Listen to Glasgow Crime Stories podcast on how Martin Hamilton spread fear through underworld

Nicknamed the "Blackhill Butcher" Martin Hamilton was a feared and ruthless figure in Glasgow's underworld and beyond for more than 30 years.

The nickname was a reference to an area in the north east of the city where he had operated over many years.

In fact, he was born in Maryhill, Glasgow and lived a few miles away in Houldsworth Street, Anderston close to the local Cranstonhill police station

Hamilton was a feared figure in the city in the late 1980s and 90s, dealing in drugs and participating in armed robbery. 

In 1984, he had been sentenced to six years at the High Court in Glasgow for assault to severe injury, and possessing an offensive weapon.

However, on his release from prison the police had less success with as many as 12 High Court cases collapsing, usually because witnesses were too scared to testify against him.

Standing only 5ft 5in tall with a chubby frame, Hamilton, who was gay, came across as a shambling figure. However, people underestimated him at their peril. 

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One former associate said: "Even as a teenager, Martin was feared and hated. His fellow school pupils would try to avoid him. If he was getting on the school bus, kids at the back would get out the emergency door.

"Martin hated his own sexuality and I don't think he ever came to terms with it. He despised it being discussed.

"He'd come on strong to young men. 

"Then he'd ask how you could say he was gay. But during his criminal career, he used his sexuality as a weapon."

Because Hamilton was so feared he also made enemies quickly 

In early 1990 he was shot on two separate occasions within few days, near his home, prompting a headline in the Glasgow Times describing him as: "Scotland's Most Hated Criminal."

Hamilton didn't like the headline, but it cemented his reputation as a feared man in the city's underworld.

In 1992 Hamilton, then 30, was among four men found guilty at the High Court in Stirling of conspiracy to rob a branch of the Dunfermline Building Society at Anniesland Cross, the previous December.

The gang had broken in overnight, armed with knives and an imitation handgun and were lying in wait for staff to arrive in an attempt to force them to hand over £30,000 (£68,000 today) from the cash machine.

Armed police however had advanced warning, surrounded the building and sealing off Anniesland Cross to prevent escape.

The arrest of the four was a major coup for the police, as they were all major criminals at the time.

Hamilton was jailed for nine years with two of his three co accused Alan Barbour, 49, and Robert Smith, 37, getting 15 years each.

Barbour had appeared in court 17 times since 1957. He had been given a 12-year sentence in December 1982 for offences including assault with intent to rob and contravention of the Firearms Act. 

He had been free for only a year before the attempted building society robbery in Great Western Road.

The fourth accused Sweeney, 46, had received sentences of five years for assault to severe injury, and, most recently, seven years for a conspiracy and firearms offence in 1983.

Robert Smith had been given two 10-year sentences for assault and robbery,

the last conviction, at the High Court in Glasgow in 1983, for an offence involving firearms.

The four men had obtained the key to the building society office from a cleaner who worked there. 

But the police got wind of their plan and had the premises under surveillance for two days.

The robbers’ plan was to head off to Spain with the proceeds of the loot.

One of the accused had his passport on him when he was arrested.

However. all four were forced to give themselves up after walking out of the office, under the gaze of armed officers and astonished locals, with their hands in the air.

Trial judge Lord Weir later told the Hamilton and his crew: “It is obvious from what I have learned in evidence in this case, and from a study of your records, that you are dangerous criminals and a menace to the public.

"Long sentences had to be imposed for the safety and protection of the public, property, and law and order."

Following his release from prison in the late 1990's, Hamilton set out for Edinburgh in a bid to muscle in on its booming heroin market. 

He focused on the west of the city, particularly areas such as Broomhouse, Wester Hailes and Sighthill. 

Hamilton ran a network of drug dealers ruling through fear and torturing and maiming anyone who stood in his way.

Officers from the then Lothian and Borders force knew little about Hamilton when he arrived. 

But a string of shocking assaults against dealers who owed him money had brought Hamilton to their attention.

It was also alleged that Hamilton regularly abducted young male drug dealers and raped them if they failed to do his bidding.

