August 4, 2025 • 13 mins
Arthur Thompson: The Godfather of Glasgow – In this gripping episode of Mobstercast Chronicles, we delve into the chilling legacy of Arthur Thompson, the man who ruled Glasgow’s underworld with iron fists and ice-cold eyes. From brutal loan sharking to mob assassinations, we explore how Thompson became the most feared man in Scotland’s criminal history—and how his family’s bloody downfall shocked the nation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
When you think of organized crime, your mind probably jumps
to maybe Prohibition New York, or maybe those old Wild
West syndics.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, sure those are the classic images, aren't they smoked
filled rooms, maybe Italy exactly.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
But picture this instead, the fog, the rain soaked streets
of Glasgow, Scotland. That's where our story unfolds today.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Have a very different setting, but just as brutal in
its own way.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
We're doing a deep dive into the well the extraordinary
and frankly brutal story of Arthur Thompson. You might have
heard him called the Godfather of Glasgow.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
That's the moniker.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah, we're going to explore how he didn't just climb
to the top. He really forged his place as this
underworld kingpin. He earned this chilling kind of fear, this respect.
It cast a shadow over the city for decades.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
And for this deep dive, we're relying on excerpts from
Arthur Thompson, Glasgow's Godfather of Crime. It's quite an unflinching look, really.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Detailed, gives you the inside track it does.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
It explores his life, the sheer power he wielded, and
that legacy he left behind. So our mission here is
to pull out the key insights from this material to
help you understand not just what Thompson did, but well
what made him so uniquely formidable, so dominant.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Okay, let's get into it. His beginnings. Arthur Thompson born
nineteen thirty one, Springburn. That's a notoriously tough part of Glasgow, right,
working class, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
And you need to picture mid twentieth century Scotland, still
reeling from the war, lots of poverty, industry declining.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So a pretty bleak environment.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Very and in that kind of place, toughness wasn't just
you know, a personality thing, it was basic survival.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Makes sense. And his upbringing did that reflect the environment.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh completely? The sources painted picture of a childhood surrounded
by petty crime, really brutal, bare knuckle fights, and this
kind of rough justice system that operated completely outside the police.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So the police weren't really involved on that level.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Not in the day to day squabbles, not really. And
Thompson he found his way into that violent underworld pretty quickly.
It was a place where well, this were like currency,
and being ruthless was almost a badge of honor.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Okay, So his first steps in crime, the sources mentioned
loan sharking, protection rackets pre standard stuff for British gangsters
back then fifties sixties.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, that was the common starting point. But what the
sources really highlight is Compson's intensity. Even then, he wasn't
just another.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Thug, how so what set him apart?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
He was calculating, methodical and crucially absolutely unafraid to use
extreme violence. It wasn't just random, it was targeted.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Can you give an example of that from the sources.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Sure he'd lend small amounts, often to desperate people. Then
the interest rates were just exorbitant, and if you missed
a payment, well it wasn't just a warning.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
No gentle reminders.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Then No, he has baseball bats, broken limbs. The sources
talk about home visits that left entire families absolutely terrified.
This wasn't just about collecting debt, It was about establishing
dominance through fear.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Wow. So by the late fifties he'd already built this reputae.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Oh yeah, he was known as someone you simply did
not cross. That reputation was built early and deliberately.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Okay, so he starts with these street level operations, but
clearly he had bigger ambitions How did he make that leap?
The sources talk about diversification.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
That's right. He didn't stay static. He was smart enough
to see where the real money, the real power lay.
He moved into drugs, extortion on a larger scale, arms dealing, gambling.
That's what really cemented his rise.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
And this was happening as the criminal landscape itself was changing, right,
particularly in the sixties and seventies exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
The big shift was narcotics, heroin, amphetamines. They started flooding
the UK market and the potential profits were just immense, unprecedented.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Really, and Thompson saw that opportunity.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
He absolutely did. But unlike maybe some others who got
caught up in it themselves, he saw it as a market.
He understood it, and he aimed to control it with
an iron grip, often using intermediaries, keeping himself removed.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So this is evolving beyond just one man in his fists.
It's becoming organized.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Very organized, hierarchical, and utterly reliant on fear. That was
the bedrock.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
What did that structure look like? How did he maintain
control over this growing empire?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
It became quite sophisticated. Think of it like a tiered system,
almost like a corporation, but you know, a criminal one.
