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by dawnyoung

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by dawnyoung

The Buccleuch Street Murders

The Buccleuch Street Murders

Episode Summary

TRIGGER WARNING – This episode contains references to sexual abuse and violence, which some listeners may find distressing. Listener discretion is advised.

The murders of Betty Alexander and Emily Mutch may have been separated by 44 years but they are still linked to this day as they both occurred on the same unassuming street in Glasgow, and leading to two firsts for Scotland.

Please Be Advised – This episode may contain content that some may find distressing. As always, we advise listener discretion. This episode it not suitable for anyone under the age of 13.

Listen on:

Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn

Hosted by Dawn and Cole

Researched and Written by Dawn Young

Produced and Edited by Dawn Young and Peter Bull

Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Music:

Dawn of the Fairies by Derek & Brandon Fiechter

Gothic Wedding by Derek & Brandon Fiechter

Dawn:

The murders of Betty Alexander and Emily Mutch may have been separated by 44 years, but they are still linked to this day, as they both occurred on the same unassuming street in Glasgow.

Dawn and Cole:

Hi Wee Ones, I’m Dawn and I’m Cole, and this is Scottish Murders.

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Dawn:

Garnethill is situated in the north west of Glasgow City Centre on a hilly area. It is just under a mile from Sauchihall Street, one of the three main shopping streets in Glasgow.  The other two being Buchanan Street and Argyle Street, all of which Cole and I have visited over the years. Back in 1952, Garnethill was known as the bed sit and theatre land district and so there was an ever-changing parade of seasonal workers, salesmen, actors and young families. Garnethill is made up of 12 streets, one of which is Buccleuch Street, and is where four and a half year old Betty Alexander lived with her parents, Jack and Barbara Alexander, and her grandmother Isobel Alexander. For all Betty was only four and a half years old she loved nothing more than helping people, and Tuesday 7th of October 1952 was just like any other day for her. Betty had first set about the task of helping her gran to make the household beds. She then had taken herself to the local grocers where she frequently spent her time helping him in the shop. Betty then was reported to have returned home and given her gran a bunch of flowers she’d gotten as payment for helping the greengrocer. October in the west of Scotland can be pretty wet and, as expected, the rain had fallen continuously for days, until early evening on the 7th of October when there was a slight reprieve. Due to the bad weather, Betty hadn’t been allowed out much to play with her friends, so when the rain stopped she begged her parents if she could go outside to play. It was about 5pm by this time and she wouldn’t normally be allowed out this late, but on this occasion her parents relented. Betty left the flat to play with her friends wearing a smart brown coat, a kilt, grey, red and green jumper, brown shoes and fawn socks. Isobel, Betty’s gran, was reported to have said that Betty had whistled and sang as she went out to play. An hour or so later Betty’s mum, Barbara, shouted for Betty to come in and get her tea, but there was no sign of Betty. Barbara became worried and started walking from street to street in search of her daughter. An hour later back at Buccleuch Street there had been no sightings of Betty with her distinctive black curly hair and Barbara was sufficiently concerned that she contacted the police to report her daughter missing. Being a close-knit community, upon hearing about Betty’s disappearance, friends and neighbours of the family formed and started a search party, alongside the police. The search party went from street to street, lane by lane, backyard to backyard, through the night searching by torchlight. Barbara Alexander later said that about 8pm on the night her daughter went missing she thought she had heard a shout from Betty saying “mummy mummy” coming from Buccleuch Lane, which runs along the backyards of Buccleuch Street and West Graham Street. She said that she had walked up and down Buccleuch Lane, which was lit by gas light, at this time shouting Betty’s name and looking into backyards where she could, but she never heard Betty’s voice again. By early Wednesday morning, the search party came together again in the hopes someone had news of Betty’s whereabouts, only to be told that there was still no sign of her. Due to the search having turned up nothing by Wednesday morning, CID detectives were then drafted into help. Firstly, as it was daylight now, a further search was set up taking in places that had already been checked the previous night as well as places that hadn’t, including outhouses, cellars and yards. Becky’s picture was also posted across the city on police boxes and at police stations. Newspaper reporters were also now aware of Betty Alexander’s disappearance and they were on hand to help get the word out to their readers, in the hope someone might have a clue to Betty’s whereabouts. They were given Betty’s description and of the clothing she wore, and this was circulated in the evening and daily newspapers. From this exposure many readers of the newspaper contacted the police to share possible sightings of Betty, all of which had to be checked. One such sighting was of Betty apparently seen crying in a large store in Sauchiehall Street just before the store closed on Wednesday night. The manager was asked to open the store to see if Betty had been trapped inside by mistake, however this proved not to be the case. This sighting along with all the other sightings reported of Betty, after being followed up, went nowhere. Another lead that was followed up was of a sighting of a dark saloon car in Buccleuch Street on the very night that Betty disappeared, however, this also turned out to be a red herring. The police were also keen to find a man who had supposedly been seen with Betty on Tuesday night. The description of the man and what he had been wearing was circulated, but nobody came forward to say they recognised this man, and he was never identified. While some police officers were given the task of following up all leads of possible sightings of Betty, others, along with friends and family of the Alexanders as well as complete strangers from the surrounding areas and beyond, carried on selflessly with a search for Betty, neglecting their own families in the process, and the search area gradually widened, eventually taking in the entire area covered by the Northern Police Division, which was at the time 16 square miles. Betty’s headmaster at her primary school also did his bit to help find any clues to Betty’s disappearance. He held an assembly with the children of the school and asked them to come forward if they had seen Betty around the area on Tuesday evening. Apparently a couple of the children were able to give some information, all of which helped police establish the movements of Betty until approximately 6pm, although they did admit that the children’s recollection could be unreliable. There had been no sightings of Betty after 6pm by any of the school children.  Despite the searches, the newspaper appeals and the sightings, there was still no trace of Betty, and by Thursday the 9th of October Detective Chief Inspector Neil Beaton admitted that he was beginning to fear for Betty’s safety. Unfortunately, only a day later his fear became a reality. It was 2pm on Friday the 10th of October, almost three days after wee Betty Alexander first went missing, when she was found in the backyard of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children Dispensary in West Graham Street by Mrs Agnes Hunter, a 55 year old cleaner.

Cole:

As it was the 50s, I assume a dispensary has a different meaning than it does today.

Dawn:

Back then it was a place where poorer families could take their children for free medical treatment and medication.

Cole:

Yeah, that makes sense.

Dawn
Agnes had a routine when cleaning the dispensary, and on Fridays about 2pm she always went out to the backyard to beat the dispensary rugs. There was no reason for anyone else working at the dispensary to go out there, which is why it took until the Friday for anyone working there to find Betty.

Cole:

Didn’t you say that the search parties were looking in every backyard up and down Garnethill? Didn’t they see Betty in the dispensary backyard, or was she put there after people had searched it?

Dawn:

Well you’ll not believe it, but the dispensary backyard wasn’t actually checked.

Cole:

Why not?

Dawn:

Well, the site that the dispensary sat on was private property, along with the backyard. It was surrounded by a seven foot brick wall with iron railings and glass on the top of it, and the wooden gate from Buccleuch Lane into the dispensary yard was always kept locked. The backyard unfortunately was also not overlooked by anyone’s flat or house, except the caretaker’s house and him and his family had moved out six weeks prior. So, there was no one that was just going to look out and see Betty lying there. Apparently the backyard wasn’t searched as it was assumed that there was no way a small child could get into it, and it was apparently initially thought that Betty had just wandered off. Although what Betty’s grandmother said later to the papers contradicts this, something which I found a lot while researching this case actually. When doing an interview with a local newspaper, Betty’s gran said “She was a lovable, sweet wee girl who used to talk to anyone who spoke to her, but would not wander away of her own accord.” 

Cole:

Surely if she was missing for three days you would want to check the dispensary.

Dawn:

Yeah. I mean, even if you initially thought that she just wandered off, after three days I think you would be realising she hadn’t. So, yeah, you would have checked. Anyway, because of this misunderstanding, search parties would have passed by within a short distance from wee Betty’s body numerous times before she was found on the Friday afternoon.

Cole:

That’s crazy.

Dawn:

So when Agnes found Betty she was lying near the top of the few steps down into the backyard from the dispensary back door. Agnes quickly summoned the police, but later she said that it was “a terrible sight” that she wanted to forget. So, when the police arrived they firstly noted that Betty’s clothes appeared to be in disarray, and this is where the contradictions start again. Some reports say that Betty’s coat was folded and placed under her head. Others say that the coat had been placed under her body and she lay on it. Some reports say that her socks and shoes were wet. Others report that her clothes looked like they had been removed and ironed. Can’t imagine why anyone that killed her would then remove her clothes and iron them. Also the state Betty’s body was found in differs slightly too. One report says that Betty had been found badly beaten, had a scarf twisted around her neck and had been strangled. Other reports say that she had no physical marks on her neck, no scarf was found around her neck or otherwise, and that she hadn’t been strangled.  Another report says that she had suffered a serious assault and had died of shock. Another said she had been severely injured, strangled and outraged, which, according to Douglas Skelton’s book No Final Solution, means today that she was sexually assaulted. It’s not known which one of these accounts is accurate, however, all reports did agree that she’d been dead for some time, possibly since her disappearance on Tuesday night, and that she’d probably lain on the steps for the same amount of time. Word of Betty’s body being found had spread like wildfire, and within the hour of her body being found the many people who had spent the last three days away from their families looking for wee Betty, as well as reporters, began to congregate at either end of Buccleuch Lane. It was reported that the crowds grew to around about a 1,000 people over the afternoon. Betty’s dad, Jack, was seen arriving at the dispensary to carry out the horrendous task of identifying his daughter, before his daughter was removed for a post-mortem to be carried out.

Cole:

Oh, so he just identified her at the scene?

Dawn:

Yeah, from what’s been reported this is what happened. Maybe a procedure that’s just changed over time. As the day wore on, the mood of the crowds gathered changed from shock to anger that this had been done to one of their own, to a four and a half year old girl, and finally to fear that it could be one of their children next. They wanted answers. A feeling that was mirrored throughout Glasgow as the news broke of Betty’s body being found. Glasgow had not seen a murder of such a young child for over 30 years and the city as a whole was horrified. Forensic teams descended on the backyard of the dispensary to search every inch of it for clues to what had happened to Betty and who had done it.

Cole:

So, they were definitely treating it as suspicious? After all the different reports, it seems like it wasn’t an accident.

Dawn:

Yeah, straight away they’ve determined that it was a murder. I think partly because they were right, the wee girl herself couldn’t have got into the yard so she had to have been taken there. So, yeah, definitely murder straight away. So, the forensic team firstly came across a small bit of newspaper on Betty’s body, which, after an investigation, was found to have come from a Glasgow morning edition newspaper from the 2nd of October 1952, five days before she went missing. This was later examined for fingerprints but none were found and this lead went nowhere. However, a fingerprint was found on both a wrought iron gate leading from West Graham Street and a wooden door that led to Buccleuch Lane, as well as a fingerprint being found on one of the steps where Betty was found lying. The gate and door were removed from the hinges, as well as sections of the steps, and taken to the forensic lab to be fingerprinted and examined in greater detail.

Cole:

So, they removed part of the steps and took the gate and the door to fingerprint them? Why didn’t they do that at the scene?

Dawn:

Apparently back in the 1950s it was thought that by trying to secure a fingerprint at the crime scene it could result in this being destroyed, so to get the fingerprint they just took the actual source of where the fingerprint was back to the lab to be examined. Obviously things have changed now. Anyway from the items they removed and fingerprinted it would be the wooden gate that provided the only real clue, a partial fingerprint, which is pretty difficult to match, especially back then when there were no computers and everything had to be compared by eye. Betty’s clothes were also taken to the lab and examined for any traces of her killer, but what was actually found in her clothing was dog hairs. Thinking this was a vital clue the police secured hair samples from every dog in the Garnethill area. Through this process they identified the dog, and it belonged to a resident who lived close to Buccleuch Lane. However, the owner and the dog were quickly ruled out of the inquiry. It was assumed that Betty had either came into contact with the dog by patting it before she disappeared, or that the dog had somehow made its way into the backyard where Betty lay and had shed its hair on her. However the hairs got onto her body, it was a dead end. While the forensic teams worked tirelessly, the police began what would be one of the biggest murder investigations. Over the weekend, the 11th and 12th of October, the police undertook the mammoth task of interviewing everybody in the Garnethill area via door-to-door inquiries to try to find any sightings of Betty between Tuesday evening until she was found, and of any sightings of strangers in the area that could be linked to Betty’s disappearance and murder. This undertaking took 120 detectives and 2,000 uniformed policemen. They were said to have interviewed almost 4,000 people by Monday the 13th of October, this included a 69 year old man who happened to live in the closest residence to the murder scene. He said that he was aware who Betty was, but that he hadn’t heard anything on the night in question or the following two nights. He did say they had seen Betty on the Tuesday night about 5pm and that she was playing with his granddaughter. Once all of the information collected from the door-to-door inquiries was gone through and collated, the police were able to ascertain that Betty had been seen about 5.30pm on Tuesday the 7th of October in Buccleuch Street, and then again about 7pm in Rose Street, which is about a five minute walk away, still in the Garnethill area though. However, there was still the hour between 7 and 8pm that could not be accounted for. Do you remember that Betty’s mum said that she thought she had heard Betty shouting “mummy mummy” from Buccleuch Lane about 8pm?

Cole:

Yeah. And that’s where Betty was found so that would make sense. Did the police think that Betty was in the backyard being killed at that exact time?

Dawn:

Well, that could have been a possibility, but apparently the police believed that Betty had actually already been dead when she was carried into the yard, either via Buccleuch Lane over the seven foot high wall with glass on it or from West Graham Street via a short passage at the side of the dispensary and over a lower wooden gate. According to Donald M. Fraser’s book The Book of Glasgow Murders, it was actually proven that she was killed somewhere else before being placed in the yard.

Cole:

But if Betty’s mum said she heard who she thought was Betty saying “mummy mummy” from Buccleuch Lane but she was actually killed somewhere else, how would that be possible?

Dawn:

Well, I’ve actually got two thoughts about that. Either Betty was still alive and she did hear her, then Betty was killed shortly after 8pm and then placed in the yard, or she didn’t in fact hear Betty shouting “mummy mummy” at all. But we’ll come back to that later.

Cole:

Okay.

Dawn:

So, Betty’s post mortem was carried out over the weekend on Saturday the 11th of October. The cause of death was pronounced to have been shock which had been brought on by being a victim of an assault. However, again, this was contradicted later by the police who said that Betty had been suffocated and criminally assaulted. However Betty died, she was still murdered and her murderer was still out there. And while this is at the forefront of everybody’s mind and they wanted this person to be caught and brought to justice, Betty’s family had other things on their mind as Betty’s funeral was to take place on Monday the 13th of October 1952. Thanks to word of mouth, as well as the media, people, mostly women and children from Garnethill as well as across Glasgow, had come to pay their respects, regardless of the rain that poured down. The huge crowd, thought to be of around 5,000 people, lined Buccleuch Street to say goodbye to Betty, as her tiny white coffin went slowly by. It was a sad affair, with many of the women and children crying. The procession started at the Alexanders home in Buccleuch Street and came to an end at Cadder Cemetery, which was about a 20-minute drive north east of the city. Here family and a few close friends stood by the graveside and watched the tiny coffin be lowered into the ground. There was a mass of wreaths and brightly coloured flowers placed all around the grave, many from strangers from all across Glasgow. As well as a card from Betty’s parents which read “To Bunkum, our dear wee Betty, from daddy and mummy.” Now, as the funeral procession was making its way slowly along its route to the cemetery, a 15 month old boy, who was in his pram outside a shop while his mother was inside shopping, was taken by a passing woman.

Cole:

What?!

Dawn:

Thankfully the baby’s aunt saw what had happened and challenged the woman, taking the baby boy from her. However, as you can imagine, tensions were already running high and when the crowd that had gathered from the funeral got wind of this, things reached boiling point. Thankfully the police were on hand and got to the woman and arrested her before the crowds got to her first.

Cole:

So, she just tried to steal a baby off the street? She was very lucky that could have turned really nasty for her.

Dawn:

Yeah, I know, she was lucky. The woman was later charged with a child stealing, but thankfully the day didn’t turn nasty and overshadow Betty’s funeral.

Cole:

Good.

Dawn:

With Betty now laid to rest, on Tuesday the 14th of October the police announced that they had found a partial fingerprint close to where Betty had been found. Unfortunately, having gone through their records and compared the partial fingerprints with male criminals they had on file, they hadn’t been able to find a match. As this fingerprint was the only solid clue they needed to come up with a way to make it work for them. And, therefore, on the Tuesday an unprecedented request was made by Chief Constable Malcolm McCulloch. As detectives were convinced that Betty’s murderer was a local man and that Betty possibly had gone with this man willingly and she had known him, they were willing to carry out Scotland’s biggest ever fingerprinting exercise and requested that all adult males over the age of 17 in the Garnethill area be fingerprinted for comparison with the partial print that had been found at the murder scene. While it was made clear that people could refuse this request, it was strongly hoped that police would have the residence of Garnethill’s full cooperation. The police also gave assurances that the fingerprints taken would only be used for the purpose of comparison against the partial print taken from the crime scene, and would be destroyed once it had been eliminated in their inquiries. Amazingly, no one refused, and the police ended up collecting over 1,000 fingerprints, all of which were compared manually with the partial print, but again none of the prints matched. Police then decided to include in the fingerprint exercise men who worked in Garnethill but didn’t live there, including a church congregation who had been painting railings in West Graham Street. Nearly two weeks after Betty’s body had been found that exercise was complete, again with no matches been found, and so the investigation came to a standstill.

Cole:

Okay, so when the police had no luck fingerprinting the men over age 17 did they not start fingerprinting younger men or women?

Dawn:

No, they didn’t. And, yes, that would have been my thought too, that after not getting a fingerprint match with any of the males living or working in the area that they’d broaden that by fingerprinting younger men or women living and working in the area too, but they didn’t.

Cole:

Why not?

Dawn:

I wasn’t able to find a definitive reason why they didn’t do this during my research of the case. All I can think of is that the police maybe had some sort of evidence that ruled out a younger male or a woman being involved completely. Or maybe it was just due to lack of funding or resources. But, in my opinion, they missed a once in a lifetime opportunity to complete the task and know for sure. Due to the transient nature of the Garnethill area, there will never be another chance to have all the residents who worked and lived in the Garnethill area there again. I feel this was a missed opportunity.

Cole:

I agree. Also, the woman who tried to kidnap the baby during Betty’s funeral, I mean was she never fingerprinted.

Dawn:

I’m not sure. I would assume so if she was arrested and charged.

Cole:

I wonder if her fingerprints were ever compared to the partial print that they had. I mean it seems like a really big coincidence that a woman tried to steal a child at the funeral of another child. Maybe there would be two perpetrators not just one soul man.

Dawn:

That is a really good point actually. I’d like to think that somebody on the investigation thought about this too. But, then, they apparently weren’t interested in women only concentrating on the men in the area. So it’s anybody’s guess.

Cole:

I wonder if there was evidence to suggest that she was sexually assaulted by a man and that’s why they weren’t looking at women?

Dawn:

Yeah that could have been the case. But, again, with all the contradicting stories of what actually happened to her, it’s just not known. But, yeah, that could actually be one of the reasons. But even if it was, there still could have been two people. There could have been a man and a woman involved. So, I don’t really think they should have just ruled out all women for that reason. Just my opinion though. Now, while the fingerprinting exercise was taking place, at the same time other leads were also being investigated, and on the 16th of October a rumour started circulating around Garnethill that a husband, his wife and their son had been taken to the police station, where it later emerged that they had been questioned for 13 hours. This was the same man that had said that he had seen Betty at about 5pm playing with his granddaughter. While they were being questioned at the police station in Maitland Street, more and more people turned up there demanding to know what was going on, assuming that they were somehow involved in the murder of Betty. They began to get more and more rowdy until detectives finally made a statement saying that the family hadn’t been arrested and were just helping police with their inquiries, with a chief superintendent saying that “There is no particular man being sought, in fact we could not even be certain at the moment that it was a man. No possibility is being overlooked.” However, they did state that they believed the killer had to be local due to their knowledge about the dispensary yard being a secure place to take Betty and not being overlooked by any residence, but that nothing was being ruled out at this point. Reporters however were convinced it was a male perpetrator they were looking for due to the fact Betty’s body had been sexually assaulted. After 13 hours of being questioned the family were taken back to their home, having been cleared of any involvement in Betty’s murder. Anyway, as the police tried to find any clues to Betty’s murder, they carried out searches of properties in Garnethill, including the empty caretakers house and a number of other houses in the vicinity of Buccleuch Lane, as well as a cellar.  Some items from these properties were apparently packaged up and taken away for forensic examination, but again nothing came off this. However, as time went on and nobody had been caught for the murder of Betty, the Garnethill community became restless and I suppose needed to feel that they were doing something, even if not productive or evidence-based, and so they hounded and abused the caretaker and the elderly man who lived closest to the dispensary, who had been questioned with his family for 13 hours. The abuse apparently became so bad that when it was reported to the police a statement was immediately released reminding the locals that neither of the men being harassed were under suspicion of anything. 

Cole:

And I can’t imagine that would help anything either.

Dawn:

No, it didn’t. It just tied up the police even more and they had enough to be getting on with, especially when they had to follow up all the leads, including potential leads from cranks. One of which came on the morning of the 16th of October when a man had phoned from a phone box in the Glasgow area confessing to the murder. The police swooped on the phone box and the man was taken to the police station for questioning, but again this was found to be a dead end. Now another line of inquiry that had to be checked out at the same time as the police were undertaking the mammoth task of fingerprinting the Garnethill residents, was following up the lead from Barbara Alexander, Betty’s mum. She told the police that when she and her friend were looking for Betty she had spotted an ambulance outside the Sick Children’s Dispensary in West Graham Street. She said she saw a man standing beside the ambulance and he appeared to be holding a child in his arms, wrapped in a blanket. She remembered saying to her friend at the time “Look, there’s another wee kiddie, and us looking for Betty.” The police contacted the ambulance service for the area in an attempt to identify who this man could have been, only to be informed that no ambulance had been recorded as being in West Graham Street on the evening of the Tuesday the 7th of October. The police also put an appeal out for this man to come forward if he was the driver of the ambulance, however nobody ever came forward. It was assumed at the time that perhaps the driver had gone to the dispensary in error or that had been there unofficially and so didn’t come forward for fear of getting into trouble. However, Mrs Alexander then changed her story and said perhaps it could have been a brown van instead of an ambulance. Again, this lead had to be followed up and an appeal for a brown van being in the area on the evening of Tuesday the 7th of October was released, but again neither the van nor the driver were ever traced.

Cole:

How could you mix up an ambulance and a brown van? Was her friend ever interviewed for her point of view?

Dawn:

I thought exactly the same, and I wasn’t able to find anything to suggest her friend had corroborated Barbara’s story. I think her changing her story after having the already overworked detective searching for an ambulance may have led to some police officers becoming a bit suspicious of Barbara, especially as she also mentioned vital information in an interview  she gave to the press, that she didn’t deem important enough to provide to police officers at the time of the search for Betty. You remember how she said that she had thought she had heard Betty’s voice calling out “mummy mummy” near Buccleuch Lane about 8pm on the Tuesday the 7th of October?

Cole:

Yes.

Dawn:

Well, apparently she didn’t disclose this to the police officers until after Betty was found.

Cole:

That’s pretty important information.

Dawn:

It is. I know. And I think it would have probably annoyed the detectives that she didn’t advise any one of this at the time of the search for Betty, as they said later that if she had they would have definitely concentrated their search more in that area and probably would have found Betty sooner. Maybe another black mark against Barbara at this point.

Cole:

Yeah, I can see why the police would be suspicious of Barbara forgetting to tell them vital Information and then sending them on a wild ghost chase for an ambulance, which in fact might actually have been a brown van.

Dawn:

Yeah. And I have a feeling these two incidents with Betty’s mum made the police very suspicious of Barbara, and they maybe wondered if she possibly had something to do with Betty’s disappearance and murder, although I don’t believe this was ever a line of investigation, even though it was hinted at later by the police.

Cole:

I think in any murder investigation blame tends to fall around the people closest to the victim. But I also think that when you’re grieving and when you’ve had such a shock like that, you are likely to miss things or not say things straight away or not think that they meant anything when they might have. It’s a weird situation to be in, and I don’t think any of us can comment on how we’d behave in that situation.

Dawn:

I absolutely agree with you. I think she probably just was in shock. It was a horrible situation and she missed things, she forgot things. But, no, I personally don’t think that she was involved. Anyway, towards the end of October police advised that they were going back through the 3,000 or so statements they had taken from the door-to-door inquiries, and then on the 31st of October 1952, nearly four weeks after Betty first went missing, there was an appeal to try to identify a male that had been seen in Buccleuch Lane on the night of Betty’s disappearance with two other young girls, but no description of this man was given.

Cole:

So, someone said that they saw him but they weren’t able to give a description? That’s strange.

