In 1978, Watt was convicted and given nine separate life sentences for murder and attempted murder. The court heard evidence from two witnesses who had seen Murphy pull the trigger and had later picked him out of an identification parade. Many of the gang members were part of the UVF, and the group was best known for the kidnapping and murder of suspected Catholics. The road stretches westwards for about 1.5 mi (2.4 km) from central Belfast and is lined, to an extent, by shops. Murphy repeatedly told Crossen: “I’m going to kill you, you bastard”, before the taxi stopped at an entry off Wimbledon Street. No sooner had he parked his car than two gunmen emerged from a van that had been following him and fired a hail of more than twenty bullets, killing him instantly. The Shankill Butchers were an Ulster loyalist gang—many of whom were members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)—that was active between 1975 and 1982 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. During the dark days of the Troubles their savagery stood apart, paralysing both communities in Northern Ireland with fear. Four days before his death, Waller had been involved in the abduction and murder of the Butchers’ first victim, Francis Crossen. In support of this theory, Craig was later executed by his UDA colleagues for “treason”, an inquiry having found some evidence of his part in the murder of other top loyalists by the IRA. The Shankill Butchers were a group of people who terrorized the streets of Belfast for seven years. Murphy was brought to trial for the Pavis murder in June 1973. The other gang members involved in one or more of these cut-throat murders were Sam McAllister, John Townsley, David Bell and Norman Waugh. Early on 11 March 1976, Murphy tried to kill a Catholic woman in a drive-by shooting; arrested later that day, he was put on remand on an attempted murder charge. After the trial, Jimmy Nesbitt’s comment was: “The big fish got away”, a reference to Murphy (referred to in court as “Mr X” or the “Master Butcher”) and to Messrs “A” and “B”. Moore, Bates and McAllister shot and wounded a member of the Windsor Bar UVF unit a few hours after the murder of Noel Shaw in November 1975. He had been beaten and stabbed, and his wrists had been slashed. The Shankill Butchers were a group of people who terrorized the streets of Belfast for seven years. He was the subject of a series of interviews by Stephen Nolan in his 2011 televised documentary on the Shankill Butchers. However, gang leader Lenny Murphy and his two chief “lieutenants” escaped prosecution. Much of what is known about the Butchers came first from Martin Dillon‘s The Shankill Butchers: A Case Study of Mass Murder (1989 and 1998). [22] On his gravestone in Carnmoney cemetery were inscribed the words: “Here lies a soldier”. The Shankill Butchers were a group of loyalists who abducted innocent Catholics, tortured them, and then mutilated them and let them bleed to death. Documentary series presented by Peter Taylor, about the origins and evolution of the loyalist paramilitary movement in Northern Ireland. Martin Dillon’s own investigations suggest that a number of other individuals (whom he was unable to name for legal reasons) escaped prosecution for participation in the crimes of the Butchers and that the gang were responsible for a total of at least 30 murders. Francis Crossen (34), a Catholic man and father of two, was walking towards the city centre at approximately 12.40 a.m. when four of the Butchers, in Moore’s taxi, spotted him. The Troubles Podcast. Documentary on the Shankill Butchers, who were the most prolific gang of serial killers in UK history during the troubles in Northern Ireland. On 14 October of that year, Waller had killed Stewart Robinson in a punishment shooting that went wrong. 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