Andrew Ralston - The Real Taggarts: Glasgows Greatest Crimebusters

First published 2017

by Black & White Publishing Ltd

Nautical House, 104 Commercial Street, Edinburgh EH6 6NF

www.blackandwhitepublishing.com

This electronic edition published in 2017

ISBN: 978 1 78530 167 4 in EPub format

ISBN: 978 1 78530 134 6 in paperback format

Copyright Andrew G. Ralston 2017

The right of Andrew G. Ralston to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the publisher.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Ebook compilation by Iolaire, Newtonmore

I see a strong police force as being absolutely essential to an ordered life.

Elphinstone Dalglish, Deputy Chief Constable,

Glasgow Police, and later Strathclyde Police

I would like to record my thanks to a number of people who helped in the production of this book. These include:

My wife Hazel and daughter Miranda, for their support and encouragement; the staff of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow and the National Records Office, Edinburgh; Neale McQuistin, May Mitchell and Allan Lindsay, who shared their memories of Chief Superintendent Bob Kerr; Jim Goodall and Dr Alison Kennedy, who provided valuable insights into the life and career of their father, Chief Superintendent Tom Goodall; former Inspector Alistair Morrison and former Chief Superintendent James Young, for their many entertaining stories about police life; Patricia Miller, who read and commented on the book in draft form; the late former Superintendent Joe Beattie, whose seemingly inexhaustible fund of anecdotes first kindled my interest in crime and policing in post-war Glasgow and ultimately led to the idea of this book; Alex Norton (who played DCI Burke in STVs Taggart series) for contributing the foreword; former Inspector Alastair Dinsmor, MBE, Curator of the Glasgow Police Museum in Bell Street, Merchant City, who generously shared his encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of Glasgows police force, provided access to his collection of archive materials and supplied numerous photographs. Without his help, this book would never have got off the ground at all.

Mention Taggart to almost anyone the length and breadth of the country and the chances are theyll put on a growly Glasgow accent and say, Theres been a murrrder! despite the fact that no one ever actually said it at any time throughout the series twenty-seven year run!

After the death in 1994 of Taggarts eponymous leading man, Mark McManus, the producers were faced with the difficult choices of either scrapping the series, casting a different actor in the title role, or having a new character as the DCI. After choosing to carry on with Taggarts sidekick, DI Jardine, as the newly promoted head of the murder squad, they then had to decide whether to rename it along the lines of Taggarts Beat, or Taggarts Team but such was the measure of Marks brilliant performance, they decided to honour his memory by retaining the shows original title, and so, apart from having the distinction of being the longest running detective series in British Television history, Taggart was also unique as being the only TV series named after a character who was no longer in the cast...

When, in 2001, I began filming on the streets of Glasgow as Matt Burke, the series new DCI, I was often approached by passers-by who would hail me with, Youre the new Taggart, arent ye?, as if somehow the name was the actual rank in fact the name Taggart has become so synonymous with the position that I think the top brass of Police Scotland should seriously consider making it official and using it in place of the title of Detective Chief Inspector!

Over the nine years I worked on the series, I had the opportunity to meet quite a few of the real Taggarts, and seldom missed an opportunity to quiz them about their lives. More often than not, I found their stories much more fascinating than the fictional world of the telly tecs, where murders are cleverly plotted by devious and cunning killers and solved in record time by a small band of dogged and determined sleuths. One example Id like to share with you of the yawning gulf between detective fact and fiction, was the time Blythe Duff, John Michie, Colin McCredie and I were filming a murder scene on location up a back street in Glasgows city centre. We were having a debate with the director about whether we would be allowed to simply walk all over the crime scene without overshoes on, in case we contaminated any forensic evidence. Since Blythe was married to a real life detective inspector, we persuaded her to call him on her mobile and ask his opinion on the correct procedure. The conversation went something like this:

Hi darling, its Blythe. Were just having a discussion about whether we would be wearing overshoes when were examining a body at a crime scene, and... oh, I see. Thanks, and sorry to have bothered you.

The side of the conversation we didnt hear was Blythes husband saying he couldnt really speak right now, as he was standing in a car scrapyard, just a few feet away from a decapitated corpse, and had to get on with trying to locate its missing head and no, he wasnt wearing blue plastic bootees...

If youre a fan of detective fiction, Im sure youll find Andrew Ralstons tales of real life detectives and their unique work as gripping and compelling as I do. Truth, as the old clich has it, is often stranger than fiction, and after reading the reminiscences of some of the real Taggarts, I think youll find yourself viewing your favourite TV cop show through a fresh pair of eyes, and agreeing with me that you really couldnt make it up...

Alex Norton

In 1959, a newspaper ran an article about the role played by a senior Glasgow detective in catching the serial killer Peter Manuel. It concluded with this prophetic observation: Manuels name and his ghastly career in homicide will never be forgotten in Scotland. But who will remember Alex Brown? Quite simply, these words sum up what this book is all about.

Over the last twenty years or so a steady flow of reading material has emerged on the endlessly fascinating subject of crime in Glasgow. Former criminals and police officers alike have put their reminiscences on paper, while investigative journalists have mined the rich seam of Glasgows violent past. As a result, there is no shortage of books about the most dramatic murders and robberies and those who carried them out.

Yet, for all that has been written about the crooks, the crimes and the court cases, comparatively little attention has been given to the detectives themselves. This book is an attempt to redress the balance. It is the first to provide an overview of crime in post-war Glasgow through the careers of those in charge of the CID. In so doing, it endeavours to put faces to names and traces their progression through the ranks which, in some cases, was surprisingly slow. What emerges is a consistent picture of personal sacrifice and total dedication to the job.

It is, of course, true that the notion of the brilliant detective solving murders single-handedly by a process of logical deduction belongs more to the world of Arthur Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie than to reality. In real life, crimes are solved by patient accumulation of evidence, painstaking forensic examination and, above all, teamwork. As the 1950s CID Chief Robert Colquhoun once said, Being a policeman is more a matter of slogging inquiries, underworld contacts, patience and a darned good memory. Even so, there are still occasions where an individuals discovery of a vital piece of evidence, or some inspired guesswork, provides the key that unlocks the mystery.