I’ve only ever met one person with a “genuine” wooden leg, and no they weren’t a pirate. It was somebody who had been the target of a contract killing that they’d thwarted/stopped. In the process of fighting for their life a shotgun, their attacker was using, had ripped into their lower right leg requiring it to be amputated below the knee. Rather than using a medical prosthetic leg, they’d had a friend make a wooden one that they proudly wore – sometimes with cut-off jeans – as a badge of honor. I’d not really thought much about this encounter till someone asked me about Glasgow gang culture. Whilst Glasgow has about the same number of identifiable gangs (around 730) as London, it’s a city that is significantly smaller i.e., as of 2021 Glasgow had a population of 635,130 whereas London had a population of nearly 9 million (2022). So, it can be seen that gang culture is much more prevalent and intertwined in city life in Glasgow than it is in London. Whilst many of the gangs are loosely based around geographic areas, there are some which are somewhat more organized, and involved in the city’s drug trade/market, money laundering and protection rackets etc.

One of these gangsters/gang leaders was Frank McPhee, known locally as “the Iceman”, who was assassinated by a contract killer/hitman in 2000, outside his home in Maryhill, Glasgow – just 500 yards/meters from Maryhill Police Station (he had been previously warned by law-enforcement that there was a contract out on him, however he assumed it was some form of tactic by the police to pin an offense(s) on him). It is believed that the shooter/killer was paid 5000 pounds (around $7000 at the time) for his murder (many contract killings are carried out for relatively small sums of money including those that involve professional or “master” hitmen – in criminal fraternities life is often cheap – and the amounts paid are low for the reward/risk involved in such killings; this may indicate even amongst criminals, hitmen are somewhat despised). McPhee’s killer, who killed him with a single shot from an eight-story apartment opposite McPhee’s house, has never been apprehended (they left the rifle in the apartment with no forensic evidence to identify them). It is believed that one of the reasons that the shooter/killer has never been identified is that they weren’t a local but rather someone – a “professional” – who was hired externally, possibly from Northern Ireland, as the weapon - a BRNO Model Two .22 Rifle – that was used in this shooting was the same as that which was used by terrorist organizations, for similar operations, during “the Troubles”; ex-terrorists have to find work somewhere, and engaging in “hits” or advising/training other terrorist organizations such as the FARC in Colombia is something ex-IRA members have been known to do. As there are also strong gang relationships between Belfast and Glasgow it’s a distinct possibility, and one that law enforcement in Glasgow still consider likely, that the killer/shooter came from Northern Ireland and was a “former” terrorist.

There is little academic research concerning “hitmen” and that which has been done is ethnographic research e.g., qualitative research based on observation, interviews and informal conversations etc. In reality it would be hard to do any quantitative research on this group due to the small number of individuals who conduct assassination/contract killing type offenses, and those that are studied tend to be those who have been convicted of such offenses. Unfortunately, when you are only left with offenders giving accounts of their lifestyles and crimes, they can create their own narratives and explanations for why and how they do what they do, which may actually differ in certain regards as to what actually happened e.g., someone may have initially been forced to reluctantly engage in a contract killing by members of a gang they belonged to and “re-write” this act as something they actively/positively did want to do to punish someone who was believed to be an informant etc. Many offenders will create a narrative that they believe puts them in a positive rather than negative light, however when studying and researching specific offenses committed by a limited number of offenders, sometimes their own accounts are all researchers have to go on. One piece of research that attempted to go beyond individual’s narrative was that of Macintyre et al., in 2014.

Using British newspaper reports and court transcripts (most research concerning contract killers up until this point had been conducted in the UK), they identified 36 hitmen (one was a woman) who had committed 27 identifiable cases of contract killings, between 1974 and 2013. The reason that there were more hitmen than incidents was due to the fact that in some incidents individuals worked together. The researchers, using their own networks of offenders and ex-offenders, also conducted a small number of interviews with those who had knowledge of, and had been involved to some degree in aspects of contract killings, to add color to their research. The results of their research showed that the average age of a contract killer in the UK was 38 years old, however there were outliers such as Santre Sanchez Gayle who was just fifteen when he carried out his “hit” (police at the time believed it to be the work of a professional and Gayle only became a person of interest/later convicted, because he bragged about it to friends). The average age of those targeted was 36, however one victim was 10 years old. This was the result of a hit that John Childs conducted in 1975, who not only murdered the target but the target’s son as well because he feared the ten-year-old child would be able to identify him. The average cost of a hit was around $20,000 (2025 value), though it is alleged that Kevin Lane was paid somewhere around $130,000 for the gangland murder of Robert Magil (a killing he denies, though acknowledges ties to the offenders who may have committed it).

The method of killing saw predominantly the use of firearms (25 out of 35 cases). This is significant, as in 1997 firearms were largely banned in the UK, meaning access to firearms and ammunition were severely limited and restricted after this date; this suggests those committing contract killings were/are part of criminal fraternities. Of the remaining ten victims, two were strangled, three were stabbed and five were beaten to death. The motive behind the majority of these killing were some forms of legal or illegal business dispute i.e., financial disputes. However, there were killings that were the result of gang disputes and domestic disagreements between divorcing partners etc. The study identified four types of hitmen:

  • The Novice – usually an unemployed person involved in petty crime, who was caught due to a combination of local intelligence and forensic naivety.
  • The Dilletante – an individual coming from a variety of backgrounds who used a variety of methods to kill/murder the target and was identified/caught due to some form of confession and/or forensic evidence.
  • The Journeyman – usually ex-military, who was geographically stable (lived in one locale and travelled to others), and targeted either businessmen or gang members.
  • The Master – someone who left no forensic evidence, was ex-military and/or a professional criminal, who was geographically mobile i.e., didn’t live in one locale.

The study found little support for Schlesinger’s typologies of amateur, semi-professional and professional that had previously dominated the research field into contract killers.       

There is a huge disconnect between the realities of who contract killers/hitmen actually are and the way they are portrayed in the media and viewed by the public. Sometimes, real-life and media representations overlap e.g., the forensically aware, and relatively long-range shooting of Frank McPhee. However, it should be understood that although it looked like a “Master” killing it was committed for a relatively small sum of money, and against a small-time gangster in a fairly run-down part of Glasgow (my apologies to the residents of Maryhill). Far from the glamour of Hollywood movies such as the Iceman (2012) or Day of the Jackal (1973) etc.