Glasgow Gangs

‘Can yer Maw sew? Get her tae stitch that!’

The gangs became infamous for their use of the straight or open razor-one where the blade folds into the handle. But the intention more often than not wasn’t to kill. It was intended to disfigure by slicing open the face. And it wasn’t just razors they used. They used coshes, hatchets, hammers, sharpened bike chains, petrol bombs, and if they ran out of those, there were always the razor blades stitched into their caps and lapels. And as some ambushes started with the chucking of human waste, it can be said that they would use literally anything.

A small consolation to the slum dwellers of Glasgow was that the gangs had a code where only other gang members were targets. But crossfire casualties were not uncommon.

On the afternoon of the 3 March 1934 a group of about 500 blue scarf, rosette wearing Rangers supporters were gathered at Bridgeton Cross station. They were waiting for a train to take them to the match. But among them was a hardcore of Billy Boys. Then onto the platform arrived a train carrying Celtic supporters. The two sides hurled nothing more than abuse until a Billy Boys man called John Traquair burst onto the train. He set upon the first men he could find–slashing one with a razor and punching another.

A police manhunt ensued and John Trequair was charged with mobbing, assault and rioting. Found guilty, his sentence surprised everyone used to lenient sentences for Protestants. He was jailed for four years. A 40,000 petition appealing achieved nothing. It was a sign of things to come as both police and the judiciary cracked down hard.

Billy continued to spark gang violence by marching his gang into Conk strongholds. After one bruising encounter in Norman Street, nearly every Billy Boy was injured, either by the Conks, or the police. The only Billy Boy to escape without injury was the big drum player. He had hid inside his instrument.

But such blatant public battles were starting to concern the authorities. Sectarian violence was about to be dealt with at street level by the gangbuster, Percy Sillitoe.

THE HAMMER OF THE GANGS

Percy Joseph Sillitoe, the Gangbuster, became the Chief Constable of Glasgow in 1931. He went there after a stint sending down the serious offenders of the steel hard city of Sheffield. He believed Glasgow was "a city being overrun by gangsters terrorising other citizens and waging war between themselves in the streets".

Sillitoe fought fire with fire and recruited the toughest men he could find from the Highlands. Given basic training and uniforms, their brief was simple. Take down the gangs. The ‘boot and baton’ approach of the now 1,500 strong Glasgow police force meant they became known as "the biggest gang in the world".

But Sillitoe didn’t just use brute force. He introduced radio cars, police boxes, a modern fingerprint lab; and the chequered band round cop caps - now used throughout the world - is called the Sillitoe Tartan because he introduced it to help identify police officers, even in riots.

Sillitoe wouldn’t just wade into the middle of a fight. His police waited till both sides had worn themselves out. Then they would wade in to sweep up the survivors.

And if he couldn’t arrest Billy Fullerton for violence, he would take him down another way.

Sillitoe first arrested Billy Fullerton in the late thirties. Billy, fond of the drink and of his family image, was parading through the streets with forty of his followers whilst cradling a baby in his arms. So Sillitoe arrested him for being found drunk in charge of a child. He was jailed for 10 months. Sillitoe then confiscated £600 from Billy’s bank account draining the financial lifeblood of the Billy Boys.

On release Billy formed a 200 strong Glasgow branch of the Mosley Black Shirts. Billy’s attacking of communists (by belief, anti nationalist) all fitted with their image as defenders of the faith, and their nation. In reality, they were thugs who had found in Moseley a new paymaster and Moseley had found much needed bodyguards. But when the Fascist leader was interned, Billy signed up for the navy as World War II broke out. There, he served with distinction, as did many other Billy Boys.

However, on returning to Glasgow, he went onto form Glasgow’s own branch of the Ku Klux Klan. On top of the predictable anti-Semitism, and with few racial minorities to attack, Catholics were once again targeted.

In 1942, Sillitoe was knighted. Sir Percy Sillitoe often spoke of Billy as a skilled fighter and an ingenious leader. Perhaps this was intended to boost Sir Percy by showing he hadn’t fought just any old criminal. The effect, however, was to mythologise his adversary. Later generations often confused the fictional Johnnie Stark (from ‘No Mean City’) with the flawed and only occasionally heroic Billy.

The man himself died in poverty in 1962 aged 57 years in a single roomed tenement home just north of Bridgeton Cross. He was given a spectacular send off including flute bands as around 1000 marched in his funeral cortege. He was buried in the cemetery at Riddrie in an unmarked grave.

COPPING A CARMONT

When the razor gangs threatened to resurface in the 1950s, Lord Carmont, a city judge started handing down severe sentences. In one series of court sittings in Glasgow he passed sentences of up to 10 years, and in total 52 years, on eight men.

For Glasgow knife carriers, being sentenced by him became known as ‘copping a Carmont.’

By May 1954 Lord Carmont told the High Court in Glasgow he thought the city’s record of crimes of violence was improving. It was; but not for long.

FRED WEST DID WHAT?

Fred West, the serial killer and child sexual predator used to sell ice creams in the Gorbals in the early 1960s. It is not clear if he used the opportunity to prey on children though he did run over and kill one in his van.

In 1961, slum clearances and major regeneration, together with a sustained criminal crackdown, helped clear away the environment that had helped the gangs grow. But though the San Toi Boys of the razor gang era are gone, their descendants, the ‘Toi’ gangs are still active in Glasgow.

And scars are still worn by some as badges of honour. The most sadistic is the ‘Glasgow smile’. The victim has both sides of his mouth slashed back to the ear leaving the impression they are grinning from ear to ear.

AND NOW?

In 2002 the World Health Organisation declared Scotland as one of the bloodiest nations in the Western World and Glasgow the murder capital of Europe.

In 2007 there were 73 murders in the Strathclyde Police force area, 40 of which involved knives. Knife crime levels in Scotland were 3.5 times higher than in England or Wales. Karyn McLuskey, head of Strathclyde’s Violence Reduction Unit said knife crime was endemic and dated back to the ‘razor gangs’ of the 1920s.

Since 2008, however, she spearheaded a Violence Reduction Scheme and nearly 500 gang members from eastern Glasgow engaged with it. Violent offending has fallen by 46%. Gang fighting is down by 73%. And weapon possession, still including still razors sometimes, has dropped by 85%.

Glasgow is no longer the murder capital of Western Europe but the ‘booze and blades’ epitaph is hard to shift. Visitors should still be wary in certain parts of Glasgow, a place where there are more scarred faces than anywhere else in Britain.