Dawn:

It is strange that they didn’t give a description. It’s possibly why this man was never identified. However, towards the end of November there was another sudden flurry of activity, when two detectives made their way to Inverness to interview a man who was in custody. Apparently on being questioned by officers in Inverness, he had begun to mention Betty Alexander’s murder, and had apparently been residing in Garnethill at the time of the murder, leaving suddenly on the 8th of October, the day after Betty went missing. The Inverness police officers informed Glasgow police officers and they immediately left for Inverness to interview this man themselves. However, when they got there they quickly realised this was another red herring. The man was drunk, and after checks being made it was determined that he was not involved in Betty’s murder. This was just another dead end. As Christmas approached the crowds that had once gathered daily outside the police station and Buccleuch Street started to disperse and become less and less until one day nobody turned up, and wee Betty Alexander gradually started to fade from people’s minds. The horror and shock of what had happened not forgotten, but everyday life began to take back over. The team investigating the case went from 120 detectives and 2,000 uniform policemen carrying out door-to-door inquiries to a team of only 40, and that eventually was whittled down to only a few. Every lead had been investigated and had led to dead end after dead end. With no new evidence being uncovered, there was nowhere else to go with the case, and so it was eventually filed away under unsolved. Until 1955, three years later, when Jack and Barbara Alexander, Betty’s parents, got back in touch with the police insisting they wanted the case to be reopened as they felt they had new evidence to provide. Do you remember that Barbara had said she had firstly seen an ambulance outside of the dispensary on the day Betty went missing and then changed her story and said it was a brown van?

Cole:

Yes.

Dawn:

Well, the new evidence was she believed she had seen the same brown van, or at least a similar one, in the Garnethill area. Betty’s dad, Jack, told the Evening Times newspaper “We won’t rest until whoever murdered our little girl is caught.”

Cole:

So did the police reopen the case?

Dawn:

Well I can’t find any information about the case being reopened at this time. I imagine the police gave this the cursory glance, maybe they even tracked down the brown van and its driver and interviewed him and again came to a dead end. Sadly, Betty Alexander’s murder slipped from the minds of the residents of Glasgow and Garnethill once again, as children who lived there grew up and moved away, families came and went from Garnethill, the Sick Children’s Dispensary was relocated from Garnethill to another part of Glasgow, and the Garnethill area gradually moved on, until Betty Alexander became a distant memory. That is until 1996, 44 years after Betty Alexander first went missing, when her murder was once again thrust into the limelight, but sadly not because new evidence had been found or a suspect had been identified, but for a very different and equally as horrifying reason.

Cole:

Emily Mutch was born in 1920 and brought up in Glasgow. She lived with her parents until she was about 16 years old when she ran away from home, but she still continued to live in the Glasgow area as this was her home and she knew it like the back of her hand. Upon running away from home she started working in a munitions factory, until she met and married her husband, Teddy, in 1949 when she was 29 years old. The couple continued to live and work in Glasgow and in 1952, after three years of marriage, the pair would have been shocked as everyone else in Glasgow about the murder of Betty Alexander. No doubt this would have crossed the couple’s minds again in 1983, 31 years after Betty Alexander’s murder, when they decided to move to a sheltered housing complex in the ever changing neighbourhood of Garnethill in Glasgow, specifically a small fourth floor flat in Buccleuch Street, not far from Betty Alexander’s old home.

Dawn:

Ooh small world.

Cole:

It really is. Where Garnethill had a different reputation back in 1952, in the 80s this sheltered housing complex was considered to be quite safe and secure, which was also felt by Emily and Teddy’s extended family who visited the couple frequently. In 1988 five years after moving into the complex after being married for 39 years, Teddy sadly died. At the time of Teddy’s death, Emily would have been nearly 69. She had been ill for some time with dementia, but Teddy had successfully been covering this up so well that it wasn’t until his death that their family members became aware of just how severe her dementia was. However, Emily had now been living in the complex for five years and she had made friends there and enjoyed living there as well, and so despite her severe dementia she continued to live in Buccleuch Street. Over the years Emily’s health continued to decline; she was profoundly deaf, had Parkinson’s disease and severe and painful arthritis in her hands.  While Emily’s health may have deteriorated and she had become more frail over time, she still enjoyed life. Over the years she made many friends in the complex, some of whom would check on her regularly to see if she was okay. She would usually leave the door to her flat unlocked and slightly open as she was unable to lock the door due to the severe arthritis in her hands. On Sunday the 30th of June 1996, 77 year old Emily returned home after being released from hospital, spending the next couple of days airing out her flat and settling back in. On the 4th of July 1996, she attended a regular day hospital that helped patients with dementia, before returning back to her home the same day. Emily probably would have then had some tea and maybe had an early night or went to bed to watch TV after an exhausting day, having no idea of what horror was about to show up in her bedroom. Trigger Warning. What happened to Emily is quite disturbing so some listeners may find the following upsetting. Sometime between Thursday the 4th of July 1996 at 7pm and Friday the 5th of July 1996 before 8.30am, an unknown person had made their way into Emily’s flat and headed to her bedroom, where they proceeded to brutally attack her. Emily was dragged to the floor from her bed and sexually assaulted, before being stamped and beaten to death. The killer then proceeded to rip through the flat destroying everything in their path. It was reported that the bed frame had been turned upside down and the mattress had been dragged to the other end of the bedroom.  The bath panel had been kicked repeatedly leaving it dented. A toy dog that Emily had kept was torn apart, with bits of it strewn throughout the flat.  Before leaving the flat the killer also roughly took Emily’s wedding ring from her arthritic finger, the same ring her husband, Teddy, had given to her 47 years prior, as well as a jewellery box and an ornamental fan.

Dawn:

Oh my God, it’s just awful to hear.

Cole:

Yeah, especially to such an old woman. It seems savage.

Dawn:

It is. It’s just disgusting.

Cole:

Especially since, according to Emily’s niece Elizabeth, Emily had lost a lot of weight and was very frail, that amount of violence would have not been necessary to kill her.

Dawn:

So sad.

Cole:

Emily was found on Friday the 5th of July just after 8.30am by one of her neighbours that had come to check on her. She was lying on her bedroom floor, her nightie pulled up and her face was covered in blood.

Dawn:

Oh I just can’t imagine what they must have felt finding Emily like that.

Cole:

It must have been so upsetting. So the police were called and it was reported that what they found when they got there had even the most hardened detectives traumatised. Before the forensic team could arrive to process the scene, Elizabeth, her husband William and their daughter Lauren, who was six at the time, arrived outside Emily’s flat, to be met by a large police presence.  They had come to visit Emily as they often did. They were heartbroken when they were told what had happened and what had been done to Emily. William revealed that had they visited Emily earlier in the morning his daughter Lauren would have been the one to discover her body and the horrific scene. For all the family were in shock and were profoundly affected by what had happened, they were extremely thankful that six-year-old Lauren was not the one to have found Emily battered to death. It is reported that the police straight away thought that the killer had been a local man, Emily may even have known the man and his agenda was more than likely robbery. Although there had been an appeal for anybody to come forward with information into the murder of Emily Mutch, there apparently had not been a great public response. And so on the 9th of July the lead detective in the murder inquiry, Detective Superintendent Bob Lauder, appealed yet again for anybody with any information surrounding Emily’s death to come forward. He urged anyone in the vicinity of the Buccleuch Street area, Rose Street or Cambridge Street between 7pm on Thursday the 4th and 8am on Friday the 5th of July to please come forward if they saw anything at all suspicious. Despite the many appeals that were made for information, nothing of any significance arose. However, following the forensic team combing the flat for evidence of Emily’s killer, they revealed that they had discovered a fingerprint and a palm print on various items throughout Emily’s flat, as well as obtaining DNA from the potential suspect, describing it as an “anonymous profile of the killer”. Basically they just had to find the right person to match the DNA profile that they had and they would have their killer. The police reported they would be undertaking the largest DNA profile exercise, to include swabs of every male over the age of 12 in the Garnethill area. This amounted to well over 2,500 swabs being taken, which were then compared to their anonymous profile. However, after seven months and every sample having been logged and checked against the DNA sample found at the scene, the exercise had failed and there were no matches. The case grounded to a halt. Emily’s niece, Elizabeth, was determined not to give up and she reported in The Herald newspaper on the 3rd of February 1997 that she felt positive that her aunt’s killer would be found. She hoped that it wasn’t just wishful thinking on her part as her and her family would not have any peace until they caught her aunt’s murderer. This sentiment was backed up in the same article in The Herald newspaper by Detective Superintendent Bob Lauder when he said “We are not going to give up and hopefully we’ll be able to produce enough evidence to identify that person and put him before the courts.” Despite the failed DNA exercise, it was confirmed that a team of 20 officers were still working hard on Emily Mutch’s murder, and that neither course nor time would affect the investigation.

Dawn:

That is really good that he said that actually, ’cause I feel in the Betty Alexander case that might have been the reasons that they didn’t fingerprint the younger men or the women of Garnethill when they had the chance.

Cole:

Yeah, lack of resources.

Dawn:

Yep.

Cole:

Despite the best efforts of the 20 strong team and the many appeals made by both the police and Emily’s niece Elizabeth, Emily’s murderer continued to elude the police. It wouldn’t be until a chance encountered 16 months after Emily’s murder that the police would catch their next break. In November 1997, Police Constable Kevin Pike, who was 34, and Police Constable Colin Montgomery, who was 28, were just working another ordinary night shift when they got a call to attend to disturbance at a petrol station located in the West End of Glasgow. When they arrived at the petrol station they found the man who had been causing the bother hiding in a bush. (laughs)They retrieved him from the bush and tried to ask him what he was doing at the petrol station, but he was just being evasive. Call it instinct or call it experience but the two police officers were just a bit suspicious of this man, so they decided to arrest him and take him to the local police station to question him further. Once at the police station the man started to calm down and become more cooperative. He told them his name was Thomas Galloway and that he lived in Murano Street in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, which is about a 13-minute drive north of Glasgow City Centre.  The police did a check on their database to find out more about Galloway, and it revealed that he had previous convictions for assault, robbery and carrying knives.

Dawn:

Ooh what a nice bloke. Good instincts by the two PCS though.

Cole:

Definitely. Due to these previous convictions and just not having a good feeling about Galloway, the two officers decided to take a DNA sample from Galloway, and they sent the sample off requesting a DNA profile. As Galloway had calmed down and had been cooperative, there was nothing to actually hold him on, he was released that night and the two PCS carried on with their night shift. It wouldn’t be until late February 1998 when PC Pike and PC Montgomery were called into Detective Superintendent Bob Lauder’s office that they even gave Galloway a second thought. Detective Superintendent Lauder, who was in charge of the murder inquiry, told the pair that the sample that they had taken from Galloway three months earlier and sent away for DNA profiling had come back and it matched the DNA profile of Emily Mutch’s killer.

Dawn:

Oh that must have been such a relief for them to finally have some answers.

Cole:

I bet.  So, on the 23rd of February 1998 Thomas Galloway, who was 41, was arrested at his home in Murano Street and charged with committing indecent sex acts on Emily, of robbery and of kicking and punching Emily to death.  He appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Office on the 24th of February for these charges. He made no plea and he was remanded in custody for further investigations to be carried out and to await further trial. Galloway’s home was searched and the jewellery box and the ornamental fan that had been stolen from Emily’s flat was found. Before Galloway’s trial, he not only tried to persuade doctors that he was insane to use as his defence, which failed.

Dawn:

Good.

Cole:

But he also sacked two separate legal teams before finally settling on defending himself.

Dawn:

And that’s always a good choice.

Cole:

Always. He clearly didn’t like what everyone was telling him. However, in late January 1999 Galloway’s trial began, where the jury were told about and shown photos of the horrendous attack carried out on Emily. They were told of Galloway’s DNA sample matching the DNA profile that had been compiled from samples taken from Emily’s flat. They were told there was a 500 million to one chance that this DNA profile belonged to anyone other than Galloway.

Dawn:

Yeah, he’s not getting out of this is he?

Cole:

I wouldn’t have thought so. They also heard that apparently Galloway had confessed while on remand to the killing of Emily. But even without the supposed confession it really was the slam dunk, and how he thought by defending himself he could possibly get any other outcome. Clearly the jury felt exactly the same, as after only one hour of deliberation they convicted Galloway. Before handing down his sentence, Lloyd McCluskey said to the now 42 year old Galloway that he had “carried out an appalling and outrageous murder”, stating that the act of attacking and murdering Emily had been “brutal, disgusting and horrifying.” He then sentenced Galloway to life in prison, to serve a minimum of 20 years.

Dawn:

A life sentence means different things in different countries, but in Scotland life sentences are always given for murders and the judge will hand down a minimum term sentence known as the punishment part of the sentence. This means that the person will have to spend the punishment term in prison before even being considered for release into the community. If the person is eligible for parole and released from prison, they continue to be on a lifetime license, and if the terms of this are breached in any way they can be recalled to prison.

Cole:

Galloway might have eluded the police for 19 months, but finally one of Scotland’s most wanted men was brought to justice. Emily’s niece, who was 42 at the time, while obviously still devastated, was happy to get a bit of peace saying that she hopes he “rots in jail”. Before going on to say that her auntie Emily was “a wonderful and loving person who would never harm a fly.”

Dawn:

I’m glad they finally got justice.

Cole:

I know. It’s a tough story.

Dawn:

So while I’m really pleased that Emily and her finally got justice for what happened to her, the same thing can’t be said for Betty Alexander and her family because her killer has never been found. However, in 2011 a Cold Case Unit was set up in Scotland and on the 16th of April 2012 it was announced that Betty Alexander’s case had been sent to the Cold Case Unit. They have advised that they will be focusing on five priority cases initially. It’s not known which five cases these are, but the fact that Betty’s case has been handed to them could hopefully mean a fresh pair of eyes will be looking at her case in the hope of finally solving it.

Cole:

It would be great if Betty’s murder was finally solved and whoever committed that crime was brought to justice.

Dawn:

Exactly, I agree. And of course we’ll keep you all updated if there are any new developments. So, while Garnethill has certainly had its fair share of heartache and back in 1952 was well known for its ever-changing population and some unsavoury characters and dealings, in recent years the area has had a new lease of life, according to an interview in The Herald Newspaper in 1997 by Betty Brown, who was not only a community activist but won the Evening Times Scots Women of the Year Award in 1995, where her huge efforts in turning the Garnethill area into multicultural, close-knit community where people felt safe and wanted to live. The National Trust for Scotland even acquired a flat at 145 Buccleuch Street to preserve it in its early 20th century condition, now called The Tenement House, which is open to the public and gives a glimpse into times gone by. Now, the activist, Betty Brown, that I mentioned above was from the Glasgow area and loving the city so much she never left, which was good news for the Garnethill residents, as she campaigned relentlessly to improve the area and its reputation. She was 22 at the time of Betty Alexander’s murder and she remembers the Garnethill residents being shattered at the time by the murder. She went on to say that because the murderer was never caught it had left the community suspicious of each other for a long time. Over time though the community did get its soul back and neighbours began to trust each other again, and the area began to prosper. Until that is Emily Mutch’s murder in 1996 which rocked the community once again. This time however while the community was shocked and scared that a murder had been carried out so close to their homes once again, it certainly helped that the evil man that carried out this horrific attack on Emily was found and put behind bars. Sadly, Betty Brown passed away in 2006 at the age of 76, but her hard work and dedication to the Garnethill area had not been forgotten. A mural to honour Betty Brown was completed in 2015 called “Betty Brown’s Eyes”, suggesting she will always be casting her eyes over the Garnethill area that she loved so dearly, an area that has suffered so much but still came out stronger than ever.

And that’s the end. If you’ve enjoyed this episode and know just the person who’d also like it, please share it with them, don’t keep it to yourself.

Cole:

Please also get in touch on social media if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. All social media and contact details are on our website scottishmurders.com, as well as all the source material and photos related to this episode.

Dawn:

So that’s it for this week, come back next time for another episode of Scottish Murders.

Dawn and Cole:

Join us there. Bye.

Granny Robertson:

Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn.

by dawnyoung

Scottish Murders is a member of Quite The Thing Media

Hi Wee Ones, we are proud to announce that we are now a member of Quite The Thing Media, which is a Scottish-based podcast network that produces their own content as well as supporting podcasts internationally, which now includes little old us!

Some other members on this network include That UFO Podcast, Spyhards Podcast, She Will Rock You and the wonderful and supportive Indie Podcaster.

by dawnyoung

Welcome to Scottish Murders Blog

Hi Wee Ones! Welcome to our Blog!

Our aim is to keep you more up-to-date with what Scottish Murders is up to and our upcoming plans, such as details about future episodes, any feedback from our listeners or any announcements we have.

Remember to check back here regularly for new posts, and you can also leave comments on our posts if you would like to.

by dawnyoung

The Bradley Welsh Murder

The Bradley Welsh Murder

Episode Summary

Bradley, boxing gym owner and charity organiser, returned home from his gym, he had a brief chat with a neighbour before walking towards his flat. Just then a man appeared from nowhere and before Bradley could do anything he shot him in the head. But who would want to harm Bradley? Could the reason be rooted in his past?  

Please Be Advised – This episode may contain content that some may find distressing. As always, we advise listener discretion. This episode it not suitable for anyone under the age of 13.

Listen on:


Bradley Welsh shooting: Man arrested over ‘murder’ of Trainspotting star in Edinburgh

T2 Trainspotting star blasts ‘absolute clowns’ who left note on his van because it ‘lowers the tone’ of wealthy Edinburgh street

Bradley Welsh murder cops probed by watchdog over ‘events leading up to shooting of Trainspotting star’

Bradley Welsh cops probed over actions before Trainspotting star’s murder – Daily Record

Bradley Welsh murder cops release CCTV of car as probe into Trainspotting star’s death continues – Daily Record

Cops issue chilling death warnings to five gangsters after Trainspotting 2 star Bradley Welsh shot dead – Daily Record

Bradley Welsh: Police “warned of murder plot” against T2 Trainspotting actor | HeraldScotland

Bradley Welsh murder: Gangsters receive death threat warnings after film star’s slaying | UK | News | Express.co.uk

Bradley Welsh murder trial: Neighbour had shotgun pointed at him – BBC News

Bradley Welsh accused ‘not my attacker’, claims friend – BBC News

Thugs carried out axe attack on brother of T2 murder witness days after Bradley Welsh shooting – Daily Record

Bradley Welsh was murdered for branding mob figures ‘grasses’, T2 Trainspotting star’s pal claims

Murder victim Bradley Welsh ‘was put on death list’ in feud between notorious Scots criminals – Daily Record

Bradley Welsh murder: Gangland figure named as being behind £10k plot to kill Trainspotting star goes into hiding

Bradley Welsh murder: Chilling CCTV shows gangland hitman Sean Orman fleeing scene with shotgun

Bradley Welsh was ‘put on death list’ after getting caught in gangland feud – Edinburgh Live

Bradley Welsh murderer set to appeal conviction for ‘premeditated assassination’ – Edinburgh Live

Bradley Welsh was murdered for branding mob figures ‘grasses’, T2 Trainspotting star’s pal claims

Bradley Welsh murder: Gangland figure named as being behind £10k plot to kill Trainspotting star goes into hiding

Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh set to return to roots for novel launch party – The Sunday Post

CCTV shows Bradley Welsh killer fleeing murder scene with shotgun | Edinburgh News

Bradley Welsh chillingly revealed he was haunted by ‘ghetto’ past before death – Mirror Online

Bradley Welsh murder: Actor Danny Dyer joins list of famous names to pay tribute | Edinburgh News

Bradley Welsh shooting: Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh pays emotional tribute after West End shooting | Edinburgh News

Danny Dyer pays tribute to ‘good soul’ Bradley Welsh after Trainspotting 2 star was shot dead

Bradley Welsh funeral – Trainspotting star taken to Edinburgh service in ‘Hibs’ coffin as Irvine Welsh among 1,000 mourners

Hunt for ‘baseball cap-wearing hitman’ who shot dead Trainspotting star over ‘£130,000 of drugs’ | Daily Mail Online

Moredun – Wikipedia

Gangs of Edinburgh: Feared Hibs casuals who moved up to the big league – Daily Record

Record attempt to raise funds for children’s charity | The Edinburgh Reporter

6 years ago tonight, Brad Welsh set the… – Holyrood Boxing Gym | Facebook

Trainspotting 2 star Bradley Welsh was ‘reformed character’ but it was sinister past that cost him his life

Bradley Welsh – Biography – IMDb

‘Your legacy continues’ – Bradley Welsh tribute shared by Holyrood Boxing Gym one year after death – Edinburgh Live

Edinburgh gangster Mark Richardson moved from Saughton prison after ‘taking over’ jail – Edinburgh Live

mark richardson gangster in prison – Bing images

Gangster jailed over high-speed chase through Glasgow – BBC News

Chester St, Edinburgh to Duddingston Road West, Edinburgh EH16 4AP – Google Maps

Man goes on trial accused of shotgun murder of T2 Trainspotting star Bradley Welsh – Daily Record

Sean Orman jailed for 28 years for ‘cowardly and wicked’ murder of Bradley Welsh – Edinburgh Live

Man accused of Trainspotting actor’s murder acquitted of 13 other charges | Evening Standard

Bradley Welsh trial: Gangland hitman found guilty of murdering T2 Trainspotting star – Edinburgh Live

Edinburgh – Wikipedia

Bradley Welsh funeral – Cryptic poem penned by slain Trainspotting star read to his mourners

Bradley Welsh ‘ordered man to remove mobile phone chip’ hours after machete attack, court hears | Edinburgh News

Bradley Welsh: The self-proclaimed ‘poacher turned gamekeeper’ known for his boxing talents, football hooligan days and inspiring community work | Edinburgh News

Russell Findlay MSP tells of chilling threat from Bradley Welsh while investigating organised crime as journalist

Firearms discharge residue found on alleged gunman’s trackies ‘similar’ to substance found on Bradley Welsh | Edinburgh News

Bradley Welsh murder: Trainspotting 2 star ‘caught in crossfire’ of brutal gangland turf war

Interview: Bradley Welsh – his mother’s son | Edinburgh News

Trainspotting 2 star Bradley Welsh was ‘reformed character’ but it was sinister past that cost him his life

Bradley Welsh funeral – Daughter, 8, of slain Trainspotting star pays tribute to ‘hero daddy’ in emotional letter

Hitman convicted of murdering T2 Trainspotting actor Bradley Welsh – BBC News

‘I’ve done some horrible, horrible things’: Bradley Welsh tells of regret | Daily Mail Online

Notorious Edinburgh gangster hit with ‘super-Asbo’ crackdown – Edinburgh Live

Dawn:

Bradley, boxing gym owner and charity organiser, returned home from his gym. He had a brief chat with a neighbour before walking towards his flat. Just then a man appeared from nowhere, and before Bradley could do anything he shot him in the head. But who would want to harm Bradley? Could the reason be rooted in his past?

Dawn and Cole:

Hi Wee Ones, I’m Dawn and I’m Cole, and this is Scottish Murders.

[THEME TUNE]

TRUE CRIME FILES PODCAST PROMOTION

Dawn:

Mark and Simon sat on a wall just minding their own business, when a black car with heavily tinted windows slowed in front of them, and they were told to get in. Once inside they came face to face with a man who asked them “Do you know who I am?” Simon certainly did and nodded his head rigorously. This was Mr Doyle, sauna owner and gangland kingpin. Then Danny Boyle, the director of Trainspotting 2, shouted cut. Ewan McGregor and Johnny Lee Miller climbed out of the car, along with the man who had been playing the part of Mr Doyle, Bradley Welsh, whose background in real life had certain similarities to the gangster character he was playing.

Cole:

Oh I’ve seen both of the Trainspotting films.

Dawn:

Yeah, me too. I wondered if you would have recognised it.

Cole:

Well, seeing as I wrote my dissertation on it then I think I should have recognised it.

Dawn:

Did you?

Cole:

I did.

Dawn:

Oh I’m impressed. Oh so you must know all about Mr Doyle then?

Cole:

I know of him. (laughing)

Dawn:

Bradley John Welsh was born on the 4th of November 1970. He grew up in a council estate in Moredun with his mum Patricia and elder brother Sean, living on the eighth floor of a tower block. Moredun is about a 20-minute Drive south east of Edinburgh. Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and is located on the southern shore of the Fifth of Forth. According to Wikipedia, Edinburgh’s historical and cultural attractions has made it the UK’s second most visited tourist destination. His mum had thrown his dad out when Bradley was still a young boy. Moredun was a bad area back in Bradley’s day, rife with drugs and fighting, an area where you had to be able to look after yourself or you were in trouble . From a young age, Bradley’s mum noticed that he had a lot of energy, and according to Bradley himself he was a bit of a wayward child. So to try and keep him out of trouble his mum suggested he started boxing, which he did when he was about seven years old. He loved this sport and found that he excelled at it, winning title after title from a young age, having had 200 fights in the ring by the age of 12 winning most of them, and by 15 he was a champion boxer. However, Bradley wasn’t able to just contain his fighting to the ring, he had another passion, fighting on the streets at football matches. So much so that by the time he was 14 years old he had already been arrested numerous times for hooliganism at football matches.

