Jake McMahon

John "Jake" McMahon (1959-1978) was a resident of the Short Strand, Belfast, Northern Ireland murdered in 1978.

Biography

John "Jake" McMahon was born on May 24, 1959, the only son in a family of five children in Belfast. He attended St Mathews Primary school, Seaforde street & St Augustines on the Ravenhill Road. Leaving in 1975 to work as a packer in Glennans in Hill Street.

Jake spent a year on remand in Crumlin Road jail after being arrested in 1976 by the British Army in a petrol bomb factory in Unity Flats. Charges against him were eventually dropped.

Released in 1977, Jake experienced only a short period of freedom. He was arrested by a Royal Ulster Constabulary patrol on the evening of January 18, 1978 while returning home after a social evening with friends in Belfast City Centre. He was never seen alive again. Two companions who were with him at the time and witnessed the incident, which took place close to Musgrave Street RUC station, told relatives that they were sure he had been taken into the station.

Four months later, on May 10, 1978, just two weeks before his 19th birthday, his badly decomposed body was found floating in the River Lagan, just yards from where he was stopped.

It has never been discovered who murdered Jake McMahon. At first, the RUC denied all knowledge of the arrest on 18th January, but under pressure from relatives and the evidence of Jake's companions, they conceded that they had taken Jake into custody “For a few hours before releasing him”.