Shankill Butchers
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The "Shankill Butchers" were a group of Ulster Volunteer Force members in Belfast, Northern Ireland, who abducted Roman Catholics usually walking home from a night out, tortured and/or savagely beat them, and killed them, usually by cutting their throats. Most of their victims had no connection to the IRA or any other republican groups.
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[edit] The Killing Begins
The leader of the Shankill Butchers was Lenny Murphy. Born in 1952, he was possessed by a seething anti-Catholicism perhaps exacerbated by the fact that his surname was traditionally Irish one and so more associated with Catholics. At school he was a bully and a thief, and as soon as he left at the age of 16, he became a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force.
By 1972, age 20, Murphy gathered together a gang of equally violent young men, the core being Murphy himself, Robert "Basher" Bates, and "Big" Sam McAllister, who used his huge frame to intimidate the Butchers' victims. In what is said to have been retaliation for the Bloody Friday bombings by the Provisional IRA, a Catholic man, Francis Arthurs, was abducted, beaten, and stabbed for over an hour before being killed.
The murder of Tom Madden is seen as one of the most terrible examples of the Butchers' brutality. Madden was abducted and then stripped naked. He was hanged upside down from the beam of a lock-up garage, and slowly skinned alive. He eventually died of slow strangulation.
On September 28 1972, Murphy shot and killed William Pavis, who was suspected of selling arms to the IRA. Murphy and his accomplice, Mervyn Connor, were arrested shortly afterwards and held in prison awaiting trial. However, Murphy killed Connor in the prison, just after forcing him to write a confession to Pavis' murder. The charges against Lenny Murphy relating to the murder of Pavis collapsed, although Murphy was held behind bars for a number of escape attempts.
In May 1975, Murphy was released from prison. He married and fathered a daughter, but like the rest of his gang he cared little for domesticity and would spend most of his time hanging around pubs on the Shankill Road, drinking heavily and plotting crimes. That October they raided a shop, and on finding out the four employees there were Catholics, Murphy shot three of them dead and ordered an accomplice to kill the fourth.
Another key figure of the Shankill Butchers was William Moore. He had worked as a butcher and had stolen several large knives and meat-cleavers from his old workplace, tools that would be put to a horrific use. Over the coming months, the gang began kidnapping Catholics late at night and viciously killing them.
Francis Crossan, aged 34 and father of two, was walking home from a night out, when he was spotted by one of the gang. This was around 12-12:30am. He was hit from behind with a wheel brace, and dragged into a taxi, which drove into the Shankill area. Francis was then tortured and badly beaten. He was repeatedly hit by Murphy, both punched and with the wheel brace. Murphy repeatedly said things like, "I'm going to kill you, you bastard!" Francis was then dragged into an alley, and his throat cut almost through the spine by Murphy. Pieces of glass found in Francis' head showed that a beer glass had been shoved into his head, either in the black taxi, or in the alley. The other victims were killed in a similarly horrific manner.
The Shankill Butchers also got into a feud with another loyalist gang, which quickly ended when Murphy brutally killed a member of the rival gang. There is much evidence to suggest Murphy and his fellow murderers were more like serial killers than terrorists, and that the political situation in Ulster allowed them a respect within their community they never would have had otherwise. They occasionally used guns, but preferred knives and cleavers (serial killers tend to prefer 'hands-on' weapons that involve getting up close to the victim), and rather than carry out crimes that were carefully planned, the gang usually went out hunting on a whim, usually at night after spending all evening drinking heavily. On one occasion Murphy and Bates impulsively shot and killed two people, believing they were Catholics, when in fact they were Protestants.
In March 1976, Murphy shot and injured a Catholic woman. He was arrested and subsequently pleaded guilty to a firearms charge. He ordered the murders to continue, and over the next year, with William Moore acting as the new leader, several more Catholics were abducted, tortured and hacked to death.