His activities were so vile that concerned police chiefs quickly placed around the clock surveillance team on Hamilton.

He also became a regular in Portobello area of Edinburgh and nearby Musselburgh, ingratiating himself with local villains to take control of the city's heroin trade. 

Some dealers were so concerned at Hamilton's approaches they went into hiding.  

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Within a few months he had seized control of established dealer networks through a mix of extreme violence and intimidation and set about expanding them. 

In one incident, a Hamilton enforcer cut off a young man's finger and tried to gouge out his eye with a teaspoon.

Officers also identified an Edinburgh publican targeted for extortion by Hamilton. The businessman said: "I would rather pay him another £30,000 than give evidence against him."

However as in many cases in the past the police investigation was hampered by a reluctance of terrified victims to speak out.

Hamilton's downfall came when a teenage couple bravely stood up to him in court.

The girlfriend and boyfriend were held captive for 11 hours in a flat in Anderston, during which they were scalded with boiling water and stabbed.

They were then forced to stand in a bath so they would not drip blood on to carpets. Their willingness to testify allowed detectives to revisit Hamilton's victims in Edinburgh and some agreed to provide statements.

In November 2000, at the High Court in Inverness, Hamilton was found guilty of 11 out of 14 charges involving the sale of drugs, abduction, assault and torture.

The trial had been held in the Highlands capital - 200 miles from where the crimes took place - to secure the safety of terrified prosecution witnesses who were all placed on police protection schemes. 

Jurors were also told that Hamilton tried to cut off a man's finger with a knife and hit another man on the head with a piece of wood before forcing him to lick his boots. 

On another occasion he held a knife to a man's throat threatening to kill him. 

Donald Findlay QC, defending, argued that the witnesses had made up their stories. However, the jury believed them.

A co-accused who was already behind bars for other crimes, was jailed for six years. 

A third admitted two charges of stabbing a teenage girl and youth in the face and was also jailed.

Judge Lord Kingarth, who recommended Hamilton serve a minimum of nine years before being considered for parole, told the gangster: "It is clear to me that you pose a substantial danger to the public while at liberty. 

"You took sadistic pleasure in the infliction of pain and the inspiration of real terror."

Some of the horror inflicted by Hamilton and his crew, including the eye gouging, was later described by detectives as like scenes from the 1992 cult gangster movie Reservoir Dogs.  

At the end of the trial one senior Edinburgh detective compared Hamilton to the notorious child killer Robert Black.

The officer added: "He lured young men into his company with a supply of drugs and got them to start dealing on his behalf. 

"If they did not come up with the goods, he would simply abduct them and sexually abuse them in the most violent ways imaginable." 

"Hamilton is without doubt the most dangerous criminal we've ever seen in Edinburgh

"He is also one of the most evil men I have ever come across, possibly second only to Robert Black."

A leading Glasgow underworld figure who commented at the time added: "Hamilton knows no fear. 

"He enjoys pain and particularly enjoys inflicting it. He has survived at least two assassinations attempts. He is dangerous outside and inside jail. 

"He thought he was made of Teflon. Now he knows different."  

It also emerged that a psychologist had been called in to try to unravel Hamilton's twisted mind while he was in custody.  The expert was said to have described the task as "a poisoned chalice".  

Detectives also believed Hamilton was laying the groundwork for another major Glasgow crime figure to muscle in on the Edinburgh drug scene when he was released from prison.  

Little was heard of "The Butcher of Blackhill "while he was serving his life sentence and moving from prison to prison.

In October 2010 - flanked by four prison officers - he was let out for a few hours to visit to see his sickly mum at her home in Glasgow.

Despite still being considered dangerous, Hamilton was released on parole in September 2014, from HMP Shotts but by the following year had disappeared without trace.

At first police thought he had simply done a runner.

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He had been due to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court on other charges but failed to turn up. The 'no show' was also a breach off his parole conditions.

An arrest warrant was issued in April, 2015, and Police Scotland also made a public appeal to find Hamilton.

They described the gangster as potentially dangerous and warned the public not to approach him.

