The Forgotten Serial Killer: Trevor Hardy (Born To Kill) | Our Life

in the 1970s a twisted killer was striking at teenage girls on the streets of Manchester the police had never seen anything like it before they said we are looking for a monster here his methods were brutal I mean petered blogs from her Paving Stone had shattered her skull and bizarre the killer had bitten off her nipple and his teeth marks were left on the body those who crossed his path even when I was unconscious on the floor he was still stamping on the head recall an inner Fury you stood there brandishing the knife he said the next time I put it across his throat but what led him to murder individuals like him enjoy being violent it's gratifying for them it's who they are and was he born to kill oh foreign in the mid-1970s the industrial Hub of Manchester hit on tough times as with many areas the economic downturn took its toll on the close-knit communities to the northeast of the city it was very much a working class area although much of the industry had closed down it was fairly Rough and Ready terrorist properties with backyards but all the families knew each other it certainly was a hard-working Community but there were elements of criminals amongst that community Alan Hart covered the local area as a journalist for over 40 years but in all that time one story would unfold that was so disturbing it would remain with him forever on the 8th of March 1976 Sharon mossoff was on a night out it was a rare opportunity for the 17 year old who was the eldest of Five Sisters had spent much of her teenage years helping out at home because mum was working Sharon because she was the eldest then started to play mum and she did a really really good job of it she was really really so much fun she was a really great big sister you know she she definitely took that role seriously and she took care of us because she had a very nurturing nature we completely respected her because she she was just like the whole the whole shebang you know despite attracting attention from the local boys the aspiring hairdresser had recently become engaged she was a real firecracker you know and she was very good looking but you know she picked her horse you know she was quite young but she was very much old for her age so it was a natural progression on the night in question Sharon had been to a works Night Out in Bolton before returning to Manchester as she was staying with her father in failsworth she was unsure of her route home she rang her father at around about midnight it was told by her father what number bus to get and he expected her home in about half an hour having caught the Night Bus the teenager was last seen at a stop just yards from the Rochdale canal her father's house was just a short walk away she never did arrive home there was a big search for her her father feared the worst [Music] the following morning rookie police cadet sixteen-year-old Mark Wilkinson received a call to head to the Rochdale Canal I think it was the first call we had that particular shift to say that there was the body of a female in the canal I remember the police officer that I was with said undoubtedly it would be a suicide [Music] as they approached the officer soon realized his initial theory was wide of the mark when we arrived here at the Canal bank it was quite obvious it was more than a suicide [Music] the body was identified as that of the missing girl seventeen-year-old Sharon mossoff she was naked half of her body was above the water level and was a particularly cold morning and I remember quite distinctively that the canal in fact had frozen over so it looked as though she was actually leaning on the ice [Music] I remember looking at this girl who was of a similar age to myself and just wondering what had actually happened as investigators and press arrived on the scene the cause of death became apparent that's the part where she was pulled out just down there local journalist Alan Hart recalls the appalling aftermath of a brutal attack she had been battered and mutilated and the evidence seemed to be that she'd been strangled with an item of her own clothing further examination of Sharon's body revealed another sordid detail it emerged that one of her nipples had been bitten off [Music] news of the Twisted murder shattered the world of the victim's close-knit family the police came and said can the children go upstairs but then we heard our mother screaming we came running back downstairs and then we just seen our mum going to the ground and it was just unbelievable and our mother was sedated for days and weeks it wasn't a good situation to see our mother and was off but the horrific mutilation of Sharon's body was not an isolated incident police would soon discover a serial killer was operating in the area [Music] 20 years previously the canal and network of Victorian streets had been The Stomping Ground for a group of local kids we're on Stanley Street Newton East I used to live in this area when I was younger Colin Hardy recalls growing up in a close-knit community all the kids knew each other all the kids played together it was a good area a nice area but despite his close group of friends Colin soon realized he stood out from the crowd [Music] I think I was probably [Music] maybe about eight or nine when I realized that my family was different from sort of other families Emilia grew up in Newton Heath alongside the hardies yeah the firmware themselves were well respected really it was just that Trevor Hardy was the black sheep of the family the second youngest of four children Trevor's delinquent Behavior had been evident since his early years he started off by doing a