R.I.P. HOWARD MARKS – “MR NICE” ( 13 AUGUST 1945- 10 APRIL 2016 ) ….LONG FEATURED HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

 R.I.P MR NICE

ABOVE : Howard Marks in his prime …

WHETHER ONE LOVE’S HIM OR LOATHES HIM … HOWARD MARKS , DESCRIBED AS BRITAIN’S BEST LOVED , RETIRED INTERNATIONAL DOPE DEALER , SADLY LOSES  HIS  BATTLE WITH CANCER, AND PASSED AWAY AGED 70 ON 10 APRIL 2016 , WITH HIS FAMILY AROUND HIM . 

FROM OUR PERSPECTIVE HERE AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL …AS A LONG STANDING FRIEND  WE WISH HOWARD’S FAMILY  ALL THE VERY BEST DURING THESE DIFFICULT TIMES

 

ABOVE IS A BRIEF  VIDEO NEWS RELEASE OF THE SAD DEATH OF HOWARD MARKS

 

 

 

ABOVE AND BELOW : A BRIEF LOOK AT SOME OF THE HOWARD MARKS COLLAGES ON DISPLAY HERE AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL …

BELOW IS A  PREVIOUS NEWS ARTICLE ANNOUNCING THE SAD NEWS THAT HOWARD WAS BATTLING INOPERABLE BOWL CANCER ………..       

Drug smuggler-turned-celebrity author Howard Marks, 69, reveals he has inoperable bowel cancer

• Diagnosis was in autumn last year but he has now ‘come to terms with it’
• Mr Marks, who spent seven years in a US prison, has no regrets
• His bestselling memoir Mr Nice was turned into a film starring Rhys Ifans 
• Now, his aim is to continue his battle for the legalisation of marijuana 
• Celebrity friends are holding a concert in his honour to raise funds for treatment and to set up a charitable foundation 

PUBLISHED: 13:37, 25 January 2015 | UPDATED: 16:49, 25 January 2015

Former drug smuggler Howard Marks – once known as Mr Nice – has revealed he has inoperable bowel cancer.

The 69-year-old, who spent seven years in a US prison, was diagnosed in autumn last year but said he has now ‘come to terms with it’.

And after selling more than a million copies of his memoir, published in 1996, and being captured on screen by actor Rhys Ifans, Mr Marks says he has no regrets.

A recent photograph of Howard Marks , February 2015 , at the time he revealed that he had been diagnosed with inoperable bowel cancer

Above is a picture of Howard Marks at his most recent event , staged at the Forum , London on 27 February 2015.

HERE AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL WE TOUCH UPON A GREAT MANY TABOO AND TRUE CRIME SUBJECT MATTERS THAT NO OTHER VISITOR  ATTRACTION DARE COVER . (IT’S HISTORY FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!!!…ISN’T IT ?)

A VERY BRIEF PICTORIAL MONTAGE INSIGHT INTO THE EXPLOITS AND INTERNATIONAL HEADLINE NEWS SURROUNDING ONE OF THE UK’S MOST INFAMOUS AND NOTORIOUS DRUGS SMUGGLERS …… NOW FAMED AUTHOR HERE ON DISPLAY AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL

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ANDY JONES OF THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL SEEN HERE WITH HOWARD MARKS AT A PRIVATE BASH IN LONDON BACK IN JANUARY 2011

AN INTRIGUING INTERACTIVE VIDEO INSIGHT INTO THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HOWARD MARKS  …NR NICE

Howard Marks

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dennis Howard Marks (born 13 August 1945) is a Welsh author and drug smuggler who achieved notoriety as an international cannabis smuggler through high-profile court cases, supposed connections with groups such as the CIA, the IRA, MI6, and the Mafia, and his eventual conviction at the hands of the American Drug Enforcement Administration. At the height of his drug career, he was said to have controlled 10% of the world’s hashish trade.^[1]

He currently lives in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.^{[citation needed}

[edit]Early life

Marks was born in Kenfig Hill, near Bridgend, Wales, and attended the Garw Grammar School in Pontycymer (he is a fluent Welsh speaker^[2]). This was followed by Balliol College, Oxford, between 1964 and 1967, where he studied natural science with nuclear physics. Among his friends at Balliol was the epidemiologist Julian Peto, and the journalist Lynn Barber. After this he studied Physics (Grad. Inst P.) at the University of London (1967 to 1968). Then, he went back to Balliol, Oxford (1968 to 1969) to study History and Philosophy of Science (Dip. H.Ph. Sc.) and then he went on to theUniversity of Sussex (1969 to 1970) to study Philosophy of Science.

