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Jackson informed Frazer that John Somerville was due for release. 2023 Getty Images. Miami showband massacre Stock Photos and Images [62] One report says it was stopped at a fake British Army checkpoint. The Miami Showband - Wikipedia Date: 12th November 1941 Means: Assassinated. The scene of the Miami Showband massacre Somerville would never. Other photographs in the set show similar injuries to all four limbs, his buttocks and face. The scene of the Miami Showband Killings on the A1 road at Buskhill in County Down, Northern Ireland, 31st July 1975. Lightly built and standing less than 5ft 7in, he wasn't a stereotypical loyalist killer. Driven by a personal tragedy, a pianist-turned-lawyer navigates the complex world of divorce fighting for his clients to win by any means necessary. He served in C Company, 11th Battalion UDR. I got them with dum-dums". The Officers and Agents of the Ulster Central Intelligence Agency commend the UVF on their actions and tender their deepest sympathy to the relatives of the two Officers who died while attempting to remove the bomb from the minibus. Site of the massacre; a commemorative plaque shows where the band's minibus was parked in the lay-by. He was also one of the prime suspects in the sectarian killing of Dorothy Traynor on 1 April 1975 in Portadown. Viewing autopsy photographs of her battered body in court on Tuesday, she became teary and asked to take a break. The other gunmen then started shooting the dazed band members, killing three and wounding two. View On One Page Photo 22 of 51 ADVERTISEMENT () Start Slideshow . [62] The attack was blamed on loyalists; Lost Lives an account of every death in the conflict states that reliable loyalist sources have confirmed the UVF was responsible. [53] The three convicted UVF men, although admitting to having been at the scene, denied having shot anyone. Survivors Stephen Travers and Des McAlea were both present at the unveiling, as was the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, who made a tribute. As Maguire continued ahead, up the by-pass toward Newry, he noticed a blue Triumph 2000 pulling-out from where it had been parked in a lay-by. After meeting a new woman, Somerville settled on the Shankill and for a while he worked in the Harland and Wolff shipyard. According to former Intelligence Corps agent Captain Fred Holroyd, the killings were organised by British intelligence officer Robert Nairac, together with the UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade and its commander Robin "the Jackal" Jackson. 1.6K. [72][73] Surviving band members Stephen Travers and Des McAlea told police and later testified in court that a British Army officer with a "crisp, clipped English accent" oversaw the attack, the implication being that this was Nairac. Miami Showband massacre survivors and relatives to get 1.5m in damages 'I wake up to these murders every day of my life,' band member Des McAlea tells court Expand The Miami Showband (from. They asked him if he recognised it or could he identify it. However, the officers suspected that the checkpoint was fake. They subsequently set up a roadblock with "all the trappings of a regular military checkpoint". Miami Showband massacre: Survivor appeals to trace couple Medical examiner cries as graphic autopsy photos of Cherish Perrywinkle [4], The killings shocked both Northern Ireland and Ireland and put a serious strain on Anglo-Irish relations. [21][84], Former British soldier and writer Ken Wharton published in his book Wasted Years, Wasted Lives, Volume 1, an alternative theory that was suggested to him by loyalist paramilitarism researcher Jeanne Griffin; this was that the ambush was planned by Robin Jackson as an elaborate means of eliminating trumpet player Brian McCoy. Aged 70, he died of cancer of the kidney. [79] and that none of the perpetrators ever offered him an apology. [100] According to the report, Jackson had claimed during police interrogations that after the shootings, a senior RUC officer had advised him to "lie low". The incident had an adverse effect on the Irish showband scene, with many of the bands afraid to play in Northern Ireland. O'Toole and McCoy were both married; each had two children. [30][32], McCoy, son of the Orange Order's Grand Master for County Tyrone,[33] had close relatives in the security forces; his brother-in-law was a former member of the B Specials which had been disbanded in 1970. One of the first famous crime scene photos was taken on May 5, 1903, in the home of a Parisian woman named Madame Debeinche who had been murdered. On This Day: The Miami Showband Massacre in Co Down Pinnwnde sind ideal zum Speichern von Bildern und Videoclips. The scene of the Miami Showband killings in County Down, Northern Ireland, on 31 July 1975. [4][18][28][29] As Crozier took down the information, a car pulled up and another uniformed man appeared on the scene. The six-strong group were one of the biggest acts