A Dark City

A Dark City

Delve into the dark heart of Glasgow, a city with history steeped in mystery and violence. A Dark City takes you behind the headlines to explore the city's most notorious murders - stories that shocked the nation, shattered communities and left scars that still linger. From cold blooded killers to infamous gangland slayings, we uncover the chilling details, the victims stories and the impact on Glasgow's streets.

  1. 4 DGN GELEDEN

    Kenny Reilly

    Send us Fan Mail A red light in Maryhill. A silver BMW waiting in traffic. A masked man steps out of a black Ford S-Max and fires six shots before disappearing into side streets. That’s the opening moment we can’t shake, because it shows how quickly everyday life in Glasgow can collide with a feud that has been building for years. We walk through who Kenny Riley was, why a £100,000 drug debt is never just about money, and how postcode loyalty in Possilpark and Maryhill turns into something lethal. From the rumoured personal slight that inflamed tensions to the brutal assault on Ryan McAteer that made payback feel “necessary”, the motive keeps tightening like a knot. Along the way we map the crew police say built the operation, the logistics behind the untraceable car, and the role encrypted messaging plays when planning moves from the street to WhatsApp and EncroChat. Then we follow the investigation: CCTV, phone data, prison intercepts, and the forensic detail that cuts through the attempted cover-up, including DNA recovered from a vehicle meant to vanish in flames. The High Court trial in Edinburgh delivers long minimum sentences, but we end with the harder question of what remains when a legal chapter closes and the conditions that feed violence still exist. If A Dark City helps you see Glasgow’s gangland crime more clearly, subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review. What part of this case best explains why these feuds keep escalating?

    17 min.
  2. 11 MEI

    The Gorbals: Unsolved

    Send us Fan Mail Eight murders in one square mile. No convictions. And a trail of families left with nothing but rumours, court transcripts, and the sickening sense that everyone knows more than they will ever say. We take you into Glasgow’s “Murder Mile” in the Gorbals and Loriston, where violence repeats across decades and the justice system keeps coming up empty.  We start with John Lynch in 1964, a father who steps off a bus after taking his children to see Santa and vanishes into the dusk, only to be found dying from a stab wound. From there, the pattern hardens: quick arrests followed by cases that collapse, witnesses who refuse to identify suspects, and juries left with evidence that never quite holds. You’ll hear how Chris Cawley is stabbed to death at the doorway of his own pub while more than 30 people insist they saw nothing, and how the Scottish “not proven” verdict can leave a case feeling unresolved even after a trial.  As we move through Gilbert Patton, Tracy Main, David Brown, Joanna Colbeck, Stephen Byrne, and officer Lewis Fulton, we connect each tragedy to the wider story of the Gorbals itself: overcrowding, poverty, demolition, high-rise decline, fear of retaliation, and a deep mistrust of police. We also look at what changed after 2002, what scars remain in the landscape, and why place and power can decide who gets justice. If you care about Glasgow true crime, unsolved murders, Scottish criminal justice, and the real human cost behind cold cases, listen now then subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review to help more people find the story.

    15 min.
  3. 4 MEI

    Gary Moore

    Send us Fan Mail Nine shots tear through a quiet street in Airdrie, and a man known as a gentle giant is left dead on his own doorstep. We walk through the murder of Gary Moore, a devoted dad and gym owner who built a reputation helping troubled young people through fitness, then ask the question that won’t leave you alone: how does someone like that end up the target of an execution-style hit? From the first hours of the Police Scotland investigation, the case is defined by two things: planning and silence. A white Skoda Fabia appears, a masked gunman steps out, and the car is later found burned out to wipe away evidence. We dig into the rumours of organised crime, narcotics and debt, and the frustration detectives face when frightened witnesses hold back. Gary’s family speak with heartbreaking clarity about what they’ve lost, and why they plead for information even when the community is scared. Then the story widens. Four months later, Raphael Lyko, a 36-year-old Polish national who has been in Scotland for just days, is discovered dead inside a burned Mercedes GLE in Blantyre. The parallels are chilling, and the pattern points towards a coordinated gangland hit squad. We follow how investigators connect the dots across Lanarkshire and Glasgow, including attempted killings, stolen vehicles, destroyed evidence, and the meticulous work that finally brings Barry Harvey, Darren Owen and Thomas Guthrie to trial at the High Court in Glasgow. If you care about Glasgow true crime, organised crime in Scotland, and how justice is built case by case, press play. Subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a review, what do you think keeps communities silent when violence is this public?

