How I Became One Of Glasgow's Most Feared Gangsters | Faces Of The Underworld Ep 1 | Absolute Crime

foreign villains gangsters or faces as they prefer to be called are the men that have been making newspaper headlines for all the wrong reasons over the past 50 years some are instantly recognizable but many are not stick a gun in your face you're going to open up the door I've got no worry about even if the glass is bulletproof and you know it's bulletproof you're still going to open up it you're not going to trust your life against a bit of glass men like Eddie Richardson Paul Ferris Frankie Fraser and Walter Norville who have inspired fear and respect in equal measure for decades happy yeah because I was dangerous in this new series some of Britain's most infamous and influential characters have agreed to go on camera until iteric was and is when you move I'll blow you're [ __ ] it off obviously right I didn't have it but big anime like that so I put the dive when the shop went off obviously to get my engine water then if I got the mainly water I've waited two seconds and I took the die for the front door and I slammed the front door behind just and got behind the brick walk that's when they're full of silk and coming through the front door I've had the aggravated burglary torture um people have been kidnapped and broken legs from opening arms um blackmail racketeers extortion have been done for everything you can think of I don't know an electrician an apartment or a dentist and uh I get back into serious crane and it paid dividends for the next five years my name is Bernardo Mahoney I was a friend of the cray Twins and a member of the infamous Essex boys firm I know this world I know the faces and I'm going to give you a No Holds Barred history of the British criminal underwear [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] think of Bonnie Scotland and the mind conjures up images of bagpipes Kilts and breathtaking scenery but the reality is grim violence meted out on the streets of Glasgow has resulted in the city having the highest murder rate in Western Europe but it wasn't always so back in the 1940s 50s and 60s villains like glasgow's first Godfather Walter Norville attempted to go about their unsavory business whilst adhering to an air redundant code so how did you sort of descend into crime I was in the early age when I was young as I said my mom was never a bit and again yeah we code the pals and we started off as I said just breaking windows and still not the wind isn't it you know but when they're working I was like cancer because there was a black hoot then but I stay in the police knew who we were you know they used to chase us away for the corners and that but they actually knew who was behind that oh you know it was going to be more of a little bit together and will a black who was when you could break a windy you know and people who never boil and heard the noise like that they were stealing tea and sugar I'm so rationed let me say the bookmakers because they used to buy anything after you everything was rationed so we got tea and sugar and things like that that was the mean things after we're lucky if we could get eggs you only have one egg a month I'm the Russians so we got a big case of eggs and well the picture gave you a fortune for it after several short terms of imprisonment Walter's career accelerated from committing petty crime to being involved in more serious matters this team I've done a couple of sentences you know we once and I met people for governor now great boys that new people now you know and we decided that was that trying something like this it's a bit funny music let's say you go and watch places and then we tell them we start to have maybe a Watchman run this place due to sit in this place in the wages used to get delivered to him so we decided to watch when the edges so we heard that first let me go with them and it's so easy I said look this is better than him so we just started then planning me a robberies and hunting bikes and different things I made for one another you know and then we can go together but there were awfully different districts I used to and one of the game members said saunce was again boy and maybe he went for the bar p and so they bring them up but this time I got flat in the willow Bank Crest in a three room in kitchen and we used to meet there and maybe sat now we should discuss what we're going to do next so the one day boys and maybe I'll empty my place of all that you know and I'd let them go about pay with him and you know everybody was getting every wage the most successful water became the more resentment he attracted from his fellow villains I was under who's one day me and the wife another good drivers a Friday night and the door went and it was a Wally White and he she cleaned the Tony Queen the bookmaker his wife was staying with Tony wait Tony hey baby big Wally big well he was a British welterweight champion you maybe heard them and he came through a Dusty so he came up to see him in and Queen's wife was real and this guy was with them they gave all of yourself Gibson and it landed in her Road and two weeks before I was watching somebody fighting three guys who said The Pub at Marlin and it banned for three of them and I made the same their way and I was well known I don't have to tackle him but it sure is crazy that neat through the thing I fell asleep I'm away formed me up she says well I'm going to put hermit and I'll do it and make where he had left with