Edward Jackson

Edward James Jackson (1960-2019) was a convicted American contract killer, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2018, after being found guilty of murdering six people. He was a contract killer, employed by Stephen King to join The Firm, sometime in the 1980s.

Jackson was the foremost figure of The Firm, and a trusted member. He was recruited by Stephen King, one year after Tony Morrison. He was well respected throughout Marbella and got the nickname "Brown Bread Ted". He was later convicted of killing six men, all of whom were rivals of The Firm. He received forty years in Marbella Prison.

Life
Born in Texas, in 1960, the second child of Irish immigrant parents Albert and Doreen. Jackson had an older brother, who he fell out with upon joining The Firm. His father was a truck driver and his mother was a seamstress, both born in Dublin, the province of Leinster. Jackson was involved in violence at a young age, as his father used to be strict and abusive. At the age of eighteen, he began a life of crime, after breaking into a neighbour's house. The following year, he married his wife Sally.

The Firm
Jackson met Stephen King at Dusty Nelly's Irish Bar, in 1984 and they became friends. However, he did not become part of The Firm until 1986, before the other members immigrated to Southwark, England. While living in Southwark, Jackson and Tony Morrison were ordered to travel through London seeking Miguel González, who murdered Simon Harwick, the younger brother of Nathan Harwick.

An old billiard hall was purchased by Harwick, and was used as a base for the gang to discuss plans. The Firm then began participating in armed robberies, arson attacks and assaults, as well as contract killing. Sometime in the late 1980s, a man named Nicholas White joined the gang. When driving through Whitechapel in 1991, Jackson and Morrison encountered Gonzalez entering King William IV public house and reported it to Harwick. Jackson accompanied Harwick and the other gang members to King William IV and were insisted to evict the customers, before he and Morrison stood either side of the landlord Frank Adkins, who lied about knowing González. He was then ordered to assault Adkins, before finding González and watching Harwick fatally shoot Adkins and Gonzalez, before they immigrated to Marbella. A run-down nightclub was purchased by Harwick and called Caláda, which was used as the base for the gang.

Sometime during the 1990s, Luis Adolfo was made a member of The Firm, who Jackson befriended. In 1997, Jackson tried to aid Adolpho in getting away from Harwick, after Adolpho threatened to report Harwick to the police, after learning he would make the least in an upcoming robbery. Though Jackson had to kill his first target and never knew what happened to Adolpho. Following the success of killing his first victim, he was then on required to assassinate the rivals of the gang.

Marriage
Jackson married his wife Sally at the age of nineteen, in 1979. As Jackson was under the legal age of twenty-one, his parents had to consent in writing to the marriage. Not long after, she gave birth to their first child Kevin. They went on to have three more children named Gerald, Molly and Melanie, who lost her hearing as a child. In 1986, Sally was not happy with Jackson, after he told her they were moving to England, with the gang members of The Firm. Although, she did set up a life in Southwark for her and their children and began working as a waitress. In 1991, she refused to move with Jackson to Marbella, and he went without her. Four years later in 1995, she arrived in Marbella and told Jackson that it was the final time she would move anywhere with him. They remained married until his death in 2019.

Imprisonment and death
Jackson was arrested following a gangland shootout with Dave Adkins and the police, after Adkins murdered Nathan Harwick in 2018. At his trial, Jackson was found guilty of the murder of six men, all of whom were rivals to The Firm and was sentenced to forty years in Marbella Prison. The following year, a fight was erupted with another inmate and Jackson was fatally stabbed and died within minutes. He was buried at Peace Cemetery in Marbella.