Hanged at Barlinnie: The Gorbals killer cop who stole car to murder his girlfriend

Clever police constable James Robertson’s horrific crime might have gone undetected had it not been for one of his eagled-eyed colleagues.

It also appeared that, as details of this case emerged in court, PC Robertson was on the wrong side of the law.

The murder unfolded when police were called to the scene of what they had thought was a road traffic accident just after midnight on July 28, 1950.

A taxi driver who was travelling along Prospecthill Road in Toryglen raised the alarm when he found the body of a woman lying on the roadway.

Cabbie John Kennedy said: “I slowed up and saw the lady lying, and thought perhaps she was drunk or perhaps she had been knocked down.”

PC William Kevan, of the Traffic Department, however, grew suspicious when he examined the scene of the apparent ‘road accident’.

The woman’s injuries were consistent with a vehicle having gone over her. The driver appeared to have then reversed to go over her again.

CID were called to the crime scene, and it was there that PC Kevan convinced them that the woman, Catherine McCluskey, had in fact been murdered.

The victim, 40, lived in the Gorbals’ Nicholson Street, and was the mother of two children. It also transpired that there was a connection between the woman and PC Robertson. The cop, 33, was a beat officer in the Cumberland Street area of the Gorbals where she lived. The pair had a relationship despite PC Robertson being a family man.

Once PC Robertson’s association with his victim established, the vehicle he used to travel to work was impounded.

It was also soon discovered that the car had been stolen and fitted with false number plates.

Forensic expert Dr John Glaister then examined the car and discovered traces of McCluskey’s hair on the underside of the vehicle.

PC Robertson was charged with murder. His charge stated that he struck McCluskey on the head with a rubber truncheon and that he drove a motor car carrying false registration plates over her, causing her death.

He also faced additional charges of housebreaking and theft. He was accused of breaking into a premises on Cumberland Street and stealing a car from West Campbell Street months prior to the murder.

The interest in this trial was so huge that there was a queue outside the court, often hours before proceedings began.

The Evening Times reported: “More than half an hour before the trial began in North Court in the Justiciary Buildings was packed to capacity, and a queue assembled outside. The queue numbered about 100 people, who had no hope of getting into court.”

With more details of the relationship between the pair emerging in court, it is easy to understand why the people of 1950s Glasgow were glued to this case.

One interesting witness was the victim’s sister Elizabeth McCluskey who told the court she had no idea who had fathered the children of her unmarried sibling.

She told the court that she had asked her sister the intentions of the youngest child’s father. In court, Elizabeth said: “She (her sister) told me that he could not do anything as he was a married man and she had found out too late.”

After a trial lasting seven days, the jury took just 64 minutes to find PC Robertson guilty of murder and the other charges on November 13, 1950. He betrayed little emotion as sentence was passed.

On December 16, 1950, months after PC Robertson ran over his unmarried lover, he paid the ultimate price of death.

A notice was pinned on the gates of Barlinnie confirming the execution at 8.13am.

A lasting tribute to the case is featured in the Scottish Police Museum on Bell Street, which recognises that even law enforcers have to accept one of their own can do wrong.