Alexander MacAlexander never learnt who dubbed him with that name. Maybe it was the London orphanage he grew

up in during the pre-World War 2 years. In his adult years, he only succeeded in remembering when he

was five. He remained at the orphanage until, as a young teenager, he scaled the fence and spent his years living

in the streets of East End London.

In 1940, a house burglary went wrong, and to escape the police, Alex, using a false name, secured a passage

on a liner en route to Australia. On arrival in Sydney, his hot temper again landed him in trouble, and to keep from spending time in an

Australian jail, he opted to enlist in that country's army.

Alex saw action, mainly in the trenches of Europe, before deserting at the war's end.

Suffering from what was called 'Shell Shock' in those days, he returned to his old haunts of London's East End

where he hired himself out as a heavy-handed debt collector. From putting pressure on debtors, he progressed to

more sinister acts of unlawfulness.

Such was his reputation a government spy organisation blackmailed him into being a reluctant hitman.