Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I WOULD’VE STOPPED SHANKILL BUTCHERS
Boston Tapes comment allegedly by ‘Winkie’ Rea
A SENIOR loyalist was disgusted with the so-called Shankill Butchers, a court heard yesterday.
And in a taped interview allegedly detailing his own terrorist activities, he coldly said murder should be swift with a bullet to the back of the head... “but you don’t butcher people”.
Winston “Winkie” Rea is the man the prosecution claims is the voice behind the tapes, with the designation “Interviewee L” given by the US Boston College as part of their Belfast Project.
The 69-year-old , f rom Springwell Road in Groomsport, Co Down, denies a total of 19 charges including aiding and abetting the murders of Catholic men John Devine in July 1989 and John O’hara in April 1991 and plotting to murder others.
Asked about the period of the Shankill Butchers, Rea allegedly said he and others – some of whom had committed “awful crimes” – were against the killings and the loyalist leadership should have stopped Lenny Murphy and his gang.
The tapes revealed: “My recollection is... at the time of the Shankill Butchers the leadership should have moved in to prevent what was happening. But unfortunately they didn’t and the reason why I’m saying... because if I had been the man to make the call I would have.
“Because them type of murders, I would be upset, because then I believe if you needed to kill someone you did it as swift as possible... I don’t want to sound callous.
“But you put a gun to the back of his head and you blow their brains out... but you don’t butcher them.”
“L” went to say his “own personal position... opinion” was the leader of the gang, Lenny Murphy, was “a 100% psychopath”.
The speaker added he was “totally convinced” those tendencies in Murphy were always there and cited an occasion when, l ong b e f o r e b e c o mi n g the Butchers leader, Murphy had sliced open his leg with a razor blade in prison, leaving him with a wound requiring a dozen stitches and an ugly scar to this day.
He said it was his belief Murphy “knew exactly what he was doing... exactly... and he had a joy at the sight of blood scooting out of my knee and I believe that to this day”.
The trial continues at Belfast Crown Court on Monday.
You blow their brains out... not butcher them INTERVIEWEE L ON THE BOSTON TAPES