The Shankill Butchers

The bestselling non-fiction book from the definitive writer on Ireland's tumultuous past. A gruesome investigation into one of Britain's most brutal and horrifying murder cases, perpetuated by the infamous serial killers Murphy's gang.The bestselling investigation of one of Northern Ireland's most brutal and infamous murder cases'Makes for gripping but altogether terrifying reading' Washington Times'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____'This was the ultimate way to kill a man.'In the 1970s, in some of the most violent days of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, a group of Protestant paramilitaries embarked on a spree of indiscriminate murder in the Shankill area of Belfast, leaving thirty Catholics dead. Their leader was Lenny Murphy- a fanatical Unionist whose childhood was marked by sectarian violence, Murphy swore revenge on all Catholics, and with his gang wreaked havoc onto an already fractured city.Not for the squeamish, The Shankill Butchers is a horrifying and detailed account of one of the most brutal series of murders in the history of Northern Ireland - a phenomenon whose real nature has been obscured by the troubled and violent context from which it sprang.

“Gruesome yet compelling and superbly researched”

Tribune
Gruesome territory...the great value of Martin Dillon's carefully researched and readable work is that it enters a world that few journalists have been inclined or able to penetrate Listener
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 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

Martin Dillon is a native of Belfast although educated in England. He lived in France for a time and returned to Northern Ireland to work as a journalist with the Irish News before joining the Belfast Telegraph. He also worked as a freelance journalist for several national newspapers and American periodicals. In 1973 he wrote Political Murder in Northern Ireland which is regarded as the definitive study of political assassination in Northern Ireland. His second book, Rogue Warrior of the SAS, is a biography of the Second World War hero, Lt. Col. Robert Blair Mayne, and is published by Arrow. The Shankill Butchers which was a bestseller in both Ireland and Britain was the first in his trilogy of books about Northern and Southern Ireland.Martin Dillon has written plays for BBC radio and television and has been Editor in Northern Ireland of many of the BBC's programmes in the area of current affairs. He now works for the BBC History Unit in London.

'This was the ultimate way to kill a man.' Not for the squeamish, The Shankill Butchers is a horrifying 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 troubled and violent context from which it sprang. 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 later dubbed 'the master butcher', a fanatical Unionist whose Catholic-sounding surname led to his persecution as a child for which he took revenge on all Catholics. '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

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