The Shankill Butchers

by Martin Dillon

  On the evening in question, Moore and his three associates changed their drinking venue and headed for Tigers Bay, a small Protestant enclave off Duncairn Gardens in North Belfast. The money needed for their pleasure was either Unemployment Benefit or the proceeds of extortion. Moore was in the position of being able to claim such benefit, and was also able to use his car illegally as a taxi on the Shankill Road whenever it suited him. The Butcher gang was always flush with money, like many of the people in similar paramilitary organizations. Where wives existed, they were given a basic amount of money to run the household while the bulk of earnings, legal and illegal, was spent in the clubs and pubs by the men. When they arrived in the club a pool match was in progress, and the four Butchers watched the games and drank a considerable amount of alcohol. They had made an earlier decision that the time had come ‘to kill another Taig’. Moore suggested they should leave the club after midnight, it being the most expedient time in which to operate. The Tigers Bay area is within fifty yards of the Nationalist New Lodge Road district and, because of communal street rioting between the two neighbourhoods throughout the early seventies, both areas were partitioned by a corrugated fence which is locally called a ‘peace-line’.

  However, the New Lodge Road offers clear access to North Queen Street and Upper Donegall Street where many of the Butcher victims were abducted. Moore knew that part of the New Lodge Road was accessible through two streets which lead from Duncairn Gardens: Spamount Street and Edlingham Street. His wide knowledge of the area and the use of the two side streets presented him with the opportunity to enter a Catholic area with the least risk possible. He was able to draw up a plan of action for a quick getaway in his car, which would be driven in the direction of the safe Protestant area of Tigers Bay in the event of unforeseen hindrances.

  After leaving the club, Moore drove his three accomplices up Duncairn Gardens to the Antrim Road and entered the New Lodge Road, turning immediately into Spamount and Edlingham Street. He repeated this exercise several times without attracting undue attention.

  At 1.00 A.M. Moore, with Norman Waugh alongside him in the front passenger seat, saw ‘a boy’ making unsteady progress along the pavement in Spamount Street. He informed the others and told them he would pull the car alongside the pavement. He instructed Waugh and Bell to abduct the solitary figure, which they did.

  The unfortunate person was forty-three-year-old Francis Cassidy, a single man who lived at Victoria Gardens off the Cavehill Road, close to the home of Stephen McCann’s family. Cassidy had become unemployed following an accident while working at the Belfast Docks. When Moore spotted him he was on his way home from his sister’s house on the New Lodge Road. She remembers how they spent the evening together:

  At 3.00 P.M. on 29 March my brother came to my house, stayed for about ten minutes and then left for Lynch’s Bar. At 8.00 P.M. he returned and watched television until 9.30 P.M. and then asked me to go to the Carela and play bingo. Eventually I agreed to accompany him. I followed him to the bingo hall and when I arrived at 10.00 P.M. he was on his own. We played bingo and had a few drinks until 12.05 on 30 March. We walked back to my house and I went to a Chinese restaurant on the Antrim Road to buy a curry for Francis. At 12.40 A.M. Francis and I left my home and I walked him to the junction of Edlingham Street and the New Lodge Road. I returned home and went to bed. It would have taken him about five minutes or more to walk to his house but as he was drunk it would probably have taken him longer. When he left me he was in his usual good health and spirits. He was wearing a navy anorak, striped shirt, fawn jeans and brown slip-on shoes.

  Waugh and Bell approached Francis Cassidy from behind and gave him a severe beating with their fists, kicked him and then dragged him to the waiting car. Cassidy, who was struggling, was pushed onto the back seat between Waugh and ‘Winkie’. Moore drove off towards the Cliftonville Road, turned into Manor Street and made for the Shankill Road via the Oldpark and Crumlin Roads.

