Serial killers aren’t just an American thriller on Netflix. These are five of the most notorious Irish serial killers of all-time.
“I am down on whores and I shan’t quit ripping them till I do get buckled. My knife’s so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance. Good luck.”
The above lines were reportedly written by the worlds most notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper.
While Jack the Ripper was London based the Island of Ireland has also been plagued by serial killers and many of the worlds most notorious killers had strong Irish roots down through the centuries and even in more contemporary times.
In this feature, journalist Ger Leddin looks at five of them.
- Serial killers aren’t just an American thriller on Netflix. These are five of the most notorious Irish serial killers of all-time.
- Meanwhile in Ireland’s overview of the most notorious Irish serial killers
- 1. Geoffrey Evans and John Shaw – a sickening pair
- 2. Shankhill Butchers – a murderous loyalist paramilitary gang
- 3. Darkey Kelly – considered Ireland’s first serial killer
- 4. Jane Kelly Toppan – one of the most notorious Irish serial killers of all time
- 5. Timothy McVeigh – the Oklahoma City bomber
- Your questions answered about the most notorious Irish serial killers of all time
Meanwhile in Ireland’s overview of the most notorious Irish serial killers
- The Shankill Butchers are said to have killed 23 innocent people during their reign of terror in Northern Ireland. At least six of whom were Protestants and the remainder being Catholic.
- John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans originally came to Ireland from England to escape British police. It was after serving time in an Irish prison that they committed their heinous acts on Irish soil.
- Darkey Kelly ran a brothel known as Maiden’s Tower in Fishamble Street in Dublin. She is widely regarded as Ireland’s first serial killer.
- Timothy McVeigh is also known as the ‘Oklahoma City bomber’. He was an American with Irish ancestry, and the bomb he detonated killed over 160 people.
- Another Irish-American was the nurse Jane Toppan, who eventually confessed to the murders of 31 different people.
1. Geoffrey Evans and John Shaw – a sickening pair
Along with his partner John Shaw, Geoffrey Evans came to Ireland from the UK in 1974. They were both wanted by the British police on rape charges.
Some of the most evil men Ireland has ever seen, they were arrested by Gardaí in Cork and served eighteen months in prison, thus avoiding British prosecution. The crimes committed would have would not have rendered them out of place in any of the toughest prisons in Ireland.
On their release in 1976, they vowed to commit one murder a week. They began their sick adventure in August of that year with the abduction, repeated rape and murder of Elizabeth Plunkett, a twenty-three-year-old foreign exchange clerk from Ringsend in Dublin.
The pair had met Elizabeth at Brittas Bay County Wicklow and offered her a lift home. They drove the girl to Castletimon Wood where they raped her repeatedly before strangling her to death.
During the following month, September, the pair travelled to Castlebar, County Mayo where they abducted Mary Duffy, a 24-year-old cook who was trying to arrange a lift home.
Mary was brutally beaten and raped in the back of the car before the two men drove to Ballynahinch in Connemara. Here, she was tied to a tree for a number of hours while again being repeatedly raped before being murdered.
Unknown to Evans and Shaw, their car had been seen at the scene and was later identified by Gardaí. Shaw and Evans were later found and arrested and after full confessions, committed to prison on life sentences.
Evans suffered ill health while in prison and after a long illness died behind bars in 2012.
Read more: Check out our article on the top 10 most dangerous criminals behind bars in Ireland, ranked
2. Shankhill Butchers – a murderous loyalist paramilitary gang
The Shankhill Butchers was the name given by the press and by the security forces to a notorious Loyalist paramilitary gang which operated outside the law in Northern Ireland during the late seventies up to 1985.
Based in the Shankhill area of Belfast they are said to have been responsible for the horrific deaths of twenty-three people, mainly Catholic but including at least six Protestants.
Many of the victims were targeted in Catholic areas of the city and snatched from the streets before being cruelly tortured and killed, often hacked to death with hatchets. On some occasions, a black-taxi was used as a mode of transport by the killers in their abductions.
In 1979 several of the gang members were identified, caught and faced court for their actions. However, their the gang leader, Lenny Murphy, escaped prosecution.
Murphy was later targeted by the IRA and killed in November 1982. Some sources say that the IRA were given information on Murphy’s location and habits by sections within loyalist groupings. They were said to be growing tired of Murphy’s sick acts.
A Trial Judge at one of the cases said “the killings brought a new level of paramilitary and sectarian violence to Northern Ireland and was a lasting monument to sectarian bigotry”.
You can watch a great documentary about the Shankill Butchers here:
3. Darkey Kelly – considered Ireland’s first serial killer
Dorchas Kelly was more commonly known by her working name Darkey and she is considered to be Ireland’s first serial killer.
