Achi news desk-
Barlinnie’s most prominent prisoner was the man convicted of bombing a Pan Am plane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, in 1988, which resulted in the deaths of 243 passengers and 16 crew.
The Libyan was transferred there in 2001 after being sentenced to life for murder, following a trial in Scotland which was specially convened at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands. He was housed in a purpose built double cell complex, in Barlinnie which had a private toilet and shower, television, kitchen facilities for the Libyan to cook his own halal meals and an exercise area.
Dubbed the Gaddafi Cafe – after the Libyan leader at the time – it is said to have cost around £1.5million to build, including security measures.
In 2002 Megrahi was visited by Nelson Mandela – arguably the most famous person to walk through Barlinnie’s gates.
The former South African president discussed a campaign for Megrahi to serve his sentence in a Libyan prison. Mandela himself spent 18 of his 27 years in prison on Robben Island after being locked up by South Africa’s apartheid government.
The two spoke for more than an hour and Mandela gave a press conference calling for a fresh appeal to the case and asked that Megrahi be transferred to serve his sentence in his native country.
It is not known what Mandela thought of the conditions in Barlinnie compared to Robben Island. However, he described Megrahi’s imprisonment in Barlinnie as psychological persecution.
Read the full series here: Barlinnie: The history of Scotland’s super-prison
Megrahi was later moved to Greenock prison in 2005, before being sent home to Libya in 2009 on compassionate grounds with terminal cancer.
Possibly the most infamous prisoner was serial killer Peter Manuel, from the village of Birkenshaw in Lanarkshire, who was hanged there 66 years ago for the murders of seven people.
Famous underworld figures such as crime boss Arthur Thompson and bank robber Walter Norval, have all spent time behind the prison’s terrifying black sandstone facade.
Among the latest admissions was Iain Packer who was sentenced to life last month at the High Court in Glasgow for murdering sex worker Emma Caldwell in 2005.
One of the first prisoners in the shiny new prison 142 years ago was an 11-year-old schoolboy, James Donaghy. Another early prisoner was the petty thief Adam Sloan who, at 7 feet 7 inches, is the tallest prisoner ever in Barlinnie.
The prison’s first famous inmate was Charging Thunder, a Native American and star of Buffalo Bill’s popular Wild West Show. Thunder was given 30 days in 1891 after attacking the manager of the show for selling valuable artefacts to Kelvingrove Museum.
Former Dragons’ Den star Duncan Banntyne was given 10 days in the 1970s for failing to pay a £10 court fine. Duncan Ferguson, who went on to play for Everton and Newcastle, served 44 days of a three-month sentence for headbutting a Raith Rovers player in 1994.
In 2011 Tommy Sheridan, former Scottish Socialist Member of Parliament, was sent to Barlinnie to serve a three-year term for perjury. Former world featherweight boxing champion Scott Harrison was the prison’s most recent high-profile inmate. He was released in June 2018 after completing a four-year term imposed in Spain for attacking three men in Malaga.
During the two World Wars a number of political prisoners were kept behind the iron bars of Barlinnie, many of them conscientious objectors protesting against the conflict. James Maxton, who later became MP for Glasgow, spent a year in Barlinnie during the First World War because of his opposition to the war against Germany.
The most famous prisoner during that time was his fellow teacher and the Red Clydesider John McLean who was imprisoned for long periods in Barlinnie and Peterhead, also for his outspoken opposition to the Great War.
Another notable prisoner was Arthur Donaldson who was held in Barlinnie for six weeks in 1941 for his support of the Scottish Neutrality League. He was released without charge and went on to lead the Scottish National Party between 1960 and 1969.
Read more: Barlinnie’s story: From prison reform example to notorious superprison
Following the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin a number of Irish prisoners were taken to Barlinnie. Part of the prison was also used as a military prison during the Second World War for soldiers such as deserters.
In 1941 when Britain was suffering huge losses in its merchant navy, five Barlinnie prisoners were recruited as full-time merchantmen on an American-built ship, the George Washington. However, the five created chaos while on the ship, especially on stops to Nova Scotia, New York and Montreal. They all jumped ship at different times and eventually disappeared without a trace.
