| William Moore | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1949 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Died | 17 May 2009 (aged 60) Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Cause of death | heart attack |
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | Billy Moore |
| Known for | Member of the Shankill Butchers gang |
| Religion | Protestant |
William Moore, often known as Billy Moore (1949 - 17 May 2009), was an Ulster loyalist from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was a member of the Shankill Butchers, an Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) gang. It was Moore who provided the black taxi and butcher knives which the gang used to carry out its killings.
Contents |
Moore, who had a few previous convictions for petty crime, had worked as a meat packer at Woodvale Meats in the Shankill,[1] from which he had stolen various knives and meat-cleavers. He then started working as a taxi-driver. In 1975, Moore met Lenny Murphy in the Brown Bear pub on the Shankill Road.[2] Murphy, who was assembling the gang that become known as the Shankill Butchers, recruited Moore into the Ulster Volunteer Force.
Beginning in November 1975, the gang started abducting and murdering Roman Catholics. Moore would drive around Catholic neighbourhoods in his black taxi looking for prospective victims. Murphy and the others would bundle victims into the back of the taxi and beat and torture them, before Murphy would finally drag them out into an alley and cut their throats with the weapons supplied by Moore.[2] The following year Murphy was arrested and subsequently convicted of a firearms offence, and to divert suspicion from himself he ordered the "Butcher" slayings to continue. They did so, with Moore now acting as the leader. The gang also killed several rival loyalists as a result of petty feuds, in addition to planting a bomb in Catholic neighbourhood during an IRA parade. The bomb killed a 10-year-old boy, and wounded over 100 people.
After a victim, Gerard McLaverty escaped alive, the RUC drove him around the Shankill Road area and he was able to identify two of his captors: Sam McAllister and Benjamin Edwards. The Shankill Butchers gang was subsequently rounded up by the police and most of the members broke down and confessed, although they were too terrified to name Lenny Murphy as the ringleader. They stood trial in February 1979 at the Belfast Crown Court. Moore pleaded guilty to the most murders - a total of eleven - and was convicted of these, plus a further eight murders. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with the trial judge, Lord Justice Turlough O'Donnell, recommending that he and co-accused Robert Bates never be released.[3]
Moore, however was released in 1998 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement after having served 19 years. It was alleged that Moore became involved in loyalist drug-deals, including a visit to a notorious Edinburgh gang.[3]
Reportedly never having expressed any remorse for the Butcher murders,[4] Moore died in his home in the loyalist Mount Vernon area of north Belfast on 17 May 2009 as the result of a suspected heart attack.[5][6] He was buried at Carnmoney Cemetery where Lenny Murphy also lies. Moore's grave is not far from that of one of his victims, Stephen McCann, a student whose throat he had personally cut. A press photographer covering his funeral on 21 May 2009 was attacked and beaten by a group of men, and received hospital treatment.[7]