Barlinnie Prison has been home to some of the most dangerous criminals Scotland has ever seen.
From serial killers to terrorists, Glasgow’s ‘Big Hoose’ is known for housing some of the country’s most feared prisoners since it opened its doors in 1883.
Now, with the 140-year-old jail earmarked for closure and plans for a new £1bn jail to replace it, we take a look back at six of the Big L’s most infamous inmates.
Peter Manuel
New York-born Manuel killed at least seven people across Lanarkshire between 1956 and 1958.
Manuel was found guilty of seven murders, killing victims with a Webley revolver, a Beretta pistol, an iron bar and by strangulation. He was hanged in Barlinnie in 1958.
The killer migrated to Birkenshaw, Lanarkshire, in 1932 with his Scottish parents.
His first stint behind bars took place in Peterhead Prison age just 16 after a spree of sexual assaults. The then teenager was given a nine year sentence.
Manuel became increasingly violent after finishing his jail term. In 1956, he stalked 17-year-old Anne Kneilands at the East Kilbride golf course, which was located in the Calderwood area.
The beast raped and beat the teen to death with an iron bar.
Later that year the killer gunned down Marion Watt, 45, her daughter, Vivienne Watt, 16, and her sister Margaret Brown, 41, within their home.
He was hanged in Barlinnie in 1958.
Jimmy Boyle
The former gangland enforcer’s behaviour behind bars, where he was regularly involved in rioting and attacks on prison guards, saw him branded Scotland’s most dangerous man.
Boyle waged a one-man war against the prison system and was considered too dangerous to be contained by normal means in the 1970s.
He served 14 years for the murder of gangland adversary William ‘Babs’ Rooney in 1967.
Boyle has always denied carrying out the killing.
Now a respected sculptor and novelist he has spoken about his experiences in the jail.
The 80-year-old said last year: “Barlinnie Prison destroyed me, but it also made me a better person.”
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi
Convicted terrorist Al-Megrahi was the man found guilty of blowing up Pan Am flight 103 over the town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988.
The Libyan, alongside his countryman Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, was charged with taking the lives of 270 people.
He faced trial in front of a panel of three Scottish judges at a special court set up in the Netherlands more than six years after the bombing took place.
Meghrahi was found guilty of the brutal crime whilst Fhimah was deemed to be not guilty.
He was sent to Barlinnie to serve the first part of his sentence but died at the age of 60 after serving just eight-and-a-half-years of his life sentence and having been released on compassionate grounds.
Meghrahi protested his innocence to the very end.
Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora, travelled to Tripoli to see him before he died.
Dominic Devine
Known as ‘the Beast of Ibrox’, serial rapist Devine was one of Barlinnie’s most notorious prisoners.
The deplorable sexual predator stalked the Ibrox area of Glasgow in the 1970s and 80s, attacking and raping women at random in what became almost a decade-long reign of terror.
Devine attacked five women between 1979 and 1987. Two of his victims were even pregnant at the time of his sickening acts.
Devine would threaten his victims with a hammer before raping them. The horrific and violent attacks caused many women to avoid leaving their homes at night, terrified they would become the next victim of the Ibrox Beast, who continued to evade police.
The violent rapist died in custody in 2023, aged 66, while still serving time at HMP Barlinnie, the Scottish Prison Service confirmed.
Hugh Collins
The Glasgow gangland figure and author was once considered one of Scotland’s most dangerous prisoners.
Collins emerged from prison in 1992 having served 16 years of a life sentence for the murder of gangland rival Willie Mooney.
He admitted later he “carried the ghost of Willie Mooney on his back every day” saying he “felt like a monster” after the killing.
Collins had spent almost 10 years in young offenders’ institutions and jails before the life sentence, and was out of control.
He became Scotland’s hardest prisoner, attacking and stabbing officers, and was kept in isolation and underground cells for long spells and was often beaten by guards.
But he was rehabilitated at Barlinnie’s Special Unit.
The killer turned artist died in his sleep in 2021 – weeks after his 70th birthday.
Anthony Joseph Miller
Miller was the Scottish baby-faced killer who was the last teenager to be hanged in the UK.
He was only 19 when he was led to the gallows at Barlinnie Prison – known as the Hanging Shed – three days before Christmas in 1960.
He was the second-last criminal to be executed in Scotland when he was hanged at Glasgow’s Barlinnie Prison on 22 December 1960. Miller had been convicted of murdering John Cremin at Queen’s Park Recreation Ground in Glasgow in April 1960.
His last words – “please, mister!” – were said to have echoed around the room as he fell to his death at the end of the hangman’s noose.
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