bit of shoplifting stealing fruit from vegetable stores he did have a really bad reputation for breaking into houses breaking into premises people didn't leave the doors open if they went out they made sure the windows were closed like my eldest brother was good at Plumbing Trevor was good at burgling houses they broke into my own house or my parents house and at least two occasions [Music] the people he burgled a lot of the time was known to the family it's as if he was punishing us Colin believes his older brother's vindictive streak was sparked by a change in the family dynamic just after I was born he committed his first offense at eight years old I think somewhere there there was some jealousy that he wasn't the youngest anymore I also think a bit of grudge against my mom because she'd brought me into the world Trevor entered his teenage years his behavior became increasingly unpredictable as he got older his violence started to appear he's one of those people that no sooner a word than a blow as a boy Peter Melia found himself the target of an unprovoked attack [Music] came up over the Canal Bridge and just something in the coronary actual movement maybe just turn and he fired this high-powered air rifle straight at me it hit me in the face between the eyes was that individuals like Hardy enjoy being violent it's who they are it's gratifying for them it's stimulating for them and uh it's not to solve a problem it's to gratify themselves as the Wayward teenager terrorized the neighborhood [Music] his father a British Rail guard struggled to cope I think my dad was scared of Trevor in in all the years I can remember dad never argued with him he never lifted a finger towards him but I think my dad would have preferred it if Trevor other just disappeared somehow thank you as his behavior deteriorated numerous escapes from Boston and approved schools forced authorities to take drastic action we were sent to prison at 15. it's a strangeways Manchester prison the youngest person ever to be sent there although nobody knew it yet Hardy's early misdemeanors would one day pale into insignificance as he evolved into a very different type of type of criminal [Music] in March 1976 the city of Manchester was shocked by the brutal murder of local girl Sharon mossov the 17 year old was strangled and horrifically mutilated before being dumped in a canal in the northeastern suburb of failsworth as detectives set to work they would soon learn that The Killers Twisted Mo had been witnessed before in a community nearby [Music] eight months earlier eighteen-year-old Wanda Scala had just landed a part-time job in a local pub journalist Alan Hart discovered a teenager who was very much at the center of her neighborhood people knew one growing up as a little girl the community was quite a tough working-class area but the people were decent on his citizens by and large people did look out for each other poverty often leads to that kind of commitment and close knit altitude on the 19th of July 1975 wander finished her Pub shift in the early hours of the morning the short walk home along the main road was a well-trodden route for the teenager [Music] but as her brief Journey Drew to a close she suffered a brutal attack it was about a minute from a home when her life ended [Music] the local girl's body was discovered by a passerby the following morning [Music] she had been partially covered by Rubble on the edge of a building site [Music] the police had never seen anything like it before [Music] a post-mortem revealed that Wonder had been strangled with her own clothes her death had also been caused by a series of horrific head injuries [Music] repeated blaws from a Paving Stone had shattered her skull and her socks had been tied around her neck [Music] but investigators were also shocked to find an even more disturbing aspect to the barbaric Act at some stage during this violent attack the killer had bitten off for her nipple and his teeth marks were left on the body biting off women's nipples is the clearest example of ritualistic behavior his aggressive Instinct and his sexual Instinct be confused so that the aggressive act is stimulating nothing could be more dangerous than an individual with that type of dynamic senior officers who thought they had seen it all were absolutely stunned they've never seen anything so brutal I do recall they said we are looking for a monster here [Music] in them days foreign about in London Birmingham I think it caused a certain amount of fear because you know whichever way you look at it there was a killer on the loose he's told women to go out in pairs with boyfriends Brothers dads a lot of people were scared this after all wasn't just an ordinary killing this was the brutal sadistic murder of a very young woman as investigators desperately searched for a lead neighboring communities in Northeast Manchester continue to live in the shadow of a crime spree former delinquent Trevor Hardy had built up his Empire over a number of years and had even resorted to recruiting local youngsters off the streets it certainly attracted a lot of other young people of my age group in the area he always seemed to have a few Hangers On and I think a lot of them were tea leaves you know I think a lot of them were thieves one policeman did call him Fagan for much of the time the career criminal's personal life had also revolved around the Young Hardy didn't seem to have any steady girlfriends he had these friendships with younger children during his late twenties one local teenager had made a particularly strong impression on him Beverly was a young girl about 14 a bit of a tomboy I think Beverly liked the idea of being around