Desmond Noonan

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Desmond "Dessie" Noonan' (1959–March 19, 2005) was a British organised crime figure in Manchester of Irish decent who acted as a political fixer for the Noonan crime family. He and his younger brother, Dominic Noonan, were suspected by police to be responsible for at least 25 unsolved murders during their 20 year reign in Manchester's underworld.

Mainly because of the very dangerous contacts Desmond Noonan had made during his reign as 'Britain's number one crime boss' his family were, at the end of the 1990s known as 'one of the most notorious crime families in British history'.

1 Biography
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Born in Whalley Range, Manchester, Noonan emerged from poverty and into the criminal scene with his brothers Damian and Dominic Noonan. His criminal career began as a doorman in the early 1980s; his reputation as a fighter and his overall appearance gave him credibility on the club doors of Manchester.

Desmond then started to put his own men on the doors and by the late 1980s 80% of the Manchester nightlife security was said to be controlled by Desmond Noonan and the rest of the Noonan family. Around this time Dominic Noonan was jailed for 15 years for his part in an armed robbery at a bank in Cheetham Hill, Manchester. During his imprisonment, still in control of the crime family, Damian and Derek Noonan were forging links with other notable Manchester gangs including The Cheetham Hill and Salford Gangs.

The Noonan family tended to have nothing to do with the notorious Moss Side gangs, although Desmond was part of a group of men who provided the black gangs with guns and other weapons. After involving himself in Manchester's nightlife, Desmond started to get involved with other criminal and political circles outside of Manchester, including Anti Fascist Action. He later on went to other cities to forge strong links in London, Newcastle and Liverpudlian gangs, as well certain crime figures within the West Midlands area. It is reputated that Desmond associated with many powerful criminal figures based in Leamington, Coventry and Birmingham. The association was based on the movement of guns and drugs between the West Midlands and North West. Although the relationship was prosperous, it sooned turned sour leading to a war which saw a number of executions take place in Manchester and Birmingham, ultimately ending with the slaying of Ashley Foley and Josh King, both were found shot in the face (to prevent an open casket funeral). Desmond Noonan was held by West Midlands police but the case was dropped due to lack of evidence.

[edit] Rise of the Noonans

Control of organised crime in the city fell to Desmond and his brothers following the 1991 gangland murder of rival leader of the Cheetham Hill Gang, Anthony "White Tony" Johnson, whose murder he was charged with and later acquitted of. Over the next several years, he faced a number of convictions in connection to witness intimidation and jury tampering resulting in key witnesses refusing to testify against him and other members of the Noonan family.

By the mid 1990s Desmond Noonan was known as a notorious enforcer feared and respected by all who knew him, he was known as a very dangerous and violent man and had links with a wide range of Britain's underworld, apparently making himself untouchable.

In 1995, four years later, Noonan was convicted of violently attacking twin brothers, during which he was reportedly described by the court as psychotic, and sentenced to 33 months imprisonment. The twin brothers later turned out to be London gangland figures who were apparently trying to get involved in Manchester's ever booming illegal drugs and gun trade.

By the end of the 1990s the Noonan family had been linked to 25 gangland murders, dozens of robberies and had a stranglehold on most of the nightclub security in many of the major cities across the UK, they had also made over 8 million pounds from bank robberies and security alone.

Desmond Noonan also began to venture into the nightlife of many other cities to gain more wealth, power and respect for the family. He and his brothers Damian and Derek started to acquire business interests in nightclubs in Liverpool, London and Newcastle.

The fact that Dessie had the audacity to try to do business in other cities with other gangland figures gave him a lot of credibility and respect and soon he was becoming involved with a number of notable crime bosses including the likes of the Liverpool drugs baron Curtis Warren, London show-biz mock-gangster and alleged 'friend' of the Krays, Dave Courtney and head of Newcastle's biggest crime family boss Paddy Conroy. Having contacts like these made the Noonan family stronger.

The strength and power of the family, in particular Dessie, allowed him to be a prime mover and peacemaker in the Manchester gang truces which for a short space of time brought the war in Moss Side to a head. Other Gangland figures participating in this truce were Paul Massey, Damian Noonan, Paul Flannery and apparently Jimmy 'The weed' Donnelly, who was a powerful figure in the QSG, another Manchester gang.

