As a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) which he had joined in the late 1980s, King was close to Billy Wright with whom he shares a birthday.
When Wright was gunned down inside the Maze by members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), King assumed the role of Officer Commanding (OC) the LVF prisoners.
Keys, a 23-year-old living in Banbridge who had served with the Royal Irish Regiment and who had been shot and injured by the UVF in 1996 in his native Cregagh area of Belfast, was on remand for killing two friends in Poyntzpass.
[8] Initially treated as a suicide (Keys was found hanging with his wrists slashed), a post mortem revealed that he had been beaten severely about the body and injured on his hands and feet before being killed.
[9] King controlled the LVF in Lurgan whilst the Fultons dominated the movement in its traditional stronghold of Portadown.
It was reported that the UDA had been putting pressure on the UVF to crush the LVF as they had done to the renegade West Belfast Brigade, whilst it was claimed that Adair had ordered King to stay away from his former west Belfast stronghold after King's allies had attempted to take over UDA-controlled rackets in Dromore, County Down.
[11] Possessed of a volatile temper and a "fearsome reputation",[2] King was described by one LVF member as "more ruthless than Billy Wright".