Thompson himself rarely handled the drugs or the street level
cash layers. He operated through a tight circle of trusted lieutenants.
They managed their own cells, their own territories. It made
the whole thing incredibly hard for the police to penetrate and.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
The people working for him.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
What were the rules rigid? Loyalty was absolute. That was
a first and last rule. If you stole, if you lied,
even if you just questioned orders, the retribution was swift
and dire.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
No second chances, pretty much none.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It wasn't just about being fired, obviously, it was about
ensuring compliance through terror. Everyone knew the consequences.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
So you build this kind of power, you make enemies
an ever, but the sources suggest that very few people
actually managed to challenge Thompson successfully. Why was he so
hard to take down?
Speaker 2 (05:07):
He was incredibly resilient, partly because of that structure we
talked about, but also because of his sheer ruthlessness in
dealing with threats. A lot of people who crossed him
just disappeared or ended up dead.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Any specific example stand out.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
There's a really significant one from the nineteen sixties a
car bomb planted under.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
His vehicle, aimed directly at him.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yes, but in a truly tragic twist, it wasn't him
in the car when it went off. It killed his
mother in law. Oh, terrible, horrific. But it also sent
this incredibly chilling message to his enemies, if you come
for me, you better not miss because the collateral damage
could be devastating.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
And after that did the violence escalate. The sources mentioned
stories circulating beatings, shootings, disappearances.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Exactly, and whether every single story was literally true or
slightly exaggerated, it almost didn't matter. The fear they generated
serve his purpose.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Psychological warfare in.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
A way absolutely kept people in line. The dread, the whispers,
the not knowing exactly what he was capable of. That
was a powerful tool. And it wasn't just him operating
in a vacuum. This is very much a.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Family affair, right, His wife Rita gets mentioned.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yes, the sources describer as incredibly loyal, very stoic, supportive,
behind the scenes, kind of the anchor for him.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And then there's the next generation, his son, Arthur Junior.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
That boy, the heir apparent, groomed from a young age,
apparently to take over the reins.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
What was he like, according to the sources, different from
his father.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Seemingly quite different in style, described as flashy, maybe arrogant,
certainly less disciplined than his father, but ruthless in his
own way. By the eighties, he was getting more involved,
more visible in the syndicate.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Was it a smooth transition of power though, or were
things getting more complicated?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Definitely more complicated. The landscape in Glasgow was changing again.
New rival gangs were emerging, Younger guys, hungrier, They didn't
necessarily respect the old.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Ways, and this started to threaten the Thompson dominance.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
It did, and among these new threats, one name really
stood out, Paul Ferris. He became arguably the most significant
challenge that Thompson's ever faced.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Paul Ferris. His story is intertwined with Thompson's from the start,
isn't it. He actually worked for them initially.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
That's right. He started as an enforcer for the Thompson family.
He was young, seen as intelligent and undeniably violent, qualities
that made him valuable.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So an asset turned rival. What caused that shift? What
created the tension between Ferris and particularly Fat Boy Thompson.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's a bit murky, like a lot of these underworld things.
The sources offer different accounts. Some say it was about money,
disagreements over deals. Others point to clashes of ego, issues
of respect, or just a naked power struggle.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Fat boys arrogance versus Ferris's ambition.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
That seems to be the core of it. A volatile mix.
Became pretty clear they were on a collision course. It
wasn't a matter of if they'd clash, but when and
how badly.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
And that clash culminated very dramatically August eighteenth, nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
One, the murder of Arthur Fatboy Thompson Junior, gunned down
right outside the family.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Home in Rouchel, not hidden away either, Breezen broad Dailers exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
It sent absolute shockwaves through the underworld. This was an
attack on the Thompson dynasty itself, right on their doorstep,
a huge statement.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And the finger pointed pretty quickly at Paul Ferris.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
He was the immediate suspect. Yes, yeah, he was arrested,
charged not just with Fat Boy's murder, but with other
related killings too, and that set the stage for a
massive legal battle.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
The trial in nineteen ninety two. It got called the
Trial the Century in Scotland, didn't It lasted ages hundreds
of witnesses.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
That was huge, fifty four days long, over three hundred witnesses.
And what made it so extraordinary beyond the murder charge itself,
was what it exposed. What came out just a shocking
level of underlying criminality, but also alleged police corruption, informants, deals, bribes.
