Cowardly thug Paul Crosby "came running back to the very people he hates" for protection when he fled to a garda station moments after a rival gang tried to whack him, the Irish Mirror can reveal.
The attempt on evil Crosby's life happened 24 hours after he had lured Keane Mulready Woods to a house on Sunday, January 12, 2020, where the teen was brutally murdered and dismembered.
Gardai believe that associates of the mob run by Owen Maguire and Cornelius Price, who Mulready Woods was a low-level member of, had knowledge that the child had been killed when they went to blast Crosby to death the following day.
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While in a taxi on the Bridge of Peace in the northeast town, a gunman blasted a number of shots into the vehicle in a bid to kill Crosby.
But the innocent taxi man behind the wheel was injured when he was hit in the back.
Crosby ran for his life to nearby Drogheda Garda Station.
A source said: "After all the trouble, in terms of criminality and abuse, that Crosby gave gardai in Drogheda, he came running back to the people he hates when the other gang came closest to getting him."
Another source added: "Looking back at it, Crosby was extremely paranoid.
"He had just played a role in one of the most vile murders in history a day beforehand.
"And in the context of the feud, where there were a few murder attempts on Crosby before by the Maguire gang, the threat on his life had heightened to new levels. How he managed to get away from that shooting, who knows."
Crosby was caged for ten years last Friday for his role in luring Mulready Woods to the house where the boy was murdered, the day before that attempt on his life over three years ago.
Gerard Cruise, 49, was jailed seven years for assisting the gang while Ged McKenna, 53, is already serving four years for removing evidence from his Rathmullen Park home where the teenager met his gruesome end.
Chief suspect in the murder Robbie Lawlor was shot dead in Belfast three months later before he could ever be prosecuted.
Both Cruise and McKenna were used by the mob but Crosby's role in the Drogheda feud was central.
Sources say Crosby became involved in crime at a very young age with the Maguire-Price mob before the gang split in two and he sided with the breakaway group.
He was seen as being on the same level of two men leading that side of the feud and worked closely with crazed gun-for-hire Lawlor.
As these two sides went to war, Crosby - who is in Mountjoy Prison - is suspected of having ordered a number of the attacks but rarely got hands on.
A source said: "He was an abrasive b*****d. He was always stirring the pot and goading his rivals."
One example of that was when Crosby rang mob boss Maguire, who had been left paralysed and wheelchair-bound after he was shot six times by crazed Lawlor in July 2018.
In the call, which was recorded on video, Crosby asked Maguire if he would drop him flowers and if he needed any nappies.
Crosby at one point said: "We should go for an aul walk and sort this out."
He followed that up by telling Maguire to get an electric wheelchair as he won't be pushing him around.
The gangster later asks if Maguire got hoodcaps on his wheelchair, adding: "Are you pimping out your ride?"
With three locked up in relation to the murder, and the chief suspect dead, Gardai are still pursuing five suspects.
Detailed files have been submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions in relation to the case.
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