“Get me Beltrami” is more than a line from Glasgow folklore, it is what people reportedly said when the charge could end in a rope before 1965 or a life sentence after it. We take you inside the life of Joseph Beltrami, a towering Scottish criminal defence solicitor who goes from struggling to get an apprenticeship to becoming the name everyone wants behind them when the Crown is coming hard.

We trace how Beltrami builds Beltrami and Company from a single-room office, then earns a reputation for meticulous preparation and an instinct for the weak point in the prosecution case. Along the way, we look at the record that still stops you cold: twelve capital murder cases, twelve wins, and no clients hanged. We also touch the wider Glasgow underworld context, including his defence of figures like Arthur Thompson and the way colleagues remember him dominating a courtroom the moment he walks in.

The episode’s emotional centre is the Paddy Meehan miscarriage of justice. A private confession, protected by client confidentiality, keeps an innocent man in prison until the law allows Beltrami to speak. That one pivot leads to a royal pardon, compensation, and a lasting debate about what justice can and cannot repair. We then widen the lens to Beltrami’s role in changing the Scottish legal system itself, from early solicitor advocate rights in the High Court to his outspoken support for the “not proven” verdict.

If you care about Glasgow true crime, Scottish murder trials, royal pardons, and the real mechanics of criminal defence, this is a story you will feel in your gut. Subscribe for more from A Dark City, share the episode with a friend who loves legal history, and leave us a review so others can find the show. What do you think matters more in court, certainty or proof?