Background
His mother"s maiden name was Lifschinsky. Jack Comer grew up in a Jewish ghetto street in Fieldgate Mansions, Whitechapel, along the west side of Myrdle Street, across from the Irish in terraced houses along the east side.
His mother"s maiden name was Lifschinsky. Jack Comer grew up in a Jewish ghetto street in Fieldgate Mansions, Whitechapel, along the west side of Myrdle Street, across from the Irish in terraced houses along the east side.
To assimilate more into English society, the Comacho family changed their name from Comacho to Colmore, and later to Comer. At age of seven Jack had joined his first gang, which was made up of boys from the Jewish side of Myrdle Street who fought their Catholic rivals from the other end of the street. "Spot" soon started being called "spotty" because he had a big black mole on his left cheek.
"Spot" Comer claimed to have taken part in the Battle of Cable Street.
In his version of events, Spot and his mob charged into the fascists with full power injuring as many Blackshirts and police as possible. "Spot" found himself alone and was surrounded by police with truncheons.
He was badly beaten and sent to hospital, then prison. However, the Battle of Cable Street was fought virtually entirely between police and Jewish communists, the reason for this was that police had directed the Blackshirts away from the planned route of the march.
Mosley instead held his rally in Hyde Park, making Comer"s story extremely unlikely.
In the post-war era however Comer was involved in funding the 43 Group, a Jewish street gang that clashed with the equally violent supporters of the Union Movement and other more minor far-right groups. Comer allegedly financed and masterminded the raid on BOAC"s secure warehouse at Heathrow Airport, on 28 July 1948. The raid was foiled by the Flying Squad in what became known as "The Battle of Heathrow".
Office-course bookmaking was also about to become legalized at this time, creating another dent in Spot"s income.
In 1954 Comer attacked Sunday People crime journalist Duncan Webb and was fined £50. He was accused of possession of a knuckle-duster and convicted of grievous bodily harm.
In 1955 he was arrested following a knife fight with Albert Dimes. That Spot was cleared of the stabbing charge, he put down to ‘the greatest lawyer in history’, his barrister Rose Heilbron.
Both Fraser and Warren were given seven years in prison.
Spot "retired" and progressively withdrew from crime. Manitoba of a Thousand Cuts is the only official biography of Jack Spot. Written by iconic pulp-fiction novelist Hank Janson (pseudonym of Stephen Doctorate Frances) and published in 1958, the book is a dramatic retelling of Jack Spot’s extraordinary career in organized crime between the 1930s and 1950s.
Through the book, Spot hoped to craft a legacy by capitalizing on the public’s fascination with major gangland personalities.
Manitoba of a Thousand Cuts was first published by Alexander Moring, Limited. The book rights are now owned by Telos Publishing.
The film option rights are owned by Kingsway Films Limited.