Billy Webb

Billy Webb was shot dead as he slept in bed.

He was a big-time drug dealer and had been out earlier in the night in Hindley with his girlfriend after which they had got home at 3am on 24 May 2001. He was then shot twice in the head when two gunmen burst into his bedroom. His girlfriend who was sleeping with him was also seriously injured.

The gunman had had a key to his home and had let themselves in.

Initially the police said they were looking for three black men that had been seen near the flat twice the day before driving a white or powder blue Ford Mondeo or Orion car. The police said that they were also trying to trace a motorcyclist that was seen nearby.

However, in 2003 two other men were tried for conspiracy to murder in relation to his murder. It was not suggested that they were the gunmen but there was insufficient evidence and the judge instructed the jury to find them not guilty.

Two and a half years earlier in August 1997 Billy Webb had been having a meeting with another drug dealer in the Ancient Shepherd pub and were later walking along Bankfield Street in Bolton when Dillon Hull, a 5-year-old boy and the son of the other drug dealer, was shot in the head. A man wearing a crash helmet had leapt out of the shadows and fired four shots, one which hit Dillon Hull in the head, another hitting the man and two missing. The man survived, and the gunman was later convicted for Dillon Hull's murder. It was said that he had been paid between £5,000 and £10,000 to shoot the man that Billy Webb was meeting after Billy Webb and the man had fallen out. At the time Billy Webb was described as a gangland drug boss. The man who shot the drug dealers son, Dillon Hull, was convicted in 1998 for the murder of Dillon Hull and sentenced to 25 years. When he was shot, Dillon Hull had been walking hand in hand with his father.

It was said that Billy Webb and another man had been operating a heroin and cocaine smuggling business together. They were said to have run a multi-million-pound drugs empire from a small cafe, Debbie's Diner, and to have ruled over the local underworld with an iron fist. The man on trial was said to have been the brains of the operation whilst Billy Webb was said to have been the brawn. It was said that they paid their employees a salary and had regular director’s meetings. The police said that they were unable to get any of the smaller drug dealers to talk because they were scared of Billy Webb and his partner and had seen people attacked with baseball bats, hit on the head with a hammer and also seen their girlfriends raped. The police then started to record the meetings at the cafe and after an 18-month operation they arrested Billy Webb and his partner.

Billy Webb and the man were due to stand trial together, but Billy Webb was shot before he could attend court. Also, the man on trial, Billy Webb's alleged business partner in the drugs cartel fled the country during the trial after a Christmas break in 2001. Ten other members of the gang were convicted for 77-years in total whilst Billy Webb's partner was sentenced to 22-years in his absence. He was later extradited in 2004 but refused to answer any questions regarding Billy Webb's murder.