BBC Scotland is set to showcase an interesting two-part series which will reveal, for the first time, the untold story of a vicious gang war that tore through Glasgow housing estates in the early 1980s.
The Ice Cream Wars, which will be two 60-minute episodes, will use archive, first-hand testimony and high-end dramatic reconstruction to tell of the infamous gangland battle over the most unlikely of things - ice cream van routes. This battle would result in the murder of six members of the same, completely innocent, family, including an 18-month old baby, leading to an infamous miscarriage of justice and a crime that remains unsolved to this day.
David Harron, Commissioning Editor, BBC Scotland said: “The Ice Cream Wars is a powerful 2-part series which, as well as telling the story of a brutal feud, also explores the nature of life in some of Scotland’s most deprived communities during that period. It also looks at how the construction of new estates on the edge of the city with no infrastructure created the conditions that made these routes so lucrative and the impact of the case on the justice system with the 2 men convicted of the murders eventually walking free after 20 years.”
On 16 April, 1984, the Doyle family home was torched, in a horror escalation of the Ice Cream Wars drugs trade. Petrol was poured into the tenement flat in Ruchazie.
Christine Doyle Halleron, 25, her 18-month-old son, Mark, James Doyle Snr, 53, and his sons James Jnr, 23, Andrew 18, and Anthony, 14, were killed in the fire.
Three people in the flat somehow managed to escape the blaze. The family were targeted because they refused to give up their van route in Garthamlock.
Andrew Doyle was the intended victim because he had refused to be intimidated out of giving up his ice-cream van run. Strathclyde Police arrested six people over the deaths, but only Campbell and Steele were charged and convicted of the murders.
Both were refused appeals though they vehemently protested their innocence. Steel even escaped and cuffed himself to the gates of Buckingham Palace. Both men were finally cleared of the vicious killings in 2004.
Alan Clements, Managing Director, Two Rivers Media, added: “As is evident in much of our work, these films won’t only tell this astonishing story of the crime itself, but will reflect back the social and political realities of the time through the lens of what was, at the time, one of the most dangerous cities in Britain.
“Teaming up with BBC Scotland allows us to tell these stories that have yet to be told and then, via the BBC iPlayer, bring them to a wider BBC audience.”
The Ice Cream Wars will form part of BBC Scotland’s Autumn schedule. Details will be announced nearer the time.
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