DRUG DEALING GANGSTER DIES WITH A BULLET TO THE HEAD

ONE of Glasgow's most notorious criminal figures, who walked free from
two murder charges and served a string of prison sentences, has been
shot dead in a suspected contract killing.

Frank McPhie, 51, was killed by a single bullet to his head, fired at
point blank range as he stood outside the family's tenement home in
Guthrie Street, Maryhill.

Police said the father-of-four had been alone.

McPhie, despite two not proven verdicts on murder charges, spent much
of the past 20 years in jail for a series of offences involving
assault and robbery, firearms and drugs.

The dead man's wife rushed out to find her son standing over her
husband who was treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken
to the city's Western Infirmary, where he died a short time later.

The shooting took place less than 500 yards from the top security
Maryhill Police Station, which has been used in the past by
Strathclyde Police to hold terrorists.

Police were on the scene within minutes, but the killer had fled.
Police forensic experts were yesterday understood to be examining a
gun found in the area to establish if it was linked to the murder.

One theory being considered by detectives is that the shooting, about
9pm on Wednesday, may have been a revenge attack.

McPhie was cleared by a jury at the High Court in Perth in 1997, along
with Neil Munro, of stabbing and murdering Clydebank murderer William
"Worm" Toye in his cell in Perth Prison. Charges against the pair were
found not proven.

A year later McPhie walked free from the High Court in Glasgow after
being cleared of killing bridegroom, Christopher McGrory, 25, only two
weeks after his wedding. Again the verdict was not proven.

After being out of prison for only three months, McPhie was accused of
murdering McGrory, who was found strangled in the back of his van in a
country road near Milngavie in September, 1997.

McPhie was jailed for a series of offences involving assault and
robbery, firearms and drugs, between 1978 and 1992: in 1978 for five
years; for another five years in 1986; and eight years for drugs in
1992.

A murder incident room was set up at Maryhill Police Office
yesterday.

Police cordoned off a 100-yard stretch of pavement and the front
garden area of the tenement entrance to McPhie's home. His white Ford
Transit van, parked in the street, was also cordoned off. Detectives
carried out door-to-door inquiries.

Detective Chief Inspector Graham Vance, who is leading the inquiry,
appealed for anyone aware of McPhie's movements on Wednesday,
particularly between 7pm and 9pm, to contact the police. Mr Vance said
a number of items, believed to be connected to the incident, were
recovered from an area within a block of flats at Carrbridge Drive,
Maryhill.

A friend of McPhie's widow Bridge, who asked not to be named because
she feared reprisals, said he had just stepped out of their van when
he was shot.

The neighbour said the whole community had been plunged into fear
following what was believed to be "a revenge attack". She added:
"Frank had been in trouble in his life and that was no secret but
despite all that Bridge stood by him and they were a nice family.

"The shooting was not done by anyone round here and it was obviously
something to do with his past. He may have done wrong but another
killing will not put it right."

McPhie's litany of criminal activity and alleged activities over many
years only adds to the uncertainty over who was responsible. He was a
garage manager when he was alleged to have been in a gang which robbed
a Dundee branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland of more than UKP42,000
in March, 1990. He was cleared at the High Court in Perth after the
judge questioned the reliability of two witnesses.

In 1992, he was jailed for eight years after being arrested outside
his home when buying 20 kilos of cannabis for UKP29,000.

He was part of a gang caught with 47 kilos of cannabis worth almost
UKP200,000 and UKP90,000 in drugs profits. McPhie had been acting as a
go-between for London-based drugs godfather James Rought and major
drugs dealer James King, from Royston, Glasgow. Drugs squad officers
had been shadowing them for almost three months.