Shankill Butchers

The Shankill Butchers were an Ulster loyalist paramilitary gang – many of whom were members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) – that was active between 1975 and 1982 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was based in the Shankill area and was responsible for the deaths of at least 23 people, most of whom were killed in sectarian attacks.

The gang kidnapped, tortured and murdered random civilians suspected of being Catholics; each was beaten ferociously and had their throat slashed with a butcher's knife. Some were also tortured and attacked with a hatchet. The gang also killed six Ulster Protestants over personal disputes and two other Protestants mistaken for Catholics.

Most of the gang were eventually caught and, in February 1979, received the longest combined prison sentences in United Kingdom legal history. However, gang leader Lenny Murphy and his two chief "lieutenants" escaped prosecution. Murphy was killed in November 1982 by the Provisional IRA, likely acting with the assistance of loyalist paramilitaries who perceived him as a threat. The Butchers brought a new level of paramilitary violence to a country already hardened by death and destruction. The judge who oversaw the 1979 trial described their crimes as "a lasting monument to blind sectarian bigotry".

Much of what is known about the Butchers comes from Martin Dillon's The Shankill Butchers: A Case Study of Mass Murder (1989 and 1998). In compiling this detailed work, Dillon was reportedly given unlimited access to the case files of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), who eventually caught the gang. The commander of the Shankill Butchers was Lenny Murphy. Murphy was the youngest of three sons of Joyce (née Thompson) and William Murphy from the loyalist Shankill Road area of Belfast. At school, he was a known bully and would threaten other boys with a knife or with retribution from his two older brothers. Soon after leaving school at 16, he joined the UVF. Murphy often attended the trials of people accused of paramilitary crimes to become well acquainted with the laws of evidence and police procedure.

On 28 September 1972, Murphy (aged 20) shot and killed William Edward "Ted" Pavis (32) at his home in East Belfast. Pavis was a Protestant whom the UVF accused of selling weapons to the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA). Murphy and an accomplice, Mervyn Connor, were arrested and held on remand in Belfast's Crumlin Road prison. After a visit by police to Connor, fellow inmates suspected that he might cut a deal with the authorities. On 22 April 1973, Connor died by ingesting a large dose of cyanide. Before he died, he wrote a confession to the Pavis murder, reportedly under duress from Murphy.^{[clarification needed]} Murphy was brought to trial for the Pavis murder in June 1973. The court heard evidence from two witnesses who had seen Murphy pull the trigger and had later picked him out of an identification parade. The jury acquitted him due in part to Murphy's disruption of the line-up. Murphy's freedom was short-lived as he was re-arrested immediately for a number of escape attempts and imprisoned, then interned, for three years.

In May 1975, Murphy was released from prison, where he had married Margaret Gillespie. During his imprisonment, a daughter had been born to the couple. He spent much of his time frequenting pubs on the Shankill Road, assembling a paramilitary team that would enable him to act with some freedom from the UVF leadership (Brigade Staff). Murphy's inner circle consisted of two people whom Dillon was unable to name for legal reasons but whom he called Murphy's "personal friends". These were a "Mr. A" and John Murphy, one of Lenny Murphy's brothers (referred to as "Mr. B"). Further down the chain of command were Lenny Murphy's "sergeants" William Moore and Bobby "Basher" Bates, a UVF member and former prisoner.

Moore, formerly a worker in a meat-processing factory, had stolen several large knives and meat-cleavers from his old workplace, tools that would later be used in more murders. Another prominent figure was Sam McAllister, who used his physical presence to intimidate others. On 2 October 1975, the gang raided a drinks premises in nearby Millfield. On finding that its four employees (two females and two males) were Catholics, Murphy shot three of them dead and ordered an accomplice to kill the fourth. By then, Murphy was using the upper floor of the Brown Bear pub at the corner of Mountjoy Street and the Shankill Road near his home as an occasional meeting-place for his unit.

On 24–25 November 1975, using the city's sectarian geography to identify likely targets, Murphy roamed the areas nearest the Catholic New Lodge in the hope of finding someone likely to be Catholic to abduct. Francis Crossin (34), a Catholic man and father of two, was walking down Library Street towards the city centre at approximately 12:40 am when four of the Butchers, in Moore's taxi, spotted him. As the taxi pulled alongside Crossin, Murphy jumped out and hit him on the right side of the head with a wheel brace to disorient him. He was dragged into the taxi by Benjamin Edwards and Archie Waller, two of Murphy's gang. As the taxi returned to the safety of the nearby Shankill area, Crossin suffered a ferocious beating. He was subjected to a high level of violence, including a beer glass being shoved into his head. Murphy repeatedly told Crossin: "I'm going to kill you, you bastard", before the taxi stopped at an entry off Wimbledon Street. Crossin was dragged into an alleyway and Murphy, brandishing a butcher's knife, cut his throat almost through to the spine. The gang dispersed. Crossin, whose body was found the next morning by an elderly woman, was the first of three Catholics to be killed by Murphy in this "horrific and brutal manner". "Slaughter in back alley" was the headline in the city's major afternoon newspaper that day. A relative of Crossin said that his family was unable to have an open coffin at his wake because the body was so badly mutilated.