I'm putting this here for the occasional borderline student who comes through desperate for 200 more words to round out a "Gangsters in the Media" paper:

Gangster-businessman Johnny Allen died on Eastenders on US television* recently. Johnny was probably born during WWII, he grew up the hard way, became a boxer and eventually an enforcer of some sort. But he had ambition and grew, and became an actual suit-wearing gangster and finally a boss. His world was shaken when his house was fire-bombed and his wife and one daughter killed.

That's where he enters Eastenders (played by Billy Murray). He returns to Watford, where he lived in his youth, seeking a quieter life with his second daughter, Ruby. He's still a gangster, but opens a club there and establishes his long-term girlfriend Tina in an apartment nearby. This leads to trouble because Tina and Ruby get to know each other and Ruby starts to wonder how Tina has so many vacation photos with her father when they've only known each other for a few weeks.

Like everyone else on Eastenders, Johnny gets into a fight for control of The Queen Victoria pub, with one Peggy Mitchell (who had herself disappeared from Watford for years and returned because her daughter was up for murder). Johnny's at a little disadvantage because he's a bit past it while Peggy has two hulking hoodlum sons she can call on for muscle.

There follows a little stretch where all of the Watford hoodlums (about half the neighborhood population) chase around after each other. The one constant is that Ruby (a relentlessly stupid child) keeps insisting that Johnny go to the police and make a complete confession. He finally does and, of course, dies in prison.

*Those in the UK are squinting at the screen going, "Wha'?" Eastenders is only shown twice a week on public TV in the US, so we're about ten years behind the UK storyline.