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PJ Judge
Judge in an undated photo
Born
Peter Joseph Judge

(1955-07-27)July 27, 1955
Dublin, Ireland
DiedDecember 8, 1996(1996-12-08) (aged 41)
Finglas, Dublin, Ireland
Cause of deathShot dead
Resting placeGlasnevin Cemetery
Other names"The Psycho"

Peter Joseph Judge (27 July 1955 - 8 December 1996) was an Irish crime boss and drug trafficker. Nicknamed "the Psycho", Judge controlled the trade of drugs in the Finglas, Cabra and Ballymun suburbs of Dublin before his murder in 1996.

Early life

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The son of Peter and Eileen Judge, Judge was the youngest of five children.[1] He grew up in Finglas,[2] attending school in Marlborough Street before leaving at age 14 to work with his father, who ran a small pig feed business. He later worked as a delivery boy for a bread company and had a job making cots.[1]

Criminal career

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Judge was involved in crime from an early age; his career started when he robbed a firearms dealer at age 13.[3] He was charged with the robbery of over £1,000 from a savings bank in Fairview in August 1979,[4] and of firearm possession relating to an attempted robbery of a post office in Ballyfermot in February 1980.[5] He was convicted of the latter offence and sentenced to 10 years in prison for it;[3] a 1984 article detailed that Judge had gone on hunger strike while in Mountjoy Prison.[6] It was not until the 1990s that Judge entered the drug trade, but by the time of his murder his gang controlled the trade of heroin and cannabis in Finglas, Cabra and Ballymun.[3]

Judge was believed to have been behind the April 1993 murder of Michael Godfrey in a row over money. Godfrey, 56, had returned to Dublin after serving prison time in Britain. Two masked men armed with handguns abducted Godfrey from his North Circular Road home, and his body was later found in a field near Blanchardstown with two bullet wounds to the head.[3]

Judge was also believed to have murdered William "Jock" Corbally, a one time criminal associate who disappeared in February 1996 and whose body was never found; Gardaí suspected that Judge had beaten Corbally to death.[1][7] His body has never been found.[8] According to a Garda informant, Judge tortured Corbally and pulled out his teeth with pliers before decapitating him.[9][10] When Paul Williams of the Sunday World ran an exposé on Judge over this, he plotted to have Williams killed.[11]

Newspapers could not name Judge for legal reasons, so due to his propensity towards torture and his psychopathic tendencies, news reports dubbed him "Judge Dread" and "The Psycho".[12][13][10][14]

Shortly before his death, Gardaí had seized £70,000 which they believed had come from his drug dealing.[15] Following his death, it was revealed that Judge had been an informer, "grassing" on fellow criminals in exchange for payment; this arrangement ended after he was arrested following a shootout.[16]

Personal life

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Judge was reported to be a closeted homosexual who had been infuriated at media coverage of his activities.[12] At the time of his death however, Judge was in a relationship with Ellen Hyland, the sister of future crime boss Martin "Marlo" Hyland, who became a protegé of Judge's.[17][18] Following Judge's murder, the Irish Times reported that Gardaí suspected Judge had beaten Ellen in the two weeks prior to his death, and were investigating this as a line of inquiry.[19]

Death

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On December 7, 1996, Judge and his girlfriend Ellen had been at the Royal Oak pub in Finglas, where they watched a band perform. In the early hours of the morning, Judge was shot twice in the head by a gunman on a motorcycle.[1] None of his fellow crime bosses attended his funeral.[16] He is buried at Glasnevin Cemetery.[20] Several days after Judge's murder, his associate Mark Dwyer was found shot dead.[21]

It was initially believed that the Provisional IRA had murdered Judge due to his erratic and violent tendencies,[22] though no one was ever convicted of the murder.[23] A 2007 Sunday World article alleged that Marlo Hyland had Judge murdered due to him owing Judge £130,000 from the seizure of a drug shipment.[24] Following Judge's murder, Hyland took over from him.[25][26]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Two faces of an overlord of evil". Sunday Independent (Dublin ed.). 15 December 1996. p. 8. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  2. ^ "Judge (Dublin)". Evening Herald. 10 December 1996. p. 55. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d Maher, John (9 December 1996). "Murdered drug dealer linked to two killings in Dublin". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  4. ^ "Charge is amended". Evening Herald. 10 August 1979. p. 4. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  5. ^ "P.O charge - two charged". Irish Independent. 18 February 1980. p. 5. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  6. ^ Mallon, Charles (16 September 1984). "High risk prisoners in 'Joy". Sunday Independent (Dublin ed.). p. 26. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  7. ^ O'Halloran, Georgina (10 March 2010). "Inquest jury says missing man beaten to death". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  8. ^ Guerin, Jimmy; Cusack, Jim (9 March 2003). "Is anything being done about the disappeared?". Sunday Independent (Dublin ed.). p. 6. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  9. ^ "Sunday World". Sunday World (Southern ed.). 14 November 2010. p. 11. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  10. ^ a b Walsh, Liz (12 April 2003). "Dead man talking". Irish Independent. p. 5. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  11. ^ "Marlo's Downfall". Sunday World (Southern ed.). 19 October 2008. p. 61. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  12. ^ a b Rae, Stephen (9 December 1996). "'Psycho' plotted major crime". Evening Herald. p. 4. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  13. ^ Rae, Stephen (6 November 1998). "The end of an empire". Evening Herald. p. 18. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  14. ^ Rae, Stephen (4 December 1996). "Garda boss warns the drug barons". Evening Herald. p. 13. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  15. ^ "Drug dealer shot in head". Sunday Independent (Dublin ed.). 8 December 1996. p. 1. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  16. ^ a b Rae, Stephen (11 December 1996). "Murdered gangster was garda informer". Evening Herald. p. 18. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  17. ^ Allen, Liz (15 December 1996). "Dealer killed by IRA-linked vigilantes". Sunday Independent (Dublin ed.). p. 16. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  18. ^ Lally, Conor (16 December 2006). "How time ran out for drugs kingpin". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  19. ^ Maher, John (10 December 1996). "Violent row with woman may have led to murder". The Irish Times. Retrieved 8 July 2025.
  20. ^ Maher, John (12 December 1996). "Murdered drug dealer buried". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  21. ^ Rae, Stephen; McGrath, Stephen; Lavery, Michael (14 December 1996). "Psycho's pal slain in gangland-style attack". Evening Herald. p. 21. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  22. ^ "Up to 40 gang murders still unsolved". www.independent.ie. 5 January 2003. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  23. ^ "In the hunt for killers in 40 cases". Evening Herald. 16 June 2003. p. 5. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  24. ^ Williams, Paul (15 July 2007). "Marlo planned Psycho murder". Sunday World (Southern ed.). p. 6. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  25. ^ "The life & crimes of Marlo Hyland". Irish Independent. 22 June 2011. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  26. ^ Lally, Conor (13 December 2006). "Gang leader had many enemies". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
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