Cole:

He was a football hooligan.

Dawn:

His football hooliganism days started when Bradley was taken to a football match when he was 12 years old and saw that the streets of Edinburgh were taken over by other football team supporters, so much so that his friends and family who supported Hibernian Football Club or Hibs, and had been at the matches were so scared of being attacked by supporters from other football teams that they hid their football scarves. Bradley couldn’t understand that, this was his City, he was a fearless wee boxer and he wasn’t having this, he wasn’t hiding anything. In 1982 football hooliganism was a massive thing in Scotland, supporters would just come to each game and absolutely take over the streets, and fighting and violence would ensue. It was horrendous. Bradley’s older brother was part of football hooliganisms major firm calling themselves the Capital City Service, also known as Hibs casuals, and they would defend their City from the invading football supporters. However. it didn’t stop there, the Capital City Service would also travel around the United Kingdom to football matches where there would inevitably be violent clashes with other such firms that had been set up. When Bradley was 14, and not yet having been initiated into the Capital City Service but not being one to sit on the side lines, decided in about 1985 to form his own group called The Blackley’s Baby Crew with his friends. Eventually there were a couple of hundred lads in this crew. You had to be a member to get into this elite crew though, and Bradley and many other guys in the crew made sure everything was organised and everybody was working together to ensure that when a football match was due to be played in Edinburgh, Blackley’s Baby Crew would be on the streets dealing with the descending football supporters who stepped out of line and wanted a wee fight. Bradley even got on the front page of a newspaper once standing right in the middle of a fight between Scotland and England football hooligans holding a big stick, which was unlucky for Bradley as that night he had gotten grounded by his mum and stepdad but Bradley has snuck out of the house in order to attend the match and subsequent fighting. He thought he’d gotten away with it and had snuck back into his house with no bother, however, the following morning the picture appeared on the front cover. This was the first time his mum had known about his football hooliganism and she was not amused. The Blackley’s Baby Crew eventually disbanded when most of the crew were initiated into the Capital City Service. Bradley and his crew were making a name for themselves by this time and just the mention of his name was starting to instil fear in people, and Bradley began thinking it might be time to step things up. So, as well as the football hooliganism, Bradley and his crew of friends started to steal clothes in bulk and sell them on, making them a tidy wee sum. Having a wee bit money in his back pocket for the first time coming from the background Bradley did, was probably what got him thinking just how he could make a whole lot more. So, with Bradley’s reputation as a fighter not to be messed with, his hooliganism reputation and his head for constantly thinking bigger and bigger and more and more, in early 1988 at the age of 17, he came up with a plan that would combine his love for fighting, violence and money. Security. But not just any security. In the late 80s and early 90s the club scene started to happen, ecstasy started to become a big thing, and more and more people than before started attending clubs to enjoy themselves, which obviously necessitated the need for more security on the doors to prevent trouble, especially when the Hibs casuals were notorious for causing trouble. Bradley jumped on this idea. With his obvious involvement with the Hibs casuals and his fighter background, he was the perfect choice of security to ensure there would be no trouble in the clubs. Bradley started working for a security company called Westlands, who at the time provided a lot of doorman at Edinburgh clubs and pubs, but on hiring Bradley they wanted him to get them even more. Bradley found that again he was very successful in this area, soon stamping out any competition in this area, and almost overnight he managed to secure Westlands Security, and himself, the doors of hundreds of the pubs and clubs in Edinburgh, where they would provide their own doormen to keep out any troublemakers, obviously at a price. This was a great wee earner for Bradley, and at the age of 18 years old he not only saw himself as invincible but as a gangster kingpin. Again, Bradley, never one for standing still, just had too much energy, he didn’t just stop at security, he also started to set up his own nights at the clubs where he could rake it in. However, this was bad news for any competing nightclubs, Bradley wasn’t having any competition. And, so, any club that decided to go up against his planned club nights quickly found themselves in trouble. Bradley’s objective being to ensure that any competition was quickly shut down. And this is where things started to go wrong for Bradley. Even though Bradley had a reputation for fighting and violence, he much preferred for people to see things his way by threats of violence rather than actual violence, however, that was to change, which would be his downfall. Bradley started carrying guns. No longer did competing clubs just fear the threat of violence, there actually now was violence. Unfortunately, this new tactic caught the attention of the police, who started to take a closer look at Bradley’s growing empire, including bugging his phone and his house. After six months of surveillance the police believed they had enough evidence against Bradley and he was arrested on three main charges, including extortion and demanding money at gunpoint.

Cole:

He must have been quite young still.

Dawn:

Yeah, he was only 18.

Cole:

Wow.

Dawn:

I know, he’s done a lot.

Cole:

He has done a lot.

Dawn:

That’s what I mean, he saw himself as this big kingpin. At the trial though, he was cleared of these charges and he thought he was free and clear, would be heading home, but nope. He was sentenced to four years for possessing ammunition and menacing an estate agent.

Cole:

Menacing an estate agent? (laughs) You know, you shouldn’t go to jail for that because they menace us enough when they want to.

Dawn:

[Laughter] As soon as Bradley was in prison, he realised that he didn’t want to go back and that he needed to change his lifestyle. This lifestyle change actually began in prison. After the initial shock and despair of being sentenced to four years in prison, with his control taken away, he managed to pick himself back up and turned to his passion. Boxing. Despite Bradley’s foray into hooliganism, security, firearms and extortion, he had still kept up his boxing. At the time of his arrest and incarceration, he was the Scottish Eastern District boxing champion and was due to represent Britain in the 1992 Olympic Games taking place in Barcelona. This was one fight he wouldn’t be taking part in. However, with the support of the prison service, Bradley was allowed to train again in the prison’s gym. And train he did. He also was allowed out on day release to compete in boxing championships, the first being the Scottish Western District Championships, which he won. But this wouldn’t be the last championship he competed in and won whilst in prison. This is what got Bradley through his time in prison and out the other side, better and stronger than ever, and he showed no signs of slowing down or stopping on his release. Feeling at the top of his game in amateur boxing Bradley decided it was time to become a professional boxer, and so he went to America to follow his dream. However, it turned out that his dream wasn’t quite what he thought. While Bradley did become a professional boxer in America having ten fights, winning nine of them, he soon turned his back on professional boxing, as he found it not too dissimilar to the world he was trying to leave behind. He found that it was all about getting as much money out of the professional as you could, about greed. So Bradley made his way back to Edinburgh. On his return to Edinburgh, Bradley found himself in a situation he hadn’t found himself in before, he didn’t have a plan, he was a wee bit lost. The one thing that Bradley never deviated from though was his love for his family. He was a big family man, absolutely adoring his mum, brother and two wee nephews, and so when his mum became ill Bradley became her main carer, throwing himself into this new role. He withdrew into himself, spending his time reading, learning and staying at home with his family. He enjoyed this time to reflect on his life. As always though, Bradley continued with his boxing, the other love of his life. Bradley’s mum’s health started to improve and she didn’t need a carer as much, so, once again, Bradley was lost. What was next for him? And then an idea came to him. What had been the one constant thing in his life? The one thing that had helped channel his energy? The one thing that had got him through tough times? Amateur boxing. He decided he wanted to share his love and obvious skills of boxing with others. And so around 2005, when Bradley would have been about 35 years old, he opened his own boxing gym from the proceeds of a short-lived professional boxing career. He specifically opened his gym in a rougher more deprived area of Edinburgh as he wanted to help underprivileged kids, channel their energy and give them some sort of direction. Bradley did make it clear though that this would only be amateur boxing, he would not be venturing into the professional boxing world again. The gym became a huge success, helping support many a wayward youngster stay off the streets. Bradley was in his element. He was really passionate about helping people that didn’t have a lot as this was his roots, where he had come from. Over the years Bradley threw himself into his new role, which saw him working with the various volunteer-based organisations to help underprivileged kids all across Edinburgh, such as the Helping Hands bike initiative which donated 150 bikes to city schools across Edinburgh. Bradley also carried out a food bank appeal which raised 22 tons of food, and he also began to offer free boxing lessons at his gym to underprivileged kids. He went on to work on a collaboration with Edinburgh Helping Hands charity which fights inequality in the city, Social Bite which is a movement to end homelessness, and author and friend Irvine Welsh, where they challenged social and economic inequality in Edinburgh. It looked like Bradley really had turned his life around and was determined to give back to his beloved Edinburgh, and to try and deter other children going down the same route he had. However, he couldn’t escape his past life completely. People were fascinated by him and his exploits and wanted to know more. In 2008 he appeared on a Bravo television show called Danny Dyer’s Deadliest Men. I’ve watched this program and found it enjoyable.

Cole:

I don’t think that’s the right word. Enjoyable. Hilarious maybe. Danny Dyer’s hilarious. He’s, he’s… Every time he talks it’s funny. 

Dawn:

(laughter) But, no, it was it was informative, and it did give an insight into Bradley’s life. He came across as having a huge amount of energy and drive, as well as a massive personality. He also said that he felt he was a born leader, which he had certainly demonstrated from a very young age. He did say in an interview in 2006 that he felt that his past exploits as a kid and teenager had been stupid, but that he wasn’t embarrassed or ashamed by it, and felt that it’s life’s experiences that make you who you are.

Cole:

Very true Bradley.

Dawn:

Mhh hmm. Over the next couple of years, Bradley’s life consisted of his charity work, his boxing gym, but also extended to include the birth of a baby girl called Eva Tiger in 2011, with his then girlfriend Emma.

Cole:

Okay, interesting name.

Dawn:

As previously stated, Bradley loved his family, so would have been over the moon to be a father. Life was good for Bradley. Sadly though this happiness was soon to be shattered. In 2012 his beloved mother died. Bradley would have been just distraught, he was a self-confessed mummy’s boy and his mum was now gone. However, by now we begin to understand that Bradley doesn’t stay down for long, and so two years later in 2014 he was back in the ring again with yet another challenge he had set himself, but this time in honour of his mother. He wanted to get himself into the Guinness Book of World Records by spending 24 hours in the ring sparring with 360 people, which he succeeded in and raised over £42,500 or about $58,600 for charity in the process. Rather him than me. It sounded brutal. He did say that the challenge had almost killed him, but that he’d been determined to make the world record in his mum’s name. Now, at this record-breaking attempt, and who also sparred with Bradley, was his friend Irvine Welsh, who was the author of The Trainspotting books, but also Danny Boyle, who just so happened to be the director working on the Trainspotting 2 film. Danny was impressed by Bradley and asked him if he would audition for a specific part he had in mind in the film, which Bradley agreed to. It just so happened that this part was for a gangland kingpin who intimidated the main characters Simon and Mark. Perfect part for Bradley, right?

Cole:

Renton and Sick Boy.

Dawn:

Yes, well, that’s… Simon and Mark’s their grown-up names. They were Renton and Sick Boy in the first one. (laughter) Anyway, so Bradley messed it up by being too aggressive and he didn’t get the part. However, he knew this part was perfect for him so he asked Danny Boyle for another chance, and this time he nailed it. Trainspotting 2 was released in 2017 and I loved it.

Cole:

Oh did you.

Dawn:

I did. Bradley is really good as the part of Mr Doyle. However, this would be Bradley’s last foray into acting. He had a feeling that he might be typecast. Bradley was pretty content with his life, he was now engaged to Emma, his boxing gym was thriving, and he excelled in charity work. Bradley had come a long way from that violent 12 year old boy. So it looked like Bradley had well and truly left his past behind. And he had for the main part. All he wanted to do was help the youngsters and underprivileged in his community. However, Bradley was a friendly guy and he’d made good friends along the way, including various people from Edinburgh’s underbelly who he continued to be in touch with, despite not being part of the lifestyle anymore. One such friend was Mark Richardson who he was very close to. I’m not going to go into the ins and outs of Mark Richardson but he was heavily involved in major crime networks, which included drugs, firearms and violence, and he was a cocaine kingpin.

Cole:

Sounds like a dangerous guy.

Dawn:

Yeah, he’s currently in prison and he’s causing no end of problems in there too. So Bradley was friends with him but he was no longer involved in that lifestyle. It was reported in the Daily Record newspaper on the 8th of May 2021 Bradley might give advice or clear something up to try to make peace, but he wasn’t part of that world. In the end he wasn’t able to shake off these people he’d known for many years. And sadly it looks like what happened next was due to his friendship with Richardson, as well as his inability to turn his back on his longtime friends. Wednesday the 17th of April 2019 was just another ordinary day for Bradley. After saying bye to his fiancée Emma and his eight-year-old daughter Ava in the morning, he would have left his flat at Chester Street, about 1.6 miles or 2.5 kilometres west of Edinburgh City Centre, and gone to his Holyrood boxing gym, about an 18-minute drive east of his flat, where he would have spent the day taking boxing lessons with adults and kids alike. Once his work was done for the day, Bradley would have got into the ring and sparred with another trainer just to keep his hand in, before about 7:30pm driving the 18 minutes back to his flat, where his fiancée and daughter were waiting for him. Upon parking his car outside his flat about 8pm, Bradley got out and happened to see his upstairs neighbour, Edward Rennie, across the street having a cigarette and so he walked over to have a brief chat with him. After a few minutes Bradley said bye and walked across the street towards the stairs leading down to his basement flat. Just as he was about to take the first step down, a man wearing a baseball cup appeared out of nowhere and shot him a point-blank range in the head, before Bradley could even register what was happening. Bradley then tumbled down a few of the stairs to his flat and lay there, unmoving. His neighbour, Edward, hadn’t seen the man approaching Bradley either, but he sure heard the bang. He turned around immediately and saw a man pointing a shotgun at Bradley, just as the man saw Edward. The shooter turned the gun on Edward and told him not to look at him. Edward dived behind a parked car in response, and peered through the glass in time to see the shooter run away. Edward then made his way to Bradley’s lifeless body and realised immediately that he had been shot. He called the emergency services and stayed with Bradley until they arrived. Another of Bradley’s neighbours, Lucy, had been walking to her flat after finishing work for the day and had seen a man with his back to her on the street outside Bradley’s flat. She didn’t think anything off this until he turned round and she spotted the gun in his hand. She said she panicked and turned and started running in the opposite direction. The ambulance crew arrived and did their best to keep Bradley alive, however, sadly Bradley died in the street outside of his flat, due to suffering life-threatening wounds to his head. By this time Bradley’s fiancée Emma and his daughter Eva would have been made aware of the situation and would have been absolutely distraught. They apparently hadn’t heard the shot or the commotion outside their flat, but word of what had happened had quickly gotten around Bradley’s family and they raced to the scene, but it would be to no avail. The police now were also present and, upon Bradley being pronounced dead at the scene, they began to cordon the area off and begin a murder investigation. The police then gave a statement saying that they believed this was a targeted attack and that nobody else in the community was at threat, but they would be providing a presence in the area to help reassure the public, and also to gather as much information as they could to help with their inquiries. The police also appealed for any information on who could have carried out this horrendous attack and left a family grieving for the loss of their son, brother, partner and father, asking them to search their conscience and do the right thing. Dozens of forensic officers carried out a massive search of Chester Street and the neighbouring streets in the hope that the killer may have dropped something, such as a cigarette or chewing gum. They also carried out a fingerprint examination of the railings that surrounded the properties in the street, as well as carrying out a forensic examination of Bradley’s flat to see if that gave them a clue as to why he had been targeted. While the forensic teams were busy, the police had started the arduous task of searching CCTV cameras in the area, as well as from residential and business properties in the area, and also requesting dash cam footage from motorists to try and capture the murderer and his getaway route. As this would take time to collate and go through, the police began interviewing witnesses, starting with Edward and Lucy. Edward told the police that he thought the man was mid-20s to early 30s and that he was wearing a puffer jacket, and also that it looked like he had a fake tan. Lucy said that she hadn’t seen the man’s face as she was focusing on the gun, but that he wore a baseball cap. Not much to go on to help catch the shooter, but it wouldn’t be long before the police had all the evidence they needed. Once all of the CCTV footage available had been gone through a picture started to emerge, and it pointed straight to one man. The police had found footage of the killer wearing a baseball cap, a puffa jacket, dark jogging trousers and distinctive Nike Air Max 95 trainers, walking towards Bradley’s flat just before 8pm on the 17th of April. And then footage of him running away from the scene at 8:06pm carrying what looked like a shotgun. He was then seen driving off in a hurry in a stolen dark grey Ford Kuga. The footage was shown to the witnesses and they confirmed that this man was the shooter. Now the police just had to identify who this man was, which was going to prove easier than police had initially thought. The shooter had stolen the Ford Kuga about a week before the murder, but he’d made a mistake. The car he had stolen had a built-in tracker. The police requested the tracker information and they used CCTV footage from across the city to track the movements of the car and the shooter on the run-up to the murder, which helped build a very interesting picture. The Ford Kuga was found abandoned three days after the murder, which again via CCTV footage brought the police directly to the shooter. So from the tracker information and CCTV footage, chillingly, it showed that eight days before the shooting the Ford Kuga was seen driving slowly past Bradley’s gym, stopping outside for six minutes, before driving off again. It also showed that the car had been past Bradley’s flat four times in the days before the shooting, and also there was CCTV footage of the shooter walking up and down the streets near Bradley’s flat an hour before the shooting. Presumably the shooter was trying to work out Bradley’s schedule and figure out the best day and time to attack. The police then tracked the car’s movements from leaving the scene of the crime to where it was dumped, using CCTV cameras from along the route, and this is where the shooter was nailed. Obviously, unaware of the car’s tracking device, after shooting Bradley, the killer then drove the stolen car to a small village, which is where the car was found abandoned, about ten miles or 16 kilometres south west of Bradley’s flat, arriving there about 8:43pm. Shortly after that, a man wearing slightly different clothes, but still the distinctive white Nike Air Max 95 trainers, was caught on CCTV outside of a pub. He then called his friend who came and picked him up and took him back to Edinburgh. With the police being satisfied that the shooter had been identified, 28 year old Sean Orman was arrested on the 22nd of April 2019, five days after Bradley’s murder and was subsequently charged. Ormond denied this of course and insisted that he’d been cycling at the time of Bradley’s murder. The police would have liked to have organised an identity parade so the witnesses could confirm that they had their man, however, on this occasion it wouldn’t be able to be held, as Sean Orman had tried so hard to hide his appearance that in the weeks running up to the shooting he had visited nine different tanning salons in the hope no one would recognise him. He was deemed too tanned. Despite the lack of an identity parade the police had more than enough evidence, due to the tracker in the car and all the CCTV footage, private cameras and dash cams that had been sought and provided by Edinburgh citizens who wanted to help get this man off the streets. As word of Bradley’s murder got out, more and more tributes came, including from Danny Dyer who had met Bradley while filming Britain’s Deadliest Men who said “So sad to hear the news about Bradley. A good soul with a massive heart. A massive loss. Rest in peace my old son.”, and also from Bradley’s long-time friend Irvine Welsh who said “My heart is broken. Goodbye my amazing and beautiful friend. Thanks for making me a better person and helping me to see the world in a kinder and wiser way.” Also flowers, Hibs scarves and boxing gloves, were left by well wishers outside Bradley’s home, as well as outside his gym. A spokesperson for Boxing Scotland said “The Boxing Scotland family is extremely shocked and saddened by the sudden and tragic passing of Bradley. He was one of a kind and will be sadly missed.” One local man who knew Bradley and his family said in a newspaper that he was also heartbroken and that Bradley did a lot for Edinburgh and for the community. Another said that he was a huge character.

Cole:

Oh that was really nice of them.

Dawn:

Yeah it was, wasn’t it.

Cole:

Yeah. You don’t expect famous people to come out and wish condolences, especially to someone like Bradley who, you know, was on Deadliest Men.

Dawn:

Yeah, he was. I mean, I know he was friends with Irvine Welsh anyway, but um I don’t think he’d kept in touch with Danny Dyer, so that was nice.

Cole:

Yeah. Obviously well thought of by many.

Dawn:

Yeah, he certainly seemed to be. Bradley’s funeral took place on the 7th of June 2019 at Edinburgh’s Mortonhall Crematorium. Bradley’s coffin was green in honour of the Hibs football team he loved so much. Around a thousand of his loved ones and close friends gathered to pay their last respects, with Sunshine on Leith by The Proclaimers being played, which also is the adopted anthem for the Hibs Football Team. Bradley’s ten-year-old daughter Eva also spoke at the funeral saying “My daddy made me feel brave when I was with him. He only wanted the best for me. I know he’s looking out for us like he always did. I will miss him more than words can say.”

Cole:

Wow, that’s so sweet. You wouldn’t expect that from a ten year old but that’s really eloquent.

Dawn:

Yeah, it must have been really hard for her to get up there in front of everybody as well and say that. It’s dead brave.

Cole:

Yeah, that would have been so scary.

Dawn:

Also, Bradley’s brother, Sean, had found a poem written by Bradley himself titled ”For my funeral should I die young’. It read “No matter what, right or wrong, I’m free, hee hee hee. Ye see? Now try to be me.”

Cole:

Okay, is it not a bit weird to have a poem written out just in case you die?

Dawn:

I thought it was cool. I liked the hee hee hee bit. (laughs)

Cole:

I do like that he’s showing his personality. I like when you know someone who’s passed away tries to make light of the situation, cause they know how horrible it must be for everyone.

Dawn:

Yeah, that must have um given the family maybe a smile just reading that.

Cole:

Yeah.

Dawn:

It wouldn’t be until the 21st of April 2021, just over two years since Bradley had been murdered, at the High Court in Edinburgh that the trial of Sean Orman started, where he pleaded not guilty to all 15 charges, which included murder, attempted murder, firearms and drug offenses, assault, driving at speed and drug and driving offenses.

Cole:

Wow, they were really just throwing everything at him at this point weren’t they? But why is he only being charged with attempted murder and not just murder, because Bradley was murdered?

Dawn:

Well, the attempted murder charge was in relation to David McMillan.

Cole:

Oh okay. Who’s David McMillan?

Dawn:

Well let me tell you. Do you remember how I mentioned Mark Richardson briefly, saying how he was involved in crime and drugs and that he was friends with Bradley?

Cole:

Yes, I do remember that.

Dawn:

Okay. Well, David McMillan, who was 50, was friends with Mark and Bradley too. And what was revealed through the trial was that it appeared that the whole situation stemmed from Mark Richardson and his criminal fraternity.

Cole:

Oh. What do you mean?

Dawn:

So, it looks like it all started back around 2011 when Mark Richardson and a man called George ‘Dode’ Baigrie were in prison together. Baigrie had been sentenced to 12 years over a samurai sword attack, and Richardson for ten years for dealing in cocaine, heroin, guns, and his role in a £200million or $276million crime super gang.

Cole:

Ooh a super gang. I’d like to be part of a super gang.

Dawn:

Both men were involved in the Edinburgh criminal underbelly, their personalities clashed and they were also affiliated with rival gangs, Baigrie with the Lyons gang and Richardson with the Daniels gang. So, being locked up in close quarters was never going to be a winning combination.

Cole:

I know that feeling, I’ve had to live with you before unfortunately.

Dawn:

Yeah, that wasn’t a winning combination.

Cole:

It was not.

Dawn:

The pair had continuous run-ins, but Baigrie was known as “the top man” in jail and was always on Richardson’s case. However, Richardson also viewed himself as top dog, which Baigrie did not appreciate. In 2012 Richardson had his face slashed and it was rumoured that Baigrie had backed this attack. Anyway, Baigrie was released in 2018 and came to live in Edinburgh, but apparently he put the word out that anyone involved with Richardson would find themselves on the wrong side of Baigrie, and therefore on his hit list. And obviously as Bradley and David McMillan were friends with Richardson and weren’t going to turn their backs on him, then this could be an issue. And it wouldn’t be long before Baigrie was flexing his muscles. On the 13th of March 2019 three masked men broke into the Edinburgh home of David McMillan and seriously assaulted him and his son, also called David, in front of his wife and other children, leaving David senior with a fractured skull. Days after this attack, Sean Orman and a man called Peem were at an acquaintance’s house, Dean White, where Dean’s brother, Robert, was also present. Orman and Peem talked about the attack they had carried out on David McMillan and his son, and that they’d been paid by Baigrie to do it. Orman then went on to say that he was going to be paid £10,000 or $13,800 to murder Bradley Welsh. Robert White also said that Orman had a shotgun, and while he was showing off it accidentally fired into the floor of the property. He said in court, via a video link, that he was extremely nervous about what had happened at his brother’s house. He told the court how he had got in touch with the police straight away to tell them about the conversation and the threat to Bradley’s life, and also about the shotgun bullet being embedded in the floor. However, when under cross-examination, it emerged that he hadn’t actually told the police about the shotgun incident at all, saying that he was in fear for his life. He said he’d been unable to return to Edinburgh or see his family due to agreeing to be a witness at the trial. Robert’s brother, Dean, didn’t give evidence in court, he too was in fear for his life, as 13 days after Bradley’s murder he was attacked in his own home by two men with an axe. David McMillan Jr did give evidence in court though, but it did nothing to back up Robert’s statement. He said that when the men first came into his home they weren’t wearing masks, but that they later put balaclavas on.

