James Craig (loyalist)

Beginnings area, early 1970s James Pratt Craig, known as Jim, was born in Belfast in 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". Criminal activities After his release in 1976, he set up a large protection racket and became the UDA's chief fundraiser; by 1985 he had managed to blackmail and extort money from a number of construction firms, building sites, as well as pubs, clubs, and shops in Belfast and elsewhere in Northern Ireland, whose intimidated owners paid protection money out of fear of Craig and his associates. It was alleged that the UDA received hundreds of thousands of pounds some of which also found their way inside Craig's pockets as part of his "commission". He was acquitted on a firearm charge and Ulster Freedom Fighters (a cover name for the UDA) membership on 18 March 1982. In 1985, Craig was brought to court after a number of businessmen decided to testify against him, with the condition that their identities remained hidden. The case fell apart when Craig's defence argued that his client's rights were violated by the concealment of the witnesses' identities. By this time the West Belfast UDA no longer wanted him in their ranks, as they claimed they could no longer "afford him". went on to join forces with John McMichael's South Belfast Brigade. In addition to being the principal fundraiser, Craig also sat on the UDA's Inner Council. In December 1987, when South Belfast UDA brigadier John McMichael was blown up by an IRA booby-trap car bomb outside his home in Lisburn's Hilden estate, it was believed that Craig had organised his death with the IRA. Allegedly Craig had feared McMichael was about to expose his racketeering business, thus putting an end to his lucrative operation. McMichael had reportedly set up an inquiry and discovered that Craig was spending money on a lavish scale, going on holidays at least twice a year and indulging in a "champagne lifestyle". At the same time it was suggested that Craig had made certain deals with Irish republican paramilitary groups, dividing up the rackets in west Belfast, and he would have been doing the IRA a favour by helping them to eliminate a high-profile loyalist such as McMichael. ==Death==

Craig was shot dead by two gunmen from the UDA in "The Castle Inn" (later called "The Bunch of Grapes"), a pub in Beersbridge Road, east Belfast on 15 October 1988, Upon spotting Craig they opened fire, spraying the room with gunfire. Craig died instantly; a bystander pensioner was also murdered in the attack, and four other bystanders were wounded by stray bullets. The UDA claimed the killing was carried out due to Craig's "treason" and involvement in John McMichael's murder as they knew he had provided the IRA with information to successfully carry out the assassination. They apologised for the unintentional death of the pensioner. Tyrie maintained that the two men had been good friends, and that Craig had given McMichael £20,000 to keep the latter's pub (The Admiral Benbow) from failing. Tyrie suggested that Craig was a suspect because his wife was Catholic. a prison officer in the Maze, had supplied the IRA with information about McMichael through Rosena Brown, a Belfast actress and IRA intelligence operative, with whom Hanna had been infatuated. McMichael's son, Gary, however, firmly believed Craig to have been the person behind his father's killing. Less than three months after McMichael's death, Tyrie himself narrowly escaped an attempt on his life by car bomb; he subsequently tendered his resignation as commander. ==Reputation==

According to McKittrick, Craig's "notoriety and range of enemies meant he could have been killed by almost any paramilitary group, loyalist or republican". There was also much antipathy between him and UDA brigadier Tommy "Tucker" Lyttle due to Craig having allegedly made Lyttle's daughter pregnant. Lyttle died of natural causes in October 1995. Craig reportedly invited RUC officers to an extravagant wedding reception held for his daughter. Dillon believes Craig had UDA commander William "Bucky" McCullough killed in October 1981 after the latter discovered Craig had been stealing funds from the UDA for his own personal use. Jackie McDonald, who was part of Craig's protection racket, was arrested in 1989. He had taken over McMichael's command of the South Belfast UDA, having been promoted to the rank of brigadier by Andy Tyrie in 1988. McDonald was released in 1994. In an interview with Peter Taylor, he made the following statement regarding his former association with Craig: I would say without a shadow of doubt the worst thing that ever happened to South Belfast, John McMichael and myself especially, was that Jim Craig ever had anything to do with our organisation. One builder who later assisted the RUC when they set up an anti-racketeering unit, admitted that he had paid out protection money throughout the 1980s to Craig and his henchmen. The amount of money he handed over increased each year. Dillon suggested that prior to Craig's killing, younger elements within the UDA, who were loyal supporters of McMichael, discovered (by means which Dillon did not divulge) that the RUC's anti-racketeering squad CI3 had videotaped a clandestine meeting between Craig and a member of the IRA's Northern Command, which is what reportedly sealed Craig's fate. ==References==