[edit] Capture
In May 1977, a young man who was abducted by the Butchers was found alive, albeit badly wounded. He had been left for dead by the gang, but the freezing night air had slowed his bleeding and he was discovered and hospitalized. The police drove him around the haunts of the gang, whom they had long suspected, and he identified all of them. Moore, Bates and McAllister all confessed their guilt. They also said that Murphy had been their leader but they retracted these claims. Police had always suspected Murphy was the man behind the murders, but when interviewed whilst serving his firearms sentence, he just laughed, confident that the police had no proof and that no-one would dare testify against him, and he was proved to be right.
The rest of the Shankill Butchers came to trial in February 1979. Eleven men were convicted of a total of 19 murders between them, and the 42 life sentences handed out were the most ever in a single trial in British criminal history. William Moore pleaded guilty to 11 counts of murder and Bates pleaded guilty to 10. They were sentenced to life with no chance of release (although all are now free men; see below.)
In his book The Shankill Butchers, Martin Dillon said that his own investigations suggest the gang were responsible for a total of 30 murders.
[edit] The Killing Ends
His sentence for the firearms conviction complete, Lenny Murphy was released from prison in July 1982. He is suspected of murdering someone within 24 hours of release, beating to death a man who gatecrashed his release party at a Loyalist drinking club. A few weeks later he shot to death a car salesman in a dispute over money.
Murphy reassembled a new gang around the time a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment, Tommy Cochrane, was kidnapped. The Provisional IRA had kidnapped him and were demanding a ransom. Murphy decided to kidnap a Catholic and demand the release of Cochrane for the Catholic. Murphy hijacked a black taxi and headed to the Falls Road where 48 year old father of two Joseph Donegan waved them down. He was taken to Murphy's house, where he was tortured. He had his teeth pulled out with pliers by Murphy until only 3 were left. He was finally killed by Murphy. Murphy again demanded the release of Cochrane, with the public not knowing that Joseph Donegan was dead. Finally, his body was found in the back of Murphy's house. Murphy was arrested but there was no evidence to suggest that he had committed the crime, though police were certain it was him. Tommy Cochrane's body was found a week later, and showed signs of having been beaten. The IRA also knew that it was Murphy who had abducted and murdered Joseph Donegan. The manner of his death particularly angered them, and plans were taken to murder Murphy.
Murphy was at his girlfriend's house, waiting outside, when a van pulled up beside him. The people in the van were from the IRA. They opened fire with machine guns and 22 bullets ripped into Lenny Murphy and killed him instantly. The gunmen fled and a couple of days later the IRA claimed responsibility for the killing.
Many assert that the UVF assisted the IRA—their archenemies—in slaying Murphy, as it would have been very difficult for them to know his movements otherwise. His crimes were so savage that even his own side were appalled by him. This result suited both sides, with the IRA showing it could kill an enemy of the nationalist population, and the UVF able to wash its hands of the death of a man some extreme loyalists regarded as a hero.
[edit] Aftermath
The first member of the Shankill Butchers to be released was William Townsley, who had only been 16 when he was arrested.
In October 1996, Robert Bates was released after apparently finding religion behind bars. He was shot and killed on the Shankill Road the following year. The IRA and other Republican groups denied the killing, and it is now believed that Bates' killer (who has never been caught) was a vengeful relative of a Protestant barman Bates had killed, believing the victim had been a Catholic.
The 1998 Good Friday Agreement included an amnesty for all those convicted of terrorist crimes. As a result, all the remaining Shankill Butchers are now free men.
In November 2004, the Serious Crime Review Team in Belfast said they were looking into the mysterious death of a Rosaleen O'Kane, 33, who was found dead in her home in September 1976. Her family and authorities believe the Shankill Butchers may have been involved in her death.
[edit] References in Popular Culture
- The Decemberists' 2006 album The Crane Wife includes the song "Shankill Butchers".
[edit] References
- The Shankill Butchers (1999 - second edition) Martin Dillon, ISDN 0415922313
- Resurrection Man (1996) Eoin McNamee, ISDN 0312147163 (novel based on the Shankill Butchers, later made into a movie)