Cole:

Oh right, but didn’t you say they were masked men?

Dawn:

Well yes, that’s what David initially said, but when he got to court he then said that they weren’t wearing masks to begin with but then put the balaclavas on.

Cole:

That doesn’t make much sense. David Jr is a liar.

Dawn:

God everybody’s a bloody liar as far as you’re concerned aren’t they?

Cole:

They are liars though aren’t they, so I’m not wrong.

Dawn:

No, it doesn’t make much sense. When he was asked if Orman was one of the men that broke into his home and attacked him he said a hundred percent not. The prosecutor put it to him that he had come to court to tell a false story about men coming in with their faces showing and then covering them up later. All so that he could say that the man in the dock was not the man that attacked him.

Cole:

So he was a liar?

Dawn:

That’s what the prosecutor was saying, yes. But of course he denied this.

Cole:

Do you think he was just lying because he was scared or why do you think he would have made up that story?

Dawn:

Yeah, I think he probably was scared. I mean, he had been attacked already so he wasn’t really going to want to point the finger at Orman.

Cole:

All right. Okay. So you said that the police had been told that Bradley’s life was in danger, did they do anything?

Dawn:

Well it appears that they did issue Bradley with a threat to life notice called an Osman. This is a notice that the police issue to individuals if they are aware of a real or immediate threat to their life.

Cole:

Oh right, I didn’t know that. So, if you ever get an Osman in the post you’re into some serious trouble.

Dawn:

Well you’re in serious trouble because there’s a threat to your life.

Cole:

Well was anything done about that or what was the outcome? Bradley apparently refused any help or advice from the police.

Cole:

Oh right, okay. So, he just accepted that it might be his time to go? Do we know why he was just so accepting of that?

Dawn:

It’s not known for sure, but it is speculated that Bradley didn’t take the threat seriously, thought he could handle it.

Cole:

Oh, I mean, I do understand that, especially with his background.

Dawn:

Yeah, definitely. However, an investigation by the police watchdog, PIRC, the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner, was launched to look into the actions of the police prior to Bradley’s murder and the handling of the threat to his life. The investigation was completed and a report has been submitted to the Crown for consideration. It was reported in the Daily Record newspaper on the 27th of April 2019 that a further five gangland figures had been handed an Osman notice following Bradley’s murder.

Cole:

Oh, so it was all kicking off.

Dawn:

It did say in a report in the Daily Record newspaper on the 8th of May 2021 that Bradley had reportedly been stressed and worried after David had been attacked at home by Orman.

Cole:

Oh so David did know who had attacked him then?

Dawn:

Well it implies that, yes. Apparently Bradley called Peem the day after the attack on David to try and make sure there wasn’t further trouble. He was worried that due to his friendship with David and Richardson that he could also be on the list.

Cole:

So Bradley was murdered just because he was friends with David and Richardson, is that right?

Dawn:

Well, it does seem that way doesn’t it? But there are other theories too. There have been a couple of underworld sources come out with a couple of different theories. One reported in the Daily Record on the 19th of April 2019 that it was because Bradley had been hired as security to protect three kilograms of heroin and two kilograms of cocaine, worth around £130,000 or $180,000, and this had disappeared and Bradley had to answer for it as it was his responsibility.

Cole:

I thought he’d got out of all of that and was more into charity work and his boxing gym?

Dawn:

Well, yeah, that was my thinking too, and from what I’ve read it was the case. Bradley also did an interview in the Edinburgh Evening News published on the 13th of April 2019, four days before he was murdered, where he said “The things I did, they were wrong, but I understand why I did them, because I had [ f__k ] all. Of course I regret them, I have a daughter and a wee boy who is like a son to me, I want a better society.”

Cole:

Yeah, that doesn’t sound like a guy that’s still heavily involved in the criminal underworld.

Dawn:

It doesn’t, but I guess we’ll never know for sure. But I’m swaying towards what another source has said who had known Bradley for decades and spoke to Bradley about three weeks before his murder. He said in the Sun newspaper on the 14th of May 2021 that he felt he had to break his silence as he wanted to get the truth out. He said that apparently Bradley was murdered for calling Baigrie “a grass”.

Cole:

Oh okay.

Dawn:

So, the story goes like this. When Bradley’s friend Richardson was on remand…

Cole:

Okay, back to Richardson again.

Dawn:

Oh yeah, cause all roads lead to him. So, when he was on remand a wannabe gangster started publicly speaking about Richardson’s case, which was going to jeopardise it. Now, this next bit’s not clear but appears the same wannabe gangster could have actually helped Richardson out by going to court and testifying for him but he refused, which is apparently going against the code of criminals. It was Baigrie who called Bradley and told him that this wannabe criminal wouldn’t be helping Richardson out, and apparently Bradley told them that the pair of them were as good as grasses, telling them that he thought they were just scared of Richardson getting out of jail. This obviously went down like a lead balloon, with Baigrie instantly starting a kill list.

Cole:

Oh wow. I’ve got one of those.

Dawn:

Am I on it on a bad day?

Cole:

You’re always on it.

Dawn:

(laughing) Anyway, from all the programs I’ve watched of Bradley and what I’ve read about him, he wasn’t one for keeping his mouth shut. He just said what he thought. And it didn’t help that he was still involved, if only slightly, in the underworld. They are ruthless.

Cole:

I also say what I think so I can totally understand that. I just don’t come with you know criminal ties. He still didn’t deserve that though did he?

Dawn:

No, he absolutely didn’t deserve it. A source summed it pretty much up in an article in The Daily Record on the 8th of May 2021 when they said that Bradley was collateral damage, an easy target. Everything went back to the hatred between Baigrie and Richardson. Bradley got murdered for no other reason than because of his friendship with Richardson and trying to help him stay out of prison. Well that and calling Baigrie a grass. But, again, that just stemmed back to his friendship with Richardson and trying to help him out. The source went on to say that Bradley wasn’t involved in organised crime, he might try and make peace, but wasn’t part of that world. Anyway, so, back to the trial. Another witness at the trial was a forensic scientist. She confirmed that when the jogging trousers that Orman had been wearing at the time of the shooting, as well as on the day he was arrested, were tested, and firearms residue discharge that had been found on Bradley were compared with the firearms discharge residue that been found in the pockets of Orman’s jogging bottoms, she said the samples were “similar in composition to each other.”

Cole:

Not conclusive, but with all the other witness statements and evidence it’d be good enough for me to convict him.

Dawn:

Yeah. And, so, on Friday the 7th of May 2021, after a 12-day trial, the jury took four hours to find 30 year old Sean Orman guilty of the murder of Bradley Welsh, and the attempted murder of David McMillan. Before being sentenced Judge Lord Beckett said the shooting of Bradley had been a “premeditated and meticulously planned assassination.” He went on to say that “to shoot an unarmed man as he approached his own house was a cowardly and wicked thing to do. His fiancée and young child were inside and you ended his life apparently in the expectation of payment. The court must do all it can to deter contract killings by imposing severe punishment.” Lord Beckett went on to say that Bradley’s fiancée Emma and ten-year-old daughter Eva had suffered following Bradley’s brutal murder. They had lost their home and no longer feel safe. Orman was given a life sentence, and ordered to serve 28 years for Bradley’s murder before he would be eligible for parole, and 10 years for the attempted murder of David. It was reported on the 21st of May 2021 in the Edinburgh Live newspaper that Orman would be appealing his life sentence.

Cole:

What a surprise.

Dawn:

Yeah. He still claims that he was riding his bike alone at the time of Bradley’s murder.

Cole:

Of course he was.

Dawn:

Despite George Baigrie being named during the trial as being the man behind Bradley’s murder, no charges have been brought. However, it was reported in the Sun newspaper that Baigrie, 38, is living in fear and knows he is a marked man. He hasn’t been seen for weeks and has instructed his family not to post any pictures of him on social media. He’s also apparently really paranoid now. So, anyway, the general consensus seemed to be that Bradley was a good guy, a guy with a heart and he loved nothing more than his family, his boxing and his charity work. Yes, he was still friends with gang members from his past, but he wasn’t one to turn his back on anyone. And, so, despite building a new life, his past life still caught up with him. Can you really ever escape the gangster lifestyle once you’ve been part of it? Regardless of which story you’re leaning towards or Bradley’s level of involvement in Edinburgh’s underbelly, he did not deserve to die on the street outside his flat from a shotgun wound to his head. He was 48 years old.

And that’s the end. If you’ve enjoyed this episode and know just the person who’d also like it, please share it with them, don’t keep it to yourself.

Cole:

Please also get in touch on social media if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. All social media and contact details are on our website scottishmurders.com, as well as all the source material and photos related to this episode.

Dawn:

So that’s it for this week, come back next time for another episode of Scottish Murders.

Dawn and Cole:

Join us there. Bye.

Granny Robertson:

Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn.

Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn

Hosted by Dawn and Cole

Researched and Written by Dawn Young

Produced and Edited by Dawn Young and Peter Bull

Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Music:

Dawn of the Fairies by Derek & Brandon Fiechter

Gothic Wedding by Derek & Brandon Fiechter

by dawnyoung

The Scottish Witch Trials

The Scottish Witch Trials

Episode Summary

TRIGGER WARNING – Contains adult themes and some strong language

Witches may seem to be just part of Hallowe’en but there’s more to witches than you might expect from somewhere like bonnie Scotland.

Please Be Advised – This episode may contain content that some may find distressing. As always, we advise listener discretion. This episode it not suitable for anyone under the age of 13.

Listen on:

Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn

Hosted by Dawn.

Guest: Kathryn Herron

Researched and Written by Peter Bull and Dawn Young

Produced and Edited by Dawn Young and Peter Bull

Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Music:

Dawn of the Fairies by Derek & Brandon Fiechter

Gothic Wedding by Derek & Brandon Fiechter

by dawnyoung

The Lynda Spence Murder

The Lynda Spence Murder

Episode Summary

27 year old Lynda Spence liked to live the high life; fast cars, expensive champagne, but in April 2011 her high life came to an abrupt and brutal end. 

Please Be Advised – This episode may contain content that some may find distressing. As always, we advise listener discretion. This episode it not suitable for anyone under the age of 13.

Listen on:

Lynda Spence trial: Family heartache over ‘terrible ordeal’ – BBC News

Welcome To Naz-tra-demus Magazine: Lynda Spence: Two Jailed For Torture Murder

‘Unimaginable’ suffering and death of Lynda Spence – BBC News

Lynda Spence trial: Coats and Wade guilty of torture case murder – BBC News

Lynda Spence: Missing businesswoman ‘had kneecaps broken with seven iron during torture session’ – Mirror Online

Lynda Spence guard in tears at murder trial | Glasgow Times

Men get life for ‘monstrous’ murder – BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

Pair lose Lynda Spence murder appeals | Glasgow Times

Lynda Spence: Former accused breaks down in court | The Scotsman

Lynda Spence’s ‘monstrous’ killers jailed for 63 years | UK | News | Express.co.uk

Cross-dressing killer found with homemade shank down his trousers in prison – Daily Star

Lynda Spence: Two men jailed for life for murder and torture of missing businesswoman whose body has never been found

Lynda Spence trial: Murder accused pair DNA found | Edinburgh News

Murder is Everywhere: The Tragic Tale Of Lynda Spence

Calls for review into Lynda Spence’s role as police mole before her murder | HeraldScotland

Lynda Spence’s killers jailed for 33 and 30 years | HeraldScotland

Lynda Spence trial: Missing woman’s blood ‘in flat’ – BBC News

Lynda Spence murder accused ‘confessed’, court told | The Scotsman

Lynda Spence murder: Mum of murdered torture victim claims ‘psychic told me dangerous nutcases had mutilated my daughter’s body’ – Mirror Online

Lynda Spence murder trial hears of victim’s crime gang links – The Sun

Evil killer Phillip Wade who tortured and murdered Glasgow accountant Lynda Spence urged to tell family where her body is

Glasgow torture killer kicked off uni course after being caught with blade in Shotts prison

Lynda Spence so tense before she vanished, mum tells court | Scotland | News | Express.co.uk

‘Tell parents where Lynda remains are’ | Glasgow Times

Lynda Spence trial: Murder accused ‘made threat’ to parents – BBC News

Lynda Spence murder trial: ‘Monstrous lies’ to suggest I killed missing financial adviser, says suspect Colin Coats – Daily Record

‘Warning to Lynda Spence parents’ – The Sun

Grieving mum of torture victim Lynda Spence remembers her daughter as ‘happy and positive girl’ – Daily Record

From IT expert to wannabe gangster: How Colin Coats became involved in Lynda Spence murder – Daily Record

Ulster Defence Association – Wikipedia

Jury to resume deliberations in Lynda Spence murder trial – Daily Record

Lynda Spence trial: Missing woman was ‘police mole’ – BBC News

Lynda Spence murder Victim had thumb chopped off – YouTube

Lynda Spence – The Free Library

Hunt for missing Glasgow woman Lynda Zejaf stepped up – BBC News

Lynda Spence detectives look for wheelie bin witnesses – BBC News

Murder is Everywhere: The Tragic Tale Of Lynda Spence

Lynda Spence trial: Ex-accused ‘did not see murder’ – BBC News

Cancer-stricken mother of Lynda Spence begs killers to reveal location of her body before she dies – Daily Record

Lynda Spence so tense before she vanished, mum tells court | Scotland | News | Express.co.uk

Birthday appeal for missing Lynda Spence – BBC News

Lynda Spence case: Ex-accused admits part in ‘plan’ – BBC News

APPEAL AGAINST CONVICTION AND SENTENCE BY PHILIP WADE AND COLIN COATS AGAINST HER MAJESTY’S ADVOCATE

Wikipedia-West Kilbride

Crime spy Lynda Spence was left to her fate by elite squad – The Sun

Cole:

Trigger Warning – This story is pretty gruesome and graphic, so listener discretion is advised.

Dawn:

27 year old Lynda Spence liked to live the high life; fast cars, expensive champagne, but in April 2011 her high life came to an abrupt and brutal end.

Dawn and Cole:

Hey Wee Ones, I’m Dawn, and I’m Cole, and this is Scottish Murders.

[THEME TUNE]

100 THINGS WE LEARNED FROM FILM PROMOTION

Dawn:

West Kilbride is a village in North Ayrshire located on the west coast of Scotland by the Firth of Clyde looking across the Firth of Clyde to Goatfell and the Isle of Arran. Being on the coast, there are some magnificent views. West Kilbride was also the first town in Scotland to organise an annual scarecrow festival to foster community spirit and civic pride within West Kilbride and its surrounding area. Flat 4 114 Meadowfoot Road is located about half a mile from the centre of West Kilbride. This property was an old house that had been split into flats, flat 4 being on the first floor with access to the attic space. It was in this attic space where Lynda Spence spent the last 13 days of her life. She had been abducted, taken to this flat and held against her will. Lynda’s last days consisted of being systematically tortured daily by her captors, her toes were crushed by garden shears, her kneecaps were smashed by a golf club, her hands were burnt with a steam iron, her thumb was chopped off, and the tip of her little finger was cut off. Lynda was tied to a chair, not being allowed to use the bathroom and so had to urinate and defecate where she sat. It’s then believed that she was suffocated, beheaded and burnt. What had gone so wrong in Lynda’s life that it had ended in such a horrendous way? Lynda Spence was born on the 8th of September 1983 to her doting parents James and Patricia Spence. Lynda was brought up in Penilee, Paisley, which is about 7.5 miles and approximately 12 kilometres west of Glasgow. She started her schooling at the nearby Ralston Primary School before heading to Paisley Grammar School when she was 12. Upon starting at Paisley Grammar School Lynda got herself not one but two jobs in local chip shops, where she worked until she was 14. However, Lynda was always thinking of others, and so she made it her passion to help other local children also find work at Christmas time so they too could have some pocket money. In an interview in the Daily Record, Lynda’s mother, Patricia, said that Lynda was a typical teenager and that she never had any bother with her at all. She was a kind, happy girl who was always smiling and positive, and never had a bad word to say about anybody. While Lynda was still at school and between working her two chip shop jobs, she also joined the RAF Air Cadets, which she absolutely loved. So much so that when she was 17 Lynda and her mum attended an RAF recruitment drive, where apparently the recruiter said that he would be happy to take Lynda, but that she maybe shouldn’t put all her eggs in one basket and to come back to see him if she was still interested when she turned 19. However, Lynda wasn’t one for standing still and letting the grass grow under her feet, so by the time she was 19 she had already left school and secured a job working in a call centre for a bank. Over the next five years, Lynda continued to work in call centres, before deciding to try her hand at providing financial services herself, this was despite Lynda’s only experience in finance coming from working in call centres. Lynda’s new finance business mainly involved obtaining mortgages for those with poor credit histories. Lynda’s business wasn’t successful and in December 2008, a year after starting her finance business, she had to declare herself bankrupt, having debts at that time of about £40,000, which is about $56,000.  However, a year later in December 2009, once the debts were written off, Lynda, who was now 26, decided to start a new business called Fraser Properties, using money her parents had given her that they had inherited from the sale of her late grandmother’s bungalow. Lynda rented premises on Great Western Road, which is about 10 miles or approximately 16 kilometres north west of Paisley, where she grew up. Lynda’s new mortgage and letting venture appeared to be extremely successful and Lynda had been able to buy two flats in a well-off part of Glasgow, she had a Mercedes convertible and she liked to buy expensive Cristal champagne. Lynda also enjoyed eating in expensive restaurant and attending bars, strip clubs and casinos. Lynda also chose to share her apparent success and wealth with her friends, and she enjoyed taking her friends out for meals and nights out, paying for everything. This kindness also extended to a school friend, Amanda Robertson, who she employed to work in her finance business. She was definitely living one hell of a high life and appeared to be enjoying every second of it. Despite Lynda’s business taking up much of her time, as well as her enjoying herself when she wasn’t working, she still found time each Saturday to take her mum out to dinner and for a drive in her car. She also took her mum shopping each week, and sometimes would even take her to the theatre. Lynda and her mum had a great relationship, they were apparently best friends as well as mother and daughter, laughing when together and enjoying each other’s company. They would talk on the phone every day and Lynda’s mum described her daughter as a loving, caring girl. From the outside Lynda was living the high life and had not a care in the world, however, this could not be further from the truth. Lynda had quickly realised that she was not going to be making the money or big deal she craved if she continued to just focus on obtaining mortgages for people, and so she began to stray into different avenues. One such avenue was her becoming involved in property development. This particular development was known as Lochburn Gate and was in Maryhill in Glasgow, which was about 2.4 miles or 3.8 kilometres away from Lynda’s offices on Great Western Road. Now, Lynda was described as being confident, charming and likable and, as such, people trusted her with their money. And so, when Lynda approached Glasgow’s Chinese community regarding this new property development she was involved in, many people wanted to be part of it and so happily handed over their hard-earned money to Lynda. It was reported that Lynda had 30 clients that wanted a home in this new development and had amassed about £175,000 in deposits from them, which would be about £240,000 and $330,000 in today’s money. Everyone was happy, the clients had a lovely new property they would be purchasing when completed, and Lynda had secured the kind of money that she had wanted. However, as time went on and the development she promised never came to fruition, the clients who had given her their deposit money were beginning to get a bit concerned. Their concern then turned to anger and dread when, after continually attending the financial company premises and demanding an update, and later their money,  neither were forthcoming. They then turned to Strathclyde Police, where they claimed that they had been defrauded. Strathclyde Police in turn started an investigation into Lynda. Lynda was never satisfied and was always on the lookout for her next big deal and how she could make fast cash, and her next big deal came to her in the form of 41 year old Colin Coates, who she had been introduced to by a mutual business friend, Tony Kelly. Colin was a former I.T specialist and made his fortune in London’s financial services industry. At one time it looked like he had it made,  a millionaire, wife, kids, but the money had gone to his head and had made him selfish. He started drinking through excess and developed a cocaine habit, as well as an explosive temper, leading him to losing nearly everything. He also had a history of violence against his ex-wife, for which he was fined, against his ex-wife’s sister and an elderly man who had stopped to intervene, for which he was given two years probation, also for beating up a Celtic fan, for which he was given a suspended sentence, and in October 2010 he was convicted and fined for assaulting a cabin crew member and threatening passengers on a flight from Glasgow the previous year. It’s not known if Lynda knew this information about Coates, but in early 2010 Lynda and Coates entered into a business deal, where Coates invested £85,000, which is about £111,000 and about $154,000 in today’s money, with Lynda, which was all the money he had.

Cole:

That was all the money he had? I thought you said he was a millionaire?

Dawn:

Yeah, but because of the drinking and drugs he’d pretty much lost everything. That’s all he had left?

Cole:

That’s a lot of money to spend on alcohol and drugs.

Dawn:

I can think of better things to spend that amount of money on.

Cole:

It depends on the day for me really. (laughter)

Dawn:

Lynda promised he would receive a return of about £131,000 or $182,000. However, things started to go wrong quickly when Coates realised that he wasn’t going to receive any of his money back, because there was no such deal and Lynda had already spent all of his money. Lynda however wasn’t going to let this little detail get in her way, and so she made up another lie this time telling Coates that he would in fact earn millions from a land and property deal that she had ongoing near Stanstead Airport, if he would just wait a little longer. And so he waited and waited, but no deal ever materialised. Lynda kept stringing Coates along though and eventually she told him that she was going to be paid in Danish government bonds from another deal, which was worth about £6.6 million, which is about £8.6 million and $11.8 million in today’s money,  and that he would get his cut from this. He agreed. However, again, there was no such deal. So, in desperation, Lynda persuaded a printer in Glasgow to produce fake Danish bonds and she gave Coates his cut.  However, Coates, not being a particularly stupid man, realised pretty quickly that the bonds were actually fake, and finally he had had enough of Lynda’s lies and started to plan his revenge. Lynda’s worries didn’t stop with Coates however. Never to let the grass grow under her feet and always on the lookout for more money opportunities, Lynda had also made a deal with property developer, John Glen, who had given her £180,000, about £236,000 and $325,000 in today’s money, as part of a non-existent deal, and he too was wanting his money back. Lynda however had already spent this money too. John became very abusive, going as far as sending her text messages threatening to cut her fingers off and chop her head off. At this point Lynda finally started to accept that things were getting out of control and her life was beginning to unravel, and she was getting scared.

Cole:

I get the feeling that Lynda’s not really learning from her mistakes and she just keeps making the same mistakes over and over again.

Dawn:

Yeah, I get that feeling as well. I just want her to stop and just pay some money back!

Cole:

And I feel like you never actually know who you’re getting into business with. And, I mean, I would be scared at this point.

Dawn:

Yeah, I would be scared as well. If somebody’s threatening to cut your fingers off. Yeah, a bit scary. So, while Lynda’s manipulating ways of getting people to part with their money and never paying them back was finally coming to a head, something that Lynda had been involved in almost ten years earlier while working in a bank was also beginning to come back to haunt her. When Lynda was 17 years old she became involved with an Albanian man called Sokal Zefraj, who was an asylum seeker. Mr Zefraj wanted to stay in the UK and Lynda, always wanting to help others, decided the best course of action would be for Mr Zefraj to marry a UK citizen. However, Lynda herself was unable or unwilling to marry him as she didn’t want her parents to know about him, so Lynda asked her school friend, Amanda Robertson, the same friend who would become an employee at Lynda’s finance business, to do her the favour of marrying Mr Zefraj to help him out. Amanda agreed to this deal and the two were married. Then apparently approximately four years later, Amanda divorced Mr Zefraj and Lynda supposedly married him herself, a fact that Mr Zefraj denied, stating that he never in fact married Lynda. It’s not known which version is true, but Lynda did use his surname when making business deals. However, Lynda did have numerous aliases that she used when she was securing fake UK passports for people from Eastern Europe, another sideline of Lynda’s. And so due to her alleged marriage to Mr Zefraj and her apparent close relationship with him, shortly before Lynda’s disappearance, she was in the process of being recruited as an informer or a Covert Human Intelligence Source (CHIS) by the now defunct agencies Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), who both were interested in the activities of Mr Zefraj. Apparently the go-ahead to recruit Lynda as an informant had been given on the 14th of April 2011. So, had this information somehow come to light and was Lynda kidnapped and tortured due to her apparently being in the process of becoming an informant? Lynda was getting in deeper and deeper and it was only a matter of time before her dealings caught up with her.

Cole:

She’s juggling a lot of plates this girl.

Dawn:

Yeah, I don’t know how she can keep up.

Cole:

And she’s got fake aliases for fake passports to help people come into the UK?

