In the early 1990s a story went round the street: that Arthur Thompson Sr had asked Lenny McLean, the London street fighter, to come to Glasgow, find Paul Ferris and do him harm. This film sets out to find out whether it was true, by asking Ferris himself.
Two very different men
Lenny McLean was one of the best street fighters in the country: six foot two, 18 stone and, in later years, over 20. Power, aggression, speed and spite. He was not a criminal, the film says, but he mixed in those circles.
Paul Ferris was smaller, but the film describes an almost robotic efficiency in violence. He was a serious professional criminal, a man linked to numerous murders, with a record of using deadly weapons to get his way.
What Ferris said
The narrator contacted Ferris, who called him to talk it through, and also asked a mutual friend in London, a serious face who knew Lenny well.
Ferris confirmed that the word on the street at the time was that Lenny had been put up to hurt him. But he does not believe the rumour. He was in London around then, not Glasgow, so any search would have come up empty, and Lenny never approached him.
In a boxing ring, Ferris said, Lenny would no doubt win. But in his world it would not be a boxing fight. If Lenny had made the mistake of attacking him, it would not have been left there, and the retribution would have been deadly.
The London friend said much the same: Lenny kept away from heavy criminals for good reason, was not in Ferris's league, and would have known not to try.
The timing
Arthur Thompson Sr certainly wanted to hurt Ferris; the film does not doubt that. In 1991, on the day of Arthur Thompson Jr's funeral, Ferris's friends Joe Hanlon and Bobby Glover were found murdered, a clear message. Ferris was held on remand for the murder of Thompson's son until June 1992, when he was cleared.
Lenny, meanwhile, was in trouble of his own. In June 1991, as head doorman at the Hippodrome, he was involved in an altercation in which a young man was badly hurt. He was remanded to Brixton, cleared of the most serious charge in March 1992, and jailed for 18 months for assault. He served around six months and was out by about September 1992. Arthur Thompson Sr died in March 1993.
So if the request was ever made, it had to be in that narrow window. And the narrator asks the question that settles it for him: why would Thompson send a fighter who was not a killer, when he had the connections to send someone who was?
The verdict
A rumour that started somewhere and spiralled, the film concludes. Maybe there was a conversation. But on the evidence, and on what Ferris and their mutual friend say, the narrator very much doubts it happened. One coincidence remains: for a time, both men were on remand for murder at the same moment, in two different countries within Britain.