Murder of Stephen Tibble - Bomb Factory

Bomb Factory

The police discovered that the flat in Fairholme Road that Quinn had been seen entering was a bomb factory. The basement was found to contain enough bomb-making equipment to make half a dozen high-explosive bombs. Also found were an automatic pistol and ammunition as well as English and Irish money, wigs and a letter addressed to Joe O'Connell, another IRA volunteer. The landlord stated to police that a "Michael Wilson" occupied the flat.

The discovery of the factory led police to identify four other suspects, who later became known as the Balcombe Street gang after they held a couple hostage in the Balcombe Street Siege in Marylebone. The London-based IRA active service unit had been responsible for a series of bombings and killings in England. This included the inadvertent car-bomb killing of Dr. Gordon Hamilton-Fairley, a cancer specialist who was not the target, and the assassination of Ross McWhirter, a conservative political activist and a co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records; he was shot on his doorstep by the unit after he offered a reward for their capture.