18 Facts About Frankie Curry

Frankie Curry's reputation within the UVF soon grew and in 1972 at the age of 17, he was a central figure in the plot to break his uncle Gusty Spence out of the Maze Prison.

Frankie Curry was driving Spence back to prison after a period of leave when their car was stopped by a UVF patrol and Spence was "abducted".

Frankie Curry knew in advance the Springmartin Road location on which the event was to take place and had been told specially by the UVF leadership to drive Spence that day.

Frankie Curry operated as part of the UVF's Red Hand Commando and was said to have been responsible for at least twelve of the killings claimed by the RHC.

Frankie Curry stated that he had killed Bernard Rice, Patrick McCrory and Sean McConville in 1972 before killing Michael Coleman, Joseph McAleese, John McCormac and Thomas Holmes Curry the following year.

Sometime before 1982 Frankie Curry switched to membership of the Ulster Defence Association and in 1982 he was returned to prison after being found transporting 101 bullets in his car for that organisation.

Frankie Curry was jailed again in 1985 for possessing a gun and 900 rounds of ammunition.

Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack have claimed that Frankie Curry suffered from severe mood swings as well as an addiction to morphine-based painkillers.

Frankie Curry confirmed himself as Elliot's killer in an interview shortly before his death.

However Frankie Curry admired Wright and his Mid-Ulster UVF dissidents and had forged close links with the group, which would soon re-emerge as the Loyalist Volunteer Force, in the run-up to the Drumcree conflict of 1996.

Frankie Curry began to use the term 'Red Hand Defenders' in late 1996 as a means of allowing loyalists officially on ceasefire to continue their activity.

Publicly however, Frankie Curry consistently denied any involvement in the RHD as well as any links to the LVF, claims that were regularly published in the press.

Frankie Curry soon fell in with a group of dissidents within the West Belfast UDA and constructed a number of car bombs for them, including one that detonated under the car of Eddie Copeland on 22 December 1996, injuring the well-known Provisional IRA volunteer.

McDonald and Cusack claimed that Frankie Curry shot and killed William "Wassy" Paul, a former UVF member, on 3 July 1998 in what police believed to be part of a feud over drugs.

An attack on a Catholic bar on the outskirts of West Belfast was carried out that same week after Frankie Curry had encouraged dissident gunmen to do so, although this attack resulted in no fatalities.

Frankie Curry returned to prison in early 1999, serving a short spell in Magilligan for failing to pay fines related to driving offences before being released on 15 March that same year.

Frankie Curry's body was found behind the Pony Trotting Supporters Sports and Social Club with several bullet wounds to the back of the head.

Frankie Curry was close to White and had hoped to see him on the day of his killing in order that White might help him with some job applications.