How the RUC ended the Glenanne Gang’s murderous reign of terror

The ex-RUC sergeant has also spoken to the News Letter to remind the public that it was the determined efforts of police investigators that led to dozens of convictions and the end of the 1970s killing spree.

Although popularly labelled the ‘Glenanne Gang’ many years after a series of UVF atrocities – carried out mainly across Co Armagh and Co Tyrone – the former officer said he believes separate UVF units were responsible, making their activities more difficult to track.

A number of those jailed for murder and other terrorist offences were serving members of the police and Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR).

The story is back in the news in 2019 following the release of the feature length documentary ‘Unquiet Graves’. The film is directed by Sean Murray, son of senior Sinn Fein strategist Sean ‘Spike’ Murray.

The ex-officer said: “For all the talk of collusion, it was the RUC, and the RUC alone, that brought them to book, but you don’t hear much talk about that.”

The former police sergeant, who does not wish to be named, worked with ex-officers John Weir and Billy McCaughey who were convicted of murdering Catholic man William Strathearn in Ahoghill in 1977.

He also recalls how a domestic violence incident pressured McCaughey into revealing his murderous double life – helping end the killers’ reign on terror.

The ex-sergeant said: “It was the RUC that investigated, charged them and brought dozens of them, including some police officers, to court. They got guilty pleas out of them. That’s more than most victims got, including 202 of my murdered colleagues whose families never got justice.”

He said: “People talk about the ‘Glenanne Gang’ but I worked in various stations across north and south Armagh and it was clear to me that different paramilitary groups were operating in Lurgan, Armagh and Portadown, although there was probably some overlap to make it harder to track them down.

“When you look at the numbers convicted for those terrorist attacks, the RUC was successfully prosecuting more people in that area than just about anywhere else. It’s a tragedy for the victims but thankfully there were quite a few killers brought to justice.”

The retired officer said Weir and McCaughey were treated with a degree of suspicion by their fellow officers, but said the pair’s anti-social personalities meant their colleagues didn’t know much about their lives outside of work.

“We were horrified when the scale of what had been happening came out, but I can’t say I was totally surprised when I found out who was involved,” he said.

“I first met McCaughey when I was stationed in Lurgan but he was then transferred to Armagh.

“I also knew Weir who was a sergeant in Newry. We all would have attended the various training courses together, and you could tell there was something about him – I didn’t think he wasn’t 100%.

“I knew a bit more about McCaughey than Weir and I always felt there was something nasty about him.”

Recalling the night McCaughey was arrested following a domestic violence incident, his former colleague said: “I was stationed in Craigavon and at that time McCaughey was living in the Burnside estate.

“He was still serving in the police at that time. Once a formal complaint was made we were told to find him and arrest him.

“We knew there was something more sinister going on behind the scenes with McCaughey because Inspector Frank Murray had been briefed and told us to take him straight to Castlereagh [interrogation centre] when we found him. I took off in a car and got him in pub across the road from the old Lurgan police station,” he said.

“When I told him he was going to Castlereagh on the instruction of Frank Murray he nearly had a heart attack. Looking back I had a feeling that F T Murray must have had him in his sights over a murder. On the way to Castlereagh it was fairly clear he was petrified...and he obviously buckled when he got there.”

Commenting on claims made by Weir in ‘Unquiet Graves’ – including that British intelligence operatives had urged the UVF to attack a Catholic primary school so the country would “spiral out of control” – the ex-sergeant said Weir had a terrible spite against police.

“Weir is a smart man in some regards in that he only seems to name dead people who can’t defend their reputations, or at least explain their own version of events,” he said.

“Whenever he got out of prison he went to Canada and then at some point started issuing outlandish statements.

“These got him some publicity and I think he likes that sort of thing.”

Weir has lived in a number of countries since his release from prison in 1992 but has settled in South Africa.

His former colleague said: “It’s ridiculous that people are hanging on every word Weir says like he’s a credible witness.

“He obviously has a terrible spite against the police for getting him put away for so long.”

• The use of a farm near Markethill to store weapons and explosives led to several UVF-linked grouping becoming collectively known as the ‘Glenanne Gang’.

The farm was owned by James Mitchell who served as a police reservist between 1974 and 1977.

In total, the various terror gangs have been linked to up to 120 murders in nearly 90 incidents across mid-Ulster and the Armagh border area between 1972 and 1978 – including the murder of three Miami Showband members, the Step Inn pub bombing in Keady killing two people, and a bomb blast at the Hillcrest Bar, Dungannon which claimed four lives.