his wife my Queen's wife and this big his son had done I says oh it's enough I could drink me but they come down and says come on you'll need to go away this is permit I said come on tonight I said come here you go it says one of my head you could say is this I always wanted to try it and I'll leave something I thought was this over okay let's do it I should be doing the bike so we're doing a stand away in front of him and when we go 20 the third flat you can't jump me for the bite and I've been doing that This Woman's door seven before he'd about to turn the earthquake and he said he'd jump on me and we start their fight but I bleed my bike broken I just slept through a dinner stare and we rolled a boot for a while you know and then I go and tap him started screaming uh Parliament project stayed up they just dived it he was pulling me up on my mistake taking his eyes you know it's stubborn in the face it wasn't long before he met up with Gibson again both men knew they had unfinished business I was playing dominoes in the pub and big Wally West had poor soul come on he's a big hard Mountain proportional he says well I'll watch yourself this is Gibson's up they'll be three-handed and she's looking for users if we leave cell length I was playing dominoes with two Paul's remain I'll donkey Wayne John Harris they're dead the two of them there's plenty dominance I'll finish the game and I got up and I walked in Donkey coming up by committee says where are you going I said I'm gonna see him again so we walked up anyway and then John came up I know John Hannah and all it did the doing there was a begging Stone in my spouse and then he gave him team I just walked in quick I said you looking for me turning the stock around his neck before the chance of stalker three times and it's just the best time he's trying to get away and he's trying to be in that corner so I just went after him he turned his back and get down and Daddy's two kidneys stuck in bikers he this time I heard the woman screaming I blew up I was home in the back of the bar and I just got up and I walked away and I went out his paths I should probably use the old water you know so we just went and jumped a taxi we're doing my mother's knife name saying how the mother Squad was all information suppose that died in the ambulance again came to an abrupt halt when he and his gang were arrested following a tip-off from a police informant people loyal to Walter tried to derail the prosecution case against him by blowing up the Cortez where his trial was being held what was the purpose of blowing the well the trial the court up the people are made that knew something about it I knew enough to visit for the people I know that didn't know about it I think it was the people that actually done it they had explained to me that all the evidence was kept the day before underneath in a high court and this is a student place is underneath the high court but there's two high courts and there was one and he saved the South and the North so as far as I heard that the guys it was interested in it was when he had the two of them and that's where they're done the other two course but the fire brigade got there I said I heard that they were a dog Barton I drew the attention of people to the fires bonded inside the court and as we saved the evidence for again because the Flair would have been through assumes it was the fire bomb that way petrol and all that you know and these petrol bombs and a whole place was in fire the titles and up on court the finish up before the evidence had been destroyed there'd be no case against you everybody was walking even we friends I know it was in for the same thing we Manson and him didn't stop it all in I know another major player in Glasgow after the war was Arthur Thompson by the 1950s Thompson and his brothers had embarked Upon A Life Of Crime working his bounces debt collectors and extortionists if Walter Norville was The Unofficial Godfather of Glasgow Arthur was undoubtedly the Undisputed King of Pain he said to have crucified those that refused to repay their debts by nailing their hands and feet to floors and doors early in life Arthur was getting to be about payoff boot makers and a certain mem certain family there's nothing then until I be abusive to the bookie and the book he told Arthur so Arthur saw them in Afghanistan and they run them off the roads and of course yet one of the chaps get killed I'd run a post and when the Champs get killed so the way it worked too it was about retaliation I thought it was used to have a hobbit and good in the car but he didn't drive the car it was another guy used to drive them and yesterday let me guiding it or not I don't want to mention names you know the big guy is alive the car and his mother-in-law decided she wanted a run don't need to tell you switch to an engine number the passenger seat the woman was killed Arthur broke his two legs and like a bad injured in your legs the woman innocent woman and she was killed but there was meant for Arthur unlike water Arthur was happy to deal in drugs and he'd forged links with gangs in Liverpool London and Manchester the vast amount of money he made inevitably attracted interest from rival gangs and warfare soon broke out on the streets Arthur employed gangsters from London to murder his enemies in Glasgow and Arthur's men would then travel to the capital to return the favor well I liked him very much and the Italian elbow he introduced me to him and I got very friendly with him visit