ONE of the most notorious figures in Glasgow's underworld will be back on the streets today after serving two-thirds of a seven-year jail sentence for gun running.
Paul Ferris, 38, will be released from the high security prison at Frankland, four miles outside Durham. HMP Frankland confirmed the release date last night.
An enforcer for the equally infamous Thompson crime clan in Glasgow during the 1980s, Ferris was jailed in 1998 after being caught ferrying three submachine guns and ammunition.
Nicknamed Lucky and Houdini because of his escapes from the law and fellow gangsters, in 1992 he went on trial for the murder of Arthur Thompson Jr in Provanmill, Glasgow, the previous year, but was acquitted.
The other men suspected of involvement in the shooting, Bobby Glover and Joe Hanlon, were murdered on the eve of Thompson Jr's funeral.
Ferris detailed his criminal past in the book The Ferris Conspiracy, which sold 20,000 copies after a newspaper serialisation.
Describing himself as a ''scud missile'' while acting for Arthur Thompson Snr, he confessed in the book to a catalogue of violence, including several stabbings and a scalping.
Reg McKay, a former social worker and co-author of the book, said yesterday Ferris intended to turn his back on crime and become a full-time writer. His novel, Deadly Divisions, is due out in March.
''We already have several books in draft form, which we will begin working on as soon as he is out of prison,'' Mr McKay said.
''Paul has said goodbye to being a criminal and wants to draw on his experiences and his knowledge of the underworld to write about crime instead.
''He feels, as I do, that a lot of crime fiction is fabricated much of it lacks authenticity.''
He said the pair had already been approached by television producers to work as consultants on crime dramas.
Strathclyde Police yesterday declined to comment on Ferris.
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