17 hours ago
Pill-popping granny turned loyalist terror boss dies in exile
Before she died last March, 75 year-old Muriel Gibson also a suspect in the murder of 61 year-old Sean Brown.
An artist's impressiom of the suspect seen in Bellaghy.
Portadown native Muriel Gibson - also known as Muriel Landry - passed away in the south of England three months ago, but details only emerged this week.
First convicted of drugs offences 55 years ago, Gibson was also dubbed as 'Madame Defarge', after a character in the Charles Dickens novel 'Tale of Two Cities, known for her ruthless and vengeful behaviour.
According to former loyalist friends, Gibson was fond of quoting Defarge's famous line justifying violent revenge: 'Vengeance and retribution require a long time; It is the rule.'
And this week, loyalist insiders claimed deceased Mid-Ulster terror chiefs Billy Wright and Mark 'Swinger' Fulton, paid Gibson for intelligence on possible murder targets, by providing her with a constant supply of free ecstasy tablets.
Muriel Gibson.
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'Muriel was hooked on ecstasy and alcohol and Billy and Swinger knew that. They had her out targeting people right across mid-Ulster and beyond. She set up people for murder and she was paid in alcohol and e-tabs.' a loyalist told us.
Gibson was also a suspect in the murder of 61 year-old Sean Brown, who was abducted from outside Ballaghy GAA club and later shot dead near Randalstown in 1997.
The shocking LVF killing, featured on a BBC Spotlight investigation which was broadcast on TV last Tuesday.
Spotlight showed a police photofit sketch of a woman with a striking resemblance to Muriel Gibson. She was spotted in the driver's seat of a car parked outside the club, the night before Mr. Brown was murdered.
Two men who were also in the vehicle, went to great lengths to make sure their faces were hidden from an eye-witness who was driving out the club gate. And it is believed the same witness, later picked out the woman at a police ID parade, just days after Mr. Brown was murdered.
The eyewitness told Spotlight: 'I was the last one going out. Sean was still there to lock up.' he said.
'I just thought it was someone turning at the front of the club. The lady who was driving stared me straight in the face. There was two men and they were hiding their faces.'
After Sean Brown's murder, the witness took his information to the RUC and he helped the police compile a photofit of the female driver. And he even picked her out at an ID parade made up of eight women. But no charges were ever brought.
An artist's impressiom of the suspect seen in Bellaghy.
Before she died last March, 75 year-old Muriel Gibson, was a hugely popular figure among the arty set in Cambourn, Cornwall, where she had settled after her release from prison in Northern Ireland.
A talented painter in her own right, her art work was much sought after.
As a young woman, Gibson had travelled to America, where she met and married William Landry, a native American. The couple had five children together.
And in compliance with native American tradition, all were given exotic names. The girls were called Rain, Talutha and Aisha, while the boys were named, Mahatma and Oddysseus.
Muriel Landry, as she became after she was married, was convicted and jailed in the United States for drugs offences. And on her release she came back to Portadown, settling in Brownstown Park, where she first made contact with Billy 'King Rat' Wright.
Gibson is pictured here with a small parrot on her shoulder. It is believed to be the last known photograph of her taken shortly before she passed away. And in a Facebook post following her death in March, her daughter Rain Lluvia, invited friends to join the family in a celebration of her mother's life.
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It read: 'After the sad passing of Muriel Gibson aka Fanny Adams, aka Paddy, Mum & Nanny. We invite all who knew her, to join us in celebrating her colourful life and enjoy her beautiful art works. Come as you are and raise a toast to an amazing woman.'
But there was no mention of how, 20 years ago, - when Muriel Gibson was in her mid 50s - the mum of five was sent down for eight years, after she was convicted on a raft of loyalist terror charges.
At the time, the Crown Court in Belfast heard how the former hippie played a central role in Billy 'King Rat' Wright's Loyalist Volunteer Force, following its split with the Ulster Volunteer Force in the mid-90s.
In 1998, Gibson was narrowly acquitted of killing council worker Adrian Lamph in Portadown.
But she was convicted of destroying crucial evidence and impeding the arrest and prosecution of Adrian's killers. Gibson was also convicted of LVF membership. The granny was handed an eight year sentence.
Her co-accused Jim Fulton - who had seized control of the LVF following the deaths of Billy Wright in jail and Mark 'Swinger' Fulton to drugs - was convicted of directing the 1999 murder of Elizabeth O'Neill and a catalogue of 47 other loyalist terror crimes.
Fulton was also convicted of possession of the gun which claimed the life of Catholic taxi driver Michael McGoldrick during the Drumcree dispute in 1996.
Jailing Fulton for a minimum of 25 years, the judge remarked how he appeared determined to wipe out the entire Catholic population.
Granny Muriel Gibson, then 57, had faced 11 charges, including the murder of Mr. Lamph and conspiring to cause explosions in the Republic of Ireland, all of which she denied.
And although she was found not guilty of involvement in the Lamph murder, Gibson was found guilty of most other charges, including membership of the LVF.
Last night, a former neighbour who knew Muriel Gibson from the time she grew up on Portadown's Brownstown estate, said: 'Muriel was just an ordinary girl. She had an interest in art and she was talented.'
She added: 'But it just goes to show what can happen when addiction meets terrorism.'
