Reformed criminal and convicted killer Jimmy Boyle has given an emotional interview about the brutality of prison life and how he thought he would die behind bars.
In a new BBC Scotland documentary on Glasgow’s notorious Barlinnie Prison, the 80-year-old recalls spending more than four years in solitary confinement before he was moved in 1973 to the jail’s groundbreaking Special Unit.
The former gangland moneylender and enforcer was jailed for life in 1967 for the murder of William “Babs” Rooney in a Glasgow flat.
Over the next six years he became Scotland’s most violent inmate.
In his first TV interview in 25 years, filmed at his home in France, Boyle tells how he went to war with the prison system in the late 60s.
He said: “I was sentenced to life at 22. To me it was a death sentence so I acted like my life was finished. I went into the Governor and broke his jaw, they all got on top of me and that was the beginning of my prison journey.
“I then fought the system with every fibre of my being.”
Assaults on prison officers added years to Boyle’s jail terms.
He added: “I couldn’t care less. When I continued to rebel they put me in what was called the silent cell. And they would come in and beat me to f**k.
“I decided one day to bring this to a stop. I covered myself in s**t and when they opened the door I’d run at them.”
Boyle, from the Gorbals, describes the tit-for-tat violence between him and the guards.
He added: “I totally hated them. I would just grab one and bite him on the neck or ear until I was knocked unconscious.”
Boyle was moved to specially-built cages at Porterfield Prison in Inverness. He said: “They put me in a cage with one blanket. You were only supposed to be there six months, I did four and half years.”
After one fight with guards, Boyle was taken to hospital with multiple injuries.
Shocked doctors wanted to keep him for further treatment but the prison officers insisted he return to the jail.
He said: “I woke up in the cage covered in blood with 45 stitches in my head.”
Boyle was one of the first selected for the new penal experiment in the jail 51 years ago.
A book about the controversial Barlinnie Special Unit (BSU) was published last week to which Boyle contributed a chapter.
Cells were left unlocked, inmates could wear their own clothes and were on first name terms with officers.
Boyle, now an acclaimed author and best-selling sculptor, describes his introduction there to art and sculpture.
He said: “It was the first positive thing I had done in my life. There is no way I would be here if the special unit hadn’t been in existence.”
In the BSU, Boyle wrote best-selling autobiography A Sense of Freedom. He later married psychiatrist Sara Trevelyan who visited him after reading it.
Boyle was freed in 1982 and is now married to actress Kate Fenwick.
Producer Michelle Friel says Boyle became quite emotional during their interview. She said: “He was incredibly open about his years of brutality within the prison system. We had to stop once to give him time to gather himself.”
Inside Barlinnie is available on iPlayer from October 8. Episode one airs at 10pm the same day.
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