The General by Paul Williams

Author:Paul Williams [Paul Williams]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781847174536
Publisher: The O'Brien Press
Published: 2012-08-10T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

The Jinx

The Beit paintings brought bad luck to Martin Cahill and his gang. Associates of the General have always claimed that after the spectacular art heist nothing went right for them. They never enjoyed the huge financial windfall they had expected the night they hit Russborough House. And after the narrow escape at Kilakee Wood in September 1987 Cahill realised how difficult it would be to off-load the collection. He told an associate that from then on whoever came to make an offer was likely to be a police informer. In the meantime he decided to keep the priceless paintings under wraps.

Cahill himself would admit before his death that the paintings had put a jinx on his operations. In reality he had made a major error of judgement and gone out of his depth – although he was loath to admit that. In the wake of the robbery, the General found himself facing down a much more determined enemy in the police. The surveillance operation had succeeded in unsettling the gang. The intense media attention gave a political incentive to putting them out of business. After the Tango Squad was disbanded a new, covert team of detectives from the Serious Crime Squad was put on Cahill’s trail. The robbery had also brought Cahill into dangerous territory between both Loyalist and Republican paramilitaries.

Despite his lack of success as an art thief and the pressure from the police, Cahill began planning another art robbery in the winter of 1988. This time he was aiming nearer home at a £500,000 collection of paintings and jewellery belonging to the deceased former Supreme Court Judge, James Murnaghan. The late Judge’s wife, Alice Murnaghan, had opened a public gallery at their impressive residence on Fitzwilliam Street. When Cahill announced his plan to other members of the gang he chuckled at the thought of stealing a dead judge’s property. According to Cahill’s warped logic, the theft would be another act of effrontery to the state.

This time, Cahill had a London-based criminal lined up to take possession of the collection. The Englishman was expecting to recover a substantial reward for the collection which he would split with Cahill. The General began planning the robbery when he came home from Spike Island and the overt surveillance stopped. Martin, his brother Eddie, his friend Harry Melia, and three other men were to be involved in the heist. But the cops were hovering in the background.

On the afternoon of 29 November, Eddie Cahill left his brother’s house at Cowper Downs and drove by motorbike to a house in Lismore Road in Crumlin where Harry Melia regularly stayed. Cahill and Melia had ventured into the heroin trade as a sideline to their other criminal activities. Melia was a serious criminal with a reputation as a violent, armed robber. He was also a heroin addict. Melia had been released from prison in January 1988 at the start of the surveillance operation after serving time for firearms offences. Eddie got out in May after a seven-year stretch for kidnapping and aggravated burglary.

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