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Anthony Gardner

Age: 26

Sex: male

Date: 9 Jan 1988

Place: Gretney Walk, Moss Side, Manchester

Anthony Gardner was shot at point blank range with a sawn off-shotgun as he sat in a car in Moss Side.

Anthony Gardner had been in the front passenger seat.

It was thought that his murder was a gangland hit after he fell out with a gang leader.

A man, Anthony Johnson, was suspected of his murder but was himself later murdered in 1991, which is also unsolved.

Shortly after the shooting, the police said that it was 'a premeditated and deliberate shooting'. They also added, 'We have no idea about the motive for this murder'.

It was said that the car that Anthony Gardner had been in had pulled up in Gretney Walk, Moss Side outside a sheban and that a gunman had stepped out from the shadows and shot Anthony Gardner through the windscreen as he sat in the passenger seat. The gunman was said to have been waiting for about an hour for Anthony Gardner to show up.

It was said that after the shooting that the people in the sheban fled before the police arrived and threw their drugs away in the street resulting in the police finding over £1,000 worth of heroin and cocaine lying about.

Anthony Gardner was described as having led a double life, having come from a law-abiding God-fearing family and it was said that he had earlier in the evening before his murder been to a church service. However, he had kept his convictions for theft, burglary and assault secret from his family. It was also said that he had fallen out with a money lender from Cheetham Hill over money, which was the motive behind his murder.

It was said that there had been a blues party on at the sheban that had been attended by about fifty people but when the police investigated, they could trace only six. During their investigation the police used a local Afro-Caribbean illegal pirate radio station to put out an appeal for witnesses to his murder.

Anthony Gardner was also known as Scratch.

Gretney Walk has since been demolished. It was just south of the Moss Side Crescents and just over the Princess Road from the brewery, the current location being occupied roughly by the Asda carpark.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see www.truecrimelibrary.com

see Mirror

see Aberdeen Evening Express - Monday 11 January 1988

see Staffordshire Sentinel - Monday 11 January 1988

see Manchester Galore