Jill Dando murder was a professional hit
The much-loved Crimewatch star was shot dead as she returned to her Fulham home on the morning of April 26, 1999.
Local man Barry George was tried and convicted of the 37-year-old’s murder in 2001, only to be acquitted on appeal seven years later.
Netflix has now produced a three-part series on the killing which is due to air tomorrow.
Noel “Razor” Smith, a British writer and former criminal, is interviewed about the murder in the show.
Smith was in HMP Belmarsh when George, now 63, arrived.
When asked about who killed Dando, Smith told the Mirror: “I don’t really want to talk about that for my own safety.
“But there are rumours in the criminal world. It’s not who you would think and it’s not Barry George. It was a professional hit.”
He was also questioned about why she was shot and replied: “No. If I tell you why, you’d know who did it.”
No one else has been charged with Jill’s murder, but other theories remain.
The Met Police were contacted by a woman saying the IRA were responsible for her murder.
There has also been speculation that Jill’s murder was a hit by a London underworld gang after she reported on them for Crimewatch.
Another theory was that it was a revenge killing by Serbian warlords after the journalist fronted an appeal for Kosovan refugees.
One is that she was killed on the orders of a Russian mafia don whose advances she rejected while filming a holiday programme in Cyprus, the Daily Mail reports.
Within six months of her death, more than 2,500 people had been spoken to and police had taken more than 1,000 statements.
An investigation by the Metropolitan Police, named Operation Oxborough, proved fruitless for over a year.
Eventually, attention was focused on George, who lived about half a mile from her home and had a history of stalking women and sexual offences.
He was charged with murder and during his trial at the Old Bailey it was alleged a minute particle of gunshot residue found in his pocket came from the murder weapon.
Smith spoke to George when he was first remanded to Belmarsh prison and asked him: “Do you like guns?”
George responded: “I like Guns’n’Roses.”
Smith added: “I thought ‘he is not capable of a cold-blooded execution in broad daylight and then not speaking about it for a year’.”
On the morning of 26 April, Jill made breakfast for her fiance before he went to work.
She then went clothes shopping in Hammersmith before making her way to her home in Gowan Avenue.
Jill Dando murder was a professional hit