In October, a further appeal was made on the BBC's Crimewatch programme and the Crimestoppers charity also offered a reward of £2,000 for information leading to his arrest.

By this time police were receiving intelligence that Hamilton may have come to harm.

In December, 2015, his decomposed body was found in remote woodland near the Five Sisters Business Park in West Lothian by a dog walker.

The gangster may have been murdered up to eight months before the discovery of his remains.

Only the 53-year-old criminal's skull and some parts of his spine were in the shallow grave.

There were conflicting views at the time as to why Hamilton had been murdered.

He was operating in small towns such as Blackburn, in West Lothian, and Harthill, in North Lanarkshire and it was thought he was trying to muscle in on the Edinburgh drug scene again.

It was also believed that the Glaswegian had been targeted by Liverpool criminals after he ripped them off for £40,000.

Hamilton had taken over the debts of local cocaine users after their dealer was taken to hospital in a road accident.

Hamilton was asked to collect the £40,000 but failed to hand over the amount to his Liverpool bosses.

In January 2017, Liverpool born James Farrelly who lived in West Lothian was arrested and charged with his murder.

Prosecutors allege Farrelly shot Hamilton in the head with a firearm, then inflicted blunt and sharp force injuries to his head, between April 16 and December 17, 2015.

Farrelly, nicknamed Scouse, was also charged with attempting to defeat the ends of justice by dumping the body in woodland.

He faced further allegations of being involved in the supply of hard drugs, all of which he denied.

However, he never stood trial.

In March 2017, Farrelly was freed from Saughton Prison in Edinburgh because he was dying from cancer. 

Farrelly returned to his home in Blackburn, West Lothian, and passed away a few days later.

Following Hamilton's murder, a young man came forward to claimed he had been raped by him while in Dumfries prison in the later 1990's and then for a second time in a local hotel after he failed to deliver drugs.

Hamilton had been due to stand trial for the sexual assaults.

But the case was put on hold when Hamilton went missing and then collapsed when he was murdered.

In an interview in 2016, the rape victim, now 37, said: "Hamilton was a predator. A monster. He destroyed my life. I think people should know, even though he's not here now, what type of person he was."

The man said he had been on suicide watch in Dumfries prison when he was attacked by Hamilton, who was sleeping two cells down.

He claims Hamilton was allowed to act as a "listener", where a "mature" prisoner provides support for a vulnerable inmate.

It meant he had access to the young offender's cell, where the first attack took place.

The traumatised youth was too afraid to report that assault and was released the next day.

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He says he was then forced by Hamilton to try and smuggle drugs into prison during visits.

Worried he would get caught and sent back to prison, the man told Hamilton the drugs were seized on arrival.

He claimed the second attack took place at a Dumfries hotel that same year when Hamilton was on day release and demanded a meeting for the cash.

As a result, the young man had panic buttons installed in his house.

He added: "I didn't celebrate Christmas when I found out he was dead. I cried and cried and couldn't stop. That man took my life away from me. I was about to go through a traumatic trial, and I was ready for it.

"I wanted to go to court and tell this guy what an animal he was. I didn't want screens. I know he's not here to see this but I'm not hiding any more.

"I think I'm more than within my rights to sue the prison service for the way I was treated. 

"For allowing me to be on the same wing as a guy like Martin Hamilton, for him to rape me when I was a young offender."

Hamilton's funeral had been delayed because of the murder investigation and he was eventually laid to rest in August, 2016, with only a handful of mourners at Maryhill Crematorium

A floral tribute to Hamilton was placed on the coffin before it was taken in for the 20-minute ceremony at 3pm. 

A death notices the previous week had described Hamilton as a beloved son to his mother Margaret, loving brother, much-loved uncle, great-uncle and friend to many. 

At the time one Glasgow underworld figure said: “Martin was a lone wolf. He had some pals but no strong allegiances to any particular gang.

"No one wanted to work with him really. He was definitely Scotland's most hated criminal, probably because of the violence and sexual abuse he was known for. I think he was a true psychopath."