Who is Roy Shaw and how did he die?

“PRETTY BOY” Roy Shaw made a name for himself as a ruthless hard man who didn’t want to be betrayed.

Reputation is everything in London’s East End, and the show has learned the hard way that the only way to survive is to never back down.

1

Who is Roy Shaw?

Shaw was born in Stepney, East London just before the outbreak of World War II and was bullied as a child.

After the death of his father when he was just 10 years old, Shaw finally snapped and fought back against bullies.

“God gave me a gift,” he recalled in his autobiography, Pretty Boy, and by the age of 16 he was a schoolboy boxing champion, winning his first title at the Royal Albert Hall.

His national service was spent partly at Colchester Army Prison, where he found himself attacking a staff sergeant, and partly in a mental institution before being given a dishonorable discharge. .

This caused him to start brushing with the law and was sent to Borstal for a violent robbery of a bookmaker.

He used the Borstal doctor’s car to escape from there and embarked on a brief boxing career, although he was forced to fight under the name Roy West because he was on the run.

His hopes for a career in sports ended when he was rearrested and imprisoned for another three years for an attack on a doctor who stole a car to escape.

How Did Roy Shaw Die?

Shaw, who was boxing under the nickname of “Mean Machine”, was quarantined at home due to poor health.

He finally died of heart failure in 2012.

Did Roy Shaw fight Lennie McLean?

Roy Shaw fought in many bare knuckle fights with Gypsy and became known as the ‘Unofficial Heavyweight Champion’ and ‘Britain’s Hardest Man’.

Lenny McLean, who had gained a reputation as the “King of Cobblestones” and thought of himself as “Gavnor”, was offended by Shaw’s allegations.

This spurred a trilogy of fights between the pair.

In May 1977, Shaw defeated McLean by TKO, but “Gvner” claimed his gloves had been tampered with and demanded a rematch.

In a second fight, again held at a Sinatra nightclub in April 1978, McLean was detained by four heavys as he appeared to lose the plot.

McLean eventually won the vicious fight when he knocked Shaw off the ropes into the first row of the venue.

The final “Straightener” between the pair took place at the Rainbow Theater in North London.

It ended with McLean winning, as he stood on the ropes and shouted at the crowd.

Did Roy Shaw go to jail?

In 1963, Shaw was part of a gang that robbed a security car in Kent.

He was arrested a few weeks later and imprisoned for 18 years.

Shaw began his sentence at Wandsworth Prison, where he was transferred to Parkhurst after running into train robber Ronnie Biggs.

He had many violent clashes with authorities in prison and was eventually sent to a psychiatric hospital, up to Glendon Underwood.

His uncontrollable temper then took him to Broadmoor’s High Security Psychiatric Hospital.

The “Pretty Boy” Shaw was supposed to serve a number of prison terms, but upon his release decided to change his hands to bare knuckle boxing to see him cross paths with Lenny McLean.