    37 min.
  4. 27 APR

    Hector Smith

    Send us Fan Mail A gang turns up at a Glasgow tenement and demands £10 a week for “UDA protection”. Hours later, Hector Smith is dead on his living room floor, shot at point-blank range after refusing to be threatened. We follow the chain of events that begins with Brian Hosey, a violent National Front activist desperate to look like a loyalist hard man, and ends with a family shattered on Arlington Street in Woodlands.  What makes this story linger is not a whodunnit. Police move fast, the case is open and shut, and yet the meaning of what happened gets blurred by the noise around it. We talk through the fake paramilitary fundraising pitch, the way intimidation feeds on symbols and rumours, and the racist contempt that surfaces plainly when the gun goes off. We also step into a startling moment of 1970s Glasgow history: a late-licensed gay disco at Woodside Halls, the raid that follows, and officers lining men up to check their arms for a King William tattoo while a murderer slips away.  From there we zoom out to the courtroom and the headlines. The press fixates on Hosey’s appearance and supposed paramilitary aura, while Hector Smith, a Jamaican-born father of three and one of a small Caribbean community in Scotland at the time, is granted far less space as a full person. We wrestle with what it means when racism is present but treated as marginal, and why some murders become enduring folklore while others barely survive an online search.  If you care about Glasgow true crime, Scottish history, the National Front, loyalist paramilitaries, or how cities choose what to remember, listen now. Subscribe, share the episode with someone who cares about Glasgow’s past, and leave us a review. What should Hector Smith’s place in the city’s story be?

    19 min.
  5. 20 APR

    A Glasgow Execution

    Send us Fan Mail Three shots at a red light can change a city’s criminal map. We walk through the night Ewan E J Johnston is executed in Glasgow’s Kinning Park while sitting in his Audi RS-4, then follow the investigation as it builds from street-level chaos into a meticulous, evidence-led case. If you’re drawn to Glasgow true crime, forensic detail, and the uncomfortable logic of gangland power, this story stays with you.  We track how CCTV captures the movements of a dark Audi Q5 and how a burned-out vehicle, meant to wipe the slate clean, instead becomes a turning point. A spent casing, ballistic links, and a torn fragment of a Nike windrunner jacket lead to DNA evidence that places David Scott at the centre of the case. From there, the focus widens: Police Scotland are not just chasing one gunman, they’re staring into organised crime networks that stretch beyond Glasgow and into the long-running drug trafficking routes tied to Spain.  To make sense of the motive, we reach back to the mid-1990s Paisley gang feud, tracing the legacy of Stuart Boyd’s crew and the Rennie family and how old alliances can shape new violence. The courtroom brings the story to a verdict and a life sentence, but it also exposes how much remains unresolved, especially with another accused cleared and further searches launched years later. If you value smart true crime storytelling that connects murders to history, money, and power, subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a review. What part of the evidence trail do you find hardest to dismiss?

