Notorious prison rioter Sammy ‘The Bear’ Ralston once held jail guards hostage in a terrifying six-day siege. Ralston, 62, was the infamous ringleader in the siege and rooftop riot at Peterhead Prison in Aberdeenshire, Scotland in September 1987.
The riot began when an inmate named Malcolm “Malkie” Leggat stabbed a prison officer and threw hot fat over him after being placed on a minor report.
Ralston, then serving a six-year sentence for armed robbery, weighed in on the chaos and the uprising alongside other high-security inmates. Inmates took over the prison’s D Wing roof space, creating barricades, making booby traps, and held prison guards Jackie Stuart and Bill Florence hostage.
Balaclavas were made out of bandages, windows were smashed, fires were started and makeshift weapons were brandished as the prisoners took over control of the wing. Jail guard Bill, who had been stabbed and burnt, was released after a day but Jackie was kept.
Most of the other prisoners also quickly gave themselves up but Ralston and three others wanted to wait out the chaos. At their mercy was grandad-of-six Jackie, then 56, who had been stripped and beaten and was being paraded along the roof like a dog on a chain.
They made him lie on the floor while beating him with table legs. Jackie was then moved to an attic area, where prisoners could get access to the roof.
Ralston later said: “It might sound stupid but we treated him well. We let him send a letter to his wife – something we weren’t allowed to do. I told him things had to change in the prison system as men were going to end up dead.”
Huge banners made from bed sheets were displayed on the roof as Scotland watched the ongoing siege with a mix of horror and fascination. With little to lose, the agitated prisoners unleashed their frustration with savage brutality.
Jackie was stabbed three times and his pockets were filled with lighter fluid as the deranged prisoners threatened to set him alight. Despite their bravado in front of the cameras, Ralston later admitted the prisoners were scared and couldn’t back down from their siege.
He said: “We got radios from the guards so prison negotiators were able to communicate with us. They kept telling us we should come down because we were only making things worse for ourselves. But that made us scared, so we waited it out.”
Eventually, Margaret Thatcher – the then-Prime Minister – sent in the SAS. The elite Armed Forces unit – famous for ending the Iranian Embassy siege in 1980 – had never been deployed in mainland Britain to solve a civilian issue. Within three minutes, the rebels were overcome by stun grenades and CS gas and Jackie was freed. Ralston was given an extra seven years and was released from prison in 2010.
Just eight months prior to the Peterhead protest, Ralston had been involved in a similar riot at HMP Barlinnie in Glasgow, when inmates staged a separate dramatic rooftop protest. A riot, sparked by claims of brutality against prisoner Ralston, saw the inmates of B Hall erupt in violence.
Five jail staff were taken hostage by inmates while others barricaded themselves into free cells. Prisoners took to the roof of the building and draped banners reading, ‘Sammy Ralston was tortured’.
Eventually, after five days, the siege came to an end. Nine men stood trial for their part in the Barlinnie riot and three were sentenced to a total of 22 years.
Over the decades, Ralston accumulated further convictions, including a 12-year sentence in 1997 for an armed shop robbery and an eight-year prison sentence handed down in August 2024 for the attempted murder of a neighbour in Glasgow’s Shettleston area.