Manchester has long been famed for its legendary nightlife scene.
But while the city is home to an array of celebrated pubs and clubs, others have become renowned for all the wrong reasons. Over the years, Greater Manchester's drinking establishments have witnessed some horrendous acts of violence.
During the 1990s, soaring gun crime saw Manchester earn the unwanted nickname 'Gunchester'. As rival gangs waged war on each other, the violence frequently spilled out into the city's pubs and clubs.
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From the legendary nightclub that became a gangsters' paradise to the boozer where two would-be assassins were killed with their own guns one Sunday lunchtime, these are some of the shocking incidents that have taken place in Greater Manchester's pubs and clubs.
The shooting that sparked a sadistic revenge campaign
It was the pub shooting that sparked a revenge campaign of 'biblical' proportions. As regulars at the Ship Inn in Salford watched Manchester United play Leeds on television, a gunman burst in and opened fire.
Drinkers dropped their pints and dived for cover as Stephen Lydiate - the brother-in-law of Salford hardman Paul Massey - was peppered with bullets.
But the gangland hit was not a success. Hit eight times in the chest, stomach, left arm, elbow, and upper thigh, Lydiate survived. A bullet proof vest saved his life that day in April 1999, but he still suffered serious injuries.
Determined to find the men responsible for his shooting, Lydiate discharged himself from hospital with a bullet still lodged in his groin. He then put together team to carry out a series of sadistic attacks.
Lydiate was later given a life sentence after being found guilty of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to kidnap. Four other members of the gang were sentenced to a total of 41 years for their part in the kidnappings.
Dad-of-five shot dead during pub lock-in
Lee Erdmann was shot dead during a 3am lock-in at The Wellington pub on Salford's Ordsall estate in September 2011.
The 37-year-old dad-of-five was murdered by a man who had spoken ‘amicably’ with him for up to 30 minutes at the bar.
During the conversation the killer is believed to have secretly used his mobile phone to text an accomplice and told them to bring a handgun to the pub.
Then as Lee walked towards the pub toilet at about 2.50am, he was shot in the back.
The .38 calibre bullet caused massive injuries, but as his victim lay dying the gunman shot him again in the chest before stamping on his face.
He spat on Lee’s terribly injured body and then warned terrified drinkers to never speak to police about the incident.
The pub’s CCTV would have captured the murder but the hard drive containing the images was stolen.
No one has ever been convicted of Lee's murder but police believe a trigger-happy member of an Ordsall-based crime gang, linked to four other shootings, was the killer.
The Moss Side pub home to a notorious drug gang
Now home to an Islamic community centre, Moss Side's Pepperhill pub was once one of the most notorious pubs in Manchester.
It was used as a base by a gang of heavily armed drug dealers, who took their name, the Pepperhill Mob, from the pub.
With gang warfare rife in Moss Side during the 1980s and '90s, rivalry between the Gooch Gang - named after Moss Side's Gooch Close - and the Pepperhill Mob, saw a surge in violent assaults and drug related murders.
At the height of it all, the Pepperhill pub was shut down. However, the gang simply moved base and renamed themselves as the Doddington gang.
Unsolved execution in pub cark
'White Tony' Johnson was just 22 when he was shot dead outside the Penny Black pub, in Cheetham Hill. He and an associate had arranged to meet a group of men on the pub's car park late on the night of Friday, February 22, 1991.
Johnson arrived in his £25,000 white Ford Cosworth. He was asked by the other men if he and his associate had guns, and replied 'no'. The other group then opened fire.
A shot ripped the sleeve of the associate's' jacket. He turned to run and was hit in the back. As he fled, the associate heard another two or three shots fired and saw Johnson fall.
He then heard somebody say 'finish him' and heard more shots. Two of the four bullets that hit Johnson struck him in the back, and another in the neck. As he lay on the ground helpless the final bullet was fired into his mouth.
Five men later went on trial for Johnson's murder, including Damien Noonan, and Desmond Noonan, racketeers from a large, Manchester Irish family. But a jury failed to reach verdicts in the summer of 1992 and a retrial was ordered which saw Desmond Noonan tried again alongside other people.
At the second trial it was said that police believed Johnson's death stemmed from a £362,000 robbery he had been on with two others in November 1990.
One of the gang had allegedly left his £80,000 share for safe keeping, but when he asked for it Desmond Noonan allegedly told him there was only £40,000 left. The out of pocket robber said he would complain to Johnson.
Prosecution lawyers alleged that Desmond Noonan visited another defendant and a plan was hatched to kill Johnson. In court, it was alleged that Desmond Noonan was the first to shoot Johnson.
At the second trial, one defendant was cleared - and the jury failed to reach a verdict on Desmond Noonan and another defendant.
Judge Rhys Davies entered not guilty verdicts on their behalf as it was the second time the jury had failed to reach a decision and 'justice would not be served' by a third trial.
The legendary nightclub that became a gangsters' paradise
It was the legendary nightclub that was integral to Manchester's rise from the post-industrial doldrums. The Hacienda may have given the city a new, cool, international reputation but it also became a magnet for gangsters.
Looking to pump their reputations and bank balances, Greater Manchester's emergent gangsters were lured by the promise of lucrative drug sales.
