BOWMAN, HARRY TACO: Gangstas: America’s Most Wanted TV - St Petersburg Times online -
‘Taco really took the war to the Hell’s Angels.’ Gangsters: America’s Most Wanted: The Ultimate Outlaw: Harry Taco Bowman, expert, 2012
For seventeen years the leader of this pack was one Harry Bowman. They called him Taco. The FBI called him a gangster ... indicted for murder, attempted murder and violent racketeering acts. (Gangs: US & Murder & Motorbike) ibid.
Each indictment led to cooperation from another Outlaw. ibid.
After the 25-minute hearing, Bowman smiled to his lawyer, shook his hand and walked slowly out of the courtroom, with deputy US marshals leading the way. Neither his family nor any Outlaws came for the sentencing.
US District Judge James S Moody junior also ordered Bowman, leader of the Outlaws gang for 15 years, to pay $18,000 in restitution to the widow of one of the men he ordered killed. In April, a jury convicted Bowman of racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder.
At his trial, Bowman looked like a bespectacled businessman, decked out in a dark suit with his hair nicely styled. On Friday, he had on an orange jail jumpsuit, exposing his tattooed forearms. His hair was combed back and he sported a variation on a goatee, letting facial hair grow on his chin and the sides of his mouth.
When Moody asked if he wanted to say anything on his own behalf before being sentenced, Bowman declined.
As leader of the Outlaws, Bowman controlled one of the largest motorcycle clubs in the country. When indicted in 1997, Bowman eluded authorities for 18 months despite his inclusion on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Authorities caught up to him when he visited his family in Michigan, where he had enrolled his girls in private school and drove an armor-plated Cadillac.
The case against Bowman hinged on testimony from former Outlaws. Most came to the courthouse from prison cells, having cut deals to have their sentences reduced for helping put Bowman away. They wore long goatees reaching to their chests, hair pulled back in pony tails, tattoos running up under their shirt sleeves.
At times, the admitted drug dealers, rapists and hit men charmed the courtroom with a mix of morbid humor and stories worthy of an R-rated Hollywood script. One talked of stabbing 13 men to extricate himself from the bottom of a bar fight. Another told of how he shot a man multiple times and then finished him off with a screwdriver. St Petersburg Times article 28th July 2001, ‘Motorcycle Gang Leader Gets Life’
BOYLE, JIMMY: A Sense of Freedom 1979 -
Husband: I’m in debt to a moneylender. Aye, and it’s Boyle. Jimmy Boyle.
Wife [takes pay packet]: I’ll not expect you back then. A Sense of Freedom 1979 starring David Hayman & Jake D’Arcy & Sean Scanlan & Alex Norton & John Murtagh & Roy Hanlon & Martin Black & Fulton Mackay & Hector Nicol & Bill Barclay et al, director John Mackenzie
I don’t think I’ve come across anything as rotten … ibid. rozzer
James Boyle, you have been found guilty of a callous murder. I sentence you to imprisonment for life. You are a menace to society. ibid. Judge
Scottish ex-gangster Jimmy Boyle received a life sentence for murder only to turn his life around, receive parole and become an acclaimed artist.
Born on May 17, 1944, in Glasgow, Scotland, Jimmy Boyle became a member of a powerful gang. In 1967, despite maintaining his innocence, he was convicted of the murder of Babs Rooney and received a life sentence. He later participated in the Barlinnie Prison Special Unit’s new rehabilitation program, eventually earning himself parole. Boyle has since become a successful international sculptor and has written several books.
James ‘Jimmy’ Boyle was born on May 17, 1944, in Gorbals, Glasgow, Scotland. His father was a robber who died while Boyle was still a child, and Boyle’s mother took care of him and his brothers by working cleaning jobs from sunup to evening. Influenced by his harsh surroundings, Boyle entered the world of crime as a youth, first getting arrested at 13 and later becoming a violent debt collector for a money-lending ring. In his early 20s he was twice charged with murder and cleared.
Boyle’s reputation as ‘Scotland's Most Violent Man’ appeared to be confirmed when he was convicted for the killing of Babs Rooney in 1967 and given a life sentence. Boyle admitted that he had injured Rooney but has maintained he didn’t commit the murder, refusing to name the person responsible.
In prison Boyle had extreme clashes with authorities, receiving solitary confinement in a small cage for an extended period of time. Then, in 1973, he was one of the first offenders to participate in Barlinnie Prison Special Unit’s rehabilitation program, which focused on more open communication between inmates and staff. Due to an art therapy program, he started to work in clay and produced a male likeness, awakening a major creative talent. While still in prison he wrote his autobiography, Sense of Freedom, published in 1977. Around this time he also wrote the play The Hard Man with Tom McGrath.
After his parole in 1982, Boyle became a businessman, worked with young addicts in the Gateway Exchange program and became one of Scotland’s most famous reformed criminals, though he still faced criticism in the press. He had wed psychiatrist Sarah Trevelyan in 1980, with the couple going on to have two children, in addition to two children whom Boyle had by a previous union. His 28-year-old son Jimmy would be murdered in a skirmish with a drug dealer in 1994. Boyle married British actress Kate Fenwick in 2007.
Boyle became further known for his sculpture work, earning an international reputation as an acclaimed artist with pieces selling for high sums. He and his family lived in Edinburgh for a time before eventually moving to the French Riviera and then Morocco, where Boyle continued to develop his craft and set up literacy programs for the regional community.
Boyle has also penned the novel Hero of the Underworld (1999) and an unpublished work titled A Stolen Smile, which was optioned by Disney in 2003. His book A Sense of Freedom was adapted into a 1979 film, starring David Hayman as Boyle. Our Biography online article 25 September 2018