Dawn:

Yes, that’s correct. She’s busy. Lynda’s world really began unravelling in late 2010 when her school friend, Amanda Robertson, left Lynda’s finance business due to customer complaints and rarely being paid. Amanda was however still able to access Lynda’s emails, and Amanda had sent a text message to a mutual friend following reading a specific email sent to Lynda in which she said to the mutual friend “She’s got some deal involving Arabs and Albanians going on with peeps in New York. It’s all a bit dodgy sounding.” Was this another business deal Lynda was involved in to try and keep her head above water? But was it too little too late? Despite Lynda’s pending downfall, she spent Christmas 2010 in a plush hotel in Glasgow drinking Cristal champagne, but by the New Year things were visibly falling apart as Lynda’s finance business finally dissolved. Sadly though the failing of Lynda’s finance business didn’t just impact Lynda, it also impacted her parent. As when they had given Lynda the money from her grandmother’s bungalow sale for Lynda to start up her own business, Lynda had agreed with her parents that she would pay their rent, but Lynda was now unable to continue doing this and therefore her parents were made temporarily homeless. Lynda then had to apply for benefits and Job Seekers Allowance, and in March she pawned her jewellery. Lynda’s high life at this time must have felt like a distant memory, apparently telling people that if a deal didn’t go through soon she would be in a lot of trouble. Was this the same deal that her former employee and friend Amanda had seen in her emails? No one will ever know. Whichever deal Lynda had been trying to secure, it is doubtful that Lynda could have predicted just how much danger she was shortly to be finding herself in. According to Lynda’s mum, Patricia, Lynda’s behaviour had started to change towards the end of 2010, where she would still call her mum daily but she apparently became distant and said that she was too busy to meet her mum as much. This behaviour would continue until about 6pm on Wednesday the 13th of April 2011 when Lynda went to her parents home in Castlebank Gardens in Glasgow, a mere 2.3 miles or 3.7 kilometres from Lynda’s finance business for her mum’s birthday, giving her flowers as a gift.  Patricia said that the pair had kissed and cuddled and Patricia had asked Lynda where they were going for her birthday, however, she said that Lynda was very tense saying that she had to leave but that she would be back in half an hour. She never returned, and this was the last time her parents ever saw her. It is not known what Lynda did for the remainder of the day on Wednesday the 13th of April and why she wasn’t able to go out to celebrate her mum’s birthday, but on Thursday the 14th of April Lynda was apparently lured from her home in Glasgow to a house in Broomhill Path, also in Glasgow, about 2.2 miles and 3.7 kilometres from where Lynda’s parents were currently residing, which belonged to none other than Colin Coates.

Cole:

And he was the person that she gave fake bonds to, right?

Dawn:

That’s right. Yep. Lynda drove to his property in a silver Vauxhall Astra car that had been hired for her on the 1st of April 2011. Upon arriving at the property she came face to face with both Coates and his friend Philip Wade. Wade, who was 40 years old, was a drug dealer and also enforced drug debts, and he just happened to have a grievance against Lynda as well, as apparently Lynda had extorted £2,000 or $2,700 from Wade’s family. 

Cole:

So, did she know whose house she was going to? Because I wouldn’t have willingly gone to his house after selling him fake bonds.

Dawn:

No, I think she didn’t know where she was going, whose house it was. She probably thought, you know, she was good at blagging her way out of any situation, so I don’t think she thought she would have a problem with this one.

Cole:

Did she know that Wade was going to be there?

Dawn:

No, I don’t think she knew anything about Wade being there, that probably threw her off a wee bit.

Cole:

Right, okay.

Dawn:

I certainly don’t think she was aware of the danger she was walking into when she went there.

Cole:

Okay. Yeah. Maybe she just should have thought about that before she, you know, went ahead with it.

Dawn:

Yeah, just a wee second thought.

Cole:

Yeah. Yeah.

Dawn:

Either way, when she arrived at the property there was no way she could have anticipated or expected what happened next. Coates and Wade restrained Lynda and transported her to a flat in Meadowfoot Road, West Kilbride, which is a 47 minute drive south east of Coates’ home. A 47 minute drive where Lynda would have been absolutely terrified, thinking about what fate awaited her. Flat 4, 114 Meadowfoot Road belonged to David Parker, who was 36 and was a drug addict. Parker apparently had been approached at the beginning of April 2011 by a fellow drug addict, Paul Smith who was 45, to ask if it was possible if he could let his flat out for a couple of days. Parker had agreed to this, as he had not actually been living in the flat since October 2010 due to problems with flooding. Apparently a couple of days afterwards Parker was picked up by Coates, Wade and Smith and they all went to the flat, where Parker was told to remove photographs and anything that had his name on it. Parker said at this point he began to wonder what exactly was going on and what he was getting himself involved in, but said nothing and did as he was told. Parker and Smith were at the property on the 14th of April when Wade and Coates arrived there with Lynda, as they had been hired by Coates and Wade to stay at the property with Lynda in between Coates and Wade’s daily visits. Lynda was forced up to the attic, and Parker said he had heard “raised and muffled cries.” Once Coates and Wade had left, Parker went up to the attic and said he saw Lynda tied to an office chair by her waist and arms, and had tape over her mouth, with glasses on covered in tape so she wasn’t able to see her surroundings or where she was. He said that he was shocked and scared and just couldn’t believe what was happening. He said that when he spoke to Smith about his concerns Smith told him that Coates and Wade were serious guys not to be messed with and to just go along with it, what choice did they have now?  Unbeknownst to Lynda, she would spend the last two weeks of her life in this attic, tied to a computer chair, facing the most horrendous torture imaginable.  Apparently when Coates and Wade returned Wade had a torture kit with him, which included large garden shears, bandages, surgical tape and a bucket. Coates and Wade would apparently attend the attic daily, but as Wade was six foot six inches he was unable to stand up properly in the attic, and so it was left to Coates to inflict the torture on Lynda while Wade just stood and watched from the side-lines. Parker and Smith apparently would give Lynda cups of tea and soup when Wade and Coates left, and were well aware of her injuries and what was happening to her. They knew that she had injuries to both of her hands, her toes, bruising to her face, and she also apparently complained her legs were sore, but they said that they were too frightened to do anything to help her, too frightened to save her life. Parker said that Lynda was in a frightened state at one point saying that she wished she hadn’t got herself into this mess. All Parker said he could do was urge Lynda to tell Coates and Wade what they wanted to know. Apparently Lynda asked Parker at one point “Do you think Colin and Phil will ever let me go?” Parker was unable to answer this question. In the meantime, obviously Lynda’s parents would have been concerned, as, yes, Lynda had become distant and they hadn’t been seeing her as often as before, but she still called daily and obviously hadn’t been able to since being abducted on the 14th of April.

Cole:

Was anyone aware of Lynda’s disappearance or was anyone searching for her?

Dawn:

Well no, not initially, because, allegedly, in the days following Lynda’s disappearance, Coates and mutual business friend, Tony Kelly, paid a visit to Lynda’s parents home and warned them about contacting the police, telling them Lynda owed Coates £10,000 or $14,000, and that she had pawned two of his watches.  On hearing this information apparently Lynda’s mum, Patricia, said “If she’s stolen your money I’m going to report it to the police. She has no right stealing money.” In response, allegedly Coates jumped to his feet and banged the couch saying “If the polis look into my computer I’ll get years, and don’t forget I’ve got UDA people and London people.

Cole:

The polis. [Laughter] UDA?

Dawn:

Yeah. It means Ulster Defense Association and it’s an Ulster loyalist parliamentary group in Northern Ireland that was involved in the troubles in Ireland.

Cole:

Okay. So did Coates have involvement with these groups or people?

Dawn:

Well, it’s not actually confirmed anywhere that this was the case, but Lynda’s parents took it seriously enough as they didn’t get the police involved for another month after this. Apparently, Mr Spence did ask Coates if he knew where Lynda was and he said that he didn’t.

Cole:

I don’t think that would have put my mind at rest though.

Dawn:

No, me neither. I would have at least checked it out and tried and got hold of Lynda.

Cole:

Yeah, definitely.

Dawn:

And then on the 20th of April 2011, six days after Lynda just disappeared and stopped calling her parents, Mr and Mrs Spence received a phone call on their mobile phone from Lynda.

Cole:

What? Had she escaped?

Dawn:

No, she hadn’t, and it’s never been explained why she was allowed to make this call. Maybe it was in order to stop her parents actually getting in touch with the police, maybe Coates realised that as time went on his threat would be less effective. Whatever the reason, she was allowed to call her parents.  Mr Spence said that they were on their way to the supermarket and the phone rang and the caller ID said it was Lynda. Lynda’s mum answered but she was so distraught Mr Spencer had to take the phone off her. He asked Lynda where she was, but she apparently was very evasive saying that she was in London. He said that she seemed normal but he was not reassured by this phone call at all, and she would not tell him exactly where she was and just kept being evasive. Before ringing off, Lynda told her parents that she would speak to them again soon, but this was the last time they would ever speak to their daughter again.

Cole:

Okay. So, I don’t really understand, because if she’s been kind of tied up to a chair and she’s been tortured, why would she not ask for help or say I’m being held against my will? 

Dawn:

I thought about that and maybe she was just trying to protect her parents. I mean she now knew exactly what Coates and Wade were capable of, maybe she thought if she didn’t comply then they might hurt her parents too. Or she thought if she did comply they might let her go. I mean, she probably wasn’t in her best frame of mind after having been abducted, tortured and held against her will for six days at this point. How she managed to come across as normal is a mystery.

Cole:

Yeah, I guess I suppose she didn’t actually know where she was, so I guess maybe she just didn’t know what was going on and she thought the best thing to do was to kind of follow what they told her to do.

Dawn:

Yeah. I can’t explain it at all. I don’t know what it was about. It didn’t appear to be a coded message, or at least if it was Lynda’s parents didn’t understand it. Anyway, on the same day this call was made by Lynda to her parents, Wade and Coates had already paid their daily torture visit to the flat in Meadowfoot Road, where Coates had cut off the tip of Lynda’s finger. However, later the same day Smith said that Coates came back by himself to the flat, which was unusual as Coates and Wade always came together. He said that Coates was extremely angry at this point and he said that he was “going to take her thumb”. Coates then apparently proceeded to go up to the attic, where Lynda could be heard to cry out “No Colin!” Coates then reappeared in the living room and indicated that he had Lynda’s thumb in his pocket. After Coates left, Parker went to the attic and saw that Lynda had tape around her hand, but that there was nothing where her thumb was supposed to be.

Cole:

So, did he leave the house with her thumb? Why would he even take that with him?

Dawn:

Well, because he had a plan. While Lynda was being tortured and questioned by the pair of them about her financial dealings, she’d mentioned a man that she was doing business with called John Glen, and that she had given a lot of Coates’ money to him. So, on the same day, the 20th of April, Coates decided to pay John Glen a visit to try and get his money back from him, as he obviously wasn’t getting it back from Lynda, and maybe he felt that taking Lynda’s thumb with him would give him more leverage. And he would be right. As when Coates threatened John and showed him Lynda’s thumb in a plastic bag and demanded he give him his money back that Lynda had given to him, John was frightened enough by this to hand over what money he could to Coates. Now you’d think at this point Coates would be satisfied because he’s got some of his money back and he’s taken out some vengeance on Lynda by the torture that he had carried out, however, Lynda’s nightmare would continue for a further seven days and nights, where she continued to be beaten and subjected to horrific torture daily.

Cole:

I just don’t understand why he would continue to do that when he’s already got what he wanted.

Dawn:

I have no idea. It’s horrific. He’s just evil.

Cole:

He really does sound evil.

Dawn:

So, on the 27th of April, 13 days after Lynda was first abducted, Coates  and Wade told Parker and Smith that they could leave the property. Both Parker and Smith at this time apparently had the feeling that this wouldn’t be good news for Lynda, and still they didn’t go to the police to try to save Lynda’s life. Lynda’s parents had also not informed the police that Lynda was missing at this time, so no one would be coming to save Lynda. Apparently on the 28th of April, Coates dragged Lynda into the bathroom and killed her, before cutting off her head with a hacksaw. He then put her remains in the boot of Lynda’s silver Vauxhall hire car.  On the 29th of April, using mobile phone records of the pair to track their journey, Coates and Wade drove Lynda’s hire car to a friend of Wades’, Lee Winyard’s, caravan in Tighnabruaich in Argyll, which is a two-hour drive away from the flat at Meadowfoot Road, West Kilbride. Wade apparently asked to use Lee’s boat, saying that they had something to get rid of, however, Lee refused their request. It’s not known where Lynda’s car or body were taken. A week after Lynda’s body was removed from the attic, Coates, Wade, Parker and Smith started on a month-long clean-up of the flat, where every square inch was scrubbed with bleach, and all the furniture, including the chair Lynda was tied to, bedding , crockery and carpets, were removed, as well as the floorboards being ripped up and replaced. Apparently the majority of the items removed were burned by Wade.

Cole:

So, it sounds like they did a really good job of cleaning up then, they’re not taking any chances to find any of Lynda’s DNA or of them being found in the flat either.

Dawn:

Yeah. They certainly did do a good clean-up job, however, not quite good enough, and they completely forgot that bought items can be traced too. The first time that Lynda is actually reported missing in any way is on the 13th of May 2011, a full two weeks after Parker and Smith were told to leave the flat where Lynda was being held, when fraud investigators called at Lynda’s parents home asking for her whereabouts, due to Lynda being investigated for defrauding a number of people in Glasgow.

Cole:

Oh yeah, the Chinese community went to the police didn’t they? So, they started an investigation into that. So that was exactly a month later when she was reported missing?

Dawn:

Yeah. it was a bit of a gap between going missing and being reported missing. So, by this time Coates and Wade presumably thought that they had gotten away with what they had done to Lynda, as they had tortured Lynda for two weeks, disposed of her body, and still there was no police involvement or even a report of Lynda being missing. Coates must have thought the threat he had made to Lynda’s parents had resulted in their silence. And this continued even when the police arrived at Lynda’s parents home looking to speak to Lynda on the 13th of May.  Lynda’s parents did tell the police that they hadn’t seen Lynda since the 13th of April, but also that they’d spoken to her by phone on the 20th of April. They also didn’t divulge the fact that Coates had visited them and warned them from contacting the police. Therefore, a more serious missing person inquiry did not begin. It might have been assumed at this time that Lynda had chosen to disappear based on the allegations she was facing rather than anything else . At this point only posters were put up detailing that Lynda had been last seen on the 13th of April 2011 and was believed to be driving a silver Vauxhall car. It wouldn’t be until around three weeks when a full-scale missing person inquiry finally began. This was because Lynda’s mum, Patricia, had received a phone call from Lynda’s mobile phone, but it wasn’t Lynda calling. On the 2nd of June 2011, Lynda’s mobile phone had been found in a bin at a cafe in Kilbirnie, Ayrshire, a 20-minute drive north east from where Lynda was being held, and also apparently about a mile away from where Wade lived.  The lady who found the phone called Lynda’s mum saying “I’ve called mum. I’ve found this phone.” The woman immediately took the phone to the local police station. It was following Lynda’s phone being found that Mr and Mrs Spence went immediately to the police station and told them everything they knew regarding Lynda and Coates’ business dealings, including the fact that Coates had visited them and threatened them into not contacting the police about Lynda’s disappearance. Finally on the 14th of June 2011 an appeal was made by Lynda’s mum and dad where Lynda’s mum was incredibly upset and sobbed throughout the appeal. She pleaded for anyone with any information about Lynda’s disappearance to contact the police. The investigation started with the police carrying out an extensive proof-of-life inquiry, which led to no clues about Lynda’s whereabouts. These lack of clues demonstrated to detectives that Lynda’s life had most likely been taken, not a case of choosing not to make contact but not being able to. Now, obviously, police were investigating Coates due to his business dealings with Lynda and also due to the threats he had made to Lynda’s parents about not calling the police, but the police had got nowhere with Coates and found that no one was willing to talk about him, so they hit a brick wall. Until that is they found that an automatic number plate recognition camera had picked up Lynda’s hire car on a section of motorway which runs between Glasgow and Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire on the 20th of April, but even more interesting is that both Coates and Wade’s mobile phones were cell cited in the same area at the same time. Coates had denied that he had seen Lynda since her disappearance. So could it just be a coincidence that Coates, Wade and Lynda’s hire car were in the same vicinity at the same time? Yeah, the police didn’t think so either. But yet again the police came across a brick wall, no one was willing to talk to them. But it was becoming clear to the police that Coates and Wade were somehow involved in Lynda’s disappearance, they just needed a breakthrough, and this came in the form of John Glen on the 16th of August 2011.

Cole:

So, John Glen was the guy that Coates showed Lynda’s thumb to so that he could scare him into giving him more money, is that right?

Dawn:

Yep, that’s the guy. John Glen had been sufficiently scared by the thumb incident that he had also kept his mouth shut about what he knew. Until that is Coates paid him a visit again on the 15th of August 2011, where, before he extorted money from him, he made him strip naked. John was terrified and scared that he would become Coates’ next victim, and so this time he didn’t keep quiet but went straight to the police the next day and told them everything he knew. Armed with this new information, the police bit by bit managed to get other witnesses to come forward and talk to them about what they knew, including Pamela Pearson, a friend of Wade’s, who said that Wade had actually told her that he’d help dispose of a woman’s body, until finally even Smith and Parker admitted to the police their part in the horrific last two weeks of Lynda’s life, including the address where it all took place. On the 28th of October, six months after Lynda was murdered, police broke down the door of Flat 4, 114 Meadowfoot Road, where they were met with a completely refurbished flat and attic space. Forensic teams spent a week examining every inch of the flat and attic space and, despite the clear clean-up job, a tiny blood speck was found on the linoleum next to the bath, which following being swabbed and tested was identified as matching the DNA profile of Lynda. A fingerprint was also found on the bathroom door which was identified as belonging to Coates. So, the police had witnesses coming forward with damning statements, they had Lynda’s DNA in the flat, and now Coates’ fingerprint was placing him in the property.  To add to the evidence mounting against Coates, through some great detective work, CCTV footage was found of Coates buying floorboards, sandpaper, white spirits and nails on the 25th of May 2011, presumably purchased for the clean-up job at the flat. Things were starting to seriously unravel for Wade and Coates, but it only got worse for them on the 31st of October 2011 when Coates, Wade, Smith and Parker were taken into police custody and charged with Lynda’s abduction and murder. The trial of Coates, Wade, Smith and Parker on the charge of abducting, torturing and killing Lynda Spence began on the 16th of January 2013 at the High Court in Glasgow, one year and nine months after Lynda first went missing, with all four men pleading not guilty. The jury consisted of six men and seven women. The jury were firstly made aware of Lynda’s lifestyle and of the many “deals” she had on the go where she would take other people’s money in the pretence of investing it but actually spending it herself. They were told of her financial business and of how she helped those with poor credit gain mortgages fraudulently. They were also told that Lynda had been secured as an informant by the now defunct Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency on the day she was abducted. Now, I’m going to come back to that later in the story. They were also told that Lynda was being investigated by the police in connection with a fraud allegation involving the Chinese community. They were then told of Lynda’s abduction, the horrendous torture she suffered and her subsequent murder, based on witness statements and evidence. They were told DNA evidence had been found in the flat at Meadowfoot Road proving Lynda had been there, along with Coates’ fingerprint. They heard from witnesses, including Wade’s friend, Pamela Pearson, who told of Wade’s confession that he had helped dispose of a woman’s body. As well as evidence from Wade’s friend, Lee Winyard, that the two men had driven to his caravan at Tighnabruaich and had expressed a desire to get rid of something. Lee also testified that he believed the car the two men arrived in was the same car that had been featured in the missing person poster, Lynda’s silver Vauxhall hire car. They also heard from an inmate, Peter Hadley, who had been friends with Coates while he had been in prison for suspicion of murdering Lynda, who advised that Coates told him that he had killed Lynda, that she had tape over her mouth and he’d held her nose until she died, before cutting off her head and burning her remains in a furnace, having to set it to its hottest temperature as there were” still parts of it left”. He told the courts that Coates had told him that there had been other people present when she was killed, but that apparently no one else was directly involved. Although when cross-examined by Derek Ogg QC, Hadley was accused of being a malicious self-serving liar who had simply made up this story in order to secure benefits for himself, such as an early release from prison. The jury were also played a taped police interview with Parker when he was arrested on the 31st of October, in which he denied being involved in Lynda’s murder, but talked about being aware that his golf club had been used to hit Lynda but he wasn’t sure by who only that he had found it twisted to bits. John Glen also gave evidence against Coates from behind a screen, having been forced into a protection program as he was so scared of repercussions. He told the jury that Coates had threatened to kill him and had brandished Lynda’s thumb. John Glen wasn’t the only witness that was scared of repercussions from Coates and Wade if they talked, as both Coates and Wade threatened any potential witnesses. It was suggested at the trial that even the three men that were on trial with Coates were afraid of him. Thankfully, regardless of how scared of Coates and of any repercussions people were, they were willing to come forward as witnesses for the prosecution against the four men on trial because they were disgusted by what they had learned had been done to Lynda.

Cole:

It really sounds like none of the men involved could keep their mouth shut. I can’t decide if they were boasting about what they had done hoping to scare people to be quiet or if they were just stupid.

Dawn:

Yeah, I’m not sure either. Will we go with stupid?

Cole:

I would hazard a guess it’s stupid. 

Dawn:

And then on the 6th of March Parker and Smith were cleared of murder and instead a reduced charge of detaining Lynda against her will, assaulting her and attempting to defeat the ends of justice was accepted by the Crown. The pair had decided to turn on Coates and Wade and give evidence against them to save themselves. Wade and Coates continued to be on trial for the murder of Lynda and continued to deny this charge. Both Paul Smith and David Parker appeared in court on the 15th of March to give evidence against Wade and Coates. The pair both testified that they were asked by Wade and Coates to keep Lynda at the flat in Meadowfoot Road and that Wade and Coates would visit the flat daily to inflict violence on Lynda. Parker actually broke down in tears when he recounted the violence that was inflicted on Lynda, recalling one particular time he heard Lynda crying out “No Colin” just after Coates had told him “I’m taking her thumb.” The pair may have given evidence against Coates and Wade, but they still did nothing to help Lynda in the last weeks of her life. Smith justified this by saying that he was too scared to do anything saying that he quite liked his fingers the way they were. Then it was Wade and Coates’ turn to take the stand. When Wade was questioned by the prosecutor, Leslie Thomson, regarding Smith and Parker’s testimony about Wade’s involvement in Lynda’s kidnapping, torture and death, Wade replied that it was “total fantasy.” He continued to state that he had no idea of Lynda’s whereabouts, but that he hoped she would hand herself in. He also stated that when he saw her last she was alive and “just the usual Lynda.” Wade had been described throughout the trial by witnesses as Coates’ right-hand man in the abduction, torture and killing of Lynda. When it was Coates’ turn to take the stand he had a completely different story to tell about Lynda’s disappearance than anyone else that had testified already. Coates told the court that he was in fact a close friend of Lynda and that he had helped her when she had to get out of Glasgow as she was being threatened by other business associates due to unpaid debts. He went on to say that she had actually arranged to stay at the flat with Smith herself and that it was sort of a safe house for her until she could get further away from the area, and then she simply disappeared one day, taking with her Coates’ laptop and Parker and Smith’s drug stash.  Because, wait for it, that was actually what the attic was being used as, a cannabis factory.

Cole:

Was there any evidence of that when the flat was taken apart?

