title: Live By the Gun Die By the Gun (Blake's True Crime Library)
author: Valerio Viccei
description: Valerio Viccei is the world-famous criminal mastermind behind the Knightsbridge robbery - the most audacious crime of its type. After spending a spell in Parkhurst, he was returned to his native Italy where his fast lifestyle and shady past meant he was not allowed to stay alive for long...
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  ![](Images/image00223.jpeg)
  
  For Thomas Harris
  
  > Get me a gun
  
  > Go back into my room
  
  > I’m gonna get me a gun
  
  > One with a barrel or two
  
  > You know I’m better off dead than
  
  > Singing these suicide blues.
  
  > > > >  _—Cross Canadian Ragweed_
  
  APRIL 10, 2009  
  MARTINE STOVER
  
  It’s always darkest before the dawn.
  
  This elderly chestnut occurred to Rob Martin as the ambulance he drove rolled
  slowly along Upper Marlborough Street toward home base, which was Firehouse 3.
  It seemed to him that whoever thought that one up rea