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Acid Attack: A Journalist's War With Organised Crime
Two days before Christmas 2015, veteran crime journalist Russell Findlay was the target of a vicious attack on his own doorstep. An unknown assailant, disguised as a postman, hurled sulphuric acid in his face before attempting to stab him with a steak knife. Despite suffering horrific burns, Findlay managed to overcome his assailant before the police arrived.
In this book he unravels the identity of the man who ordered the hit and reflects on a two-decade career during which he has exposed some of Scotland's most violent and dangerous men. The result is an unflinchingly realistic portrait of the country's criminal underworld, involving not just organised crime's most notorious bosses but also murky behaviour by lawyers, politicians, policeman and even fellow journalists which has enabled the criminals to flourish.
In this book he unravels the identity of the man who ordered the hit and reflects on a two-decade career during which he has exposed some of Scotland's most violent and dangerous men. The result is an unflinchingly realistic portrait of the country's criminal underworld, involving not just organised crime's most notorious bosses but also murky behaviour by lawyers, politicians, policeman and even fellow journalists which has enabled the criminals to flourish.
- GenresNonfictionCrime
268 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 22, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 13, 2018
Back in the early 1990s I was working at an addiction service in North Glasgow as a researcher. I smoked in those days and we had to take our smoke breaks outside the building. It was during one of those breaks that I commented to the janitor of the premises, who was a local man, that I was ‘amazed’ that the building site across the road where a care home was being constructed had been untouched by vandalism or graffiti with no damage or equipment despite having minimal if any security on the site.
The janitor looked at me as if I was born yesterday and informed me as if it was the most obvious thing that the main construction contractor, a prominent UK wide company, had, several weeks prior to work starting on the site, flooded the area with men who went into all the local pubs bearing cash to speak to who they needed to in order to ensure no damage to the site.
In other words, this large company was paying protection to local hardmen and gangsters to get it’s building up. And, over the course of the next few months, from the foundations being laid to the final topping out of the building, the site was left untouched with not even an unauthorised chalk mark anywhere!
I was quite amazed at this. I was aware of criminality and violence in Glasgow, as in any city. But it didn’t affect me or my family and friends. I lived in respectable areas, paid my taxes and I knew I had the safety and protection of the police and other agencies when I needed them. In brief, I lived in a civilised society based on the rule of law and accountability which applied to everybody.
The truth was, while this did apply to me to a certain extent, for many people the circumstances in which they lived or worked were very different. Going to the law or trying to get officialdom to protect you (as they’re meant to) was fraught with hazards and dangers with no certainty of success, indeed the opposite. The alternative is to keep the head down, stay schtum or as with the builder buy or ‘contract’ your way out of it. And therein gangsterism and corruption flourishes.
Russell Findlay’s lively read, Acid Attach sub-titled “A Journalist’s War With Organised Crime” is punchy and well-written, but above all it’s a searing and sobering indictment of corruption and gangsterism in contemporary Scotland.
Findlay was a crime correspondent for some of Scotland’s leading tabloid newspapers including the Daily Record, Sunday Mail and Scottish Sun. Just before Christmas 2015 he had acid thrown over him on his doorstop with his young daughter not far behind him. The attack was a ‘hit’ ordered by a crime boss who Findlay names throughout the book. Unusually, and fortunately for Findlay, he managed to defend himself, escape the worst of the acid (though it still damaged his face) and with the help of neighbours overpowered the erstwhile hitman who had disguised himself as a postman and held onto him until the cops arrived.
It transpired that the attacker had a track record of threats, violence and attacks on people. He was quite well-known in criminal circles and the police. Yet, despite continually being found guilty of serious violent crimes this man served only a fraction of the time in jail he’d been sentenced to allowing this brutal violent criminal free to perpetrate other savage attacks, including throwing acid at Findlay.
Unravelling the background to the attack and identifying the motive behind it, Findlay weaves a powerful narrative that takes in gangsters engaged in murderous turf wars and feuds especially over drugs and using bogus outfits like security companies as cover; police corruption and complacency; political and local government connections to gangsters (and their ability to get large sums of Legal Aid from the public purse); dodgy lawyers and a media which is increasingly more likely to treat the mobsters as celebrities than expose them for the ruthless hoodlums they are.
It’s worth remembering, Findlay is not writing about Chicago in the 1930’s, Mafia ridden Sicily or London’s east end under the Krays and the Richardson’s, but Scotland, particularly Glasgow, NOW in 2018.
