Editing Shankill Butchers (section)

===Murphy's release and death===
His sentence for the firearms conviction complete, Murphy was released from prison on 16 July 1982. One day later, his killing spree resumed when he beat to death a local Protestant man with a learning disability in the Loyalist Club in Rumford Street. His body was dumped in a back alley over a mile away. Murphy began to assemble a new gang.<ref name="Gang">Dillon, p. 291</ref> On 29 August 1982, Murphy killed Jim Galway (33), a part-time [[Ulster Defence Regiment]] (UDR) soldier from the Lower Shankill area, who had been passing information to the UVF and was involved with its [[Ballymena]] units. When suspicions of being an informer fell upon Galway, Murphy decided to kill him. Galway was shot in the head at a building site in the village of [[Broughshane]] near Ballymena and buried on the spot. His decayed body was not found until November 1983. The location of the body was pointed out in 1983 by a person in custody for other charges.<ref name="Galway">''Irish News'', 28 November 1983</ref><ref name="McKittrickb">McKittrick, p. 912</ref> On 5 September, Murphy killed a former UVF prisoner, Brian Smyth (30), in a dispute over money owed for a car. Murphy poisoned the man in a Shankill club before shooting him from the rear of a passing motorcycle as he sat in a car driven by Murphy's friend, and leading [[Red Hand Commando]] member, Sam "Mambo" Carroll.<ref name="Smyth">Dillon, pp. 291–93.</ref>
[[File:Brookmountstreet.jpg|thumb|300px|The Shankill Butchers' last victim was killed off Brookmount Street (pictured), where Lenny Murphy owned a house]]

Early on Friday 22 October, UDR soldier Thomas Cochrane was kidnapped by the IRA. The next evening, although he had been warned by the UVF Brigade Staff against abducting anyone, Murphy decided to kidnap a Catholic, ostensibly to demand Cochrane's release in exchange for the Catholic hostage. He hijacked a black taxi, which one of his men drove to the [[Falls Road, Belfast|Falls Road]]. Joseph Donegan, a middle-aged Catholic on his way home, hailed the vehicle and got in. Murphy immediately attacked the man as the taxi was driven back to the safety of the Shankill area. At a house owned by Murphy in Brookmount Street, Donegan was tortured sadistically by Murphy, who according to Dillon, pulled out all but three of his teeth with pliers. Murphy's associate, Tommy Stewart, battered Donegan to death with a shovel. "Mr. A" was party to these events. Murphy telephoned a prominent Catholic politician, Cormac Boomer, to demand that Cochrane be set free. Murphy ordered that Donegan's body be removed from his house, but the plan was disturbed by passers-by and the victim had to be dumped in an entry behind the house. After discovery of the body on the morning of Monday 25 October, Murphy and two others were arrested; but without evidence that Murphy had been party to this crime, it was not possible to charge him. Cochrane's body was found a week later.<ref name="Donegan">Dillon, pp. 295–311</ref>

Murphy was assassinated by a [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|Provisional IRA]] hit squad early in the evening of Tuesday 16 November 1982 outside the back of his girlfriend's house in the [[Glencairn, Belfast|Glencairn]] estate (where four of the Butchers' cut-throat victims had been dumped). No sooner had he parked his car than two gunmen emerged from a van that had been following him and fired a hail of more than twenty bullets, killing him instantly. After several days' speculation as to those responsible for the shooting, the IRA issued a statement claiming responsibility for what it termed Murphy's "execution":

<blockquote>Lenny Murphy (master butcher) has been responsible for the horrific murders of over 20 innocent Nationalists in the Belfast area and a number of Protestants. The IRA has been aware for some time that since his release recently from prison, Murphy was attempting to re-establish a similar murder gang to that which he led in the mid-1970s and, in fact, he was responsible for a number of the recent sectarian murders in the Belfast area. The IRA takes this opportunity to restate its policy of non-sectarian attacks, while retaining its right to take unequivocal action against those who direct or motivate sectarian slaughter against the Nationalist population.<ref name="Provos">[http://fenian32.blogspot.com/2005_11_13_archive.html "Remembering the Past – IRA executed Butchers' leader"], Saoirse32 website</ref></blockquote>

The location of the murder, in a loyalist stronghold, and the timing of the shooting to coincide with Murphy's movements suggested the IRA received help from UVF members who deemed Murphy "out of control" or, equally plausibly, that information had been given by an enemy of Murphy. Dillon suggests that [[James Craig (loyalist)|Jim Craig]], a leading [[Ulster Defence Association]] (UDA) commander whose protection rackets had made him rich and feared in equal measure, fit the description. He was known to have clashed with Murphy on the latter's release from prison earlier that year and may have wanted him out of the picture. In support of this theory, Craig was later executed by his UDA colleagues for "treason", an inquiry having found some evidence of his part in the murder of other top loyalists by republicans.<ref name="McKittrick">McKittrick, p. 924.</ref>

Murphy's family denied he had had a violent nature or was involved with the Butchers: "My Lenny could not have killed a fly", said his mother Joyce.<ref name="mother">''News Letter'', 18 November 1982</ref> She accused the police of continual harassment of her son since his recent release from prison and said that he was planning to leave the country as soon as his divorce came through. The UVF gave Murphy a paramilitary funeral attended by thousands of loyalists and several unionist politicians, at which "Mr. A" and John Murphy played leading roles.<ref name="funeral">''Jordan, p. 194</ref> On his gravestone in Carnmoney cemetery were inscribed the words: "Here Lies a Soldier".<ref name="tombstone">Dillon, p. 262</ref> [[May Blood, Baroness Blood|Baroness Blood]], a Shankill Road community representative, said: "My father was a soldier. My father fought in two World Wars. They were real heroes. Lenny Murphy wasn't a hero; he was a murdering thug".<ref>Interview in the documentary "The Shankill Butchers", by Stephen Nolan, BBC Northern Ireland, broadcast 28 Mar 2011</ref> Murphy's headstone was smashed in 1989 and had to be replaced.<ref name="McKittrick"/>