the killings of Marchant and the other two: Lenny Murphy and John Bingham. Although the inquiry revealed that Marchant – as well as Murphy and Bingham – had quarrelled with powerful West Belfast UDA fund-raiser James Pratt Craig before their deaths, the UVF Brigade Staff did not consider the evidence sufficient to warrant an attack against Craig, who ran a large protection racket. According to Dillon, Marchant had been due to meet Craig outside "The Eagle" before he was shot dead. Instead of getting out of the car at the chip shop where Marchant waited, Craig got out at the Inter-City furniture shop on the corner of Conway Street. There he engaged in conversation with another person for five minutes. Within the five minutes, Marchant was gunned down just 50 yards away. In October 1988, Craig was shot to death in an East Belfast pub by the UDA (using their cover name Ulster Freedom Fighters) for "treason", claiming that he had been involved in the death of UDA leader John McMichael, who was blown up the previous December in a booby-trap car bomb planted by the IRA. In his book The Red Hand, Professor Steve Bruce disputes the claim that Craig was involved in Marchant's death and quotes another (anonymous) UVF member who stated that Marchant was "like a bloody cigar store Indian", spending long periods standing outside the PUP headquarters taking to various people. At the junction of Spier's Place and the Shankill Road, there is a mural and memorial plaque commemorating Marchant. References Bibliography Taylor, Peter (1999). Loyalists. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.; Dillon, Martin (1989). The Shankill Butchers: the real story of cold-blooded mass murder. New York: Routledge Tiernan, Joe (2000). The Dublin Bombings and the Murder Triangle. Ireland: Mercier Press Ulster Volunteer Force members Paramilitaries from Belfast 1948 births 1987 deaths Ulster loyalists interned without trial Deaths by firearm in Northern Ireland People killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army