PJ Judge

Peter Joseph Judge (27 July 1955 – 8 December 1996) was an Irish crime boss and drug trafficker. Nicknamed "the Psycho", Judge controlled the trade of drugs in the Finglas, Cabra and Ballymun suburbs of Dublin before his murder in 1996.

Early life The son of Peter and Eileen Judge, Judge was the youngest of five children. He grew up in Finglas, attending school in Marlborough Street before leaving at age 14 to work with his father, who ran a small pig feed business. He later worked as a delivery boy for a bread company and had a job making cots.

Criminal career Judge was involved in crime from an early age, and his criminal activities started when he robbed a firearms dealer at age 13, for which he spent two years in St Conleth's Reformatory School in Daingean. the van he used had been registered in the name of his associate William "Jock" Corbally. Under police questioning, Corbally told him he had loaned the van to Judge. Judge was given a ten year sentence for this, and as a result he developed a grudge with Corbally. for which he was convicted and sentenced to a further 10 years in prison for it; He was released after serving nine years total for both offenses. By the time of his murder, his gang controlled the trade of heroin and cannabis in Finglas, Cabra and Ballymun.

Newspapers could not name Judge for legal reasons, so due to his propensity towards torture and his psychopathic tendencies, news reports dubbed him "Judge Dread" and "The Psycho". When Paul Williams of the Sunday World ran an exposé on Judge over the murder of Corbally, as well as an exposé over Judge's sexuality he plotted to have Williams killed. Following his death, it was revealed that Judge had been an informer, "grassing" on fellow criminals in exchange for payment; this arrangement ended after he was arrested following a shootout.

Personal life Judge was reported to be a closeted homosexual who had been infuriated at media coverage of his activities.

Judge was reported to have been violent against his partners;

Death On 7 December 1996, Judge and his girlfriend Ellen had been at the Royal Oak pub in Finglas, where they watched a band perform. In the early hours of the morning, Judge was shot twice in the head by a gunman on a motorcycle. Several days after Judge's murder, his associate Mark Dwyer was found shot dead.

It was initially believed that the Provisional IRA had murdered Judge due to his erratic and violent tendencies, though no one was ever convicted of the murder. A 2007 Sunday World article alleged that Marlo Hyland had Judge murdered due to him owing Judge £130,000 from the seizure of a drug shipment. Following Judge's murder, Hyland took over from him.