Evil double killer Alastair Thompson dies in prison
One of Dundee's most notorious murderers has died in Perth Prison.
Double killer Alastair Thompson.
- By Maura Bowman
- Published in the Courier : 24.12.10
- Published online : 24.12.10 @ 01.53pm
The case of double killer Alastair Thompson provoked horror and revulsion in the city at the end of 1992 when it emerged that he had dismembered his innocent victim, 52-year-old Gordon Dunbar, wrapped his body parts in plastic bags and dumped them around the Law.
Mr Dunbar's head was never recovered and an old operation scar, DNA and fingerprints were used to prove his identity.
The Scottish Prison Service confirmed that Thompson died in Perth Prison this week at the age of 61.
"Police and next of kin have now been informed and a fatal accident inquiry will be held in due course," said a spokesman.
The murder hunt was launched on December 30 when a policeman's daughter walking a police dog on the Law found a severed human arm.
Similar grisly discoveries followed and, with medical assistance, police were able to issue a profile of the murder victim.
A police appeal produced around 90 responses, including one from James Dunbar, half-brother of the murdered man, who was concerned that Gordon had not arrived for a planned Christmas meal.
The landlord of the guesthouse in Victoria Road where the former Dundee Corporation architect had been staying said he had not been home for about a week and it transpired the last confirmed sighting of Mr Dunbar was on Christmas Eve.
Then, a tip-off from a Perth informant led the police to Thompson and among his possessions was the key to a ninth-floor flat at Butterburn Court.
Inside, they found plastic bags of the type used to wrap the body parts, the other half of a torn label found in one of the bags and tape matching that sealing the bags.
They also found a bloodstained hacksaw, and blood and tissue from Mr Dunbar were found near the bath. It also emerged Thompson gave Mr Dunbar's gold chain to a girlfriend as a present.
Thompson protested his innocence of the killing and robbery, claiming he had merely disposed of the body parts for the two Glasgow "heavies" he said had carried out the murder.
However, a High Court jury in Dundee took just 70 minutes to convict him and he was sentenced to life in prison, trial judge Lord Weir telling him he would serve a minimum of 20 years for his "nauseating and barbaric" crimes.
A feature of the trial had been Thomson's habit of staring at those in the courtroom, with reporters, court officers and others commenting on his "evil eyes" that unsettled those caught in his glare.
At the time, of the murder, Thompson was acting as unofficial caretaker at a hostel in Haldane Terrace run by prisoner rehabilitation organisation SACRO.
Edinburgh-born, he had been known to the police from the age of 16. In 1968 he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his grandmother and was released on licence in 1984.
He settled in Perth, where he married a social worker attached to the prison service. The marriage did not last and he moved to Dundee, finding work in a city amusement arcade.
Thompson then moved briefly to England, returning to Dundee just months before he killed Mr Dunbar.
Add a comment