The Shankill Butchers

by Martin Dillon

  Nesbitt denies that this happened and says simply that they agreed to co-operate after much persuasion. I personally believe that, on the contrary, an incentive was offered. Moore was only too aware that if the UVF leadership, and more particularly Lenny, Mr A. and Mr B. learned of the nature of the statements made in Castlereagh, he would be placed on a hit list before the case began. Bates must have had similar fears.

  I remain puzzled about Nesbitt’s reasoning in relation to this matter. When I spoke to him about it, he told me that he extracted the additional confessions to help the Director of Public Prosecutions prepare a case against the ringleaders. The solicitor who represented Moore and Bates says he never saw the statements which were made within the prison and his clients were never offered a deal. There was no supergrass system in operation in 1977 and I am inclined to believe that at any rate there would have been no judicial or political will to sanction an immunity deal for two men who admitted being mass murderers. However, I am convinced from informants I have contacted that a different type of deal was offered, to the effect that Moore and Bates would be allowed to serve their sentences in Crumlin Road Prison and not the Maze Prison so that they would be out of the reach of Murphy and other members of the UVF. Moore and Bates were on a UVF hit list from the moment they made their initial statements in Castlereagh and they knew that. For legal reasons I cannot reveal how the UVF knew the precise characters of both men’s statements but I have been informed that the UVF leadership were aware of the content of Moore’s statement within forty-eight hours of it being made. Moore knew that and took a certain course of action, which once again I am not allowed to divulge, for legal reasons. This course of action was a signal to Nesbitt that the mass murderer felt that he was under threat and was vulnerable to the suggestion that he should cooperate. Likewise Bates followed Moore’s lead and took a decision which affected the manner in which his case was handled legally. I also believe it is possible that the DPP’s Office discussed with Nesbitt the prospect of bringing Moore and Bates before the court in advance of other members of the Butcher gang so that they could be sentenced and would therefore be free to give evidence for the Crown against the ringleaders. If this was, indeed, the intention of the Crown then it was a course strewn with considerable difficulty, since the evidence of convicted mass murderers, namely Moore and Bates, would have made for a weak case against Murphy, Mr A. and Mr B.

  Nesbitt claims that he presented the additional statements to the Director of Public Prosecutions but did not receive a reply for eighteen months, by which time Moore and Bates had retracted their confessions. One is obliged to ask whether the DPP decided it was not worth proceeding on the evidence of accomplices or whether Moore and Bates were left for too long to languish in prison contemplating whether they would ever be safe if they gave evidence against Murphy. Whatever the explanation for this train of events, there is no question that Nesbitt was consumed with a desire to bring the ringleaders to justice. The statements made by Moore and Bates are reproduced here in full, because their contents prove Nesbitt’s conviction that he had a case against Murphy, Mr A. and Mr B. These statements were never made public or used in any proceedings. For legal reasons certain names are deleted.

  1 July

  Robert William Bates aged twenty-eight years.