me in prison and all and everything our Lottery very much sometimes we would ask them to do us a favor up there and sometimes they was asked us to do a favor for them down here giving someone you know a right belting than that when I was a boy and it was a bit of strawberries foreign I mean it could be playing master [Music] Joe Steele's father was also a well-known face in Glasgow who had ties to gangs in London he was friends very close you think kids every year Christmas and even then it wasn't like it was 1969 he visited Venezuela on her mind and he was arrested and got a police and they said that I got any spoke up so we get three year for that yeah the gun was put on his pocket I died so we get free here for that why would the planter good on him because yeah it friends with a reputation him is loyal he would help his friends in trouble so just my dad's friends and people saying like they thought he was doing every time I date people which was a Tuesday in Glasgow that was at the time the crazy run trail for murder yes and he'd gone to intimidate the witnesses well that's where the police arrest he was going to tell me when he was only and was that something what went on Glasgow villains going to London London villains coming to Glasgow what well can you describe that [Music] it was cleared and my dad was accused the intimidated man this is in their cases maybe square that so Madame is high profile in but I said he was like his friends Paul Ferris is one of Britain's most notorious faces known as the way man because of his size is an unlikely hard man Ferris was employed by Arthur Thompson to carry out attacks on Rivals with military precision and merciless ferocity the mere mention of his name struck Terror into the hearts of Arthur's enemies the reputation came about by probably media lab eled to put a tag on people that sells newspapers and different things like that but for an early point of view I'm not seeing the newspapers are responsible for my accents I'm responsible for my accents and I knew that at a very early age that I was I was going to do something back to these bullies and there was a situation that I've had recently for a well-known boxer Alex Arthur he was doing an interview and he used a phrase called punch resistant he became points resistant after so many years in the ring and after I thought I'm going to try and use that as an analogy to put forward that you become fear resistant you know the whole point was the fear that you've experienced and the violence you've experienced as an elegant a young a young kid you're resistant to that fear and that level of violence even meeting the violence sir well I might pull through my younger brother and he he knew that I was and he she really robberies and things like that and he has to come in boards and uh I ended up after a committee a few you know what I mean the air did they work what did you do well you see again one is with gun in a a little bit dressed up now that Midfield and a pair of glasses and shouldn't know that now I would get a nice to see a tree rings some of that and uh I just saw it at the door to it and Paul winter in the corner on the car then you'd go and do the next one and so that's that's so we started off now I mean and uh what a bit of violence is it we start taking a set us in and things like that and getting drunk and a reputation for serious violence for slashing people with Stanley blazing up and they were actually called the Stanley guy but there was a lot of people trying to attack us so we were just getting in their first and uh we came to the notice here for Thompson and uh one night it it has to take me turn me and Paul to get the problem and uh Paul went and I never turned up and that was then it was recruited through the tongue twin photo was introduced to Tom Bergen who is already working with the Thompsons Collective cash all over the city and that was introduced as what you were calling on a Bag Man another collector we never asked any questions about how much was in her period there what was the date for it was just things he don't ask you know what was you going to see my study and collect x amount and then you take it back uh that was certain things where people had never had the money I get the given time and other people get a misconception is because there's no get the money we're using strong arm tactics and go and beat them up and all the rest of letting them and that never happened when we were there but they had to give us something either a time or date take it back to tell Thompson but mystery you never had the money at that time but back revisit on one such and such a date because that's the date he gave us and that would probably be the last bit and people genuinely had the money on the dates that they said that we're getting and during the process so that's they had lost something in the region of 50 000 pounds uh put a transaction and they were given a whole goal that had been super good and once the whole door had been uh cut open at the side I don't know the significance and I stoled on this don't have significance in it it was two golden bricks and I bought lion Brew which is a kind of well-known Glasgow and it's got his drink that was taped gaffer tape together to give the impression away you know somebody's handing a hold over we've got better weight nothing moves I stole can't understand how somebody would park without clothes but uh before chatting what was my bike they saw that is up again so and this happened roughly