Darkey ran what was known as the Maiden Tower, a brothel on Dublin’s Fishamble Street. During 1760 she was suspected of killing a local shoemaker, John Dowling and investigating police found the bodies of five men hidden in the basement of her brothel.
It wasn’t a straightforward case, however. Rumours abounded around Dublin that Kelly had, in fact, become pregnant with the child of the then Dublin Sheriff Simon Luttrell, 1st Earl of Carhampton, who was a well-known member of the Hellfire Club.
The rumours stated that Kelly had demanded money from Luttrell who is said to have abducted the baby and killed it during a Hellfire Club Satanic ritual.
Kelly was charged and convicted of witchcraft, partially hanged then burned at the stake on what is now called Baggot Street in the city.
More: Read Meanwhile in Ireland’s chilling article on five of Ireland’s most brutal passion crimes ever
4. Jane Kelly Toppan – one of the most notorious Irish serial killers of all time
Jane Toppan was an Irish/American nurse nicknamed Jolly Jane. She was arrested in Massachusetts in 1901 and subsequently confessed to the murders of 31 people.
Toppan worked as a private nurse and would alternate between giving her elderly patients injections of morphine which slows the body. Then atropine, which wakes it up and keeping them in a state between life and death. It was mentioned during her trial that she would often climb into her victim’s bed with them as she carried out her “Angel of Mercy” murders.
She confessed that he enjoyed as she put it “the back and forth” between life and death. Her ambition was “to have killed more people—helpless people—than any other man or woman who ever lived.”
On June 23, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed for life in the Taunton Insane Hospital. She died on October 29, 1938, aged 84.
5. Timothy McVeigh – the Oklahoma City bomber
Timothy McVeigh, better known as the Oklahoma City bomber, planned and planted the bomb which killed 168 people and injured over 680 others at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States on April 19, 1995. McVeigh was aided by an accomplice, Terry Nichols.
McVeigh, while American born had very strong Irish connections and ancestry. He was the only son and the second of three children of Irish Americans Mildred “Mickey” Noreen (née Hill) and William McVeigh. After the divorce of his parents when he was ten years old he was raised by his father in Pendleton, New York.
McVeigh was obsessed with firearms and believed that the American Government totally misused its power over the common people.
A Gulf War veteran who while in the military used much of his spare time to read about firearms, sniper tactics, and explosives. He was once reprimanded by the military for purchasing a “White Power” T-shirt at a Ku Klux Klan protest against black servicemen who wore “Black Power” T-shirts around a military base.
McVeigh spoke of his experiences during Operation Desert Storm where he admitted to decapitating an Iraqi soldier with cannon fire on his first day on active service. He later said he was shocked to be ordered to execute surrendering prisoners and to see carnage on the road leaving Kuwait City after U.S. troops routed the Iraqi army.
On leaving the army McVeigh took up a job working at a lakeside campground near his old Army post, where he and Nichols constructed an ANNM explosive device mounted in the back of a rented Ryder truck. The bomb consisted of about 5,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate and nitromethane.
On April 19, 1995, McVeigh drove the truck to the front of the Federal Building. At 09:02, a large explosion destroyed the north half of the building killing168 people, including nineteen children who were in the day care centre on the second floor.
The bomb was fuse ignited leaving the bombers plenty of time to escape.
McVeigh later claimed that he had no knowledge that the federal offices ran a day-care centre on the second floor of the building. Nichols said that he and McVeigh knew there was a day-care centre in the building, and that they did not care.
McVeigh was traced from the original truck rental documentation, arrested and stood trial. He was found guilty on several charges on June the second 1997. He later received the death penalty and was executed by lethal injection at 7:14 a.m. on June 11, 2001, at the U.S. Federal Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
More: Read our article on the 10 most notorious laws the English brought to Ireland
Your questions answered about the most notorious Irish serial killers of all time
Read our article on the most notorious Irish serial killers of all time and still have some questions left unanswered? Understandable, so we have you covered! In this section, we have compiled some of the most frequently asked questions about this gruesome topic.
Has there ever been an Irish serial killer?
Yes, as is clear from this article, there have been numerous Irish serial killers. Another would be Kieran Kelly, a native of Co. Laois. However, in London in the 1950s he killed more than 30 people.
What was the worst crime ever committed in Ireland?
Ireland is a nation that has been afflicted by occupation, oppression, war and strife. So it is very difficult to pin down the worst crime ever. In 1974, the Dublin-Monaghan bombings killed 33 innocent civilians and injured over 300 more. This was worst single attack during ‘The Troubles’.
What serial killer last name was Ireland?
Colin Ireland was a British serial killer who was also known as gay slayer. He killed five different people, all of whom were gay.
What is the most violent town in Ireland?
Ireland is a safe country, and has been recognised as such by many international standards. However, perhaps the most violent town in Ireland would be Limerick.