    24 min.
  6. 13 APR

    Michael Lyons

    Send us Fan Mail Glasgow doesn’t just have famous streets and hard weather, it has a gangland history that still echoes in courtrooms, cemeteries, and school gates. We follow one of the city’s most violent organised crime feuds, the battle between the Lyons family and the Daniel crime clan, and how a rumoured missing cocaine stash turns into years of shootings, stabbings, and calculated revenge. We start with a horror-movie image that’s painfully real: gunmen in eerie latex old-man masks walking into a garage and unleashing a hail of bullets. From there, the story widens into ransom demands, whispered threats about “the Piper”, and a police operation that uncovers military-grade weapons and links to stolen arms. This isn’t just a turf dispute, it’s a blueprint for how modern gangland networks intimidate communities while hiding behind silence. Then comes the moment that shocks even seasoned true crime listeners: the daylight execution of Kevin “Gerbil” Carroll in the Robroyston Asda car park, carried out in seconds and followed by a trial where prosecutors list 99 potential suspects. We also track the aftermath, including attacks near primary schools, the death of crime boss Jamie Daniel, and the power vacuum that sparks a new wave of attempted murders, until technology and patient investigation finally help deliver major sentences. If you’re searching for Glasgow true crime, Scottish organised crime history, and the real human cost of gang warfare, press play. Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review with the question you still can’t stop thinking about.

    22 min.
  7. 6 APR

    Jimmy Boyle

    Send us Fan Mail A seven pound debt ends with a man cut down on a Glasgow tenement floor and a 23-year-old sent away for life. That young enforcer is Jimmy Boyle, raised in the Gorbals where poverty, razor gangs and loan shark terror shaped a version of survival built on intimidation. We follow the path from petty theft to safe breaking to tally man violence, then into the Rooney murder, the flight to London, the High Court reckoning and the fear that still clung to the case through witness intimidation and reprisals. Prison is where the story becomes harder to file away. Boyle’s early years behind bars are brutal and explosive: assaults on officers, riots and the degrading isolation of solitary confinement. Then Scotland tries something few systems dare to attempt, the Barlinnie Special Unit, an experiment in responsibility, humane contact and creative work. Through books, clay and relentless self-confrontation, Boyle shifts from destroying to making, producing major sculpture and writing a memoir that refuses to soften what he did, while forcing readers to consider what rehabilitation can look like for people branded irredeemable. Freedom does not grant a clean ending. We talk through his charity work and prison reform campaigning, the ache of lost family time, and the devastating irony of his son’s later death on the streets. By the end, one question hangs in the air: do prisons breed monsters or mend men, and what kind of society do we become depending on the answer? Subscribe, share the episode with someone who cares about justice, and leave us a review with where you stand on redemption versus accountability.

    26 min.
  8. 1 APR

    George Redmond

    Send us Fan Mail Nine shots crack through Glasgow city centre on a Monday night, and within seconds George Redmond is dying on the pavement outside the Waldorf Bar. The gunman is gone, the stolen Porsche Cayenne disappears towards the M8, and by the time police catch up it’s burning in Gartkosh with every trace of evidence going up in smoke. That single detail tells you what kind of killing this is: not a drunken fight, but a planned execution designed to leave nothing behind. We walk you through Redmond’s rise from the East End streets of Brigton into a feared reputation built on intimidation, assaults and public violence. We revisit the moments that shaped how people saw him: the 1991 murder trial where he is acquitted while his brother takes a life sentence, the “Pulp Fiction funeral” where a minor slight nearly ends in a shotgun attack, and the 2006 stabbing of David “Mincy” McKenzie that some believe plants the seed for revenge. We also dig into the confrontation with Michael Norton, a former police officer turned drug dealer, and how brazen humiliation can create enemies who don’t forget. Then we get into what makes this one of Scotland’s most professional unsolved executions: the convoy theory, the rumoured Belfast hitman, the burned-out vehicle, and the Glasgow code of silence that leaves detectives chasing whispers instead of statements. The suspect list isn’t short, it’s endless and that might be the point. If you’re into Glasgow true crime, Scottish cold cases and organised crime investigations, subscribe for more, share this with a mate, and leave us a review. Who do you think ordered the hit on George Redmond?

    22 min.

Info

Delve into the dark heart of Glasgow, a city with history steeped in mystery and violence. A Dark City takes you behind the headlines to explore the city's most notorious murders - stories that shocked the nation, shattered communities and left scars that still linger. From cold blooded killers to infamous gangland slayings, we uncover the chilling details, the victims stories and the impact on Glasgow's streets.

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