Britons John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans first met in prison in England in the 1970s.During the long, hot summer of 1976, they drove around Ireland to enforce their ridiculous deal.By then, 23-year-old Elizabeth Plankter and Mary Duffy had both been murdered.
The men were arrested in Galway on 26 September 1976 when a third kidnapping was planned.They were both sentenced to life in prison and dubbed the state’s first serial killer.
Shaw is Ireland’s longest serving prisoner.Evans died of sepsis on May 20, 2012, at St. Mary’s Hospital in Phoenix Park, aged 68, in a coma for several years after suffering a stroke following heart bypass surgery in December 2008.
Xiao, 75, is still being held at Arbor Hill Prison.Multiple requests for his full release have been denied, and in January it was reported that Shaw was filing a new legal challenge to take advantage of the two-day-a-year escorted release, which he was granted in 2016 and has not been allowed since on grounds It is he who still poses a danger to women.
In late 1974, Shaw and Evans, aged 31 and 32 respectively, arrived in Ireland together.They are all from the Greater Manchester area.Xiao, who has long black hair and a beard, is married, but the marriage has broken down.He has a criminal record since the age of 14, starting with burglary.He was illiterate and later signed his statement with an X.
Evans is small and fair-skinned, married with three children.His marriage also fell apart.There are dozens of burglaries between them when they meet in an England prison and form their toxic friendship.
Both have committed sexual assaults, including rape; crimes related to them, but not yet charged, include the rape of a 16-year-old girl.In prison, they concocted their plans.At some point in the future, when they are free again, they will plot together as a pair to fulfill their shared fantasy of kidnapping, raping, and murdering women.
After being released from prisons in England, they decided to travel to Ireland to avoid any new charges against them at home.In Ireland, they immediately embarked on multiple burglaries to raise funds, first in Co Wicklow and then in the Cork and Clonmel areas.
On February 5, 1975, they appeared in Cork Circuit Court on 16 counts of burglary.They were convicted and sentenced separately; each had two years.They were later transferred from Cork to Mountjoy Prison.Neither served their sentences.
They both appeared in Bridewell, Dublin, in August 1976.British police are seeking their extradition to answer charges of sexual assault and rape they are now linked to.The couple were released on £40 bail and have a month to prepare a case on why they should not be extradited.
At Mountjoy, they meet a prisoner named Cliff Outram, who was released before them.He invited them to his home in Fessard, County Tipperary.They went there after their own release, first to Shaw and then to Evans, who arrived by train a few days later.Outram could use one car, a grey Austin A40.The two asked him if he could borrow for a few days, and he agreed to buy them a car.
So Shaw and Evans entered Austin and headed north.They have reached their agreement and they are now ready to execute it.
Elizabeth Plunkett (23) lives at Pembroke Cottages in Ringsend, Dublin.She is one of eight siblings, with three sisters and four brothers.She worked as a currency clerk at the De La Rue printing company.In her spare time, she enjoys swimming, hiking, practicing judo, camping and the outdoors.She was dark-haired, lively, and in every way a confident young woman.She has a boyfriend of five months; Damien Bushe, a mechanic whom she met through his sister; a close work colleague.
The summer of 1976 was uncharacteristically hot in Ireland, with weeks of sunshine and everyone enjoying the weather.On Saturday, August 28, the couple were planning a weekend trip to Staunton’s Caravan Park in Brittas Bay with five other friends in two vehicles.
Arriving in Brittas, the group of friends went for drinks at McDaniels Bar; a place that can seat 800 people.Plunkett wore wedge sandals, white slacks and a navy jumper emblazoned with St Tropez: she recently vacationed in St Tropez with Bushe’s sister.A special vacation they had saved for.She also wears a Seiko watch she received for her 21st birthday.
Throughout the evening, a rather mundane and unremarkable quarrel between Bush and another friend, Joe McCoy, over the sale of the car turned into a long one.When their conversation didn’t change the subject, Plankter got up and left the bar alone, even after she intervened.A witness reported that she came out of the bar at 11pm.About five minutes later, she was again seen walking in the direction of Staunton Caravan Park.
Later, Bush testified to the all-male jury in court: “Leeds came over and told us we were here to have a good weekend and that we shouldn’t fight. I just told her to mind her own business and she left. ; she’s out.” He wept and told the court it was the last time he saw her alive.
Shaw and Evans drove to Co Wicklow, first stopping on the way to pick up a suitcase belonging to Evans, which he kept in a locker at Heuston station.They knew the Wicklow area from previous burglaries and happened to drive past Brittas that night.”We kept talking about the girl and Jeff said he was going to pick up a bird to play with her. He wanted a little bird,” Shaw said later.
They saw Plunkett leave the bar alone and immediately decided to target her.Shaw got out of the car and Evans kept driving so that one person giving her a ride wouldn’t be as intimidating as two people: it was a ruse they had planned.
A witness later told the court he saw a girl in white slacks and a dark jumper walking alone on the road not far from the McDaniels pub at about 11.20pm.He saw a car on the opposite side that had been driving slowly and stopped to pick her up.The witness, who drove by and stopped outside the supermarket in Staunton, told his passengers that the encounter seemed strange.
After Plunkett took the front seat, sure enough to get on the Dublin elevator, the car unexpectedly stopped again and Shaw took the back seat.After that, as Evans later put it in his Garda statement, they started “fucking” her.The car stopped at the entrance to Castletimon Forestry Plantation, about a mile away.
“The three of us got out of the car and she was terrified. She didn’t want to go and we tried to convince her. We pulled her up a tree and she said ‘let me go’.” They started a series of beatings.”We took off her pants and panties and John had sex with her,” Evans said.”She’s been struggling,” Xiao said.
“John then left and the girl asked me what to do with her and I told her we were going to let her go. Then I had sex with her and it happened again about half an hour later. She was reluctant and asked me not to do it ,” Evans’ statement said.At the same time, Xiao drove the car to the parking lot of Jack White’s pub, and then walked back to the forest farm.
As the night wore on, the two continued to take turns raping her.Then they lay on either side of Plankter so that she could not escape.
Friends of Bushe and Plunkett both left McDaniels within 15 minutes of her departure.From the night of August 28 to the early hours of the next day, they became increasingly vigilant in their search for her.They searched first on foot, then by car; in pub car parks and caravan parks, then in various places around Brittas.She has disappeared.
Evans returned to the car outside Jack White’s house on Sunday morning as Bush drove back to Dublin to look for his girlfriend.He couldn’t start it and fell asleep.A witness saw him falling asleep in the car at 1.45pm.After a while, the same witness helped push the gray Austin, and the car started.Evans drove back into the woods.
“John was there when I got to the driveway and I could immediately see something was going on. He was white. I asked him what was wrong and he told me the girl was dead. I didn’t believe him so I went along The path went into the woods. I saw the girl lying there with all her clothes on. I asked John what happened. He told me he was asleep and she tried to leave. He ran after her and grabbed her He said she was screaming.” Shaw then strangled Plunkett with the sleeve of one of Evans’ nylon shirts.A shirt in his suitcase in a locker at a Houston station.
The pair left Plunkett’s body in the woods, along with the suitcases that Evans had packed at the Houston station, and drove towards Brittas again.”We decided at this stage to throw her into the sea.” In the meantime, they broke into more caravans.They stole a portable TV, cash, a tent and two blue sleeping bags.Then they hid for a day until dark.
After midnight on August 29, Shaw and Evans returned to where Plunkett had died and put her body in their boots.They had earlier been out to steal when they noticed some rowboats moored by the river in Brittas Bay.The two dinghies were locked together.They broke the padlock on a 12-foot dinghy named Captain.Then they broke into a shed and stole the paddle and lawnmower.They also pulled down a clothesline made of rope.
“We took off the girl’s clothes. We tied the lawnmower to her with ropes,” Evans said.They put her body in the boat, rowed into the sea, and threw her and the lawnmower into the sea.They left the captain two miles along the coast where they stole it.Then they drove back to the woods again with the clothes she had been wearing.
They collected Evans’ suitcase.Plunkett’s sandals and her underwear have been abandoned in the woods.Then they threw her watch into the bushes.
The next morning, at McDaniels caravan camp, they lit a bonfire and burned her pants and top.A Garda noticed the activity and asked for their names.The men, who called their names John and Jeffrey Murphy, said they were on vacation.
In the days after Plunkett was reported missing, her friends and many other volunteers continued to search for her in the area around Brittas.McCoy found her bra thrown into the bushes in Castletimon on Saturday, September 4.Then her watch was found, hanging from a branch.Then a sandal, and soon after, another, near the bunker.Her family determined the items belonged to Plunkett.
When the vegetation in the area was being cut down, a homemade cardboard label was found that said G Murphy.It fell off Evans’ suitcase.The police who saw the pair burn clothes recently remembered the name they gave him and alerted police stations across the country, which included their description and the fact that they both had British accents.Who these people are, that is the question.Where is Plankter?
