Gangster: How Viv Graham's Tyneside murder led to family heartbreak

Viv Graham was feared and revered in equal measure

On New Year's Eve 1993, Viv Graham stepped out of a corner shop on a Tyneside high street but never made it to his Ford Sierra Cosworth. Lurking in the shadows, a gunman fired three shots at close range. Graham managed to haul himself to the Queen's Head pub to raise the alarm but his life was quickly slipping away. Thirty years on, the murder of the dad of four - who also ran a pub and club protection empire - is still unsolved.

Bouncer Viv Graham's death continues to cast a long shadow over the family he left behind.

His son, also called Viv Graham, has opened up about his notorious father for the new BBC podcast Gangster: The Story of Viv Graham.

It's set in a world of gang wars, retribution and bloody battles to control the supply of drugs into Tyneside's pubs and clubs. Viv senior's former partner says her fiancée did not sell drugs himself but would allow certain dealers to operate in return for backhanders. This was an era long before door staff were vetted and regulated.

Back then, you rose to the top through aggression and sheer violence and Viv senior had convictions for assault. When the party drug ecstasy landed in the late 1980s, it sparked vicious battles among the criminal underworld.

But populating this dangerous community were people who also had young families. Viv junior says his was sorely tested by his father's brutal murder.

He was just four at the time but says his older brother, Dean, who had not been involved in his father's business, struggled for years to comprehend what had happened.

Viv Graham senior's son Dean, right, died of an overdose at 24

"That's why he turned to the drugs - he couldn't cope," Viv says. He watched helplessly as his big brother became gripped by addiction.

"He wasn't the same kid as I remember growing up," he says. He became "something he shouldn't have been" as his heroin addiction took hold, leading to multiple spells in prison.

Viv recalls several times his brother keeled over after taking the drug and he had to help bring him round. In March 2010, Dean died aged 24 after an overdose, leaving his partner and one-year-old daughter.

He might have had a troubled life but he had been a father figure to Viv and had tried his best for him. Viv was devastated.

"I struggled," he says. "I hit the drugs and went down a bumpy road. I didn't know what to do."

Soon Viv who, like his dad and brother, had been a promising boxer, was racking up convictions, including for violence. His life was spiralling out of control and he was in real danger of adding to his family's tragic history.

Dean Graham, left, was a father figure to his brother Viv Graham junior, right

It would take time, years in fact, for Viv to turn his life around.

Today he's a father-of-two with a long-term partner and a job in the asbestos removal industry. He's also 34, the same age his dad was when he was murdered.

It's a grim reminder of his family's dark past but Viv says he is proud to be building a brighter legacy for his own children.

"I don't want my son or my daughter growing up to believe I was bad," he says. "I want them growing up properly. I don't want them turning into something that I was or Dean was or my dad was - so life's different for them."

Speaking to the BBC, Viv senior's fiancée, Anna Connelly, has reflected that - given his criminal connections - he did not expect to live past 40.

But, while his murder remains unsolved, his family are unable to let his memory rest.

Viv junior says his elderly grandmother wants a resolution.

"Before she dies, she would like to see justice," he says. "Everyone would like to see justice.

"But, whether that happens, it's out of our hands."

• Gangster: The Story of Viv Graham

You can listen to the trailer for the new series on the link above. Episodes one and two will be released on Friday and there will be new episodes every Friday on BBC Sounds.