on the Irish music scene throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The scene of the Miami Showband killings in County Down, Northern Ireland, on 31 July 1975. The attack was carried out by. [19], The 1975 line-up comprised four Catholics and two Protestants. Miami Showband: Massacre devastated Northern Ireland live music scene One of these men, Lance-Corporal Thomas Raymond Crozier (aged 25, a painting contractor from Lurgan) of C Company, 11th Battalion UDR was charged with the Miami killings. According to RT, "Their families were in deep mourning and Ireland mourned with them". The two men were found shot dead nearby. Profitieren Sie von der globalen Reichweite, datengesttzten Erkenntnissen und einem Netzwerk von ber 340.000 Content-Anbietern von Getty Images, die exklusiv fr Ihre Marke Inhalte erstellen. Griffin goes on to add that the bogus checkpoint was set up not only to plant the bomb on board the van but to ensure the presence of McCoy which would have been confirmed when he handed over his driving licence to the gunmen. Travers had described the English-accented man as having been of normal height and thought he had fair hair, but was not certain. UVF serial killer John Somerville told how detectives repeatedly tried to persuade him to become Special Branch tout and avoid jail, No remorse: Miami Showband killer John Somerville. The three men were sent to serve their sentence in the Maze Prison, on the outskirts of Lisburn. Weir's affidavit implicating Robin Jackson in a number of attacks including the 1974 Dublin bombings was published in the 2003 Barron Report; the findings of an official investigation into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings commissioned by Irish Supreme Court Judge Henry Barron. And nearer home, they carried out five operations in one day in the Moy and Stewartstown. Everybody was respectful to Brian". Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for DISC 2 REPLACEMENT ONLY CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Miami 7th Season DVD 2008 at the best online prices at eBay! [101], A Netflix documentary titled ReMastered: The Miami Showband Massacre was released 22 March 2019, highlighting the efforts of Steve Travers to track down who authorized the attack, for what purposes, and to get an admission of culpability.[102][103]. DISC 2 REPLACEMENT ONLY CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Miami 7th Season The band was travelling home to Dublin late at night after a performance in Banbridge. [21][22], Their music was described as "contemporary and trans-Atlantic", with no reference to the Northern Ireland conflict. Halfway to Newry, their minibus was stopped at what appeared to be a military checkpoint where gunmen in British Army uniforms ordered them to line up by the roadside. And two years later when he was scooped in an RUC raid in Dungannon on September 26, 1980, he made a detailed confession outlining his involvement in numerous UVF murders. [19], In 1994, Eric Smyth, a former UDR member and the husband of Brian McCoy's sister, Sheila, was killed by the IRA. How are things? Our source also claimed John Somerville told him that in an attempt to break him, a police officer entered the interrogation room carrying a severed human arm in a plastic bag. Notorious loyalist serial killer Robin Jackson. [4][21], The jocular mood of the gunmen abruptly ceased. After receiving radio confirmation that there were no authorised checkpoints in the area that night, they reported the incident and requested help from the British Army to investigate it, but no action was taken. Among the large crowd he spotted Billy McCaughey, a former police sergeant and convicted killer who had named his UVF accomplices to investigating detectives. [4] He spoke with an educated English accent and immediately took charge, ordering a man who appeared to have been the leader of the patrol to tell Crozier to obtain their names and dates of birth instead of addresses. They were: lead vocalist and keyboard player Fran O'Toole, 28, Catholic; guitarist Anthony (Tony) Geraghty, 24, Catholic, from Dublin; trumpeter Brian McCoy, 32, Protestant, from Caledon, County Tyrone; saxophonist Des McAlea (a.k.a. [4], In May 1974, unionists called a general strike to protest against the Sunningdale Agreement an attempt at power-sharing, setting up a Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland, which would have given the Government of Ireland a voice in running Northern Ireland. [55] Both the silencer and pistol which was later established to have been the same one used in the Miami Showband killings were found by the security forces at the home of Edward Sinclair. [37][38] This might have resulted in the Irish authorities enforcing tighter controls over the border, thus restricting IRA operations. [76] Retired diplomat Alistair Kerr wrote a biography of Nairac entitled "Betrayal: the Murder of Robert Nairac" published in 2015, which offers documentary evidence that clears