Dawn:

Eh, no, none that I can find. I think it was just more lies. Coates said that it was actually monstrous lies that had been told about him abducting, torturing and killing Lynda. Coates said that he did think people were scared, not of him though but of the police, and that every witness that had testified was under pressure by them to tell these lies about Coates. Not surprisingly Coates also denied showing John Glen a thumb in April 2011, as well as denying that he kept Lynda on a chair in the attic at the flat at Meadowfoot Road. Coates’ defence QC, which is Queen’s Council, Derek Ogg, tried to back this up by saying that Lynda’s DNA being found in the flat could have a perfectly reasonable explanation, and that Lynda may simply have cut herself. The defence stated that the Crown had not proven that Lynda was even dead. However, Prosecutor, Leslie Thomson, QC, countered this by saying that if Lynda had indeed been laying low in the flat as suggested, her DNA would have been all over the place instead of minuscule drops of blood being all that was found, thus indicating a thorough clean-up job. She went on to state that although no body had been found Lynda’s lack of contact with her parents, who she was in constant contact with normally, could conclude that Lynda was indeed dead. Following the closing statements, the jury finally retired for deliberations on the 2nd of April 2013. It took the jury about 20 hours over five days to come to their verdicts, following the 11-week trial, but on the 8th of April 2013 Wade and Coates were found guilty of abducting, torturing and murdering 27 year old Lynda in April 2011. They found Coates unanimously guilty of murdering Lynda and disposing of her body. Wade too was convicted of both of these charges, but he was cleared of cutting off Lynda’s head. Coates was also found guilty of threatening behaviour towards John Glen and of trying to extort money from him. Before sentencing, Lord Pentland said that it was due to Parker and Smith’s “despicable and cowardly” actions of providing Coates and Wade a place to keep Lynda and by keeping guard on her that ultimately led to what had happened  to her. He went on to say that Coates and Wade had been convicted of “a truly monstrous and barbaric crime”. He described Wade as a “violent, dangerous man with no respect for human life or respect for civilised society”. He went on to give his opinion on Coates saying “from the extensive evidence I am left in no doubt you were the more dominant actor. You were the prime mover behind the abduction, torture and murder of Lynda Spence. I am convinced you have a devious and cruel personality. In my view you are a ruthless and dangerous man.” As the four men’s sentences were heard, they stood with their heads bowed. David Parker, 38, was sentenced to 11 years and three months and Paul Smith, 47, was sentenced to 11 years.  Philip Wade, 42, was sentenced to spend at least 30 years behind bars and Colin Coates, 42, was sentenced to a minimum of 33 years in prison. This was one of the longest jail terms that had ever been handed down in a Scottish Court. There were gasps from the gallery as the men were handed down their lengthy sentences, before being led away. Following the verdict, whilst I’m not saying Lynda’s family felt relief as their beloved daughter was still presumed dead, they certainly must have felt that justice had indeed been served. Lynda’s parents, James and Patricia, did release a statement saying “There is no verdict that will bring our daughter Lynda back or spare her the terrible ordeal that took her life. We will never begin to imagine her suffering or comprehend the cruelty of any person who would do that to another human being. We cannot begin to understand or forgive what they did to our daughter, Lynda. No words can begin to describe the heartache and pain we are suffering. Lynda was a warm, kind and thoughtful daughter and was someone who always had time for others. We miss her so much.” In this statement, Lynda’s parents thanked the lead detective involved in the murder investigation, Alan Buchanan, and his team, the prosecutors who had worked to bring their daughter’s murderer to justice, as well as an organisation called PETAL, standing for People Experiencing Trauma And Loss, who had offered them a great deal of support. The detective who was in charge of the murder investigation, Detective Superintendent Alan Buchanan, advised that he was pleased with the guilty verdicts and the sentencing. He hoped that in some way it gave some satisfaction to Lynda’s parents, especially after they had to endure the horrendous details in the court case of what had been done to their daughter. He appealed to the accused to show some common decency and tell Lynda’s family where her body was so they could lay their daughter to rest.  Unfortunately, Coates and Wade have shown that they have no such thing as common decency as they have never told the family where Lynda’s body is. While there was a search carried out in February 2012 in a well at a farm at Law Brae, West Kilbride, and a field has been excavated in the search for Lynda’s body, so far the searches have turned up nothing. Sadly, due to not having Lynda’s body, the exact details of what happened to her and how she died may never be known. All there is to go on is the boasts by her killers and the confessions of their accomplices. Now, I mentioned earlier about the Court being told that Lynda had been recruited as an informant. Well, after the ourt case, senior officers were asked to investigate their dealings with Lynda, as it had emerged in Court that Lynda had actually been recruited as an informer before she had disappeared not the day off as previously thought. Well, apparently, because she was an official informer for the agency before her disappearance, things maybe should have been handled differently. For example, apparently Lynda’s handler at the defunct SCDEA actually got told that Lynda had disappeared within 48 hours of this happening, but her handler didn’t deem it necessary to inform Strathclyde Police of Lynda’s  involvement with them. Sharing this information between agencies could have proven vital, not only because Lynda was an authorised Cohort Human Intelligence Source and her safety and welfare should have been protected under the law, but also because if this information had been relayed to the police 48 hours after Lynda went missing, the police presumably would have started an investigation into her whereabouts a whole lot sooner, but also it might just have given Lynda a fighting chance of being found. In my opinion, agencies need to learn to better communicate and share information so that everybody involved has the big picture instead of small parts of it, because nobody can work effectively this way. So, what happened to Coates and Wade? Well, of course, after the sentencing they both launched an appeal, stating that they were victims of a miscarriage of justice, and also a further appeal against their lengthy sentences. After reviewing their appeals, one of the judges presiding over the case, Lord Gill, said that in his view it was an overwhelming case that the accused murdered Lynda and that in his opinion there was no miscarriage of justice. As for their sentence appeal, Lord Gill said he considered their sentences to be appropriate and he saw no basis to interfere with them. The appeal judges deemed that there was overwhelming evidence that both men were guilty of the crime they were charged with. Coates continues to cause trouble in prison. In January 2019 it was reported that he had been found with a plastic pointed three-inch t-shaped weapon on him made from plastic cutlery from the canteen. As punishment, he had been put in segregation for three weeks and removed from his Open University course he had been on. He was given a four-month sentence to run alongside his life sentence for this crime and was moved to another prison. Also in 2019 it was reported that Wade, who was then 49 and in Kilmarnock prison, had been given a job counselling other convicts. Apparently he got this role after being trained by the Samaritans. Lynda’s family were up in arms about this saying that it was all rubbish, how can he have this role after the horrific crime he committed? And if he was reformed and so caring now, why wouldn’t he tell them where Lynda’s remains were and put them out of their misery? Apparently, other inmates think it’s a joke that after what he did he is in this role. But a Samaritans spokesperson said “the listener scheme is our peer support scheme which aims to reduce suicide in prisons. Volunteers select, train and support prisoners. The listeners then provide face-to-face support to fellow prisoners who are struggling to cope. We have a rigorous selection and application process.”

Cole:

I think I’m with Lynda’s family and friends here, how can this man be the right person for the job?

Dawn:

Yeah, I agree. Now, sadly, in February 2014, Lynda’s mum, Patricia, who was aged 57 at that time, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and she was given less than two years to live. At this time, she appealed again to Coates and Wade to finally tell her where her daughter was, but again this fell on deaf ears. Now, Lynda was portrayed in Court as a con artist, known for providing fake bank statements and other documents to aid people with low income or bad credit to appear able to get a mortgage or loan etc, as well as manipulating people into giving her their money for ventures and projects that never were to take place and spending their money like it was her own, however, Lynda was a daughter and loved very much. Her mother, Patricia, stated that Lynda was a loving, caring girl and that she meant everything to her.

Cole:

I think this is a really unfortunate case, and obviously Lynda didn’t deserve what happened to her. I think she made some questionable decisions, but to kidnap and torture someone for two weeks over money, it doesn’t seem… I mean murder never seems justified, but to kidnap and torture someone over money doesn’t seem right at all.

Dawn:

It’s not right Cole. It’s just absolutely horrendous what they did to her, regardless of what she had done.

Cole:

Yeah, it really was horrendous.

Dawn:

Lynda clearly was a swindler and she had made many people victims of her manipulation and they did deserve justice for having their money taken from them, but by means of the proper legal channels. Lynda did not deserve what happened to her. Lynda was a victim too.

And that’s the end. If you’ve enjoyed this episode and know just the person who’d also like it, please share it with them, don’t keep it to yourself.

Cole:

Please also get in touch on social media if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. All social media and contact details are on our website scottishmurders.com, as well as all the source material and photos related to this episode.

Dawn:

So that’s it for this week, come back next time for another episode of Scottish Murders.

Dawn and Cole:

Join us there. Bye. 

Granny Robertson:

Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn.

Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn

Hosted by Dawn and Cole

Researched and Written by Dawn Young

Produced and Edited by Dawn Young and Peter Bull

Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Music:

Dawn of the Fairies by Derek & Brandon Fiechter

Gothic Wedding by Derek & Brandon Fiechter

by dawnyoung

The Arlene Fraser Disappearance

The Arlene Fraser Disappearance

Episode Summary

A violent husband, a hit man or a pig farm owner; who kidnapped and murdered Arlene Fraser?

Please Be Advised – This episode may contain content that some may find distressing. As always, we advise listener discretion. This episode it not suitable for anyone under the age of 13.

Listen on:

Refuge – 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline 0808 2000 247 (UK) or nationaldahelpline.org.uk

 

Death in a cold town: The Arlene Fraser case

by Steve MacGregor

Synopsis

There is a common misconception that, if a body can’t be found then no-one can be brought to trial for murder. That isn’t true, as one Scottish man discovered. Twice!
Arlene Fraser was an attractive, vivacious mother of two young children who lived in the peaceful town of Elgin in the north-east of Scotland. On the morning of April 28th, 1998, she was seen waving to her children as they left for school. One hour later, she called the school to check about a trip. It was a very ordinary day in an ordinary Scottish town. Yet, that was the last time that anyone saw or heard from Arlene Fraser.
Police found no signs of a struggle or foul play in the house and Arlene’s spectacles, contact lenses, medication, keys and passport were all still where she had left them. A vacuum cleaner was found in her daughter’s bedroom, plugged in but switched off, as if Arlene had been interrupted during housework and had stepped outside for a moment. However, despite one of the biggest police operations ever mounted in Scotland and a massive search involving the RAF, police dogs and members of the public, no trace of Arlene or her body were ever found.
Despite having a cast-iron alibi for the relevant time, Nat Fraser, Arlene’s husband, was eventually charged with her murder. However, many people felt that his trial was unfair, with the police accused of withholding vital evidence and questions being raised about the motivations and honesty of one of the main witnesses for the prosecution. Nat Fraser appealed, his sentence was eventually quashed and he was freed. Then he was tried again using essentially the same evidence and the same witnesses. The original verdict was repeated. He appealed, again…
This case raises a number of questions which still remain the subject of heated debate in Scotland. What happened to Arlene Fraser in April 1998? Did her husband really arrange for her abduction and murder? Were any of the trials and appeals fair? Were the verdicts correct? Who was the murderer?
Find out the answers to all these questions in this detailed and unbiased look at this extraordinary case.

Our Review

Dawn:

A violent husband, a hitman or a pig farmer, who kidnapped and murdered Arlene Fraser?

Dawn and Cole:

Hi wee ones, I’m Dawn and I’m Cole, and this is Scottish Murders.

[THEME TUNE]

WINE, DINE AND STORYTIME PODCAST PROMO

Dawn:

33 year old Arlene Fraser was living at number two Smith Street in Elgin with her two children, Jamie ten and Natalie five, at the time of her disappearance. Her husband Nat had a restraining order as he had attempted to murder Arlene previously, however, this hadn’t kept him away. The 28th of April 1998 was just like any other weekday for Arlene Fraser, she got her kids ready for school and waved them off, but that wave goodbye to our children would be the last time she was ever seen again. Elgin is a town in Moray, now with a population of over 24,000, and is situated in the northeast of Scotland, lying on the south coast of the Moray Firth, approximately halfway between Inverness and Aberdeen. Elgin once had been a city in the 13th century when an imposing Cathedral had been built, but the cathedral was later abandoned making Elgin a town. The ruins of the cathedral remain to this day. For today’s story I gained most of the information from a book called Death in a Cold Town by Steve McGregor, where you can find even more in-depth information about Arlene and Nat Fraser than I’ve been able to include in this story. Arlene was a popular and outwardly confident person, but internally she lacked confidence and didn’t believe people when they told her she was pretty. This lack of confidence could have stemmed from always being compared to her elder sister Carol, who could apparently do no wrong. However, by 1985 Arlene’s sister had married and had moved to Erskine, just outside of Glasgow, and her parents had split up, with Arlene opting to stay with her father Hector in Elgin, where she worked in a clothes shop. At Hogmanay in 1985, when Arlene was 21 years old, she attended a party where she and Nat Fraser, who was 26 years old, finally got together. Nat appeared to be quite the catch as he was a friendly, confident, popular man, and he was a partner in a successful fruit and veg business in Elgin. Nat also played the guitar in a local band as well as being a rugby player. However, there was another side to Nat, he had a habit of fighting with others, both verbally and physically, after a few drinks, but due to his friendly nature this was shrugged off as just being Nat’s way. Nat was also very popular with the females and he would regularly have new girlfriends, sometimes even having a couple on the go at the same time. However, when Arlene and Nat finally got together at the Hogmanay party, he seemed to, at least initially, change his ways and to have really taken to her and she him. However, not everyone was quite as taken with Nat and Arlene’s relationship. Apparently Arlene’s sister, Carol, advised her to be careful and that Nat wasn’t the best match for her. However, Arlene ignored this advice and forged ahead with her relationship with Nat, actually moving into his bungalow at number two Smith Street only four months after meeting. The couple lived together quite peacefully and happily it would appear, both carrying on with the normal duties, Nat carrying out fruit and vegetable deliveries in the Elgin area and Arlene working in the clothes shop. It was in September 1986 that the couple announced they were engaged and had set a date for their wedding of the 9th of May 1987. However before the big day arrived, in late 1986, Arlene found out that she was pregnant. The couple were delighted with the news and were so looking forward to their wedding and their child’s arrival shortly afterwards. Arlene’s wedding day finally arrived and she looked beautiful in her white wedding dress with her father Hector walking her down the aisle to the waiting Nat, who wore a kilt and sported two black eyes. Apparently the stag do had turned a bit violent, but well that was apparently to be expected from Nat and it was just brushed off, and the couple went on to have a great evening reception. In August 1987, three months after the wedding, Arlene and Nat welcomed baby Jamie into the world. Nat and Arlene apparently were thrilled with the new arrival and they seemed to settle down into newly married, new parents bliss. Nat did want to continue to play with his band every weekend, and with him working Monday to Saturday delivering his fruit and veg, Arlene was finding it difficult to bring up Jaime without Nat’s support. Arlene asked Nat if he would give up playing in the band but he refused saying that he needed to let off steam after a full week of work, and he said that they needed the money. It also appeared that Nat had returned to his old ways from before he met Arlene. Arlene had heard that Nat had been seeing other women, but when confronted of course he denied this vehemently. The problem was Arlene was feeling more and more isolated, she had given up her job at the clothes shop to take care of Jamie and she also was finding it increasingly difficult to see her friends. Nat liked this though as he became extremely jealous if she went out without him, criticising what she was wearing for starters. He was very controlling and she was completely dependent on Nat, not only for support but financially as well, as her only source of money was her weekly allowance that Nat gave to her. Arlene was lonely and stuck at home more and more by herself, until she met 17 year old Dougie Green, a delivery driver who worked for Nat, less than a year into their marriage. Dougie ended up visiting Arlene when Nat was out at weekends and one night the pair ended up sleeping together. Nat found out about this and was furious with Arlene. As Nat’s jealousy and suspicions towards Arlene escalated, he became more and more angry and eventually his anger turned physical and he started to push her around. Arlene had apparently confided in her family that she was afraid of him sometimes when he got like this. One night in 1990, when Arlene came home from a Saturday night out with her friends, she was met by an angry Nat who accused her of being with another man. He ripped at

her clothes, slapped and punched her until she fell to the floor, where he then proceeded to kick her in the stomach. At this point Arlene had had enough and she was terrified of Nat, so she took Jamie and went to stay at a woman’s refuge for ten

days. During this time she also saw a solicitor in regards to divorce proceedings. However, as always, Nat was very sorry, he hadn’t meant to hurt her and that he got angry because he loved her so much and the thoughts of her being with another man had just taken over. He sent her gifts while she was at the refuge, until finally she agreed to move back home. Everything seemed to settle down again for a while, and in 1992 Arlene and Nat welcomed baby Natalie into their family. However, Nat’s jealousy festered continually in the background, and every time Arlene went out with her friends an argument between the two ensued when she returned. Apparently from the time Natalie was born and Arlene’s disappearance she had visited her solicitor a further three times regarding a divorce, but each time Nat would apologise and give her a lovely gift and convince her to give it another go. She actually had an appointment with her solicitor on the afternoon she went missing to discuss the divorce and finalise the paperwork, an appointment that she unfortunately wouldn’t be able to keep. In 1997, with Natalie now being five and Jamie being ten, Arlene decided that it was time to get some of her independence back, financially at least, and so she enrolled in a two-year business studies course at the local college to learn new skills she could use to make her own money. It appeared though that the allowance Nat gave Arlene was very generous as she had somehow manage to save up £3,000 or about $4,000, and in 1997 she had decided that she wanted to spend this money on a breast enhancement. She went ahead with this procedure without telling Nat who, because he hadn’t been in control of Arlene, was pretty angry about this.

 

He took his bad temper out on her in various ways for the rest of 1997, such as hiding her glasses or contact lenses and ripping her clothes, all to try to prevent her from going out with her friends. However, in February 1998 his temper erupted again and he attacked Arlene, beating her so badly in the jaw that she was unable to eat. Following this attack she lost weight and became depressed. She apparently told her friend, Michelle Scott, that she didn’t love Nat anymore and was terrified of him. After this vicious attack Nat agreed to leave the home for a month and to go and live with his friend Hector Dick, who lived in a farm just outside Elgin. However, after less than a week Nat was seen by neighbours back at the home, and soon after he had worn Arlene down and had moved back into the home. Only a month later on the 22nd of March 1998, which was Mother’s Day, Nat beat Arlene and strangled her to the point that she passed out. She had been on a night out with her female friends at a bar and after closing time the group decided to go back to Arlene’s friend Michelle’s house to continue the party. What had set Nat of this time, although it didn’t take much, was that Arlene hadn’t got home until 5:30am. I think maybe he could have been worried about her, but it does sound more like he was angry that he wasn’t in control of her. Yeah, I agree. However, when Arlene came around

she hadn’t remembered the attack.  Nat had told her that she’d had some kind of fit and had collapsed.  So, she didn’t remember being strangled? Yeah. Maybe she had passed out and blocked out what had happened. Maybe she was just in shock. However, later that morning Arlene noticed some worrying red dots on her eyelids and eyes, so she took herself to the doctor. Terrifyingly, the doctor told her that the red dots were caused by strangulation and that he had only heard of this being seen normally on the dead bodies of strangulation victims.

Cole:

Wow! I’m not surprised she didn’t remember after that then.

Dawn:

After some persuasion, Arlene went to the police and told them about the attack and what the doctor had said. This was confirmed by the police’s own specialist. Subsequently, Nat was arrested and charged with attempted murder. Nat was bailed and had an injunction against him not allowing him to go near the house on Smith Street or Arlene. Arlene visited her solicitor again after this and this time decided to start the ball rolling with a divorce and settlement. The settlement figure that her solicitor came up with was £250,000, which is about £460,000 and $577,000 in today’s money. Arlene was a bit reluctant to ask for this amount of money as she knew Nat would be angry, but her solicitor reminded her that Nat had a very successful business and that this was just a starting figure and that it was best to start high and come down, so Arlene agreed and a letter was sent to Nat’s solicitor. When Matt found out that Arlene was going ahead with a divorce and that the settlement figure she was asking for was in the region of £250,000 he was furious. Apparently he had said to Arlene that if she wasn’t going to be living with him then she wouldn’t be living with anyone. Nat was clearly thinking of himself as the victim in the situation he found himself in. To further anger Nat, part of the injunction was that he wasn’t allowed access to his precious car, a Ford Granada, as it was parked at the house in Smith Street. Arlene had apparently started using this car. That is until the 5th of April, two weeks after the horrific attack on Arlene, when this car that was parked on Arlene’s drive went up in flames, destroying the car. This fire was apparently deliberately started.

Cole:

Wow, that’s a coincidence, isn’t it?

Dawn:

Yeah. I wonder who could have done that? Then just over three weeks later on Tuesday the 28th of April 1998 Arlene disappeared. Arlene was seen hanging out washing at around 8:15am by a neighbour, and then seen by another neighbour at around 8:50am when she was waving Jamie, ten, and Natalie, five, off as they walked to their school not far away. Jamie was apparently going on a group event to Inverness with his school that day so Arlene called the school at about 9:41am to find out what time he was returning. The receptionist didn’t know the time so she said she would check and call Arlene back. However, when she called Arlene back approximately ten minutes later, there was no answer. The receptionist had been the last person to ever speak to Arlene Fraser. So, what had happened to Arlene between 9:41 and 9:51am? As Arlene had Tuesdays off from college, she liked to use this day to catch up with her friends whenever possible, and on Tuesday the 28th of April she had arranged for her friend, Michelle Scott, to come and have lunch with her at the bungalow. When Michelle arrived at about 11am for this lunch date, she knocked but there was no answer. The door however was unlocked so she went inside. She did find the fact that the door was unlocked very strange as Arlene was very security conscious.

Cole:

Yeah, I think that would have been a red flag for me too after what she’d been through.

Dawn:

Yeah, me too. Definitely. So, Michelle called out but there was no answer. When Michelle had a quick look around she didn’t find Arlene, but she did find a vacuum cleaner standing in the middle of Natalie’s room plugged in as if ready to be used but not switched on. She also found the washing machine on, which she also found strange as Arlene was terrified of the washing machine going on fire so she never put it on if she wasn’t going to be in the house. She also found Arlene’s contact lenses, glasses and Crohn’s medication lying on her bedside cabinet. Arlene had been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease a few years previous and had had bad flare-ups, she never would have left indefinitely without her glasses, contacts or Crohn’s medication. Michelle did notice that Arlene’s favourite brown coat was missing, so she assumed that Arlene hadn’t gone far and maybe she had just got delayed. Unfortunately, Michelle had to leave as this had just been a quick lunch visit, however, she did ring Arlene a couple of more times, but each time there was no reply. This was just so unlike Arlene, she was a creature of habit and didn’t just go missing for hours on end. Michelle went back to the bungalow again about 1pm, but there was still no sign of Arlene and everything was still the same way it had been when she was last there. This time Michelle left Arlene a note asking her to call when she got back. By 3pm Natalie had returned home from school and was spotted outside her house crying by neighbours, Irene and Graham Higgins, as her mum wasn’t home. They knew Arlene and Natalie so took Natalie into their home until Arlene arrived home. However, at 8pm there was still no sign of Arlene, but Michelle had arrived back and this time was beginning to think something was seriously wrong. Irene and Michelle went back to Arlene’s home again and found everything exactly the same as before, except there was now a note from Jamiee saying he had been home and had gone to a friend’s house as Arlene wasn’t there. Nobody had seen Jamie arrive or leave the home. When they returned to Irene’s home, following a debate with her husband, they decided to call the police. Two police officers, PC Neil Lynch and PC Julie Clark, arrived that evening and they looked around Arlene’s home, spoke with Graham and Irene Higgins and Michelle Scott. However, at this point, as it was very late in the evening and there was no body or crime scene, all they could do was put out a description of Arlene to see if she was spotted around the area. It wasn’t until the following day, the 29th of April, the detectives arrived on the scene and a detailed examination of the house was carried out and video recordings of the whole property were taken. While it clearly didn’t look like anything untoward had occurred in the property, the fact that Arlene’s glasses, contact lenses, medication, passport, driving licence and keys were all in the property, and after taking into consideration that her husband had been charged with strangling her until she passed out just over a month ago, the police decided to treat Arlene’s disappearance as something much more sinister than a missing person case. However, as there was no body or crime scene they knew it was going to be an uphill struggle to prove this. It wasn’t until the 3rd of May, five days after Arlene was last seen, that a massive search took place of all open spaces around Elgin. This was carried out by police and volunteers, including Arlene’s father and stepfather, however Nat did not attend.

Cole:

Okay, so why did it take so long to arrange a search?

Dawn:

I think it was because there was no body or crime scene, and that they were just busy searching the house and doing interviews. I think they also held out a bit of hope that Arlene would probably just come back.

Cole:

And do we know why Nat didn’t attend?

Dawn:

No.

Cole:

Well that’s suspicious.

Dwan:

Isn’t it. Interviews were carried out with any potential witnesses or locals that could give a better picture of Arlene and her life. A lot of people were of the impression that Arlene had just gone on holiday without telling anyone, and had just left her children to come home from school with no one to look after them.

Cole:

People actually thought that that’s what she would have done?

Dawn:

Yeah, I can’t believe it either. She was supposed to be a caring and compassionate person and doted on her kids, there was no way she was just going to have left and gone on holiday.

Cole:

No, that would be classed as neglect and she doesn’t sound like that type of person at all.

Dawn:

No, I don’t know what these people were thinking. There were also other rumours going around which also got into the newspapers, that Arlene was into drugs, drink and sleeping around. Well she had had that one affair and she did enjoy a night out with her female friends now and again, but did this really make her a bad person or parent or mean that she would just have left her children suddenly? Not only did her friends and sister Carol both confirmed that these stories were nonsense, but the police actually carried out tests using hairs from Arlene’s hairbrush post her disappearance, and this proved conclusively that she had not been taking drugs. It turned out that these rumours had actually come from Nat himself trying to paint a bad picture of Arlene and draw attention away from himself. Nat appeared to have a lot of supporters in and around Elgin and they were happy to repeat these untruths about Arlene. When detectives went to interview Nat, he was ready with a cast iron alibi. He stated that he started work at around 7:30am that morning, and that he had also taken a van boy with him on this occasion to help him with the deliveries. This was a very unusual thing for Nat to do, he always preferred to do the deliveries alone. He stated that about 9am he had made a phone call from a phone box in Elgin, leaving the van boy in the van. He had called a Hazel Walker, who he had previously been in a relationship with but hadn’t spoken to her in quite a while and he didn’t call again afterwards either. He said that the call had lasted about 40 minutes and then he continued with his deliveries. And wait for it, it just so happened that of all the phone boxes in Elgin this phone box was one of the few that had a CCTV camera pointing right at it, further providing and backing up Nat’s alibi.

Cole:

Very smart if you’re looking for an alibi.

Dawn:

Yeah, that was clever. And he just so happened to have made this phone call at the approximate time that Arlene is thought to have gone missing as well.

