Veteran crime photographer Brian Anderson names the four Scots underworld figures that scared him more than most.
He has been photographing Britain’s most notorious and violent criminals for more than 25 years.
In that time Brian Anderson has come face to face with underworld figures who have stood trial for murder and in some cases been accused of multiple killings.
From Glasgow’s tough Blackhill district Brian grew up in the same mean streets that produced many of the people he would later photograph.
Today the 55 year old Glaswegian recalls four crime figures – all Scots – who scared him more than most.
One terrifying assignment was gangland enforcer Gary Moore who was at one time linked to the deaths of eight people..
In 2004 he snapped Moore for the front cover of an article on the criminal underworld.
Brian said:”It was probably the most terrifying three or four days ever.
“The guy was seriously unhinged. When I first met him he was sleeping on the couch in his flat in Govanhill on the southside of Glasgow.
“You ought to have seen the mess there were vodka bottles and cigarette stubs everywhere. It was absolute chaos.
“I used to have to wake him up every day and take him to the various locations.”
Brian was so worried about his personal safety that he had his brother-in-law accompany him every day as back up.
When Moore arrived on the second day of the shoot in Glasgow’s George Square, he was carrying a fish supper and a bottle of irn bru and to Brian’s astonishment then whipped out a loaded Magnum revolver Brian had no idea he was bringing along a firearm.
After his death in 2010 Brian learned that Moore was feared by other criminals and also disliked because of his violence towards women.
Brian added:”He was one of the scariest men I ever met, there were a few.
“Gary Moore was the type of guy that if you went for him you had to finish him as he would come back at you.”
Moore, who was once an enforcer for Glasgow godfather Arthur Thompson snr, was sentenced in 1994 to eight years for killing James Boyle – son of convicted murderer turned sculptor and author Jimmy Boyle.
Moore was also charged with the murder of sex worker Diane McInally in 1991 but the charges were later dropped.
He also stood trial at the High Court in Glasgow in 1984 over the deaths of six members of the Doyle family in a fatal fire at their home – during the city’s notorious ice cream wars – but was cleared.
Another fearsome confrontation was with crime boss Jamie Daniel in 2010.
He was then head of the Daniel crime family and would die six years later from cancer.
Brian and a colleague had been trying to photograph him outside his home in the city’s upmarket Jordanhill – without his knowledge.
Brian said:”He suddenly came flying round the corner in his car and gave chase and at one point we were bumper to bumper.
“The chase lasted about two miles and we ended up in Glasgow’s Great Western Road where I drove into a police station and he then drove away.
“I think he had a lot of spies in the street who would have let him know if there was a car outside.
“At the time it was terrifying incident. We were just panicking and thinking lets get out of here.”
Another terrifying underworld figure was Mark Clinton who once told Brian that he wanted to cut off the head of crime boss Tam McGraw and put it in his wife’s bed.
Brian said: “I was taking photographs at Clinton’s home in Airdrie when he told me he was going to decapitate McGraw.
“He then pulled out a sword and started waving it around his living room. I photographed Clinton various times. He lived a dangerous life.
“While I was in his flat he assembled a contraption at his door.
“It was rope attached to a sword set up like a guillotine. The rope was tied to the handle so that if any intruders came in it would decapitate them. It was a booby trap.”
In 2003, Clinton became a prime suspect in the murder of Billy McPhee – an enforcer for McGraw.
McPhee had been watching a rugby match when a man entered the Springcroft Tavern in Baillieston, Glasgow and stabbed him multiple times before walking out.
Clinton was cleared of the murder at the High Court in Glasgow the following year when witnesses failed to identify him. He died in 2019 at his flat in Paisley at the age of 48.
Brian added:”You can tell when you are in the company of somebody who has become really unhinged.
“With someone like Mark Clinton there is no filter.
“You can sense the danger right away.
“I found that with him. Another guy who was off the chart.”
Clinton once told Brian that his local Job Centre was trying to find him work on a building site.
Brian added:”He said that if he was ever asked to dig a hole he was going to dig the hole but the person who asked him was going in it.”
Brian also photographed Tam McGraw in his luxury home in Mount Vernon in Glasgow’s east end for a book about his life.
Brian says McGraw was less terrifying but exuded a natural air of menace.
He added:”He definitely gave the impression of someone that shouldn’t be crossed.
“I had photographed him at the funeral of an associate Gordon Ross who had been murdered outside a pub in the east end of Glasgow.
“It was the first time he had been seen in public for years. Tam was not happy that the photograph had been taken and asked me how much I had been paid.
“When I said £100 he said he said he would have given me £2,000 for it not to appear.
“When I turned up at his door with my equipment he asked what was inside my bag.
“I jokingly said a bazooka and he said okay come in.”
McGraw died aged 55 in July 2007, after collapsing at home from a heart attack.
He was estimated to have made around £30 million from organised crime including drugs which in turn was said to have been laundered through legitimate enterprises such as ice cream vans, taxis, pubs, security firms and property both at home and abroad.
Brian began taking photographs of criminals in the late 90s for newspapers.
His first subjects were Thomas TC Campbell and Joe Steele, who were serving life sentences for the six Doyle family murders in Ruchazie, Glasgow.
In 2004, both men were eventually cleared after spending more than 20 years behind bars. Campbell died in 2019.
Brian has also photographed 1960s London underworld figures such as Ronnie Biggs, former Kray Twins driver Billy Frost, Freddie Foreman and Mad Frankie Fraser.
One of his earliest subjects was former underworld figure turned author Paul Ferris after he got out of prison in 2001 on firearms offences.
Ferris first came to public attention in 1992 when he was cleared unanimously of the murder of Arthur Thompson jnr, son of crime boss Arthur Thompson snr, at the High Court in Glasgow.
Brian was speaking to the Daily Record following the launch of his new blog Naked City about Glasgow’s underworld.
The blog has photographs and profiles of the underworld figures he has met over the years as well as his own take on the Glasgow crime scene.
Last month we reported how a book about the infamous figures that Brian has snapped may be turned into a Hollywood movie Shooting the Mob was a Christmas bestseller and has already sparked interest from investors.