Trevor because he had this reputation and most of the time he always had a few quid on him and I think with Trevor it boosted his eagle having a young girl she said she looked up to him as a father figure Hardy's version of events became different because he claimed that at some stage they'd been Snogging and Beverly said that this was a figment of his imagination as Hardy continued to exert control over the local community his reputation was increasingly forged through fear he was a man to be avoided he was a man who was totally unpredictable he had this reputation as a hard man and he was he was Andy with his fists [Music] he could walk in a pub and empty it very fast Peter Melia grew up in the same neighborhood as Trevor Hardy having had several altercations as a child he would experience Hardy's violence firsthand on the streets of Newton Heath I remember walking along this way coming from Club Peter was nearly home when he spotted a suspect character crouched in an adjacent alleyway the light in the yard behind him he stood up in the light and I could then see that it was Trevor harder [Music] he started to jog down here so I walked on [Music] fearful of Hardy's reputation Peter headed for the safety of home but only made it to the front door of a neighboring Pub and he approached me he got about eight feet away and literally launched himself through the air he had buttered me in the face and I just felt a little sharp pain in the side as I got to the corner there and I realized at that point stabbed me [Music] you stood there brandishing the knife [Music] and he said the next time I'll put it across his throat what drives you to stab somebody there's got to be something very seriously wrong somewhere you know Hardy doesn't think anything's wrong with him he sees the world in such a distorted way that he thinks something's wrong with everybody else Peter Melia was not the only one to Bear the scars of Hardy's Fury as his violence intensified Pub brawls would become the norm he would be imprisoned following a vicious attack in 1972 [Music] three years later in October 1975 the neighboring District of Mauston was still reeling from the sadistic killing of 17 year old Wanda Scarlet as police Drew up a list of potential Suspects Colin Hardy had received an unwelcome call from his older brother Trevor summoning him to a local pub well we haven't seen each other for months well probably longer than that a bit apprehensive I just didn't want to be with him Colin had distanced himself from his increasingly unpredictable sibling Trevor had recently been released from prison when he turned up with his new partner Sheila I think it was probably around about the second pint it had been idle Chit Chat [Music] and just right out the blue just said to me have you been questioned about the Wonder Scarlet murder so I said well why should I have a question about it uh and just as I'm studying now he just sat there with no expression on his face and said I did it [Music] I did think I did it wrong I said you what he said I did a my brain just stopped working I'm thinking it can't be serious the Sheila turn around and said Colin it's true [Music] there's not a flicker of emotion in his face not a smile not a frown my mind just went into overdrive then if I was scared before I was petrified now [Music] I wanted to be a thousand mile away from that room I wanted to be a thousand mile away from him and I just didn't know how to do it and people might think well why didn't you just stand up and shout somebody get the police you go into um it's like a meltdown struggling to comprehend his brother's extraordinary revelation a confused Colin eventually allowed Trevor and his girlfriend to accompany him to his flat I thought well once I get home you know everybody thinks you're safe in your own house [Music] but I knew as soon as I walked through the door I'd made a mistake taking him home Colin was about to feel the full Wrath of his brother Trevor Hardy in July 1975 the mutilated body of teenager Wonder Scala was discovered on a building site in mosten Manchester as police searched for the Twisted killer local career criminal Trevor Hardy had just confessed to the brutal killing to his younger brother Colin traumatized by the news he had allowed Trevor and his girlfriend to accompany him home by the time the brothers got to Collins flat Hardy by now sobbing up began to regret his decision to tell Colin what had happened it wasn't even 10 minutes since we went through the door I think I said something like well you're going to miss the last bus and that was it then he went absolutely berserk well I thought I could handle myself but I don't even remember the first punch [Music] Colin's girlfriend could only look on at the sustained and brutal attack that followed even when I was unconscious on the floor he was still stamping on my head my partner she was absolutely petrified I'm on the floor bleeding unconscious and he turns round to it and says I'm feeling a bit hungry make me beans on toast and she was that scared she went in the kitchen stepped over me and made him Beans on sauce [Music] and this woman who is with this Sheila she just sat there never said a word thank you battered and bruised Colin regained Consciousness later that night [Music] the following day he reported his brother's confession to the murder of teenager Wonder Scala Audi was arrested and police demanded an imprint of his teeth so they could compare it to the bite marks on Wanda's breast officers were unaware that Hardy had gone to Extreme Measures to cover his tracks he arranged for somebody to smuggle a nail file to him while he was in custody he'd filed his teeth