[edit] Later years

Desmond Noonan was said to have later developed a crack addiction^[1] and Dominic Noonan on his release from prison in 2002 became head of the Noonan crime family, after the death of Damian Noonan in 2003.

[edit] Death

After last being seen on the night of March 18 drinking at The Park pub in Northern Moor, Wythenshawe at around 11:30 a.m., Sandra Noonan received a phone call from her husband early Saturday morning who told her he had been stabbed and asked her to pick him up in the suburb of Chorlton. By the time she had arrived, Noonan was lying unconscious in Merseybank Avenue. Sandra Noonan then called for an ambulance. He died of his wounds before arriving at Manchester Royal Infirmary.^[2]

Held on April 22, 2005 his funeral in south Manchester was reportedly attended by hundreds of local residents with a kilted pipe band playing as his body arrived in a horse-drawn hearse at Chorlton church. His younger brother Damian Noonan had died 2 years earlier in a motorbike accident whilst on holiday in the Dominican Republic.^[3]

Derek "Yardie Derek" McDuffus, a local drug dealer, was charged on June 15 after appearing at Preston Crown Court and eventually convicted of his murder (receiving life imprisonment, he has since been placed in solitary confinement for his protection against retribution from the Noonan family^[4]). It is suspected by authorities that Noonan, who had supposedly become a drug addict during the last months of his life, had been strong arming local drug dealers into giving him narcotics and had left the pub intoxicated in search of a drug dealer. Derek McDuffus, 41, from south Manchester, was charged and found guilty of his murder.^[5] It is believed McDuffus stabbed Noonan and threw him out of his residence where he bled to death in the street.^[6]

Noonan died four days before the broadcast of journalist Donal MacIntyre's documentary MacIntyre's Underworld, Die On The Wall featuring him and his brother.^[7]

[edit] The younger generation

Although the deaths of Desmond and Damian Noonan and the jailing of Dominic Noonan has put considerable strain on the families stranglehold in the city they are still said to be the most powerful crime family in Manchester and one of the most powerful in Britain.

As shown in Donal Mcintyre's documentaries on the crime syndicate there are a few pretenders to the Noonan family throne. The young guns are making their mark on the city of Manchester, and already there are some who have spent time incarcerated, often for violent offences.

A nephew aged 15 was jailed for six years after he was convicted of stabbing two older teenagers who had allegedly tried to rob him. During his time in prison he attacked two Prison Governors and five Prison Wardens and started three different riots in two separate jails. Two weeks after his release in 2007, three police officers came to see him at his mother's house, (Dominics sister) and he ran out to the door with just a towel around him and began fighting with the policemen who promptly arrested him; he is currently serving another three year sentence.

Damian Noonan's twin sons Damian and Desmond have also had their share of prison time. Desmond Noonan was jailed for three years just after his father's death in 2003 for 'death by dangerous driving'. Whilst in prison he was inside the prison chapel after hearing that Dessie had been killed when a prison worker allegedly disrespected Dessie, Desmond and other prisoners in the chapel at the time defaced the altar, barricaded themselves in the chapel and caused £80,000 of damage to the chapel itself. Desmond was released in November 2006 and subsequently jailed again in June 2007. During the time he was released he had been arrested and questioned along with other underworld figures on charges ranging from kidnap and torture to attempted murder. Desmond immediately left the country after apparently being involved in a shooting in Salford he fled to the Dominican Republic so he could 'lay low' for a while whilst the police were investigating. After hearing that his brother had been arrested and charged he returned to Britain and promptly handed himself into the police to be questioned, he was never charged.

Damian Noonan whilst his brother had been away had assaulted a bouncer after he was refused admittance to a nightclub. He was given 15 months in jail because of the alleged viciousness of the attack. It was claimed that the doorman in question was later fired by the manager of the nightclub, who was good friend of the Noonan family. Damian was later released on license from prison, but he is now on the run after allegedly being involved in 2 attempted murders in 2 different cities he is wanted by Greater Manchester Police.