True Crime Scotland

As a young man in Glasgow’s underworld, Ian "Blink" MacDonald earned a reputation for fighting and stabbing his enemies. After refusing to work for Arthur "The Godfather" Thompson, he attempted to steal £6 million in a high-risk armed bank robbery. While serving 16 years, Blink met the torture-gang boss Eddie Richardson, the serial killer Archie Hall, notorious lifer Charles Bronson and members of the Krays.

In August 1963, a Royal Mail train was stopped in the dead of night and £2.6 million in cash vanished into the darkness. The Great Train Robbery: Britain’s Most Daring Railway Heist uncovers the full story—from meticulous planning and the dramatic raid itself to Scotland Yard’s relentless pursuit, harsh sentences, and notorious prison escapes. More than a crime, it became a legend—an audacious tale of ambition, folly, and consequence that continues to captivate over half a century later.

When Scotland Yard’s first detective branch was set up in 1842, crime was very different from today. The favoured murder weapon was the cut-throat razor; carrying a pocket watch was dangerous; the most significant clue at a murder scene could be the whereabouts of a candlestick or hat; large households (family, servants and lodgers) complicated many a case; and servants sometimes murdered their masters.

In 1878 the Criminal Investigation Department replaced Scotland Yard's corrupt and discredited Detective Branch. In this classic story of the early days of detection, Joan Lock tells the fascinating story of the creation of the CID, the scandal which preceded it, and the successes and failures of the new organisation, including early cases such as the four murders by Ernest Southey, the ferocious outbreak of dockland killings in 1869 and the more familiar Bravo, Neill Cream and Jack the Ripper crimes.

This work offers a cross section of murder cases ranging from the quest for Scotland’s independence in the 14th century right up to the late 1970’s and a serial killer who perpetrated five murders in less than a year. Each set of circumstances is challenging and evokes the history of the nation with cases which involve royalty, the heart-breaking loss of an entire family and the role of culpable homicide in the Scottish legal system in the early 20th century.

Am 7. August 1963 überfiel eine sechzehnköpfige Bande einen schlecht gesicherten Postzug der Royal Mail und erbeutete über 2,6 Millionen Pfund, was zu einem aufsehenerregenden Prozess, spektakulären Gefängnisausbrüchen und einer langanhaltenden medialen Faszination führte. Einer der Täter, Ronald Biggs, floh nach dem Überfall ins Ausland, lebte lange Zeit in Brasilien und wurde später durch seine Flucht und sein Leben im Exil zu einer Kultfigur dieses Falles.