Paul Ferris, Glasgow's most notorious gangland enforcer turned best-selling author, dies at 62

Paul Ferris, the Glasgow gangland enforcer whose life of crime and subsequent reinvention as a best-selling author made him one of Scotland's most recognisable underworld figures, has died at the age of 62. He is understood to have passed away on Tuesday night at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow following a short illness, according to sources close to him.

The news was broken by photographer Brian Anderson, a longtime friend who first met Ferris on a newspaper assignment in 2002. Announcing the death on his Naked City Facebook page, Anderson described Ferris as a best-selling author and a "former notorious criminal," adding that word of his passing "will come as a shock to many who knew him throughout the different chapters of his life." Anderson later told BBC Scotland News that the two men had formed an unlikely and enduring friendship, saying: "We got on really well. I found him polite, funny and kind. It was a shock to everyone that I remained friends with Paul for 25 years."

Ferris first came to national prominence through his involvement in one of the most sensational criminal cases in Scottish legal history. He was accused of the murder of Arthur Thompson Jnr, the son of crime boss Arthur Thompson, who was shot dead outside the family home in the Blackhill area of Glasgow in August 1991. The killing shocked the city and triggered a massive police investigation.

His trial opened the following year and became the longest and most expensive criminal case Scotland had ever seen. More than 300 witnesses were called during 54 days of proceedings, at an estimated cost of £4m. The prosecution's case rested heavily on the testimony of Dennis Woodman, who claimed Ferris had confessed to the shooting while the two men were being held together in Barlinnie Prison.

Defence lawyers mounted a vigorous challenge to Woodman's credibility and argued that the case against their client was deeply flawed. After the jury deliberated for more than 24 hours, Ferris was acquitted of murder and all other charges in 1992. No one has ever been convicted of Arthur Thompson Jnr's killing, and the case remains one of Scotland's most enduring unsolved crimes.

Ferris was not, however, able to put his criminal past behind him entirely. In 1998 he was jailed for seven years for gun-running, a conviction that underlined his continuing links to organised crime and added further weight to his fearsome public reputation. It was a period that would later provide rich material for the books that would define the second half of his life.

His first book, The Ferris Conspiracy, was published in 2001 and offered readers a vivid insider's account of Glasgow's underworld. Written with his collaborator Reg McKay, who died in 2011, the book became a commercial success and established Ferris as a surprisingly compelling narrator of his own violent history. He went on to publish a number of further titles with McKay, building a second career as a chronicler of the criminal milieu he had once inhabited.

The reach of his story extended well beyond the printed page. In 2013, The Ferris Conspiracy was adapted into the feature film The Wee Man, with Line of Duty star Martin Compston taking on the role of Ferris. The film brought his name to a new generation and cemented his status as a cultural figure as much as a criminal one, blurring the line between notoriety and celebrity.

His 1992 trial had itself become a landmark moment in Scottish criminal justice, frequently cited in discussions about the reliability of prison informants and the enormous cost of complex prosecutions. The collapse of the case against Ferris after such lengthy and expensive proceedings raised difficult questions about the use of testimony from fellow inmates, a debate that resonates in legal circles to this day.

Tributes and reactions to his death reflect the unusual dual identity Ferris carried throughout his life. To some he remained the archetypal gangland enforcer, a man whose name was spoken with caution across Glasgow. To others, including Anderson and a wide readership, he was an engaging storyteller who had turned his experiences into a form of candid, if controversial, social commentary.

Anderson's recollection of a quarter-century of friendship illustrates the contradictions that surrounded Ferris. He stressed the personal qualities he encountered in the man behind the fearsome reputation, describing someone who was polite, humorous and compassionate in private, in stark contrast to the violent image projected by his criminal past and the tabloid coverage that followed him for decades.

Ferris leaves behind a complicated legacy that spans organised crime, Scottish legal history and popular publishing. His death at 62, following only a short illness, brings to a close a life that traversed some of the darkest episodes in Glasgow's criminal past before finding an unexpected second act through writing and film. He is survived by a body of work that ensured his version of events would outlast the headlines that first made his name.