There’s a lot of culprits fingered by Finlay as to how this level of gangsterism blighting our communities has come to pass, some which have been mentioned. But Findlay’s main suspect and the subject of his greatest wrath is the dysfunctional Scottish Criminal Justice.
Most people’s acquaintance with the Criminal Justice System is likely to be through being cited for jury service. And almost everyone’s experience of that is of a shambolic system, so much that people try their best to avoid it!
What Findlay makes clear is the mess of the jury citation system is symptomatic of an archaic system that operates for its own purposes in a closed unaccountable world that benefits only lawyers, judges, sheriffs, and above all criminals with its shoddy plea bargains, truncated sentences and a parole system which is completely impervious to public scrutiny.
The book is jaw-dropping in its portrayal of a system not fit for purpose. One small example of many. As Findlay’s attacker was awaiting trail the reporter was astonished to discover that a part-time sheriff was acting as a defence lawyer for one of the defendants in his case. That’s right a Sheriff presiding over trails in one jurisdiction can act as defence lawyer in another: all above aboard and perfectly legal.
Findlay exposes who he strongly believes commissioned the hit and in doing so unveils how this criminal has been involved in a harrowing domestic abuse case which has been allowed to ‘churn’ through the courts from endless delays, as he and his lawyer take advantage of numerous loopholes in Scots law.
Both the top man and the hapless attacker go to prison in the end, but in the case of the attacker, it takes endless delays and 17 months to get to court and during that period the attacker is out on bail and charged with another attempted hit. The top man does go to jail, but it’s on the domestic abuse charges, after much delay, and according to Findlay CID have displayed no great urgency to link the attack with the top man, despite Findlay’s plentiful portfolio of evidence on him.
Finally, Findlay’s attacker got 15 years. Sounds good eh? However, he will be eligible for parole after serving just half his sentence and with time backdated for the time spent in custody before his sentence he will actually be eligible for parole within four years of being found guilty. So, in modern, progressive Scotland its perfectly possible for someone serving a 15-year sentence to be out in 4. Is it any wonder when it comes to criminal ‘justice’, this country is often referred to as ‘soft-touch Scotland?
Acid attack is an excellent read, highly recommended, very revealing and disturbing.
The janitor looked at me as if I was born yesterday and informed me as if it was the most obvious thing that the main construction contractor, a prominent UK wide company, had, several weeks prior to work starting on the site, flooded the area with men who went into all the local pubs bearing cash to speak to who they needed to in order to ensure no damage to the site.
In other words, this large company was paying protection to local hardmen and gangsters to get it’s building up. And, over the course of the next few months, from the foundations being laid to the final topping out of the building, the site was left untouched with not even an unauthorised chalk mark anywhere!
I was quite amazed at this. I was aware of criminality and violence in Glasgow, as in any city. But it didn’t affect me or my family and friends. I lived in respectable areas, paid my taxes and I knew I had the safety and protection of the police and other agencies when I needed them. In brief, I lived in a civilised society based on the rule of law and accountability which applied to everybody.
The truth was, while this did apply to me to a certain extent, for many people the circumstances in which they lived or worked were very different. Going to the law or trying to get officialdom to protect you (as they’re meant to) was fraught with hazards and dangers with no certainty of success, indeed the opposite. The alternative is to keep the head down, stay schtum or as with the builder buy or ‘contract’ your way out of it. And therein gangsterism and corruption flourishes.
Russell Findlay’s lively read, Acid Attach sub-titled “A Journalist’s War With Organised Crime” is punchy and well-written, but above all it’s a searing and sobering indictment of corruption and gangsterism in contemporary Scotland.
Findlay was a crime correspondent for some of Scotland’s leading tabloid newspapers including the Daily Record, Sunday Mail and Scottish Sun. Just before Christmas 2015 he had acid thrown over him on his doorstop with his young daughter not far behind him. The attack was a ‘hit’ ordered by a crime boss who Findlay names throughout the book. Unusually, and fortunately for Findlay, he managed to defend himself, escape the worst of the acid (though it still damaged his face) and with the help of neighbours overpowered the erstwhile hitman who had disguised himself as a postman and held onto him until the cops arrived.
It transpired that the attacker had a track record of threats, violence and attacks on people. He was quite well-known in criminal circles and the police. Yet, despite continually being found guilty of serious violent crimes this man served only a fraction of the time in jail he’d been sentenced to allowing this brutal violent criminal free to perpetrate other savage attacks, including throwing acid at Findlay.
