Dessie O'Hare's propensity for extreme violence was perhaps best captured in a taped ransom message warning what was about to befall the kidnapped John O'Grady.
"I just sent word to my man to chop off two of his fingers," it ominously began. "So I don't know what fingers they are going to chop off. So I'm going to chop off two of his fingers now . . . I'm going to chop them up in bits and pieces and send fresh lumps of them every f**king day if I don't get my money fast."
He was true to his word. On November 3rd, 1987, Dr O'Grady was taken to an upstairs room in a house on Carnlough Road, Cabra, Dublin, where he was being held. His legs were tied, two pillow cases placed over his head and his arms spread wide.
As a fellow gang member stood on Dr O'Grady's arms, O'Hare used a hammer and chisel to cut the dentist's little fingers off between the first and second joints. The fingers and photos of the stumps were left in a cathedral for gardaí.
The manhunt for O'Hare, who demanded £1.5 million, and his gang lasted almost four weeks. It culminated in a shoot-out at Urlingford, Co Kilkenny, on November 27th, when O'Hare's companion was shot dead as O'Hare tried to crash through a checkpoint in a stolen BMW.
Dr O'Grady's father-in-law, Prof Austen Darragh, had been the intended victim of the kidnapping. However, when the armed gang burst into a house on Brennanstown Road, Cabinteely, Co Dublin, on October 13th, they realised Prof Darragh had moved out and Dr O'Grady had moved in.
Dr O'Grady still practises as a dentist in Dublin. He did not return calls from The Irish Times yesterday.
From Keady in Co Armagh, O'Hare is believed to have joined the IRA in his late teens. By the end of the 1970s he was regarded as one of the most active Provisional IRA gunmen. Although never convicted of any murders, he was so violent and unstable that he was forced out of the PIRA and joined the INLA.