The November 1990 robbery allegedly led to one Manchester’s most infamous gangland slayings
Anthony ‘White Tony’ Johnson was shot dead in one of Manchester’s most notorious gangland murders
The daring daylight robbery was planned down to the last second. And it landed Anthony ‘White Tony’ Johnson and his crew a £525,000 jackpot.
It was the largest-ever raid on a security van in Greater Manchester. Not bad for just over two minutes work.
But the robbery would also, allegedly, sow the seeds for White Tony’s downfall in one of Manchester’s most infamous gangland slayings. Said to to be a farily average, if slightly wayward young lad, Johnson was brought up by his grandma Winnie – the mother of Moors Murderers victim Keith Bennett– in her home in Fallowfield.
But after leaving school at 16 Johnson fell in with the notorious Cheetham Hill Gang, also known as the Hillbillies. As a white man in a predominantly black gang, he became known as ‘White’ Tony to differentiate him from a black namesake.
And soon he began building a name for himself as a daring armed robber and fearless hardman. “He was not an impressive looking figure,” former gangster and boxer Jason Coghlan told 2017 CBS true crime series Written in Blood.
Anthony Johnson joined the Cheetham Hill Gang as a teenager
“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.”
While still just a teenager, Johnson’s cockiness and willingness to use extreme violence made him notorious in Manchester’s criminal circles. He’s said to have been the first person to have taken a gun into the Hacienda and on one occasion grabbed a microphone in a nightclub to announce that the Cheetham Hill gang were present.
In March 1990, 10-strong gang of Hillbillies, allegedly led by Johnson, stormed a concert by rappers Two Live Crew at the International II club in Longsight and 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 Pepperhill mobster.
Winnie Bennett, holding a picture of her grandson Keith on Saddleworth Moors in 1995(Image: Mirrorpix)
Then in August Johnson, who was known to wear a bulletproof vest, was present at a double fatal shooting at a West Indian carnival in Leeds. Detectives 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.
And although he was never convicted of the killing, 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.
Then, in November 1990, Johnson took part in the Oldham heist. It netted him a small fortune, but also, allegedly, set in motion a chain of events that led to his brutal murder.
The night before the raid at Mumps Bridge on the outskirts of the town centre, three men were seen with a stopwatch. After being spotted they sped off in a white VW Golf GTI.
How the M.E.N. reported the Oldham raid
It was an indication of the level of planning that went into the raid. The following day one of the robbers, approached the driver’s side window of the Security Express van as it parked outside a NatWest bank.
He pointed a shotgun at the driver and a guard and said: “Get in the back or I’ll blow your heads.” As the van sped off two guards were forced to loads banknotes into laundry bags during the two minute journey to Mortimer Street in Shaw, where a white Golf GTI getaway car was parked.
The guards were then told to lie in the back of the van, while the men made their escape in the Golf. The raid went like clockwork – expect for one thing. After running out of time during the short journey to the getaway car, the robbers were forced to leave behind a staggering £700,000.
“The job was well-planned enough, but with a bit more bottle and time they would have got the lot,” a detective told the M.E.N later that day. Perhaps the thought of missing out on all that loot was playing on White Tony’s mind when, just four weeks later, he allegedly took part in another terrifying armed robbery at the Bassett’s sweet factory in Sheffield.
There three men made off with £80,000 from the payroll robbery after chasing 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 dozens of £5 notes.
M.E.N. headlines after Johnson’s murder
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 later matched to Johnson.
But he never faced justice for his suspected role in the raid. Because less than two months later Johnson was dead.
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. They arrived in Johnson’s £25,000 white Ford Cosworth and when they stepped out of the flash motor were asked if they were armed. When Johnson replied ‘no’ the other group opened fire.
The first shot shot ripped the sleeve of Johnson’s 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 killers left nothing to chance.
The Ford Cosworth Johnson was driving on the night he died
Two bullets hit Johnson in the back, while a third struck his neck. As he lay on the ground dying the final shot was fired into his mouth.
That night 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.”
‘Gang terror in city as man is shot dead, read the following day’s front page headline on the M.E.N. 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.”
It was estimated 200 people attended Johnson’s funeral at Southern Cemetery. There were so many mourners the service had to be held outside.
Desmond Noonan
In July the following year five men were put on trial for Johnson’s murder. They included fellow gangsters Desmond and Damien Noonan, who once claimed to ‘rule Manchester’. After a jury failed to reach verdicts a retrial was ordered which saw Desmond Noonan tried again alongside two other people.
During the second trial it was said police believed Johnson’s death stemmed from a row over the spoils of the Oldham robbery. It was alleged one of the gang had left his £80,000 share for safe keeping with Desmond Noonan, but when he asked for it, the gangster allegedly told him there was only half left.
Aggrieved at the affront, the robber vowed to complain to Johnson. Prosecutors alleged that was when Desmond Noonan visited another defendant and concocted a plan to get their retaliation in first. In court, it was claimed that Desmond Noonan was the first to pull the trigger on the night Johnson was murdered.
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.”
In March 2005 Desmond Noonan, then aged 45, was stabbed to death by a crack dealer in Chorlton. Two years earlier his brother, Damien, had been killed in a motorcycle accident in Dominican Republic aged 37.
Winnie Johnson died of cancer in August 2012 aged 78. To this day her grandson’s killers have never been brought to justice and her son Keith remains unfound.