Nothing epitomises the vicious side of the crime wave that has engulfed Ireland in recent years more than the shadowy figure of the hitman-a murderer for hire. Sharon Collins brought hitmen into the headlines, but this book shows there's nothing new in hiring someone to do your dirty work. Anthony Galvin examines the chilling stories behind the 'hits': Declan Malone, a neighbour hired by Majella Boland to kill her husband for a fee of GBP200. Jacqui Noble paid Paul Hopkins to kill her abusive husband, Derek Benson. Benson met a horrible death, hacked with a sword and then torched. Dutchy Holland was part of the team that killed journalist Veronica Guerin. He was also involved in several other gangland hits, and claimed to have worked as a mafia hitman during a brief stint in America. Eddie Ryan killed for the first time at the age of seventeen. When he tried to kill his boss, his days were numbered, and he was gunned down in a hail of bullets-a killing which began the gang wars in Limerick. The three Campion brothers have been described as the most evil men in Ireland. Between them they were responsible for a string of murders. Some, like the torture and crucifixion of farmer Paud Sheehan, were carried out as part of vicious robberies, others were carried out as hits in the Limerick drugs war. Albert Walker Baker was a hitman in the true sense. Trained in the SAS, he saw active service in Oman, before going AWOL in the early seventies, and going on a killing rampage in Belfast. He favoured the SAS method of a 'double-tap' in the head.