The True Story of a Welsh Godfather
Episode 1 of 11
The True Story of a Welsh Godfather
Episode 1
Most readers like to read short pieces with some photos. So, this piece on a Welsh mafia godfather is published on Medium.com as well as on my website, www.MattOwendsRees.com
I’d love to hear your comments on this story of the Welsh mafia godfather in the course of our reading journey together.
My first contact with a Mafia boss was when I was in my primary school in Wales, and just 8 years old. At that time, I knew nothing about mafias or how the world operated. I knew nothing of politics, corruption or the real ways of the world.
The photo was taken about the time I attended the school. I might even have been one of the boys shown playing in the yard.
My best friend in school was Johnny Illsley. He was one year younger than me but he had been moved up to my class.
Johnny’s family lived in a large house in the coastal village of Ogmore-by-Sea in Wales and, one day, we were playing in the gardens. We ran up to meet his grand-dad on his return from his office in Pencoed, South Wales, from which he ran his many businesses.
Neither of us knew at the time that his grand-dad was the Mafia godfather, J.O.Williams. A rich and very powerful businessman with international and government connections dating back to the 1930s.
J.O. was born on 28 March 1886 and died on 6 July 1963 aged 77. His wife, Ethel Kate Williams (née Cobb) died on 20 March 1956 aged 69.
Although J.O. and his family were well respected locally, no-one knew much about the family members. The “respect” was at a distance. There was an aura around them, particularly “J.O.”. You never spoke first. You instinctively “knew your place”.
Mafias can be philanthropic.
They were generous to the local community without getting overly involved. You always felt there was a “barrier” between you and the family, as if they lived on a different plane from non-members of the family in the community. It wasn’t an unpleasant barrier, but it certainly existed.
The family were, and remain, understandably secretive about its past. That is true of many families, whether mafia or not. The tendency is for later generations to use their wealth, in whatever way it was obtained originally, for charitable donations within their community.
Certainly, that was true of the godfather’s daughter, Doreen Illsley née Williams, and in later years, true of Johnny Illsley himself. Mafia families are often philanthropic, once they’ve made their fortunes.
To appreciate that this was a mafia family, we need to look at how J.O. grew his successful businesses, and to see how his actions and strategies were, in truth, those of a mafia family. Despite some archive material being released there are still unanswered questions. They are likely never to be answered. In many families, mafia and otherwise, the veil of secrecy is never lifted.
The role of governments in J.O.’s businesses.
The UK and Newfoundland governments are, even today, tight-lipped about certain events about the Godfather’s activities in Newfoundland. Some documents have been released under Freedom of Information requests, some have not. You can check for yourselves.
Since the story is complex, we need to pay close attention to how the business started, how and why J.O.’s plans started to go wrong, and how and why he, in the end, won the day.
There are no photos of his wife, Olga.
In the early hours of 3 February 1940, J.O.’s son, Eric Arthur Williams, his daughter-in-law (Olga d’Anitoff Williams), and their daughter (Erica d’Anitoff Williams) died in a house fire in Port Hope Simpson, Newfoundland. The cause of their deaths was never fully established.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Serious Crimes Unit opened their investigations as late as August 2002, 39 years after J.O.’s death. It was always suspected that the fire and the deaths resulted from the grievances that the godfather’s employees had over his treatment of them. Correspondence confirming this is in the UK National Archives.
No reports on the deaths have ever been found. No medical report from the doctor who apparently attended to Olga at the scene of the three deaths has been found. No death certificates have ever been found.
It may well be that my friend, Johnny Illsley, had access to the family’s papers and photos only long after J.O.’s death. They would have thrown more light on this.
J.O. Williams had directed that the original tombstone with his daughter-in-law’s name on it be removed. He had a new stone shipped from South Wales many years later.
After the deaths, he forbade any talk of his daughter-in-law. She was the grand-daughter of a Russian count. There are letters in the UK national archives stating he considered her to be of poor character. The fact that the UK government collected so much information on Williams shows how much they were scared of him.
Williams’ affairs in Newfoundland were hushed-up. In the lead up to the Second World War, a climate of trust in our political leaders was vital and good for morale. The last thing the United Kingdom and Newfoundland, its steadfast ally, wanted was to be distracted from the war effort. They regarded what J.O. was doing as a relatively trifling business dispute.