so that the bite marks on the body of Wonder Scala would not be matched to him to file one's teeth down which is very very painful that's quite unusual this individual really had an awareness of forensic evidence so he was intelligent unfortunately he used his intelligence in a very very deviant way the case against Hardy received an irrevocable blow when out of the blue his partner insisted he was with her on the night of Wanda's murder his newly fouled teeth as well as a false Alibi from his girlfriend Sheila meant police had no option but to let him go and I couldn't believe it I said if you let him go in the effing kills again I said be it on your own heads despite his concerns for the local girls in the neighborhood Colin was also fearful for his own life well after that we turn the flat into the Fortress I put extra bolts on the doors I put locks up I put wire over the windows I put broken glass all on the balcony so basically we were living in fear with his elder brother set on Revenge Colin would suffer another attack when Trevor only received a suspended sentence Colin felt the pressure was too much to bear I went right off the rails I got in some trouble and I got jailed [Music] although Colin's life had taken a serious downturn his elder brother Trevor appeared to have turned over a new Leaf five months after Wanda's murder Hardy was under the Local Hero in the papers for serving a family from a house fire they reported that tardy a brave man had burst into the house and rescued somebody from the fire how do you vanished the attention and was pictured beaming in the local papers subsequently it emerged that Hardy himself had started the fire not being a hero but an arsonist I don't think he cared as to whether or not people lived or died or the building burned down or or whatever it was just that he could get over on someone he can manipulate someone he could fool someone and he felt good about that [Music] Trevor Hardy continued to roam the streets of Northeast Manchester throughout the early months of 1976. his younger brother Colin was still behind bars when he received some shocking news one day I'd been in the workshops and we'd come back for dinner and I used to have a paper and right on the front of the daily I didn't do I knew it was it the brutal canal side murder of 17 year old Sharon mossoff bought all the Hallmarks of the frenzied attack on wonder Scala in the nearby District of Mauston [Music] both shown in Wonder had had items of the clothing tied around the necks they'd both been ferociously beaten and both had had their nipples bitten off there was very little doubt that the person who'd killed Rhonda Scarlet had also killed Sharon mossoff nobody told us directly we were children but we would listen to the grown-ups and we would hear our mother say you know apparently he's murdered one to Scala it began to feel very strange to think that this same guy took my sister so finding that out was was really quite strange for me as detectives Focus their search for a single perpetrator Colin Hardy could only look on from his cell having already failed to bring his brother to Justice Colin felt the latest violent attack was too much to bear I've lived with her and I live with it for the rest of my life are always asking could I have done more the police had been up against an elusive adversary but finally Trevor Hardy was caught in the act his brutal assault in an Oldham Pub on a local woman bore Witnesses there had been some kind of a dispute between them in the pub and he dragged her into the lady's toilets and he'd grabbed her so hard by the throat that she'd bitten her own tongue and he'd run away when they'd been interrupted Hardy evaded capture for a further two months but his final downfall would come at the hand of his now ex-partner Sheila [Music] the winter question of Sheila at a new flat in Stockport where she admitted that she'd given a false Alibi to the wander murder [Music] Sheila under surveillance hoping that at some point Hardy would be in touch and as predicted he did call to visit her and was promptly arrested in May 1976. when they told me they'd arrested him the emotions the emotions was unbelievable there was guilt there was Joy I just broke down tears I just couldn't believe it my family was now safe Hardy was detained in prison suspected of the murders of local teenagers Wanda Scala and Sharon mossoff however just three months later the prisoner made an extraordinary Revelation to the lead detective on the case when the officer was called to the prison he revealed an absolute bombshell and that was in addition to Wanda and Sharon there was a third girl whom he'd killed [Music] fifteen-year-old Leslie Stewart had been reported missing in the Manchester suburb of Newton Heath seven months before the murder of Wanda scada [Music] in those days a 15 year old girl wouldn't necessarily be treated as anything other than a missing person more likely a runaway and certainly nothing as Sinister as a murder case she just joined a long list of sad cases of missing teenagers her disappearance on New Year's Eve 1974 had not been linked to the brutal teenage murders that had later plagued the area on the night in question Leslie had been dropped off in Newton Heath and was last seen heading to meet her boyfriend at a party that's the last time she was seen alive unbeknownst to the 15 year old Trevor Hardy had been lurking in the shadows Leslie Stewart was in the wrong place at the wrong time another young girl alone at night just like the other two as Trevor Hardy's confession unraveled he insisted that he had mistaken Leslie for former teenage acquaintance Beverly he claimed that on that night