Patrick Carraher, a Scots killer known as the "Fiend of the Gorbals," was hanged at Barlinnie prison in 1946 after a violent career of stabbing, slashing, and gouging innocent victims with a razor. He became only the second man to be executed at the prison.
Born in 1906 into a working-class family, Carraher developed a taste for street fighting at a young age and was sent to a borstal, a youth detention centre, when he was just 14. His first taste of imprisonment did not reform him, and he spent the rest of his life cycling in and out of Scottish prisons while committing violent acts on the streets.
A Criminal Career Marked by Violence
In 1938, Carraher stabbed 23-year-old James Emden but served only three years after being convicted of culpable homicide. Each prison stint hardened him further, and he turned to violence to maintain his tough exterior. He revelled in jail, where knife crime was the norm, and razor slashing became his terrifying act of choice.
Writing in his book Killers, Crooks and Cons: Scotland's Crimes of the Century, Daily Record journalist Reg McKay noted: "By 1938, aged 32, he had stabbed, slashed and gouged his way through life. More often than not, the victims were hapless, innocent bystanders. Worse, he had developed a serious booze problem, making his temper simmer constantly."
Carraher was imprisoned in Barlinnie as World War II broke out, and Glasgow was safer without him. But when the war ended in 1945 and he was released, it was clear his violent reign was not over.
The Murder of John Gordon
His final act of terror came on 23 November 1945, when he murdered soldier John Gordon during a drunken fight. Gordon had returned home and was having celebratory drinks at a Glasgow pub with his brothers when he argued with Carraher's right-hand man Daniel Bonnar, who was also the brother of Carraher's girlfriend. Gordon fled, but the two men tracked him down, and the confrontation turned into a street fight.
McKay wrote: "When the fight started, Bonnar once again ran but Carraher simply reached out and punched John Gordon in the neck. Well, that's what it looked like. But as people, including his own girlfriend would later testify, Carraher had slipped a razor sharp chisel into his pocket as he left home. He hadn't punched John Gordon but plunged the blade into his neck. The man died in hospital in less than an hour."
Trial and Execution
The Daily Record covered the 1946 trial, in which Carraher was accused of killing Gordon. He denied the charges. The paper reported that Carraher sat in the dock and "turned frequently to smile at two women in the public seats." The defence argued that the two-inch blade could not have produced a wound four inches deep and tried to have doctors declare him a psychopath, claiming diminished responsibility for a lesser sentence. It was not enough, and the jury took just 20 minutes to find him guilty.
A total of 10 judicial executions by hanging took place at HMP Barlinnie, replacing the gallows at Duke Street Prison before the death penalty was abolished in the UK in 1969. In 1946, Carraher was hanged there, having spent almost half his life locked away for his crimes. Many Scots believed the Fiend of the Gorbals should never have been freed to roam the streets of Glasgow after his first run-in with the law.
