Tony Felloni
Tony Felloni | |
|---|---|
| Born | Anthony Carroll 1943 Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | (aged 81) Dublin, Ireland |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Other names | King Scum |
| Criminal status | Released in 2011 |
| Spouse | Anne Marie Flynn (divorced) |
| Children | 8 |
| Criminal charge | Conspiracy to import heroin |
| Penalty | 20 years' imprisonment |
Anthony Felloni (born Anthony Carroll, 1943 – 22 April 2024) was an Irish heroin dealer, pimp, and career criminal.[1] He became a hated figure in the 1980s and 1990s, blamed for "flooding" Dublin with heroin and creating the city's first generation of heroin addicts.[2][3][4][5]
Early life
[edit]Felloni was born in Dublin in 1943 to Renaldo Felloni (an Italian immigrant) and a Miss Carroll.[6] As his parents were not married, he was given his mother's surname, calling him Anthony Carroll.[7]
Carroll adopted his father's surname in 1959.[8]
Criminal career
[edit]Carroll began as a blackmailer; he would seduce impressionable women from rural areas who were employed as domestic house workers, and force them to pose for nude photographs, threatening to send the pictures to their parents unless they paid him half of their wages each week.[9][10] He later began to force women into prostitution;[11] in 1964 he was convicted of "procuring young girls for immoral purposes".[12] During the 1960s he pretended to be the brother of footballer George Best to rent a flat in Rathgar, in which he stored stolen goods.[13] In the 1970s he turned to burglary.[13]
In 1980 Felloni moved to England and began to work in the growing drugs trade; he was arrested in Surrey in 1981 and jailed for four years for conspiracy to import heroin. He returned to Dublin and was again imprisoned in 1986 for heroin dealing, receiving a ten-year sentence, he was paroled in 1993.
In the 1980s and '90s he was one of Dublin's largest heroin suppliers, after usurping Larry Dunne's position as the city's main dealer.[14][15] His children worked as couriers and tasters, many of them being later imprisoned.[16] Ali Bracken claimed in the Sunday Tribune that "He enlisted his children to help him sell heroin when they were just teenagers and encouraged them to experiment with the drug so that he could control them."[17]
In June 1996, Felloni was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment for heroin trafficking.[9] Assets of over IR£400,000 were seized in 1998;[18] it was estimated that Felloni had earned £875,000 from drug dealing since 1988.[19] An appeal against the sentence was denied in 1999. A report found that Felloni contracted HIV and he later developed AIDS.[20]
In 1998, Paul Reynolds published King Scum: The Life and Crimes of Tony Felloni, a book about Felloni and his criminal career.[21]
In 2010, Gardaí seized another €500,000 from the family. Felloni was released in January 2011 after serving 14+1⁄2 years; at 67 years old and suffering from AIDS, he was not expected to return to crime.[17][22]
Personal life
[edit]Felloni's ex-wife Anne Marie Flynn is the sister of Dublin politician Mannix Flynn.[23][8][24] Felloni and Flynn met in a café on O'Connell Street; both already had a number of convictions by the age of eighteen and were in jail six weeks after their wedding.[13] He had six children with her, including a son who died from heroin addiction at three days old,[17] and two more with a mistress. Most of his children were part of the Felloni crime network, many of them developing heroin addictions and HIV.[25] Felloni was also physically abusive to Anne Marie, being three times convicted of assaulting her.[13] Anne Marie later divorced Felloni.[2]
Tony Felloni died from a heart attack at his home in Dublin, on 22 April 2024, at the age of 81.[26][27]
References
[edit]- ^ "Heroin dealer's poverty plea to Revenue revealed". independent.
- ^ a b "Drug dealer Tony Felloni freed from jail after 15 years". tribune.ie.
- ^ Post, Colin (27 January 2017). Mad Outta Me Head: Addiction and Underworld from Ireland to Colombia. Independently Published. ISBN 9781520456485 – via Google Books.
- ^ Mara, Sandra (28 September 2016). "No Job For A Woman". Poolbeg Press Ltd – via Google Books.
- ^ Holohan, Conn; Tracy, Tony (20 February 2014). Masculinity and Irish Popular Culture: Tiger's Tales. Springer. ISBN 9781137300249 – via Google Books.
- ^ Reynolds, Paul (2 January 1998). "King scum: the life and crimes of Tony Felloni, Dublin's heroin boss". Gill and Macmillan – via www.drugsandalcohol.ie.
- ^ "Drug dealer daughter of 'King Scum' Felloni avoids prison sentence". independent.
- ^ a b "Mannix Flynn, Sunday Times Profile, elected member of Aosdana". www.irishsalem.com.
- ^ a b Maher, John. "Felloni family history paints gruesome picture". The Irish Times.
- ^ Lally, Conor. "Tony Felloni, notorious Dublin heroin dealer, dies suddenly aged 81". The Irish Times. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
- ^ Walsh, Fintan; White, Willie (4 October 2013). That Was Us: Contemporary Irish Theatre and Performance. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781783195343 – via Google Books.
- ^ "In her final article for the 'Sunday Independent', published this". The Independent. 27 June 1996.
- ^ a b c d "No light in sordid fable of heroin boss Felloni". The Irish Times.
- ^ Reynolds, Paul (19 May 2020). "Notorious drug dealer Larry Dunne dies in Dublin" – via www.rte.ie.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ "Daughter of 'King Scum' heroin baron Tony Felloni claims she can't get home because of father's past". independent.
- ^ "KING SCUM'S AIDS VICTIM DAUGHTER GOES ON THE RUN; Felloni skips prison after Communion leave. - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com.
- ^ a b c "He laid waste to Dublin's inner city, and to his own children". tribune.ie.
- ^ "£400,000 confiscated from Felloni family". independent.
- ^ "Court orders the seizure of over £400,000 in Felloni family assets". The Irish Times.
- ^ "Leading drug dealer Felloni released from prison after serving 15 years". The Irish Times. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
- ^ Reynolds, Paul (2 January 1998). King Scum: The Life and Crimes of Tony Felloni, Dublin's Heroin Boss. Gill & Macmillan. ISBN 9780717127948 – via Google Books.
- ^ "News in brief" – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
- ^ O'Reilly, Emily (30 September 2012). Veronica Guerin. Random House. ISBN 9781448156566 – via Google Books.
- ^ Bassett, Fred (6 June 2021). "Mannix Flynn has Proved, anybody can Change their Lives around, from Jail Times, to Defender of the Police, and Protecter of Civil Society? As Mannix would tell you himself, he sat Cuffed in the Back of many a Squad car. As it says below: Welcome home Mannix?".
- ^ Williams, Paul (27 October 2011). Badfellas. Penguin UK. ISBN 9780141970295 – via Google Books.
- ^ O'Toole, Michael (23 April 2024). "Tony 'King Scum' Felloni, one of Ireland's most notorious drug dealers, dies aged 81". Irish Mirror. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
- ^ Reynolds, Paul (23 April 2024). "Convicted drug dealer Tony Felloni dies aged 81". RTE. Retrieved 23 April 2024.