he had been hell-bent on Revenge after the young girl had severed ties with him during his recent spell in prison as Leslie got out of the car that was dropping her off the driver said good night Leslie looked tragically for her Trevor Hardy thought you heard the word Beverly so he shouted hey Beverly when she turned round he stabbed her in the throat [Music] after watching Leslie bleed to death Hardy dragged her to a secluded spot where he dug a shallow grave then walked to his parents house where he watched a hogmano TV show with his mother but Hardy's gruesome account didn't end there he insisted on taking police to the scene of the horrific murder in Newton Heath [Music] memory serves it's pretty much where the the net is around about there that her body was found although almost two years had passed the 30 year old gave a detailed account of his attempts to conceal Leslie's body he claimed that in the first instance he'd not buried it very deeply and so after a few days he came back buried it a little further but Hardy hadn't just been intent on covering his tracks detectives were about to learn the full extent of the Killer's depravity [Music] in 1976 Trevor Hardy was facing charges for the murders of two teenage girls in Northeast Manchester but in an extraordinary twist the local man had also confessed to the earlier killing of missing 15 year old Leslie Stewart taking police to the murder site in Newton Heath having located a shallow grave investigators were horrified to discover that the corpse was not complete he'd immutilated a body cutting Leslie's head off he buried it somewhere else [Music] then he came back again cut her feet off and buried the feet somewhere else nearby [Music] all this was in view of a local school and he bolstered that the kids had seen him dismembering the parts and playing with them and bowing them without knowing what he was up to he even took a ring off her finger and gave it to his girlfriend as a love token [Music] what kind of a person goes back to a body and and does what he did there was something with that victim that really grabbed him and he was certainly attached to that victim in a way that he wasn't attached to others he kept going back to relive the experience to further mutilate the body and to do other things with the body to continue the gratification that is a killer who enjoyed killing [Music] in April 1977 Trevor Hardy was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murders of Leslie Stewart Wanda Scala and Sharon mossoff sequently he was told life would mean life and that he would have to stay in prison for the rest of his life in the wake of Hardy's reign of terror many struggled to comprehend why he had targeted the young teenagers although the profile of his victims bore marked similarities Hardy maintained that two of the attacks were purely random I've never believed any of the excuses is given Wonder Scala and Morgan that went wrong I don't believe that for one minute why mutilate the body no he enjoyed it these individuals feel very weak inside they feel very inadequate inside and so it's not at all uncommon for them to Target children young adolescents until they gain some degree of comfort in killing and then they might attack someone who might show some level of resistance but was the Twisted violence dealt by the sadistic killer the inevitable result of a troubled life or was Trevor Hardy born to kill lots and lots of people had similar upbringings to Trevor Hardy and they didn't go off the rails in the way that he did he is one of these people who is Just Pure Evil my friend who lived on his street said he would kill animals and everything when he was a kid he was just a very sadistic person considering how many murders he did and how much violence was in his life I definitely think that he was born to just be a killer he was supposed to had some kind of an accident when he was young and it involved his skull and it was a splint reborn and when he got excited this bomb uh pressed on the brain I don't like to say someone was born to kill but he certainly had a predisposition for violence and head injury can weaken someone's inhibitory controls and make it much easier for someone to act out their impulses or what's going on internally foreign [Music] for many the horror of this brutal killer has faded away [Music] but some will never forget I was just unfortunate enough to have him as a brother and it'll never go away you get up day after day and you just get on with your life I decided to take part in this program because I wanted my chance to tell my side of things I have not asked for any payment I would not insult the victims families by asking for payment and for those who lost their lives their memory will always remain we don't shy away from talking about Sharon because she was our big sister and she was a big part of our life which is just remembered as a a really really really fun fantastic nurturing loving big sister she's missed every day she's missed every single day there's not a day goes by that we don't we don't think about her [Music] [Music]

Channel: True Lives

Views: 636,047

Keywords: our life, documentary, world documentary, documentary channel, award winning, life stories, best documentaries, daily life, real world, point of view, story, full documentary, documentaries, real life, born to kill, serial killer, serial killers, mass murderers, mass murder, killing spree, murder, killings, killer, crime, true crime, criminals, jail, prison, crime documentary, serial killer documentary, trevor hardy, beast of manchester, forgotten serial killer

Id: PcQG973aBpY

Length: 43min 55sec (2635 seconds)

Published: Sun May 07 2023