Nairac of having been at Buskhill overseeing the attack. [12] Journalist Joe Tiernan suggested that Hanna was shot for refusing to participate in the Miami Showband attack and that he had become an informer for the Garda in exchange for immunity from prosecution for the Dublin bombings. The fledgling loyalist terror group didn't operate in established command areas and Somerville and Jackson were able to kill at will over a wide geographical area. Het ontwerp van Getty Images is een handelsmerk van Getty Images. Miami Showband massacre: UK government accused of 'lies' after 1.5m The dead bombers were named by the UVF, in a statement issued within 12 hours of the attack. Miami Showband massacre survivor 'privileged' the band's tragic story The scene of the Miami Showband Killings on the A1 road at Buskhill in County Down, Northern Ireland, 31st July 1975. Survivors and relatives of those murdered in the Miami Showband massacre are to receive nearly 1.5m (1.75m) in total damages to settle claims over . The scene of the Miami Showband Killings on the A1 road at Buskhill in County Down, Northern Ireland, 31st July 1975. [83] Journalists Kevin Dowling and Liam Collins in the Irish Independent however, suggested in their respective articles that Jackson had been the leader of the unit. A musician who survived the Miami showband massacre has, 40 years on, made an appeal to trace a young couple who helped him at the time. [98] In 2011, Journalist Kevin Myers denounced the attack with the following statement: "in its diabolical inventiveness against such a group of harmless and nave young men, it is easily one of the most depraved [of the Troubles]". [96], In a report on Nairac's alleged involvement in the massacre, published in the Sunday Mirror newspaper on 16 May 1999, Colin Wills called the ambush "one of the worst atrocities in the 30-year history of the Troubles". The Historical Enquiries Team investigated the killings and released their report to the victims' families in December 2011. They also discovered a stolen white Ford Escort registration number 4933 LZ,[43] which had been left behind by the gunmen, along with two guns, ammunition, green UDR berets and a pair of glasses later traced to James McDowell, the gunman who had allegedly ordered the shootings. The Luger was destroyed by the RUC on 28 August 1978. But two other UVF men, Thomas Crozier and James McDowell - both soldiers in the UDR - were jailed for life. [56], Within 12 hours of the attack, the UVF's Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership based on the Shankill Road) issued a statement. He was given a total of four life sentences (three for the murders of the Miami Showband members and one for the Falls murder) on 9 November 1981; he had pleaded not guilty. According to Kerr, on 31 July 1975 at 4 am Nairac had started out on a road journey from London to Scotland for a fishing holiday. [47] The UVF gunmen had worn green UDR berets, whereas the other man's had been lighter in colour. Harris Boyle and Wesley Somerville were given UVF paramilitary funerals conducted by Free Presbyterian minister William McCrea, a Democratic Unionist Party politician. [46][49] In 1993, Boyle was named by The Hidden Hand programme as one of the Dublin car bombers. Somerville would never have gone to prison if he'd agreed to work for the RUC. At 2.30am, their Volkswagen minibus was stopped at a bogus military checkpoint, where gunmen in British Army uniforms ordered the band members to line up by the roadside. It confirmed that Jackson was linked to the attack by fingerprints. 'Remastered: The Miami Showband Massacre' On Netflix Unmasks a Updated / Monday, 13 Dec 2021 22:28. "Des Lee"), 24, Catholic, from Belfast; bassist Stephen Travers, 24, Catholic, from Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary; and drummer Ray Millar, Protestant, from Antrim. More than 100 killings have been attributed to him by the Pat Finucane Centre, the Derry-based civil rights group.[15][17]. Miami Showband: Massacre devastated Northern Ireland live music scene Crime Scene Photos - Crime Online [55] Although ballistic testing had linked the Luger (for which the silencer had been specifically made) to the Miami Showband attack, Jackson was never questioned about the killings after his fingerprints had been discovered on the silencer, and the Miami inquiry team were never informed about these developments. Netflix fails to make sense of the Miami Showband Massacre McCoy's words, therefore, were taken seriously by the other band members, and anything he said was considered to be accurate. [21] He was replaced by Johnny Brown, who in turn was replaced by Dave Monks until Stephen Travers eventually became the band's permanent bass player. Ashford had been asked to leave the band in 1973, for complaining that performing in Northern Ireland put their lives at risk. [85], The Pat Finucane Centre has named the Miami Showband killings as one of the 87 violent attacks perpetrated by the Glenanne gang