controlled by Murphy. The two pubs were a quarter of a mile apart from one another. Police from Nesbitt's C Division found Shaw's body in a back street off the Shankill several hours after he'd been killed. After the examination of the Shankill taxis failed to obtain results, Nesbitt called in all the informers C Division used in West Belfast and even arrested a senior UVF member on false pretexts to offer him a deal in exchange for information; but nobody was able to tell him anything about the perpetrators. He then launched a potentially risky plan to entrap the killers which he codenamed "Operation Knife Edge". The plan involved putting plainclothes RUC men on the streets at night and having them behave as if they were drunk in the hope of luring the murderers. Although the policemen were placed in streets where the "Butchers" usually abducted their victims and were closely observed by detectives in nearby cars, the "Butchers" gang never approached them. Despite Murphy being taken into police custody after attempting to kill two Catholic women in a drive-by shooting in March 1976, the killings continued with Murphy issuing orders to the other gang members on their visits to Crumlin Road Prison. He would later (11 October 1977) be sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment at the Maze on a firearms charge. On 1 August 1976 Cornelius Neeson (49) was fatally stabbed to death; on 30 October Queens University student Stephen McCann (20) fell victim to the gang and in February and March 1977 two more Catholic men (Joseph Morrissey and Francis Cassidy) were slain. As Moore had earlier been ordered by Murphy to dispose of his black taxi, he subsequently bought a yellow Ford Cortina which was used in lieu of the taxi to abduct the victims. Breakthrough Nesbitt finally received his first breakthrough in cracking the case when their last victim, Gerard McLaverty survived a "Butchers" attack. On 10 May 1977, he was abducted and taken to a disused doctor's surgery on the corner of Emerson Street and the Shankill. Once inside, he was subjected to a vicious beating, and was stabbed, partially strangled and had his wrists cut. Although his assailants dumped him in an alleyway – believing him to be dead – he had in fact survived and Nesbitt was notified of this crime which bore all of the hallmarks of the Shankill Butchers, save