Well, nearly. He was a reluctant witness for the prosecution and almost certainly lied through his teeth to avoid prosecution himself for the 1935 armed robbery of the bank in Slamannan as reported in the Times & Scotsman in mid June 1936.
It is possible that he is my grandfather but that depends an awful lot on what he did after his brief stay in Saughton prison, Edinburgh.
It is enough to say that after years of searching his story matches up with the life of the young gentleman that my gran was hooked up with whilst her husband was away in India
I know he was living at Hawthorn Cottage, Station Road, Armadale at the time of the trial and that his parents were likely to be Alexander Bell (1875) & Jane Stewart (1879).
If it helps curdle interest, he was also involved with Edward Lucy, London gangster and career criminal.
All help gratefully received.
