Over two decades since the Cook Report first exposed him, John Palmer had built a network of corrupt senior policemen, officers in the Inland Revenue and in the Crown Prosecution Service. He could always keep one step ahead of the law and clearly felt invulnerable. Even from prison, using his mobile phone he was still able to run his evil empire - expanding his money laundering activities on behalf of the Columbian cartels and the Russian Mafia - and also acting as a banker for other criminals, who would be charged a 25% commission on all their takings. Investigating him was especially difficult because of his corrupt police, HMRC and CPS contacts and the operation had to be run in secret from a remote RAF electronic warfare base in Cumbria.
The programme was able to obtain a number of top-secret reports and to speak anonymously to one of the investigating officers. He had worked in conjunction with the Spanish police who were legally able to tap Palmer’s mobile phone and were able to track his money laundering and other criminal ventures, information they shared with their British counterparts. The Spaniards estimated that by the time of his death he was worth £600 million.
However, he had so many enemies that he was eventually assassinated in the grounds of his luxury home in Essex. The local police initially said he had died from complications arising from recent keyhole gall bladder surgery. They ignored the ambulanceman who suggested that he had actually been shot multiple times (as he had been) and therefore did not secure the crime scene. There were suggestions that this might have been deliberate. Investigating officers now have as many as 16,000 suspects and little or no prospect of prosecuting any of them.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Cook Reports
This is an independent, not for profit channel celebrating the pioneering investigative work of The Cook Report, its presenter Roger Cook and the team behind him. Nothing remotely like his series was made before or has been made since. Cook was known for his journalistic and physical bravery.
The channel was not established, nor is it run by the man himself. He is actually quite modest about his ground-breaking (and sometimes bone-breaking) achievements.
Unfortunately, the entire Cook Report archive was destroyed in a fire at a London data storage facility in 2006, and we would therefore like your help.
We have acquired most of the episodes on this channel unofficially by reaching out to the Great British public and have been quite successful so far, with more than 80 of over 130 programmes collected so far. However, some of what we’ve found is not the best technical quality and we don’t have the copyright, which belongs to ITV. Do you have any Cook Report programmes in your VHS or DVD collection which we do not have on show - or you have in better quality? If so, we would appreciate it if you would allow us to digitise and share them on the channel. Thanks in advance! Email: rogercookreports@gmail.com
Please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE for the latest content from Roger Cook Reports.
Website: rogercookreports.com
Facebook: / rogercookreports
Twitter: / rogercookreports
Many of the programmes on this site have had introductions written for them, though not all. Others will be made available as and when, since they have to rely on memories rather than archive material.