Unravelling the background to the attack and identifying the motive behind it, Findlay weaves a powerful narrative that takes in gangsters engaged in murderous turf wars and feuds especially over drugs and using bogus outfits like security companies as cover; police corruption and complacency; political and local government connections to gangsters (and their ability to get large sums of Legal Aid from the public purse); dodgy lawyers and a media which is increasingly more likely to treat the mobsters as celebrities than expose them for the ruthless hoodlums they are.
It’s worth remembering, Findlay is not writing about Chicago in the 1930’s, Mafia ridden Sicily or London’s east end under the Krays and the Richardson’s, but Scotland, particularly Glasgow, NOW in 2018.
There’s a lot of culprits fingered by Finlay as to how this level of gangsterism blighting our communities has come to pass, some which have been mentioned. But Findlay’s main suspect and the subject of his greatest wrath is the dysfunctional Scottish Criminal Justice.
Most people’s acquaintance with the Criminal Justice System is likely to be through being cited for jury service. And almost everyone’s experience of that is of a shambolic system, so much that people try their best to avoid it!
What Findlay makes clear is the mess of the jury citation system is symptomatic of an archaic system that operates for its own purposes in a closed unaccountable world that benefits only lawyers, judges, sheriffs, and above all criminals with its shoddy plea bargains, truncated sentences and a parole system which is completely impervious to public scrutiny.
The book is jaw-dropping in its portrayal of a system not fit for purpose. One small example of many. As Findlay’s attacker was awaiting trail the reporter was astonished to discover that a part-time sheriff was acting as a defence lawyer for one of the defendants in his case. That’s right a Sheriff presiding over trails in one jurisdiction can act as defence lawyer in another: all above aboard and perfectly legal.
Findlay exposes who he strongly believes commissioned the hit and in doing so unveils how this criminal has been involved in a harrowing domestic abuse case which has been allowed to ‘churn’ through the courts from endless delays, as he and his lawyer take advantage of numerous loopholes in Scots law.
Both the top man and the hapless attacker go to prison in the end, but in the case of the attacker, it takes endless delays and 17 months to get to court and during that period the attacker is out on bail and charged with another attempted hit. The top man does go to jail, but it’s on the domestic abuse charges, after much delay, and according to Findlay CID have displayed no great urgency to link the attack with the top man, despite Findlay’s plentiful portfolio of evidence on him.
Finally, Findlay’s attacker got 15 years. Sounds good eh? However, he will be eligible for parole after serving just half his sentence and with time backdated for the time spent in custody before his sentence he will actually be eligible for parole within four years of being found guilty. So, in modern, progressive Scotland its perfectly possible for someone serving a 15-year sentence to be out in 4. Is it any wonder when it comes to criminal ‘justice’, this country is often referred to as ‘soft-touch Scotland?
Acid attack is an excellent read, highly recommended, very revealing and disturbing.
March 27, 2018
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”…well Scotland might not be Denmark but there is something definitely rotten about the state of our justice system and the media’s courting of criminals as some kind of “Gangster Celebrity”. Investigative Journalist, Russell Findlay blows it all out of the water in this brilliant expose based on an attack on his life almost three years ago.
This is not the type of book to talk about plot, style of writing or about characters; it is a memoir of sorts but it is more than that. It is a book that highlights the corruption that exists in the very institutions designed to protect the victims of crime and attacks the media who continue to peddle “Gangster Lit” as some form of celebrity status where we are led to believe that the “bad guys” are just cheeky chappies who wouldn’t really hurt a fly!
I got angry when I read this book, not because it told me something I didn’t know but because it confirmed all that I suspected was true. I have seen first hand the dubious and corrupt practices that do nothing to protect the victims of crime; I have observed a society that is hellbent on criminalising a section of our society who probably deserve a ticking off as opposed to a criminal record, while standing back, watching and actively supporting the real bad guys as they walk free; a system which wastes time and public money while lining the pockets of the legal system who are all too happy to take the wads of dirty money to make the bad stuff go away; a system which demonstrates incompetence and inefficiency on a daily basis.
Acid Attack covers, not only organised crime but also looks at cases such as Peter Tobin; The World End Murders as well as miscarriages of justice which have never been resolved.Of course, not all of our lawyers, police and journalists are liars or corrupt. The book does not suggest they are. It does however, raise some serious questions about the very institutions we are supposed to trust. The optimist in me wants to believe that these bad apples are in the minority but it becomes difficult when we continue to see evidence on a daily basis that “crime does indeed pay” and very handsomely too. Something needs to change.
