SUNDAY MAIL EXCLUSIVE: Jimmy Boyle was caged for life in 1967 and spent time in Barlinnie's controversial Special Unit Get the latest Scottish crime and courts news sent straight to your inbox with our daily Criminal Record newsletter We have more newsletters Get the latest Scottish crime and courts news sent straight to your inbox with our daily Criminal Record newsletter We have more newsletters HE was once called Scotland’s most dangerous man. But for the first time in almost a decade, Jimmy Boyle has spoken about his time in Barlinnie Prison’s controversial Special Unit. In a new book about the unit, he tells how the pioneering concept created by prison officer Ken Murray transformed him from feared caged killer to sculptor and best-selling author.
Boyle, 80, said: “It’s hard to describe how difficult it was for each of us to accept the Special Un it. The cell doors were unlocked at 6am till 9pm. “This degree of freedom was something we weren’t used to.
“I can only guess that the intention was to encourage staff and prisoners to get to know each other and in a strange way this did work. “Ken explained how our past violence against prison staff meant officers resigned, creating a recruitment problem. “They wanted to bring the violence to an end.
” Boyle, then 23, had been sentenced to life in 1967 for the murder of William “Babs” Rooney. He would become a major challenge to the penal system, rioting and attacking prison officers behind bars. He was s.