The executions of a couple shot dead in a lovers’ lane have been linked to associates of the Kray twins, we can reveal on the 30th anniversary of the unsolved murders.

Terry Gooderham, 39, and Maxine Arnold, 32, were found in a car on December 23, 1989, in Epping Forest, East London.

Police believe they were kidnapped from Arnold’s home and Gooderham forced to drive his Mercedes to the spot, where they were shot in the back of the head with a 12-bore shotgun.

Scotland Yard had the names of four gangland figures within days of the killings, but internal reports suggest corrupt police were protecting the suspects.

And a whistleblowing detective has now come forward to claim there was a missed opportunity to make early arrests.

The now-retired detective, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “They knew who did it from the beginning.”

When he heard about the double murder in the first week of January 1990, he met a reliable criminal informant from the East London underworld.

The informant said pub trade stock-taker Gooderham was killed because he knew too much about a “scam” involving gangsters using menace to take control of London pubs.

The informant named an associate of the Kray twins as being behind the scam.

He had been in Ronnie and Reggie Kray’s gang when the twins got life for murder in 1969, but then moved into the pub trade.

The informant said Gooderham was nervous about his involvement in the pub scam and on the verge of going to the police when he was killed.

The whistleblower told the Mirror: “The informant was scared stiff. It took three hours to get this out of him.”

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He wrote what the informant said in an official log, including a claim that one of the suspects had corrupt police contacts.

The whistleblower said: “It was a name bandied about a lot and always that there was corruption linked to him. I made sure the right people knew. I was content it had reached the murder squad.”

But days later a senior Met officer told him the informant had retracted all his claims. The whistleblower said: “I was surprised. It didn’t add up.”

The Mirror showed the whistleblower a police report dated May 14, 1990, which corroborated the intelligence his informant had provided.

The whistleblower said he was shocked and would name the allegedly corrupt senior officer if there was now a proper inquiry.

Retired detective chief superintendent Albert Patrick carried out a cold case review in 2012.

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He confirmed that the same three suspects were in the frame for the killing and a fourth suspect, who allegedly drove the getaway car, was a member of a notorious London crime family.

The latest revelations have angered members of insurance clerk Maxine Arnold’s family. Police accept Maxine was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A relative, who asked not to be named, said: “Her murder destroyed her mother, who never got over it until the day she passed away.

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“We want justice for Maxine. If the people who killed her are still alive then the police should have another look at this.”

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “No unsolved murder case is ever closed.”