The Shankill Butchers

A loyalist gang that slaughtered innocent Catholics and Protestants in 70's and 80's Northern Ireland. In a modified London type black cab, they would select innocent targets walking home from work or a late-night drink in predominantly Catholic neighbourhoods, neutralise them with a weapon, bring them to their social club, and slowly torture them. Protestant victims of mistaken identity and rival loyalist victims of internecine warfare also fell victim to these psychopaths. Many believe the RUC (NI cops) and British government knew of their identities and colluded with them, letting them wreak havoc, in order to stoke tensions between the Catholic community and Protestant community, and also between rival loyalist gangs. It is also believed that leader Lenny Murphy's hatred of Catholics began after taunting from fellow Protestants due to his distinctly Irish sounding surname.

I thought people here would enjoy this documentary due to the similarities between this gang and the Gemini Crew, which ran rampant in New York during the same timeframe and were more akin to serial killers than traditional wiseguys. Both enjoyed similar, sadistic, methods of torture; they used the tense socio-political atmosphere of the times to sate their homicidal bloodlust, which went far and beyond that of even their paramilitary peers.

I read a book about the SB's a few years ago, quite shocking. The sectarian violence became a cover for just sadistic serial killings, like the Gemini crew used mob business the same way.