It painted this incredible picture of Glasgow's dark side, much
des than most people probably realized.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
A real hornet's nest.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Stirred up definitely, But then came the verdict, Paul Ferris
acquitted of all charges.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Wow, after all that, how did that land, especially for
Arthur Thompson's senior.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Devastating, utterly devastating for him. He'd lost his son, his heir,
in this incredibly public, violent way, and now the man
everyone suspected, the man who stood trial, walked free. He
was a massive blow both personally and to his authority.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
You can see how that would be a turning point,
his son's murder, the trial's outcome. Thompson Senior was getting
older too, with his grip really slipping by them.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Unquestionably that event marked a real shift. He became more isolated.
The sources suggest the old guard of criminals, the ones
who maybe shared his code, were dying off or in prison.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
And the new generation didn't play by the same rules,
not at all.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
They didn't have the same respect or maybe fear for
the old ways. The era of the single, all powerful
godfather figure was fading. Thompson became more reclusive.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Did he still control the rackets, the drugs less directly?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
He was still feared. His name still carried weight, but
his active day to day control diminished significantly. Plus his
health was failing, strokes, heart problems.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
It all took its toll, and then his death not
violent in the.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
End, no, ironically, he died of natural causes March thirteenth,
nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
He was sixty one, still relatively young, though yes, considering.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
The life he led. His funeral, though, that was anything
but quiet, massively policed, huge police presence lining the streets.
Over one thousand mourners turned up. There was real concern
about potential violence reprisals. It showed the tension still simmering
under the surface.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
A reflection of the life he led.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Absolutely and fittingly, Perhaps he was buried right next to
his son fat Boy.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
So looking back at it all, what's the legacy? It
seems so contradictory. On one hand, this brutal gangster responsible
for so much violence the drug trade, a monster, some would.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Say, undeniably. The source are clear about the ruthlessness, the
misery caused by his operations.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
But then there's this other perspective mentioned, a product of
his environment, someone who commanded a strange kind of respect
in that tough Glasgow setting.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
That's the complexity, isn't it. Yes, some saw him, perhaps romantically,
perhaps pragmatically, as someone who understood the rules of that
world and played them better than anyone else. Did what
he had to do. That respect was often just fear,
of course.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
But his impact on Glasgow it's undeniable, right, That fear
lasted for decades.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Oh absolutely, He shaped the cities underworld for generations, and
the fascination continues. You see it in the true crime documentaries, the.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Books like The Ferris Conspiracy, The Devil's Deal. Even Ferris
himself wrote books, didn't he.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yes, Ferris crafted his own narrative after the acquittal, became
something of public figure himself. It all adds to the mythology,
the line between the real Arthur Thompson and the legend,
it's become very blurred, especially in Glasgow itself. He's almost
folklore now.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
It makes you think people call him Skottlam's al Capone.
Is that a fair comparison? Do you see parallels?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
You can definitely draw parallels. Both controlled huge criminal enterprises
in major cities. Both ruled through fear to a large extent,
and both eventually lost their grip as times changed. But
there must be differences too, oh absolutely, and they're important.
Capone was flashy, loved the limelight, very public figure. Thompson
was the opposite, stoic, preferred the shadows, let his reputation
(12:24):
do the talking.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Different styles of operating.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Very different. And Thompson's empire, you could argue, was more diversified,
maybe more deeply embedded. It wasn't just bootlegging, it was drugs, guns, extortion.
The sources even hinted influence reaching into police and political circles,
though that's harder to prove definitively. He didn't just run
a crime family. Some say he ran a version of
Glasgow itself, a silent, pervasive force.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Quite a claim.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
It is but it reflects the depth of his control
and the fear he inspired. So, stepping back from the details,
what's the big takeaway from this deep dive.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
I think it's about the price of these kinds of legends,
especially the ones built on violence, the human cost exactly.
The sources really bring that home. The deaths, his son,
his mother in law, countless others caught in the crossfire
or eliminated, the scars left by the drug epidemics. He
profited from that lingering trail of fear. It reshaped communities.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
A heavy price. Indeed, it's quite something even today. Apparently,
if you mentioned Arthur Thompson's name in certain parts of Glasgow,
you still get, well a knowing nod or maybe a
cautious glance over the shoulder.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
The legend persists, It really does, because Arthur Johnson might
be dead, but in the city he ruled, it feels
like the Godfather's ghost still walks. So, thinking about all this,
what does this dive into Thompson's life tell you about power,
about ambition, and about those enduring shadows of the underworld.
