They Hung a 12-Year-Old From a Tree in Glasgow — He Spent the Next 18 Years Making Them Pay

In 1975, a gang of brothers in Blackhill, Glasgow put a rope around a twelve-year-old boy's neck and left him hanging from a tree. The boy's name was Paul Ferris. What happened next became one of the most watched criminal trials in Scottish legal history. Paul Ferris grew up in Blackhill — one of Glasgow's most brutal housing schemes — where the Welsh brothers had spent years extorting, beating, and terrorising children across the estate. Ferris was one of their targets from the age of nine. By the time they put a noose around his neck, something had already changed in him that they couldn't see. This is the full story: from Blackhill to Arthur Thompson Senior, through the murder of Thompson's son, the killing of Bobby Glover and Joe Hanlon, and the fifty-four day trial that ended with a not guilty verdict on every charge. Chapters: 00:00 Intro uk true crime Blackhill 5:45 — The Welsh Brothers "Martin, George and Henry Welsh had been part of the scheme for longer than most people in that part of Blackhill cared to remember." 10:42 — Paul Ferris: The Early Years "That changed. He encountered the Welsh brothers in the way that most boys in his part of Blackhill eventually did." 17:45 — The Tree "The Welsh brothers took Paul Ferris and they put a noose around his neck and they hung him from a tree." 22:13 — The Promise "The years between the hanging and what came next were not dramatic from the outside." 28:32 — Arthur Thompson Senior "Men who didn't talk. Paul Ferris was all of these things." 37:30 — Glover, Hanlon and the Breaking Point "Thompson's operation was not stable in the way that legitimate organisations can sometimes be stable for sustained periods." 43:19 — The Shooting of Arthur Thompson Junior "On the 18th of August 1991, Arthur Thompson Junior was shot outside his parents' home on Provan Mill Road." 45:56 — Paul Ferris Goes to Trial Alone "Paul Ferris went to trial alone." 47:18 — The Verdict "The jury listened across 54 days, and then they returned a verdict — not guilty on every charge." 49:41 — What Glasgow Made of It "The Glasgow Paul Ferris had grown up in was already changing by then." 54:46 — The Question Glasgow Never Resolved "He was not a hero. The violence he directed and participated in hurt real people." #UKTrueCrime #GlasgowGangland #PaulFerris