Vans that carried more than ice cream
In the early 1980s, parts of Glasgow’s East End saw ice cream vans used as moving fronts for drugs and stolen goods. Rival operators fought for control of routes. Raids on vans were reported. Shotguns were fired through windscreens. The disputes drew public anger and the police drew a nickname that mocked their Serious Crime Squad.
The fire in Ruchazie
On 16 April 1984, the conflict reached a fatal peak. Andrew Doyle, known as Fat Boy, was an eighteen year old driver for the Marchetti firm. He had refused to carry drugs on his run and had already been shot at through his van windscreen.
At about two in the morning, petrol was poured on the landing door outside the family flat in Ruchazie and set alight. Six people died. They were James Doyle, aged fifty three, his daughter Christina Halleron, aged twenty five, her son Mark, aged eighteen months, and three of James Doyle’s sons, James, Andrew, and Tony, aged twenty three, eighteen, and fourteen.
Trials and denials
Strathclyde Police arrested several suspects over the next months. Four people were convicted of offences linked to the vendettas. Two others, Thomas T C Campbell and Joe Steele, were tried for murder. A jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts. Both men received life sentences. The case rested on three parts. A witness, William Love, said he overheard a plan to burn the Doyle home.
Police said Campbell made an oral statement about a frightener that had gone too far. Police also said they found a photocopied street map marked with an X at the Doyle address. Campbell and Steele denied the charges. They said the statement and the map did not come from them and that they were being fitted up. Both gave alibis for the time of the fire.
Appeals and a final ruling
An appeal in 1989 failed. In 1992 Love said he had lied and later signed affidavits. Protests followed. Steele escaped more than once to stage public demonstrations. Campbell went on hunger strike in prison. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission obtained Crown papers and referred the case back to court. In March 2004 the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed the convictions.
The court heard expert evidence that four officers gave an identical twenty four word phrase from the alleged oral statement, which was assessed as highly unlikely without collaboration. The judges also found misdirection in the original trial. Campbell and Steele were freed. The murders of the Doyle family remain unsolved.
In the 1980s, Glasgow’s East End echoed with the music of ice cream vans, but behind the cheerful tunes raged the Ice Cream Wars.
Rival vendors used their routes to sell drugs and stolen goods, and turf fights brought raids, threats, and shotgun blasts to ordinary streets.🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/nPb9FxmkjS
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) October 24, 2025