Career
In 1967, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of another gangland figure, William "Babs" Rooney. During his incarceration in the special unit of Barlinnie Prison, he turned to art and wrote an autobiography, A Sense of Freedom (1977), which has since been filmed and starred David Hayman as Jimmy. Boyle always maintained his innocence of the conviction.
On his release from prison he moved to Edinburgh to continue his artistic career.
He designed the largest concrete sculpture in Europe called "Gulliver" for The Craigmillar Festival Society in 1976. The following year he co-wrote the play The Hardman with Tom McGrath, premiered at the Traverse Theatre.
Though the project secured funding from private sources (including Sean Connery, Billy Connolly and John Paul Getty) it lasted only a few years. Boyle has published Pain of Confinement: Prison Diaries (1984), and a novel, Hero of the Underworld (1999).
He also has written a forthcoming novel, A Stolen Smile, which is about the theft of the Mona Lisa and how it ends up hidden on a Scottish housing estate.
Disney reportedly bought the film rights. In 1998, he was named as a financial donor of the Labour Party. The character Nicky Dryden in the 1999 film The Debt Collector is loosely based on Boyle.
