2023 Getty Images. Despite his conversion to Christianity, Somerville remained virulently anti-Catholic and he strongly opposed the Good Friday Agreement. Following the explosion pandemonium broke out among the remaining gunmen; shouting obscenities, they started shooting the dazed band members, who had all been blown down into the field below the level of the road from the force of the blast. [7] At the time of the attack the Mid-Ulster Brigade was commanded by Robin Jackson, also known as "The Jackal". Ray Millar, the band's drummer, was not with them as he had chosen to go to his home town of Antrim to spend the night with his parents. The Historical Enquiries Team investigated the killings and released their report to the victims' families in December 2011. [81] Martin Dillon maintained in The Dirty War that the Miami Showband attack was planned weeks before at a house in Portadown, and the person in charge of the overall operation was a former UDR man, whom Dillon referred to for legal reasons as "Mr. The Miami Showband reformed in 2008, with Stephen Travers, Des McAlea, and Ray Millar, plus new members. No one coerced me. Forensic photography, or the practice of taking photos at the scene of a crime, has been around for over a century. In this adult animated comedy, Elvis trades his jumpsuit for a jetpack when he joins a secret spy program to stop villains from destroying the world. Over the following month, there were two similar attacks in the area. [58] He was later shot dead in Portadown on 25 January 1976, allegedly by Jackson for having informed the RUC about Thomas Crozier's participation in the attack. [80] The same panel revealed that about six weeks before the attack, Thomas Crozier, Jackson and the latter's brother-in-law Samuel Fulton Neill, were arrested for the possession of four shotguns. 1,453 Vintage Crime Scene Photos Premium High Res Photos Browse 1,453 vintage crime scene photos stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. A child of Northern Ireland's Troubles recalls that fateful night when The Miami Showband was ambushed by the Ulster Volunteer Force on this day in 1975. . The meeting was arranged by Rev. According to Martin Dillon, the order to shoot was given by the patrol's apparent leader, James McDowell,[36] to eliminate witnesses to the bogus checkpoint and subsequent bombing. I did what I did. [55] Robin Jackson died of cancer on 30 May 1998, aged 49. Unlike Jackson, Somerville was arrested in the wake of the Miami atrocity, but he refused to make a statement and was released without charge. [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. 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. He was one of the men taken in by the RUC in August 1975 and questioned as a suspect in the killings, but was released without charge. On 15 October 1976, Crozier and McDowell both received life sentences for the Miami Showband murders. The Glenanne gang was a loose alliance of loyalist extremists allegedly operating under the command of British Military Intelligence and/or RUC Special Branch. 3/2/2023 1:00 AM PT. While the Miami is synonymous, for many, with the atrocity, the musical tells the whole story of the band, Lynch says, from when it re-formed in 1967, and Fran O'Toole and Des Lee first joined . It was released under the heading Ulster Central Intelligence Agency Miami Showband Incident Report:[20][48][42]. [56], Within 12 hours of the attack, the UVF's Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership based on the Shankill Road) issued a statement. 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[88], Travers travelled to Belfast in 2006 for a secret meeting with the second-in-command of the UVF's Brigade Staff, in an attempt to come to terms with the killing of his former colleagues and friends. But as the death toll mounted, so did Somerville's drinking. Findings in a report carried out by the PSNI's Historic Enquiries Team into the Miami atrocity stated that there was fingerprint evidence linking Robin Jackson to the attack. Jackson was never charged with the Miami atrocity. [35], On 22 January 1976, a second UDR soldier, Sergeant James Roderick Shane McDowell (aged 29, an optical worker, also from Lurgan) was arrested and charged with the Miami killings. [68] McDowell had pleaded guilty. [19] The Irish Times reported that on the night following the attack, the British ambassador Sir Arthur Galsworthy was summoned to hear the Government of Ireland's strong feelings regarding the murder of the three band members. The Miami Showband killings (also called the Miami Showband massacre)[1] was an attack on 31 July 1975 by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group. [47] The RT programme Today Tonight aired a documentary in 1987 in which it claimed that former UVF associates of Harris Boyle revealed to the programme's researchers that Nairac had deliberately detonated the bomb to eliminate Boyle, with whom he had carried out the Green killing. The dead bombers were named by the UVF, in a statement issued within 12 hours of the attack. [40] Three of the musicians were killed: lead singer Fran O'Toole, trumpeter Brian McCoy, and guitarist Tony Geraghty. In 1978, he became a born-again Christian. 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. [81] Neill's car was one of those allegedly used in the Buskhill attack. The attack was carried out by loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and took place while the group, a popular cabaret band, were travelling home to Dublin after a performance. [25] As McCoy rolled down the window and produced his driving licence, gunmen came up to the minibus and one of them said in a Northern Irish accent, "Goodnight, fellas. Krijg toegang tot het beste van Getty Images met ons eenvoudige abonnement. But he quit when the Troubles erupted on the streets of Belfast and Derry in the autumn of 1969. [3] The UVF would be once more banned by the British government on 3 October 1975. They subsequently set up a roadblock with "all the trappings of a regular military checkpoint". [31] Travers described McCoy as a "sophisticated, father-type figure. It took place on the A1 road at Buskhill in County Down, Northern Ireland. [22][91] It was revealed in Peter Taylor's book Loyalists that "the Craftsman" had been instrumental in bringing about the 1994 Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) ceasefire. Two of the gunmen were attempting to plant a time bomb on the vehicle, when it prematurely exploded and killed them.