In January 1991, shots were fired in the foyer. Days later, a young man was turned away at the door, came back with an Uzi, and flashed it at a doorman.
Gangsters were holding the club to siege; the Cheetham Hill gang's 'White' Tony Johnson, armed robber and suspected killer, was at the heart of the trouble.
Days after the machine gun was pulled on a bouncer, the club's late, great founder, Tony Wilson, held a press conference on the dancefloor.
"The Hacienda is closing its doors, as of today," he said. "It is with the greatest reluctance that for the moment we are turning the lights out on what is, for us, a most important place.
"We are quite simply sick and tired of dealing with instances of personal violence."
'White' Tony Johnson was considered so central to the trouble that the Hacienda's management only thought it safe to open in May '91, by which time he had been shot dead.
On the club's re-opening night - despite beefed-up security - including weapon's arches and better CCTV - Salford and Cheetham Hill gang members stormed the Hacienda.
Then, a few weeks later, Salford gangsters turned up armed and six bouncers were stabbed.
The club was determined to stay open - bringing in Dobermanns to enhance security. Staying open would soon involve an unholy alliance with the underworld.
The logic was that only gangsters could deal with gangsters, and so the notorious Noonan family took control of the door. The club's peace was uneasy and brief.
Gangster bullying and brawling soon continued and bouncers linked to the Noonans were repeatedly accused of roughing up punters.
The Hacienda would stay open for another few years but the gangs had left an indelible mark on the scene. If it wasn't their violence killing the mood, it was police inspections.
Clubbers began staying away, and debts mounted. One Hacienda bouncer, Terry Farrimond, was murdered in Clifton.
By 1997 it was over. In June of that year, on a night when the licensing committee - seven magistrates, accompanied by two senior police officers - turned up to inspect the club, four Salford gangsters who had been kicked out of the venue staged a revenge attack.
Driving onto the pavement, one of the mob leaned out of the window and hit the bouncer who had kicked them out with a wheel brace. The club closed abruptly soon after, unable to pay its bills, its licence in jeopardy.
The nightclub where a gunman opened fire on innocent clubbers
Wayne McDonald shot two innocent men outside the Atlantis nightclub in Bolton in a murderous rage sparked by his pals getting beaten in a fight minutes earlier.
A witness to the shooting described how McDonald had a ‘wild glare’ in his eyes in the seconds before blasting a volley of .22 bullets from a self-loading pistol at clubbers milling outside the venue.
The two victims – Bryan Kemp and Lee Howarth – escaped death but suffered serious injury in the November 2000 shooting.
McDonald vanished in the aftermath of the shooting and spent seven years lying low. He was eventually sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of two counts of attempted murder and firearms offences over the nightclub shooting.
At the time, he was already serving an indeterminate sentence for the public protection for shooting a police officer while on the run from detectives hunting him for the Bolton incident.
Bloodbath after assassination attempt at boozer
It was a scene from the Wild West played out in a Salford boozer.
On a busy Sunday lunchtime in March 2006, regulars at the Brass Handles in Pendleton were watching Manchester United on television when two gunmen stormed in and opened fire.
But in a bizarre twist of fate, the target - who was shot six times - survived, while the failed assassins were disarmed and killed with their own guns.
Fatally injured, the would-be hitmen staggered out of the pub onto a grass croft beside Fitzwarren Street where they collapsed and died.
In a trademark Salford gangland move, someone ripped the CCTV system from the pub.
The murdered men Carlton Alveranga, 20, and Richard Austin, 19, had been sent - almost forced - into one of the city’s toughest pubs to assassinate a young upstart they didn’t even know. It's believed they were in the debt of the Moss Side gang boss who organised the hit.
That man was Ian McLeod, a founder member of the notorious Doddington crew who, having sent the two young men to what turned out to be their own deaths, parked up close to the pub in his Ford Mondeo. As his hired guns lay mortally wounded his mind was still on the intended targets. He was heard to ask: “Are they dead yet?”
He walked onto the grass to check his charges were dead before calmly driving away. To this day, no-one has ever been brought to justice for the killing itself.
Bobby Speirs, from Prestwich, was jailed for life for masterminding the bungled ‘hit’ at the pub, which he is said to have paid McLeod £10,000 for. McLeod and convicted gun-runner Constance Howarth were also jailed for their involvement.
The pub where Dale Cregan killed his rival's son
Less than four months before he murdered two unarmed police officers, Dale Cregan walked into a Tameside pub and shot dead an amateur boxer.
Wearing a balaclava, Cregan arrived at the Cotton Tree in Droylsden intending to kill his great rival David Short, 46, in May 2012. But his main target was in the toilet at the time.
Cregan fired seven shots, blasting Short’s son Mark, 23, in the chest and shooting three other men at the scene.
When David Short came back from the toilet, he found a scene of devastation. He sobbed as his son died in his arms.
Just moments earlier, the Short family had been enjoying their night, playing pool and darts.
Cregan later went on to murder David Short at his house in Clayton, and then gunned down PCs Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone after making a bogus 999 call from a house in Mottram in September 2012.
He was jailed for life the following year after admitting the four murders.
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