38 Facts About Lenny Murphy

Hugh Leonard Thompson Murphy was a Northern Irish loyalist and UVF officer.

Lenny Murphy returned to the Shankill Road, where he embarked on a murder spree.

Lenny Murphy was the youngest of three sons of William and Joyce Lenny Murphy from the loyalist Shankill Road, Belfast.

The Lenny Murphy family changed their residence several times; in 1957 they returned to Joyce's family home in the lower Shankill, at 28 Percy Street.

Lenny Murphy did not use his first name "Hugh" possibly because of its close resemblance to the surname "Hughes", common among Irish Catholics, which when coupled with the conspicuously Irish surname Lenny Murphy it might have added to the Catholic connotation.

Lenny Murphy's character was marked by a hatred of Catholics, which he brought into all his conversations, often referring to them as "scum and animals".

Lenny Murphy held a steady job as a shop assistant, although his increasing criminal activities enabled him to indulge in a flamboyant lifestyle which involved socialising with an array of young women and heavy drinking.

Dillon wrote that it is "incredible to think that Lenny Murphy was in fact a murderer at the age of twenty".

Physically, Lenny Murphy was below average height, of slim build and sallow complexion, Lenny Murphy was blue eyed and had curly dark brown hair.

Lenny Murphy sported several tattoos; most of them bearing Ulster loyalist images.

Lenny Murphy was a flashy dresser, often wearing a leather jacket and scarf, and occasionally leather driving gloves, similar to those worn by a World War I fighter-pilot.

Connor and Lenny Murphy were held in prison together but, in April 1973, before the trial, Connor died after ingesting cyanide in his cell.

Lenny Murphy had written a suicide note in which he confessed to the crime and exonerated Murphy.

Lenny Murphy was sent to trial for the murder of Pavis in June 1973.

Lenny Murphy moved his wife and child to Brookmount Street in the upper Shankill, where his parents had a new home.

Lenny Murphy spent much of his time drinking in Shankill pubs such as The Brown Bear and Lawnbrook Social Club.

Lenny Murphy later told a Provisional IRA inmate that on 13 August 1975 he had just left the Bayardo ten minutes before the IRA carried out a gun and bombing attack against the pub which killed a UVF man and four other Protestants and left over 50 injured.

Lenny Murphy regarded the use of a blade as the "ultimate way to kill", ending the torture by hacking each victim's throat open with a butcher's knife.

Lenny Murphy achieved status through his paramilitary activity and was widely known in the Shankill.

One day after Waller's death, Shaw was beaten and pistol-whipped by Lenny Murphy while strapped to a chair, then shot.

Lenny Murphy's body was later dumped in a back street off the Shankill.

Lenny Murphy, alighting from Moore's taxi in the small hours, shot the man six times at close range.

Early on 11 March 1976, Lenny Murphy shot and injured a young Catholic woman, on the Cliftonville Road.

Dillon notes that the police believed Lenny Murphy was involved in the Shankill Butcher murders.

Lenny Murphy was questioned about the Butcher murders but denied involvement.

On completing his sentence for the firearms charge, Lenny Murphy walked out of the Maze Prison on Friday, 16 July 1982.

Lenny Murphy killed at least four more people over the next four months.

Lenny Murphy beat a partially disabled man to death one day after returning to the Shankill.

Lenny Murphy attempted to extort money from local businessmen who had been sympathetic in the past, however this encroached on other loyalist paramilitaries with established protection rackets.

In late August 1982, Lenny Murphy killed a part-time Ulster Defence Regiment soldier from the lower Shankill area who was closely involved with the UVF in Ballymena and was allegedly an informer.

Lenny Murphy, who had left the house strewn with the victim's blood and teeth, was arrested for questioning the next morning but later released.

Lenny Murphy was hit by more than twenty rounds and died instantly.

Lenny Murphy was gunned down just around the corner from where the bodies of many of the Butchers' victims had been dumped.

Top UDA member, Samuel McCrory, alleged that the weapon used to kill Lenny Murphy, which he stated was a Sterling submachine gun, had been supplied by Craig.

Lenny Murphy was given a large paramilitary funeral by the UVF with a guard of honour wearing the UVF uniform and balaclavas.

Lenny Murphy was buried in Carnmoney Cemetery; on his tombstone the following words were inscribed: "Here Lies a Soldier".

Lenny Murphy wasn't a hero; he was a murdering thug.

Lenny Murphy's photograph was displayed inside "The Eagle", the UVF Brigade Staff's headquarters over a chip shop in the Shankill Road.