Paul Bruce
Blake Publishing, London 1995, £15.99
The pseudonymous author claims to have been a member of a clandestine 4-man SAS squad which assassinated a couple of dozen alleged IRA members in the 1971-3 period in Northern Ireland. The author’s taped and transcribed memories are intercut with sections from an uncredited ghost writer – apparently Nick Davies, the Maxwell-arms dealing version, not the investigative journalist – on the general political background.
The central allegations come without any substantiating material and are thus impossible to evaluate at present. It is on the plus side that they were rubbished in the Sunday Times (26 November 1995) by MOD flacks James Adams and Liam Clarke; and Fred Holroyd, who was in working in Army Intelligence in the same patch in the same period, has not dismissed them. He says that a lot of Republicans did simply disappear in this period.
The Sunday Telegraph (28 January 1996) reported that RUC detectives had met the author twice, had visited the sites where the author claims to have dumped the bodies, and appeared to be taking the allegations seriously. In the final paragraphs the Telegraph provided what looks like a fall-back position if bodies are found: ‘Privately, police and security forces veterans believe that “Bruce” could have been part of a renegade band of soldiers who may have carried out some “freelance killings.”‘ To my knowledge this is the first time such a suggestion has ever been made, and, if substantiated, it would be nearly as damaging as the Bruce’s story of this SAS death squad.