Jim Gray: A paramilitary death in Belfast used to guarantee a major funeral with colour party, hearse heaped with wreaths, flag draped over coffin, and farewell volley of shots. The farewell for Jim "Doris Day" Gray, shot dead on Tuesday, consisted instead of two death notices from family and a fusillade of denigration.
The aftermath said much about the state of loyalist paramilitarism, now riven by feuding over the proceeds of crime .
Within 24 hours of Gray's death, the convicted UDA killer Michael Stone called him a police "tout" and claimed he "signed his own death warrant". Gray was due to appear in court shortly on money-laundering charges, and the UDA had expelled him shortly before he was charged.
Jim Gray was born in east Belfast and joined the UDA as a young teenager. From an early stage he was principally useful as a racketeer rather than a killer.
Among the most striking images of Gray were of him escorting Stone - temporarily released from the Maze for the occasion - to the Ulster Hall platform at a 1998 rally in support of the Good Friday agreement.
He cut an extraordinary figure: six foot three, perma-tanned, hair bleached and highlighted, with a single earring, a heavy link necklace and a Hawaiian print shirt, with a pastel jumper draped round his shoulders.
The Doris Day nickname allegedly came from Special Branch officers but was taken up with relish by loyalists.
The year-round tan was maintained by frequent foreign holidays. Three years ago his 19-year-old son Jonathan died of a suspected drugs overdose while holidaying with his father in Thailand.
Ex-friends confirmed a picture of a life out of control. A heavy cocaine-user, Gray told the Assets Recovery Agency he had made his fortune in a Las Vegas casino.
Gray survived an attack in September 2002 when a gunman shot him in the face, apparently in retaliation for the killing of an LVF figure days earlier. Although the gunman pursued Gray, he managed to run to the nearby police training college at Garnerville where he was given first aid.
He was arrested in April near Banbridge driving south with a girlfriend (also charged with money laundering), with a banker's draft for €10,000 and £3,000 sterling in cash. The arrest was followed by police investigation of a Belfast estate agent and a search of a loyalist prisoners' aid centre.
Gray's assets, apparently including properties in Belfast and Spain, were frozen but he was eventually bailed last month.
In June UDA leader Jackie McDonald said he had been expelled for "treason" and "building a criminal empire".
It was thought Gray might testify in particular about the killing four years ago of a comparatively minor UDA figure, believed to have been tortured prior to his death in another Gray-owned bar, the Bunch of Grapes, which was then set on fire.
"He thought by giving evidence he would be allowed to hold on to some cash abroad," said Stone.
Gray's bail conditions stipulated that he live with his parents at Knockwood Park in east Belfast. He was shot five times in the back while lifting dumb-bells for weight-training from the boot of a car.
He is survived by his parents, Elizabeth and Jim; sister Elizabeth; and estranged wife.
Jim Gray, born 1958; died October 4th, 2005