around about the time I just joined so on the process you can get as dirt bike there was a few casualties that will come in a message and the message was that uh you've too early for kill somebody be given those battles on more or less Robin where one is in one occasion I'd been given false information about a guy called Raymond boner uh who was allegedly been involved in it and they heard that others come to see them with regards to the 50 000 pounds and it was armed I was allowed to have been furnished with this information and as it turns out in the later years that the carrier planted over you know it was one of the Thompsons were telling me so that matter of fact was one of the female members of the Thompson family who told me about it and which resulted in Raymond born I've been repeatedly stabbed Andy's Dog in the back seat I've got a vehicle which caused quite a lot of heat and Glasgow time and I was given the opportunity to kind of kind of move away and go to the island Rossi uh well Thompson had a family holiday home within minutes of Ferris arriving on the island the police had stormed the house and arrested him I don't even think we got a meal and the hosts I remember getting a cup of tea I remember watching TV uh I remember vividly the sound that would splint on the the doors come in and this flight had two out of storm doors uh which came in and then after work came in and there was shoots he had police they were at that time all I had done was a pair of joggy bottoms and a t-shirt I was very conscious of the fact that I wanted to work and the whole week with my hands kind of extra extend the cake a little bit nothing on uh just an event that somebody's got an active tiger finger and just wants to shoot fast and ask questions well and at that stage as soon as I'm up here that happened so quickly but very professionally you know you're bundled to the ground you're handcuffed the my left hand side of the the face was on the floor so I can readily see who is above me and there was one in Kentucky very well felt Snow White here with a gun jammed in about my neck and said you know what that says a little bastard you're gonna get it and at that time Emily had just accidentally appeared in the hallway uh and he put on my screen get a WPC in here uh obviously unaware he was a female and the house which resulted on loads of Chaos I got lifted up for another bedroom set up stuff not on the foot apart for a couple hundred pounds that I had survival money but a stranger thing happened it turns on after setting the place to never found nothing and then produced a green Bank despite ferris's claims that there was nothing in the house the police produced a bag which they said contained drugs he was arrested charged and remanded in custody to a weight trial fairies firmly believe that the Thompson family were responsible for framing only two people knew what I was going was Arthur Thompson Senior and after Thompson Jr and our family believed that was Arthur Thompson Jr that's it now where is confronted Arthur Thompson Jr about being set up when they met in Bali new prison stammering and shaking Arthur Jr denied all knowledge of any such conspiracy however in an effort to save face when the parent parted company Arthur Junior began telling everyone that he was compiling a hit list and Paul ferris's name was at the top of Thompson Jr saying he's on bath water when he was unpleasant they're talking about who's going to kill when he got a usher in the threats again that resulted on his death so if anybody still believing for he's he's sudden amazing itself explanatory on it's kind of different and people because I'm saying people take you serious within hours of Thompson being released from prison he was back drinking in The Proven Milling where he began reading out his Hit List to anyone that cared to listen and if I thought he was going to get his ink Waters sat there and talking about killing people on this night and it wasn't going to get back to the people the first person goodbye to miss Paul Ferris he's one of the first ones on the list so he kind of got a bit bragging they've got anything else in Durant these guys will I pull a lot of people a lot of friends they came back from it then that is been read out and the friends away if it's capable of the person's their way far boy it was capable it appeared and that was a bit of his day not a good idea to sit in a crowded Pub and read out a list uh which top of the list Paul Ferry saying I'm going to kill Paul Ferris not not a good idea any other team I think Paul firstman that'll after half because that's it you don't laugh I have something up but foreign they paid the price [Music] later that night when Thompson left the program Mill a man approached him pulled out a gun and shot him in the face the force of the bullet spun him around and he fell to the ground as he crawled on his hands and knees towards his home a second bullet smashed into his rib cage punching along the third bullet struck him in the anus the Glasgow custom designed to humiliate the victim he didn't take the police long to arrest Paul ferries and his friend Bobby Glover for the murder but both men appeared to have concrete alibis undeterred by the lack of evidence the police charged fairy sank Glover with an unrelated offense when the pair appeared in court Glover was surprisingly granted bail and Ferris was remanded in custody to a white trial Arthur Thompson Senior was adamant that he would get bloody revenge for his son's