Cole:

That’s also suspicious.

Dawn:

Detectives were also immediately suspicious of Nat as this was a pretty cast iron alibi, backed up by witnesses and a camera. Who normally has such a cast iron alibi when carrying out the day-to-day duties?

Cole:

Having such a solid alibi such as his is almost as incriminating as not having one at all I think, sometimes.

Dawn:

In this case certainly. So, the police at this point have no body, no crime scene, no forensic, no witnesses, and Nat has a solid alibi. So, what had happened to Arlene Fraser? Now, the police did continue to have their suspicions about Nat Fraser having something to do with Arlene’s disappearance, even though he had a cast iron alibi, but all they could do was keep an eye on him. For the first few days after Arlene went missing, Nat came across as being very upset and concerned about Arlene, he checked the hospitals in the area and would constantly get in touch with the police to find out if they had any developments. However, after a couple of weeks his attitude completely changed, he stopped contacting the police for updates, they had to contact him to tell him what was going on. He was apparently joking to his friends that the kids would get used to Arlene being away. So, he’d gone from this really caring, worried estranged husband, who behind closed doors was controlling and beating Arlene, to showing his true colours and really not caring about where Arlene was or what had happened to her. Also, a few months after Arlene’s disappearance, Nat started to tell anyone that would listen the story that Arlene had simply ran away and had betrayed and abandoned her family, she had left her children, Nat, her sister, her mom and dad behind to start a new life. Now it all made sense why he had been spreading untruths about Arlene’s character, so he could set the scene for his next plan of telling everyone that she’d just ran away, all to take the limelight off him as a suspect. He was no fool, he knew that he would be suspected by the police of being involved in Arlene’s disappearance, which the police did suspect practically from the start of the investigation, but they just had no proof. Now, something else strange happened. On or around the 7th of May 1998, after the police had finished with the bungalow forensically and they had taken video recordings of all the rooms, they had allowed the family back in to use it. It was a few days after that a member of the family found Arlene’s engagement ring, wedding ring and eternity ring in the bathroom on a special hook. The family member was sure they had not been there before and so let the police know. The police immediately checked the video recording and discovered that these rings had indeed not been there at the time of Arlene’s disappearance. So, where had they come from? Nat had access to the house after the police had finished with it, so had he removed the rings from Arlene’s dead body and placed them back in the house? But why? Was this perhaps to back up his story that Arlene had simply ran off and left them? But wouldn’t she have taken her rings with her so she could maybe sell them for money?

Cole:

Yeah, that doesn’t make any sense if he was trying to portray that she ran away, she would have had her rings on her, she wouldn’t have stopped to take them off. And I can’t imagine why putting those rings back there would work out for him. It just doesn’t make any sense.

Dawn:

Then in October 1998, six months after Arlene’s disappearance, the police issued a further appeal asking for information on Arlene’s disappearance, but this time stating that they believed she had been murdered. Following this appeal, a mechanic who worked in Elgin was identified, who stated that he had sold a beige Ford Fiesta to a very good friend of Nat’s, Hector Dick, on the day before Arlene’s disappearance, that he had delivered it himself to Hector’s farm, and he said that Nat had also been present at the farm for the delivery of the car.

Cole:

What’s strange about that?

Dawn:

Well, nothing, if it hadn’t been a cash in hand job, with extra cash given to the mechanic if he said nothing about the deal, and the fact that three men proceeded to take the same Ford Fiesta, having been partially crushed and burnt, to a scrapyard at the beginning of May 1998 to be crushed and recycled. Although Hector Dick was questioned repeatedly about this, he denied ever having seen this car. At the beginning of 1999, with no word or sightings from Arlene, the police felt sure that she had been murdered, but without any evidence or a body they had to set about trying to prove for sure that she was indeed dead. They needed to prove this in order to charge anyone with her murder. They did this by checking Arlene’s bank accounts to see if there had been any withdrawal since her disappearance, which there hadn’t been. They had to establish that she had not been in contact with any friends or family since her disappearance, which she hadn’t. They checked that she had not been in contact with any GPS or Opticians in the UK to get vital medication or glasses or contact lenses, but she hadn’t. All the while Nat continued his daily routine of fruit and veg deliveries and maintained that Arlene had just gone on holiday, nearly a year since her disappearance. But fewer and fewer people were buying that story anymore. Plus, Nat had the most motivation for killing Arlene, he was waiting a criminal trial for her attempted murder five weeks before her disappearance. He possibly thought he wouldn’t go to prison if she wasn’t around to give evidence. She was also asking for a divorce and a huge settlement which would damage him financially, and he had an injunction against him after he had attempted to murder her so he wasn’t allowed in or near his home. If Arlene wasn’t around he would get back into his home again and see his kids. But he had a cast iron alibi, so even though the police felt he was involved somehow, obviously he couldn’t have kidnapped Arlene that morning, so the case went cold. Until October 1999, a year and a half later, when Hector Dick and Nat Fraser were charged with perverting the course of justice in connection with the Ford Fiesta. However, due to the lack of evidence, the charge against Nat was dropped and Hector’s trial was deferred. Then on the 1st of March 2000, nearly two years after Arlene went missing, Nat had his day in court in Inverness for the charge of attempted murder of Arlene just over a month before she went missing. This charge was reduced to assault and he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Unbelievably he was released from prison in December 2000 after serving only half of his sentence. While Nat was in prison for the assault of Arlene, the police investigation continued and they were monitoring who had visited Nat in prison. He had frequent visits from another of his good friends, a Glen Lucas, so the police started looking at this man in connection with Arlene’s disappearance too. The meetings between Glen and Nat were recorded but there was no audio, so the police got in touch with a deaf lip-reading expert to help them determine what had been said between the two. Her findings were very damning. Basically she said that Nat was describing to Glen how he had cut Arlene’s bones into very small pieces so that no DNA could be found.

Cole:

Oh wow.

Dawn:

He made the motion of sawing his wrist as he spoke about how he had cut her up, with Lucas supposedly agreeing that this had been a good idea and that he was sure Nat would get away with it. They also mentioned a third man involved, Hector Dick, and how he had been instrumental in Arlene’s disappearance. Unfortunately the lip-reading expert’s findings were not able to be used in court, but had given the police what they had needed, they now knew that Nat had definitely been involved with Arlene’s disappearance.

Cole:

So, why would it not be usable in in court?

Dawn:

I think it was because things of this sort were relatively new and hadn’t undergone rigorous testing to ensure this was a valid practice to be used.

Cole:

How could he have been so stupid to say these things while he was in prison.

Dawn:

Oh don’t worry, we’ll get into that later.

Cole:

Oh interesting.

Dawn:

February 2001 was when Hector Dick’s trial for perverting the course of justice in relation to his involvement with the Ford Fiesta finally went ahead, with him pleading not guilty. However, on the fourth day Hector changed his plea to guilty. He now was stating that he had indeed purchased the beige Ford Fiesta but that it had been to use for a drink smuggling scam he and Nat were involved in. Due to his change of plea he was sentenced to one year in prison, and during his time in prison he attempted to hang himself. Now, in April 2001, Nat also found himself back in prison after being found guilty for lying about his finances in order to receive £18,000 or about $25,000 of legal aid funding. This was four months after being released from prison for assaulting Arlene. He was sent back to prison this time for 12 months, although he was out again in October 2001 after serving half of his sentence.

Cole:

There seems to be a pattern going on here.

Dawn:

Yes, half seems to be enough. After being released again in October 2001, Nat tried to get on with his life again, still doing his fruit and veg deliveries, but by this time there were less people who actually believed that Arlene had simply gone on holiday and left her children, people were starting to look at Nat a bit differently.

Cole:

It’s about time.

Dawn:

Plus the police were constantly questioning him about Arlene’s disappearance. Things were not going too well for Nat. Then on the 26th of April 2002, about six months after Nat was released from prison for fraud, Nat, Hector Dick and Glen Lucas were indicted for the murder of Arlene Fraser, each being charged with conspiracy to murder Arlene, murdering her and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

Cole:

So, did they find her body or have any other evidence?

Dawn:

Nope, nothing had changed, but things were about to get interesting. The trial of the three men began on Tuesday the 1st of January 2003 at Edinburgh’s High Court. The prosecution laid out their case, and on the Friday the jury were shown the video recordings of the bathroom, showing how there were no rings present at the time of Arlene’s disappearance, but that they had appeared in the bathroom on or around the 7th of May 1998. Everything seemed to be going well for the prosecution, until Tuesday the 14th of January when it was announced that the charges had been dropped against Hector Dick and Glen Lucas, and they were immediately released.

Cole:

What? Why?

Dawn:

Well, over the weekend Hector Dick had decided to turn on his long-term friend Nat to save himself, and he had told the police an amazing story of what had happened to Arlene. He said that Nat had hired a hitman to kidnap and kill Arlene, but her body had then been burnt and dismembered in a machine on Hector’s farm that was designed for cow disposal, and then her ashes were scattered. Now you might think okay, great, now we know what happened, good for Hector, however, it just so happens that Hector had been caught by the government and had a humongous tax bill to pay due to him smuggling booze, and this bill would have ruined him. Hector didn’t agree to testify against Nat until he had it in writing that the tax bill would be wiped out, which he received.

Cole:

Wow, you’re kidding, right?

Dawn:

No. So, now Nat would be standing alone with a new charge of arranging Arlene’s abduction and murder. So, the trial reconvened on Monday the 20th of January 2003 and Hector Dick was questioned for a prolonged period of time, and of course the question of the purchase of the beige Ford Fiesta was brought up again. Bearing in mind that at Hector’s trial in 2001, he said that he had bought the car for drink smuggling that he was involved in with Nat, however, now at Nat’s trial he said, under oath, that he had bought the car on behalf of Nat. So Hector had lied about ever buying the beige car initially and now he was saying under oath that he had been lying about what it was used for. What was to say that he was now telling the truth? Were the police and the prosecutors just grasping at anything they could to convict Nat as they knew they didn’t have enough evidence, regardless if it was lies or not?

Cole:

Yeah, I’m beginning to wonder that myself.

Dawn:

Over the course of the trial, Hector continued to say very derogatory things about Nat, blatantly pointing the finger at him for Arlene’s kidnapping and arranged murder any way he could. Nat also gave evidence at this trial in his defence where he denied vehemently murdering his wife or being involved in any way. Nobody knew what the outcome of the trial was going to be, it was very superficial, and the case rested on whether the jury categorically believed that Nat had returned Arlene’s rings to the house after she had been murdered. Carol, Arlene’s sister, and Hector, Arlene’s dad, were extremely nervous about attending for the verdict on the 29th of January 2009, almost five years since Arlene’s disappearance. But they needn’t have worried, Nat Fraser was found guilty with a majority verdict. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, to serve a minimum of 25 years. So, finally the family had some closure and peace to grieve for Arlene, even if they didn’t have her body they could try to get on with their lives as best they could.  Right? Wrong. The story doesn’t end there. Following the trial Hector Dick appeared to have negotiated various deals with newspapers and he continued to give new statements about what had happened to Arlene, saying things like Nat had hired a hitman who had strangled Arlene at home and then Nat had gone and cleaned up, amongst other things. Bearing in mind this man had already lied repeatedly. This was extremely difficult for the family to hear, especially when they had their suspicions that Hector was more involved in Arlene’s disappearance than he had been letting on. Now, Glen Lucas didn’t just fade into the background either, he was apparently sick of having the finger pointed at him by everyone and so persuaded a newspaper to pay for him to have a lie detector test to prove once and for all that he wasn’t involved. He passed. In April 2005 a book was published called Murdered or Missing? The Arlene Fraser Case, which was co-written by Glen Lucas himself.  This book basically suggested that Arlene was still alive and had walked out on her children. He alleged that she had been into drinking and drugs and having affairs. The book also ridiculed Hector Dick’s testimony. Glen Lucas was still a good friend of Nat’s and had stood by him protesting his innocence for years, he wasn’t going to stop now. That was until he died in September 2006 from a heart attack. Now, following Nat being convicted and sent to prison, revelations about the prosecution’s leading evidence for charging Nat started to come into question. There were now questions being raised about the three rings that were found in the bathroom.  PC Neil Lynch and PC Julie Clark, who were first inside Arlene’s home on the night her disappearance was reported, came forward to say that they had actually seen these rings in the bathroom when they had first checked Arlene’s home that evening. They had apparently informed their supervisors about this but for some reason this information never reached the relevant people and Nat was charged, with the three ring saga being a large part of the prosecution’s case.

Cole:

So, who removed them then?

Dawn:

Well, it was claimed by a PC David Alexander, who had been part of the investigation, that these rings had been seen in a desk drawer of a Detective Sergeant. However, PC Alexander had his own problems and was in court for a breach of the peace charge in 2004 and was subsequently suspended from the police, however, he widely made it clear that he felt there was a cover-up going on in this case. He went on to give Nat’s solicitors a statement where he admitted that it was a Detective Sergeant David Slessor who had told him about seeing the rings. David was also involved in Arlene’s investigation. However, this fact couldn’t be corroborated by Slessor as he had apparently killed himself in July 1998.

Cole:

This just keeps getting more and more confusing.

Dawn:

So, was it true that there was a cover-up going on with this case, or was this just a scorned police officer wanting to have revenge?

Cole:

Why would it be a cover-up?

Dawn:

Yeah, exactly, I don’t know why. It doesn’t make sense. After this came out, an announcement stated that an investigation would be carried out into what had happened in the Arlene Fraser case to see if there was any merit behind the former PC’s statements. So, obviously this was great news for Nat, and so his solicitors immediately appealed against his conviction, and on the 12th of May 2006 Nat Fraser was released from prison on bail while he waited to hear about his appeal against his murder conviction.

Cole:

Okay, so he’s out of prison again?

Dawn:

Yep.

Cole:

So, is that him out of prison for good?

Dawn:

Well Nat might have thought so.  Nat’s appeal hearing started on Tuesday the 13th of November 2007 in Edinburgh, this lasted for two weeks where all the evidence was presented and gone over. It can often take months for a verdict to be decided after all the evidence is presented, so Lord Johnston, the judge overseeing the appeal, instructed that Nat go back to prison to await the result. Everyone was shocked by this. In actual fact the verdict of the appeal wasn’t announced until the 8th of May 2008, so Nat had been in prison for six months waiting for the verdict. His verdict was upheld, his appeal was refused, and he was to serve the remainder of his sentence.

Cole:

It’s like being on a roller coaster now.

Dawn:

I can’t keep up. So, following this, Nat’s legal team continued to ask for appeals, which were all refused. That was until May 2011 when Nat finally had an appeal granted. He won this appeal and his conviction for the murder of Arlene was quashed and he was free to live his life again.

Cole:

Are you kidding?! What is going on here?

Dawn:

(laughs) At this point I just feel really sorry for what Arlene’s family must be going through. They just weren’t allowed any peace. It’s bad enough that they still didn’t know what happened to Arlene or have her body, now the only person who has the strongest motive for wanting Arlene dead and who had been making her life a living hell while she was alive, was now a free man, free to carry on with his life. This verdict must have crushed them. They thought that finally at least the ordeal of going through a trial was over, but it had all been for nothing and they were back where they started, no Arlene, no evidence, no witnesses, and Nat free to live his life. It was however announced straight away that the Crown office would be building a case in order to bring a future charge against Nat for the murder of Arlene Fraser. Upon Nat’s release, the police decided that it would be a good time to release extracts of the lip reading report which was pretty damning for Nat. There may have been a few stragglers in Elgin who still believed that Nat was innocent, but after these extracts were released, their minds finally changed. Nat was on his own. Even his fruit and veg business partner turned against him saying he wanted nothing further to do with him, going as far as suing him for an unpaid tax bill. So life for Nat probably wasn’t as great as he would have expected back home, but at least he was still alive. However, things were about to take a positive turn for Nat. Reports had started to surface questioning the lip reader’s expertise who had been used to determine what Nat and Glen had spoken about during the prison visits. Her credentials turned out not to be true, and when police gave the recordings and the original transcript of Nat and Glen talking in prison to experienced forensic lip readers to see how it compared, the results were alarming. The original lip reader produced a transcript which consisted of 2,100 words, and the new experts agreed with only 234 words of this.

Cole:

Oh no.

Dawn:

Not only that, but other lip-reading recordings the lip-reader had produced detailed transcripts for were reviewed, and many were deemed to be such poor quality that they weren’t able to confirm any words, even though the original lip-reader had produced a detailed and long transcript of what was being said.

Cole:

Oh my God.

Dawn:

So not only had the three rings appearance in the bungalow come into question, but now also the only other evidence that the police had had now been proven unusable. How could they now possibly bring a murder case against Nat? But they did, as on the 23rd of April 2012 the second murder trial of Nat began in Edinburgh, this time with the addition of cameras being allowed to record the trial as a documentary, which was later shown on TV, and called The Murder Trial. Nat’s defence team started the proceedings by saying that Nat had a solid alibi and he could not possibly have kidnapped or murdered Arlene, and Hector Dick was named as the actual murderer. In this trial, the questions about the ring placement validity and the lip-reading expert’s report was brought up by the defence. Also, Hector Dick appeared again as a witness for the prosecution.

Cole:

Really?! I mean it’s been proven that he lies and lies again under oath, why bring this man to be a witness again? Plus, he was happily selling stories to any paper that would pay him. It’s just annoying.

Dawn:

Yeah. It annoyed others too, and the defence spent four days ripping his stories apart, basically making him out to be a liar, although he did a good job of this by himself with his ever-changing answers. Other witnesses that were called included Hector’s brother James, Nat’s previous business partner Ian Taylor, police officer Neil Lynch, who had been first on the scene, the manager and employees of the scrapyard, and a taxi driver from Elgin, amongst others. None of these witness statements were as damning as Hector’s.  Nat did not take the stand at this trial. Arlene’s sister, Carol, and her father, Hector, went through the ordeal again of not knowing what the verdict would be and were terrified this monster would walk free again. Thankfully they wouldn’t have long to wait, the jurors took only one day to deliberate. On the 30th of May 2012, 14 years after Arlene’s disappearance, the verdict by majority was guilty. Nat was sentenced to serve 17 years in prison without the possibility of parole. It was finally over for the family, they again had the verdict they deserved. They must have been overwhelmed with emotion this time, that finally they could concentrate on their grief of losing Arlene and not have the continual threat of her killer, her husband, being a free man. And that was the case until September 2013.

Cole:

Oh no, not again. 

Dawn:

When Nat tried to appeal the verdict of the second trial. However, this appeal was refused. 

Cole:

Thank God.

Dawn:

To this day Nat continues to plead his innocence, and has tried to appeal the verdict on numerous occasions. He will be 69 when he is eligible for parole. After the second trial, Hector continued to give exclusive interviews, for money obviously. Even as recently as the 28th of April 2018 he’s been making statements to the newspapers, this time he was urging Nat to finally reveal where he had buried Arlene’s body. Arlene’s family continue to believe that Nat arranged for Arlene to be killed, but many of them believe they know who the actual murderer is and that he should be behind bars too. Now, Nat’s daughter Natalie, who in 2020 was 27 years old, went on to have her own children. She has always maintained that her father is innocent of killing or being involved in her mother’s murder. She insists that the actual killer was her dad’s then friend Hector Dick. Jamie apparently lived in the bungalow in Smith Street for many years, with Natalie living there when she briefly split up with her partner. Arlene’s dad, Hector, who at the time of recording was 79, has only one wish, for Nat Fraser to finally reveal what he has done with Arlene’s remains. And finally, Hector Dick. He is still living in Elgin. Is it fair that this man told so many lies that he didn’t know himself what was true anymore, and that he had his tax bill written off? This man turned on his friend, told more and more outrageous lies, and yet he has lived a long and free life. Has there been justice for Arlene Fraser? Now, obviously there is a lot of information about this case and there’s only so much I can say in this episode, but like I said I did get a lot of information for this episode from a book called Death in a Cold Town The Arlene Fraser Case by Steve McGregor. I really enjoyed reading this book, as strange as that sounds, there was so much information there that I just couldn’t find anywhere else. If you have time and want to know even more about this case have a read, I’d highly recommend it. And that’s the end. If you’ve enjoyed this episode and know just the person who’d also like it, please share it with them, don’t keep it to yourself.

Cole:

Please also get in touch on social media if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. All social media and contact details are on our website scottishmurders.com, as well as all the source material and photos related to this episode.

Dawn:

So that’s it for this week, come back next time for another episode of Scottish Murders.

Dawn and Cole:

Join us there. Bye.

Granny Robertson:

Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn.

Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn

Hosted by Dawn and Cole

Researched and Written by Dawn Young

Produced and Edited by Dawn Young and Peter Bull

Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Music:

Dawn of the Fairies by Derek & Brandon Fiechter

Gothic Wedding by Derek & Brandon Fiechter

by dawnyoung

Glasgow's Day of Horror: The 1969 Shooting Rampage

Glasgow's Day of Horror:
The 1969 Shooting Rampage

Episode Summary

TRIGGER WARNING – This episode contains strong language, so listener discretion is advised. 

 

Dawn and Cole recount the harrowing events of 15 July 1969, when James Griffiths went on a shocking shooting spree in Glasgow. What began as a misunderstanding escalated into a violent rampage, leaving twelve injured and one dead. The episode explores Griffiths’ criminal past, his escape from HMP Parkhurst, and the tragic murder of Rachel Ross, which led to a controversial royal pardon for Paddy Meehan. The hosts explore the complex web of crime, police actions, and the eventual justice—or lack thereof—for the victims involved.

Please Be Advised – This episode may contain content that some may find distressing. As always, we advise listener discretion. This episode it not suitable for anyone under the age of 13.

Listen on:

The Ferris Conspiracy

Paul Ferris with Reg McKay

Synopsis

On Glasgow’s meanest streets life started well for the young Paul Ferris. How did he become Glasgow’s most feared gangster, deemed a risk to national security?

Arthur Thompson, Godfather of the crime world and senior partner of the Krays, recruited young Ferris as a bagman, debt collector and equaliser. Feared for his capacity for extreme violence, respected for his intelligence, Ferris was the Godfather’s heir apparent. But when gang warfare broke, underworld leaders traded in flesh, colluding with their partners – the police. Disgusted, Ferris left the Godfather and stood alone.

They gave him weeks to live.

While Ferris was caged in Barlinnie Prison’s segregation unit accused of murdering Thompson’s son, Fatboy, his two friends were shot dead the night before the funeral and grotesquely displayed in a car on the cortége’s route. Acquitted against all the odds, Ferris moved on, determined to make an honest living.

They would not let him.

The National Crime Squad, MI5, the police and two of the country’s most powerful gangsters saw to that. A maximum-security prisoner, Ferris is known as ‘Lucky’ because he is still alive.

This is one man’s unique insight into Britain’s crime world and the inextricable web of corruption – a revealing story of official corruption and unholy alliances.

Our Review

Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn

Hosted by Dawn and Cole

Researched and Written by Dawn Young

Produced and Edited by Dawn Young and Peter Bull

Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Music:

Dawn of the Fairies by Derek & Brandon Fiechter

Gothic Wedding by Derek & Brandon Fiechter

Cole:

Warning Wee Ones, this episode contains some strong language.

Murder, a shooting spree and a royal pardon. Nobody could have predicted the shocking events that took place in Glasgow, that all started with a murder in a town 40 miles away.

Dawn and Cole:

Hi wee ones, I’m Cole and I’m Dawn, and this is Scottish Murders.

[THEME TUNE]

CRIME DIVERS PODCAST PROMOTION

Cole:

On Tuesday the 15th of July 1969, James Griffiths went on a shooting spree lasting about two hours, which started in the west of Glasgow and ended up in an area in the northeast of the city. What started as a misunderstanding created a domino effect, that might otherwise not have been if it were not for a cruel and heinous robbery and a murder that had happened on the 6th of July 1969. This case is still being talked about on the streets of Glasgow today by those that remember the terror of the day or through stories passed down by family members. Today, Glasgow has a diverse architectural scene and is the fifth most visited city in the UK. Glasgow is situated on the River Clyde which is host to an abundance of futuristic looking buildings, including the SEC Armadillo. The population is estimated at over 611,000. In 1969 however, the Glasgow streets were known for their bloodshed due to gangs such as the Cumbie and the Tongs, but nobody was prepared for what happened on an otherwise quiet Tuesday morning. James Griffiths was brought up in Rochdale, Greater Manchester in England, and from an early age he was involved in crime, later turning to armed robbery and safe blowing by the age of 13. James was in and out of young offenders centres as a child, and as an adult he frequented prison. However, even though James was a time-served criminal, he was not respected by his fellow cons, mainly because he would spend his time in prison boasting about his crimes and saying things like one day he’d use a gun on the police and that he would never be taken alive. He wasn’t taken seriously and just thought to be all talk. After being caught and arrested for yet another crime, James was sent to HMP Parkhurst prison, which is a high security prison on the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England. Here he shared a cell with two Scots; Archibald Hall, who went on to become a serial killer known as the killer butler, and Paddy Meehan. Meehan was a top safe cracker and friend to Arthur Thompson, who the media dubbed The Godfather. Neither could be bothered with James and his usual boasting ways, until that is James managed to escape from HMP Parkhurst and get off the island, spending the ferry crossing chatting to a prison warden and his wife.

