Winnie Johnson had already suffered more than enough heartache for one lifetime. Her son Keith Bennett was just 12-years-old when, in 1964, he was snatched from the street by Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley before being tortured and killed - his body never found.
But tragically it wouldn't be the last time Winnie, a mother-of-nine, found herself mourning the violent and senseless death of one of her boys. In 1991 her grandson Tony Johnson was shot dead aged 22 in a 'Chicago-style' execution outside a pub in Cheetham Hill, yet another victim of a murderous turf war which threatened to tear Manchester apart.
Read more:
Johnson's mother was young when she had him and he was brought up by his grandma Winnie in her home in Fallowfield, where a shrine to Keith, photographs, crucifixes, and his broken spectacles, remained. Said to be a normal, if troublesome young lad, he left school at 16 and worked as a window cleaner and glazier.
But he soon fell in with the wrong crowd. While still a teenager he became a member of a notorious Cheetham Hill gang known as the Hillbillies, which operated out of the Waterloo estate.
To differentiate from a black namesake, he became known as 'White Tony' and soon began building a reputation as an effective armed robber and ruthless and fearless hardman. Speaking in 2017 to CBS true crime series Written in Blood, former gangster and boxer Jason Coghlan said of Johnson: "He was not an impressive looking figure.
"But I saw that man smash big f***ing horses of men who have turned up to meetings with us for whatever, just been smashed to bits. The geezer was as ripped to the bone, muscle."
As his notoriety grew, Johnson, a father to a baby daughter, became renowned for his willingness to use extreme violence and his cockiness. He's said to have been the first person to have taken a gun into the Hacienda and on one instance he grabbed a microphone in a nightclub to announce that the Cheetham Hill gang were present.
He was also the prime suspect in the murder of Moss Side's Anthony 'Scratch' Gardner, who was shot dead at point blank range with a sawn-off shotgun as he sat in a car in January 1988. Johnson was never convicted for the killing.
In March 1990, the Hillbillies stormed a concert by rappers Two Live Crew at the International II club in Longsight. After brushing past bouncers the 10-strong gang, allegedly led by Johnson, opened fire, shooting a member of the Pepperhill gang from Moss Side in the back.
Two months later the Hillbillies turned up at Moss Side Carnival and smashed up a BMW belonging to the same man they had shot at the International Club. Then in August there was a double fatal shooting at a West Indian carnival in Leeds.
Johnson, who was known to wear a bulletproof vest, was present and police strongly suspected he knew who carried out the killings. He was arrested and put on an identity parade, but not picked out. He denied any involvement.
Then, in November 1990, Johnson took part in a lucrative heist, which would, allegedly, sow the seeds of his downfall. He was the driver in a raid at Mumps Bridge in Oldham when gunmen forced security guards to drive to another location and stole £362,000 - more than £900,000 in today's money.
It was followed, four weeks later, by an £80,000 payroll robbery at the Bassett's sweet factory in Sheffield. The raid was carried out by three men who chased Armaguard staff through the factory firing a shotgun.
The M.E.N reported how it 'literally rained fivers' as the gang ran to a getaway car, dropping 200 £5 notes. Police later raided a flat in the Crooks area of Sheffield suspected to have been used as a hideout by the gunmen.
Fingerprints recovered from the scene were matched to Johnson after his murder.
Johnson was a regular at the Hacienda, using his swagger and name to get in for free. But he would be responsible for its closure when, on New Year's Eve 1990, he pulled a gun on London-based doormen and owner Tony Wilson voluntarily shut the doors as he tried to get a grip on the gangs that were terrorising the club.
Less than two months later Johnson was dead. Late on the night of Friday, February 22, 1991, Johnson and an associate arranged to meet a group of men on the car park of the Penny Black pub in Cheetham Hill.
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. The men who murdered Johnson knew what he was capable of and took no chances.
Two of the four bullets that hit him 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.
The following day's M.E.N. reported the murder on the front page under the headline 'Gang terror in city as man is shot dead'. An un-named detective investigating the case told the paper: "Johnson was regarded on the streets as a professional robber and a gang hit man.
"He was often seen in the Hacienda with other mobsters. We are determined to solve this crime. We cannot have gun law on the streets of Manchester."
On the night of Johnson's death police knocked on Winnie's door and she was taken to a hospital mortuary to identify her grandson's body. She later told the M.E.N.: "As if I have not suffered long enough over Keith. I cannot believe that another murder should hit us.
"As I stood there identifying his body my thoughts were about losing two sons." In July the following year five men were put on trial for Johnson's murder.
They included fellow gangsters Desmond and Damien Noonan, said to control the drug supply and door at the Hacienda. But a jury failed to reach verdicts and a retrial was ordered which saw Desmond Noonan tried again alongside two other people.
At the second trial it was said that police believed Johnson's death stemmed from a row over the spoils of the Oldham robbery 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 half left.
The aggrieved robber vowed to complain to Johnson. Desmond Noonan visited another defendant and a plan was hatched to kill Johnson, prosecutors alleged. In court, it was claimed that Desmond Noonan was the first to pull the trigger.
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 defendants had spent 21 months in custody on remand. All three defendants had alibis for when the shooting happened, Desmond Noonan's was that he had been drinking in Didsbury.
After the case, one of the acquitted men told the M.E.N: "Tony Johnson was a man I knew who had a heart of gold and was betrayed to his death by his friends." Two hundred people attended Johnson's funeral in a 30-strong motorcade.
His family and friends had to abandon plans to hold a service in Southern Cemetery's chapel and held an open air ceremony instead.
Desmond Noonan, who for a while along with his brothers claimed to 'rule Manchester', was stabbed to death by a crack dealer in Chorlton in March 2005 at the age of 45. His brother, Damien, had been killed in a motorcycle accident in Dominican Republic at the age of 37, two years earlier.
Winnie Johnson died, aged 78, in August 2012 after a battle with cancer. She never found her son Keith's remains, or lived to see her grandson's killers brought to justice.
- READ MORE TRUE CRIME:
