HAS IDENTITY OF JESSIE'S KILLER GONE TO GRAVE OF GANG BOSS

DEAD GOOCH LEADER WAS LINKED TO MURDER OF 15-YEAR-OLD BOY

- JOHN SCHEERHOUT

IT'S almost 18 years since Jessie James, a boy of 15, was shot dead as he was riding his bike through a park in Moss Side. He had no involvement in gangs.

His only misfortune - the misfortune that cost him his life - was that he was cycling through a park in his neighbourhood which the notorious Doddington gang considered their own.

For members of their trigger-happy rivals, the Gooch gang, it was an opportunity too good to miss. About nine shots were fired.

Jessie was blasted four times in the chest and abdomen, collateral damage in the uber-violent gang war that was being waged in south Manchester at the time. It was perhaps the most shocking incident in a long-running feud littered with them. And, to this day, the gunman has not been identified. It remains an unsolved murder. Almost two decades on, rewards for information remain unclaimed.

Officially, police remain open-minded about the motive for the shooting but for the detectives who investigated it, all roads led them to the same destination and the same man: a cold, calculated leader of the Gooch gang, Lee Amos.

Last Monday, it was confirmed Amos, aged 48, had died that day at HMP Oakwood in Staffordshire where he was serving life with a minimum 35 years behind bars for a drive-by killing at a wake in 2007, a year after Jessie was shot dead.

The details of his death have not yet been revealed but Staffordshire Police have confirmed they have ruled out foul play and are not treating the death as suspicious. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman is investigating and there is expected to be an inquest.

For the detectives who investigated Jessie's murder, the death of Amos, known as 'Cabbo' in gangland Manchester, is a significant moment. It appears he has taken to the grave any knowledge, or even guilt, over the death.