Linwood bank robbery
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The Linwood bank robbery was a bank robbery which took place in Glasgow on 30 December 1969. Two police officers were shot dead and a third seriously injured.
The gang of three robbers robbed the Clydesdale Bank in Linwood. The leader was Howard Wilson, himself a former police officer. Shortly after a police officer spotted them in Allison Street in Glasgow, where he thought they were acting a bit suspiciously. When a group of officers investigated Wilson pulled out a gun and shot three of them. He then fired a shot into two of them as they were lying injured on the floor, and was about to shoot a third when he was rugby-tackled by another officer. One of the wounded officers died at the scene, another died in hospital a few days later, and the third was put in a wheelchair for life.
Wilson eventually pleaded guilty to two charges of murder, the first time anyone had pleaded guilty to a double murder charge in Scotland. Two officers involved in capturing him were awarded the George Cross.
It is generally accepted that the same gang had carried out the Williamwood bank robbery a few months earlier, along with a fourth man. The subsequent whereabouts of the fourth man are unknown, there is a dubious rumour that he is buried in the pillars of the Kingston Bridge.
Wilson was released after 33 years. He wrote a novel Angels of Death.
