Glasgow Crime Stories
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Glasgow Times/Wednesday, November 11, 2020 [email protected] Times/Wednesday, November 11, 2020 [email protected] Glasgow Times/Wednesday, November 11, 2020 ‘I’LL NEVER FORGET TONY’ Len Murray, main GLASGOW CRIME STORIES picture, while inset left, the Evening Lawyer on a murder case that Times reporting the guilty stood out more than any other verdict, and left, Tony Miller, and BY NORMAN SILVESTER “It may sound daft but I was But it was also the place where sitting there praying for that boy. they hatched an evil plan to attack below left, HE young lawyer sat in his “Emotionally Tony Miller’s case and rob gay men. Tony’s dad city-centre office and taxed me more than any other in a Both also lived close to Queen’s Alf Miller quietly prayed for his 50-year legal career. Park which, in 1960, was a known Tteenage client. “I never took a capital murder haunt of gay men at night. Five miles away in Glasgow’s case after that.” At that time sexual relationships tough Barlinnie prison, Tony Mill- Miller’s execution shortly after between males were still against er was about to die. 8am on December 22, 1960, three the law. Two grim-faced prison officers days before Christmas, marked Men who frequented the park had just entered the sparsely fur- the beginning of the end for capital at night ran the risk of violent nished cell where he had spent his punishment. muggings. last night. He was the last person to hang Fearing exposure, police charges They led the terrified 19-year-old in Glasgow for murder and the last and public ridicule few victims re- to a room next door where leather teenager in the UK. ported the attacks to the police. straps were quickly tied to his body. More than 30,000 Scots peti- For almost a year, Miller and De- There Britain’s chief executioner tioned the Secretary of State for novan trawled the park at night Harry Allen covered Miller’s head Scotland in a failed bid for clem- claiming victims. hang for it. As a result of the Miller the Miller family again. with a black cloth bag and placed a ency. Many of them were collect- Denovan was the bait, approach- case I became firmly against it. He added: “I can un- noose around his neck. ed by his mother ing men in park “That’s because the punishment derstand that because A trapdoor beneath his feet was Marie and father toilets and entic- is not on the offender but his fam- contacting me would ‘The Miller opened with a lever and the youth Alf standing in ing them to an ily. I also think it was inhuman only open old wounds fell to his death. George Square or isolated wooded what society did to a 19-year-old they were trying to heal. Tony Miller’s final last plaintive Sauchiehall Street area where Miller boy who’d never previously broken “That was the end of it case took up words to Yorkshireman Allen were in the rain and lay in wait. the law in his life.” and I was glad that was “Please, mister!” – before he was freezing cold. The men were The two teenagers went on trial the end of it.” left dangling at the end of a rope. They were re- threatened with in November 1960 at the High Only one more Scot, four months Back in the offices of Levy & spectable work- violence, beaten Court in Glasgow and the jury took Henry John Burnett, McRae solicitors, 27-year-old Len ing-class parents up if necessary, just 33 minutes to return a guilty was executed – at Ab- Murray waited on the news that and their son had and robbed of cash verdict on both. erdeen in 1963 – before of my life’ his client was dead. no previous and valuables. The trial judge, Lord Wheatley, hanging was abolished There would be no phone call convictions. Miller and imposed a life sentence on Donevan. in 1965. from the prison to him or the vic- His accom- Denovan’s vi- But on turning to Miller, he had A theatre play about Miller’s last Mr Murray concluded: “As a tim’s family. plice, in the mur- cious scheme was donned the notorious “black cap” days in the condemned cell, Please, criminal lawyer you forget about He would just have to hear it on der of a gay man working well un- and told the terrified teenager that Mister was performed in 2010 star- most cases with the passage of the radio and read about it in the they had robbed, til the night of he was to be hanged within the ring Iain De Caestecker (in the role time. newspaper like everyone else. James Denovan Wednesday, April prison walls the following month. of Miller) and David Hayman. A TV “There was never any chance that A month earlier, November 1960, only escaped the 6, 1960, when One juror, who had just helped to movie was made in 2014 I would forget about Tony Miller.” Miller had been convicted of the hangman’s noose they picked on a convict Miller, wept. murder of a gay man in Queen’s because, at 16, he gay man who was An appeal was dismissed as Park in the city’s South Side. was too young. not quite as vulnerable as their “completely devoid of substance” by Sixty years later Mr Murray, now Miller was a former apprentice previous victims. three judges. 87, remembers the day of execution cabinet-maker who had a job with John Cremin, 48, was a well- Miller’s only hope was a public as if it was yesterday. a removals firm at the time of his known local criminal with a reputa- the Toreador, a film starring confessed his crime to his horrified campaign to persuade John Ma- A GOOD pipe at a At the time he had only been a arrest tion as a hard man and for violence. Tommy Steele. father. clay, the Secretary of State for lawyer for three years but Miller He lived with his parents and When the pair attacked him he Witnesses said they splashed out He in turn took his son too near- Scotland, to recommend the Royal was already his second capital younger brother in a comforta- fought back. £5 notes on drinks and claimed by Craigie Street police station Prerogative which would have com- murder client. ble flat in Dixon Road, Crosshill, He was beaten so severely with Miller even lit a cigarette with one where he incriminated Miller. muted the death sentence to one of reasonable COST Mr Murray retired in 2003 after Glasgow a wooden plank by Miller that he of the fivers. Mr Murray added: “One of my life imprisonment. But on Decem- a glittering career as a criminal Denovan, who had no convictions, died of massive head injuries. In fact they almost got away with biggest difficulties was telling Tony ber 19, the 30,000-signature peti- Thecarbonised bowl avoids the usual lawyer spanning six decades. also came from a good home in The pair also took the dead murder but for a simple mistake by Miller’s parents that their son tion was rejected. He told the Glasgow Times: “The nearby Calder Street and his father man’s watch, a knife, his bank book Denovan. could hang. Following the execution, the ‘breaking-in’ process. The colour, quality Miller case took up four months of was a respected shop manager. and £67 in notes (worth £1300 Denovan cut out a newspaper “They had assumed he was prison authorities reported that my life from the day I received a Both boys were regulars at a pop- now). story about the murder and kept too young and would get a prison Miller had gone to his death with and shapes will appeal to you! phone call from his father asking ular teenage hangout, the Cathkin Miller, then 18, and Denovan ap- the clipping in his wallet. sentence if convicted. “composure”. me to represent his son. Café in Victoria Road, near their peared to show no remorse for their When he was arrested in Queen’s “Until this case I had been a sup- A spokesman said: “There was no “On the day of his execution homes. evil act and targeted other gay men Park on an unrelated indecency porter of capital punishment like trouble at all.” Just 12/6 from The Robert Sinclair death I was in my office in West There they would chat up girls for weeks after. charge, detectives discovered the most people. Mr Murray went on to represent Tobacco Co, 155 George Street, Glasgow Campbell Street as I didn’t want to and listen to records on the juke The following night they even article and became suspicious. “The attitude of the day was if stars like Paul McCartney and Bil- be at home. box. went to the cinema to see Tommy Denovan began panicking and you have killed someone you must ly Connolly but never heard from .