Cocaine Wars by Mick McCaffrey Page A

the house and inside the hallway. A .44 calibre round was recovered from the floor. A .32 calibre bullet was taken from the mattress. This was the round that hit him in the back and exited through his stomach. Because Brian Rattigan was asleep when he was shot, he did not know who his attackers were, although he no doubt had a good idea who was responsible. He did not cooperate with the Garda investigation, and inquiries led Gardaí to suspect that Freddie Thompson and Paddy Doyle were the gunmen, and that two other people were involved: one armed with a firearm and the other driving the getaway car.
    When Gardaí initially quizzed McEnroe on the afternoon following the shooting, she told them that she did not recognise the gunman. On 8 August she was again interviewed, and told detectives that she did recognise the man who had shot her boyfriend, but she was afraid of him at that time and was still afraid of him to this day. She said that the man with the fat head was Freddie Thompson from Maryland, and that she didn’t shout, ‘You dirty bastard, come back here’, as she initially indicated, but rather said: ‘Come back here you bastard, Frederick Thompson’, but Freddie just laughed at her. She said that Thompson was only four feet away from her when she saw him, and she was certain that he was in the house and was carrying a handgun. Freddie Thompson had been detained on suspicion of carrying out the shooting the day before McEnroe’s revelation, and was in Sundrive Road Garda Station when McEnroe was re-interviewed by Gardaí, who were hoping that she would remember something more. Freddie Thompson was well versed in dealing with police interrogations. During seven rounds of interviews with detectives, he replied, ‘Nothing to say’, to each and every question, and refused to sign the notes of the interview on each occasion as well. He was initially held for twenty-four hours with his period then extended for a further twenty-four hours by Chief Superintendent Noel Smith. On the second day of interrogations, Gardaí told Thompson that McEnroe’s statements implicated him. He did not finch. At the eighth and final interview, which, like all the previous ones, was recorded on video, Thompson stuck to his script. He knew his time in custody was nearing an end, and was looking forward to going home. When the camera was turned off, Thompson turned around and said to Detective Garda Paul Gilton: ‘Natasha McEnroe will never go to court with that statement. This will never go to court.’ When asked what he meant, Thompson replied: ‘Mark my words, she won’t go to court with that.’ Thompson was then released without charge, pending a file being sent to the DPP. In correspondence with the DPP’s office, Detective Garda Ronan Lafferty said: ‘This case rests solely with Brian Rattigan’s girlfriend, Natasha McEnroe, who recognised one of the intruders into the house on Cooley Road, Dublin 12, on the 17 March 2002 and [who] shot Brian Rattigan. She knows Frederick Thompson for a number of years, and in her initial statement she described him and admitted she would recognise him again. In a second statement she names the culprit as Frederick Thompson [who she says was] armed with a handgun. She stated that she was too scared to name him in the first statement. I recommend that Frederick Thompson be charged with Aggravated Burglary, Unlawful Possession of a Firearm with Intent to Endanger Life and Attempted Murder.’ Gardaí were hopeful that, with Natasha McEnroe’s statement, they would be able to do what had never been achieved so far – putting Freddie Thompson behind bars. However, Gardaí were disappointed when the DPP came back and directed that no charges should be brought. Freddie Thompson’s prediction was right: the case never did get to court.
    With Brian Rattigan temporarily out of the way, Freddie Thompson and his gang