"WHEN YOU shoot a man, he drops down. He doesn't go flying backwards. It doesn't matter if it's a shotgun or a nine mu, that stuff you see in the pic-tures is pure crap. I never saw anyone move more than a few inches in my life. I'll tell you another thing. If you shoot a man in the back of the head, a funny thing happens. His two eyeballs will pop out of the front of his head and just hang there on stalks - ha ha!"

THESE DESPICABLE remarks were made by twisted Limerick hitman, Gary Carnpin, the only Irish contract killer to ever have been twice convict-ed of murder. The warped world of the smug sicko is revealed in a book Blood On The Streets: A Murderous History of Limerick, by Anthony Galvin.

It's a grim Tale of Two Cities sto-ry about the Edwardian mansions on the banks of the Shannon and the street corner yobs who gradu-ate from drinking dens and joyriding to owning them. Motormouth Campion was top of the race from the gutter, but is now serving two life sentences for the murder of bouncer Brian Fitzgerald and the gangland double cross of Tat' Frankie Ryan.

Another insight into what makes the Moyross mobster tick was revealed in this vile rant: "I have shot people in this town for €10,000, and I'd have no difficulty spending €20,000 to have you blown away. It wouldn't be my first time. If it's the last thing I do, I'll get you and your family."

Madman At the receiving end of the abuse was John Ryan - a Limerick prison officer aware the thug had previous-ly firebombed the home of another colleague in the past. "Ryan, you still have to go out that Dublin Road every evening," Campion added, to let the officer know he knew where he lived. From an early age, the Moyross madman was blooded for a life of crime, writes Galvin, a Limerick Leader crime reporter and true crime author.

Some gardai believe Campion's older brothers William and Noel let the teenager tag along when they broke into an isolated farmhouse near Bridgetown, Co. Clare, in 2004 and hung 68- year-old Paud Skehan upside down before dousing him in petrol. The pension-er died of his injuries after a neighbour heard him the following day in terrible agony. By the time he'd come of age, Gary Campion was more than capable of inflicting horrors all on his own.

Initially allying himself to the war-ring McCarthy-Dundon faction in the city, the two-faced-gangster switched sides to double cross 'Fat' Frankie Ryan.Gary shot Ryan in the back of the head while Ryan was driving, then leaned forward to take over the steering wheel. His brazen bloodlust made him the first choice contract killer for Philip Collopy - the mobster who took over the warring Keane-Collopy faction after the murder of mobster Kieran Keane. Collopy wanted someone to burst into a party and "kill everyone".

Campion was caught with a loaded Sig automatic pistol with a full clip of 15 rounds after gardai got a tip-off. While awaiting trial for the mur-der of Ryan, he was charged with the murder of bouncer Brian Fitzgerald. His involvement in yet another of Limerick's milestone murders saw the affable father-of-two and head of security at Doc's nightclub shot dead on his own doorstep.

Evil Campion went on another of his infamous rants: "Fucking scum-bags is all ye are. I'll clean up Moyross, not ye." The thug thicko has been banged up for life since 2007. But even behind bars, he can't stay out of trouble. A total of 73 knotted bags of heroin - each with a street value of €2,300 - were found in his cell. In marked contrast, the book also covers the heavy toll paid by the vic-tims of crime at the other end of the spectrum.

Last year, Steve Collins was forced to flee the country with his family. He'd spoken out against the thugs who'd murdered his son Roy for tes-tifying against a member of the McCarthy-Dundon gang. Roy was gunned down in cold blood because he had testified against a member of the McCarthy-Dundon mob. That murder and the murder of Garry owen rugby captain Shane Geoghegan in a case of mistaken identity has threatened to turn Ireland's third largest city into a no-go zone.

At the heart of the city there are also crimes typically associated with poverty and deprivation. Demon When Michael Manning (25), raped and murdered a 65-year-old nurse who happened to cross his path, he blamed the demon drink. He would become the last man hanged in Mounjoy in 1948.

Majella Boland (23), paid Declan Malone IR£200 to blow away her violent husband Patrick in the 1980s, in a domestic that involved no mercy. Having been beaten twice during her pregnancies and suffering two miscarriages as a result, Majella was not prepared to allow her husband turn on her daughter. After he dangled the child out the window of a second storey window, she paid the bargain basement price to have him bumped off. By the 1990s the gangs of maraud-ing teens were stoning windows, joyriding, breaking into empty hous-es to use as drinking dens and fire-bombing others as they turned sec-tions of the city into a warzone.