  Moore’s route, once on the Shankill Road, was prearranged. Mr A. had been briefed about the gang’s intentions the previous day, and Moore now headed for his home. On arrival the manner of killing was discussed and Mr A. stipulated it should be a ‘cut-throat job’. As before, Moore requested a gun; Mr A. had anticipated his needs and had one at the ready. Moore returned to the car where Cassidy was being subjected to a fierce beating in the rear of the vehicle.

  It is necessary at this point to examine the statement later made by Moore about the events which occurred after he had left Mr A.’s house, because, at the time of making this particular confession, he had already admitted his involvement in the other cut-throat murders. He displayed a certain reticence about this crime, and I believe I can offer an explanation for his disinclination to admit to the full details. His statement is set out below:

  About the end of March I was at a pool match in Tiger’s Bar with Norman Waugh, Davy Bell and a fellow named Winkie. We took a fair bit of drink during the night and at 12.30 we left the pool place and headed off in my car towards the New Lodge Road. We drove in and around there and at one of the side streets, Spamount Street or Edlingham Street, I saw a guy walking along the footpath. When we saw this boy we knew he must be a Taig so we decided to pick him up and do him. I pulled the car up down the street from him and Davy and Waugh got out and gave him a digging and pulled him into the car. Big Norman, Davy and Winkie got in as well and I drove to – Street. I stopped the car in – Street and went into [Mr A.’s house]. I spoke to [Mr A.] and told him I had got a Taig and I wanted a gun. I asked him for a knife too. He went and got me the knife and the gun and I went back to the car and drove to Highfern Gardens. Big Norman got out of the car, pulled yer man out and I went and shot him. I was going to cut his throat but I could not do it. I then shot him again and got back into the car and drove off leaving yer man on the pavement. I drove the car back to [Mr A.’s] house and gave him the gun and knife and told him I had killed yer man. Winkie, Norman and Davy got out of the car and I went back home. The next morning I heard on the news that yer man was dead. There was a bit of blood in the car so I washed it out the next morning. I should say the bit about giving the knife to [Mr A.] is wrong and that I threw it away that night but I cannot remember where.

  At 2.05 A.M. on 30 March, Peter McCallion had been in bed with his wife in the front upstairs bedroom of their home in Highfern Gardens, when he heard the shots which had been fired by Moore. He also heard a car door closing and a car being driven away at speed. He went to the window, looked out and saw ‘something lying on the street close to a grass verge’. He says that he knew the Army or police would arrive and he waited for them to do so. I can only conclude that he was too frightened to investigate the ‘something’ lying in the street and this was also his reason for not phoning the security forces. However, another resident of the neighbourhood was returning home at approximately 2.00A.M. and his evidence is crucial to an understanding of Moore’s statement. The witnesses name is Robert Oliver and this is his testimony:

  I was returning home and was driving my own car when I turned into Highfern Gardens from Highland Parade. I saw from the headlights of my car what appeared to be a body lying on the footpath sixty yards from my house. As I drove closer I saw it was a body. I thought at first that it was a drunk so I drove my car closer. I didn’t get out of the car but screwed down the driver’s window and took a look at him. I could see a lot of blood around his face and on the pavement. He was a man in his thirties and was lying with his head towards the grass and his feet out on the road. I thought then that he was dead so I turned the car and came back to my home and phoned the police from a telephone kiosk outside my house. I waited at the kiosk for the police to arrive. While I was waiting I noticed a yellow Cortina Mk 3 drive down Highland Parade and turn left into Highfern Gardens. I lost sight of it then. I don’t know how many people were in it.

  Robert Oliver was close to the body and did not notice that the victim’s throat had been cut and yet it was appa
rent to policemen who began to arrive on the scene from 2.15A.M. onwards that the victim’s throat was evenly slashed. Oliver also says he saw a yellow Cortina and the description he gave of it tallied exactly with Moore’s car.