When you think of organized crime, your mind probably jumps
to maybe Prohibition New York, or maybe those old Wild
West syndics.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, sure those are the classic images, aren't they smoked
filled rooms, maybe Italy exactly.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
But picture this instead, the fog, the rain soaked streets
of Glasgow, Scotland. That's where our story unfolds today.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Have a very different setting, but just as brutal in
its own way.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
We're doing a deep dive into the well the extraordinary
and frankly brutal story of Arthur Thompson. You might have
heard him called the Godfather of Glasgow.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
That's the moniker.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah, we're going to explore how he didn't just climb
to the top. He really forged his place as this
underworld kingpin. He earned this chilling kind of fear, this respect.
It cast a shadow over the city for decades.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
And for this deep dive, we're relying on excerpts from
Arthur Thompson, Glasgow's Godfather of Crime. It's quite an unflinching look, really.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Detailed, gives you the inside track it does.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
It explores his life, the sheer power he wielded, and
that legacy he left behind. So our mission here is
to pull out the key insights from this material to
help you understand not just what Thompson did, but well
what made him so uniquely formidable, so dominant.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Okay, let's get into it. His beginnings. Arthur Thompson born
nineteen thirty one, Springburn. That's a notoriously tough part of Glasgow, right,
working class, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
And you need to picture mid twentieth century Scotland, still
reeling from the war, lots of poverty, industry declining.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So a pretty bleak environment.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Very and in that kind of place, toughness wasn't just
you know, a personality thing, it was basic survival.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Makes sense. And his upbringing did that reflect the environment.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh completely? The sources painted picture of a childhood surrounded
by petty crime, really brutal, bare knuckle fights, and this
kind of rough justice system that operated completely outside the police.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So the police weren't really involved on that level.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Not in the day to day squabbles, not really. And
Thompson he found his way into that violent underworld pretty quickly.
It was a place where well, this were like currency,
and being ruthless was almost a badge of honor.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Okay, So his first steps in crime, the sources mentioned
loan sharking, protection rackets pre standard stuff for British gangsters
back then fifties sixties.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, that was the common starting point. But what the
sources really highlight is Compson's intensity. Even then, he wasn't
just another.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Thug, how so what set him apart?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
He was calculating, methodical and crucially absolutely unafraid to use
extreme violence. It wasn't just random, it was targeted.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Can you give an example of that from the sources.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Sure he'd lend small amounts, often to desperate people. Then
the interest rates were just exorbitant, and if you missed
a payment, well it wasn't just a warning.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
No gentle reminders.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Then No, he has baseball bats, broken limbs. The sources
talk about home visits that left entire families absolutely terrified.
This wasn't just about collecting debt, It was about establishing
dominance through fear.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Wow. So by the late fifties he'd already built this reputae.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Oh yeah, he was known as someone you simply did
not cross. That reputation was built early and deliberately.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Okay, so he starts with these street level operations, but
clearly he had bigger ambitions How did he make that leap?
The sources talk about diversification.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
That's right. He didn't stay static. He was smart enough
to see where the real money, the real power lay.
He moved into drugs, extortion on a larger scale, arms dealing, gambling.
That's what really cemented his rise.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
And this was happening as the criminal landscape itself was changing, right,
particularly in the sixties and seventies exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
The big shift was narcotics, heroin, amphetamines. They started flooding
the UK market and the potential profits were just immense, unprecedented.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Really, and Thompson saw that opportunity.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
He absolutely did. But unlike maybe some others who got
caught up in it themselves, he saw it as a market.
He understood it, and he aimed to control it with
an iron grip, often using intermediaries, keeping himself removed.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So this is evolving beyond just one man in his fists.
It's becoming organized.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Very organized, hierarchical, and utterly reliant on fear. That was
the bedrock.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
What did that structure look like? How did he maintain
control over this growing empire?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
It became quite sophisticated. Think of it like a tiered system,
almost like a corporation, but you know, a criminal one.
Thompson himself rarely handled the drugs or the street level
cash layers. He operated through a tight circle of trusted lieutenants.