  I have known Lenny Murphy for the past ten years. Around about July 1975 after I got out of prison, I started to run about with him then. At this time I was already a member of the UVF and was transferred to the Brown Bear team. Lenny Murphy who lives in Brookmount Street was the commander of my unit. He had overall charge of the unit I belonged to. There were about fourteen or fifteen men in this unit. Occasionally over a period, the unit had meetings in the Brown Bear Bar and the Lawnbrook Club and Lenny Murphy always took charge of these meetings. On occasions I saw him carrying a .9mm short pistol and he had overall charge of the weapons and ammunition which belonged to the unit. Around November 1975 there was a feud taking place which began over the shooting of Stewart Robinson who was a member of the Windsor Bar team. Robinson was only to be knee-capped along with Ned Bell and Roger McCrea for tying up an old woman and robbing her. Instead, Robinson was killed and this started the whole thing. As a result of this Archie Waller, a member of my team, was shot dead in Downing Street. After this I saw Lenny Murphy. He had gone completely mad after hearing of the death of Waller. I had to help to hold him as he was getting out of control. A meeting was held in the Lawnbrook and the whole team was ordered to be there. There must have been twenty men in the hall. During the meeting, Lenny Murphy said that Roy Stewart, Dessie Balmer and Noel Shaw were to be killed before six o’clock that day because they had killed Waller. After the meeting, I went round to my mother’s for dinner and I went back to the club at 2.00 P.M. or 2.30 P.M. When I went in I saw that Shaw was there. He was sitting in a chair. His face was covered in blood and there was men guarding him. I heard Lenny Murphy questioning Shaw about the death of Waller. There was still about twenty people in the club. Murphy went into a store in the club and came out with a gun. It was the short .9mm that he often carried. He walked up to Shaw and said words to the effect that he was going to die. Lenny Murphy then fired five or six shots one after the other, into Shaw. There was an awful mess and blood everywhere. I was completely amazed at what happened but we all had to help to clean the club up. I was sick and I got out of the club as quickly as I could. I want to tell you about the night the old man Quinn was killed. It was Murphy’s idea to lift this man who had been in Library Street. Murphy got out of the taxi and hit this man over the head with a wheelbrace and threw him in the back of the taxi. Lenny Murphy ordered us to go to the Lawnbrook Club. I thought he was going for a gun but when he got back into the taxi, he had a fairly big bread knife. Murphy kept hitting this man in the taxi and he ordered Billy Moore to drive to Glencairn and stop a short distance along Forthriver Way at some broken railings. I saw Murphy with this knife and I saw him trailing this man down the grass bank. Murphy was on his own with the man. I was back a wee bit when Murphy came back and said the man was dead. He brought the knife back with him. I want to tell you also regarding the shooting at the lorry in Cambrai Street. It was Lenny Murphy set the whole thing up. One morning before the actual shooting, I was there along with Lenny and Billy Moore when the whole thing was called off because of an Army patrol in the street. Murphy was in charge of the whole operation. At 6.30 A.M. on the morning of the shooting I was picked up by Billy Moore. I was then taken to a house at – where [Mr A.] was already there. [Mr A.] had charge of the guns and had them ready in the front room of the house. Lenny Murphy then left to get a car to do the job and returned with a red car. Billy Moore, [Mr A.] and I waited in the house. [Mr A.] did lookout for the job. Lenny and I put the guns into the car and Billy Moore did the driving. Lenny Murphy had already explained that we were to shoot Taigs on a J. P. Corry’s lorry. I had an MI carbine and Lenny had a Thompson machine gun. When the lorry arrived, Lenny was first out and opened fire. His gun jammed and he took my gun from me and kept firing at the vehicle. He gave me his gun. We both went back to the car. I remember the killing of a young fellow in an entry between Mayo Street and Esmond Street This was also Lenny Murphy’s idea. This man was picked up in Donegall Street. Lenny Murphy got out of the taxi and hit the man over the head. There were four of us on the job and we stopped at Lenny’s house. He went into the house and came back with a knife. He ordered us to drive to Mayo Street. When we stopped in Mayo Street, Lenny Murphy trailed this man out of the taxi. [Mr C.] and me were along with him. Billy Moore went off to turn the taxi. Lenny Murphy trailed the man up the wee side entry off the main entry and leant over the man. I saw Lenny Murphy using the knife on the man’s throat. The three of us got back into the taxi. Lenny brought the knife with him. All these killings I have mentioned were Lenny Murphy’s idea. I have known him for a long time and I believe that he took a great delight in killing people. He is a ruthless man and when he gave instructions I had to o
bey them.

  Bates’s statement is flawed in terms of dates and times but these are minor inaccuracies compared to the manner in which his confession is designed to ignore the important role he played in the killing of Rice and Quinn. When he states that Lenny took the carbine from him because his own gun had jammed, he forgets to mention that he had already fired the carbine. He gives the impression that this was not so. He fails to mention the presence of the two women who were in the taxi the night Dominic Rice was murdered, or the fact that he was involved in the violence directed at Rice. The statement demonstrates how Bates was willing to lie about the part he himself played in each of the crimes he attributes to Murphy.

  Moore gave the following statement to Nesbitt three days later:

  I have known Lenny Murphy from school days. During the present Troubles, the first time I had anything to do with him was one Thursday night, I don’t remember the date, when he took my taxi off me. I discovered immediately after this that he was a leading member of the UVF. From then on I became involved in the UVF. I was under the control of Lenny Murphy. He chaired all the meetings along with Mr A. After Archie Waller was shot he was furious and all the UVF members were informed to be at the meeting in the Lawnbrook Club. I heard him say that he wanted Dessie Balmer, Noel Shaw and Roy Stewart all shot as Stewartie had shot Waller. I was aware that this was against Brigade Staff instructions and that Lenny was taking this on in his own bat to have these people shot. About twelve noon which was a Sunday, Lenny Murphy was in charge of this meeting and [Mr A.] and [Mr B.] were also there. There were about fifteen to twenty UVF men there. Lenny did all the talking and he ordered me and Bates to go down the road and pick up Noel Shaw. We drove back with him to the Lawnbrook and took him in. As he walked in the door he was given a good hiding and he was kicked about and threw around. All of us hit him and he was then sat on a chair. Lenny Murphy walked up the bar and then walked back to Shaw. He said something to him which I couldn’t make out. He pulled a 9mm pistol and opened fire. He was only about five feet away from Shaw. Shaw slumped forward and remained half seated. He was an awful mess and there was blood all over the place. Lenny Murphy told me to go and get a taxi. I left and went to the Road and hijacked a taxi which was coming down the Road. When I walked back into the club I saw Shaw lying in a laundry basket. Lenny told me and [Mr B.] to take the taxi and the body and dump them. After abandoning the taxi we saw an Army patrol and ran back to the club. Lenny was there and asked me what I had done.

  Moore’s statement deals with a crime in which Moore is not the central figure and it is noticeable that he, the man who was later to imitate Murphy, was not asked by Nesbitt to deal with Murphy’s role in the first three cut-throat murders. Presumably, this was to confine Moore’s evidence in this statement to a crime in which he had played a minor role.

