An alcoholic Glasgow brawler with a decade of arrests behind him, Carraher was charged with murder on August 13, 1934, after fatally stabbing James Shaw, a young soldier, in the course of a saloon altercation. Pleading drunkenness at his trial, Carraher was convicted of "culpable murder" -- the equivalent of an American manslaughter charge -- and was sentenced to three years imprisonment. Released after serving his time, Carraher was picked up again, in 1943, on charges of razor-slashing, assault and battery. On November 23, 1945, he murdered a second young soldier, John Gordon, in Glasgow. Turning a deaf ear to Carraher's pleas for leniency, a jury convicted him of first-degree murder, and he was hanged at Barlinnie Prison on April 4, 1946.
An alcoholic Glasgow brawler with a decade of arrests behind him, Carraher was charged with murder on August 13, 1934, after fatally stabbing James Shaw, a young soldier, in the course of a saloon altercation. Pleading drunkenness at his trial, Carraher was convicted of "culpable murder" -- the equivalent of an American manslaughter charge -- and was sentenced to three years imprisonment. Released after serving his time, Carraher was picked up again, in 1943, on charges of razor-slashing, assault and battery. On November 23, 1945, he murdered a second young soldier, John Gordon, in Glasgow. Turning a deaf ear to Carraher's pleas for leniency, a jury convicted him of first-degree murder, and he was hanged at Barlinnie Prison on April 4, 1946. |