If we had a friendship, it was happy we spoke before he one forged in hell but I am died...I will pray for him
Falsely convicted of the Ice Cream Wars murders, Joe Steele reveals he ended 35-year feud with co-accused TC Campbell before his death
The man wrongly convicted of the Ice Cream Wars murders has revealed how he ended his 35-year feud with co-accused TC Campbell just weeks before his death.
Joe Steele, breaking his silence after Tommy Campbell’s death, told how the men spoke recently after years of silence between them.
After they were wrongly convicted of a fire attack that killed six members of one family, including a baby, in Glasgow in 1984, the pair made a pact never to accept parole because that would mean admitting the murders.
But, when Campbell broke the pact, it led to the long-standing feud that escalated over the years.
Speaking for the first time since the death of Campbell, Joe said: “We’d made a deal with each other that we’d never accept the Special Unit which was cushier, we’d do hard time.
“But when TC reneged on the deal and went to the Special Unit we fell out badly and that continued for years, even though we were thrown together as we campaigned to be cleared.
“There were times when we had to smile for the cameras but we were never friends. If we were it was a friendship forged in hell. We really hated each other.
“But I am glad that we finally made up just before he died.
“I realised the anger was just another part of the burden I was carrying over what happened, so I feel better for pushing it aside. “I will go to his funeral and pray for him.” Joe revealed he also prayed for the Doyle family every night of the 18 years he spent in jail. He said: “I still pray for them to this day.
“What happened to that innocent family was beyond cruel, the poor wee baby too.
“The night they perished in the blaze I had been staying with my mum and grandmother because I wasn’t well, and I remember my gran saying as we heard the first details of their deaths on the radio ‘God Bless and save them’.
“I stood watching their funeral procession and the streets were lined with people crying. I remember saying a prayer for them as the hearses passed me in the street, never imagining that days later I’d be arrested for their murder.
“My family knew I was innocent, but I’ve spent the rest of my life hoping that the Doyle family eventually believed that too.”
Joe and TC Campbell spent 16 years in jail before finally being released in 2004. As they campaigned to clear their names from behind bars, Campbell went on hunger strike while Joe escaped three times.
But, after finally being freed, the pair struggled to rebuild their lives. Joe said the case will “always haunt” him.
He added: “It’s been a huge burden carrying that about on my shoulders and even after the appeal court proved I was innocent, fitted up by the police, there will be people who still suspect I was involved.
“My family always knew I was innocent. But it was a relief that my ma went to her grave after the appeal court cleared my name and she could tell everyone that.
“The toll on my family and loved ones has been so very hard, and I carry that guilt with me constantly.
“My eldest boy John Paul is 39 now with a family of his own. But he had to grow up with other children calling his dad a baby
‘ The toll on my family has been so very hard
killer, and that’s affected him deeply. He never once threw it back in my face or told me what he was being put through, but I know, and I know how it has scarred him.
“Little Joseph was too young to know about all the awful things that were said, but it was hard for him, too, never sure if I was going to be taken from him. Worst of all has been the strain on my wife Dolly, who’s stood by me since she was just 14 years old.
“We were just teenagers when I was taken from her, and she had to bring up John Paul on her own, travelling the length of Scotland to see me every prison visit and battling to prove my innocence outside.
“We’ve come through so much together, she has been my rock, my everything, and it kills me knowing how much hurt she has been put through.”
Campbell, who had not been seen or heard from for weeks, was found dead at his remote home outside Dunoon last week by ex-wife Karen, 49, when he failed to respond to a Father’s Day message from their daughter Shannon, 21.
Joe, 57, from Ruchazie in the east end of
– Joe Steele on TC Campbell
Glasgow, said: “TC is dead now, but he still has family who loved him. For that reason, I won’t decry the man.
“We both spent almost 20 years in jail and a lifetime trying to escape the horror of being labelled mass murderers and baby killers.
“I believe TC knew more than I did about exactly who lit that fire and destroyed so many lives in the process. But we both come from a world where we lived by a code of silence, no matter what, and he has gone to his grave with that.
“He died as he lived, alone, with nobody but his two dogs.”
For the last years of his life, TC became a recluse, living alone in an isolated house outside Dunoon.
Joe said the strain of everything had finally taken its toll on TC.
He said: “Spending so long in prison, it becomes your whole world. You become used to the brutal regimes, being told when to get up, when to eat or sleep.
“Outside is a whole different ball game, but no matter how fast life goes for everyone else, for us, we’re still prisoners of our own minds.
“When he went away,
Tommy was TC the hard man, a reputation he relished. But, by the end, he was TC the Ice Cream
Killer, and he couldn’t cope with that.
“The loneliness and isolation took over, until he eventually only found peace outside Glasgow.
“He lost trust in everything, including who he could even trust anymore. “That’s why he took off.”
Joe believes there is little chance of justice for the victims now and scorns claims that a Glasgow gangster, Gary Moore, made a deathbed confession nine years ago.
He said: “Make no mistake, Gary Moore was a bad man. But I had known him since we were kids and spent time inside with him over the years.
“If Gary had done the Doyle murders, under our code, he would have told me because he knew I would never have passed it on.
“Everyone who was involved is now dead, so I don’t see the authorities ever wanting to go back and right that terrible wrong.
“I believe the Doyle family deserve the truth though, but I doubt they will ever get it now.
“The police have had many years to set the record straight, so you have to ask why they never did.”