  Moore, in his statement, says that he was unable to carry out the throat-cutting but we know this to be untrue. His statement raises the question of when he actually committed the act of cutting the victim’s throat. Waugh and Bell make no mention in their statements of the use of a knife and yet they did witness Moore shooting Cassidy. I questioned Jimmy Nesbitt about this matter and, in particular, why it was that in his confession Moore failed to admit that he had used the knife to cut Cassidy’s throat in the same manner as he had used it on McCann and Morrissey. Nesbitt’s explanation is that the two detectives who took the statement after Moore’s interrogation were not intimate with the details of the case and did not recognize the omission. I cannot accept this explanation though I know of no reason why it should have been offered. The statement was taken by a detective sergeant and a detective constable who would have been fully briefed, as it would have been vital to establish the full facts of the killing for the purposes of preferring a murder charge at a later date.

  In his statement Moore gives the name and address of Mr A. but, again, for legal reasons this information cannot be included here. At the end of the statement he corrects himself about the return of the knife to Mr A. It is my belief that Moore, under orders from Mr A., returned quickly to the scene of the killing and cut Cassidy’s throat before disposing of the knife. The journey from Edlingham Street to Mr A.’s house would have taken less than ten minutes and from there to Highfern Gardens was also a short distance. The shooting of Cassidy took place quickly and the car was driven away at speed. Moore admits that the rest of the gang that night dispersed outside Mr A.’s house, whereas Moore entered the house.

  There is further corroborating evidence to support my contention and it comes from the police interview notes on Moore’s interrogation. When Detective Sergeant John Scott put it to Moore that he believed he was the man who had cut Cassidy’s throat Moore replied, ‘On that night I loaned my Cortina to persons I cannot name. They wanted it for a job and I heard later that they shot a Taig.’

  After Detective Sergeant Scott put this question Jimmy Nesbitt and John Fitzsimmons took over and extracted from Moore a confession which they placed in their interview notes: ‘I might as well tell you about the boy Cassidy. I was supposed to cut his throat but I hadn’t the heart to do it.’

  John Scott interviewed Moore on the Cassidy killing once again and Moore said that he had cut the throats of McCann, Morrissey and Cassidy to ‘take the suspicion off Lenny Murphy’. ‘It was that bastard Murphy led me into all this and I had to carry on to take the pressure off him,’ he told Scott. Six days later in an informal admission Moore came up with the following description: ‘I closed my eyes and put the knife in his throat. I didn’t cut his throat but just pushed the knife into it.’

  During further questioning Moore reveals that Murphy had continued to lead the gang from inside prison and his orders for the continuance of cut-throat murders were conveyed through Mr A. The position and power of Mr A. is made credible by the initial statement made by Moore and the statements of the others who also admit to the shooting of Cassidy. Thus, from such a position of strength, it is feasible that Mr A. did, in fact, order Moore to return, alone, to commit the throat-cutting. The fact that Waugh’s and Bell’s statements are no more revealing than that of Moore on the subject would lead one to speculate that Moore carried out the act at a time when they were not present.

  Moore chose Highfern Gardens rather than Glencairn on the orders of Mr A. who, at this stage, believed that Glencairn might be under police surveillance and in any case Highfern Gardens was a shorter distance to travel. Moore’s admission about the use of the knife was made before his formal statement was taken but even at that stage he chose to ignore the throat-cutting and was anxious to correct the version of what he did with the knife. In his confessions about the killing of Morrissey and McCann he showed no such wish to deny the manner in which they had been carried out. Moore’s confusion vis-à-vis the killing of Cassidy arose from the fact that he had returned quickly and alone to carry out the act. It was a calculated risk but the streets were empty, as confirmed by Robert Oliver, who saw nothing but the travelling yellow Cortina. The police at the time attributed no special significance to Oliver’s observation of the yellow Cortina and, when I speculated on the subject, they dismissed my version of possible events.

  Whatever the truth, Cassidy was killed by Moore and the autopsy report reads much the same as the pathologist’s evidence in the other murders.

