15 Facts About Shankill Butchers

Shankill Butchers were an Ulster loyalist gang—many of whom were members of the Ulster Volunteer Force —that was active between 1975 and 1982 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The Shankill Butchers brought a new level of paramilitary violence to a country already hardened by death and destruction.

Shankill Butchers spent much of his time frequenting pubs on the Shankill Road and assembling a paramilitary team that would enable him to act with some freedom at a remove from the UVF leadership.

Shankill Butchers was dragged into the taxi by Benjamin Edwards and Archie Waller, two of Murphy's gang.

Shankill Butchers was subjected to a high level of violence, including a beer glass being shoved into his head.

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Detective Chief Inspector Jimmy Nesbitt, head of the CID Murder Squad in Tennent Street RUC base and the man charged with tracking down the Shankill Butchers, was in no doubt that the murders of Crossen, Quinn and Rice were the work of the same people.

Shankill Butchers told "Mr A" that the cut-throat murders should continue in due course, partly to divert suspicion from himself.

Two members of the Shankill Butchers approached him and, posing as policemen, forced him into a car where two of their comrades were seated.

Shankill Butchers was stabbed, had his wrists slashed a number of times by Moore and McAllister, using a smallish knife, and was dumped in a back entry.

At first he did not attribute particular significance to this message, as the Shankill Butchers had left no one alive before; but on discovering the nature of the assault and the use of a knife, he came up with an idea that was to permanently change the course of his inquiries.

Shankill Butchers hijacked a black taxi, which one of his men drove to the Falls Road.

Shankill Butchers accused the police of continual harassment of her son since his recent release from prison and said that he was planning to leave the country as soon as his divorce came through.

Bates was involved in a gun attack on a bar in Smithfield, not far from the Shankill Butchers, that killed several people, both Catholics and Protestants, on 5 June 1976.

Several of the Shankill Butchers, including John Murphy, were questioned about a serious assault in April 1977 in Union Street, near Belfast city centre, on a man they believed wrongly was a Catholic.

Shankill Butchers died on 17 May 2009, from a suspected heart attack at his home and was given a paramilitary funeral by the UVF.