The Barrowland Ballroom, sometimes referred to as simply the Barrowland, is in the east end of Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland.

Although it's an area with a rough reputation, it's one of the major dance halls in the city, and working class people flocked to it from all around.

Dancing to live music was still a favorite pastime here, and the city had a whole host of clubs and music venues, including Green's Playhouse, the Astoria, the Cameo, the Tudor, the Berkeley, the Majestic, and the West End Ballroom.

But there was something special about the Barrowland. Maybe it was the crisscross pattern of the dance floor, constructed from specially imported Canadian maple, and rumored to be sprung with a thousand-have tennis balls underneath.

Or maybe it was just the showmanship of the bands, entertainers, comedians, and novelty acts that played there.

Though far from its counterparts in the more metropolitan London, the Barrowland, as a heart of nightlife for the city, had its own unique, carnival atmosphere, and it enjoyed its own fair share of notoriety.

The Barrowland had been operating since 1934, and was gutted in a fire in 1958, but had been rebuilt and reopened in 1960, on Christmas Eve, no less, to continue its dubious and in the eyes of some sinful life.

Recollecting during his retirement, one former Glasgow policeman referred to it as Sodom and Gomorrah.

Thursdays and Saturdays were the over 25 nights, and while the clientele age limit may seem a bit arbitrary to us now, it stood as a bit of an unspoken rule.

Thursday nights from 8pm to midnight at the Barrowland were called Palais nights, but the colloquial term commonly used by everyone for the over 25 event was Grab a Granny Night.

While some used the opportunity to simply get drunk, dance a little bit, and flirt. Many people attending Palais night on Thursdays were married, but they might not have necessarily been going with their partners, and most would not readily admit to having been to the Barrowland for fear their spouses might find out.

It was well known that if you wanted a bit more than a dance, then Thursday night was the evening to visit the Barrowland, a Glasgow resident recalled years later.

I don't think many used their real name on a Thursday night. Folks were cautious, anything that happened after dancing was usually a one-off.

You could tell who was wanting a fumble and who wasn't, so it was easy pickings, really.

In fact, it was often said that people slipped their wedding rings off their finger by the time they'd walked through the doors.

So it could be understood by 25-year-old Patricia Docker, a married mother with a four-year-old son, told her parents that she was going to the Majestic Ballroom and not the Barrowland on the evening of Thursday, February 22, 1968.

A nurse at the Victoria Infirmary, she had been staying with her mother and father for a short time, and by some accounts this was due to a recent separation from her husband, Alex.

Alex was serving in the Royal Air Force and was away on duty, south, in England.

Whether Patricia did go to the Majestic, located it on Hope Street, is uncertain, but at some point in the evening she made her way to the Barrowland, and into its pulsating whirl and vibrant rush, where she would meet the man responsible for her death.

Welcome to the Unresolved Podcast. I'm your host, Michael Wheelan, and today's story is one from the heart of the swinging 60s.

Set against the backdrop of fast music, slick back hair, short skirts, and what some would consider loose morals.

A center for City Nightlife, the Barrowland Ballroom would become the predatory hunting ground for one of the most notorious murderers in Scottish history.

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