SCOTLAND'S most notorious gangster, Tam McGraw, has died from a heart attack. The 55-year-old millionaire crime boss collapsed at his luxury home in Glasgow yesterday afternoon.

McGraw, known as The Licensee, was a feared member of the city's underworld with links to drug trafficking and extortion.

For more than 30 years he ruled the Glasgow underworld and built up an estimated £15million empire from drugs.

Inside the lair of city's secretive crime lord Former Evening Times journalist Calum MacDonald tells of his brush with the late gangster Unlike some of his contemporaries from Glasgow's underworld, Tam McGraw was a man who shunned the limelight. advertisement That is why my encounter and brief interview with the man was so unexpected. It was the spring of 2002 and McGraw's most bitter rival Paul Ferris had recently been released from jail after serving four years of a seven-year sentence for gun running. Scotland's tabloid press had a huge appetite for the story of the long-running feud between the pair and the newspapers were full of tales about it. Then a rumour McGraw had been assassinated swept every newsroom in Scotland. I was dispatched to his house in Carrick Drive, Mount Vernon, where a group of reporters had gathered. Two men emerged from the house and called for one of us to come forward. I was ushered into the kitchen where Tam McGraw gave his only ever press interview. He ranted: "What the f*** is this all about?" I explained the rumour of his death. "Well I'm here and there's f***-all wrong with me. Want to see?" He pulled up his top to reveal his torso and asked: "Do you see any f****** stab wounds?" Then he dropped his pants and bared his behind to me. His wife Margaret piped up: "See, he wasn't stabbed in the f****** a***." Having borne witness to his lack of injuries, I was abruptly ejected from the house with a "Now get to f***." Calum MacDonald now works for our sister paper The Herald.

His death has now sparked fears of a turf war as gangsters battle it out for control of his empire.

While his wife Margaret was being comforted by McGraw's right hand man John "Joker" McCartney, few will be shedding tears for him and some of his former associates even threw celebratory parties as news broke of his death.

It is thought chain-smoking McGraw felt unwell on Sunday night and had been due to go for a check-up at a private hospital yesterday.

However his wife found him in their bedroom around 2pm yesterday.

A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman said: "At 2pm we received a call to assist a collapsed male at an address in Mount Vernon."

Paramedics were unable to revive him and his body was taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

Linked to crimes, including drug smuggling and murder, McGraw was for a long time Scotland's most wanted man.

He took over as Glasgow's Godfather after the death of crime boss Arthur Thompson and owned several businesses over the years including securities companies and taxi firms.

One theory about his Licensee nickname was it was because of his pub involvements, but it was more likely due to him being known as a police informer. Rivals believed he had a licence from the police to do what he wanted.

Despite being linked to a list of crimes, McGraw had not been convicted of an offence for around two decades.

McGraw was born in Glasgow's East End and became involved in burglary and shoplifting at an early age.

Recruited into the Bar-L team, a gang specialising in armed robbery based around the Barlanark area, he took part in post office raids across Scotland.

He was arrested after a failed burglary at a social club outside Glasgow as he loaded several crates of alcohol into his van, but the charges were later dropped.

McGraw was acquitted of the attempted murder of a police officer in 1978 and drug smuggling charges were similarly found not proven in 1998.

Accused of masterminding a Europe-wide cannabis smuggling ring, he walked free from the High Court in Edinburgh following a 58-day case while three others were sentenced to a total of 24 years in prison.

Former gangster rival Paul Ferris wrote in his autobiography that McGraw had a deal with police that saw him sell on confiscated drugs.

McGraw was also said to be a key figure in the infamous Ice Cream Wars in Glasgow's East End in the 1980s.

The conflict culminated in the murder of six members of the same family in a blaze on a housing estate.

TC Campbell, who had his conviction for the killings quashed, said on his release from jail that McGraw was responsible for the deaths.

A fresh investigation was never launched.

Five years ago he survived a knife attack near his home.

The gangster, said to have been wearing a bullet-proof vest at the time, escaped with minor wounds.

In 2004 he survived a gun attack at the Royal Oak pub in Nitshill by diving under a pool table as a hitman opened fire. McCartney and another of McGraw's associates Craig Devlin were wounded. McGraw bundled them into his car and drove them to casualty - commandeering a police escort on the way.