IT was one of Scotland’s most vicious and shocking unsolved mass murders in the nation’s criminal history that resulted in the deaths of six innocent people and a sensational miscarriage of justice.
The notorious Ice Cream Wars was a gang turf battle between rival criminal organisations in Glasgow’s East End in the 1980s.
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In post-war Glasgow, slums were cleared, cramped tenements demolished and the inhabitants relocated to purpose-built housing schemes on the outskirts of the city centre.
But the architects of the sprawling new housing estates had left thousands of families housed with little or no access to shops, pubs or other facilities – such as bus stops – in their design planning.
Ice cream van operators could make hundreds of pounds a week selling anything from cones to cigarettes, and became general stores on wheels.
But in some cases, they would sell stolen and counterfeit goods and drugs, as the vehicles became popular and profitable.
Against this backdrop, ice cream vans thrived, making so much money that they quickly attracted the attention of the city’s gangsters and with that, an explosion of violence.
Conflict and intimidation escalated until it torn through the city’s tough housing estates as rivals battled for authority across Glasgow.
It started with childish tit-for-tat between cone sellers who squirted raspberry sauce on the windows of rival vans to clog up their windscreen wipers.
But the seemingly harmless sticky attacks that would force van drivers to pull over to clean their windscreens later result in deadly territorial gang violence.
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Criminals would terrorise Glasgow ice-cream van drivers using intimidation tactics involving the use of baseball bats, knives and even firearms became alarmingly common as the situation heated up.
The increasingly bitter and violent fight for control of the city’s ice cream routes would end in the murder of six members of the Doyle family, including an 18-month old tot, in a brutal arson attack in April 1984.
Andrew ‘Fat Boy’ Doyle, a teenage ice cream vendor employed by the Marchetti family, became a target for rival factions after trying to sell ice cream in his home district of Garthamlock.
It was understood Doyle had resisted attempts to sell drugs from his van and survived being shot at by a sawn-off shotgun through his windscreen.
But later gangland members doused the front door of the Doyle family home in petrol and set it alight.
Six members of the Doyle family, James Doyle, 53, his daughter Christina Halleron, 25, her 18-month-old son Mark, three of James’ sons, James, 23, Andrew (the target of the attack) and 14-year-old Tony all perished as a result of the blaze.
The arson attack killed them all – two in the fire itself, and four more, including baby Mark who was pulled from under his mother Christina’s body by firefighters, in the days that followed.
The police would quickly link the fire to organised criminal gangs trying to muscle in on the city’s ice cream trade.
The trial that followed would be the biggest of its kind in Scotland and a 20-year fight for justice that gripped the nation.
Thomas ‘TC’ Campbell and Joe Steele were convicted and jailed for life — but both protested their innocence from day one.
Steele staged protest escapes and Campbell went on a hunger strike before they were sensationally freed in 2004 after the third appeal to court judges who ruled their convictions were a miscarriage of justice.
Campbell – who died in 2019 – was awarded £1.2million over the miscarriage of justice.
In aBBC documentary – set to drop on Netflix this Wednesday – film makers took a fresh and revealing look at one of Scotland’s most deadliest unsolved mass murders which included the infamous miscarriage of justice.
Campbell and Steele – who features in the two-parter – were cleared after evidence from psychologists cast doubt on testimony given by police concerning incriminating statements said to have been made by both defendants.
Steele, of Garthamlock, later insisted he knew the blaze thug who killed the Doyles — but would never tell.
He claimed that late crimelord Tam ‘The Licensee’ McGraw – a major player in the ice cream trade at the time – had ordered the fire.
McGraw died of a heart attack at home in the city’s Mount Vernon in 2007.
It was later claimed by a ex-cop in 2022 that suspect Gary Moore admitted he set the fire in a secret dossier that vanished without a trace.
It’s claimed the missing documents detailed how late crimelord McGraw drove Moore to torch the Doyle family’s flat in 1984 as drug gangs battled for control of ice cream van routes.
Moore was charged over the six deaths in the Ruchazie, Glasgow, blaze but cleared due to insufficient evidence.
An ex-detective said the secret book disappeared after cops seized the former accused’s flat as a potential crime scene following his death in 2010.
This year Joe Steele, now 62, said he was finally ready to tell his side of the story, vowing: “I just want the truth to come out.”
He is set to reveal all in a book, days from the 40th anniversary of the blaze killings.
After their convictions were sensationally quashed in 2004, Steele shunned offers to write memoirs as he said nothing could make the Doyles’ loved ones “feel better”.
But he revealed he wanted to guarantee future generations of his own family knew the full story of his fight for justice.
Joe said: “I just want the truth to come out. Eventually I’m not going to be here.
“I’ve got kids, I’ve got grandkids, I’ve got a great grandchild.
“I don’t want all this c**p following them all over the years like they have done with us.
“I just want to tell my side of the story before I go.”
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Other contributors to the new docuseries include crime writer Douglas Skelton, Archie McDougall, manager of one of Glasgow’s biggest ice cream businesses the Marchetti Bros, crime author Denise Mina, and lawyers John Carroll and Aamer Anwar, amongst others.
The Ice Cream Wars is available on Netflix UK to stream from Wednesday, August 21.