He spent seven years imprisoned in the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute, Indiana. During his smuggling career, he claims not to have used violence and to have refused to deal with hard drugs. Both he and his now ex-wife Judy Marks were extradited from Mallorca, Spain to Florida. They have three children together: Amber, Francesca and Patrick. He also has an older daughter, Myfanwy, from a 5-year relationship with Rosie Lewis.

[edit]Life after release

Following his release from prison, Marks published a best-selling autobiography, Mr Nice (Secker and Warburg, 1996), which has been translated into many languages. In addition to Mr Nice, he compiled an anthology called The Howard Marks Book of Dope Stories (Vintage, 2001) and more recently a follow-on from his autobiography; Señor Nice: Straight Life From Wales to South America.Señor Nice differs from his previous book as drugs are not central to the story and, while autobiographical, the book is more Marks’ own exploration of his ancestor, the pirate Sir Henry Morgan.^[3]

Marks is a campaigner for the legalisation of cannabis and tours the world with a one-man show. He also appeared in the documentary Stoned in Suburbia which aired on Sky1 in the UK. In October 2010, Howard hosted a documentary on Current TV titled ‘Howard Marks On Drugs’, which investigated drugs laws in the UK.

Judy Marks has also written her autobiography of their life together entitled “Mr Nice and Mrs Marks” published by Ebury Press, 2006.

Marks recorded the song ‘Grow More Weed’ with the UK dub punk band P.A.I.N.

Within the world of music, Marks co-recorded a song ‘Three men in a boat’ with his long time friend Lee Harris. The record was later remixed by River Styx (Musician, rap poet) and released on the album ‘Angel Headed Hip Hop’ on Genepool/Universal Ltd.

Marks stood for election to UK Parliament in 1997, on the single issue of the legalization of cannabis. He contested four seats at once: Norwich South (against future Home Secretary Charles Clarke),Norwich North, Neath and Southampton Test. The average vote was over 1%. This led to the formation of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance (LCA) by Alun Buffry in 1999.

From 1999 to 2000 he was the honorary rector of Glasgow Caledonian University.

On 28 October 2010 he appeared as a guest on the BBC music quiz show Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Marks is the voice-over for the television series Dirty Sanchez.

[edit]Films

Marks had a role as a customs officer in the planned film Ecstasy, based on the bestselling book by Irvine Welsh and also made a cameo appearance in the 1999 film Human Traffic (in the “spliff politics” scene).

In 2010, he played a fictional role in the infamous gangster movie Killer Bitch directed by Liam Galvin.^[4] He is also the subject of a biopic starring Rhys Ifans as Marks entitled Mr Nice, named after hisautobiography of the same name. Chloë Sevigny plays the role of his wife Judy. The film was released in October 2010.

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HOWARD MAKES HIS MARK …………. BRITAIN’S MOST INFAMOUS INTERNATIONAL DRUGS SMUGGLER

HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL WE FEATURE AND TOUCH UPON THE EXPLOITS OF BRITAIN’S MOST INFAMOUS AND NOTORIOUS DRUG SMUGGLER , HOWARD MARKS BETTER KNOWN AS MR NICE…

BELOW IS A SIX PART VIDEO FEATURING SOME OF HIS EXPLOITS .

HOWARD MARKS INTERVIEWS SHAUN RYDER FROM THE HAPPY MONDAYS

MR NICE- HOWARD MARKS PICTURED HERE WITH SHAUN RYDER FROM THE HAPPY MONDAYS .
TWO OF A KIND….. SOME WOULD SAY !!!

FOOTAGE OF HOWARD MARKS INTERVIEWING SHAUN RYDER  ……… WELL WORTH A WORTH A LOOK …..

BELOW ARE SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF SHAUN RYDER  IN  BRITAIN’S TV SHOW …”I’M A CELEBRITY GET ME OUT OF HERE” BACK IN 2010.

HOWARD MARKS – MR NICE…….THE FILM

HERE IS A FILM TRAILER FOR HOWARD MARK’S …. MR NICE FILM STARRING  RHYS  IFANS .AS WELL AS A FILM CAST LIST OF OTHERS WHO ALSO STAR IN THE FILM .