They managed their own cells, their own territories. It made
the whole thing incredibly hard for the police to penetrate and.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
The people working for him.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
What were the rules rigid? Loyalty was absolute. That was
a first and last rule. If you stole, if you lied,
even if you just questioned orders, the retribution was swift
and dire.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
No second chances, pretty much none.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It wasn't just about being fired, obviously, it was about
ensuring compliance through terror. Everyone knew the consequences.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
So you build this kind of power, you make enemies
an ever, but the sources suggest that very few people
actually managed to challenge Thompson successfully. Why was he so
hard to take down?
Speaker 2 (05:07):
He was incredibly resilient, partly because of that structure we
talked about, but also because of his sheer ruthlessness in
dealing with threats. A lot of people who crossed him
just disappeared or ended up dead.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Any specific example stand out.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
There's a really significant one from the nineteen sixties a
car bomb planted under.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
His vehicle, aimed directly at him.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yes, but in a truly tragic twist, it wasn't him
in the car when it went off. It killed his
mother in law. Oh, terrible, horrific. But it also sent
this incredibly chilling message to his enemies, if you come
for me, you better not miss because the collateral damage
could be devastating.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
And after that did the violence escalate. The sources mentioned
stories circulating beatings, shootings, disappearances.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Exactly, and whether every single story was literally true or
slightly exaggerated, it almost didn't matter. The fear they generated
serve his purpose.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Psychological warfare in.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
A way absolutely kept people in line. The dread, the whispers,
the not knowing exactly what he was capable of. That
was a powerful tool. And it wasn't just him operating
in a vacuum. This is very much a.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Family affair, right, His wife Rita gets mentioned.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yes, the sources describer as incredibly loyal, very stoic, supportive,
behind the scenes, kind of the anchor for him.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And then there's the next generation, his son, Arthur Junior.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
That boy, the heir apparent, groomed from a young age,
apparently to take over the reins.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
What was he like, according to the sources, different from
his father.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Seemingly quite different in style, described as flashy, maybe arrogant,
certainly less disciplined than his father, but ruthless in his
own way. By the eighties, he was getting more involved,
more visible in the syndicate.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Was it a smooth transition of power though, or were
things getting more complicated?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Definitely more complicated. The landscape in Glasgow was changing again.
New rival gangs were emerging, Younger guys, hungrier, They didn't
necessarily respect the old.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Ways, and this started to threaten the Thompson dominance.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
It did, and among these new threats, one name really
stood out, Paul Ferris. He became arguably the most significant
challenge that Thompson's ever faced.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Paul Ferris. His story is intertwined with Thompson's from the start,
isn't it. He actually worked for them initially.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
That's right. He started as an enforcer for the Thompson family.
He was young, seen as intelligent and undeniably violent, qualities
that made him valuable.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So an asset turned rival. What caused that shift? What
created the tension between Ferris and particularly Fat Boy Thompson.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's a bit murky, like a lot of these underworld things.
The sources offer different accounts. Some say it was about money,
disagreements over deals. Others point to clashes of ego, issues
of respect, or just a naked power struggle.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Fat boys arrogance versus Ferris's ambition.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
That seems to be the core of it. A volatile mix.
Became pretty clear they were on a collision course. It
wasn't a matter of if they'd clash, but when and
how badly.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
And that clash culminated very dramatically August eighteenth, nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
One, the murder of Arthur Fatboy Thompson Junior, gunned down
right outside the family.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Home in Rouchel, not hidden away either, Breezen broad Dailers exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
It sent absolute shockwaves through the underworld. This was an
attack on the Thompson dynasty itself, right on their doorstep,
a huge statement.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And the finger pointed pretty quickly at Paul Ferris.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
He was the immediate suspect. Yes, yeah, he was arrested,
charged not just with Fat Boy's murder, but with other
related killings too, and that set the stage for a
massive legal battle.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
The trial in nineteen ninety two. It got called the
Trial the Century in Scotland, didn't It lasted ages hundreds
of witnesses.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
That was huge, fifty four days long, over three hundred witnesses.
And what made it so extraordinary beyond the murder charge itself,
was what it exposed. What came out just a shocking
level of underlying criminality, but also alleged police corruption, informants, deals, bribes.
