A hopelessly evil, dangerous man who could kill again

Trevor Hardy. Known as many things or more simply as 'The Beast of Manchester'. His lasting effects upon communities has plagued many families due to their fear as well as loss. Manchester was terrorised by him and it caused a huge manhunt for him which was unsuccessful for an extended period leaving women and children fearful of walking alone after it got dark. This can be seen to be one for the first televised and news reporting upon a Manchester serial killer/killing with many members of the public helping police officials to incarcerate Hardy. To the Mossoph and other victims families, there was pure hatred and dread knowing that he was still alive for decades after the murders. His wave of crime and thereof lack of forensic evidence was something Manchester had never seen before and brought the Greater Manchester Police into a new era of police work as well as identification, surveillance and prosecution. After letting Hardy slip from their grasps once, they didn't sit...

Since the death of  Hardy, there can be seen to have been greater repercussions not only from the victim's families but also from the Hardy family itself, with Colin Hardy (brother to Trevor) teaming up with expert analysts to try and uncover motives and how potentially one of the victim's lives could've been saved. (Colin Hardy, 2018) stated within the documentary "After me telling them he was a murderer, and they let him go and he killed again." It can be seen that the representation of Colin is that of a person plagued with his brother's past and has to deal with the consequences of his brother's actions. Further, other family members who were published in the newspapers stated "He thought it was his girl. So he went after her and knifed her to death." The choice of words used and published in this newspaper (unknown) creates the representation semiotically through "Knifed" as well as "his girl" can be seen to build the ima...

While Trevor Hardy was cunning and seen to be an impulsive, emotionally unstable serial killer who terrorised Manchester from 1974 to 1976. His story is known by few and due to circumstance was overlooked by a bigger case in the Manchester area. While Hardy had a count of between 3 and 4 victims, it was reported that Peter Sutcliffe had 13 counts of murder and 7 attempted counts of murder. This put Hardy in Sutcliffe's shadow and made the case virtually unknown to anyone not involved or from the area due to the fact that the focus and limelight was upon Sutcliffe for his attempted gendercide.  While Sutcliffe was given 20 life sentences, Hardy, on the other hand, received 3 life sentences. This can be seen to be one of the key reasons that Hardy can be seen as Britain's forgotten serial killer, even though he tried to gain infamy through his bragging as well as attempt to take on the British court proceedings himself, this was no match for Sutcliffe's huge wave of terr...

From the very start of Hardy's life, it can be seen that there was a violent streak in him, something that would later come to haunt him and Manchester due to what could seem like a random attack, which was rather years of pent up anger after being in prison for 2 years. His pent up anger led to erratic behaviour with no specific precision but rather blunt force, Hardy can be seen through a semiotic representation of his murders as an impulse murderer. The only reason that Janet Stewart had been killed was due to her being mistaken for Hardy's then ex-girlfriend and without any specific plan of how to handle the situation he slashed her throat before realising that his impulses had led to the death of an innocent teenager. It can further be seen through semiotics that he was erratic through his methods of hiding her body, only covering her enough for her not to be seen and returning at a later date when he had a plan. This creates the impression that Hardy could not control his...

When thinking about this from a post-millennium world it would seem that there is more than just Trevor Hardy to blame. In a time when hitch-hiking and other such events were normalised and getting into a car with a stranger was no abnormal thing. It makes sense that there is the neglect of responsibility from the police force, families and society on the whole. It can be seen that the semiotic reading of the situation highlights a lack of haste from the Greater Manchester Police force can be one of the reasons that there were three reported deaths and not two. The GMP didn't apprehend Hardy sooner and it led to the death of Sharon Mosoph. If there had been a greater push to capture Hardy, rather than unsuccessfully raiding his apartment and hitting a brick wall in the case. Arguably a large amount of the blame can be put down to poor policing of the surrounding Manchester area with the death of Janet Stewart only becoming apparent in the court proceedings when Trevor Hardy himself...

Aged just 29, Trevor Hardy was jailed for attacking and wounding another man with a pickaxe to the head. After only serving 2 years out of a 5-year stint, he was released from Albany jail on the Isle of Wight on November 18th 1974. He vowed for revenge after he claimed that he was set up and that he would kill Stanley O'Brien (the man whom he had assaulted with a pickaxe) as well as Beverley Driver, an Ex-girlfriend of Hardy who had cut off contact with him at her parent's request which enraged him further. Upon his release, he had found out that O'Brien had died of natural causes which then, unfortunately, led to all of his frustration and caged up anger to be forced upon Beverley who at the time was still a teenager. A month after his release from prison, still on parole, Trevor Hardy committed his first murder on new year's eve 1974. After mistaking Janet Stewart (a 15-year-old) for Beverley Driver, Hardy got out of his car and stabbed her twice, once in the throat...