This is a hard-hitting novel; Russell Findlay has been attacked and vilified for his investigative journalism; for doing what he believes journalists should do, expose the truth for the public. He is to be admired for having the balls to stand up and speak out about what he believes and for taking a stand against corruption. If you want a sanitised version of our legal system and justice then this is not for you; if you are looking for “Gangster Lit” then it is probably not for you but if you are looking for a hard-hitting expose of what really happens behind the walls of our courts and media then I’d highly recommend you read this!
This is not the type of book to talk about plot, style of writing or about characters; it is a memoir of sorts but it is more than that. It is a book that highlights the corruption that exists in the very institutions designed to protect the victims of crime and attacks the media who continue to peddle “Gangster Lit” as some form of celebrity status where we are led to believe that the “bad guys” are just cheeky chappies who wouldn’t really hurt a fly!
I got angry when I read this book, not because it told me something I didn’t know but because it confirmed all that I suspected was true. I have seen first hand the dubious and corrupt practices that do nothing to protect the victims of crime; I have observed a society that is hellbent on criminalising a section of our society who probably deserve a ticking off as opposed to a criminal record, while standing back, watching and actively supporting the real bad guys as they walk free; a system which wastes time and public money while lining the pockets of the legal system who are all too happy to take the wads of dirty money to make the bad stuff go away; a system which demonstrates incompetence and inefficiency on a daily basis.
Acid Attack covers, not only organised crime but also looks at cases such as Peter Tobin; The World End Murders as well as miscarriages of justice which have never been resolved.Of course, not all of our lawyers, police and journalists are liars or corrupt. The book does not suggest they are. It does however, raise some serious questions about the very institutions we are supposed to trust. The optimist in me wants to believe that these bad apples are in the minority but it becomes difficult when we continue to see evidence on a daily basis that “crime does indeed pay” and very handsomely too. Something needs to change.
This is a hard-hitting novel; Russell Findlay has been attacked and vilified for his investigative journalism; for doing what he believes journalists should do, expose the truth for the public. He is to be admired for having the balls to stand up and speak out about what he believes and for taking a stand against corruption. If you want a sanitised version of our legal system and justice then this is not for you; if you are looking for “Gangster Lit” then it is probably not for you but if you are looking for a hard-hitting expose of what really happens behind the walls of our courts and media then I’d highly recommend you read this!
June 1, 2018
A typically brave book from a journalist seemingly undaunted by the cowardly threats of the criminals he exposes. This book talks about the time the threat became a real life attack on his doorstep and how the criminal justice system in Scotland protects the millionaire thug who ordered the attack at the expense of his countless victims. I cannot recommend the author enough. The media in our country spends more time glamourising these gang land psychos and turning them into pseudo celebrities than trying to expose their criminal empires. Russell Findlay's work continually blows my mind and as a screenwriter inspires me to portray a more realistic side to the city I call home.
June 3, 2019
So well written as could be expected from an experienced journalist. I found some of the criminal connections a tad confusing, but that did not spoil a compelling read
Without doubting a word, I was greatly disturbed by the revelations of bad practice, misuse of pubic money in legal aid and courtroom fiasco. It is a revelation that the state of chaos is so inherent in our justice system t,hat corruption and vice can flourish.
Well done Russell and power tae yer pen.
Without doubting a word, I was greatly disturbed by the revelations of bad practice, misuse of pubic money in legal aid and courtroom fiasco. It is a revelation that the state of chaos is so inherent in our justice system t,hat corruption and vice can flourish.
Well done Russell and power tae yer pen.
March 3, 2019
Intriguing, a must read.
Very interesting look in to the reality of Scotland's awful justice system and bravery of a justice seeking genuine journalist
Very interesting look in to the reality of Scotland's awful justice system and bravery of a justice seeking genuine journalist
August 27, 2022
Was an alright read, learned a bit which is mainly what I'm aiming for from non fiction, was a bit repetitive so maybe a 2.5🌟
April 15, 2022
This is a good book about the criminal gang members in Glasgow that Russell Findlay as a journalist had reported on and investigated in her journalist profession. The attack on him was horrific by getting acid thrown on his face when a gang member callled at his home. He did well to overpower him with the help of neighbours after he had been attacked. It is a very factual account of the crimes committed. It can be a bit repetitive when documenting the individuals but on the whole I found the book a good read and I did enjoy it.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews