Turning to Stone — Life as a loyalist hitman
His lone gun and grenade attack on the funeral of an IRA man in 1988, in which he killed three mourners earned him a reputation as one of the most notorious loyalist killers. It also provided television images of one of the most savage attacks during 30 years of bloodshed in Northern Ireland.
His aim was to assassinate leading republican figures Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, who had gathered at Milltown Cemetery in west Belfast for the burial of three IRA activists shot dead in Gibraltar a week previously by Britain’s SAS.
Armed with hand grenades and two pistols, Stone missed his intended targets, but killed three other people, only one of whom was an IRA member, and injured 60 more, including pensioners and children.
He was eventually overpowered by mourners and would have been beaten to death had he not been dragged to safety and arrested by members of the RUC.
Images of a bearded Stone jogging through the cemetery firing indiscriminately at mourners were beamed around the world, and turned the Protestant militant into, respectively, a demonic figure for Catholic republicans and an icon to diehard loyalists.
In 1989, he received a 684-year sentence for six murders. While in custody for the Milltown attack he admitted to three other murders of men he claimed were IRA members but who were Catholic civilians.
He served less than 11 years. In July 2000, he was released from the Maze prison, along with hundreds of other convicted terrorist murderers, as part of the Good Friday Agreement.
He was greeted as a hero by loyalists and the jacket which he wore during the Milltown attack was auctioned for £10,000 at a Scottish loyalist club. One of Stone’s successors to the leadership of the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair, said Stone inspired him to join the group.
During his incarceration, he was the leader of the UFF and was visited by Mo Mowlam, the Northern Secretary, who reassured loyalist prisoners about the course of the peace process.
He has collaborated in the writing of two books about his life — one of the reasons why the British Government said earlier this month that it will introduce legislation to prevent criminals from profiting from their crimes.
Since leaving prison, Michael Stone has concentrated on making a living as an artist — a hobby he began in the Maze. His paintings are vivid and impressionistic and not so much political as topical. They fetch between a few hundred and a few thousand pounds each.
In 2004, he published his autobiography titled None Shall Divide Us, in which he revealed that he had received “specialist assistance” from RUC operatives in carrying out the cemetery killings.
In November 2006, he claimed to have been “three days” away from executing then leader of the Greater London Authority and current Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, over his support for Gerry Adams.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
