Gangland enforcer Hugh Collins was offered £10,000 to kill Paul Ferris upon his release from jail in 1991, but refused because he had fallen in love with his art teacher. Collins, once branded “Scotland’s most dangerous prisoner”, declined the assassination contract and later told Ferris about the proposition.
Ferris suspected those who approached Collins with the bounty were acting on behalf of Arthur “Fat Boy” Thompson jnr, son of former Glasgow crime boss Arthur Thompson. Just months after the proposal was made to Collins, Thompson jnr was gunned down. Ferris was later prosecuted and acquitted of his killing.
Release preparations and the contract offer
In early 1991, Collins was being evaluated for release from a life sentence for murdering rival criminal Willie Mooney. He told close companions it was fairly routine for killers nearing freedom after lengthy prison terms to be presented with opportunities to secure their financial future through gangland executions. However, he rejected the contract.
Collins had fallen in love with artist Caroline McNairn, whom he had encountered through creative programmes while preparing for freedom. He was resolved to reform and wed her, which motivated his decision to turn down the job. Collins was ultimately freed from custody in July 1994 and married Caroline one month afterwards.
Journalist’s account and Ferris’s reaction
Journalist Marcello Mega covered the story closely and said in 1996: “I met Paul Ferris during my work for a Sunday newspaper around September 1996. It was also the first time I met Hugh Collins. They were both taking part in a television programme about men of violence and I interviewed them both.”
“Hugh told me that when word got out that he was finally going to get his parole, guys in the jail started approaching him. They were all from Arthur Thompson's crew and they were telling him he'd get £10k if he would do a hit on Ferris when he got out.”
Collins and Ferris encountered each other for the first time while filming that television programme. He made it crystal clear to his fellow criminal that he had never entertained the idea. Ferris chuckled and remarked “How's that for poetic justice?” – suggesting that he knew the proposition had originated from members of the Thompson crime organisation.
Collins’s transformation and later life
Collins was found guilty of murder in 1977 and experienced a remarkable transformation through art and literature while incarcerated in the Barlinnie Special Unit. He evolved into a respected sculptor and writer before his passing in 2021. Speaking before his death, he revealed details of his criminal past and the proposition to kill Ferris in remarks not made public at the time.
He said: “I did a terrible thing and deserved to be punished. But the brutality in prison, the beatings I took, turned me into an absolute animal and I was always trying to hurt the screws, then they would gather and beat me to a pulp.”
“It was a terrible cycle of violence, but the move to the Special Unit, being treated like a human being again, saved me. That's what led me to art and to Caroline. If I'd never met her and had that reason to stay away from crime, I might have had my head turned by £10,000, but I know it could only have ended in one of two ways, like my fight with Willie. Either I'd have been back in prison forever, or I'd have been on the mortuary slab after a revenge attack. Anyway, after I met Paul, I liked him fine.”
Collins and Caroline enjoyed a blissful life together until her early death from cancer in 2010 at 55. Collins revealed that afterwards, he existed solely to care for their cherished dog, Blackie. He passed away peacefully at his Borders residence in 2021, aged 70. Following the recent announcement of Ferris’s death, there was an outpouring of tributes from associates within Scotland’s criminal fraternity.