murder and with Ferry safety Behind Bars Arthur's only option was to vent his anger on two of ferris's closest friends and I know other people had done it benefit people that are my good friends I mean because I knew how much it was foreign there was a 30 000 pounds you put in their heads Bobby Glover and Joe Hanlon ah and not otherwise their life Paul fairies obviously it was to be done and when that happened there was there were a certain party it was that a coincidence and he was dressed as a woman and he escaped a millennia amongst the people and Bobby cloverled him to that blocking and looked after him and that brought betrayed them very loud because it was his uncle they shot him and he spoke to his uncle his uncle spoke to him and Order offered them about pay to bring them up and say it was a drug deal and he told the attorney to come and this boy took them with their own shot I'll tell you a funny thing about that that blog pounded with me for quite a while he's dead now and he told me about that day it's his woman this is the two is the more he says and this was his nephew that sent them up this isn't when I show the two of them it says let's just step to the Morris and I shot them he's gonna show the first one she said I went oh wait a minute this is now bill it flew by my heat my nephew went oh sorry I didn't mean it the mistake he said I think he was going to do me I said I was talking to him you're not sure that's it so but this time the nephews biting the neck she's not going to do how many comes in one off I'll put what happened I don't know everything uh other people who have been fortunate enough to talk to other people around the minute start alive modern inquiry as well uh we've got a fair idea but what a town and what took place and my understanding is that I stole my mostly Joe Hamlin's family who are the Irish based not the sitting uh clarification on the website two individuals that they believe strongly enough that we're responsible one's bullet open William Logan before making a phone call the unnamed but it was done in such a way that it was all Thompson organized that I don't believe Thompson organized anything of that nature I mean he might be aware the significance here but I think it was a joint venture between him and McGraw Tam McGraw was a political Armed robber whose gang targeted post offices throughout Scotland he also ran a fleet of ice cream vents which were used to distribute drugs around glasgow's many housing Estates could you can you describe McGraw just briefly what what he was all about because uh two words uh [ __ ] snake uh and the reason why I say that is because a lot of people told me what it was all about there's a definite people telling you for what you saw but and people tell other people what other people are but for example reasons because if you don't tell them it's often Heartland so it's a point saying later on during the line well we could have told you the first guy told me anything about my girl was time there again because I had to move a fair probably know to go landlocked unwittingly thinking that we escape the D division where I had been fatted up with the oldest carry on and had audio tape she cops talk about [ __ ] me up and killing me and all the rest of it and I thought the naivety moving away for there in another area would have prevented a Spanish toast act like and it it won me when I moved into there he says one guy you've got to watch it for is my girl watch what you're [ __ ] doing well and uh later on in the meantime uh had a kind of a disagreement from like a better thing and Johanna had some money it belonged to me that I asked me to look after I had last time I got to put it any safe and when I asked you for the money and he told me what it was I thought that's the last guy I want you know that I've caught money liner but and we went running collected it but you see if and obviously he had about the disagreement and Ultima said to me uh if you get that much a problem with time vegan don't worry about it will get people that will just take them up that's so busy man it's all Bradley and Henderson that was stuck smack in his car and get her [ __ ] it up otley is as much as you would see would you like but you want more sugar on your tea dead pan expression obviously what I heard the bottom was factually true and that's at the time I said to Joel Hanlon you obviously heard that you you obviously have but he's just [ __ ] the [ __ ] off as far as how you resolve your problems I don't resolve any problems like that and what I've heard about you you've just clarified everything the Legacy drugs business being run out of McGraw's ice cream Vans LED two of the villains tried to take over from him shotguns were used to blow out the windscreens of several Vehicles vans on both sides of the Divide were burnt out to numerous individuals were attacked this space of incidents later became known as the ice cream Wars matters came to a head early one morning when the home of one ice cream vendor was doused in petrol and satellite six members of the doyle family died in The Blaze one was an 18 month old baby Joe Steele was one of several men who were arrested charged with murder and remanded in custody I was laying my bed in a 16 year old my mother my grandmother my uncle my grandmother was blind trapped [Music] so then the next morning it was on the news one or two people died and after I died every couple of days outside it was a horrible thing for whether it's for ice cream fans or