against the Irish nationalist community in the 1970s. Photograph: Independent News and Media/Getty Images [94][95], A mural and memorial plaque to Harris Boyle and Wesley Somerville is in the Killycomain Estate in Portadown, where Boyle had lived. And he wanted Frazer to ensure the Miami killer received any assistance he needed in adjusting to life on the outside. However, later forensics established that Boyle and Somerville were putting the bomb under the driver's seat and as it tilted on its side it detonated. Laat uw merk op authentieke wijze groeien door uw merkcontent te delen met de makers van het internet. Twenty minutes before - in what was clearly a co-ordinated operation - another loyalist killer gang made up of police officers and UDR soldiers launched a murder attack on the Reavey family home in Whitecross. "John said the cops told him there was no need for him to go to prison. 34575/04 by Sean McCartney against the United Kingdom: The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section)", "John Weir's Affadavit, Statement by John Weir 03.01.99", "On this day 15October: 1976: UDR men jailed for Showband killings", "Miami Showband massacre survivor shakes with anguish as he remembers his slain friends 40 years on", "Evidence clears Robert Nairac of murders he has been linked to: author", "MoD documents link Robert Nairac to Miami Showband massacre", "Statement of Miami Showband families and survivors in response to the findings of the Historical Enquiries Team into the murders of Anthony Geraghty, Brian McCoy and Francis O'Toole", "Day of 'The Jackal' has finally drawn to a close", "Robert Nairac in command at massacre says Miami guitarist", "Miami Showband Killer Dies at 70; UVF murderer Somerville found dead of cancer in his squalid flat", "Memorial to victims of Miami massacre to be unveiled in Dublin", "Miami Showband killings: Police tipoff helped suspect elude justice, says report", "Miami Showband massacre: HET raises collusion concerns", "Netflix fails to make sense of the Miami Showband Massacre", 'Remastered: The Miami Showband Massacre' On Netflix Unmasks a Conspiracy and False Flag Attack, Houses of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights, "Interim Report on the Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings [The Barron Report]", "Interim Report on the Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Bombing of Kay's Tavern, Dundalk", Interim reports (more detail than final reports) of Irish parliamentary inquiries, Ceasefires of the Provisional IRA, UVF, UDA and RHC, Murders of Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine, Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Miami_Showband_killings&oldid=1142010371, Improvised explosive device bombings in Northern Ireland, People killed by security forces during The Troubles (Northern Ireland), Articles with dead external links from April 2012, Articles with dead external links from May 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from July 2020, Articles with dead external links from February 2023, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 01:35. [99], The findings noted in the report confirmed Mid-Ulster UVF leader Robin Jackson's involvement and identified him as an RUC Special Branch agent. The band's road manager, Brian Maguire, had already gone ahead a few minutes earlier in the equipment van. [10][11] Hanna was named by former British Intelligence Corps operative Colin Wallace as having organised and led the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, along with Jackson. [50], The stolen Ford Escort belonged to a man from Portadown, who according to Captain Fred Holroyd, had links with one of the UVF bombers and David Alexander Mulholland the driver of the bomb car which had been left to explode in Parnell Street, Dublin, on 17 May 1974. He relayed all his instructions to the gunman in command. Those responsible for the attack belonged to the Glenanne gang, a secret alliance of loyalist militants, Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) police officers and UDR soldiers. 50 True-Crime Documentaries on Netflix | 2023 . It has been suggested that the bomb was meant to explode en route, so that the victim band members would appear to be Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb-smugglers and stricter security measures would be established at the border. Jackson was never charged with the Miami atrocity. It took place on the A1 road at Buskhill in County Down, Northern Ireland. It was his brother Wesley's arm," said the source. Chris Hudson, a former intermediary between the government of Ireland and the UVF, whose role was crucial to the Northern Ireland peace process. According to loyalists who knew him, Somerville turned down countless RUC Special Branch offers to work as a police agent. "Special Branch Agent colluded in Miami killings". He added that had the death penalty not been abolished, it would have been imposed in this case. [22], According to Peter Taylor, the Provisional IRA's gun and bomb attack on the loyalist Bayardo Bar in Belfast's Shankill Road on 13 August was in retaliation for the Miami Showband ambush. [47][71] In his first parliamentary speech on 7 July 1987, Ken Livingstone MP told the House of Commons, "it was likely" that Nairac had organised the attack. 