In 1984, gangland violence in Glasgow was reaching a worrying peak. One of the most notorious aspects was the ‘Ice Cream Wars’, in which pitched battles were fought near-nightly between the owners of ice cream vans vying for the city’s foot traffic and their precious
cash.Smashed up ice cream vans, stabbed drivers and verbal threats were commonplace in the attempts to oust rival van owners. The ‘frighteners’ as they were called were growing increasingly violent. Sooner or later, it seemed like someone was going to get seriously hurt, or even killed. By April of 1984, a young driver for the Marchetti firm, Andrew Doyle, was fearing just such a thing could happen to him…CreditsPrimary Audio recorded by JSResearch by Matt KScripting/Production by Matt KBackground Audio courtesy of Epidemic Sound (
epidemicsound.com)SponsorsThank you to the sponsor of today's episode, Best Fiends. In this 5-star rated mobile puzzle game you can solve thousands of fun puzzles, collect tons of cute characters, and beat the bad guys as you discover the magical world of Minutia in the award-winning, original BEST FIENDS game! Available on the Apple App Store and Google
Play.SourcesBankhead Street in Glasgow’s Ruchazie. On April 16, 1984, their tenement flat was set alight while they slept. Three generations were killed with the youngest being an 18-month-old baby, STV, 1 Jul 2019, R FindlayGlasgow Ice Cream Wars: Man wrongly jailed says he knows who killer is – but will never tellJoe Steele, 56, said late crimelord Tam “The Licensee” McGraw ordered the fire, The Scottish Sun, M Coyle, 24 Mar 2019The case I can't forget: CID officer Les Trueman relives the horrific Ice Cream Wars massacre of the Doyle familyLES TRUEMAN was part of a CID team tackling the Ice Cream Wars gripping Glasgow in the 1980s. At 2am on April 16, 1984, the home of the Doyle family in Ruchazie, was torched., 20 May 2012, Daily Record online, anonymous
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17732301.glasgow-icGlasgow Ice Cream Wars: who killed the Doyle Family?-cream-wars-who-killed-the-doyle-family/, 27 June 2019, R Devereux Taylor, The HeraldFrightener: The Glasgow Ice-cream Wars, D Skelton and L Brownlie, 1992 (rare)Who did kill the Doyles?, The Scotsman, The Newsroom, 21 Mar 2004‘My family and baby being taken away broke me’: Joe Steele on how Ice Cream Wars conviction almost cost him his life, The Sunday Post, M Scott, Jul 7, 2019Van Wars: The Real Story of the Glasgow Ice Cream Van Wars, T Rennoc, 2019, Amazon (self-published account of a van driver during this period)'Trial And Error - The Glasgow Ice Cream Wars' – D Jessel, Channel 4, (2000) – available on
Youtube.Indictment: Trial By Fire (The Ice-Cream Wars and the Truth Behind a Shocking Miscarriage of Justice), TC Campbell & Reg McKay,
2001.The real Ice Cream Wars killer revealed, I NELSON, 22 April 2012, The Sun"NIGHT OF HORROR WHICH STUNNED WHOLE NATION; LEFT TO BURN: Six members of the same family died at the hands of the evil Ice Cream Wars killers.." The Free Library. 1996 Scottish Daily Record & Sunday'I hate Campbell - I can't stand to look at his face', The Scotsman, The Newsroom, 22 Mar 2004Killer of Boyle Jr jailed for eight years, Herald Scotland, Newsroom, 28 Oct 1994THOMAS CAMPBELL+JOSEPH STEELE+THOMAS GRAY v. HER MAJESTY'S ADVOCATEThe indictments and statements given by various witnesses in the proceedings against Thomas Campbell, Thomas Lafferty, Gary Moore, Joe Steele, George Reid and Thomas Gray,
1984.Ice Cream Wars convict stabbed, BBC News, 29 April 2002, anonymousKiller wins #4000 for beating, 7 Oct 1989, The Herald, anonymousJames English Anything Goes Podcast, interviews of Joe Steele & Thomas Campbell, available on Youtube