Dawn:

Did the prison guard not recognise him? Was he still in his prison clothes?

Cole:

It’s presumed that James had somehow changed from his prison clothes into civilian clothes, or at least had a coat on to cover his prison gear.

Dawn:

Okay.

Cole:

James was, however, captured again a few hours later on the mainland and brought back to Parkhurst, where he suddenly had a friend in Meehan, who invited him to Glasgow when he was released in early 1969, presumably for criminal activity as they were both safe crackers. Whatever the reason, this would prove to be a massive mistake by Meehan, one he would pay for dearly. James took Meehan up on the offer to come to Glasgow once he was released. On Sunday the 6th of July 1969, the two set out for a town called Stranraer, which is about 88 miles or 141 kilometres Southwest of Glasgow, to scope out a post office there that they had wanted to rob. On the way to Stranraer, Meehan and James would have passed through a town called Ayr, which is just under halfway between Glasgow and Stranraer, and it just so happened that the same night two men were breaking into the Ayr home of a wealthy elderly couple, Abraham Ross and his 72 year old wife Rachel, to steal their valuables. These two men tied up the couple before disgustingly assaulting and torturing them until they revealed where their valuables were. Mrs Ross had been bludgeoned so badly that she had sustained horrific head injuries from which she died. Abraham Ross was tied up and he had to lie beside his wife for a further 24 hours before being found.

Dawn:

Oh no, that’s horrible.

Cole:

It really is. And this murder shocked and scandalised Scotland.

Dawn:

I can understand why.

Cole:

Now, as Meehan was very well known to the police they frequently kept an eye on him, and they knew that Meehan was in the vicinity of Ayr that night, so he was arrested and taken in for questioning. On Monday the 14th of July 1969, eight days after the horrific murder, an identity parade was set up and a very frail and grief-stricken Abraham Ross identified Meehan as being the man that had broken into his house that night.

Dawn:

What?!

Cole:

There’s more. Abraham had also reported to the police that the robbers had addressed each other as Pat and Jim. Both the identity parade and the evidence was later stated by Meehan and others to have been set up by the police.

Dawn:

Oh okay.

Cole:

So, Meehan was in a bit of trouble. He knew he didn’t do what he was being accused of, but he’d been up to no good with James that night. Meehan didn’t want to point the finger at James and use him as an alibi, something to do with the criminal code, and James wasn’t coming forward by himself. When it became clear that Meehan was facing a murder charge he eventually gave the police James’ name as an alibi, and said that he was staying at 29 Holyrood Crescent in Glasgow’s West End under the name of Mr Douglas. Meehan was released from custody while the police spoke to James about providing him an alibi. The police knew that James, now 34, had a criminal record for armed robbery and safe cracking, so they sent five plain clothes detectives to question James about providing Meehan an alibi, at his flat in Holyrood Crescent on the morning of Tuesday the 15th of July 1969. They could not have imagined in their wildest dreams exactly what was about to unfold in front of them. Now, from his flat, James saw the detectives arriving. He heard them climbing the stairs of the block of flats and knock repeatedly at his door. They received no answer. The detectives knew that James was home and upon getting no answer they broke the door down, coming face to face with James screaming, swearing and firing a sawn off shotgun at them.

Dawn:

Shit!

Cole:

The detectives ran for the stairs but a shot caught one detective, DC William Walker who was 28, square in the back, sending him tumbling down the stairs. James barricaded himself in the flat, and going from window to window took shots at anyone that had the misfortune of being near his flat at the time, including Samuel Collins who was 65, Mary McKinnon who was 46 and Jack Kerr who was 22. All had been short but thankfully survived their injuries. Now, apparently a lady who lived just along from where the shooting was taking place was up a ladder decorating her front door. At first she didn’t pay any attention to the gunfire, maybe just a normal Tuesday for her. It wasn’t until a bullet embedded itself right next to her in the wall that she decided that maybe she had better get inside out the way. James would have known that if he was to continue to keep the police at bay, then he would need more ammunition, so he made his way down to his car, undetected, and from the boot of his car he retrieved a sniper’s hunting rifle and bullets, before heading back to his flat and continuing to shoot at anything or anyone in the vicinity, including the ever-increasing police presence with their bulletproof shields and police marksmen. There’s actually a picture of James at the window of his flat in Holyrood with his rifle in his hand taking shots at everyone below, which I’ll put on our website. It’s really eerie to see it now. The street would have been in complete panic with gunfire raining down onto the street, and people below screaming and running to escape. The police were just about ready to move in with tear gas when suddenly there was silence. The police below looked at each other perplexed. Had James given up?

Dawn:

Well had he?

Cole:

No. James had escaped his flat through an attic window and made his way down into an alley behind the flat. The next sighting of James was on Henderson Street, about a six minute leisurely stroll from his flat, although I doubt he would have been strolling, I think he would have been running.

Dawn:

I think he might have been.

Cole:

Here he came across a 57 year old salesman, James Kerr, in his car, who probably just stopped to find out the details of the next client he was going to visit. He hadn’t seen James approach, so he was a bit taken aback when a dark-haired frenzied man with a bandolier of bullets across his chest loomed over him, with a rifle in one hand and a shotgun in the other. His surprise rapidly turned to fear as James raised his gun and fired a shot through the car window, deafening Kerr, before pulling him out of his car and speeding off in it.

Dawn:

Was Kerr shot as well?

Cole:

Yeah, James Kerr had been shot on his left shoulder, but thankfully he survived the shooting.

Dawn:

Oh good.

Cole:

As James drove manically about the nearby streets, he continued to shoot at passers by, and unfortunately shot at and grazed 24 year old John Curry’s ear in Napier’s Hall Street. He also shot Ian Watson who was 23 in Great Western Road, and shot at Robert McAdam, who was 57, in Barrington Drive. Again, thankfully, although they would have been in an absolute shock and disbelief, these men survived their injuries. Obviously, James found it quite difficult to drive while firing shorts at pedestrians as he passed them, as after only driving the stolen car for about three miles or just under five kilometres he crashed it. Unfortunately he was unhurt and he ran to the nearest pub, which was The Round Toll on Possil Road. Now, pubs in the area were used to a bit of trouble, but I think this was even a step up for this pub. Once in the pub James waved his rifle around, firing two shots into the ceiling and yelling “Don’t Mess! I’ve got a gun, I’m gonna stick you up!” Bang, bang, bang, bang. bang!

Dawn:

(laughs) You fuc*ing idiot. What did he really say, Cole?

Cole:

“Don’t mess! I’ve shot two coppers already.” He then helped himself to a bottle of brandy and proceeded to gulp it down, while the punters looked on terrified. A 65 year old man called William Hughes happened to move slightly, causing James to turn around and shoot him twice. William died a few days later from his wounds.

Dawn:

No!

Cole:

Yeah. It was really unfortunate.

Dawn:

Oh poor man.

Cole:

The bar manager, James Connolly, was having no more of this. He had tolerated James helping himself to a drink, but when he picked on his customers he stepped over the line for the bar manager. The bar manager shouted at James “You dirty bastard! What did you do that for?! He was just an old man.”

Dawn:

Oh I love this man.

Cole:

He then grabbed James by the scruff of his neck and forcibly threw him out of the pub, dumping him on the pavement, before turning on his heels and walking back into the pub.

Dawn:

Yay!

Cole:

Usually in Scotland you get oxtered out of the club.

Dawn:

Is that true?

Cole:

Yeah.

Dawn:

I’ve never heard of that.

Cole:

Yeah. They put their hands under your armpits and oxter you out of the club.

Dawn:

Oh. No, I did not know that.

Cole:

I saw Billy Connolly talking about it once. Do you want to explain what an oxter is?

Dawn:

Oh, it’s your armpit.

Cole:

It’s the Scottish word for your armpit. James Connolly, the bar manager, was recognized for his bravery and received the Glasgow Corporation Medal for Bravery for his heroism. So well deserved. What an amazing guy for protecting his punters.

Dawn:

I’m so glad that he was recognised for doing that. That was pretty amazing.

Cole:

Yeah. Really brave. No doubt James wasn’t too happy about being dumped outside on the pavement, and probably fully intended to march back into the pub and finish the job he started. However, another brave passer-by had seen James wielding a gun and a rifle and decided to tackle him outside the pub. Unfortunately, the man was unsuccessful and was left wounded in struggle. By this time the police had heard the shots being fired and were in pursuit. James would have heard the sirens getting closer, so now he was looking for his next mode of transport to escape. It just so happened that a lorry driven by John Craig had pulled up nearby the pub when he heard what he thought was an explosion. He certainly didn’t expect to see a man wielding a rifle and a shotgun, firing shots at him, while running in his direction on a Tuesday morning. John, thankfully, had quick reactions and was out of his cab sprinting away to take shelter behind a lamppost as fast as he could, with James taking a final shot at him and thankfully missing, before he jumped in his lorry and sped away.

Dawn:

I’m sorry, he hid behind a lamppost?

Cole:
Yes, he hid behind a lamppost, he must have been a very skinny gentleman. So, James, in his newly acquired lorry, continued to shoot at unsuspecting pedestrians as he flew down street after street, this time hitting Peter Patterson who was 39 in Possil Road. James wasn’t that familiar with the city but he probably would have thought that as long as he could hear the sirens of the police then he could avoid them, changing his direction and just keeping one step ahead of them. This might have been a good strategy if he’d known the area, however, he ended up in the Springburn area of Glasgow, about a 1.5 mile or 2.4 kilometre drive from The Round Toll Pub. He hurled the lorry into Kay Street and slammed on the brakes, he had reached a dead end. He then jumped down from the lorry cab, with his shotgun and rifle in hand, and made his way to 26 Kay Street, where he broke into the top floor flat. There have been two different reports about what he found when he broke into this flat; one version is that the tenants, Valerie Boyd who was 21 and her young daughter, were inside the flat.  It was reported that Valerie had been shot but not fatally, before they managed to escape the flat. The second version is the flat was in fact empty when James broke.  I’m not sure which version is true,  either way nobody was killed. James then went from window to window in the flat in Kay Street, from the back to the front of the flat, again firing at anyone that happened to be in the vicinity. Unfortunately, situated at the back of the flat and within shooting distance was a children’s playground where many children were enjoying being out and about in the sunshine, as it was the school holidays. James’ shots managed to hit an eight-year-old boy, called Peter Traynor, in the stomach, but thankfully it was only superficial, still traumatic though. And also a mother called Mrs Irene Reid, who was shot in the leg. The police eventually did manage to get all of the terrified and crying children and their mothers out of harms way. The police had by this time surrounded the whole flat, back and front, so there was at least no chance of James slipping out through a back alley this time. The police also by this time realised just what they were dealing with and a phone call was made to the Army asking for help. In the confusion a baby in a pram had been left on Kay Street and bullets were fired around the pram. I really can’t imagine why the pram with a baby in it had been left in the streets, in the line of fire, when a gunman was firing shots, but thankfully the baby was not hit and a brave policeman crawled out from safety, grabbed the baby and it was passed safely into a ground floor flat. Hopefully, afterwards, Child Services were also called.

Dawn:

(laughs) Can you imagine though. You’re just walked along the street, and you’re like, gunfire, I know what  I’ll do. (laughs) I’m just leaving this thing here, fu*k it. It’ll be fine.

Cole:

Fu*k this baby.

Dawn:
Didn’t like it anyway.

Cole:

Also walking down Kay Street, unaware of what was about to happen, was a man who had just come out of hospital where he’d been recovering from a knife attack. James shot this poor man in the neck. Someone else who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time was a couple who had only just got married, Irene Reed, who was an 18 year old, was hit, and her new husband was so angry that the police had to jump on him and hold him back as he ran towards James and his shotgun.

Dawn:

Oh don’t mess with his woman eh?

Cole:

Exactly. So, with the shooting spree now having been going on for almost two hours, and shots still being fired from every room of the flat above, endangering everyone below, and with no end in sight, the daunting task of stopping James was given to two brave police officers, Chief Superintendent Malcolm Finlayson and Detective Sergeant Ian Smith. They both armed themselves with revolvers and made their way undetected to the flat, slowly and quietly going up the stairs. When they got to the front door of the flat Finlayson opened the letterbox so that you could see inside. However, the metal squeaked on being opened and gave them away to James inside.

Dawn:

Oh no.

Cole:

On finding out that the police were at the door of the flat he raised his rifle and came running towards the door. Knowing James would be more than likely to shoot them if they didn’t do something, Finlayson placed the barrel of his gun through the letterbox and fired once, hitting James in the shoulder. James fell to the floor and the two men instantly came through the door and surrounded him. They kicked his guns away and carried him downstairs to their waiting colleagues. However, on reaching the street, James had died from his wounds. Apparently, the bullet had gone into James’s shoulder, ricocheting off a bone and sliced through his aorta artery, the main artery of the heart. Later, a pathologist said the path the bullet had taken was a chance in a thousand. The frenzied shooting spree was finally over, but not before James had shot a hundred bullets, injured 12 people and killed one, William Hughes. James was the first wanted man on record to be shot dead by Scottish police. James was given a paupers funeral and lies in Linn Cemetery in Glasgow. Chief Superintendent Malcolm Finlayson and Detective Sergeant Ian Smith both received the Glasgow Corporation Medal for Bravery, and were given the British Empire Medal by the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Finlayson apparently got to keep the actual gun that he shot James with when he retired in 1971, and he kept it in a box at his home on the Isle of Skye until he died in 1994 at the age of 83.

Dawn:

Good for them, I’m glad they both got recognised for what they did.

Cole:

Yeah, me too. So the story doesn’t actually end there, because we still haven’t had justice for Rachel Ross.

Dawn:

Oh my God, yes! I’d totally forgotten about why this had all started.

Cole:

Yeah, well, a lot has happened since then.

Dawn:

Yeah, it has.

Cole:

So, after James’s shooting spree, the police took this as an act of guilt, and in their minds that meant Meehan was guilty of the murder of Rachel Ross too. So, Meehan was immediately arrested and charged.

Dawn:

I don’t quite follow their thinking there, but, okay.

Cole:

I guess they couldn’t really know because James had died and hadn’t got a chance to say why he did what he did.

Dawn:

Yeah. So, they’ve just made an assumption.

Cole:

Yes. Meehan went to trial on the 24th of October 1969, where he submitted a defence of incrimination, claiming that the murder had actually been committed by another man named Ian Waddell.

Dawn:

What does defence of incrimination mean?

Cole:

So, it just means that he was alleging someone else had committed the crime, Ian Waddle.

Dawn:

Ah, I see, okay.

Cole:

Meehan knew of Waddell due to their crime world connections, so I’m assuming he was given Waddell’s name by one of his associates. However, despite this, Meehan was found guilty by a majority verdict of the murder of Rachel Ross and received a life sentence.

Dawn:

Okay, but I thought that he was somewhere else that night?

Cole:

Well, that is what he maintained, but obviously because Abraham Ross identified him they thought that it was an open and shut case, but not everybody agreed.

Dawn:

Hmm I can see why.

Cole:

Meehan spent his time in prison in solitary confinement and continued to proclaim his innocence from prison. He continued to appeal and assert that he was the victim of police framing, specifically stating that the identity parade had been rigged and the evidence had been suppressed that pointed to others haven’t actually committed the murder. This was backed up by journalist and broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy, Meehan’s advocate at the trial Nicholas Fairbairn, and others, who all suspected that there had indeed been a miscarriage of justice.  Also, in Kennedy’s book in 1975, he puts forward two names that were likely to be the killers; Ian Waddell and William Tank McGuinness.

Dawn:

Okay, he’s new.

Cole:

He is new. With the support of Kennedy, Fairbairn and Joe Beltrami, Meehan solicitor at the time of the trial, a campaign was set up, which eventually secured Meehan a Royal Pardon in May 1976, as well as receiving compensation of £50,000 in 1984, which is around £170,000 and about $213,000 in today’s money. On receiving his Royal Pardon and being released, Meehan had spent seven years in prison.

Dawn:

How were they able to secure the Royal Pardon? Was there new evidence presented?

Cole:

Okay, so this is quite a story, with a couple of different versions being told. So, you remember I mentioned that Ludovic Kennedy had put forward in his book that a likely killer of Rachel Ross could have been William Tank McGuiness?

Dawn:

Yes.

Cole:

Well, it turns out that William Tank McGuiness was also a client of Joel Beltrami, Meehan solicitor at the time of the trial and before.

Dawn:

Oh really. Wouldn’t that have been a conflict of interest?

Cole:

It would, and this is why Joe Beltrami was unable to reveal the fact that he actually knew of Tank McGuiness’s involvement in Rachel Ross’s murder, that was until Tank McGuiness’s death in 1976.

Dawn:

So, he knew that someone else was actually responsible for Rachel’s murder, but he kept quiet, even though he was representing Meehan and he was actually going to go to prison for it?

Cole:

Yes. Although Joe Beltrami believed that due to a client confidentiality he was unable to reveal this fact until after Tank McGuiness’s death, and this may have been the reason why he fought so hard to secure a Royal Pardon for Meehan.

Dawn:

That’s quite shocking that Beltrami only came forward with this information after Tank McGuiness’s death.

Cole:

I know. Meehan’s Royal pardon followed shortly after.

Dawn:

Poor Meehan. I mean he really got the raw end of the stick here didn’t he?

Cole:

Yeah, he did. And in an inquiry report by Lord Hunter, he too did not agree with Beltrami’s claim that there was a solicitor client relationship between him and Tank McGuinness at the time in question, going as far as suggesting that perhaps the best thing that Beltrami could have done back in 1969 when he was representing Meehan was to have stepped down and let another solicitor represent Meehan.

Dawn:

Well, yeah, that was the least he should have done. So, anyway, what happened to Tank McGuiness? How did he actually die?

Cole:
Well, there’s a couple of different stories. One is he was killed in a drunken street brawl. However, I found another story that was very interesting. In the book The Ferris Conspiracy by Reg McKay and Paul Ferris, it is stated that an arrest warrant was out for Tank McGuiness when he was picked up by two police officers. One of these police officers later stated that instead of taking him to the police station, they were ordered to drop him in a specific street in Glasgow, where he was subsequently beaten to death.

Dawn:
Oh, so, who was behind that?

Cole:

Well according to The Ferris Conspiracy book it was Arthur Thompson, who was a Scottish gangster known as The Godfather, who had ordered Tank McGuiness to be killed.

Dawn:

Why would he do that?

Cole:

Well, the book goes on to say that both Meehan and Tank McGuinness were long-term friends and asssociates of Arthur Thompson. However, more importantly, Joe Beltrami was Arthur’s solicitor, who had frequently got him out of tight scrapes, and he knew that Beltrami was struggling to get Meehan a Royal Pardon and was unable to break his client confidentiality restrictions with Tank McGuiness, so Arthur stepped in.

Dawn:

Alright, that’s quite interesting.

Cole:

And there’s even more. Following the information about Tank McGuiness’s involvement in the Rachel Ross murders coming out, it was then reported that apparently McGuiness had been stopped near Rachel and Abraham Ross’s house on the night of the murder by the police.

Dawn:

What?!

Cole:

But he supposedly pretended he was just drunk and had just missed the last bus home to Glasgow. He wasn’t arrested but sent on his way.

Dawn:

I’m shocked. I don’t know what to say.

Cole:

Well, I guess the police didn’t know about the break-in and the murder of Rachel at that point, it would have been 24 hours later before they were found tied up, but when they did know you’d think they might have followed up that line of inquiry.

Dawn:

Yeah, they should definitely have followed up that line of inquiry. I can now understand why Meehan was so suspicious of a police cover up.

Cole:

Yeah, it really makes no sense. A further interesting development that didn’t happen until after McGuiness’s murder is that apparently there were two witnesses, a Mr and Mrs Marshall who had seen two men acting suspiciously near Rachel and Abraham’s house shortly before the murderer. Upon Mrs Marshall finally being shown the correct photograph seven years later, she positively identified that it was William McGuiness that she had seen near Rachel and Abraham’s home that day.

Dawn:

Wait, you said they were shown the correct photograph seven years later, what did you mean?

Cole:

Well, according to Meehan in an article in The Herald newspaper on the 22nd of November 1989, Beltrami had told the police to show the witnesses a picture of a Michael McGuiness instead of a William McGuiness.

Dawn:

What?

Cole:

Yeah. Even though Beltrami knew William McGinnis and presumably what he looked like as he was one of his clients. And even more incredulously, William McGuiness actually had a record of tying people up.

Dawn:

That’s quite incredible really, and I could totally see why Meehan felt overwhelmingly that he was being framed.

Cole:

So can I.  In Beltrami’s book A Deadly Innocence, he did concede that with hindsight there could have been MI5 involvement.

Dawn:

What now?

Cole:

He went on to state that he knew nothing of William McGuiness’s involvement until much later. And, according to the Law Society of Scotland, he had only been able to disclose this information following McGuiness’s death, due to their client solicitor relationship, but that he had campaigned for seven years to secure Meehan a Royal Pardon.

Dawn:

Alright, that was really big of him.

Cole:

I know. Joe Beltrami died in 2015 at the age of 83. Following Meehan’s Royal pardon in 1976, journalist and broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy continued a prolonged campaign and eventually an inquiry was ordered into the miscarriage of justice, which was chaired by Lord Hunter, who was a Scottish judge at the time. However, having received and processed all of the information that was available to him about this case, it would take a further five years before Lord Hunter eventually concluded in a report in July 1982 that Meehan could not have committed the murder, but that he may actually have been involved in the background. So, he believed that Meehan may have been aware of the robbery, but maybe not what would be done to Rachel and Abraham. The report also added that there was insufficient evidence to support the claim that Meehan had been a victim of police conspiracy. Ludovic Kennedy, who has written many many books, also wrote a book about Meehan’s  case called A Presumption of Innocence, just if you want to delve further into this particular case. I could literally do a whole episode about Meehan alone. If you are interested there is a whole host of information on the internet about Meehan and his fight for justice. Meehan died from throat cancer on the 14th of August 1994 at the age of 67.

Dawn:

So, after all that, we still haven’t had justice for Rachel Ross’s murder, with Meehan now being pardoned and Tank McGuiness now being dead. So, what about the guy mentioned at Meehan’s trial? Was it Ian Waddell?

Cole:

Yes. He was the man named at Meehan’s trial, and by Ludovic Kennedy in his 1975 book as a potential suspect in the killing. Not long after the trial, Ian Waddell actually confessed to journalists that he had indeed committed the murder of Rachel Ross.

Dawn:

What?!

Cole:

Yeah. However, it wasn’t until 1976, after Meehan’s pardon, that Waddell was finally charged and tried for the murder of Rachel Ross, where he too submitted a defence of incrimination and claimed that the murder was actually committed by Meehan.

Dawn:

Oh okay. What is wrong with this guy?! He speaks to journalists and says yeah, I did this, and then when he’s charged and on trial he changes his story and says no, it wasn’t me, it was actually Meehan.

Cole:

Yeah, I know. He seems to be a bit all over the place. I don’t really know what he was thinking there.

Dawn:

Yeah, he’s just messing about.

Cole:

Anyway, even more incredulous the judge presiding over Waddell’s trial, Lord Robertson, in his closing statement managed to sway the jury into acquitting Waddell, simply because he was still not convinced of Meehan’s innocence or happy about Meehan receiving a free pardon. So, Waddell was acquitted.

Dawn:

I’m beginning to feel that everybody just has it in for Meehan. I’m not saying that he’s a saint, but he was pardoned!

Cole:

Yeah. He wasn’t actually there that night. Waddell was actually murdered in 1982 by Andrew Gentle, an associate of his, after they carried out a robbery together where they had murdered a woman called Josephine Chipperfield. Unfortunately, Waddell was dead so he couldn’t be charged and tried for this murder, but Gentle was convicted of both the murder of Waddell and Josephine. Gentle later committed suicide in prison, but that’s a whole other episode right there. So, what started that day in 1969 as just a few detectives wanting to speak to James about providing an alibi for Meehan the night of Rachel Ross’s murder, had turned into a shooting spree from Glasgow’s West End to the north of Glasgow, and continued to have ramifications over many years to come. What I did find seriously lacking though was information about Rachel and Abraham Ross and their story. I would have loved to have said more about them both, the victims. I would like to know what happened to Abraham. I know this was back in 1969, but if anyone can remember anything or if any details have been passed down by families, please send us a message to let us know, cause we’d love to do a mini episode about Rachel and Abraham Ross and their lives.

Dawn:

And that’s the end. If you’ve enjoyed this episode and know just the person who’d also like it, please share it with them, don’t keep it to yourself.

Cole:

Please also get in touch on social media if you have any questions, comments or suggestions and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. All social media and contact details are on our website scottishmurders.com, as well as all the source material and photos related to this episode.

Dawn:

So that’s it for this week, come back next time for another episode of Scottish Murders.

Dawn and Cole:

Join us there! Bye!

Granny Robertson: Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn.

by dawnyoung