Free Bible John's Secret Daughter by David Leslie Page A

they left they would still owe the original loan.
    With the money rolling in, Thompson could afford to pay for prostitutes, but he rarely used them in Glasgow for fear of his wife, Rita, getting to know. In London, armed with the Krays’ money, it was a different matter: he had money to splash about and lavish on attractive women. He could pay for the best, but sometimes payment was not necessary, the Twins providing him with a female for free. Thompson’s visits did not go unnoticed by the police in the capital, who enquired of their counterparts in Glasgow details about this enforcer from the north, informing them of the fact that he appeared to have a liking for women.
    On his home territory, Thompson enjoyed the hordes of smart women who danced at the Barrowland. He became a regular at the dance hall, surveying the talent on offer and passing on lewd comments to the cronies and sycophants, many much younger than himself, who accompanied him and hung on his every word. Thompson’s own favourites were those who were married: taking them to bed made not just the women his conquest but also their menfolk, to whom, in his mind, he had dealt the ultimate insult.
    He was not the most handsome of men, but his reputation as a kingpin in Glasgow’s violent underworld seemed to attract women. It may have been that in Thompson they saw the power that women sometimes crave and that some believe is to be found in criminals. Then again, his money was a magnet that drew towards him even those professionals who would amongst their own class loudly cast scorn on the idea of associating with a thug.
    His success also brought with it the inevitable consequence that gangsters must face. In 1966, Thompson started up his car outside his home on Provanmill Road with the aim of giving a lift to his mother-in-law, Margaret Cameron Harrison. As the car moved off, a bomb planted under the engine blew up, killing Margaret and badly injuring Thompson. He was convinced he knew who was behind the assassination attempt and later that year drove his Jaguar at a van carrying Arthur Welsh and James Goldie, who both died. He was charged with their murder, although he was acquitted by a jury.
    Awaiting trial, he was visited in an interview room at Barlinnie prison by his lawyer, who had with him an exceptionally pretty woman in her 20s, with breasts even more substantial than the solicitor’s fees. On the pretext of seeing another client in the jail, the legal eagle left both on their own, a move for which Thompson had been well forewarned and was prepared, as was his guest. Later, Thompson would boast he was the first man to have a conjugal visit in a prison in Scotland.
    His voracious appetite for women had become a talking point among the criminal fraternity, many of whom looked on Thompson as an enemy. So, two years later, following the murder of Patricia Docker, he was questioned by police.
    A former officer remembered visiting him: ‘Thompson was an obvious candidate to be quizzed. Family apart, he regarded women as objects for his own personal pleasure and there had been tales circulating that some to whom he’d loaned money and had refused to cooperate sexually when they couldn’t pay up had been given a very heavy slapping about. His name was thrown into the hat as a suspect, but at the time so were scores of others whose only crime was to have offended some business rival. It wasn’t only him we were interested in, but those who knocked about with him. He made it clear he had nothing to do with Pat: didn’t know her and gave the usual spiel about being appalled by an innocent woman’s murder. If he knew anything, he said, he would be the first to help the police. No one believed him, but there was no evidence linking him to the murder either.’
    Thompson might have felt his luck had run out that year after he was arrested following a burglary on a clothing warehouse and jailed for four years. He spent part of that time at Peterhead prison