Lee Murray - Early Life

Early Life

On his mother Barbara Murray's side, Lee's family hails from Bermondsey, a densely populated part of south London located between Tower Bridge and the Old Kent Road, and also an area that has been a traditional breeding ground for professional criminals, especially armed robbers. Following World War II, the Murrays were among thousands of working-class families relocated from bomb-ravaged inner London to council estates on the outskirts of the capital. The particular location of the Murray residence was 6 Godstow Road in Abbey Wood, located between Shooter's Hill - so named because it was once a notorious area for highway robbery - and the River Thames, in the southeast corner of Greater London.

Barbara Murray was a hairdresser and later a telephonist, and it was on a holiday to Gran Canaria that she met Lee's father, Brahim Lamrani, a kitchen hand from the southern Moroccan city of Sidi Ifni. The couple's first child, Lee would be born in St. Nicholas Hospital, Plumstead, on 12 November 1977, and was initially raised by his mother while Brahim continued to live and work in the Canary Islands. Eventually he came to the United Kingdom and married Barbara in 1984, and the following year she gave birth to Lee's only sibling, a daughter named Rkia.

By then the family were living a few miles from Abbey Wood at 11 Buttmarsh Close, Plumstead, and Murray attended Foxfield Primary School, where he would meet his eventual wife, Siobhan Rowlings, who was three years his junior. Murray's closest associates at this point were a group of other males from Buttmarsh and the surrounding estates who called themselves the "Buttmarsh Boys;" described as "happy kids" who used to "play like normal kids on the estate," the boys fought to establish a pecking order among the group and believed they had a duty to "look after" Buttmarsh, sometimes engaging in fights with boys from neighboring estates. A skinny youngster, Murray's preferred method of attack was running into battle wind-milling his arms around his head with a "manic" expression on his face, a maneuver that combined with his protruding ears earned him the nickname of "Alien," which he hated.

Murray had a difficult relationship with his father, who was often drunk and described as a "frightening, violent man" who was "volatile and domineering." Largely absent from the first seven years of Lee's life, Brahim demanded respect and obedience from his son, at one point garnering a warning from police for mistreatment. Eventually, Lee began to fight back against his father, with Lee's former next-door neighbor describing an incident where Brahim "actually went and hit Lee and Lee snapped, just turned round and knocked his Dad clean out...once he realized he could take down a big man like that I think that's what changed Lee into the man he is now - a thug." The relationship between father and son eventually grew so tempestuous that Brahim felt staying at home would result in either he or Lee killing the other, so he moved out. Barbara Murray was then left to raise Lee and Rkia largely on her own, and moved back to the Abbey Wood Estate by getting a council house on Grovebury Road around the corner from her parents.

At this time Lee began attending Eaglesfield Boys School, which is where he would meet his eventual best friend and partner-in-crime, Paul Allen. Murray - who does enjoy reading and puzzles - was a subpar student, and what little talent he did exhibit was in football, although he failed to make the school team. Murray's teachers found him to be unmanageable, resulting in his expulsion and eventual enrollment at Woolwich Polytechnic to complete the statutory years of his education. By then Murray was living life on the streets, with stealing and drug-dealing a part of everyday activity; he and the Buttmarsh Boys were allegedly in daily contact with Nigerian drug dealers who operated at Plumstead train station, and an eventual turf war broke out that saw Murray and his friends emerge victorious, leading to their inheritance of the local drug trade.

Murray would eventually be convicted of possession of cocaine and marijuana, in addition to being named in the Old Bailey as a notorious London drug dealer who employed Paul Allen as his right-hand man in addition to a network of drug runners. One of Murray's best friends from this time was a local ruffian and future mixed martial artist named Mark "The Beast" Epstein, who claimed that he and Lee sold crack cocaine and that Murray "made a lot of money from that." Murray also proved himself adept at the more violent side of selling drugs, typically in order to control territory and make sure customers pay. Murray himself claimed that "some people would probably say I was a bully, but a bully to me is someone that goes for easy targets and people who can't fight back. Me, I went for all targets." Murray was known for punching people almost at random in the street, as well as habitually harassing a man who ran a local corner shop.

Murray was soon sent to the Feltham Young Offenders Institution, the first of several custodial sentences for relatively minor offenses such as assault and thievery; he also served time as a juvenile in Dover and Norwich as well. Upon emerging from Feltham, Murray began attending the gym, lifting weights and drinking weight-gainer shakes in order to add bulk to his lanky, 6'3" frame. Joining him at the gym was Paul Allen, who by then was known as "The Enforcer", presumably because he assisted in enforcing Murray's control over drug-dealing in their small swath of south-east London.

Murray and Allen were soon using steroids and spending the money they earned from selling drugs on cars, typically of the big, flashy variety. The police stopped Murray regularly, and because they suspected he was a drug dealer attempted to place an informer in his group but failed to acquire sufficient evidence to prosecute. Murray was contemptuous of the police, often mocking and intimidating them on the streets, sometimes even following police officers around in his car. Some officers at Plumstead Police Station were afraid of Murray, and there was even a rumour within the station that certain policemen preferred not to confront him, with one stating that "he's a very dangerous man."

Murray's girlfriend Siobhan gave birth to his first child, a daughter named Lilly Jane on 24 December 1998. Just weeks later Murray was caught up in a turf war with rival drug dealers that led to the arrest of Epstein and more than a dozen others, many ultimately ending up in prison. Murray, however, got "clean away," with Epstein saying that "he was the only one that slipped through the net. I mean, lucky boy! But he's always been lucky...I went to prison for three years."

Murray would marry Siobhan on 24 November 2000, listing himself on their wedding certificate as a "professional fighter."