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
	Rhys Ifans	…	Howard Marks
	Chloë Sevigny	…	Judy Marks
	David Thewlis	…	Jim McCann
	Elsa Pataky	…	Ilze
	Crispin Glover	…	Ernie Combs
	Andrew Tiernan	…	Alan Marcuson
	Omid Djalili	…	Saleem Malik
	Jack Huston	…	Graham Plinston
	Ania Sowinski	…	Mandy
	Jamie Harris	…	Patrick Lane
	Christian McKay	…	Hamilton McMillan
	Kinsey Packard	…	Patti Hayes
	Ken Russell	…	Russell Miegs
	Craig Stevenson	…	Webster
	Luis Tosar	…	Lovato

Rhys Ifans: ‘Howard Marks is still stoned’

Smoking role: Rhys Ifans plays Howard Marks in Mr Nice

Rhys Ifans looks very relaxed. He’s sitting by the pool just down the coast from Malaga, on the Costa del Sol, in his shorts and an open shirt, tall drink in one hand, long blazing reefer in the other. He’s not, contrary to first impressions, indulging in a hedonistic holiday. The 42-year-old Welsh actor is, believe it or not, hard at work; he’s midway through production on the big-screen adaptation of Mr Nice, the autobiography of fellow Welshman Howard Marks, the Oxbridge-educated valley boy, one-time cannabis smuggler and now full-time folk hero.

‘This feels kind of right, sitting here, playing Howard,’ begins Ifans, once his sitting-in-the-sun scene is done, drink and spliff put aside as hair and make-up people fuss around him. ‘I met Howard 13 years ago when he came out of prison, at a Super Furry Animals gig in Pontypridd.’

This was after Ifans’s active involvement in the band and before the publication of Marks’s best-selling 1996 book (Super Furry Animals put Marks’s image on the cover of their debut album, Fuzzy Logic, which was released in the same year as Marks’s autobiography). ‘We kind of made a verbal agreement there and then,’ continues Ifans, ‘that if ever there was a film to be made of Howard‘s life, I’d play him. At the time, I hadn’t really acted all that much, so it was a bit of a pipe dream.’ He pauses. ‘If you’ll excuse the expression.’

More than a decade later and that film is unfolding in southern Spain, with Ifans in situ as the lead and Chloë Sevigny and David Thewlis providing able support. The little-known Bernard Rose, who released Candyman 18 years ago, directs, telling a story that sifts through the key moments in Marks’s life, skittering through his early years – bad at sport, good at lessons, bullied – to his arrival at Oxford University.

Once enrolled, his education does indeed become ‘higher’, as he’s seduced into the world of marijuana and acid, and then into smuggling. He becomes bolder, falling in with IRA man Jim McCann (played by a delightfully frenetic Thewlis) and together they import copious amounts of resin into Britain. As the money floods in, Marks becomes bolder still and the authorities become suspicious, tracking the smuggler, his young wife (Sevigny) and their family. Once the US DEA becomes involved, his card is marked.

Forty-three aliases, 89 phone lines and 25 registered companies later, Marks has spent seven years behind bars in the US and is now a hero to many liberally minded folk. ‘Yeah, he’s been a hero of mine,’ notes Ifans, once his band of polishers and preeners finally moves away. ‘Actually, he turned up on set a couple of weeks ago and he had video footage of our actual first meeting. You can see us talking away and shaking hands, like doing the deal! He’s a really good friend of mine.’

Is it difficult playing a close friend, I wonder. ‘On paper, you’d think it would be,’ says Ifans. ‘If it was another mate it might be different but with Howard, I wanted him on set. He brings such joy and energy. There’s no vanity to Howard, so he’s not an intimidating presence. Everyone on the crew has fallen in love with him.’

While Marks is no longer a wanted man, and his smuggling days are over, he’s not changed his outlook. He remains as quick-witted as ever, according to Ifans: ‘He’s stoned. He’s still smoking.

He comes along and seems really amused by the film. It’s a real stoney thing watching your whole life pass before you… without drowning.’

The actor recalls a moment when shooting a scene in which Marks fakes his own kidnapping from his parents’ house in Wales. ‘He came down on set and the actors who were playing his mum and dad were there,’ says Ifans. ‘I said to Howard: “Was that a bit weird?” and he said: “Oh yeah, watching your own kidnapping, it’s really f***ing weird. But it’s even weirder when you fancy your mum.”’

As Ifans is called back to set, he picks up his drink and reefer. Has he ever smoked with Marks, I ask as he saunters off – after all, when in Rome? ‘You might think it would be rude not to,’ smiles Ifans. ‘Although, of course, I didn’t inhale.’

Mr Nice is in cinemas from Friday.