William Charles Hill (13 December 1911 – 1 January 1984) was an English criminal, linked to smuggling, protection rackets and extreme violence.
His gang managed cash robberies and, in a scam, defrauded London's high society of millions at the card tables of John Aspinall's Clermont Club.
[1] He also supplied forged documents for deserting servicemen and was involved in West End protection rackets with fellow gangster Jack Spot.
At the time gang warfare had broken out in London between Hill and erstwhile partner in crime, Jack Spot.
[12] In 1956, Spot and wife Rita were attacked by Hill's bodyguard, Frankie Fraser, Bobby Warren and at least half a dozen other men.
[13] The Bar Council approached the police and requested the tapes to provide evidence for an investigation into the professional conduct of Hill's barrister, Patrick Marrinan.
[14] When this use of tapping powers was revealed to Parliament in June 1957, Leader of the Opposition Hugh Gaitskell demanded a full explanation.
[15] Marrinan was subsequently disbarred and expelled by Lincoln's Inn but Butler was forced to appoint a committee of Privy Counsellors under Sir Norman Birkett to look into the prerogative power of intercepting telephone communications.
In Douglas Thompson's book The Hustlers and the documentary on Channel 4, The Real Casino Royale, the club's former financial director John Burke and Hill's associate Bobby McKew, claimed that John Aspinall worked with Hill to cheat the players at the Clermont Club.
[1][20] In 1963, Mickey Spillane was playing Mike Hammer in The Girl Hunters in London, where he met Hill and showed him around the set.
[21] Hill's only child, Justin, republished his father's memoirs in December 2008 with a modern introduction and previously unpublished photographs.