As leader of the Shankill Butchers gang, Murphy was responsible for the murders of mainly Catholic civilians, often first kidnapping and torturing his victims.

Details of his movements were passed by rival loyalist paramilitaries[1] to the Provisional IRA, who shot Murphy dead that autumn.

[citation needed] In his book The Shankill Butchers, Belfast journalist Martin Dillon suggests Murphy's bigoted Loyalism may have stemmed from his bearing a surname associated with Catholics.

[4] He held a steady job as a shop assistant, although his increasing criminal activities enabled him to indulge in a flamboyant lifestyle which involved socialising with an array of young women and heavy drinking.

On 28 September of that year, a Protestant man named William Edward Pavis, who had gone bird shooting with a Catholic priest, was killed at his home in East Belfast.

Over the next few months, the gang began abducting, torturing and murdering random Catholic men they dragged off the streets late at night.

Murphy regarded the use of a blade as the "ultimate way to kill", ending the torture by hacking each victim's throat open with a butcher's knife.

[16] By the end of 1975, the UVF Brigade Staff had a new leadership of "moderates", but Murphy refused to submit to their authority, preferring to carry out attacks by his own methods.

Dillon suggested that despite some Brigade Staff knowing about Murphy's activities (albeit not the precise details), they were too frightened to put a stop to it.

[17] This suggestion was given further credibility by Gusty Spence, when he was asked by BBC journalist Peter Taylor in a 1998 interview why the leadership of the UVF failed to stop the Butchers.

[citation needed] Early on 11 March 1976, Murphy shot and injured a young Catholic woman, once again on the Cliftonville Road.

However, he was able to plea bargain whereby he was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of a firearms offence, and received twelve years' imprisonment on 11 October 1977.

[18] Murphy also attempted to extort money from local businessmen who had been sympathetic in the past, however this encroached on other loyalist paramilitaries with established protection rackets.

[19] In late August 1982, Murphy killed a part-time Ulster Defence Regiment soldier from the lower Shankill area who was closely involved with the UVF in Ballymena and was allegedly an informer.

The sadism of the widely publicised killing led to loyalism receiving a great deal of bad publicity and leading UVF figures concluded that Murphy's horrific methods had made him too much of a liability.

[8] On 16 November 1982, Murphy had just pulled up outside the rear of his girlfriend's house on the Forthriver Road area of Glencairn, a part of the Greater Shankill Area, when two Provisional IRA gunmen – one of them believed to be Gerard "Hucker" Moyna[22] – emerged from a black van nearby and opened fire with a sub-machine gun and a 9mm pistol.

According to RUC reports, the UVF had provided the IRA hit team with the details of Murphy's habits and movements, which allowed them to assassinate him at that particular location.

Craig was known to meet republican paramilitary commanders to discuss racketeering activities: he was later killed by his comrades, officially for "treason".

[24] Top UDA member, Samuel McCrory, alleged that the weapon used to kill Murphy, which he stated was a Sterling submachine gun, had also been supplied by Craig.

[28] His photograph was displayed inside "The Eagle", the UVF Brigade Staff's headquarters over a chip shop in the Shankill Road.