1st Edition
The Shankill Butchers The Real Story of Cold-Blooded Mass Murder
By Martin Dillon
Copyright 1999
316 Pages
by
Routledge
During the 1970s a group of Protestant paramilitaries embarked on a spree of indiscriminate murder which left thirty Northern Irish Catholics dead. Their leader was Lenny Murphy, a fanatical Unionist whose Catholic-sounding surname led to his persecution as a child for which he took revenge on all Catholics.
Not for the squeamish, The Shankill Butchers is a horrifyingly detailed account of one of the most brutal series of murders in British legal history--a phenomenon whose real nature has been obscured by the political and violent context from which it sprang.
Foreword by Dr Conor Cruise O’Brien Introduction; The Making of a Killer; A Killer is Blooded; A Killer Squad is Formed; The Butchery Begins; Charlie Division; A Public Execution; Murder Most Foul; The First Mistake; Murder Deal; Orders from Prison; A Natural Successor; The Bombing Mission; The Ultimate Witness; The Public Avenger? ‘Mr X.’ is Back; Conclusion; Postscript
Biography
Martin Dillon
"Mr. Dillon recounts in chilling detail the evolution of Murphy's gang and the efforts to catch them. It makes for gripping but altogether terrifying reading." -- Washington Times
"A chilling stomach-turning study of Northern Ireland's infamous Shankill Butchers, a Loyalist gang of murderers who preyed on Belfast's Catholic population." -- Kirkus
"A chilling book, chilling but fascinating... People on both sides--or some of them--are likely to read Martin Dillon, and to learn from him." -- Conor Cruise O'Brien
"Dillon's books are a working lifetime's brave and persistent effort to get information of a kind which, as he frankly says, can be perilous to possess, let alone to reveal." -- Times Literary Supplement
"Dillon is recommended reading for anyone wishing to understand the complexities of British- Irish politics. He stands alone as one of the most creative writers of our time." -- Irish Times
