The head of the infamous Calton Tongs street gang was probed by police over the theft of jewels belonging to Princess Diana’s mum.
The gang built a reputation as the most feared in the country, with members moving from street brawls to organised crime.
Its leader Jimmy Donnelly, 80, was brought up in the tough Calton area of Glasgow in the city’s east end. Known as JD, he got the idea for the gang after going to the cinema one night in 1961 to see a movie called Terror of the Tongs with two friends, report the Daily Record.
But Donnelly has told how his biggest run-in with police came when he was accused of being involved in the theft of jewels belonging to Diana’s mother, Frances Shand Kydd, whose home on the Isle of Seil, near Oban, had been burgled.
Cops were looking for £100,000 in stolen jewels snatched during the 2002 raid and believed Donnelly was involved.
The former gang leader, who once served a three-year prison sentence, was in the Oban area where Shand Kydd lived at the time of the theft but denied any links to the heist.
He was never charged and is still angry that cops raided his home in Glasgow, which he says caused £50,000 worth of damage.
Donnelly said: “They stood outside with submachine guns. They ripped out every electrical switch in the house. They left all the wires hanging out, burst a pipe and flooded the house and brought all my ceiling down.
“Maybe they thought I’d met too many important people.”
Donnelly was a key figure in the Calton Tongs, who became the most powerful gang in the west of Scotland. Their infamous chant of “Tongs ya bass” became a slogan for young teams and gang members everywhere.
He came up with the name when he was 14 and on day release with a pal from an approved school.
Donnelly said: “I happened to mention it would be a good name for a gang. That’s how it got its name. I had a lot of fallouts with guys in the Tongs. One bampot didn’t like me playing Elvis Presley on the juke box and he kicked the juke box.
“There was a lot of infighting. But don’t forget we were only in our teens in those days. Some worked in the meat market and it was nothing for them to stab or slash somebody.”
Donnelly has spoken out in a new documentary by Glasgow photographer Brian Anderson for his Naked City YouTube channel.
He added: “There were a lot who were hangers-on who said they were with the Tongs but they weren’t.”
Donnelly says the main rivals in the 60s were the Baltic fleet who operated in Baltic Street in Dalmarnock. He added: “We were just daft boys. We were in territories and you couldn’t be in another territory.”
He remembers one fight with the leader of the Baltic Fleet which saw him swinging a chain and the rival brandishing a machete.
Other rival gangs at that time were the Spur from Barrowfield and the Cumbie from the Gorbals. Before World War II the major gang in the city was the Bridgeton Billy Boys, led by Billy Fullerton.
When Donnelly was in his late teens he moved to Slough to live with his mum and found work in Pinewood film studios and in kennels looking after the dogs of the rich and famous.
He rubbed shoulders with Lord and Lady Astor, Carry On stars Barbara Windsor and Sid James as well as Dracula and The Wicker Man actor Christopher Lee. He also claimed to have looked after the Astors’ and the Queen’s dogs.
Donnelly says he met the late Queen by chance while later working as a scaffolder on the Royal Estate near Windsor Castle.
He recalled: “I had to do a job at St George’s Chapel. I was looking at these two big coffins and this door opened and in walked the Queen.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes, she was a wee small woman and she was telling me that’s Albert’s and that’s Victoria’s.”
Jimmy says he met Diana on a later visit to London. A friend of his was a member of the Household Cavalry and was dating Diana before she married Charles.
Around that time he met Rolling Stone Mick Jagger, who was doing a show in the Coach and Horses pub, a popular haunt for soldiers.
He also met feared gangster Ronnie Kray while he was a 17-year-old trainee mechanic in London and helped to repair his Jaguar. However he accidentally damaged one of its wheel arches.
Donnelly said: “When he came for the car someone must have told told him. He went for for me and slapped my face.”
In Glasgow, he worked for city crime godfather Arthur Thompson as a driver and in his clubs. Donnelly has long put his gang days behind him to become an accomplished artist.
He also set up a studio and shop in the west end of Glasgow whose visitors have included Blondie’s Debbie Harry, comedian Ruby Wax and future Tory PM David Cameron.
He has also operated a car showroom and once sold a car to the late crime boss Tam “The Licensee” McGraw as well as running stalls at Glasgow’s Barras market.
- Some of the images in this article were taken by photographer Brian Anderson. To view more of his work please click here: www.youtube.com/@thenakedcity