  Moore referred to Cassidy as ‘the boy’ and I can only assume that this was because he was unable to discern his age after the first savage beating in Edlingham Street which must have distorted his features. Perhaps also the fact that Cassidy was dressed in ‘trendy’ clothes caused Moore to believe they had picked up a boy. A similar mistake was made with Quinn; after they had severely battered his diminutive body and covered him with his own blood they were unable to judge whether they had a man or a boy in their possession.

  The statements made by Waugh and Bell after their capture exhibit a degree of collusion between them. They were not arrested until after Moore and therefore had time to prepare for being questioned by the police. It has been put to me by a journalist who followed these events closely that, within twenty-four hours of Moore’s confession the UVF knew he was ‘singing’. I have found no evidence to support this, though I do believe that once Moore and several others were arrested it became apparent to those still on the streets that the time had arrived to prepare for the unthinkable. Waugh and Bell were no exception.

  In his statement Bell did not name any of the participants in the killing and, as with most of the other statements made by the gang, he sought to underplay his role:

  I met three mates in the bar on the Limestone Road and after 11.00 P.M. we got into a fella’s car and drove off past Artillery Flats. We then did a U-turn and went back up a hill. Somebody staggered in front of the car and the car stopped. I got out of the car and went over to this man and asked him to move. He wouldn’t move so I just banged him. I picked him up and just flung him into the front seat of the car. The car was then driven to Highfern Gardens and I threw him out of the car and he just banged his head on the pavement. The driver had got out of the car also and I was standing beside the man lying on the ground and heard shots. We all got back into the car and dropped off.

  Bell circled the central issue throughout his confession, ignoring the brutality and representing his participation as peripheral. Like Moore, Bates and McAllister he relied on terrorist terminology, using phrases such as ‘banged him’, and sought to suggest that Cassidy presented himself to them by walking in front of the car. It was a further example of the technique whereby the culprit renders a diluted account of events, thus distancing himself from the reality. The matter-of-factness, the brevity of the statement and the feigned lack of knowledge of place names was designed to obscure the fact that the crime was premeditated.

  Waugh indulged in the same game by telling the police that Cassidy was abducted as though by chance. ‘We were on our way home and were cutting through a side street when I heard someone say: “There’s a Taig. Go and get him,”’ he told John Scott. He went on to claim that he thought the man was going to be subjected to ‘a bit of a doing’. Here Waugh was seeking to give the impression that he was unaware that the man he was kidnapping would be killed.

  Waugh named his accomplices but did not identify Winkie nor name the street on which Mr A. lived: ‘Moore said: “Throw him out there.” I threw him out of the car and got back in. I didn’t want to look and then I heard a shot. Moore got back into the car and drove towards town, dropping me off at the corner of Battenberg Street. During the journey up the Shankill the man got a bit of a beating. I was told to hit him so I
gave him a couple of thumps.’

  These admissions by Waugh do not properly reflect the truth of events when examined against the autopsy report, which shows that Cassidy was beaten unconscious in the car and left with multiple wounds. The choice by Moore and Mr A. of Waugh, Bell and the unidentified Winkie for this operation illustrates the tactics used by the Brown Bear unit: members were deliberately made to participate in a killing to tie them irrevocably to the organization.

  The killing of Cassidy offered no further clues to C Division in their investigation of the cut-throat murders. There was no additional evidence to assist them and no significance was placed on Robert Oliver’s evidence about a yellow Mk 3 Ford Cortina. Should the police have considered this evidence to have been significant? Jimmy Nesbitt says that they believed the murderers would have been far away by the time the yellow Cortina was seen, and he relied on the evidence of McCallion who said the car sped away after the shooting. This would seem to support Nesbitt’s view and, at that time, he would have had no reason to suspect that the murderers would return so quickly to the scene of the crime. All of this presupposes that it was, in fact, Moore’s car, a fact about which we may never know the truth. Retrospectively, one can speculate that if a search had been made for a yellow Mk 3 Cortina owned by a Loyalist paramilitary, it might well have led to Moore being on a list of suspects. The police, after all, had had their suspicions about Moore when his taxi was forensically tested.