  Nesbitt, armed with the knowledge provided by these two statements and the others made by the Butcher gang in May, made arrangements to have Murphy transferred from the Maze Prison to Castlereagh Holding Centre for an interview on 22 July. Nesbitt was prepared to tell Murphy that there was evidence to connect him with the first three cut-throat murders, the killing of Shaw and the two men on the lorry. John Fitzsimmons accompanied Nesbitt to Castlereagh and they both questioned Murphy about his movements at the time of these murders. Murphy laughed each time he was asked about a killing and when Nesbitt mentioned the first three cut-throat murders Murphy laughed loudly and said: ‘Sure, you guys know I was busy at that time.’ He also told the two detectives: ‘If you’re so convinced, prove it.’

  Nesbitt and Fitzsimmons were unhappy about the arrangements for the interview, which was conducted in the presence of a prison officer. When the two detectives arrived at the room provided by the prison authorities they asked the prison warder to leave, but he refused to do so. Nesbitt considered the warder’s behaviour irregular and believes it likely that he was under Murphy’s control.

  The two detectives left the prison convinced that the only way to bring Murphy to justice was to use the evidence given by Moore and Bates. Fitzsimmons has this to say about his meeting with Murphy: ‘I remember the intense hatred he showed for Catholics. He said at one stage: “I hate the bastards. Even their cells are dirtier than ours.”’

  While most of the Butcher gang were in prison awaiting trial a crime came to light which, when I examined it, illustrated once again that police work was at times lax when it came to analysing the peripheral events surrounding the activities of the Butchers. On Easter Monday, the day after the murder of Kevin McMenamin, Moore and Townsley were drinking in the Brown Bear in the company of twenty-one-year-old James Potts, an unemployed labourer from Wigton Street in the Shankill area, and twenty-seven-year-old John Alexander Murphy, a brother of Lenny. From early afternoon until 9.00 P.M. they paid a series of visits to various bars in the Shankill area. At 9.30 P.M. the four were involved in a fracas which was witnessed by Lieutenant Alan Myles Startin:

  I was in charge of a party of soldiers in the sanger [Army slang for a look-out post] at the junction of Upper Library Street with Peter’s Hill. [Author’s note: this sanger would have been almost inside the Unity Flats complex and would have overlooked Millfield where Stephen McCann had been killed, the junction of Gresham Street from where the killers at the Chlorane Bar emerged, and would have had a clear view of North Street and the section where it joins the Shankill Road.] At this time I heard a disturbance going on in Upper Library Street. I took a party of soldiers out of the sanger into Library Street to deal with the trouble. Two rival groups were stoning and verbally abusing one another. One of these groups, numbering six, retreated into Unity Place and the other group of four continued to shout abuse. I approached the group of four and told them to move away but they started shouting abuse at me. I eventually quietened them down and they moved into North Street. I know these persons now to be William Moore, John Townsley, John Alexander Murphy and James Potts.

  The four men moved on some little distance but Lieutenant Startin, in the presence of other soldiers, arrested Moore and his associates at the junction of Upper North Street and Royal Avenue with the intention of handing them over to the RUC to be charged with stone-throwing. In the interim between Startin’s initial observation and the actual arrest, a forty-nine-year-old pedestrian was seriously assaulted. In his statement Startin neglects to mention that he told the four Loyalists to ‘move on’ at the outset. One has to ask why he did not arrest them at that moment. The only explanation I can offer is that he was waiting for a Land Rover to arrive to transport them to North Queen Street police station. Had he arrested them outside Unity Flats, where all the tenants are Catholics, a more difficult scene could have ensued which might have resulted in the soldier having to protect the four men until the arrival of a military vehicle. When Lieutenant Startin eventually stopped these four men he was unaware they were deliberately making a detour back to their own area, the Shankill. Nor could he have known that in the intervening period between his first encounter with them and the actual arrest, they had had time to give vent to their mounting anger and frustration on an unfortunate pedestrian walking in the area. As Moore and the others passed Library Street they saw a middle-aged man walking towards Royal Avenue and they ran towards him. The pedestrian, Harold Underwood, said later that he was unaware of the presence of the four until they were assaulting him. Each of them punched and kicked him viciously and left him bleeding on the pavement. They quickly left the scene and headed for Royal Avenue to circle round and make their way back to the Shankill from a direction which, they believed, would not connect them with the crime. The fact that they had blood on their clothing caused them no consternation. Lieutenant Startin did not notice this when he arrested them but when they were taken directly to North Queen Street police station, Constables Shields and McGreevy spotted heavy blood-staining on the clothing of all four men.

  These two constables were fully briefed on the attack on Underwood because they were responsible for findi
ng him while patrolling Library Street and they had had an opportunity to question him briefly before he was taken by ambulance to the Mater Hospital. Underwood was able to tell them that all four men who attacked him were wearing denim jeans. He was lucky to survive such a vicious attack; his injuries required 130 stitches to his face and there were slight fractures to his skull and cheekbones. Unknown to his attackers, Underwood was a Protestant.