It painted this incredible picture of Glasgow's dark side, much
des than most people probably realized.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
A real hornet's nest.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Stirred up definitely, But then came the verdict, Paul Ferris
acquitted of all charges.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Wow, after all that, how did that land, especially for
Arthur Thompson's senior.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Devastating, utterly devastating for him. He'd lost his son, his heir,
in this incredibly public, violent way, and now the man
everyone suspected, the man who stood trial, walked free. He
was a massive blow both personally and to his authority.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
You can see how that would be a turning point,
his son's murder, the trial's outcome. Thompson Senior was getting
older too, with his grip really slipping by them.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Unquestionably that event marked a real shift. He became more isolated.
The sources suggest the old guard of criminals, the ones
who maybe shared his code, were dying off or in prison.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
And the new generation didn't play by the same rules,
not at all.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
They didn't have the same respect or maybe fear for
the old ways. The era of the single, all powerful
godfather figure was fading. Thompson became more reclusive.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Did he still control the rackets, the drugs less directly?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
He was still feared. His name still carried weight, but
his active day to day control diminished significantly. Plus his
health was failing, strokes, heart problems.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
It all took its toll, and then his death not
violent in the.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
End, no, ironically, he died of natural causes March thirteenth,
nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
He was sixty one, still relatively young, though yes, considering.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
The life he led. His funeral, though, that was anything
but quiet, massively policed, huge police presence lining the streets.
Over one thousand mourners turned up. There was real concern
about potential violence reprisals. It showed the tension still simmering
under the surface.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
A reflection of the life he led.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Absolutely and fittingly, Perhaps he was buried right next to
his son fat Boy.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
So looking back at it all, what's the legacy? It
seems so contradictory. On one hand, this brutal gangster responsible
for so much violence the drug trade, a monster, some would.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Say, undeniably. The source are clear about the ruthlessness, the
misery caused by his operations.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
But then there's this other perspective mentioned, a product of
his environment, someone who commanded a strange kind of respect
in that tough Glasgow setting.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
That's the complexity, isn't it. Yes, some saw him, perhaps romantically,
perhaps pragmatically, as someone who understood the rules of that
world and played them better than anyone else. Did what
he had to do. That respect was often just fear,
of course.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
But his impact on Glasgow it's undeniable, right, That fear
lasted for decades.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Oh absolutely, He shaped the cities underworld for generations, and
the fascination continues. You see it in the true crime documentaries, the.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Books like The Ferris Conspiracy, The Devil's Deal. Even Ferris
himself wrote books, didn't he.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yes, Ferris crafted his own narrative after the acquittal, became
something of public figure himself. It all adds to the mythology,
the line between the real Arthur Thompson and the legend,
it's become very blurred, especially in Glasgow itself. He's almost
folklore now.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
It makes you think people call him Skottlam's al Capone.
Is that a fair comparison? Do you see parallels?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
You can definitely draw parallels. Both controlled huge criminal enterprises
in major cities. Both ruled through fear to a large extent,
and both eventually lost their grip as times changed. But
there must be differences too, oh absolutely, and they're important.
Capone was flashy, loved the limelight, very public figure. Thompson
was the opposite, stoic, preferred the shadows, let his reputation
(12:24):
do the talking.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Different styles of operating.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Very different. And Thompson's empire, you could argue, was more diversified,
maybe more deeply embedded. It wasn't just bootlegging, it was drugs, guns, extortion.
The sources even hinted influence reaching into police and political circles,
though that's harder to prove definitively. He didn't just run
a crime family. Some say he ran a version of
Glasgow itself, a silent, pervasive force.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Quite a claim.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
It is but it reflects the depth of his control
and the fear he inspired. So, stepping back from the details,
what's the big takeaway from this deep dive.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
I think it's about the price of these kinds of legends,
especially the ones built on violence, the human cost exactly.
The sources really bring that home. The deaths, his son,
his mother in law, countless others caught in the crossfire
or eliminated, the scars left by the drug epidemics. He
profited from that lingering trail of fear. It reshaped communities.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
A heavy price. Indeed, it's quite something even today. Apparently,
if you mentioned Arthur Thompson's name in certain parts of Glasgow,
you still get, well a knowing nod or maybe a
cautious glance over the shoulder.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
The legend persists, It really does, because Arthur Johnson might
be dead, but in the city he ruled, it feels
like the Godfather's ghost still walks. So, thinking about all this,
what does this dive into Thompson's life tell you about power,
about ambition, and about those enduring shadows of the underworld.
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