anything hard can you explain why why the Doyle's were targeted yeah I've been asked that occupation my weight team is not really but they certainly didn't deserve what happened that's for sure and worry about targeted today in Carolina it was just an ordinary Farm we've been a bit of business and then he's got a chocolate running on their pictures the next day and now I'm Victorious Farm outside but so the doors did up they had an ice cream van well what I don't think you wonder I think it worked on it for Jimmy Mitchell I don't think it wind up it was just gonna upgrade your point sit back Tuesday he killed her family our kid and it's just sick leaved and it's taught myself and I taught myself and I've done that family and just about Tuesday and the stigma the place the papers ice cream monsters jail callers other kids can you remember the names of the people who you allegedly the police said you killed in roughly what their ages were everything I wouldn't have done it I'm I'm 50 that kid see my boy was only 18 months whatever I say only Mark Colin because neighbors I'll not forget it never the murder of the doyle family shot the nation still not only believed that Tamra Gore was responsible for the crime but he also believes McGraw implicated him in the murders so that the PF the prosecutor fiscal would reward him with his freedom um obviously hear the phone ring in the office goodbye visit anyway phone rings Tom McRoberts for a visit extended office he can back up and he says I'm getting up here for at least the Norway teacher you're getting a PA for at least excuse me by the main man and having an up here for police yeah I think it's time to come but he said something it hasn't how are you getting a good look you don't understand and then my girl told me they said we're all getting up here for at least even at the door there on the end and I hadn't seen him since he was only one if you got a few earphones why do you think he he's the one who was released I think it was I think he was feeding them ways I think it was telling the police wise to put other people over there I believe Tim McGraw was involved in some extent however it was odd than that however but we've asked a lot of match yeah but I believe he was back in the eye like Joe Steele Paul Ferris was also protesting his innocence from within berlini jail he was claiming that he'd been set up by a police Informer over the death of Arthur Thompson Jr and the segregation unit was a guy called Dennis suddenly Wilkerson also known as Dennis Woodman and a whole foreigners who had been toured through the English penal system as a super grass it was never a super grass he was a Serial because it he made up confessions uh with other people but at that time we never knew who he was because I get Bill he approached the chief constable version I think it was I don't think it was Glasgow at the time I think it approached the hierarchy the police hierarchy and then Usher and relation to the charge that was going to mindful and then elevated his information about I confessed to the moderate Thompson Jr I confessed attentive motherly Thompson Senior was going to blow the house shop I offered to set him up and Drug deals and the whole [ __ ] cattle other things that it's very difficult even to imagine uh taking place in the segregation unit when your window opens about three inches and and at any given time he was seven sales away uh so that was for the crown used and revoked my bill took me back and they called it the longest uh mother try on log Scottish legal history when in fact it was the longest fast and log Scottish legal history because that was our evidence following Pharisees release the Glasgow underworld was poised for an all-out war between those loyal to Arthur Thompson and those loyal to fairies acknowledging Arthur's unpredictable violent reputation Ferris was warned to leave the City by his friends there was loads of people that were advising me but you better leave Glasgow you better do that and I thought at the time I can't afford to do that purely because two Highlands who I do oh big lovers would do all the people that stood by me through the trial I was not going to abandon them thanks foreign [Music] [Music] I had to go to recoup and probably rest ahead of it a bit and eventually they do that I went to Manchester and uh 19 and 1983 so I stayed for about a year in Glasgow went in Manchester on the basis you're spending a weekend with Rob Carlos and was introduced to freebase cocaine and just lost three years in my life stayed in Manchester was not the first Scottish villain to have settled in Manchester Glass regions were once playing for a 50 Rising violent crime in the city Manchester or gunchester as it has become known has produced plenty of its own villains and continues to do so in recent years soaring gun crime figures grenade attacks and murder of police officers have resulted in a phrase being coined hell they say is a city called Manchester [Music]

Channel: Absolute Crime

Views: 308,104

Keywords: Absolute Crime, convict tales, crime network, crime prevention, crime syndicate, criminal behavior analysis, criminal psychology, criminal records, criminal syndicate, criminal underworld, gang culture, gang warfare, gangster life, hardened criminals, prison life tales, shadowy figures, street gangs, street justice, true crime series, underworld kings, underworld stories

Id: qzkdXScuqGA

Length: 44min 23sec (2663 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 07 2023