On September 2, Shaw and Evans drove back to their Outram home in Faisard, Co Tipperary, and returned his car.Outram later told police that when the two returned from Brittas, they had a white portable TV with them.They also had a suitcase, a tent, two blue nylon sleeping bags, and money “to his knowledge.”
The couple then went on to carry out some burglaries.They looted homes in Mitchelstown, Carrick-on-Suir, Clonmel and Cork.They are especially after money: in order to have a way to carry out the next murder.They stole the license plate from an abandoned Ford Corsa on Kirkbanton Road.
They returned to Outram in Tipperary again.They applied for and received a provisional driver’s licence at Clonmel Tax Office on Wednesday 8 September.They named Ray Hall (Evans) and David Ball (Shaw) and used the Outram address.Two days later, on Friday, Outram drove them to Limerick.That day, the men were supposed to show up in Bridewell, Dublin, to explain why they shouldn’t be extradited to England.
After the two decided they needed a base, they headed to Galway.At a caravan camp in Barna on Tuesday 14 September, they bought a caravan for £330, using a false name on the driver’s licence.Their caravan, like the others, is supported by concrete blocks.The man who sold them the caravan at the scene later said the men arrived without a car, but the car showed up a few days later.
Shaw later told police that Evans “pinched” the green Cortina car in Clifden.They replaced the number plates with the ones they had stolen in Cork.Register SZH 562.They bought black paint and brushes and did a rough repaint job on the car.Its backlight is broken.They also stole a roof rack.
They now have their own car, money and their own base.They are ready to find their next victim.
Mary Duffy (23), a small, young woman with short black hair, is one of seven siblings.In September 1976, she was living at their home on the family farm in Belcara Deer Park, about five miles from Castlebar.
Duffy had a strong work ethic, and she had two jobs at the time.She works four days a week as a clerk during the day, starting at 6:45pm as a cook at the coffee shop on Ellison Street, and four more nights.
During the months she worked there, her colleagues had gotten to know her.They later told police that Duffy never walked home at night: she always hitchhiked from her brother or customers at the restaurant.From time to time, she stays in Castlebar with friends.She doesn’t have a boyfriend, but likes to go out dancing on weekends.
On the evening of Wednesday, September 22, Duffy finished her shift around 11 p.m.Her colleagues described her as “in a good mood” that night.She was wearing a red polo collar, jeans, a red duffel coat and boots.She carried a brown plastic handbag containing a red purse with a white rosary and a plastic cosmetic bag.Later, she and her sister, who shared a bedroom, confirmed in court that the bag was something the sisters shared, specifically mascara and eyeshadow.
Duffy also wore two gold rings.One was a signet ring with her initials MD; a popular confirmation gift for girls of the era.Another contains her birthstone.
Without money, Duffy borrowed some coins from a colleague and called his brother Michael to pick her up.He works in a local garage.She called from a public phone booth at around 11:10 pm.Her brother went out and tried to drive a car for a client.He was coming back soon, so she left a message for his employer telling her brother that she would walk home first, to the intersection of Briffey Road, where she would be waiting.
Shaw and Evans have been watching Duffy make her phone calls, then leave and start walking alone.They put the plan into action again.Once again, Shaw got out of the car and Evans parked on the farther street where Duffy was walking.The area in which the town is located is Salem, and there are several houses on both sides of the street, all in the ear.Shaw followed her silently, and then, when she got to the parked car, pounced on him.
Duffy has had problems with his teeth over the years, requiring multiple trips to the dentist and wearing braces to replace the missing teeth.Xiao now hit her in the face so hard that the dental plate fell off her mouth and fell onto the road.Later, Duffy’s dentist, who received the cast, finally determined it was hers.
She screamed as Shaw pushed her into the back seat of the car.Several witnesses who lived in nearby houses later described what they heard at about 11.30pm that night.A woman got out of bed when she heard screams that sounded “brief and hysterical”.She also reported hearing a man’s voice calling, “Come on!” This was Evans, who was driving, focused on quickly leaving his two passengers.Another neighbour reported hearing a woman scream: “It’s like she’s hurt, or someone hit her.”
Several neighbors were looking out the doors and windows at this time, terrified.There have been reports of seeing a Cortina car with a roof rack and broken taillights accelerating loudly, backing up and heading towards Galway Road at high speed.Then there was another disturbing silence.
Post time: Mar-15-2022