1,453 Vintage Crime Scene Photos Premium High Res Photos - Getty Images Brian McCoy was the first to die, having been hit in the back and neck by nine rounds from a 9mm Luger pistol in the initial volley of gunfire. However, the flames from the burning hedge (which had been set on fire by the explosion) soon came dangerously close to where he lay; he was forced to leave his hiding spot. In a report published in the Sunday Mirror in 1999, Colin Wills called the Miami Showband attack "one of the worst atrocities in the 30-year history of the Troubles". The plaque describes them as having been "killed in action". Psychopath mass killer who shot Miami Showband singer 22 times in the [78], The band's road manager, Brian Maguire stated that when he drove away from Banbridge in the lead, a few minutes ahead of the band's minibus, he passed through security barriers manned by the RUC. [13] Dillon suggested that because there were a number of UDR members in the UVF, and were planned to be used for the Miami Showband ambush, Hanna was considered to have been a "security risk", and the UVF decided he had to be killed before he could alert the authorities. The conflict in Northern Ireland, known as "the Troubles", began in the late 1960s. The Mid-Ulster Battalion has been assisting the South Down-South Armagh units since the IRA Forkhill boobytrap which killed four British soldiers. Crozier had pleaded not guilty. [18][27] The unsuspecting band members got out and were politely told to line up facing the ditch at the rear of the minibus with their hands on their heads. Martin Dillon suggested in The Dirty War that at least five serving UDR soldiers were present at the checkpoint. She also thinks that had everything gone to plan once the bomb was planted in the van McCoy would have been instructed to drive through Newry where the bomb would have gone off and the UVF could then afterwards portray the Miami Showband as IRA members on a mission to blow up the local RUC barracks. The IRA said it killed him because of an alleged association with British Army officer and member of 14th Intelligence Company, Captain Robert Nairac, and claimed it was in possession of his diary, which had been stolen in Portadown.[61]. [66] RUC officer John Weir claims that UDR corporal and alleged UVF member Robert McConnell was involved in the attack. It also devastated the burgeoning live music scene in Northern Ireland.. Five members of the Dublin-based band were travelling home after a performance at the Castle Ballroom in Banbridge, County Down, on Thursday 31 July 1975. [18] More uniformed men appeared from out of the darkness, their guns pointed at the minibus. He was then machine-gunned 22 times, mostly in the face, as he lay supine on the ground. [4] Two men had been observed acting suspiciously inside the Castle Ballroom during the band's performance that night, suggesting that the Miami Showband's movements were being carefully monitored. And six years later - seconds before he was handed four life sentences - his voice boomed across the courtroom: "I'm being sent to prison because I wouldn't become an informer like the rest of them," he yelled at the trial judge. A Sunday World investigation into the Miami Showband atrocity has revealed the now deceased killer's assertion was true. Somerville said: "I'm not going to make excuses for my past. They Cloned Tyrone. I passed out when the explosion happened and that was when I lost the gun, the glasses, and a UDR beret. ReMastered: The Miami Showband Massacre (TV Movie 2019) - IMDb [9] According to authors Paul Larkin and Martin Dillon, Jackson was accompanied by Harris Boyle when he killed Hanna. "ReMastered: The Miami Showband . "Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights, Sub-Committee on the Barron Report", "The Miami Showband Massacre, 1975: A Survivor's Search for the Truth", "Miami Showband Massacre: Involvement of UVF Man Robin Jackson". How do you write a feelgood musical about the Miami Showband massacre Jackson was charged with possession of the silencer but not convicted, the trial judge having reportedly said: "At the end of the day I find that the accused somehow touched the silencer, but the Crown evidence has left me completely in the dark as to whether he did that wittingly or unwittingly, willingly or unwillingly". [44] None of the men ever named their accomplices, and the other UVF gunmen were never caught. [4], A continued allegation in the case has been the presence of Captain Robert Nairac at the scene. Days before the Miami attack, Robin Jackson murdered William Hanna, the UVF commander in mid-Ulster.
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