Rev Ian McInnes was chaplain at Barlinnie for more than 25 years before he retired in 2022 and became friends with Megrahi during his time there. Even after the Libyan was moved to Greenock he continued to receive Christmas cards.
Mr McInnes is currently a church minister at nearby Dennistoun New Parish Church. He said: “I and the other chaplains got to know Megrahi well during his time at Barlinnie. He was a real gentleman. I remember having quite a few conversations with him over the months he was there.
“He would come to our services sometimes and we would also arrange for him to see an Imam.”
Reverend McInnes says that the emphasis on the new prison which is currently being built must be on rehabilitation and as most remember his first day ‘inside’ well.
“I started on April Fools’ Day,” he said. “My early impressions were that Barlinnie was very primitive because it was so Victorian.
“It was a surreal experience. The first thing that hit me was the mold on the walls and the cold. I have seen improvements in recent years and moving towards rehabilitation. The place is now much better and more humane .”
Mr McInnes’ job was to offer pastoral support to the prisoners, and to listen to their spiritual and temporal problems and complaints. Over the years he has married and baptized prisoners.
“I provide a friendly face and I don’t judge. Prisoners reflect a lot more on their lives when they are behind bars. They reflect on why they are in prison and how they can change.”
Read more: Days of Rage: Inside the Barlinnie prison siege in January 1987
Before he became a minister Mr McInnes worked as a casket cutter, hospital shopkeeper and bartender. It meant that he had seen all sides of life before he got the call. The minister welcomes the closure of the old prison and the move to a more modern facility. He has also welcomed the introduction over the years of flushing toilets, televisions and telephones.
At present visitors to Barlinnie are met by a revolving door at the front entrance which was always symbolic of the former minister.
“Over the years I have seen many of the same prisoners leave and then return on more than one occasion. Sometimes when they don’t return you wonder what has happened to them. You I hope they’ve turned a corner but sometimes it can mean they’re dead or dying.”
Mr McInnes is a staunch admirer of the work done by Barlinnie prison officers and added: “I think they do a great job and society owes them a debt of gratitude.”
Graeme Pearson’s first memory of Barlinnie was as a rookie policeman in 1970 when he took a prisoner into custody at Glasgow Sheriff Court. Most prisoner transfers were then carried out by police officers, before the task was handed over to a private security company.
Seven years later Mr Pearson was a Detective Sergeant and had been given the task of investigating the death of one of the members of the Special Unit Larry Winters in 1977. He had been found dead in a toilet after an overdose.
Mr Pearson interviewed all the residents of the unit at the time including its most famous member Jimmy Boyle. Over the years he rose through the ranks to become Director of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency and after he retired from the police as a Labor MSP speaking on justice issues.
He says Barlinnie didn’t like to encourage detectives to go to prisons because of the disruption it caused, explaining: “Larry Winter’s death was quite a scandal at the time that someone in the unit had died like this. There was always a warm welcome if the prisoners knew you were a police officer.
“I was involved in a lot of big trials, especially during the 1970s, and there would be people I had placed there. If I went into Barlinnie he would hope that the person I was talking to had information about a query I was working on. We would only go there if it was absolutely necessary and the prison could safely manage it.”
“Barlinnie was a very scary place especially for a young police officer. You were aware of the constant and ever present threat of the place. I always had a lot of respect for prison officers because it was a very difficult job they did.” n do it.”
The last time Mr Pearson was in Barlinnie was around ten years ago when he was an MSP and reflected: “There had been a change and the atmosphere was completely different. It was more relaxed and prisoners were walking around with towels of under their arms. Barlinnie had changed his manner and it was very obvious when you looked at him. You did not have the same sense of violence in the halls.
Mr Pearson continued: “Barlinnie is like no other prison in my experience. The Victorian Hall, the big metal bars and the gables. The other prisons were less intimidating in the way they were built. “In my opinion it would making an ideal. museum.”
Mr Pearson would also like to see the new Barlinnie tackle the issue of literacy and numeracy among prisoners. He added: “The profile of prisoners this century matches the profile of prisoners in the last century, the vast majority are illiterate or non-numerical.
“They come out still illiterate and illiterate and then you wonder why they’re being re-convicted. If they can’t fill in a form for a job then they’re always going to have problems getting is a normal member of the community. I would like to think that a new prison will focus more on education and preparing prisoners for life outside.”
