenty-six years' service was spent with Scotland Yard's Serious Crime Squad and the Flying Squad. Kirby contributes to newspapers and magazines on a regular basis, as well as appearing on television and radio. The Guv'nors, The Sweeney, Scotland Yard's Ghost Squad, The Brave Blue Line, Death on the Beat, Scourge of Soho, London's Gangs at War and Scotland Yard's Gangbuster are all published under the Pen & Sword True Crime imprint and he has further other published works to his credit. In retirement he lives near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.