Tomfurbs
07-30-2007, 08:12 PM
From the BBC's website:
'Licensee' McGraw's life of crime
Tam 'The Licensee' McGraw was a well known underworld figure
He was Scotland's underworld equivalent of the Teflon Don.
According to gangland mythology, he was a man who was licensed to commit crime anywhere and at any time.
However, in one of the greatest ironies of gangland history, Tam "The Licensee" McGraw has died, not by the sword, but from natural causes.
From humble beginnings in the east end of Glasgow and a life of petty crime and gang fights, McGraw graduated to armed robbery.
Before long, he went on to forge a fierce reputation and a considerable fortune which some say could have been as much as £20m.
With a criminal empire which extended from legitimate activities such as taxi firms and security companies to extortion and drugs, he became one of Glasgow's more infamous figures.
Criminal colleagues
According to Paul Ferris, another figure from Glasgow's organised crime scene who claims to have gone straight, McGraw was a police informant.
This was a charge that was always strenuously denied by Strathclyde Police.
In his autobiography, Ferris claimed that McGraw was backed by corrupt police officers and received confiscated drugs which he then sold on the streets.
Many of his criminal colleagues would have preferred McGraw to stay permanently at his homes in Tenerife or Ireland.
Indeed, five years ago, he was stabbed in broad daylight not far from his house in Carrick Drive in the Mount Vernon area.
Natural causes
He suffered only minor injuries because he was wearing a bullet-proof vest.
His reputation grew as a Glaswegian untouchable.
McGraw was a peripheral figure in the so-called Ice Cream Wars in the city, which involved the murder of six members of the Doyle family, who died in a house fire in Ruchazie in 1984.
He was never convicted of any wrongdoing, with not proven verdicts delivered after attempted prosecutions for drug smuggling in 1998 and the attempted murder of a policeman 20 years earlier.
Like Al Capone who was eventually jailed for tax evasion, The Licensee, unlike many of his contemporaries, managed to dodge the assassin's bullet, only to die of natural causes.
Bloody gangsters... get a proper job.
'Licensee' McGraw's life of crime
Tam 'The Licensee' McGraw was a well known underworld figure
He was Scotland's underworld equivalent of the Teflon Don.
According to gangland mythology, he was a man who was licensed to commit crime anywhere and at any time.
However, in one of the greatest ironies of gangland history, Tam "The Licensee" McGraw has died, not by the sword, but from natural causes.
From humble beginnings in the east end of Glasgow and a life of petty crime and gang fights, McGraw graduated to armed robbery.
Before long, he went on to forge a fierce reputation and a considerable fortune which some say could have been as much as £20m.
With a criminal empire which extended from legitimate activities such as taxi firms and security companies to extortion and drugs, he became one of Glasgow's more infamous figures.
Criminal colleagues
According to Paul Ferris, another figure from Glasgow's organised crime scene who claims to have gone straight, McGraw was a police informant.
This was a charge that was always strenuously denied by Strathclyde Police.
In his autobiography, Ferris claimed that McGraw was backed by corrupt police officers and received confiscated drugs which he then sold on the streets.
Many of his criminal colleagues would have preferred McGraw to stay permanently at his homes in Tenerife or Ireland.
Indeed, five years ago, he was stabbed in broad daylight not far from his house in Carrick Drive in the Mount Vernon area.
Natural causes
He suffered only minor injuries because he was wearing a bullet-proof vest.
His reputation grew as a Glaswegian untouchable.
McGraw was a peripheral figure in the so-called Ice Cream Wars in the city, which involved the murder of six members of the Doyle family, who died in a house fire in Ruchazie in 1984.
He was never convicted of any wrongdoing, with not proven verdicts delivered after attempted prosecutions for drug smuggling in 1998 and the attempted murder of a policeman 20 years earlier.
Like Al Capone who was eventually jailed for tax evasion, The Licensee, unlike many of his contemporaries, managed to dodge the assassin's bullet, only to die of natural causes.
Bloody gangsters... get a proper job.