Paddy Wilson and Irene Andrews killings
Paddy Wilson and Irene Andrews killings | |
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Part of Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) |
The killings of Paddy Wilson and Irene Andrews took place in
Wilson was one of the founders and General Secretary of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and Irene Andrews was noted in Belfast as a popular ballroom dancer. Their mutilated bodies were found lying in pools of blood on either side of Wilson's car, which was parked in a quarry off the Hightown Road near Cavehill. Wilson had been hacked and stabbed 30 times and his throat cut from ear to ear. Andrews had received 20 knife wounds. The killings were described by the judge at White's trial as "a frenzied attack, a psychotic outburst".
Murders
On the evening of 25 June 1973,
He offered her a lift back to her home on the Crumlin Road and they drove away from the pub at about 11:30pm in Wilson's red mini. The couple never arrived at their destination. At 1:30am, the loyalist Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), using their codename "Captain Black", called the Belfast News Letter advising them that, " tonight we have got Senator Paddy Wilson and a lady friend. Their bodies are lying in the Hightown Road."[1] The UFF had been founded that same year by John White, who employed the pseudonym "Captain Black". The UFF was a cover name to claim attacks carried out by the then-legal Ulster Defence Association to avoid the latter's proscription by the British Government. "Captain Black" furthermore claimed that the killings were in retaliation for the shooting death of a mentally-disabled Protestant teenager the previous summer by the Provisional IRA.[1]
The mutilated bodies of Wilson and Andrews were discovered by the security forces at 4am. They were lying in pools of blood on either side of Wilson's Mini at a quarry off the Hightown Road near
There was widespread shock and condemnation in the wake of the killings. Politicians, including Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave and SDLP leader Gerry Fitt, offered their condolences to the Wilson and Andrews' families, whilst Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley blamed the IRA.[3] According to Peter Taylor, there had never been a crime so brutal carried out in Northern Ireland before.[1]
Author Dervla Murphy in her travel book, A Place Apart (based on her experiences in Northern Ireland), stated that nine months before the double killing, a loyalist community newspaper had published allegations regarding a possible relationship between a prominent member of the SDLP and a young Protestant woman from Belfast's Crumlin Road.[7]
Conviction
UFF leader and self-styled "Captain Black" John White confessed to the killings during a police interrogation for other offences at the Castlereagh Holding Centre in 1976. He was convicted of the murders in 1978 and given two life sentences.[1][6] The trial judge described the killings as "a frenzied attack, a psychotic outburst".[8] White maintained that the UFF's second-in-command (and later North Belfast UDA brigadier) Davy Payne, also known as "The Psychopath", was part of the assassination squad and played a leading role in the killings. Historian Ian S. Wood confirmed Payne's central involvement in the double killing.[9] Although Payne had been questioned by the RUC after the killings, he admitted nothing and never faced any charges. It was alleged that whenever Payne wished to frighten or intimidate others he would shout: "Do you know who I am? I'm Davy Payne. They say I killed Paddy Wilson".[10]
Following White's release from the
Later when asked why he had perpetrated the killings, White claimed that they were carried out to strike fear into the Catholic community after the IRA's 1973 Coleraine bombings. Regarding Irene Andrews, White replied, "We didn't know she was a Protestant, we just thought she was a Catholic to be honest".[11]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Taylor, Peter (1999). Loyalists. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. p.118
- ^ Note: McGlade's Bar is now "The Kremlin".
- ^ a b c d "Killings Bring Wave of Shock to North". Irish Times. Renagh Holoran. 27 June 1973 Retrieved 23 December 2011
- ^ a b Dillon, Martin (2003). The Trigger Men. Mainstream Publishing. p. 242
- ^ Wood, p.22
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4343-6471-5
- ^ The newspaper quoted was Loyalist News, dated September 1972. See Murphy, Dervla (1978). A Place Apart. UK: Penguin Books. pp.144-45.
- ^ "Anniversary of Brutal Murder". Ireland Click. 19 June 2003
- ^ Wood, Ian S. (2006). Crimes of Loyalty: a History of the UDA. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 105
- ^ Jack Holland. "Davy Payne, aka, 'the Psychopath' dies". Irish Echo. 26 March-1 April 2003.
- ^ Barry McCaffrey. "Rise and fall of loyalist icons", Irish News. 7 February 2003.