Arthur Thompson was the undisputed godfather of organised crime in Glasgow.

After growing up in the city’s Springburn, Thompson became a money lender in the 1950s and, amid claims of protection racketeering, became a wealthy man.In the 1960s, an attempt was made on his life by a Welsh crime family. His mother-in-law died when a car bomb intended to kill him exploded. Two of the suspects of the bombing were later said to have been driven off the road by Thompson and died.Rumoured to have links with the Kray twins in London, Thompson established himself as the most feared and respected gangster in Scotland, with his house ‘The Ponderosa’ in the city’s Blackhill his crown jewel.By the 1980s, the Thompson family - led by Arthur’s son Arthur Junior – was deep into the drugs trade, and they were the undoubted godfathers of Glasgow’s crime world. But in 1991, things took a bitter twist for Thompson and his crime empire.On 18 August of that year, Arthur jnr, nicknamed ‘Fat Boy’, died after he was shot three times in a hit. Paul Ferris, a former enforcer of the Thompson family who had since fallen out with them, was arrested and charged for the murder.
On the day of Fat Boy’s funeral Robert Glover and Joe 'Bananas' Hanlon, who were also suspected of involvement in the murder of Thompson jnr, were discovered dead. They had been executed. Their bodies, it was said, were dumped on the route of the funeral cortege.Hundreds of witnesses, including Thompson himself, were called to give evidence at the trial of Ferris. But the crime boss, it was all in vain. Ferris was acquitted of all charges. Tabloid newspapers of the day predicted a gangland bloodbath following the court’s decision. Thankfully, this didn’t happen.An embittered and broken Arthur Thompson died in the city where he became notorious in March, 1993.