James Craig (loyalist)

James Craig
James Craig
Born	James Pratt Craig c. 1941 Northern Ireland
Died	15 October 1988 (aged 46–47) Belfast, Northern Ireland
Cause of death	Multiple gunshot wounds
Nationality	British
Other names	Jim
Known for	Ulster Defence Association (UDA) fund-raiser and Inner Council member racketeer

James Pratt "Jim" Craig (c. 1941 – 15 October 1988) was a Northern Irish loyalist, who served as a fund-raiser for the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and sat on its Inner Council. He also ran a large protection racket from the West Belfast Shankill Road area, where he lived. Described by journalist David McKittrick as "Belfast's foremost paramilitary extortionist", Craig allegedly colluded with republican organisations such as the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), providing them with information on key loyalists which led to their assassinations. Aside from controlling rackets and extorting protection money from a variety of businesses, it was claimed that Craig also participated in killings.

He was accused by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) of setting up the assassinations of some of their key members by IRA hit squads, such as Shankill Butcher Lenny Murphy, John Bingham, and William "Frenchie" Marchant in the 1980s. Craig was killed by the UDA, using their cover name of the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), for alleged "treason" as it was believed he had passed information to the IRA regarding South Belfast UDA brigadier John McMichael, who was blown up in an IRA booby-trap car bomb in December 1987. Craig was shot dead in The Castle Inn, a pub in Beersbridge Road, East Belfast. An elderly pensioner was also killed by stray gunfire.

James Pratt Craig, known as Jim, was born in Northern Ireland in or around 1941 and grew up in an Ulster Protestant family on the Shankill Road. In the early 1970s, Craig, a former boxer, was sent to the Maze Prison for a criminal offence unrelated to paramilitary activities. While serving his sentence at the Maze he joined the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), and he was asked by the organisation's commander at the time, Charles Harding Smith to take control of the UDA prisoners inside, on account of his reputation as a "hard man".

...
Wikipedia