IN the early hours of August 29, 2003, Marvyn Bradshaw was shot dead as he drove his friends away from the Sporting Chance pub in Bulwell.

It became clear to the police early on in the investigation that Jamie Gunn, who was in the back of the car, had been the intended target. They were also aware that feelings would be running high as a result.

They would have to race against time to catch the people responsible – Michael O'Brien and Gary Salmon – before revenge was sought by the Bestwood Cartel.

By September 3, intelligence was coming in to the police that Colin Gunn was pulling out all the stops to track the duo and that their relatives and friends would be targeted. The gang's soldiers got to work.

Associates and friends of Salmon and O'Brien were targeted with firebombs and homemade hand grenades.

The Cartel soon learned that Joan Stirland, O'Brien's mother, was unwilling to make a statement, despite talking to police. It incensed them and police knew that both John and Joan Stirland were in danger.

AUDIO SLIDESHOW: The Stirlands' terrifying final moments

After shots were fired through the windows of the couple's home, John and Joan Stirland decided to leave Nottingham for good.

They moved to a cottage in Trusthorpe, on the Lincolnshire coast and, a month later, Mrs Stirland said: "It's the perfect place for us, it's out of the way... Everything is going to be all right."

The following July, Michael O'Brien went on trial for the murder of Marvyn Bradshaw, and the Gunn family was getting worried about the impact the trial was having on Jamie Gunn.

He was going on drug-fuelled benders on a nightly basis with some members of the cartel. Jamie was in self-destruct mode; he didn't care what happened to him.

On August 2, 2004, the twenty-one-year-old was found dead on his bed at home in Southglade Road, Bestwood Estate. His body had given up – the official cause of death was pneumonia – and his five-and-a-half month old son Rhiece would grow up without even knowing him.

The outpouring of grief from the members of the Bestwood Cartel was overwhelming.

Colin Gunn was crying uncontrollably; Jamie was like a son to him. There was also some guilt: perhaps he shouldn't have given Jamie such a hard time about the drug-taking, Colin thought, but no, he wasn't to blame for Jamie's death. It was someone else and that someone else would have to pay. An eye for an eye. Two must die. One for Marv and one for Jamie.

Colin didn't need his lines of cocaine to make him feel confident. He felt supreme already. He had been implicated in no less than four murders and more than fifty shootings and he hadn't been charged with a single crime since 1998. He was invincible.

By 2.20pm on August 8, 2004, Joan and John Stirland had been murdered in cold blood by two men in boiler suits who walked into their bungalow brandishing guns.

Everyone knew Colin Gunn was behind the Stirlands' murders and Jamie's funeral would be the last show of any significant support for the Bestwood Cartel.

One former member said: "When the Stirlands got done, that was it. People started seeing what was happening. Colin was out of control. You can't go off shooting someone's grandmother just to get at someone else. That was Colin's downfall."

David Gunn was arrested by Notts police that February after bugs placed in his car caught him talking about drug shipments.

He was heard to say: "They are trying to take out the little sergeants, but they can't get to us, the colonels or captains."

Colin Gunn was arrested on March 17, 2005. In interview, he claimed to have no bad feelings towards the Stirlands. It was, of course, a lie.

When the Trusthorpe murder trial came to an end at Birmingham Crown Court in March 2006, Colin reacted angrily to the jury's guilty verdict. He turned to them menacingly and said: "Thank you, you scum bags. I hope you die of cancer."

He then directed his anger at the judge, calling him a paedophile.

John Russell and Michael McNee were also jailed for their roles in the plot to kill the Stirlands. Riots took place on the Bestwood Estate after the men were sentenced.

David Gunn was acquitted and subsequently issued a statement saying he wished to rebuild his life. But a few weeks later he faced sentencing for an amphetamine seizure. It would be some time before he would be free to walk the streets of Bestwood again.

In the summer of 2007, Colin Gunn was jailed for a further nine years for conspiring to corrupt Notts police officers, the sentence to run concurrently with his life term.

He had used trainee detective Charles Fletcher to gain information that allowed him to stay one step ahead of the police.

Gunn was also implicated in the robbery that led to the murder of Arnold jeweller Marian Bates, but was never prosecuted after key evidence was not properly recorded.

David Gunn is due for release from prison in April 2009. He has announced his intention to sue Notts Police after they mistakenly crushed his 3 series BMW car, which should have been used as part-payment in the assets recovery case against him.

Colin Gunn, meanwhile, languishes in his cell at Frankland Prison in Durham, counting off the thirty-five years he must remain behind bars. He will be seventy-five if he ever makes it out.

While on remand at maximum-security Belmarsh Prison, he and a fellow inmate attacked nine Muslims remanded on terrorist charges after he felt they disrespected Christmas.

Then at Frankland Prison he attacked a prisoner who had upset him in the gym, leaving him battered and bruised. Friends say he still has a mobile phone in his cell and police sources say he is still in contact with his former street soldiers.

In October 2007, he hooked up with fellow inmate David Bieber, the American who shot dead PC Ian Broadhurst from West Yorkshire Police on Boxing Day 2003.

The two men are gym fanatics and Bieber allegedly hatched an escape plan involving a helicopter and firearms. Colin Gunn asked him if he could come in on it. The plan was scuppered before it got anywhere and ended up in the pages of the News of the World.

newsdesk@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk